Earned Sick Days Make Sense for Vermont
by Anthony Pollina Vermont may be the healthiest state, but Vermonters do get sick. And, common sense says when we do, we may need to stay home and take care of ourselves, to get better faster and get...
View ArticleVermont and Race Relations Time to Walk the Talk
by Ivan Shadis During a public comment period at the Montpelier City Council’s meeting on September 18, Latoya Coleman, an African American woman from Tennessee who is studying and working in Vermont,...
View ArticleGDP Versus GPI Measuring What Matters
by Dan Jones How can we build an economy that might work for all of us unless we can define what it looks like? To define it, we need to say what we want it to look like, and then figure out if we are...
View ArticleStop the Skipping Record
by Fred Wilbur I know what a skipping record sounds like, and for over 40 years, the complaints about parking in Montpelier have been just that. We can’t seem to get out of that monotonous groove, lift...
View ArticleMontpelier Merchants Victimized by Mismanaged Project
by Richard Sheir Upset downtown merchants recently appeared before Montpelier City Council. My wife, who owns The Quirky Pet, was there with the others. The downtown merchants spoke as victims of a...
View ArticleThe First 20 Years at The Bridge
Critical to remember about The Bridge in its earliest four or five years is this: We shared the paper. We put the paper out together. We had rotating editors. Some of these editors were Phil Dodd,...
View ArticleOP-ED: Current Administration Is Not Fiscally Responsible
by Don Turner At a legislative briefing last month Speaker Smith and the Shumlin administration attempted to deflect responsibility for Vermont’s current financial shortfalls. They sugarcoated the...
View ArticleMontpelier Alive Is Essential to Montpelier
by John Hollar I appreciate the Bridge’s coverage of the Montpelier City Council meetings, but unfortunately an article in your most recent issue both misquoted and misinterpreted comments I made about...
View ArticleOP-ED: Funding the Montpelier Schools Is Crucial
by David Abbott At a time of acceleration in the movement of wealth and income to the wealthiest Americans and a severe reduction in opportunities for upward economic mobility for middle- and...
View ArticleOP-ED: Shap Smith’s Rebuttal to Don Turner’s Op-Ed
Just moments before Governor Peter Shumlin gave his State of the State address on Tuesday, January 8, we caught up with Speaker of the House Shap Smith, and asked him to respond to some of the remarks...
View ArticleOPINION: Invest in Education, Citizens and our Community
by Nathan Suter Everyone who lives in Montpelier cares about the future of our special city. One of the most important investments we can make together is in our public schools. A strong public...
View ArticleOPINION: GMO Labels Needed for Informed Food Choice
by Kari Bradley, General Manager, Hunger Mountain Coop As the general manager of a natural foods cooperative with more than 7,000 owners, I express my support for H.112, the GMO labeling legislation...
View ArticleOPINION: What now for Montpelier’s Schools?
by Ben Huffman Was this year’s voter rejection of Montpelier’s school budget a fluke? Baby boomers – that outsized cohort born from 1946 through 1964 – have continually reshaped American society. They...
View ArticleOPINION: The Coming of Green
by Daniel A. Neary Jr. Between the whites of the melting snows and the whites of blooming apple blossoms, the green comes to Vermont. Usually in late April and early May, it rolls northward and upward,...
View ArticleOPINION: Carr Lot
by Marge Garfield For many years, all I read in The Bridge were articles about the terrible lack of parking in downtown Montpelier. This problem has never been solved. And yet, the town “fathers” are...
View ArticleOPINION: Many Face of War
by J. M. Turner First and foremost, I offer my greatest condolences to the family members of those who were a part of the tragedy at Fort Hood this past week, including Ivan Lopez. As a two-time...
View ArticleOPINION: Where the Flowers Bloom
by Susan D. Auld My garden on Wood Road in Shady Rill in Middlesex, the Vermont State House and the flowers lining the granite walkway of Christ Church Memorial Garden all serve as favorite places of...
View ArticleOPINION: An “Exchange on Steroids” Helps No One
by Peter Sterling The visionaries who founded our country did not give women the right to vote. Nor did they outlaw one of the most heinous of all crimes: slavery. Proof positive that even brilliant...
View ArticleOPINION: The Importance of Ash Trees, or, What Is Threatening the Original...
by Steven Sinclair There’s an old saying that goes, “Every day is Earth Day for a forester.” This might be a bit of a stretch, but certainly the benefits derived from the wise use and management of...
View ArticleOPINION: Getting on the American Roundabout
by Joanne Garton Cars are great for getaways, but not just from bank heists or bad dates. In our cars, we retreat from the world. Windows closed and radio on, we motor forward, following only the rules...
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