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. …

By William J. Mathis Editor’s note: William J. Mathis is managing director of the National Education Policy Center and vice-chair of the Vermont State Board of Education, and a Goshen resident. The views expressed here do not necessarily reflect the views of any organization with which he is affiliated. It was June 26, 1997, when Governor…

By Lee Hamilton I’ll be the first to admit that when it comes to journalism, I’m a traditionalist. Old-fashioned, even. But I don’t think it’s a coincidence that even while confidence in the media drops to new lows and Time magazine feels moved to wonder “Is Truth Dead?” on its cover, huge numbers of Americans…

By Jon Margolis Praising elected officials ought not to be a common practice. They tend to do an adequate job of that themselves, rarely missing an opportunity to tell the world how wonderful they are. There are times, though, when an elected official deserves the approval of his constituents. Right now, Secretary of State Jim…

By Rob Roper  The last thing the Vermont House of Representatives did before leaving town was pass H.R. 15, a resolution “strongly opposing the U.S. withdrawal from the Paris Climate Agreement … and recognizing Governor Phil Scott’s enrolling Vermont in the U.S. Climate Alliance.” It passed, 105-31. Hey, look at us! We love the environment,…

By Lee Hamilton Back when I was in Congress, I got a call from a constituent one day. I’d recently voted to raise the nation’s debt ceiling, and the man was more than irate. “Don’t you understand that we’ve got a serious spending and debt problem in this country?” he asked. “Why did you cast…

By Jack Hoffman The Equal Educational Opportunity Act, better known as Act 60, is 20 years old on Monday. On June 26, 1997, at an outdoor ceremony in Whiting, Gov. Howard Dean signed into law Vermont’s unique and groundbreaking education funding system. As we face tensions over school consolidation and who should determine teachers’ health…

By Steve Costello As regular readers may recall, I am a lover of  fables, stories that for generations have carried a message. With the recent news about the purchase of two key downtown buildings by MKF Properties and plans in the work for a variety of projects downtown, I am reminded of one of Aesop’s…

By Lee H. Hamilton The Trump administration, like its predecessors, has shown an apparent appetite for the use of force overseas. The “mother of all bombs” dropped on Syrian troops, saber-rattling toward North Korea, proposed deployments of U.S. forces in 10 or more countries — all of this suggests a growing comfort with the idea…

By Sen. Bernie Sanders The good news is that Vermont has one of the highest high school graduation rates in the country; fully 88 percent of our kids leave high school with a diploma. All of us — parents, educators, community members and, most of all, our hardworking students — should feel great pride in…

By Senator Bernie Sanders President Trump’s budget is morally obscene and bad economic policy.  It would cause devastating economic pain to tens of thousands of Vermonters, making it harder for our children to get a decent education, harder for our working families to get the health care they desperately need, harder to protect our environment,…

By Larry Williams As the numbers of people who participated in the climate march recently showed, Vermonters and Americans across this country are concerned about climate change. Millions of Americans want action. And while the president and his cabinet are busy denying the science behind climate change, states, cities, businesses and individuals are tackling climate…