Timing can be everything.

This latest snowstorm had some pretty good snowball snow. You know the stuff — fluffy but just wet enough that it packs well. Not too wet (which is great for making a snow sculpture) and not too dry, fine and slippery (which is best for sledding).

We were glad to see Elizabeth Warren make a forceful case for a female president during Tuesday night’s debate. It seems idiotic that, as a nation in 2020, we would need a female candidate for the presidency to defend such a thing. It should be a given.

Most people who read their local newspaper are grateful for the coverage. Sometimes, it is quaint and folksy. Other times it is gritty. Only on occasion does our local news coverage border on scary, which is a blessing.

Given the current political climate, Gov. Phil Scott took a bold position in reaffirming his commitment to resettling new refugees.

Mitzi Johnson, meet Theodore Roosevelt. You two have something in common.

The climate is indeed changing.

The president has seemingly backed off from escalating a war with Iran. The impeachment trial lingers in the wings, while the presidential election rages on. Around here, lawmakers are back in session, debating the issues of the day. It’s all so daunting.

The Vermont Legislature will reconvene on Tuesday for the second half of the 2019-2020 biennium, and hand-wringing will recommence over whether we dare, in Vermont, raise additional revenue for necessary funding programs by increasing taxes on the wealthy.

On the other side of the country today, consumers are feeling a change. It’s not a tax, but it is a certain form of relief.

The following editorial appeared one year ago today. With one adjustment, we allow the message to speak for itself — again.

We have said thanks. We have shared gifts. Now we must resolve.

Today marks Rob Mitchell’s final day as general manager of the Rutland Herald and The Times Argus.

As 2020 comes in on little cat feet — as poet Carl Sandburg said of fog — Vermonters have something to feel good about. We have made progress, and will make further progress, on two issues of importance to our environment.

Tonight is Christmas Eve, where across this country and in many parts of the world families will gather around a tree festooned with decorations and lights, and children will hope they’ve been good enough. The stockings will be hung, and gifts arrayed under the tree, ready to be opened. Fami…

As long as the United States shuns public financing of our presidential elections, there will be billionaires using the advantages of their wealth and connections to outspend their rivals — chiefly in the party primaries — to try to win for themselves the plum of the U.S. presidency.

The Burlington girls soccer team made national news this year when they wore T-shirts during a game indicating their support for equal pay. After a goal, the team lifted their jerseys up to reveal the hashtag #equalpay. The gesture, which almost ran afoul of high school sports officials who …

There have been too many occasions where businesses that alienate the LGBTQ community are only at risk of hurting sales. That such discrimination still occurs across the nation demonstrates just how intolerance we continue to be in society. Same-sex couples make up a growing demographic globally.

During a prolonged and intense campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2020, candidates like Vermont U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders and Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts have targeted industries dominated by a small number of powerful corporations that hold outsized influenc…

It was heartening Wednesday to hear that Time had named Greta Thunberg its Person of the Year.

In an astounding piece of modern-day journalism, The Washington Post, which famously published the Pentagon Papers in the 1970s and then defended their right to do so, has published another trove of confidential government documents.

Air Force One was all gassed up and ready to go. And it was easy to understand why: The personal transport vehicle that ferries the president of the United States was parked in enemy territory, having borne the commander in chief to a vipers’ nest filled with mortal enemies. A quick getaway …

In the days leading up to Thanksgiving, we put out a post on social media asking what traditions folks had for the holiday. The responses ranged from “Ignoring your stupid rag” to “Picking fights with family.” A few people responded with some nice thoughts, and then they were immediately pou…

For weeks now, lawmakers, advocates, organizations and individuals from around Vermont joined the chorus of more than 140,000 public comments submitted on a rule that would force many Americans to lose their federal food stamps.

Now that Black Friday, Small Business Saturday, Cyber Monday and Giving Tuesday are behind us, we need to re-evaluate.

The breakdown in global recycling markets and the growing public alarm over plastic waste in the ocean has prompted appropriately consequential action across the globe.

