By Brett Yates At the end of primary season, politicians who initially opposed their party’s nominee are forced either by fear of the other party’s nominee or by a need to preserve their own standing within their party to fall in line and endorse a candidate whose views they may find at least partly abhorrent.…

By Tiffany Danitz Pache, VTDigger.org Voters went to the polls in Vermont towns Tuesday, June 7, to decide whether to merge school districts into larger units under Act 46. The law, enacted in 2015, provides incentives for town school districts to form larger regional school boards. The results at the polls were mixed. Residents in…

By Cal Garrison, a.k.a. Mother of the Skye This week’s horoscopes are coming out under the light of a Libra Moon, with aspects that include Mercury’s entrance into Gemini, and the planet Neptune going retrograde, in the sign of the Fishes. This is interesting enough to take a look at in more depth, for a…

By Dom Cioffi I’ll freely admit that I coerced my son into taking drum lessons for selfish reasons: having been a guitarist for most of my life, the thought of having a built-in percussion section living in my own home sounded like a dream come true. I had considered buying him a drum kit for…

Walter Parks Walter Parks brings his Swamp Cabbage to the Wild Fern in Stockbridge this Thursday night, June 16  at 7 p.m. You can also catch the show at The Local in Rutland the night before, Wednesday, June 15 at 9 p.m. The Local show is a benefit for Team Romulous which helps to fight…

By Susan Shea I’ll never forget my first encounter with lady’s-slippers. While hiking the Long Trail in southern Vermont one June, we camped near a remote pond. Our tent site beneath an evergreen canopy was surrounded by the flowers. Each hung from a stalk that arose from a pair of large, parallel-veined basal leaves. As…

It’s a great view, looking from Sherburne Pass trail at the Pico overlook. One can see the mountains of five states and Canada from the top of the peak. By Brady Crain I stuck a pin in the ski season at 200 days, and it was a pretty great 200 days considering the season it…

Courtesy of dec.vermont.gov A chart shows the order of steps in which the DEC suggests leftovers should be managed. How will Act 148 affect your business? By Carl Diethelm This summer, Vermont businesses are taking another huge step in green initiatives. From restaurants to grocery stores, schools to nursing homes, they all have leftover food…

Recently, a Facebook friend posted some clickbait from The Atlantic called “A Dialogue With a 22-Year-Old Donald Trump Supporter.” In my prone-to-distraction feebleness, I actually read the whole piece, in which the reporter Conor Friedersdorf exchanged messages with a white yuppie who, though a college-educated resident of the San Francisco Bay Area and engaged to…

Did you ever look at an old picture of yourself and say, ”What was I thinking?” I have a feeling that females say that much more often than males. In fact, many males (my husband included) have worn their hair the same way throughout their lives. Perhaps that is why people they meet after long…

By Dom Cioffi Burt Pugach fell in love with Linda Riss the moment he first laid eyes on her. At least he thought he loved her. Others said it was more like an obsession. Burt didn’t care what you called it just as long as Linda ended up with him. However, there were several problems.…

By Ned Dyer Ever since it was announced that a stickball tournament will be an integral part of the All Killington Reunion Weekend strangers have been stopping me in the street to ask, “What is stickball?” My answer: it’s just the greatest street game ever invented! It’s as American as hamburgers and Corvettes and is…

By Cal Garrison, a.k.a. Mother of the Skye This week’s horoscopes are coming out under the light of a Cancer Moon with aspects that could easily throw us off kilter before we pick up our coffee. The day begins with a conjunction between Hades and the Moon, and this is what's got me thinking that…

By Dom Cioffi It’s over. Three straight seasons of coaching have officially ended. I have been teaching, scheduling, yelling, motivating, encouraging, disciplining and coordinating for the last nine months and now I finally have some time to myself. Don’t get me wrong. I wouldn’t have it any other way, but after a fall season of…

  By Susan Shea Wuk-wuk-wuk-wuk! With a rattling call, a large bird took off from a tree and flew in an undulating fashion across our field towards the woods. It was black and the size of a crow, but flashes of white on the underside of its wings and a red crest on its head…