Should a tattoo of a Japanese koi fish or a Chinese character disqualify a would-be state trooper from patrolling Vermont’s highways? Right now it could. Since 2007, the Vermont State Police has banned visible tattoos on troopers.... Read more

This place is haunted. That’s the word from a handful of ghost hunters and at least one plumber, who refuses to work alone in a few of the buildings at Park Village. ... Read more

On May 22, a rainstorm dumped 1.4 inches of water on Burlington in just half an hour, clogging storm-water drains and turning some Queen City streets into scenes from Waterworld. Residents paddled down Green Street in kayaks and partied in puddles on Brookes Avenue.

But not everyone was celebrating.

The downpour caused aging pipes to back up, spilling sewage into basements in the Old North End. Downtown, water flowed through the basement walls of retail establishments including Sweet Lady Jane, Dear Lucy and Uncommon Grounds.... Read more

On the surface, the Vermont Health CO-OP seems like the kind of endeavor the state would embrace with open arms. Using federal funds from so-called “Obamacare,” the South Burlington-based nonprofit wants to offer a member-owned alternative to much-maligned corporate insurance companies. All of its profits would be reinvested to lower health-care costs and expand coverage.

What’s not to like, especially in a state that goes gaga for co-ops?... Read more

“We’re running out of food.” That was the word at 7 p.m. last Friday from Felix Wai, one half of the ArtsRiot team and an organizer of the South End Truck Stop.... Read more

When Sen. Patrick Leahy needed someone to explain to Congress why Vermont farms need legal migrant laborers, he didn’t invite a flannel-clad dairy farmer to be his star witness. He called upon Alyson Eastman, a 36-year-old accountant and bookkeeper from Orwell, to testify on the federal immigration overhaul.... Read more

Stretched out on an exam table in the neurology wing of Fletcher Allen Health Care, 26-year-old Anna King flinches when her physician, Dr. James Boyd, inserts a long, thin needle filled with a Botox injection in the sole of her foot.

That’s when Soryu Forall chimes in, his voice low and throaty. The 36-year-old Zen Buddhist monk sits perfectly upright by King’s bedside, his hands clasped between his knees, staring intently at her.... Read more

I was bumping down a dirt road in Springfield, worried I’d made a wrong turn, when I came upon what was clearly my destination: the monthly poultry swap and meeting of the Vermont Bird Fancier’s Club. This was tailgating with tail feathers — birds arranged in truck beds, in cages under tents, in homemade, tow-behind trailers. I knew I’d found the right place when I spotted a woman examining the chickens in a T-shirt that read, “Don’t ruffle my feathers.”... Read more

Years ago, after quitting her job as an investment banker, Melanie Considine turned to her true passion: photography. “I was always one of those people with a camera in hand,” she said, and so in her late thirties she left behind the high-stress, high-powered world of finance for art school and the business of art and freelance photography. ... Read more

When Eric and Laura Sorkin got into the maple sugaring business five years ago, they went big. The couple invested $1.4 million in a vacuum pump, reverse-osmosis machine and other equipment and tapped sugar maples across 1000 acres they own in Cambridge and Underhill.

At the time, maple syrup prices were at a record high of around $4 a pound — double where they were a year prior — with a gallon fetching up to $70. The timing seemed perfect.... Read more