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Unhappily, the Vermont Agency of Transportation’s survey seeking community feedback about this year’s reconstruction of about 4 miles of Route 5 in Hartford from Bugbee Street to the town line with Hartland closed on Dec. 12. Having blown that...

While the First Amendment guarantees freedom of speech and religion, all too often these protections boil down the questions of, “Whose speech?” and “Whose religion?”A notable example is the recent holiday display erected in Concord by something known...

Gov. Chris Sununu is fond of invoking “the New Hampshire Way” in touting the state’s (that is, his) achievements. Notwithstanding this claim of exceptionalism, when it comes to political scandals the New Hampshire way seems not so different from the...

Restrictive zoning, inadequate infrastructure, bureaucratic red-tape, high interest rates, soaring construction costs are all implicated in the housing crisis afflicting Vermont and New Hampshire. But we begin to wonder whether one of the most...

Whatever else it was, or is, OneCare Vermont, the state’s only Accountable Care Organization, hasn’t been especially accountable. This is not to mention that its operations have been largely opaque — if not wholly unknown — to average Vermonters,...

Regular readers will recognize that Republican electoral victories are celebrated but rarely in this space. Today marks an exception that proves the rule: We think Republican gains in the Vermont Legislature hold the potential to restore a healthy and...

Amid the uproar over the dramatic spike in school taxes many communities experienced this year, the Legislature created the Commission on the Future of Public Education in Vermont. It is charged with studying “the provision of education in Vermont and...

One of the lingering questions raised by Dartmouth’s hair-trigger response to a fledgling pro-Palestinian protest on the Green last May is why police from all over New Hampshire, including a state police Special Operations Unit outfitted in riot gear,...

Reporting by our colleague Frances Mize in last weekend’s edition of the Valley News strongly suggests that Dartmouth students returned to campus last week harboring a healthy distrust of the college’s administration — as well they might. That...

In the aftermath of last November’s tragedy at New Hampshire Hospital, Gov. Chris Sununu hailed Bradley Haas, the unarmed security guard who was shot and killed there, as “an absolute hero.” That opinion apparently was not shared by Republicans in the...

Defending the indefensible is never an easy proposition, but Hartford School Board members are not doing themselves any favors by responding contemptuously to residents’ misgivings about the lucrative severance package the board conferred on longtime...

Republicans in the New Hampshire Legislature have pushed through several bills this year that are designed, the New Hampshire Bulletin news site informs us, to strengthen fiscal oversight of public schools.In particular, conservative lawmakers have...

In announcing this past week that he would be voting for Kamala Harris in this fall’s presidential election, retired federal appeals court judge J. Michael Luttig denounced Donald Trump as a threat to the very existence of American democracy. As...

The Hartford School Board owes the public a much fuller explanation of the circumstances surrounding the recent departure of long-time school Superintendent Tom DeBalsi than the highly implausible version it has provided so far.Thanks to the reporting...

What kind of a lowlife would steal from orphans and kids with disabilities? Sadly, the answer is not a character in a 19th century novel by Dickens, whose literary indictment of society’s mistreatment of children remains unsurpassed. In this case, the...

If 90% of success in life is just showing up, how much is attributable to just putting in a virtual appearance? 50%? 40? The question arises in the context of the Norwich Selectboard, a majority of whose members have, without explanation, abandoned...

Vermont Gov. Phil Scott enjoys a reputation as a split-the-difference kind of guy who’s not about to let the perfect become the enemy of the good. However well-deserved that reputation may be, it is hard to square with his veto this month of sweeping...

Dartmouth president Sian Leah Beilock is considering whether the college “should formally adopt a position of institutional neutrality,” according to Liz Lempres, chairwoman of the college’s board of trustees. If it does, Dartmouth would join Harvard...

“Existential threat” has become the go-to catch phrase to warn about all sorts of looming catastrophes, from climate change to a second presidential term for Donald Trump. Add to the list “artificial general intelligence,” or A.G.I., which, The New...

The current controversy over the display of a politically-charged symbol at the home of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito comes at an opportune moment for the Hartford Selectboard as it continues to wrestle with the contours of a policy for...