Marc Bernard Schauber is the executive director of the Coalition for Vermont Student Equity. "Please be in touch with your questions, concerns and suggestions," he writes to potential voters in the River Valleys Unified School District, which serves students and families in Dover and Wardsboro. He can be reached at 646-833-8627 or [email protected].
DOVER-I had the honor of serving on the River Valleys Unified School District Board for a number of years and am asking the voters to give me that honor once again.
BRATTLEBORO-Where are you, Gov. Scott? I don't blame you for not wanting to engage with Trump's absurd rhetoric and his destructive M.O., but now we're talking about Vermont. The damage to our economy in particular is real, as Canadians take out their anger on trade and tourism. You must...
WEST BRATTLEBORO-A thank you to Tim Hayes for his thoughtful and thorough article on potentials for the Democratic Party. I would just like to complement his concept of a "shadow cabinet" by advocating for a complete "shadow administration" with officials including Kamala Harris, Tim Walz, Bernie Sanders, Becca Balint,
Lawrence Slason is an attorney with more than 40 years of experience in Windham County. BELLOWS FALLS-The latest lies about the serious national security breach regarding the bombing of Yemen reported on an unsecure chat using the Signal app is just another example of the profound incompetence of Donald Trump and his administration. Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard initially denied they knew anything about the breach until Hegseth and others were confronted...
Lachlan Francis chairs the Windham County Democratic Committee. He adds: "I'm proud that in Windham County, Vermonters have made clear that they won't go silently. More than 60 of our neighbors joined the Windham County Democratic Committee in the cold on St. Patrick's Day to host a pro-immigration rally, and we'll continue to take action in support of true American values." WESTMINSTER-While President Trump claims that his administration is focused on deporting undocumented immigrants with criminal records, ample reporting from...
TOWNSHEND-Several weeks ago, a Peruvian fisherman, stranded in the ocean for months, was miraculously found by the crew of an Ecuadorian boat. They plucked him out of the water, and he survived to be reunited with his family. I'm quite sure that those Ecuadorians never thought for a second not to rescue this man, but imagine the uproar if they had. They did what was right because they could, and this is not unusual. Most people mean well. In fact,
BRATTLEBORO-There has been an unrelenting assault on our culture and our country since the inauguration of the present president and his administration. By design: trying to overwhelm our capacity for reaction and response and resistance. By design: trying to convince us that we are powerless. They know what they are doing. Well, it is true that many avenues for moderation have been constrained or ignored, Congress being one of them. But it is also true that this band of bullies...
WESTMINSTER-A few days ago, I texted some of my family members to call their representatives to voice their opinion on a bill. Our family consists of both Democrats and Republicans, so I kept my request short. Days later, my aunt, who is in her late 70s, replied that it was the first time she had ever reached out to her representatives. I was a bit stunned. I thought she had been doing so her entire life. It led me to...
BRATTLEBORO-The Vermont Symphony Orchestra will head to Windham County to present two cutting-edge music presentations at the Brattleboro Music Center - one that introduces classical music to children and families, and the other a performance of rock 'n' roll classics. "Anyone can access this music," says Elise Brunelle, VSO's executive director. "The word classical tends to shut people down." Brunelle says that as the VSO moves toward the end of its 90th anniversary season, "This is our way of opening...
BRATTLEBORO-The Brattleboro Museum & Art Center (BMAC) hosts a discussion of Michael Finkel's 2023 novel, The Art Thief: A True Story of Love, Crime, and a Dangerous Obsession, on Thursday, April 10, at 5:30 p.m. at the museum. The event is the first in a new series called "BMAC Reads" - occasional book club–style conversations at the museum about art-themed books. The Art Thief details the exploits of Stéphane Breitwieser, who admitted to stealing 239 works of art from 172...
ALSTEAD, N.H.-FFOTUS (First Felon of the United States) is an extortionist. Merriam-Webster's definition of extort is "to obtain from a person by force or undue or illegal power or ingenuity." Extortion is defined as "the act or practice of extorting especially money or other property; especially: the offense committed by an official engaging in such practice." What would you call or label what happened to Columbia University? It capitulated to FFOTUS's demands that it identify every demonstrator and put its...