Around the table this day, we count our blessings and offer thanks. The day has come to have different meaning for Americans. But for presidents, it always has been a time to reflect on the time in which they were selected to serve.

Student debt is a crippling issue for America.

Like the rest of our nation, Vermont has a checkered history regarding race relations, and the acceptance or rejection of non-Caucasian people in our nearly monochromatic white state. “Checkered,” like the light and dark squares of a checkerboard, means that bad, but also good, things have h…

Several years ago — 10 or 12 years would be about right — a central Vermont journalist was returning home after working late on a bitterly, jarringly cold winter night. It was a little past midnight when he drove through Barre and saw, in the lighted, recessed doorway of a downtown store, a …

Every March, there is a perennial debate in some communities over how much money should go to social concerns.

Congressional lawmakers are hoping to throw a curve ball into a plan that threatens minor league baseball teams like the Vermont Lake Monsters.

Congressional lawmakers are hoping to throw a curve ball into a plan that threatens minor league baseball teams like the Vermont Lake Monsters.

Former President Barack Obama set off an ideological firestorm recently that focused on Democrats.

It’s arguable, although the contention doesn’t hold up well to scrutiny, that the United States was founded on principles of morality, justice and a belief in the inherent dignity, value and equality of all human beings. Certainly it’s the story we tell ourselves, and the French did us an en…

Every 10 years, as mandated by the U.S. Constitution, the federal government conducts a census, which determines the number of seats of the U.S. House of Representatives that go to the states based on their population. The official count also provides guidance for the distribution of more th…

On the first day of the impeachment hearings against President Donald J. Trump, Rep. Peter Welch, eager to ferret out facts relevant to charges the president abused his office to enlist a foreign power to help him in an election, made a bold suggestion for the answers: “I’d be glad to have t…

The State Auditor’s Office has ferreted out some poor decisions made relative to the administration of the Remote Worker Grant Program by the Agency of Commerce and Community Development.

We commend U.S. Sen. Patrick Leahy on his efforts to renew the USA Freedom Act.

In spring 2012, Peter Shumlin — who, at the time, was the governor of Vermont — became the butt (pun intended) of jokes after he had an encounter with four black bears on his porch one night as he was allegedly naked and getting ready for bed. (The precise nature of his attire, or lack there…

As political rhetoric ratchets up along with the stakes in the 2020 presidential race, there need to be more calls for civility, thoughtful debate, an open-mindedness toward hearing points of view that are different from ours. In essence, we need to relearn how to agree to disagree, and let …

We join the global chorus of nations, groups, advocates and individuals that hopes President Trump will rethink his move to formally withdraw from the Paris Climate Agreement this week.

You don’t want to believe we’ve made a mess of the planet? You don’t think there’s a “climate emergency?” Would you be willing to entertain the idea if 11,258 scientists from 153 countries warned in a report that the planet “clearly and unequivocally faces a climate emergency?”

A week ago in this space we observed that the title of the 2006 documentary film tracking former Vice President Al Gore’s campaign to alert the public and world leaders to the impending perils of climate change perfectly captured the dilemma before us. Because it will not yield to our wish t…

Thursday’s vote was a defining moment for every member of the divided U.S. House of Representatives. The approved legislation formally authorizes and articulates guidelines for the next phase of the House’s impeachment inquiry against President Trump.

Hunters are gearing up for the start of Vermont’s traditionally popular 16-day rifle deer season that begins Nov. 16 and ends Dec. 1.

This week kicks off Secretary of State Jim Condos’ fifth biennial Transparency Tour across the state.

It may be the most aptly titled film ever made: “An Inconvenient Truth,” Laurie David (producer) and Davis Guggenheim’s (director) 2006 documentary that followed former Vice President Al Gore from airport to airport and lecture hall to lecture hall in his assiduous, virtually one-person camp…

A new stormwater regulation that is set to start implementation in 2020 has been flying under the radar, despite its potential to affect wide swathes of property owners with hundreds of thousands of dollars in fees or required new construction. And the clock is running out on a chance for th…

Vermont seems to have a pretty good story to tell right now. But indications are that there really are “Two Vermonts.”