Editorial

Election is over, until the next one...

Well it’s over. The midterm election cycle is done, more or less. The voters have made their choices. Nationally there were a number of surprises but statewide and locally not so much. All of the local incumbents were reelected, as were the candidates for statewide office.
Perhaps the...

Midterm votes matter

Tuesday may be a pivotal moment in the national politics, as this is one of the more tense election cycles we have seen in recent years.
In many ways Tuesday’s midterm elections are referendums on the current president of the United States, Donald Trump. No doubt the 2016 election result...

Smashing pumpkins not funny

What kind of a cretin smashes jack-o’-lanterns carved by children that were on display in a park? And do it two days before Halloween? Really?
People should be asking these questions, and we have no doubt many are (see story on page 1). That’s just a despicable act that can have no...

Not much excitement on state and local elections

Election season seems rather tame in Vermont this year. With the election less than two weeks away on Tuesday, November 6, there doesn’t seem to be much buzz around the state about it.
The national media is focused on races for Congress and who will gain control of the House and Senate,...

Free speech doesn’t mean free rein for hate speech

Free Speech Week starts Monday, October 22, and runs through Sunday, October 28. Free Speech Week is a non-partisan, non-political, weeklong commemorative event, now in its 13th year, which aims to raise awareness of free speech and a free press in the United States.
According to its...

Relief efforts are about people helping people

Last week we had a short article about the Wilmington to Wilmington relief effort. Basically, it was about a local business owner, Shelley Lockyear, who put together a GoFundMe web page seeking support for hurricane and flood victims in Wilmington, NC. Last month, Hurricane Florence tore...

Press is still relevant

Sunday kicks off the 78th annual National Newspaper Week, a recognition of the service provided by newspapers and their employees across North America. This year, as much as ever, the week stands as a way for newspapers, journalists, and the staff that supports them to tell their story about...

Foliage season may be late, but don’t worry about it

To the European, a Yankee is an American.
To an American, a Yankee is a New Englander.
To a New Englander, a Yankee is a Vermonter.
To a Vermonter, a Yankee is someone who eats apple pie
for breakfast.
And to a Vermonter who eats apple pie for breakfast...

Education-enterprise collaboration a key to growing area workforce

A week ago we published a story about an innovative program being developed by Southern Vermont College and Southwestern Vermont Medical Center. The program hopes to fend off a looming nursing shortage at SVMC by creating what is essentially a feeder program at SVC. The college will educate...

Lack of internet, cell services inexcusable

Here we are in 2018, almost three decades since the World Wide Web was spawned, and more than four decades since early cell phone systems went into service. Despite that lengthy history, why is it so many parts of Vermont have little or no reliable access to either of those services?
That...