Jun 22-28, 2022
Three Hotly Contested Vermont Primaries to Watch This Summer; A Vermont Drug Company’s Failure to Maintain Standards Led to Recalls — and Its Demise; A Norwich Researcher Asks What More AI Can Teach Us About Gun Violence
Cover Story
Open-Seat Season: Three Hotly Contested Vermont Primaries to Watch This Summer
A historic wave of retirements by pandemic-weary lawmakers is washing over Vermont’s legislative landscape, but the churn doesn’t end there. Four of the state’s six top statewide leaders are packing it in, setting up highly competitive primary races for powerful positions that will be decided on August 9. Lt. Gov. Molly Gray is running for Congress.…
Vermont Flannel Has a New Operator
An Indiana man with his own line of made-in-America clothing is the new operator of Vermont Flannel. Vermont Flannel’s founders, Mark and Linda Baker, are stepping down as leaders of the 31-year-old company. Joe Van Deman, who recently started a company called USA Brands, said he’s now the primary decision maker for Vermont Flannel, which…
Obituary: Kevin O’Hara, 1965-2022
Colchester man instilled in his daughter a love of dogs and a passion for good food and even better beer
Obituary: Debra L. Warner, 1958-2022
Funeral services are planned for a Georgia, Vt., woman and her beloved dog, Piper
Obituary: Henry Nicholas Muller III, 1938-2022
Former Colby-Sawyer president was highly regarded for his organizational leadership in higher education and his Vermont-history scholarship
Obituary: Joan Campbell-McKee, 1953-2022
An artist, gardener and tremendous cook’s creativity was present in every aspect of her being
Obituary: Angela Schmehl, 1978-2022
Burlington woman showed her love for community by cooking for homeless shelters
Democrats Slam Scott Over Interim Attorney General Appointment
Updated 11:02 p.m. Democrats accused Republican Gov. Phil Scott of partisanship Thursday for his decision to appoint Susanne Young attorney general following T.J. Donovan’s decision to step down to take a private sector job. Anne Lezak, chair of the Vermont Democratic Party, condemned the appointment and noted that it defies the convention of filling vacancies in…
My Friend Got Pregnant to Fix Her Bad Relationship
Dear Reverend, I have a friend who is in her mid-twenties, and her boyfriend is almost 40. They’ve been together for a while, but they’ve both cheated on each other. She has decided that the best way to fix their relationship is to have a baby. I’ve told her numerous times that she should wait…
Soundbites: Festival of Fools Returns; New Music From Andriana Chobot, Sole Oceanna and More
I took a bit of a sojourn the other night and did what I call the “music creeper” move. I wandered downtown Burlington and popped into different shows for a few songs at each, like I was sampling a flight of beer or scarfing down an appetizer combo. In general, it’s not my favorite MO.…
Six Quick-Hit Reviews of Local Albums
Legend has it that the Seven Days music library is massive, occupying seven stories of a secret building in Burlington that only those who have held the seat of music editorious can access. Is it true? Um, why would I tell you that? I’m not trying to get disappeared. Anyway, here are six new Vermont…
Bookstock Literary Festival Returns This Weekend With In-Person Events
Journalist Theo Padnos traveled to Turkey in the fall of 2012 to report on the civil war in Syria. Instead of writing stories about the conflict, though, he was captured by the Free Syrian Army and passed between Syrian prisons for two years. Padnos spent a large part of those two years being blindfolded and…
Recent Threats of Violence Renew Conversations About School Safety in Vermont
It was an unsettling finale to a tumultuous school year. On May 17, Montpelier police received a call that a student from Montpelier High School had been talking about actions he would take if he were to “shoot up the school.” The 18-year-old, who was known to keep a handgun and bullets in his car,…
A Norwich Researcher Asks What More AI Can Teach Us About Gun Violence
When Natalie Cartwright isn’t teaching, she spends her time trying to predict who will live and who will die from firearm injuries. But she’s not a physician, an epidemiologist or a criminologist — she’s an associate professor of mathematics at Norwich University in Northfield. Cartwright scours reams of publicly available data on thousands of patients…
Letters to the Editor (6/22/22)
Westford, Whoa I read your Seven Days article “Raising Homes” featuring our town, Westford [June 15]. Many of us in town feel that the construction of a municipal wastewater system will negatively impact the lovely rural town we have now. In fact, a municipal wastewater system coupled with the current zoning in the town center…