BRATTLEBORO-ByWay Books & More, 399 Canal St., is supporting the Vermont Reads community program by hosting an event centered around the book Gather, by Kenneth M. Cadow (Candlewick Press), on Thursday, April 3, from 4 to 6 p.m. Teachers, teens, and the Brattleboro community are invited to participate in a Pick-Up Party, where participants will pick up a free copy of Gather, sign up for a discussion session, and enjoy light refreshments while meeting fellow readers. Gather, the 2024–25 Vermont...
WESTMINSTER-Roger Allbee will speak about his book, Turning the Soil: 250 Years of Vermont Agriculture at the Westminster Institute's Butterfield Library, 3534 US Route 5, at 5 p.m. on Tuesday, April 8. Allbee's is a historical book, examining changes in rural communities, farmers' activities, agricultural production, and farm policies over a period of more than 250 years. It comprehensively analyzes agriculture from the perspectives of grassroots, state, national, and global levels. It also offers a bird's-eye view of the history...
Falling is a serious risk for older adults in Vermont. It's also one that can be easily mitigated with specific preventative measures. The Southeastern Vermont Medical Reserve Corps is a community-based network of volunteers focused on supporting local public health initiatives and emergency response efforts. Two of their volunteer physical therapists conduct fall clinics locally. At these one-hour clinics, the therapists discuss "Why We Fall; What Should We Be Doing to Avoid Falling," including demonstrations, videos, and question and answer...
WESTMINSTER-Southeastern Vermont Community Action (SEVCA) has launched its Community Needs Survey, designed to gather input from as many people as possible across Windham and Windsor counties. "We know that our community is the best source of insight into how we can align our services and programs," SEVCA Executive Director Josh Davis said in a news release. The survey is designed "to better understand what our neighbors need most and how SEVCA can step up to address those needs effectively," he...
Online meeting examines public education funding GUILFORD - What's happening in Montpelier regarding public education funding? What will the governor's and Legislature's proposals mean for local communities? A discussion and information session on public education funding in Vermont will be held on Thursday, April 3, from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. via Zoom. For the Zoom link, go to bit.ly/41PjKLT. The session will feature Steph Yu of Public Assets Institute and Margaret MacLean of the Rural School Community Alliance and is...
College news • Jamie Jarvis-Stores, a media arts production major from Putney, earned Dean's List honors for the fall 2024 semester at Emerson College in Boston. • Liliana Buettner, an inclusive elementary education major from Dummerston, was named to the fall 2024 Dean's List at Hartwick College in Oneonta, New York. • The following local residents were named to the fall 2024 Dean's List at Simmons University in Boston: Grace Conety of Brattleboro, Sophia Hamm of Brattleboro, Zadie Olmstead of...
PUTNEY-Next Stage Arts and Twilight Music present multi-instrumentalist, composer, arranger, and singer Keith Murphy with The Band Of Amber and their special guest Scottish fiddler Jenna Moynihan at Next Stage, 15 Kimball Hill, on Friday, April 11, at 7:30 p.m. Since its debut performance at Next Stage in June 2024, the quartet has expanded its repertoire and refined its ensemble sound. Murphy has played traditional music from an early age, growing up surrounded by the folk songs, ballads, and dance...
BRATTLEBORO-Local activists are gearing up for a downtown march and rally on April 5, part of a nationwide protest against the Trump administration. "This mass mobilization day is our message to the world that we do not consent to the destruction of our government and our economy for the benefit of Trump and his billionaire allies," organizers wrote in a news release. "Alongside Americans across the country, we are marching, rallying, and protesting to demand a stop the chaos and...
