Burlington Free Press
Trump revisits election security claims in speech
President Donald Trump in a July 16 prime- time address sought to further sow distrust in U. S. elections, claiming broad vulnerabilities with voting systems and potential for interference from other nations. Trump specifically pointed to China,...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
Social media shaping kids’ career dreams
A second grader in Norway drew a YouTube logo when my colleagues and I asked what they wanted to be when they grow up. When we asked why, the child explained that YouTubers are famous and make lots of money. When we asked second graders in Wisconsin...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
Non-alcoholic beer market grows
It was a long night when Bill Cherry and fellow veteran employees at Switchback Brewing first ran their new nonalcoholic brewing system this spring. The effort to create Switchback’s first made-in-house NA beer kept the four at the Burlington brewery...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
‘Super soldier’ bugs are ravaging Vermont crops
An “evolutionary super soldier” from the insect world is ravaging Vermont’s potatoes, eggplants and tomatoes, shrugging off cold snaps and pesticides alike. That’s how University of Vermont ecologist Vic Izzo describes the Colorado potato beetle, a...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
Senator Kennedy, 74, becomes viral sensation
Sen. John Kennedy of Louisiana looked closely into his phone’s selfie camera, then flipped the view around to reveal a lush oasis: his backyard. “This is another one of those silly videos my staff told me I needed to make,” the 74-year-old junior...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
Heat waves turn homes dangerous for all ages
Most people know that heat waves can be dangerous. What they may not realize is that the heat indoors can be much worse than outdoors. When the power goes out and air conditioning stops, a house starts to function like a greenhouse. Heat enters...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
Trump picks hold near perfect record in primaries
With five months left until the 2026 elections, President Donald Trump holds a near perfect record when it comes to endorsing winning Republican primary candidates. In only a few cases has his preferred candidate lost this year, demonstrating that...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
Ceasefire falls apart as Iran buries slain leader
The fragile ceasefire between the United States and Iran appeared to have fallen apart over continued strife over the Strait of Hormuz as Iranians buried their supreme leader, killed by U.S.-Israel forces at the outset of the war. There were no new...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
Iran says it struck U.S. military targets
Iran struck U.S. military infrastructure targets in other countries in the region, state media reported July 9, the latest in a fresh back-and-forth as President Donald Trump declared the ceasefire between the nations “over.” Attacks were reported...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
Program gives struggling artists $1,000 a month
Though artificial intelligence is making it easier than ever to produce images, music and text, the technology is also making it harder for the people who have traditionally produced this work to earn a living. A photographer who once was commissioned...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
Families in Lebanon return to bombed homes
TYRE, Lebanon – On a beachfront in the coastal city of Tyre, war has finally abated just enough for children to play in the waves and families to gather under parasols as life slowly returns to southern Lebanon. But away from the shore, people coming...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
Johnson reflects on balance of power
WASHINGTON – It’s a challenging time to be the nation’s No. 3 leader, even with House Speaker Mike Johnson’s political party in command. Sometimes it’s a challenging time because of that, with President Donald Trump testing and pushing the boundaries...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
Museums fight to retain unsavory history
A few minutes’ walk from Philadelphia’s Independence Hall, where the nation’s founding ideals were debated and declared, another part of the American story has become a flash point. At the President’s House, an early residence used by Presidents...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
Safety improvements sought for Williston Road
SOUTH BURLINGTON — Tens of thousands of cars cruise Williston Road each day, making it one of Vermont’s busiest streets — and one of its most dangerous for cyclists and pedestrians. People on foot or riding bikes have only a cracked, dirt-coated...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
VT reenactors tell hidden side of American Revolution
The war for independence was messier than many Americans think, says Skyler Bailey. “It all gets divvied up into good guys and bad guys,” Bailey, a Revolutionary War reenactor, told the Burlington Free Press. “But the more you look at it, the more you...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
Champlain Parkway finally opens
If you look up what happened in the U.S. in 1965, the answers point to Space Race milestones, the escalating Vietnam War and major civil rights victories. What the search results forget is that it was also the year Vermont set out to build a...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
Weird Al, Jack White among July concerts
The country turns 250 years old this month. That, to put it mildly, is a big deal. Numerous activities will take place to celebrate that rare occasion, many of which we at the Burlington Free Press have written about elsewhere. A couple of the 31...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
July’s outdoor music picks include Weird Al, Jack White
The outdoor concert season in Vermont started in early June, but the alfresco musical offerings really began unfolding later in the month after summer’s official start. July is overflowing with live music outdoors. In in southern and northern Vermont...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
BEHIND THE BAR
Upper Pass Beer began in 2015 in a location apropos its name: a 12-acre former sheep farm set on the side of a mountain off a single-lane dirt road in Tunbridge. Bucolic, yes. Accessible, no. The brewery was upper, to be sure, but potential customers...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
Leaders grapple with summer concerns
Asthelatelunchcrowdateinthe75-degree sun, dozens of people milled about Burlington’s City Hall Park, alone or in groups under trees and on benches. Those folks in the park chatted and sifted through items in wheelbarrows or tarpcovered piles. One...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
Trump sees wins on immigration and guns
WASHINGTON – The Supreme Court handed President Donald Trump victories in two immigration cases June 25. In the divide between gun rights and gun violence, the justices struck down another state law, this one in Hawaii, aimed at curbing guns in public...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
‘Beyond belief’
Carried atop shoulders, bolting out ahead or urged on between breaths of a jogging parent, kids and adults alike ran a race Sunday where the course itself — a long-awaited road project — was the draw. Hundreds of runners that morning hit the fresh...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
Two tornadoes hit state in rare weather event
Two short-lived tornadoes hit Vermont last Thursday afternoon, one in Lincoln and the other in Woodstock. No injuries or fatalities were reported, but the twisters damaged some property — including scalping tiles off the roof of a hotel — and snapped...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
Contest
Kujawa’s poem, “Sugarhouse Steel,” captures the vibrance of Vermont’s landscape, taking readers across hills, valleys and forests to convey the spectacle of changing seasons, according to the announcement. “One of the most exciting parts of this...
