Covid will always be with us, and most of us have learned to live with it.
Unfortunately, people continue to die from the disease at a rate of 255 deaths per day in the United States. Hospitalizations for the disease are up 8.7%, and the death rate has increased by 4.5%. The U.S. full vaccination rate is 68%.
Mask wearing continues to be rare, but it seems to me that a few more people are starting to mask up again, and I am even considering if it makes sense to wear a mask in crowded public places now that a new variant is on the scene.
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Brattleboro, Vermont is a quiet town, for the most part. Sure, we have our share of some of the world's worst problems, but we handle them well, and the quality of life for most residents is something to be envied. But I never thought I would be terrorized by...
The Windham County Heat Fund, an IRS-recognized tax-deductible nonprofit, was started in 2005 by me and Daryl Pillsbury. We never intended to create a fund that would keep going for so long but the need never decreases. So we raise money every year and rely on a generous community...
It would be inspiring if Vermont were once again a national leader in health care reform efforts. When Peter Shumlin was governor in the 2010s, reform activism was at a high point, and the possibility of Vermont becoming the first state to implement a single-payer system seemed real. When his administration ran the numbers, after costly studies were done, Shumlin decided that it was not politically feasible to move ahead, and health care reform died in Vermont. A bill now...
Dear Sen. Sanders, I am writing to you because fuel prices are so high that it will become a life-and-death matter this winter. I know you are well aware of this problem, but I am hoping that there is something more that can be done by the United States to at least bring prices down a little. It is clearly a very complicated issue. In 2005, you attended the first fundraising event that the newly created Windham County Heat Fund...
If you want some insight into the problems that current campaign finance laws create, the Vermont Democratic primary for the U.S. House may prove instructive. Windham County state Sen. Becca Balint and Lt. Gov. Molly Gray squared off in what proved to be a lopsided race. Balint handily defeated Gray. If Balint wins the general election, she will be the first woman and first openly gay member of Vermont's congressional delegation. According to VTDigger, “the LGBTQ Victory Fund, which spent...
On behalf of some of Windham County's more vulnerable residents, the Windham County Heat Fund thanks our generous community for support of our efforts this year. We created the Windham County Heat Fund in 2005 to help people in Windham County who were not able to buy enough heating fuel to make it through the winter. In 2010 the Heat Fund was incorporated as an IRS 501(c) 3 nonprofit entity. At the time, oil prices were escalating, and we thought...
I am a second-generation American. My grandparents were immigrants. They came from eastern Europe to escape the pogroms and persecution that Jews faced. I often wonder what it was like for them when they arrived in this country. I never did ask them about their experiences. I am thinking about this now because I am experiencing immigration from the perspective of someone welcoming new immigrants to this country. Brattleboro, Vermont has become the home to about 100 people from Afghanistan.