About 1000 gay and lesbian in-state couples will get married over the next three years, while another 8200 same-sex couples from other states will travel to Vermont to get hitched. Governor Jim Douglas was ice cold to the idea of allowing gays and lesbians to marry, but he may extend them a warmer reception once the new law kicks in on September 1.... Read more

Even as Vermont continues to lose jobs — another 2100 disappeared in March — the federal government has quietly been adding scores of positions to its Homeland Security outposts in Chittenden County.... Read more

FairPoint Communications, Vermont’s largest provider of landline telephone service, is reeling from technical breakdowns and financial distress, causing some analysts to question whether the company can survive.

These skeptics may feel entitled to a “we-told-you-so” attitude. They warned last year that state regulators were making a mistake in approving FairPoint’s $2.3 billion acquisition of Verizon’s landline and Internet business in Vermont, Maine and New Hampshire.... Read more

Last week the question was: Will Vermont be the first state to legalize same-sex marriages without a court order?

This week the follow-ups are numerous: Do we “upgrade” to marriage? Should we keep our civil union? When can we get married? By whom? Do we have to get rid of our civil union before we marry?

With more choices, thousands of couples joined in civil unions since 2000 — 1500 Vermont couples and 8700 couples from around the U.S. — now have more decisions to make.... Read more

A Montpelier copy-shop owner may finally get his day in court this week, six years after suing United Parcel Service for the damage he claims it inflicted on his small business. The suit filed by Capitol Copy owner Glenn Sturgis and 130 other office-services store operators around the country seeks hundreds of millions of dollars in compensation for what “Brown” has allegedly done to them.... Read more

Looks like Vermont legislators may be moving from one controversy to another. Lobbying firm Kimbell Sherman Ellis, which has been working on the campaign for marriage equality, is now nudging lawmakers to consider another hot-button issue: lowering the drinking age to 18.... Read more

You could say the Burlington Electric Department excels in public relations — or maybe it answers to a higher power. Either way, the utility did the right thing this week when it delayed some scheduled repairs that would have inconvenienced scores of its Jewish customers observing this week’s Passover holiday.... Read more

Most people head to the Burlington Bike Path in search of healthy diversion. So it comes as a bit of a shock to see arsenic-contamination warnings posted on a flimsy fence alongside the Community Sailing Center; now that the snow has melted, they’re sure to be seen by anyone who ventures a few yards off the path. Equally incongruous are the remnants of a coal pile that accounts for the poison’s presence there.... Read more

Massive corporate layoffs, imploding banks, global investors desperately searching for the stock market’s bottom — lately, nearly all the economic news has been about as apocalyptic as the Book of Revelation. Even in Vermont, where local banks and credit unions are actually doing OK, most of the financial news that gets reported is the depressing kind.... Read more

The Statehouse was unseasonably warm last Wednesday evening, as several hundred Vermonters packed into every nook and cranny of the House Chamber. Nearly 1000 others who couldn’t get inside found seats in other rooms and hallways throughout the building to listen to the public debate S.115, a bill to legalize same-sex marriages. Considering the temperature, the tight quarters, the trouble-plagued sound system and the controversial nature of the issue at hand, tempers could have easily boiled over.... Read more