Following is a partial list of new Vermont laws enacted in 2026.
• Act 76 (H.545) - Updates Vermont's immunization system by addressing who may issue recommendations and standing orders, purchasing authority, liability protections, and insurance coverage.
• Act 77 (H.649) - Revises the regulation of captive insurers and risk-retention groups, including rules governing sponsored captives, loans, and required financial statements.
• Act 78 (S.60) - Establishes the Farm and Forestry Operations Security Special Fund to compensate qualifying agricultural and forestry businesses for losses caused by severe weather.
BRATTLEBORO-Brattleboro’s annual Nu Mu Festival of Music and Art celebrates its fifth year at 118 Elliot and is scheduled from Aug. 7 through 21. The “Minding A New Way” art show, with paintings by Liza Cassidy and John Loggia, opens Friday, Aug. 7, during Gallery Walk at 5:30 p.m.,
PUTNEY-Next Stage Arts and Twilight Music present a singer-songwriter showcase featuring Joy Clark, Luke Concannon, Midnight Betty, and Lizzy Mandell at Next Stage Saturday, Aug. 8, at 7:30 p.m. Luke Concannon, Lizzy Mandell, and Midnight Betty will open the concert with an in-the-round set before Joy Clark’s quartet performs.
ROCKINGHAM-The Bellows Falls Downtown Development Alliance (BFDDA), in partnership with the Rockingham Old Home Days Committee and community organizations throughout the town, present the return of Rockingham Old Home Days Weekend, taking place Friday, July 31, through Sunday, Aug. 2. This year’s celebration brings together new traditions and long-standing favorites for a weekend that celebrates the history, people, and community spirit of Rockingham. The weekend begins Friday, July 31, with a Community Car Show hosted by the Hit or Miss...
Obituaries • Helena Blais, 92, of Swanzey, New Hampshire, formerly of Richmond, New Hampshire, Died peacefully in the company of her family July 11, 2026. Born in Erechim, Brazil, she was the daughter of the late Friedrich and Karoline (Otter) Bößenecker. Helena and her family left Brazil in 1939 to seek essential medical treatment in Germany. Unbeknownst to the family, a second world war was brewing at home. Those who knew Helena may have heard stories of the airstrikes on...
BRATTLEBORO-Swords to Plowshares Vermont will hold its annual Forging Event Friday, Aug. 7, at the Brattleboro Museum & Art Center. The event will take place during Gallery Walk starting at 5 p.m. The event is free and open to all. The featured blacksmith will be Will Alderfer, local jewelry maker and owner-founder of W.R. Metalarts, who will set aside his fine jewelry work for the evening to demonstrate how gun barrels can be transformed into a garden trowel, a hand...
BRATTLEBORO-As town leaders weigh a proposed municipal tax hike to help the fiscally ailing Brattleboro Memorial Hospital, BMH administrators estimate their multiyear budget deficit has risen to at least $30 million. The hospital has yet to submit a spending plan to the state for the coming fiscal year, having missed a July 1 filing deadline and July 24 extension. But its administrators are reporting shortfalls of $16 million for the last fiscal year — four times their initial estimate, or...
MARLBORO-Music is central to Into the Wilderness, Deborah Lee Luskin’s award-winning novel set at the Marlboro Music Festival in 1964. Luskin will speak about turning music into words at the Marlboro Community Center, 524 South Rd., Saturday, Aug. 1, at 3 p.m. In Into the Wilderness, we meet Rose Mayer, a 64-year-old New Yorker who has just been widowed for a second time and doesn’t know what she’s going to do with the rest of her life. Percy Mendell is...
