By Lynn R. Webster As a physician and author of the forthcoming book “The Painful Truth: What We Can Do About the Largest Invisible Epidemic in America,” I hope to provide a few insights that may help as we work toward a safer world that is free of opioid abuse. Here are six steps we…

By Dr. Stephen Pitmon Vermont has a great deal to be proud of when it comes to dental health care. We are one of America’s healthiest states. In fact, 88 percent of our children received dental care last year–the highest such rate in the nation. And, only 4.3 percent of Vermonters live in an underserved…

By Erin Mansfield, VTDigger.org Gov. Peter Shumlin signed into law Wednesday, May 20, a bill that makes permanent a series of protections in the state’s death with dignity law, otherwise known as physician-assisted suicide. The law passed the Legislature in 2013 and became Act 39, but the procedural requirements and additional safeguards in the bill…

By Don Turner, House Republican Leader Last November, Vermonters sent a clear message that the status quo no longer worked for them.  Vermonters told us that we needed to get to work to return Vermont to a sound and sustainable fiscal path, work to make Vermont a more affordable place to live and work to…

By Angelo Lynn It wasn’t pretty, but at the end of the day, this Legislature and the Shumlin administration passed a couple major pieces of legislation, and overcame several significant budget hurdles in crafting a reasonable budget in tough times. The major legislation focused on cleaning up the state’s waterways (particularly Lake Champlain, but also…

By Rob Roper Love him or hate him, one has to concede that Bernie Sanders has had a tremendous impact on the political direction of Vermont over the past a quarter century, plus. His influence has reverberated throughout the Green Mountains and in our State House. He has spawned many acolytes in the activist community…

By Gov. Peter Shumlin We convened the legislative session in January with the goal of making this economy work for every single Vermonter and resolving the challenges that undermine our quality of life. It was an agenda focused on jobs, quality of life, our environment, and making Vermont a place that works for everyone, not…

Even as Vermont’s economy continues to show signs of progress, the message I hear from Vermonters is that they don’t feel the economic recovery is reaching their pocketbooks. While we have the sixth lowest unemployment rate in America and Vermont employers have thousands of job openings, incomes and wages for working Vermonters have not recovered…

Dear Editor, The Ludlow Rotary Club would like to thank all of the businesses that donated to our annual penny sale. This “Mud Season” event held the last Saturday of April is a popular event for our community members. Our local businesses make this event possible. Over $25,000 in cash and prizes was given out…

By Amy Ash Nixon, VTDigger.org The Senate Appropriations Committee late Wednesday, May 6, approved an education governance reform bill after preserving small school grants. Both the House and Senate versions of H.361 had called for phaseouts of state supports, which included small schools grants and a hold-harmless formula (the "phantom student" subsidy) that have subsidized…

By Anne Galloway, VTDigger.org Personal income tax receipts for April were the highest ever, according to the Vermont Agency of Administration. With two months left in the fiscal year, Vermont is $26.5 million (2.28 percent) above target, according to state figures. Gov. Peter Shumlin and lawmakers have indicated that any surplus at the end of…

By Elizabeth Hewitt, VTDigger.org A bill that would criminalize so-called “revenge porn” is on its way to the governor’s desk after passing a final voice vote in the Senate on Wednesday, May 6. More than a dozen other states have similar laws. H.105 establishes criminal penalties for sharing intimate photos and videos without the consent…

By House Speaker Shap Smith States have faced many challenges as the country recovers from the Great Recession, but in Vermont, we are making progress and we know our approach is working. Vermont has one of the lowest unemployment rates in the country, our roads and bridges are in better shape than ever before, and…

By Steven J. Sinclair The localvore movement in Vermont is strong, whether for vegetables, meat, craft beer, or goods and services. I am here to promote the same approach in the purchase and burning of firewood. Why is this important? Transported firewood is a major vehicle of invasive pests such as the emerald ash borer…

By Thomas A. Kennedy While the job market has been gaining strength in recent months, there's one group of Americans who are still struggling to find work: veterans. According to the March report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), unemployment among post-9/11 veterans was 6.5 percent that month—a full point higher than the population…