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.”

Hunting season is upon us. The pastime is part of the foundation of the state’s history and legacy.

What happens on the global stage certainly has implications for us all. But it’s the things happening in our communities that matter most. It is that localism that shapes many of our day-to-day decisions. It is what happens in our schools and town halls, at our chambers of commerce and churc…

In Montpelier, Extinction Rebellion Vermont and nearly two dozen partner organizations from around the Northeast are occupying the State House grounds through Saturday afternoon in an unpermitted action called “Climate Encampment: Youth, Migration and Agriculture.”

For many years, Vermonters and Americans elsewhere have been recalibrating the way we live with our household pets — not so much those fringy ferrets and potbelly pigs, but, more specifically, our longtime favorites, the dog and cat. On the farm, of course, they were free to roam; farm famil…

Last Tuesday morning dawned cool and misty, with the fall colors coming into focus on the middle slopes of the Green Mountains around Rutland. The leaf peeping season was approaching its peak, and fall events were on tap for the coming weekend. And that day we experienced a tragedy that hit …

Once again, headlines from across Vermont have highlighted recent overdoses as a result of the opioid crisis. In a few cases, the individual’s addiction has become a signal to others.

Can we really change the number of individuals in our prisons?

The debate over the impeachment inquiry has renewed concerns over fact and fiction. While lawmakers in the House are trying to keep the focus on whether President Trump committed a high crime by enlisting a foreign power to interfere in a U.S. election, the facts keep changing with the presi…

A courtroom, in the course of a murder trial, is a confined space filled with people cast in specific roles: defendant; attorneys on both sides practicing their profession; jury members charged with listening to testimony and preparing to evaluate it later in group discussion; the judge, con…

We have received some letters to the editor or commentaries in recent weeks that suggest the climate strike was a stunt to make pawns of our children.

For much of the state, yesterday marked the first morning this autumn that there was frost on the windshield. It was just the reminder we all needed that winter is imminent.

Sen. Bernie Sanders has had a week of ups and downs as a candidate for the White House.

Obesity continues to be a growing epidemic nationwide. Currently, about one in three Americans of all ages — or more than 100 million people — are obese. The most recent National Health and Nutrition Survey indicates that between 1994 and 2016 there has been a dramatic increase in the adult …

Gov. Phil Scott and his administration have been pushing hard to create jobs and develop the workforce across Vermont in order to give our struggling economy the shot in the arm it needs.

One of the cultural cornerstones of every community is its library.

Vermonters joined the world in declaring just how angry they are about the climate emergency we all face.

Believe it or not, we are only a handful of weeks away from needing to be thinking about bird feeders. Vermonters seem to love watching birds; many homes are stocked with various incarnations of “Peterson’s Field Guide to Birds of North America.”

Apparently lying has been taken to a new level. And we all got played. Again.

The upcoming climate strike is generating a lot of buzz around Vermont these days. We say that’s a good thing.

The U.S. government — currently presided over by a person who owns a glittery, 58-story skyscraper with an indoor waterfall on Fifth Avenue, a half-dozen other so-called “towers” here and there around the world, an exclusive private-membership resort by the sea in Florida, and perhaps 16 gol…

Recent citations issued by local law enforcement agencies, as well as the Vermont State Police, would suggest that drivers around Vermont are ignoring the law that states they should not be operating a vehicle and texting or using a phone.