PUTNEY-The towering puppets, brass band, giant papier-mâché creatures, and political pageantry of Bread & Puppet Theater return to Brattleboro on Saturday, Aug. 1, when the legendary Vermont company presents The Upside Down World Circus as part of Next Stage Arts’ Bandwagon Summer Series. The outdoor performance begins at 4 p.m. at Retreat Farm, 45 Farmhouse Square, with gates opening at 3 p.m. Filled with stilt dancers, oversized puppets, live music, dance, and the company’s trademark blend of satire and spectacle,
BELLOWS FALLS-Canal Street Art Gallery presents the Form and Function Shop, a static space in the gallery hosting rotating shows. It currently features artwork from Chris Archer, Whitney Barrett, Robert Burch, Robert DuGrenier, Nicholas Kekic, Almut Yakovleff, and Andy Snyder on view through Oct. 11. Chris Archer, based in Goffstown, New Hampshire, says he seeks to create new relationships between the form and the hand of the user. Presenting hand-thrown and wood fired stoneware using techniques such as carving, shape...
ROCKINGHAM-The Rockingham Meeting House Association invites the public to join in the Annual Pilgrimage to the historic Rockingham Meeting House as the community continues to commemorate the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. This year’s Pilgrimage is especially meaningful, organizers wrote in a news release, because it takes place on Sunday, Aug. 2 — the very day, 250 years ago, when members of the Continental Congress began signing the parchment copy of the Declaration of Independence.
BRATTLEBORO-The next phase of Brooks Memorial Library’s renovation project has begun. This phase began this week with the closure of the sidewalk in front of the library’s Main Street entrance, as well as the accessible ramp connecting the Municipal Center parking lot to the library’s rear entrance. Crews will remove and replace the sidewalk in front of the library and Municipal Center, as well as the connecting accessible walkway. Although the sidewalk directly in front of the library will be...
GUILFORD-Road Dogs, three harmony-loving crooners “with a serious soft spot for a good howl,” will perform at an upcoming concert at the Guilford Community Park Pavilion, 24 Church Drive, Wednesday, Aug. 5, at 6:30 p.m. Their sound “tips its hat to the Roches and the Wailin’ Jennys, serving up a musical experience that’s equal parts heart-melting and tail-wagging fun,” wrote event promoters in a news release. Lexi Ugelow, Emma Rothman, and Maisie Dolan met while touring with the teen choir...
Crêpe Night at Scott Farm benefits Vermont Independent Media DUMMERSTON — The first of two August Crêpe Nights at Scott Farm, 707 Kipling Rd., takes place Wednesday, Aug. 5, from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. Crêpe Nights celebrate the harvest, simple food, music, and community in a picnic-style setting. Outdoor and indoor tables and chairs are provided as well as a sprawling grassy hillside ripe for picnic blankets, folding lawn chairs, and bare feet. The seasonally focused menu includes a salad,
MARLBORO-Under the artistic direction of Mitsuko Uchida and Jonathan Biss, Marlboro Music’s 75th anniversary season continues on Saturday, Aug. 1, and Sunday, Aug. 2, with the third weekend of concerts and free open rehearsals throughout the week in Persons Auditorium, 2472 South Rd. Some 18 musicians will take the stage, reflecting the distinctive mix of seasoned and emerging talent that Marlboro brings together each summer. Weekend performances and open rehearsals will continue through Aug. 16. Saturday evening’s program opens with...
WEST BRATTLEBORO-“Follow the Rainbow, Find the Gift,” is an exhibit of work created by artists in recovery from cancer and artists who have supported others in their cancer journey. It will be on view for the month of August at All Souls Church in the West Village Meeting House. Local artist and founder of the Harmony Collective Kay Curtis, recently diagnosed, said in a news release that she is recreating a show she saw in Mendocino, California, 30 years ago,
BELLOWS FALLS-The Bellows Falls Historical Society & Museum (BFHS), 46 Canal St., has a new art exhibit featuring paintings and sketches by Saxtons River artist Lester (Les) Sheehan. The BFHS is displaying these in partnership with Connie Lancaster of Saxtons River and the Saxtons River Historical Society. There is also a display of photos from glass plate negatives, a magic lantern, and a stethoscopic viewer. These will be on display through Oct. 31. The Historical Society also displays an original...