Read Full Story (Page 2)
Vermont towns ready to celebrate America 250
Vermont will celebrate the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence with festivities and fireworks. Towns across the state will host marching parades, concert performances and history demonstrations as part of the patriotic weekend...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
CDC cuts leave its employees pessimistic, burnt out
Since the Trump administration took office in January 2025, the workforce at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has weathered uncertainty and change. Mass firings, communication freezes, political interference in the CDC’s scientific...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
CLASS OF 2026
Roughly 210 graduating seniors sit among family and friends as well as educators in the new gymnasium at the Burlington High School commencement in Burlington on June 16.
Read Full Story (Page 1)
After its closure, college finds new life
PLAINFIELD — Leo Kurland grew up in Los Angeles, the nation’s secondlargest city. He studied theater at Northwestern University in Chicago, the nation’s third-largest city. Right now he’s in rural Plainfield, population a shade over 1,200, where’s...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
Burlington watch parties fuel World Cup hype
Attendees cracked can seals and settled into lawn chairs while kids punted giant inflatable soccer balls through the air. On a 17-by-10-foot project screen looming overhead, announcers analyzed the two teams set to duel that night. That was the scene...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
‘It’s a lovefest’
The fries slathered in turkey gravy made mouths water and appetites sated. Those were famous, but the music that filled the Main Street space? That was legendary. “I think the bands made Nectar’s,” said Nectar Rorris, the venue’s namesake and original...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
3 officers injured in Philly shooting
Details are emerging following a June 13 shooting in Philadelphia that left three officers injured and a suspect dead. City officials confirmed that three Philadelphia Police officers were shot while responding to a 10:30 p.m. call. They suffered...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
‘I want to tell these women’s stories’
WHITE RIVER JUNCTION — Tillie Walden identifies with Charity Bryant and Sylvia Drake. Like that 19th-century couple, the author and illustrator lives with her partner on a dirt road near a farm in rural Vermont. Bryant and Drake, who worked as...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
Celebrate Father’s Day in Vermont
The start to summer, with beaches opening and warmer weather beginning to settle in across New England, also means Father’s Day is right around the corner. This year, the holiday falls on Sunday, June 21. Looking for an outdoor activity to celebrate...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
White extremist group’s numbers swell
One of the nation’s largest White supremacist groups is rapidly expanding, adding hundreds of members across 49 states in the past two years. Internal documents leaked to USA TODAY show a coordinated recruitment push fueled by step-by-step manuals and...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
MATT PERRY TRIBUTE CONCERT
Matt Perry was born to rock ‘n’ roll. Performing with Burlington rock band Dino Bravo in the 2010s, the man known to most simply as Perry would rage from the stage, emitting that tightrope danger that defines the philosophy. He carried a bit of it...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
Marker to honor ‘Mother of the Green Mountain Boys’
SALISBURY — On the morning of May 30, Vermonters gathered at the site of a cabin belonging to Revolutionary War hero Ann Story. Known as the “Mother of the Green Mountain Boys,” Story’s legacy will now be honored with a roadside marker that will be...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
Tax credits to generate $28M
The Vermont Housing Finance Agency Board of Commissioners has awarded tax credits that will generate $28 million for developing 241 apartments, according to a community announcement. The homes will serve low-income renters in seven communities across...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
City celebrates kids raising fish
Kids shouted, stilt-walkers strode and paper-mache puppets swayed above the crowd as a procession snaked through downtown Burlington last week. What for? Trout. Sustainability Academy students and their supporters marched across the city to the beat...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
Time capsule offers look at past
ESSEX JUNCTION — In May 1976, students and staff at Albert D. Lawton Intermediate buried a time capsule near the front entrance of the school. Inside students had tucked trinkets from their era: a girl’s gym uniform, an essay in French, bicentennial...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
Forecast for D-Day changed history
To go or not to go? June 2026 marks 82 years since Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower’s chief meteorologist, Group Capt. James Martin Stagg, made one of the most important weather forecasts of all time. Defying his colleagues, he advised the general to...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
‘That’s the best kind of shows’
Tarriona “Tank” Ball is excited that her band, Tank and the Bangas, is playing a free show June 5 during the Burlington Discover Jazz Festival. She’s excited, yes, but with one condition. “As long as I’m getting paid,” she said, laughing. “I think...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
VT’s next great guitar star plays at jazz festival
Lara Cwass was a late bloomer when it came to playing guitar. She only picked the instrument up in her early teens. But oh has she bloomed. Now in her mid-20s, the Burlington musician has taken off in the past halfyear, playing gigs around the...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
