Dear Editor, Congratulations to President Obama on your historic and thoughtful words and deeds in Japan. You destroyed the artificial suspense created by the media over whether you would apologize or not. No one familiar with your background as someone keenly aware of our history would have predicted any such apology. The generation that fought…

Dear Editor, In response to John Paul Faignant’s letter of May 5, 2016, in the Rutland Herald entitled “Rose Kennedy passes hard test”-- First of all Mr. Faignant is obviously biased in his assessment of Ms. Kennedy’s judgment. Either that or he is just a poor judge of words he uses in his letter. His…

Dear Editor, The criminal charges filed by the Rutland State’s Attorneys Office against Mr. Mosher are overreaching and should be totally dropped. An involuntary manslaughter charge (felony) against the responsible owner of a cow killed by a car—in light of strong facts suggesting fault may lie with the auto driver—seems very unreasonable. As a Killington…

By Lee H. Hamilton If there’s a theme that sets this political season apart, it’s the voters’ utter disdain for most of the people who practice politics. They’re fed up with politicians, they’ve lost faith and confidence in the political “elite,” and they don’t believe that the realm where politicians ply their craft—government—works. The two…

Dear Editor, On Sunday, May 15, 2016, ARC Rutland Area again offered a Spring Fling dance for over 70 members, parents and friends of ARC Rutland Area for a fun afternoon of socializing, munching and dancing. A huge thank you to all who made this event possible. Events such as this promote ARC Rutland Area…

Dear Editor, The United Way of Rutland County is thankful to the many Rutland County residents who contributed non-perishable food items in support of the 24th Annual Letter Carriers’ Food Drive on May 14. The event was a great success this year, with more than 25,000 pounds of food collected and distributed to food shelves…

Dear Editor, Rachael Ray, alumna of Lake George, N.Y., cooked, entertained and gave back to over 400 admiring fans, mentors, lifelong friends and family in her high school auditorium on April 29 for her 14th annual cooking show to raise money for the school and town she calls home. At the start of the show,…

By Lee H. Hamilton I had the good fortune last week to spend some time in Washington, D.C., with about a dozen former members of Congress. As you’d expect, we got to talking about the current Congress. Very quickly it turned out that the same question was troubling all of us: Why is it held…

By Douglas R. Hoffer, Vermont State Auditor The unfortunate situation with the EB-5 program presents an opportunity to reflect on the state’s approach to economic development. Among other responsibilities, the state auditor’s office examines various programs to determine whether they achieve the goals established by the legislature. That is, are we getting our money’s worth? To…

By Maxine Grad and Willem Jewett It may be accurate to observe that Governor Shumlin’s accomplishments during his final legislative session have been modest but it goes a bit too far to cast off the work of the General Assembly as “an uninspired, housekeeping session that was remarkable for how few initiatives lawmakers tackled,” as…

Dear Editor, Another legislative biennium has ended and Vermont has begun to enter the doorway of an historic transition in state government. Next January we will have a new Governor, Lt. Governor, Speaker of the House and President Pro Tem of the Senate — and it is possible that Vermont’s path forward could look far…

Dear Editor, In light of the thief of investor funds at Jay Peak and Burke and the Town of Newport, it is so ironic the state of Vermont approvals got things moving so fast. The lack of oversight with EB-S funds by the state, the movement of funds from People’s United Bank to a brokerage…

By Rob Roper Vermont Business Magazine (VBM) wrote about some good news for a Vermont economy that has otherwise been pretty moribund for several years. The bright spot is our tech industry. As the VBM article points out, “Vermont’s tech sector makes up a quarter of the state’s workers and 40 percent of its wages,…

By Paul Costello At the Vermont Council on Rural Development (VCRD) we get to work with rural towns throughout Vermont where we rally everyone to pull together, review all the issues before the community, evaluate potential collective action, set priorities, and line up together to advance the economy, attract youth, build senior housing or children’s…

By Jon Margolis, VTDigger.org (Editor’s note: Jon Margolis is VTDigger’s political columnist.) The 2016 session of the Vermont General Assembly did not legalize or decriminalize marijuana. It did not pull the state’s pension fund money out of coal or oil company stocks. It did not establish a commission or an agency or even a part-time…