Category: Government

The Hill Country Observer covers local leaders, elections and elected officials, town and city councils bodies including libraries, schools, planning and other town boards, and all kinds of conversations and decisions that matter to our communities.

  • Issue:

    Law targets food wastes

    , ,

    By CRAIG IDLEBROOK Contributing writer RUTLAND, Vt.Tucked away from the rows of groceries at the Rutland Area Food Co-op are five-gallon buckets with lids, filled with food scraps that most customers wouldn’t want to take home. But those buckets move out the door faster than some of the foodstuffs on the co-op’s shelves. The co-op’s read more

    Law targets food wastes
  • Issue:

    Is privatization the cure?

    , , ,

    Counties push to sell public nursing homes, citing budget pressures By THOMAS DIMOPOULOS Contributing writer William “Beaver” Watkins remembers how “it all went to hell in a hand-basket.” Two years ago, the Washington County Board of Supervisors began to consider privatizing Pleasant Valley Infirmary, the county-owned nursing home in Argyle. Watkins, the Cambridge town supervisor, read more

    Is privatization the cure?
  • Issue:

    Bipartisan push on mercury pollution

    , ,

    Senate vote keeps tougher emission controls on track By CRAIG IDLEBROOK Contributing writer PITTSFIELD, Mass.At first glance, Mark Jester doesn’t seem like the right demographic to be calling for tougher rules from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Jester is a registered Republican who ran in a special election for state representative last year, and his read more

    Bipartisan push on mercury pollution
  • Issue:

    Lyme that lingers

    , ,

    By TRACY FRISCH Contributing writer QUEENSBURY, N.Y.When Holly Ahern found out several years ago that her daughter’s mysterious illness was Lyme disease, she quickly immersed herself in the subject. Ahern, an associate professor of microbiology at SUNY Adirondack, soon learned about the controversies swirling around the disease and came to realize that many others were read more

    Lyme that lingers
  • Issue:

    Activists push new strategy on biotech crops

    , , ,

    Vermont labeling law stalls as attention shifts to California By TRACY FRISCH Contributing writer On an April weeknight in Montpelier, the Vermont House Agriculture Committee held a public hearing on a bill to require labeling of foods containing genetically engineered ingredients. To the surprise of even the bill’s supporters, more than 400 people showed up. read more

    Activists push new strategy on biotech crops
  • Issue:

    Vt. backs wider police access to drug data

    ,

    House, Senate split over requirement for search warrants By CRAIG IDLEBROOK Contributing writer Faced with what some are calling an “epidemic” of prescription drug abuse in Vermont, state legislators have passed two competing bills to give police greater access to a state database of prescription records. But the state House and Senate have so far read more

    Vt. backs wider police access to drug data
  • Issue:

    Ruling boosts Spa City reform effort

    ,

    Vote possible this fall on government overhaul By EVAN LAWRENCE Contributing writer SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. A local citizens group won a major court ruling last month in its effort to force a referendum on overhauling the Saratoga Springs city government, but it’s not clear yet whether voters will get to weigh in on the issue read more

    Ruling boosts Spa City reform effort
  • Issue:

    In age of super PACs, a grassroots revolt

    ,

    Rutland, area towns back resolutions opposing ‘corporate personhood’ By TRACY FRISCH Contributing writer RUTLAND, Vt. On the shortest, darkest days of the year, local activists were out knocking on doors and collecting signatures in support of a constitutional amendment. Outraged by a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that has unleashed unlimited election spending by corporations, members read more

    In age of super PACs, a grassroots revolt
  • Issue:

    Maps reshape political calculus in N.Y.

    ,

    New district lines set stage for heated congressional races By FRED DALEY Editor   The political ground is shifting across eastern New York, thanks to new district maps that were finalized last month for the state’s congressional and legislative seats. The new maps, required every 10 years because of populations shifts revealed by the U.S. read more

    Maps reshape political calculus in N.Y.
  • Issue:

    Vermont moves to limit vaccine exemptions

    , , ,

    Vermont moves to limit vaccine exemptions, prompting backlash By CRAIG IDLEBROOK Contributing writer   BENNINGTON, Vt. Asked about the subject of childhood vaccines, Lauryn Starkie Kreuder became guarded. Starkie Kreuder and her husband have chosen not to vaccinate their two children. Citing philosophical objections, they obtained a waiver from the state’s vaccine requirements. The waiver read more

    Vermont moves to limit vaccine exemptions