Five picks for five days of Burlington’s jazz festival
Five days of wall-to-wall music is a great thing — but it can also be intimidating. Just how can you be sure to squeeze as much enjoyment as possible out of the Burlington Discover Jazz Festival without missing something spectacular? Well, first of...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
NORTHEAST KINGDOM
WATERFORD — There’s no tourist fare at Stiles Pond. Only a gravel pull-off across from what looks more like a little lake. To passersby it probably gives the same impression as any of Vermont’s glassy, hill-flanked waters, with Fairbanks Mountain...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
Celebration of art and entertainmentmen
June is a prime month on the Verm mont arts and entertainment scene, with the Bur-B lington Discover Jazz Festival doing g its thing and the start of the outdoor conc cert season. We’ll touch upon those events s in this rundown of 30 fun things to do...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
SOUND OF MUSIC
The hills of Vermont (and the valleys, too) will be alive with the sound of music as the state’s lively music scene heads outdoors this summer. h The season starts in late spring, really, when it’s safer to stand outside without wondering what the...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
Report: U.S. plans to cut military support to NATO
The United States intends to significantly reduce military contributions available to assist European allies in a crisis, including fighter jets, warships and midair refueling aircraft, German news outlet Spiegel reported May 26. The NATO alliance is...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
‘A blissful 15 year run’
El Cortijo Taqueria in downtown Burlington will close in early June, but in the following week will be replaced by a new restaurant. The Farmhouse Group, which oversees several Burlington-area restaurants including El Cortijo, announced May 27 that...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
Cannabis legalization spurs innovation
Innovation in health care saves lives. But not all health innovations have enough evidence to actually benefit patients. Barriers to innovation are often higher in illicit or restricted markets, including cannabis, stem cells and cryptocurrencies....
Read Full Story (Page 1)
AI draws boos at commencements
common hot topic: artificial intelligence. “OK, I struck a chord. May I finish?” said real estate development executive Gloria Caulfield as the audience erupted in loud booing at a ceremony at the University of Central Florida on May 8, reported the...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
‘ITEMS ARE GOING TO A GOOD HOME’
Burlington’s Spring Move Out Project continues to evolve as it approaches a third decade redirecting furniture from landfills into homes while helping students out of their college housing. The second day of the 26th edition of the event on Thursday...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
COVID-19 tax relief may be possible for some
DETROIT – Oodles of taxpayers – from the very well off to the barely making it – could be owed a chunk of change from the Internal Revenue Service after a complex court decision involving what rules did and didn’t apply during the COVID-19...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
Raven issue prompts concert cancellation
ESSEX — Vermont musician Troy Millette has postponed plenty of concerts because of illness, family obligations or bad weather. Rain, sure. But ravens? Never, at least not until this week. Millette’s May 30 show, which was set to open the outdoor...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
Trump defends DOJ fund amid growing GOP revolt
WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump is digging in over the Justice Department’s $1.8 billion “anti-weaponization” fund as Senate Republicans revolt over a pot of money that could funnel payments to the president’s allies, including Jan. 6...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
Parades taking place all over VT for Memorial Day
Looking forward to paying honor at a Memorial Day parade? This year, the holiday falls on Monday, May 25, and communities all across Vermont are preparing to commemorate the holiday with parades and special events. Always observed on the last Monday...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
‘It says a lot about this generation’
The Winooski School Board this week added two new, and much more youthful, members to its ranks. Local high school students Barakit Gyi, a rising sophomore, and Gabriella Dzessou, a rising junior, will represent their peers on the board for the next...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
New lights change traffic patterns along Pine Street
Construction and traffic disruption will continue on Burlington’s streets as the city carries on with the creation of a thoroughfare from the interstate to downtown. Drivers and pedestrians alike likely noticed the change in traffic patterns along...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
‘We need to celebrate who we are as a people’
Over the last few years, many states have made it harder for transgender people to access gender-affirming care, or in some cases have outright banned it for minors. Transgender people in many states have been restricted from playing sports or using...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
See inside historic homes, UVM mansion
Preservation Burlington’s annual homes tour is coming back this June with a bounty of old architecture to appreciate. This summer, you can tour the 19thcentury Queen Anne mansion, a Greek Revival-Italianate mashup on South Union Street and a 1965...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
VT rocker sets dates for new album, music festival
Vermont rocker Grace Potter has a new album due this summer, less than a month before the latest installment of her Grand Point North festival returns to Burlington. The album, “Trespasser,” comes out Aug. 21 via record distributor Thirty Tigers....
