Live, local courtroom drama has it all over “Law and Order.” Television trials can’t prepare you for the initial shock of watching an accused murderer being led into a courtroom — or the fact that he looks more like a bank teller in a blue button-down shirt. Flanked by armed guards, hands and feet cuffed, Brian Rooney emerged from a side door for a pre-trial hearing last month at Chittenden County District Court in Burlington because he sent a letter to the court that sounded like a request for a new lawyer.... Read more

April is cruel, all right, but meteorology can’t explain why the top block of Church Street currently looks more like poor Plattsburgh than boomtown Burlington.... Read more

There’s a best-of list for everything, including countries. The U.N.’s Human Development Index uses life expectancy, adult literacy and gross domestic product to calculate national success. But there’s more to life — a good life, anyway — than reading, making money and surviving. Last October, a new study commissioned by Reader’s Digest added environmental health to the equation to rank “the planet’s greenest, most livable places.” The U.S. came in at number 23 on the list of 141 countries.... Read more

Finding the right chef is a tall order for any restaurant. But it's almost impossible when the dining room is on a dirt road 8 miles from the nearest town, and the job includes making breakfast and dinner for up to 40 discriminating guests every day, singlehandedly. More humbling duties: In the winter, hungry skiers require huge vats of soup and multiple batches of chocolate-chip cookies. In the summer, there are weddings to cook for — up to 11 in a four-month period.... Read more

The economic news of late hasn’t exactly been uplifting, but you’d never know it from the Vermont companies clamoring for exhibition space in an unusual job expo this weekend at Main Street Landing Performing Arts Center on the Burlington Waterfront. The state is full of innovative businesses that are thriving, growing, hiring — and they’ll be out in force for the first annual Vermont 3.0 Creative Technology Career Jam.... Read more

Vermont: land of maple syrup, milk, flatlander jokes and . . . software? You bet.

You don’t hear much about the state’s software companies — heck, the captive insurance industry gets more press — but there are now quite a few, and their numbers are growing.... Read more

A non-leap year consists of 8760 hours: more than enough time, you’d think, to take care of everything that needs to get done. But sleep eats into waking life, and modern innovations such as Snood, email and cellphones offer endless opportunities to piss away idle moments. It seems that by the end of a given day, we hardly have a minute left to collect our thoughts.

There aren’t enough hours in the day. The common lament has become a cliché. The more important question may be: What would you do with an extra hour if you had it?... Read more

There were 30 slaughterhouses in Vermont when Carl Cushing first started working as a state meat inspector. Three decades later, only seven remain. So, on the occasion of his retirement, 54-year-old Cushing decided to trade in the hardhat and white coat for a blood-smeared yellow apron at Clark's Slaughterhouse in Ferrisburgh. He bought the place he used to regulate.

"I'm on the other side now," he says with a laugh, acknowledging it's an odd way to spend one's golden years. "The question I get most often is, 'Are you crazy?'"... Read more

You’d never know from the bustling Church Street Marketplace that Saturday marks the opening of rifle season in Vermont. Any out-of-town foray leads to signs of sportsmen: trucks parked on rural roadsides, busy general stores, distant shots. As November unfurls, it’s not unusual to see skinned deer carcasses hanging hoof-side-up in front of homes of all sizes. The vanquished animals — both totems and trophies — are a startling reminder that Vermont is a place where hunting has always been an integral part of life.... Read more

You don’t have to go to deer camp to hear Roy Hines talk about tracking a 10-point, 278-pound buck up a mountain and shooting it through the heart. No hunting license is required to listen to Gayle Streeter of Morrisville recall her first kill. Or to eavesdrop on Rochester Deputy Warden Cleo Johnson as he tells how he rescued a drowning fawn that subsequently became a pet.... Read more