New York State has more than 50,000 miles of rivers and streams, and more than 7500 ponds, lakes and reservoirs. Over the centuries, they’ve been used for trade, travel and recreation by everyone from Native Americans and early European settlers to extreme kayakers and inner-tube floaters.... Read more

Karen Paris knew something was wrong when no one answered her home phone. It would be days before she’d learn how terribly wrong, and months before she’d have a clue as to what killed her mother.... Read more

Newly released records related to the investigation of Burlington’s former waterfront manager reveal that the ousted Boathouse employee was accused of viewing sexually explicit material on a city-owned laptop.

Last Friday, Chittenden Superior Court Judge Dennis Pearson, who is also presiding over cases involving allegations of pedophile priests, released hundreds of pages of interviews, legal briefs and transcribed interviews that were previously sealed.... Read more

John McClaughry had been a state senator and a Harvard fellow, run for governor and worked as a senior policy analyst for President Reagan before he founded the state’s sole, free-market think tank 16 years ago.

Since then, his name has become synonymous with the Ethan Allen Institute. In fact, most people assume it’s a one-man operation, rather than an active organization with hundreds of members, a board of directors and outside advisors.... Read more

Just in time for Independence Day and antigovernment “tea party” protests, two public-policy groups have launched a website that sheds light on how taxes are raised and spent.

The left-leaning Public Assets Institute and the libertarian Ethan Allen Institute joined forces to create Vermont Transparency, which went live on Thursday at www.vttransparency.org.... Read more

While the Burlington Police Department has succeeded in recent years in becoming less male dominated, diversifying the force along racial lines has proved a tougher challenge. Of 94 uniformed and plainclothes cops now on duty or in training, 17 are female, two are black and one is Asian. Both the gender and race ratios fall short of the city’s overall makeup — 51 percent female and about 10 percent nonwhite.... Read more

Organizers are crossing their fingers — and toes — on the eve of Burlington’s biggest-ever bash in celebration of the state’s Lake Champlain Quadricentennial. The city’s 13-day Vermont International Waterfront Festival, which starts Thursday, is taking place during the steepest economic downturn in 70 years.... Read more

Vermont’s Abenaki and French heritage is being celebrated during the Vermont Lake Champlain Quadricentennial, which will also highlight the recent influx of immigrants from Africa, Asia and the Balkans. But little attention is being paid to a still-distinctive community of Dutch-descended farmers that has influenced the culture and politics of Addison County for the past 60 years.... Read more

Not too many small U.S. cities can claim to have their own “foreign policy.” But since the 1981 election of Bernie Sanders, Burlington has forged sister-city relationships with Puerto Cabezas in Nicaragua, Yaroslavl in Russia and Bethlehem and Arad in the Middle East.... Read more

As Vermont Yankee seeks to extend its operating license 20 years beyond its 2012 shutdown date, a group of energy-savvy panelists is assembling at the Big Picture Theater in Waitsfield to discuss Vermont’s power possibilities.... Read more