2+ hour, 36+ min ago  (459+ words) This commentary is by Erin Roche, who is the director of First Children's Finance Vermont. She works with childcare businesses statewide on planning, financing and expansion. Housing is on everyone's minds these days: how to build more of it, and…...

1+ day, 3+ hour ago  (854+ words) The news was "heartbreaking." After 26 years, the Pride Center closed its doors in October due to a critical funding shortfall, said Monica Allard, co-chair of the center's board of directors. It had lost money that typically comes from the federal…...

1+ day, 3+ hour ago  (897+ words) Garret Keizer was listening to a prison group talk about his quarter-century-old first novel, "God of Beer," when he felt gobsmacked. "It was quite humbling to have some of these young men quote passages to me that I couldn't even…...

2+ day, 18+ hour ago  (535+ words) A federal judge in Vermont has decided to allow a civil rights complaint against a Burlington nursing home to be heard by a jury, according to a filing this week. The lawsuit, brought by the U. S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, alleges…...

2+ day, 23+ hour ago  (700+ words) After more than a year of gridlock caused by federal funding cuts, the public housing authorities that issue rental vouchers to thousands of low-income Vermonters are on steadier financial footing. One of the state's largest housing authorities has begun issuing…...

3+ day, 20+ hour ago  (870+ words) Vermont's largest commercial health insurer wants to offer a new suite of cheaper plans, but the state's primary healthcare regulator is casting doubt on whether that would actually yield any real savings. When expanded federal subsidies for people buying health…...

4+ day, 22+ hour ago  (1109+ words) WINOOSKI " Muyisa Mutume's neighborhood grocery store here is always stocked with food and drinks popular in his native Congo. But in recent months, he's also been selling something else: soccer jerseys. That's because, for the first time in more than…...

4+ day, 23+ hour ago  (259+ words) The birth rate in the U. S. has dropped by an astonishing 22% since 2007. Are smartphones to blame? Myers says a declining birth rate is not necessarily bad, but that there are "many aspects of it that really concern me, aspects that relate…...

5+ day, 18+ hour ago  (292+ words) Letters to the editor are brief reader responses to stories and opinion pieces published by VTDigger. Letters give voice to community members and do not represent VTDigger's views. To submit a letter, follow the instructions here. As a reading interventionist…...

5+ day, 22+ hour ago  (991+ words) Ally Quirk loved her Winooski apartment, with its scenic river views, proximity to restaurants, and amenities like in-unit laundry. But the monthly rent of $2, 450 for a one-bedroom was straining her budget. So Quirk, a therapist, decided she'd move out this…...