The Aug. 11 party primaries in Vermont have plenty of contested races attracting attention. Here's a rundown of who is on the ballot in the Democratic, Progressive, and Republican primaries. Statewide offices• Governor: Amanda Janoo of Burlington and Aly Richards of Montpelier are running for the Democratic nomination for governor. The winner will face incumbent Gov. Phil Scott, who is unopposed for the Republican nomination, in the Nov. 3 general election. • Lieutenant governor: Esther Charlestin of South Burlington, former...
Elayne Clift (elayne-clift.com) has written this column about women, politics, and social issues for two decades. BRATTLEBORO-There is a new urgency in the air, and it’s palpable: grounded in collective anxiety and a plea for a return to a civil society free of fear, oppression, oligarchs, and megalomaniacs who defy laws and ignore the Constitution. We’ve had enough of the dystopian nightmare propagated by an authoritarian regime rife with abuse and massive corruption. The threat of creeping totalitarianism is glaringly...
ST. ALBANS-Kiah Coble was talking on the phone with a parent at NewBrook Elementary School in Newfane, where she worked as a school counselor, when her left hand suddenly cramped. “It was very odd,” Coble says. “It was like all of a sudden being plunged into ice water." It happened again. And again. Her hand grew weaker. What followed was a nearly two-year odyssey through primary care doctors, physical therapists, a nerve specialist, an unsuccessful wrist and elbow surgery, and...
-The Brattleboro Little League 12U All-Stars, the District 2 champs, opened the state tournament in Stowe July 25 with a 3-1 win over Camels Hump, the District 1 champs representing Bolton, Huntington, and Richmond. Brattleboro then edged the host team, District 3 champion Lamoille County, 2-1, on July 26 to advance to the championship game. On Saturday, Aug. 1, at 11 a.m., Brattleboro will face the winner of the July 29 elimination round game between Camels Hump and Lamoille County...
BELLOWS FALLS-It has been nearly 15 years since the idea first started taking shape, and finally, this fall, the Great River Food Co-op will find out if construction can begin at the site of the former Robertson Paper Mill. The co-op describes itself as a “start-up cooperative dedicated to enhancing food safety and security by creating a local food ecosystem that directly connects local farmers and producers with consumers” in both Vermont and New Hampshire along the lower Connecticut River...
Tom Boswell is a lifelong community organizer, journalist, and award-winning poet. BRATTLEBORO-On Feb. 19 of 2024, seven Windham County citizens published an opinion piece in VTDigger exhorting Vermont residents to “stand with immigrants and call on your legislators to urge the Criminal Justice Council to vote on the proposed policy without further delay!” The policy they were concerned about was Vermont’s Fair and Impartial Policing Policy (FIPP), which defines the state’s minimal standards for law enforcement’s behavior surrounding issues of...
BRATTLEBORO-Now that the 2025-26 Vermont Legislative session is in the books, both Democrats and Republicans are claiming wins. And as we head into the Aug. 11 party primaries, both sides are campaigning on what they have already accomplished. Whoever wins or loses, Vermont politics is about to change dramatically. One reason is that more than 30 legislators are retiring this year. Among the most notable are two Democrats, Speaker of the House Jill Krowinski and Senate President Pro Tem Phil...
BRATTLEBORO-The new FY27 tax rates were approved by the Brattleboro Selectboard on July 7 and will be reflected in the property tax bill that property owners either recently received or will receive soon. Although the municipal property tax rate for the coming fiscal year can be estimated at the time the budget is proposed and voted on at open Town Meeting in March, this rate cannot be precisely known until the Grand List of property owners is updated at the...
SAXTONS RIVER-I read this article by Joyce Marcel expecting some background on the issue. Usually The Commons provides long (often too long) articles that go deeply into the material. Not so in this case. Although there is plenty of background on why thousands of Afrikaners are being profusely welcomed into the USA (while other groups like Afghans have been shut out), none of it appeared in the article. Nor was there any perspective on the issue from the South African...
