By Carl Diethelm, a.k.a “Compost Carl” Most people remember visiting “the dump” as a kid and being awestruck by the sight of piles and piles of stuff. There were big machines building mountains with the materials, and if you were lucky, there might be an old bike to ride down the hill! It sure wasn’t…

By Rob Roper There is a vote fraud case in Vermont, currently in the Essex Superior Court, in which a family of second home owners from Connecticut (parents and two adult children) registered to vote in the town of Victory, and did so. Their votes likely altered the outcome of a local election, which was…

By Jon Margolis, VTDigger That was an impressive event starring Sen. Bernie Sanders last week, reflecting impressive political progress for him and his allies. Just a couple of years ago, Sanders couldn’t get a single cosponsor on a bill to create a “Medicare-for-all” single payer health care system. Now he has at least 15, including Vermont…

By Barrie Dunsmore How will it end? When will it end? As a  geezer with the newspaper column, those are the questions I am constantly asked. (If I knew the precise answers I could start a new career in Las Vegas.) Of course neither I nor anyone else knows how and when the presidency of…

By Angelo S. Lynn Walls to divide, or bridges to unite? On the campaign trail, politicians of all stripes promise big things — but few were as boastful, wasteful and wrong-headed as “The Donald” was during his run-up to the Republican convention and throughout the general election. After his first eight months in office, he’s accomplished…

By Lee Hamilton One reason I consider myself fortunate to have led a life in politics is that, over time, I’ve had a chance to work with nine presidents. From Lyndon Johnson through Barack Obama, I’ve talked policy, politics and, sometimes, the trivial details of daily life with them. Johnson was a deal-maker — always…

By Mike Smith In the early 1960s we still had racist state laws defending the widespread practice of segregation. Slowly — too slowly for many black Americans — those laws began to change. However, racism and bigotry don’t end by changing laws. In many respects, integrating lunch counters, schools and bathrooms is the easy part.…

By David Russell Editor’s note: This commentary is by David Russell of Perkinsville, who is a retired renewable energy and securities consultant and whose writing appears in venues including the The Hill and Huffington Post. Military analysts surmise that North Korea has a small nuclear weapon it can mount on the ballistic missiles it has…

By Jack Hoffman Economist Art Woolf wrote recently that Vermont spends too much on education because taxes are too low for many residents. Woolf was referring specifically to resident homeowners who qualify to pay school taxes as a percentage of their income rather than on the value of their property. According to Woolf, because their income-based taxes are…

By Lee H. Hamilton Do ordinary citizens still have a voice in Washington and in their state capitals? Despite the cynicism of these times, my answer is, yes, we do. But we have to exercise it. I don’t just mean going to a town hall meeting and yelling, or shooting off a letter or email.…

By Mike Smith During the last gubernatorial election, and then again just recently during the debate over teachers’ health insurance, Vermont Democrats underestimated the potency of Gov. Phil Scott’s affordability message. Scott continues to force an economic debate by hammering away at decreasing the rate of state spending and not burdening Vermonters with higher taxes or…

By Nick Richardson The economy and our landscape in Vermont are intertwined. Recreation, tourism, agriculture, and forestry, all key economic drivers, depend on the natural resources from our landscape. Indeed, the Vermont brand itself is inseparable from our land ethic- a thoughtful way of living, the quality of our products and services, and our environmental…

By Jon Margolis Editor’s note: Jon Margolis is a political columnist for VTDigger. You know who really likes Vermont? Vermonters. According to a Gallup Poll, 61 percent of the people who live in Vermont say it’s “the best or one of the best possible states to live in,” while only 3 percent call it “the worst…

By Angelo Lynn There he goes again President Ronald Reagan coined the refrain, “There you go again,” to disarm President Jimmy Carter’s repeated attacks during the 1980 presidential campaign. The refrain has made a comeback, in a completely different context, with Donald Trump’s numerous outrages since moving into the Oval Office. Adding to his mounting number…

By Tom Hughes Last week Governor Phil Scott took another step towards real climate action.  He signed an executive order creating a Vermont Climate Action Commission and reaffirmed the climate and clean energy goals set forth in the 2016 Comprehensive Energy Plan. In this era of federal backsliding, Gov. Scott has sided with the facts. …