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Columns

Column: It’s Doubtful That College Presidents Deserve Their High Pay

Monday, May 20, 2013

The Chronicle of Higher Education tells us the median salary of public university presidents rose 4.7 percent in 2011-12 to more than $440,000 a year. This increase vastly outpaced the rate of inflation, as well as the earnings of the typical worker in the U.S. economy. It also surpassed the compensation growth for university professors. Moreover, the median statistic masks that several presidents earned more than double that amount. Penn …

Column: The Harder You Look, the Less You’ll See

Monday, May 20, 2013

Folks, deep breath time. This is not the end of the Obama presidency. It’s a bad stretch with an unfortunate confluence of unfortunate events. None of which will make the first paragraph — not even the first page — of the account of the Obama administration in the history books. Let’s tick through the trifecta of scandals and what they tell us — …

FILE - This May 6, 2013 file photo shows neighbor Charles Ramsey speaking to media near the home where missing women Amanda Berry, Gina DeJesus and Michele Knight were rescued in Cleveland. Ramsey lived next door to where Ariel Castro is alleged to have kept the women in his makeshift prison until Monday afternoon, when Ramsey happened to be home and heard Amanda Berry's scream. (AP Photo/The Plain Dealer, Scott Shaw) MANDATORY CREDIT CLEVELAND PLAIN DEALER

Column: How Well Do You Know Your Neighbors?

Sunday, May 19, 2013

Do you know your neighbors well enough to realize whether something horrible is happening in the house down the street? To call them if you need help? To trust that they’d put themselves at risk to help you? These were some of the first questions that came to my mind recently as I …

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Jennifer Lesser placed signs on the Secret Trail that say “Private Trail” and “Firing Range Ahead” to dissuade hikers from proceeding. (Valley News - Sarah Priestap) In Plainfield, Unease Over Easement: Landowner, Town and Hikers Clash Over Trail Access
From left, Heather Hardy, Alicia Titzmann and Misty Blanchette Porter are part of a surgery demonstration about cutting waste from the tools and steps used in the operating room at DHMC. (Valley News - Jennifer Hauck) Surgeons Take Critical Look at Their Process
The 19 students of Lebanon College’s 2013 graduating class cross Court Street on their way to commencement at the Lebanon Opera House yesterday. (Valley News - James M. Patterson) ‘Check Your Direction’: At a Time of Change, Lebanon College Graduates 19
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Column: It’s Doubtful That College Presidents Deserve Their High Pay
From Opinion »

Column: Graduates Must Resist the Urge for Simplicity

Sunday, May 19, 2013

Members of the Class of 2013, I salute you. As everyone keeps telling you, you are graduating at a difficult and even frightening time. I wish it were otherwise — that my generation was bequeathing you a finer world. We aren’t. The world into which you are entering …

Absent a sustained effort, most attempts to eradicate invasives in a particular area do more harm than good. Here, a Vermont Youth Conservation Corps worker digs up Japanese knotweed along the Ottauquechee River in Quechee last August. (Valley News - Jennifer Hauck)

Column: A New Strategy for Invasives War

Sunday, May 19, 2013

White River Junction We have a weed that grows on our farm, Agropyron repens, commonly called quack grass or witch grass, that grows and sets seed like most weeds but also propagates via a network of rhizomes — …

Column: The High Price of Not Expanding N.H. Gaming

Sunday, May 19, 2013

Nashua With apologies to John Donne, I would argue that no state is an island, entire of itself. Opponents of expanded gaming want us to believe that New Hampshire is an island, an oasis that is free from gambling. Nothing could be further from reality. Those opponents refuse …

Column: N.H. Would Lose a Casino Border War With Massachusetts

Saturday, May 18, 2013

Etna With electronic gambling machines and casinos now operating in 40 states and many nations, academic gambling researchers are in clear agreement about several impacts. The availability of video slot machines and casinos increases problem gambling and gambling addiction. Addiction rates approximately double among people living within 30 …

Column: A Prescription of Silence for a Dying Man

Saturday, May 18, 2013

His wife was a patient at the clinic where I worked in my early days as a doctor. I saw her regularly for hypertension. But on one visit, she was more concerned about her husband — let’s call him Pedro. He was having stomach pains and difficulty swallowing. …

Column: Kermit Gosnell Wasn’t Typical in Any Way

Friday, May 17, 2013

Kermit Gosnell, the notorious Philadelphia late-term abortionist, has been convicted. A jury found him guilty of murder for killing three babies after failed abortions, and of involuntary manslaughter for causing a woman’s death. Now comes the smear campaign. “Gosnell is not alone,” says Troy Newman, president of Operation …

Column: Scandals Expose the Real Obama, and Journalists Are Shocked

Friday, May 17, 2013

Dogged by scandal, and with his press secretary presumably now curled up in the fetal position and breathing into a brown paper bag, it’s obvious President Barack Obama is in need. Our president must find his happy place again, away from irritating controversies. Like Benghazi, where four Americans …

Editorial: Morsi’s Betrayal

Friday, May 17, 2013

Ahmed Maher, one of the leaders of Egypt’s 2011 revolution, supported Islamist Mohamed Morsi in last year’s presidential election because he believed Morsi’s victory over a military-backed candidate would be more likely to consolidate democracy in their country. But during a visit to Washington last week, Maher told …

Column: IRS Scandal Holds More Promise for Republicans Than Benghazi

Friday, May 17, 2013

Republicans in Congress are so hungry for scalps, they just can’t leave well enough alone. The scandal engulfing the Internal Revenue Service is a story that’s playing to their benefit. Monday, after having the weekend to think about it, Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida puffed himself up and …

Willem Lange: More Than Black Flies Await Me in the Yard This Time of Year

Wednesday, May 15, 2013

East Montpelier During the first two weeks of May, as regularly as clockwork, three important things happen in our lives here in the bushes of central Vermont: The first black fly appears in front of my eyes in the back yard (average date, May 6); the American tamaracks …