By Vermont Secretary of State Jim Condos Over the past few weeks, I have given considerable thought to the message I want to convey to Vermonters on cybersecurity. The world of cybersecurity has changed significantly for election officials over the last five years. Turn back to September 2017, when Dept. of Homeland Security officials confirmed…

By Cathy Davis Editor’s note: Davis is the president of the Lake Champlain Chamber. In the past two months, I have heard about housing challenges almost as much as I’ve heard about staffing shortages. Of course, they’re related. If employees can’t find housing, they have to move to where they can find it. That might…

Dear Editor, Phoners, that’s the term I coined for those people that have decided it’s their god-given right to drive and phone at the same time. I have been the near victim to these phoners five times in as many years. Lucky for me I have quick reflexes and I was paying attention. As recently…

Dear Editor, As Health Careers Awareness Month in Vermont ends, it's time to keep up the buzz around the importance of health careers in our state. Vermont has among the highest shortages of medical professionals in the nation per capita, and the Covid-19 pandemic has exacerbated an already stressed and depleted health workforce. The need…

Dear Editor, Editor’s note: this is an open letter to Gov. Scott and Vermont Fish & Wildlife. My husband and I are hoping to relocate to New England next year. Vermont was our first choice. However, in researching the state’s regulations governing wildlife, we decided, regrettably, Vermont was not for us. My husband and I…

By Ali Elwell Zaiac Editor’s note: Ali Elwell Zaiac, of Arlington, holds a master’s degree in theological studies from Wesley Theological Seminary in Washington, D.C., where her thesis focused on repurposing church spaces in Vermont to meet broader community needs. Last week I attended the housing conference hosted by Rep. Seth Bongartz and Rep. Kathleen…

By Anne Sosin Editor’s note: Anne N. Sosin is a public health researcher and Policy Fellow at the Nelson A. Rockefeller Center at Dartmouth College and the co-lead on research on Covid-19 and rural health equity in northern New England.  Delta, we learn in science, means change. Delta changed the course of the virus in…

Dear Editor, Little scares me about Halloween or trick-or-treating. Ghosts, zombies, skeletons and witches have nothing on all the milk ingredients in candy and the frightening truth about the dairy industry. This is the industry that has spent billions convincing humans that drinking the milk of another species is okay. This is the industry that…

Dear Editor, This is in direct response to the article “Monkey Wrench: How the Delta Variant Caught Vermont Off Guard,” published in the Mountain Times Oct. 6. Why do case counts remain stubbornly high, despite vaccination of so many eligible Vermonters? Community spread. Without pairing vaccines with other mitigation measures, cases will increase or remain…

Dear Editor, I grew up spending summers on Lake Bomoseen, where Fair Haven was our nearest village for shopping, restaurants and other activities. I was also a soccer player in high school at that time, and spent two months in Germany, where I was invited to play soccer. My daughters all played soccer from grade…

Dear Editor, Covid cases are climbing around the state and Gov. Scott says “I don’t know why.” The answer is obvious: the abandonment of the indoor mask mandate. This is causing serious outbreaks across the state, particularly in schools. From the early days of the outbreak, Vermont was justly praised for keeping the numbers down.…

By Madeleine Kunin Editor’s note: This commentary is by former Gov. Madeleine Kunin, a Democrat and the first woman to serve as the governor of the state of Vermont. It’s dismaying to see Republicans and some conservative Democrats hacking away at President Biden’s historic budget reconciliation act. They say it’s too expensive, without looking at…

By David Martins Editor's note: Martins is the director of the Vt. Affordable Housing Coalition. “Out of storm and manifold perils rose an enduring state, the home of freedom and unity” — These words are the epitaph printed on the gravestone of the first governor of Vermont, Thomas Chittenden. The phrase serves as an acknowledgement…

By Vicki Ward Editor's note: This commentary is by Vicki Ward of Barnard, who holds a master’s degree in family nursing and a post-master’s certificate in psychiatric and mental health nursing. This piece was published in VTDigger Oct. 8. I once thought Vermont OneCare was a functional fox guarding the henhouse when Dartmouth-Hitchcock and UVM…

By Tanya Vyhovsky Editor’s note: State Rep. Tanya Vyhovsky, P/D-Essex, is a licensed independent clinical social worker, works in the public school system, and has a private counseling practice in her hometown of Essex. September was Suicide Awareness Month, and I am sure many of us felt inundated with frightening statistics and information about mental…