Read Full Story (Page 1)
President Trump leaves Beijing with few wins
BEIJING – President Donald Trump left China on May 15 with no major breakthroughs on trade or tangible help from Beijing to end the Iran war, despite two days spent heaping praise on his host, Xi Jinping. Trump’s visit to America’s main strategic and...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
Parking tickets may rise with license plate camera
A car-mounted camera is indeed coming to Burlington to let parking staff scan more license plates and write tickets more quickly. But before city councilors said yes to the plan, they had questions about data privacy and sharing intel with law...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
PopUp Bagels chain to open first VT location
A New England chain known for its “grip, rip and dip” style for eating bagels is showing signs — literally — of opening its first Vermont shop. PopUp Bagels, founded during the COVID-19 pandemic by Adam Goldberg in Westport, Connecticut, will move...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
‘I just have kind of grown to love Italy’
As Leslie McCrorey Wells planned to open her latest enterprise, Alimentari Café & Provisions, she considered the space next to Pizzeria Verita, one of the three restaurants she co-owns on St. Paul Street. She moved her office there to try it out. “It...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
USPS rule would allow handguns to be mailed
The U.S. Postal Service could soon allow handguns to be mailed for the first time in nearly a century if a proposed rule under the Trump administration is approved, with opponents of the move calling it a potential “gun trafficking pipeline.” Since...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
Birders welcome ‘timberdoodles’ back
SHELBURNE — Song sparrows and goldfinches sang in the trees at Shelburne Bay Park as birders from Queer Birders of Burlington peered at them through their binoculars. Between quiet moments on the trail, they swapped stories about birds and frogs they’d...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
Trade court rules against tariff in defeat for Trump
A federal court dealt another blow to President Donald Trump’s trade agenda May 7, ruling against a 10% global tariff the president imposed earlier this year to replace tariffs struck down by the Supreme Court. A panel of judges for the Court of...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
Charting his own path
It’s been nearly 1,000 years since King Henry IV stood barefoot in the Italian snow to beg forgiveness after clashes with Pope Gregory VII, and over two centuries since Napoleon imprisoned Pope Pius VII in France. Now, a battle is underway between a...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
First-ever International Food Festival sells out
SOUTH BURLINGTON — Fragrant smells, masses of people and bassheavy music accompanied by lively chatter filled Market Street on April 16 for the city’s first-ever International Food Festival. Sixteen international Vermontbased vendors, serving cuisines...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
Microplastics may be warming Earth
Two of our planet’s most serious environmental issues – microplastics and global warming – have collided in a new scientific study released May 4. Microplastics are in our oceans and mountains, our food, and even our bodies. And now, according to the...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
Microplastics could be overestimated
It seems like every day a new study finds tiny plastic particles called microplastics where they should not be: in our bodies and our food, water and air. h Yet finding and identifying microplastics is extremely challenging, especially given their...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
Controversy persists on Abenaki statue
A controversial statue donation from Vermont Abenaki is headed back to City Council. Burlington’s racial equity committee recommended the council accept the gift from the Abenaki Nation of Missisquoi despite scrutiny over the authenticity of the...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
MAY ARTS PICKS
Is there a more beautiful time in northern Vermont than May? Lawns grow lush, trees come to life and that bright ball of light in the sky starts to show up just a little more often. You know what else is beautiful about Vermont in May? The arts scene...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
U.S. to close its flagship Gaza mission
TEL AVIV – A U.S. military-run center near Gaza that critics say failed in its missiontomonitortheIsrael-Hamasceasefire and boost aid flows to besieged Palestinians is set to be shut by the Trump administration, sources familiar with the matter told...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
‘Seen them pull themselves apart’
University of Vermont scientists are working to understand a mysterious disease that has killed billions of starfish along the North America's west coast since 2013, according to a community announcement. A new study by UVM researchers may help...
Read Full Story (Page 1)