Just when you thought the all-payer model and ACO could not get any stranger, there is a new and shocking development. Recently, the Green Mountain Care Board released the 2020 financial and quality care results for OneCare Vermont. The results show OneCare “saved” almost $8 million in Medic…

Despite differences and hardships, community members have rallied together for positive good in the past, and we can still do this. My grandmas described how difficult the Depression years were, yet they left plates of food on their back porches for the “hobos” every evening. During wartime,…

In late-December, Rutland Board of Aldermen’s Matt Whitcomb asked the big question as he and his colleagues puzzled over the possibility of enacting mask mandates.

The facts about Critical Race Theory (CRT) should end the conversations that have plagued the media and the commentary section of the Herald. CRT was developed by leading African American scholars in academic and legal fields during the 1990s.

A year ago, the Global Warming Solutions Act created a 23-member Vermont Climate Council to develop a Climate Action Plan strict enough to reduce carbon dioxide emissions 80% over the next 28 years.

Every holiday season, restaurateurs, retailers and other small businesses encourage customers to shop local, with the shopping season formally kicking off with Small Business Saturday. As COVID challenges continue to plague businesses in all areas of operation from employee recruitment to co…

The full-time Castleton University faculty are right to ask for a “pause” in the ongoing Vermont State Colleges System (VSCS) Transformation Plan, an austerity-driven plan launched a year ago without an approved vision or mission.

The Vermont Climate Council is poised to recommend that Vermont join the Transportation Climate Initiative (TCI) as a partial funding source for their Climate Action Plan, due in December.

This is a wonderful time and great opportunity to explore every Vermont village, town, city and organization encouraging interested applicants to step forward for a challenging leadership vetting. And for a short period, can we agree to set aside political class thereby allowing a full exami…

COVID means loss. That was my simplified revelation during a recent sleep-disturbed night. The politicians can put whatever spin they want on it and they are wrong. Like others, I have grappled with, and struggled over, the destructive impact of COVID on our lives. Like some, I have tried to…

There are many factors that shape how Vermont’s communities plan for the future and manage growth and change. As we face increasingly complex environmental, social and economic challenges, it is crucial now more than ever that our development is guided by decisions that will make communities…

In a recent piece regarding global climate talks and COP26 UN negotiations in Scotland, I found myself inspired by the determination of climate activists around the world. In this piece, photos and backstories of climate talks and protests happening in various countries really stuck with me.

Joy is a word that seems to be lost to the past and not commonly heard today. Quiet, another quality has gone missing, having been drowned out by all the yelling of our times. I was able to find both when I visited a small group of women who were quietly knitting in the library of the Castle…

There have been many times in the last few years I have thought we (humans) are such rotten creatures that possibly the only solution might be for a large asteroid to come from above and obliterate the evils we have done on and to this planet.

“Effective leaders are not problem-minded; they’re opportunity minded. They feed opportunities and starve problems.” — Stephen Covey.

Vermont’s work to forge a cleaner, more affordable and equitable transportation future must continue.

The Coalition for Vermont Student Equity (CVTSE) has been working to implement a corrected education funding formula to help children and schools in districts that have been harmed by education funding inequities over the past 20+ years. These corrections were recommended by the University o…

When schools opened their doors full time this fall, Twinfield Union School, pre-K-12 serving Marshfield and Plainfield, Vermont, opened its doors to a schoolwide mindfulness initiative. Mindfulness is paying attention to what’s happening right now with kindness and curiosity. Many can relat…

It is apparent to me that this current administration is trying to destroy every business in Vermont.

