Opinion

Maple Tradition

The world can be a terrible, cruel place but there’s a lot around us that demonstrates how wonderful it can be as well. Take, for example, sugaring season. It was Maple Open House Weekend last weekend and despite Saturday’s snow storm, Sunday proved to be a true gem of a day. A good day to be a newspaper reporter. Like […]

Concerned By Increase in Crime

I read with dismay the front-page article in the February 22 edition of The Herald regarding the serious accident involving two women who had just dropped off their children at school. I appreciate your fine coverage of this event. I was sorry for the loss to the family of driver, David Allen Durkee, but thankful for the fact that the […]

Speaking Up For Telephone Gap

The U.S. Forest Service has released its latest plans to log nearly 12,000 acres of Vermont’s Green Mountain National Forest (GMNF) northeast of Rutland. This plan would devastate an area larger than the City of Burlington. It endangers the water quality of the White River and Otter Creek, risks introducing invasive species, and destroys habitat needed by threatened and endangered […]

Wrong Tack To Bill’s Worthy Goal

Even though I am generally in agreement with the letter by Sylvie Desautels last week about proposed revisions to the Renewable Energy Standard in Vermont, I have additional concerns about unintended consequences of this legislation. I wish I shared the enthusiasm for H.289 which seems to be endorsed by Renewable Energy Vermont, 350 VT, VNRC, and is likely to be […]

Grim Future For Ed. Funding in Vt.

Dear future Vermont, I’m sorry. I apologize for where you are now, it was our fault—things got strange around 2022 to 2024 and went sideways on us. Maybe if more of us had been vocal things could have turned out differently. Early spring of 2024 was a challenging time in Vermont. In those years, while we still had a public […]

Opposition For F&W Board Bill

In my opinion Sen. Christopher Bray has failed to demonstrate why the current board composition at the Fish and Game Department needs modifications. As he has said, “He wrote S. 258 by himself over the summer and then gave it to the legislature lawyer.” Why? He argues that he is representing a portion of society that’s not represented but has […]

Legislators Have Eyes ‘Wide Shut’ on Energy Bill

From The State House

Today was a dark day in the Vermont State House, but not for a lack of renewable energy. The legislature decided to push yet another carbon tax onto the backs and out of the pockets of Vermont energy rate-payers. This bill will enrich solar companies and do very little to affect climate change, as the presenter of the bill so […]

Time To Arm Ukraine

Guest Column

Time Magazine’s lead editorial, “Ukraine Can’t Win the War” (March 11) by Anatol Lieven takes a gloomy view of things. He is not alone. Similar depressing tough-love assessments have come from WSJ and NYTs writers who fervently support Ukraine but now lament that Ukraine cannot win because they don’t have enough ammo, weapons, money, fuel, or soldiers. They despair over […]

Snow, Mud, and Taking the Good with the Bad

Upper Valley Girl

Last weekend’s unexpected dumping was the usual: exciting, beautiful, good for some, bad for others, a source of pre-storm grocery-store pandemonium, and a ton of work. Those that made it to the Maple Open House Weekend had a gas. People got there by foot, snowshoe, truck, or with their snow tires still on their car. Yo, don’t try to keep […]

The Right Tool

Earlier this month, Josh Tyrangiel penned an op-ed column for the Washington Post advocating a complete rebuild of the U.S. governmental bureaucracy. It’s heavy on the type of “the-answer-is-right-in-front-of-us” reporting that is popular among columnists, but it makes an interesting and compelling argument for quickly adopting AI technology to wrangle massive amounts of data into policy decision making. That’s a […]


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