Issue: February-March 2015
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A season of reform? Don’t be so sure
It’s tempting to feel a bit gleeful about the spectacular downfall of Sheldon Silver, the New York Assembly speaker whose 20-year reign ended after he was arrested on corruption charges last month. After all, when you’re dealing with a government as unresponsive and opaque as New York’s, anything that forces a shake-up at the read more
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Vermont halts single-payer quest, citing cost
The future of health care in Vermont has taken a sharp turn after Gov. Peter Shumlin abandoned a four-year effort that would have made the state the first to implement a single-payer system of insurance. Shumlin, a Democrat, had pushed since he was first elected in 2010 to create a Medicare-for-all type of insurance system read more
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Young farmers band together to keep land in agriculture
By TRACY FRISCHContributing writer HUDSON, N.Y. Lindsey Lusher Shute runs Hearty Roots Community Farm with her husband in Clermont, N.Y. Their struggle to find affordable farmland in the Hudson Valley prompted them to help organize the National Young Farmers Coalition, a grassroots advocacy organization based in Hudson. Scott Langley photo Lindsey Lusher Shute and read more
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From ancient Egypt to Vermont
New Manchester library points a way forward for rural communities By TELLY HALKIASContributing writer MANCHESTER, Vt. More than two millennia have passed since the first of several destructions of the Great Library of Alexandria. With each catastrophe, the educated world mourned the loss of centuries of knowledge, and the citizens of that ancient Egyptian read more
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In Bennington, a battle over fluoride
Doctors see public-health benefit, but opponents decry ‘mass medication’ By EVAN LAWRENCEContributing writer BENNINGTON, Vt. Mary Lou Albert is one of the organizers of Bennington Citizens Against Fluoridated Water, a group opposing a March 3 advisory vote on whether to add fluoride to the town’s drinking water. The measure is supported a group of read more
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Former hospital, future resort?
By EVAN LAWRENCEContributing writer CAMBRIDGE, N.Y. A developer has proposed turning the former Mary McClellan Hospital complex in Cambridge, N.Y., into a world-class resort. The hospital, seen here in 2010, was once the largest employer in southern Washington County but has been vacant since 2003. Sean McEntee file photo When a developer came forward read more
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Fast friends
Photographer seeks out the reality behind Facebook’s virtual world By JOHN SEVENContributing writer NORTH ADAMS, Mass. Shannon Rose Riley and Joey Ramone the dog of San Jose, Calif., are among the subjects of more than 600 portraits by the photographer Tanya Hollander, who set out to meet and photograph all of her Facebook friends. read more
