It’s been said that trying standup comedy for the first time is as scary as performing a high-wire act blindfolded. So imagine the courage someone needs to get on stage and tell jokes about being molested as a child, living in foster care or getting pregnant at a crack house — material that might be difficult for the comedian and the audience, or so one might assume.... Read more

They go by many names — man cave, man-space, mantuary, bro hole. In days of yore, they were known simply as dad’s rec room, workshop, smoking lounge or deer camp. Call ’em what you will, they all have about the same function. They’re spaces we fellas carve out from the rest of our abodes to tap into our inner boy — assuming that boy is allowed to drink beer, shoot pool, play cards, watch sports or play with his toys at any hour of the day or night. ... Read more

Keith Flynn had only been Orleans County state’s attorney a few weeks when he got a phone call from the Newport police on the morning of February 12, 1999. Shots had been fired in the downtown Home Health Building. Flynn rushed over, and not just because it was his job to do so: His wife was working there at the time.... Read more

It’s that time of year again. Tulips are in bloom, motorists are distracted by swerving skateboarders and bare midriffs, and Vermont’s colleges and universities are announcing their 2013 commencement schedules.

This year’s grads presumably will have completed four years of studies and dropped as much as $58,000 a year for their degrees. In return, they’ll hope to land gainful employment and chip away at a mountain of student-loan debt.... Read more

As a kid, Catherine Stamm was always interested in police work and criminal forensics, until she realized she couldn’t stomach “the whole blood thing.” But as a high school student in North Babylon, N.Y., she also loved messing around with computers. So she decided to attend Champlain College and pursue a degree in computer and digital forensics, which doesn’t involve messy crime scenes.... Read more

Mike Peabody knows it’s no big scoop that the Plainfield Co-op isn’t the biggest seller of Ben & Jerry’s ice cream in Vermont. The 500-member food cooperative on Main Street is so small it doesn’t even have a walk-in freezer or space for a stand-alone B&J cooler.... Read more

The hulking, unpainted plywood box that protrudes from an open-sided barn on Burroughs Farm Road in Ferrisburgh is just starting to look like a boat, if not an attractive one. But for farmer Erik Andrus, who conceived of the idea of building a 19th-century-style, wind-powered cargo barge to transport locally grown food from the Champlain Valley to New York City, pretty isn’t the point. It’s all about function.... Read more

The bells of St. Mary’s tolled slowly as mourners poured down the steps of the red brick Catholic church on the hill above downtown St. Albans. Hundreds of people had traveled from around Vermont to say goodbye to Lawrence Handy, a prominent St. Albans businessman, civic leader, and political mover and shaker, who died April 1 at the age of 83. ... Read more

There are more differences than similarities between U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders and Rolling Stone contributing editor Matt Taibbi: age, job title and hairstyle, to name a few, and Taibbi regularly characterizes people as “assholes” in print.

What do they have in common? Both call out corporate America’s most unscrupulous players. On Friday, they’re teaming up for a town-meeting-style meeting in Burlington that promises to be a lively and entertaining discussion about how to cut Wall Street’s big banks down to size.... Read more

Last month, former Algiers Fire District treasurer Sherry Roebuck of Guilford started an 18-month sentence in a federal prison for stealing more than $80,000 from her municipal employer. The prison term is only a part of Roebuck’s punishment. After her release, she’ll be on the hook for nearly $83,000 in restitution for her crimes. The extra $3000 covers legal fees and other related expenses.... Read more