Senator Leahy’s retirement from the U.S. Senate in 2022 and Congressman Welch’s decision to run for his seat bring the opportunity for Vermonters to elect a woman to represent us in Congress for the first time. Three key elements must be present during the campaign season in order for that t…

Poor Elijah enjoys Thanksgiving dinner with his far-flung family. The single dark cloud is his niece’s 5-year-old. Justin enjoys exploring the limits of his personal freedom, and his mother prides herself on being reasonable. “Justin,” she reminds him, “we’ve talked about self-control. Why w…

The global climate negotiations in Glasgow just wrapped up, and the U.S. Congress is negotiating the Build Back Better Act — which currently includes the largest investment in climate action in United States history. Meanwhile, the Vermont Climate Council is working to deliver Vermont’s firs…

In case you left the solar system for a few weeks and missed the election headlines, Republicans captured the Virginia governor’s chair. They won in part because their candidate managed to attract suburban Republican and independent voters without inciting Trump Republicans to kick him off t…

After watching public input and the ensuing conversation among board members at the Mill River meeting Nov. 17, I find myself compelled to reach out to all of you with some thoughts.

The overriding mission of the School Board since the onset of the pandemic has been to keep our kids safe and to keep them in school. Only from the extraordinary efforts of so many individuals, have we been successful in achieving these goals. We recognize all of our staff have taken on nume…

I write this letter as one who at one point was a vocal Scott supporter.

There are lots of reasons why so many ordinary folks like myself feel hopeless, especially those of us deeply concerned with the threat to our very existence from the current climate crisis. Thus, I want to explain why I am more hopeful these days.

Nationally, nearly one in four jobs require a government permission slip, often to the detriment of entrepreneurs and job seekers. Licensing began when the public demanded more accountability from the doctors, lawyers and dentists who provided them with important services. Over time, well-me…

It was recently announced that Vermont is getting warmer and wetter. That’s according to a new climate assessment study conducted by the University of Vermont and the Nature Conservancy in Vermont. It found the state has gotten 2 degrees warmer and has seen a 21% increase in precipitation si…

On May 1, 2003, George W. Bush stood aboard an aircraft carrier greeting troops returning home from the battlefield in Iraq, where the U.S. and allied military forces had conquered the entire country in only three weeks. Situating himself under a large banner declaring “Mission Accomplished,…

As COVID cases continue to rise alarmingly in Vermont, I wonder why it’s so hard for our governor to institute a simple statewide indoor mask mandate. He’s done it before, successfully, with many more restrictions. Far from being, as he calls it, “an abuse of (his) authority,” this is a simp…

Fifty percent of the U.S. workforce earned less than $35,000 in 2019, according to the Social Security Administration’s (SSA) annual wage statistics.

After the March School Board election, I went online to congratulate the SOS trio for their win. A lot of people gladly gave these women their time and money because we believed that election would ensure a positive change in the culture of a School Soard that had gone dangerously woke.

Rutland has lost the former College of St. Joseph forever, but its campus should be available to the people of Rutland City.

As world leaders meet in Glasgow to seek agreement to make Earth’s climate stop changing, the news media has delivered a continual tsunami of alarming reports: “Climate change is already ravaging the world,” “climate change-induced disasters,” “climate crisis,” “climate emergency.”

For the Vermont Land Trust (VLT), land conservation has always been about more than simply protecting land. When Rick Carbin founded the organization in 1977, he was already thinking about housing and economic development, as well as the preservation of farm and forest land. The value of bui…

This week, COVID-19 case counts in Vermont reached their highest point since the beginning of the pandemic in March 2020. In response, both President Pro Tem Becca Balint and Speaker of the House Jill Krowinski released statements renewing their August calls for Governor Scott to implement a…

There was a sharp decline in reports of child abuse during the pandemic, which indicated some abuse was likely going unreported as children’s contact with teachers was affected by shutdowns and remote learning. It has been an unprecedented time of stress for families struggling to remain hea…

Racism punched Vermonters hard in the face with the shotgun night-rider attack by three whites on the home of a Black minister in Irasburg in the early hours of July 19, 1968.

Let’s start off with this bit of wisdom: “Never be afraid to raise your voice for honesty and truth and compassion against injustice and lying and greed. If people all over the world … would do this, it would change the earth.” William Faulkner

A two-week United Nations gathering on how countries can collaboratively work to fight climate change is wrapping up.