By Julia Purdy Now that St. Patrick’s Day is upon us, we are treated to the usual time-honored ethnic slurs and jokes about the Irish: freckled red-haired leprechauns with huge grins and missing teeth, the drunken Irishman with his hat on sideways, leaning against a lamppost. We may recall when “No Irish need apply” and…

By Rebecca Dragon, Rebekah Henson, Mary Anna King and Ellie Lane Editor's note: Dragon of Pownal, Henson of Hartford, King of Quechee, and Lane of Braintree together make up the Vermont Adoptee Rights Working Group, a core partner of the New England Adoptee Rights Coalition. Accessing your birth certificate is a basic civil right. It…

By Lindsay Kurrle, secretary of the Vermont Agency of Commerce and Community Development It’s no secret: Vermont needs more Vermonters. The shortage of residents currently calling Vermont home impacts everything from tax rates and school funding to community infrastructure and business retention. Just look at the state’s labor force participation rate, which dropped 5% in…

By Rep. David Durfee, D-Shaftsbury, member of the Ways & Means committee Recently the House passed and sent to the Senate groundbreaking, bipartisan legislation to support parents and families. As part of H.510, the new Vermont Child Tax Credit would pay families the equivalent of $100 a month for every child in the household age…

By Angelo Lynn To adjust from last Tuesday’s Town Meeting concerns to the dizzyingly complex world stage is mind-numbing. Putin’s increasingly brutal invasion of Ukraine has shocked our collective senses. The personal stories of survival and death, of fear yet determination, of heroic acts and national resilience among the Ukrainian people have reawakened the hearts…

By Peter Sterling Vermont’s electric sector is estimated to contribute only 2% of our climate change causing greenhouse gas emissions — seemingly insignificant compared to the whopping 74% of emissions coming from our transportation sector and from the energy we use to heat and cool our homes and businesses. But this 2% figure is quite…

By Ed Baker and Jay Diaz Vermont is in the midst of a “syndemic,” a synergy of epidemics: Covid-19 and drug overdose fatalities due to opioids and stimulants. But only Covid-19 is getting the attention it deserves. The Covid-19 pandemic has rightly seen massive investment in public health tools, like vaccines, testing, surge centers, contact…

By Elayne Clift Editor’s note: Elayne Clift, who writes about women, culture and social issues from Saxtons River. It is now more than two months into the new year, and it’s likely that resolutions we made in earnest then have already been ignored. That’s OK. We can forgive ourselves for being overly resolute. These are…

By Joan Goldstein Vermont is face-to-face with the opportunity to infuse federal American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) dollars into transformational projects throughout the state. This is a once in a lifetime moment and the Department of Economic Development is focused on growing the workforce and shoring up a foundation of strong economic activity that will…

By Governor Phil Scott Editor’s note: Gov. Scott delivered the following remarks as part of the Vermont Housing and Conservation Coalition (VHCC) Legislative Week kick-off, Wednesday, Feb. 9: It is good to be with you to talk about some of the most important issues facing our state, like housing, supporting rural Vermont and protecting our…

By Roxanne Vought Talk to any business owner today and you’ll likely hear the same refrain: they’re struggling to find workers. They’ve tried everything: raising wages, sign-on bonuses, creative recruitment strategies, and they still can’t fill their openings. Some are eliminating product lines or reducing their manufacturing runs, others are cutting back hours. How did…

By Richard Balzano Editor’s note: Richard Balzano of Ryegate, a Ph.D candidate in history, a former high school teacher, a stand-up comedian, and a veteran in the fields of human services and mental health. This is a letter he submitted to the Blue Mountain Union School Board, in Wells River, in support of a vaccine…

By Vermont Secretary of State Jim Condos and Deputy Secretary of State Chris Winters It only takes just a few minutes online to get a snapshot of America in 2022; a country divided; a digital battleground of rhetoric where information is wielded as a weapon. We hold faith that we can still heal this divide…

By Janet McLaughlin Editor’s note: This commentary is by Janet McLaughlin of Burlington, executive director of the Vermont Association for the Education of Young Children. Just before the calendar flipped to 2022, thousands of Vermont families with school-age children picked up free Covid rapid tests to ensure as safe a return to school as possible.…

By Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont) As you read this, the number of Covid cases in Vermont are reaching levels far greater than at any point in the crisis. Today, I am writing to you with some news that should be of help as we fight this terrible pandemic. The scientific community has been very clear…