One day in 1903 a police officer in Rutland accosted Andrew Rosenthal. We don’t know why he was accosted – whether he was in the act of committing a crime or otherwise attracted attention. In any case he was arrested and cited for “carrying a pistol loaded with powder and bullets, concealed on his person” without written permission from the mayor or chief of police, in violation of a city gun control ordinance.

According to the Energy Information Administration, the price of heating oil, a fuel most commonly used in New England to heat homes, has gone up by 65% since October 2021. Counting propane and kerosene, 58% of Vermont households rely on petroleum heating fuels, other than natural gas.

When I heard that David Hill of the Energy Futures Group was scheduled to present its model to Vermont’s Climate Council two months ago, I was skeptical. The Climate Council’s plan, released in December 2021, seemed to rely heavily on a “Social Cost of Carbon” to justify future climate proposals.  

Searching for an arresting metaphor for the approaching legislative session, I found a compelling example, as described by contemporaneous reports.

The smoke has cleared from Vermont election. Popular Republican Governor Phil Scott won a 70% victory over a token Democratic opponent. No other Republican came close to winning a statewide office, although Senator Joe Benning, ran a credible race against former Lt. Gov David Zuckerman, who again put himself into the Number Two slot to make another run against Governor Scott in 2024.

With the 2022 election out of the way, it’s a good time to take a serious look at proposals for improving election laws.  Here are three of my longtime favorites.

In early August, a law took effect in Maine that will leave many Vermonters thinking “if only...”

All of us have heard, perhaps many times, complimentary references to the so-called “common man.” He (or she) is widely regarded as praiseworthy simply because of his sameness, as if being virtually indistinguishable from millions of others is a good thing. I don’t buy it. I prefer to encourage uncommonness.