BRATTLEBORO-Throughout the month of April, River Gallery School will exhibit "Places We Know: Local Landscapes in Watercolor" by Louise Zak, in Gallery 34 on Main Street. The show will include the Surprising Brattleboro series, in which world-famous landmarks appear in surprising places around town. Works will be for sale, and art-quality prints can be ordered. For more information about the show, visit rivergalleryschool.org/april-2025-louise-zak. An opening reception will be held on Friday, April 4, from 4 - 6 p.m. This Arts...
BRATTLEBORO-I'm generally not a big fan of crowds - partly from being an introvert, partly from the stories these days about seemingly random shootings and people driving into throngs - but when I saw the Letter from Viv Woodland about the recent rally at the post office, I knew I had to shelve my concern and show up. And I'm very glad I did. It felt good and right to add my body and voice to the rising noise about...
-The Southern Vermont League (SVL) recently announced their all-league honors for boys' and girls' basketball, and for Nordic skiing. Plenty of our local athletes were honored. • Brattleboro's Jack Cady was named to the SVL A Division boys' first team, with teammates John Satterfield and Oscar Korson earning honorable mention. In the C Division, Twin Valley's Brayden Brown and Green Mountain's Tanner Swisher were first team selections. Honorable mentions included Caleb Merrow of Green Mountain, Cody Hescock and Ely White...
Peter Hutchison is an award-winning documentary filmmaker, best-selling author, educator, activist, and musician whose film, The Invisible Doctrine: The Secret History of Neoliberalism, screened at the Latchis Theatre in Brattleboro on March 15 and followed with a discussion, which the filmmaker joined via livestream. For a profile of the film and its accompanying book which appeared in the Arts section, visit bit.ly/809-hutchison. NEW YORK, N.Y.-Following the screening of The Invisible Doctrine: The Secret History of Neoliberalism at the magnificent Latchis...
BRATTLEBORO-Caz Clark is the safety and outreach manager at the Brattleboro Food Co-op, a position that was created in 2022. There, he interacts with folks in need and finds ways to help connect them to many local organizations. He also serves on the board at Groundworks Collaborative, and he's a member of the town of Brattleboro Situation Table. Caz fills a place in our town we didn't even know we needed. He has a view of Brattleboro that's gritty, real,
BRATTLEBORO-I'm lucky. Like many readers, I live in Brattleboro, one of the most open-minded towns in one of the most open-minded counties in one of the most open-minded states in the country. A couple of weeks ago, my wife and I heard Becca Balint - our sole Vermont U.S. representative and a kick-ass, take-no-prisoners, LGBTQ former schoolteacher - talk about what's actually going on in Washington. She made it clear that it's as through-the-looking-glass batshit-crazy as we feared. But remarkably,
Michael Bosworth is a longtime community volunteer, a writer, and a poet. He serves as interim treasurer for Vermont Independent Media, the nonprofit that publishes this newspaper. BRATTLEBORO-On March 22, Brattleboro's Representative Town Meeting (RTM) members, by a strong majority, rejected the outgoing Selectboard's proposed FY26 budget. While this certainly sent a message of displeasure regarding the proposal, it also gave the new Selectboard a lot of leeway in how to respond. That could be a good thing, because I...
PUTNEY-On Sunday, March 23, in a demonstration of openness and solidarity, over 300 people filled the Latchis Theatre to watch the Academy Award–winning movie No Other Land, the first of four movies of the Palestine Film Series. The movie portrays a Palestinian family and community in the West Bank, enduring and resisting Israel's systematic destruction of their homes and schools, and the seizure of their lands. The film depicts just a few incidents of the devastating violence inflicted on Palestinian...
MARLBORO-In February, an asylum seeker family was detained by Customs & Border Patrol near the Vermont-Canada border. After 30 hours' detention with little to eat or drink and nowhere to sleep, the wife and three small children were released. The husband was held for more than a month in Immigration & Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody despite his and his family's asylum case being in process. This story is frightening immigrants across Vermont. Individuals persecuted in their own countries based on...
