By Sen. Dick McCormack    Legislators representing the Springfield region are carefully monitoring developments at Springfield Hospital. The Scott Administration is working with the hospital board and administrators to deal with these highly complex financial issues. They’ve asked for time and patience to work things out, and for politicians to exercise restraint. I’m sorry to…

By Rep. Jim Harrison As the Legislature completes its fifth week, I’m reminded how much of the work is quietly done in various committees and often out of the headlines. Only a portion of the bills introduced each session are actually voted on by the full House or Senate. Fewer still get signed into law.…

By Sen. Alison Clarkson No matter the temperature outside, or the travel challenges, during this time of year the State House is humming with activity.  Whether it’s a public hearing, committee meetings, advocacy training, the governor’s open door coffees on Wednesday mornings, the lieutenant governor’s film series, or Farmer’s Night every Wednesday evening – the…

By Curt Peterson RUTLAND—Rep. Peter Welch met with several area business people at the Rutland Region Chamber of Commerce offices on Merchants Row, Monday, Feb. 4. Welch’s first topic was immigration, and the related recent shutdown, which Welch called “avoidable.” “Last year a bipartisan budget bill providing some funding for President Trump’s wall and ‘Dreamer’…

By Rep. Jim Harrison Entering the fifth week of the 2019 session the pace is picking up. Committees have had a chance to review and dissect some of the proposals before them and are starting to push bills out to the House or Senate floors for action. Early bills in the House seeing action thus…

By Sen. Dick McCormack Under our federal and state constitution, the United States is a republic. Each state is governed by republican principles as well. I suggest that for a republic to be a republic its citizens must be republican citizens, knowledgeable about republican principles, familiar with republican structures, committed to their duty as citizens…

By Rep. Jim Harrison At the beginning of every legislative session, governors give a State of the State address or as in the case of a new biennium like this year, an inaugural speech. Such talks generally offer little in terms of detail, but rather talk about a governor’s vision for the upcoming session and…

By Sen. Alison Clarkson The Legislature’s 2019 session is now in full swing.  Each committee in the House and the Senate is getting updated by the agencies and departments in their areas of jurisdiction.  The various reports and studies which have been requested are being presented and the executive branch is in the process of…

By Sen. Dick McCormack In this bitter time in Washington, Vermont is a light of hope simply because we get along with one another.  Democrats and Progressives are a united team. Our Republican friends are true to their ideals, but they are not obstructionists. We negotiate agreements that all sides can live with. Both the…

By Rep. Jim Harrison By the end of the second week of the 2019 Legislative session, we are beginning to get a better picture of some of the issues likely to be considered this year. Some are repeats from last year, while others may be new. Increasing the smoking age to 21, banning or taxing…

By Rep. Jim Harrison Last Wednesday, Jan 9, marked the beginning of the new legislative biennium. Voters returned all statewide office holders, including Gov. Phil Scott, and the Legislature voted to have House Speaker Johnson and Senator Ashe head up their respective chambers again. What is different is the overall makeup of Legislators with majority…

By Sen. Alison Clarkson It is always exciting to begin a new biennium in the Vermont State House. And, the 2019 launch of the first year of that two year legislative period was no exception.  While our leadership remained unchanged – returning Gov. Phil Scott; Lt. Gov. David Zuckerman; Senate President Pro Tempore Tim Ashe…

Courtesy Vermont Fish and Wildlife Jason Lewis of Randolph with the nice 221 pound buck he took in Orleans County during Vermont’s 2018 November deer season. The Vermont Fish & Wildlife Department’s preliminary numbers show 18,845 deer were taken during Vermont’s 2018 deer hunting seasons, the highest total since 2000. Reports from big game check…

Vermonters filed 5,471 scam reports with the Attorney General’s Consumer Assistance Program in 2018 according to the Attorney General’s list of top 10 most commonly reported scams of the year. This amounts to a 4.55 percent increase in scams from 2017. As new scams emerged, old scams persisted. The IRS scam, which involves scammers claiming…

By Elizabeth Gribkoff/VTDigger Customers of Vermont’s largest electrical utility will see a slight rate decrease on their bills for the first nine months of next year. The rate case drew an unusual amount of public scrutiny last month due to an anonymous letter, and subsequent public comment from a former senior official, claiming that the state…