Dear Editor, On April 12, the House released a draft of the Farm Bill that aims to significantly erode nutrition programs that support millions of Americans, including SNAP (known in Vermont as 3SquaresVT), our nation’s largest hunger-relief program that helps 75,000 Vermonters feed themselves and their families. The House Farm Bill endangers the long-term bipartisan…

By Senator Patrick Leahy Editor’s note: This is a transcription of Leahy’s address on the floor of the Senate, April 12, 2018. Yesterday, Vermont set an example for the Congress. A Democratically controlled Legislature and a Republican Governor, in a rural state with a strong gun owning tradition and few gun laws, worked together to debate,…

By Anson Tebbetts The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Boston regional office announced that the Vermont Agency of Agriculture has made significant progress toward meeting the state’s water quality goals. In a letter to the agency dated April 2, EPA regional administrator Alexandra Dapolito Dunn noted, “Your staff have clearly been working hard to get new programs…

By Jon Margolis, VTDigger OK, enough for a while of all this chit-chat over minimum wages, family leave, getting the goop out of the lake, and guns (especially, mercifully, guns). Let’s turn to one of the eternal verities: politics. Not that they aren’t all connected. The wages, the lake goop, the guns (especially, heaven help us,…

Dear Editor, Governor Phil Scott signed a proclamation for Child Abuse Prevention Month on April 3. I appreciate the ceremony at the Statehouse and the attention that it draws to the need that every child has, to be loved and safely nurtured. Every child, every day requires at least one adult who provides that love…

Dear Editor, As many have heard recently, the town of Killington via the Select Board is entertaining bringing in an out-of-state management company to take over operations at Green Mountain National Golf Club. It’s no secret the town owned golf course has had financial challenges due to long-standing debt arrangements and the short Vermont golf…

Dear Editor, It has come to my attention that a certain self proclaimed “political junkie” is castigating our newly elected Selectman Jim Haff for involvement in reorganizing the operational management of the Green Mountain National Golf Course (GMNGC). He states that Mr. Haff has an agenda regarding GMNGC and thus should recuse himself from any…

By Emerson Lynn The House Ways and Means Committee is pushing legislation that would change the way Vermont finances education. The impetus is political. Property taxes are high, and rising. Legislators want to rush in to ease the pain. The timing could not be worse. What the proposal does is shift some of the burden from…

By Joyce Judy In this time of heightened dialogue around the future of higher education in Vermont, I am compelled to reflect on the narratives that inform and affect our students and their families. I am reminded that our responsibility to Vermont’s students is a collective one, and it is in this spirit that I…

Dear Editor, Governor Scott has signed H.511, making Vermont the first state, by legislative process, to legalize pot for recreational use. On July 1, it will be permissible to possess one ounce of pot and store an unlimited quantity harvested from two mature plants. If the governor’s oft expressed requirement that children must be protected in…

Dear Editor, Over the past week, College of St. Joseph students arrived back on campus after their winter holiday break and began adjusting to their new class schedules. In addition to classes, students are gearing up for another successful semester of giving back to their local community. Within CSJ’s Provider Scholarship Program, students are required…

Dear Editor, I stopped by Michael Brands’ office Tuesday, Jan. 18, to find out about what is being done about the dangerous situation I am being placed in, with all the trees being cut, removed and butchered along the river bank abutting my home on the Ottauquechee River. Now I have ice blocks the size…

Dear Editor, I would like to reply to Founder and CEO of Powder John Cumming’s nice email newsletter to passholders from Jan. 8. I admire very much his and Powder ’s accomplishments in the ski industry, in particular the level that he and others have brought Killington up to. But I have to point out…

Dear Editor, On Saturday afternoon this past weekend, my cousin Alice, who lives here in Killington, wanted to show me and Dee, my friend, a beautiful sight on Thundering Brook Road and Kent Pond. It was a magnificent view on the frozen pond looking back on the mountains with cross country skiers enjoying a picture…

By Barrie Dunsmore This will be my last column of 2017. Traditionally, this has been an opportunity for reflection on important events of the past year, usually with a look ahead – and if possible – a positive spin that the glass is half full rather than half empty. As human beings I believe most…