BRATTLEBORO-Why is it so difficult to grasp that support for innocent people suffering in Palestine does not equate to support of Hamas, nor does criticism of the Netanyahu government equate to antisemitism? The right wing in both Israel and the U.S. have exploited with great success our apparent inability to make these distinctions. Now the Trump administration is using this lack of critical thinking to suppress free speech and promote fear, by threatening and deporting students who have exercised what...
PUTNEY-The Democrats' recent capitulation on the debt ceiling is a pretty good illustration of why the party lost the last election. Republicans needed Democratic help to pass another continuing resolution to fund the government at current levels. Did the Democrats use the leverage to get any concessions? Perhaps get some illegally fired veterans or federal workers rehired? Maybe lessen the budget cuts that are coming to Medicaid? Maybe restore some funds to aid organizations that are going to be unable...
PUTNEY-Did you know that the first person in the United States to receive recurring monthly Social Security retirement checks was a Vermonter? Ida May Fuller of Ludlow started receiving benefits in January 1940 when she was 65. She was a legal secretary and lived to be 100. Her first monthly check was $22.54. Your first monthly check most probably was or will be much more than that. But are your Social Security benefits, for which you have paid FICA payroll...
BRATTLEBORO-As an alumnus of Columbia College who participated in the historic 1968 student strike against the university's complicity in the Vietnam war, I'm both deeply troubled and ashamed of my alma mater's abject capitulation to the Trump administration's outrageous demands for direct control of some of its more controversial academic departments and programs, including any involved in Palestinian studies. This bending of the knee was done, of course, for one simple reason: money - namely, the $400 million the government...
BRATTLEBORO-The cause of the March 26 fires that temporarily displaced 126 at the School of International Training (SIT) on Kipling Road “will be listed as undetermined," according to Brattleboro Assistant Fire Chief Charles Keir III. Keir added that the origin of the fires were determined to not be suspicious. According to the fire department, Brattleboro emergency personnel received an alarm call from SIT at 11:11 a.m. Units arrived at 11:19 a.m. and first-arriving crews located a fire in Gamble Residence, a...
BRATTLEBORO-The Henrik Ibsen drama An Enemy of the People will lead audiences to question "the intersection of truth, power, and society's values," according to the New England Youth Theatre, which will stage the play this weekend. As described by Dramatists Play Service, the play centers on "a small Norwegian town [that's] just begun to win fame and wealth through its medicinal spring waters. Dr. Stockmann, resident physician in charge, discovers that the waters are poisoned." When the doctor shares his...
-On a Sunday night, Kelsey Rice found her abuser at her home again, out on bail after an arrest hours earlier. The courts had ordered him to stay away. He didn't. He assaulted her that March 2019 night, she said, threatening to kill them both - and not for the first time. Authorities should've told Rice, who lives in the Brattleboro area, that the man was getting out. She didn't get a call until days later, she told state lawmakers...
BRATTLEBORO-George Stone Sr., closing in on his 101st birthday, is one of the last members of a dwindling fellowship - veterans of World War II. Stone served in the Army's 623rd Engineer Light Equipment Company as a combat engineer. His unit, assigned to the 1103rd Engineer Combat Group, landed on the beaches of Normandy on June 23, 1944, just 17 days after D-Day. Driving a Caterpillar D7 armored bulldozer across Europe through some of the toughest battles in the European...
Tim Kipp, a political activist since the 1960s, is a retired history and political science teacher of 39 years. He dedicates this piece to Woody Bernhardt of Marlboro, "a tireless fighter for real democracy." BRATTLEBORO-Not since those sweltering days in Philadelphia in 1787 at the Constitutional Convention has the United States confronted so fundamental a restructuring of the federal government. What's happening? We are not an authoritarian society, the mainstream press says, declaring that it can't happen here - a...
BRATTLEBORO-We are living in a moment of deep crisis for our democracy. Billionaires and political extremists are gutting the public institutions that everyday Americans rely on, undermining the rule of law and stripping away basic rights and services. It's time to stand together and push back or we may see an end to the core ideals that define America. Our federal government plays a vital role. Through years of debate and compromise, it has built the imperfect yet critical infrastructure...