Burlington’s ‘Lost Mural’ Is Restored to Its Original Glory
In 1910, a 24-year-old Lithuanian immigrant and professional sign painter named Ben Zion Black created a vibrant mural in the sanctuary of a synagogue on Hyde Street in Burlington’s Old North End. For his work, the congregation paid him $200. The 22-foot-wide, 10-foot-high triptych — rendered in an Eastern European folk-art style — features the…
Henry Sheldon Museum Reopens With a New ED and a New Community-Sourced Exhibit
Wendy Butler of New Haven has a collection of about 50 handmade baskets from across the Northeast. A 19th-century Abenaki one is acorn size and made of intricately handwoven sweet grass. The Abenaki often sold such baskets in the White Mountains to Victorian women, who used them for sewing supplies or other small items, Butler…
Now Playing in Theaters: June 22-28
new in theaters THE BLACK PHONE: Locked in a basement by a serial killer (Ethan Hawke), a kid (Mason Thames) starts receiving phone calls from previous victims in this horror flick from Scott Derrickson (Sinister). (102 min, R. Essex, Majestic, Roxy) ELVIS: Austin Butler plays the rock icon and Tom Hanks plays Colonel Tom Parker…
HANDS Diverse Pantry Serves BIPOC and New American Seniors
Burlington-based Helping and Nurturing Diverse Seniors, aka HANDS, recently received a $3,500 grant from Age Well, northwestern Vermont’s area agency on aging, for a new effort to reach previously underserved seniors within the BIPOC and New American communities. Over the past 22 years, the nonprofit has provided food and created cooking and gardening programs for…
From the Publisher: School of Hard Knocks
A record number of Vermont public officials decided not to seek reelection this year, for myriad reasons, only some of which are knowable. Frankly, I’m amazed that so many people find the courage to run in the first place. My own experience with electoral politics was early, brief and disastrous. As a sixth grader at…
From Immigrant to ‘Painter Laureate’: Shelburne Museum Pays Homage to 20th-Century Artist Luigi Lucioni
On Saturday, June 25, the Shelburne Museum opens the exhibition “Luigi Lucioni: Modern Light” in its Pizzagalli Center for Art and Education. Anyone who may have seen the online version in recent months should not think, Been there; done that. The in-person show is both more extensive — with 48 paintings, 11 etchings and one…
A Tiny Star Evokes Big Emotions in the Charming ‘Marcel the Shell With Shoes On’
Back in the days when online video was still a novelty, a series of short stop-motion-animated mockumentaries called “Marcel the Shell With Shoes On” caused a YouTube sensation. Now Marcel stars in a forthcoming theatrical feature directed by Dean Fleischer-Camp, who made the original series. Equally suitable for kids and adults, Marcel the Shell With…
A Vermont Drug Company’s Failure to Maintain Standards Led to Recalls — and Its Demise
A Vermont pharmaceutical company with a history of defying safety regulations closed last month amid mounting pressure from federal inspectors who accused it of selling potentially contaminated drugs to health care facilities nationwide. The closure left dozens of people without jobs and has raised questions about why Vermont regulators, who were aware of problems at…
Free Will Astrology (6/22/22)
CANCER (Jun. 21-Jul. 22): Author John Banville wrote what might serve as a manifesto for some of us Crabs: “To be concealed, protected, guarded: that is all I have ever truly wanted. To burrow down into a place of womby warmth and cower there, hidden from the sky’s indifferent gaze and the harsh air’s damagings.…
First Bite: May Day Does Industry Night Right in Burlington’s ONE
Monday is the trickiest night of the week to dine out. It’s traditionally a day off for restaurants, whose employees start their weekends just as nine-to-five folks get hit with the Sunday scaries. These days, though, even places that were known for their seven-day schedules are sticking to shortened pandemic-era hours as they navigate staffing…
Three Questions for Only Cannoli’s Sarah Howley
As a teen, Sarah Howley cooked her way through all of the baking recipes in her mom’s copy of Joy of Cooking, filling turkey-size disposable roasting tins with cookies and cupcakes for friends. “I was dealing with a lot of normal teenage angst and managed that through baking,” Howley, 31, said with a laugh. Her…
Middlebury Sweets Pairs Candy Cornucopia With Hotel Rooms
“We cater to the kid in you,” reads the sign outside a rather unassuming orange motel at 1395 Route 7 in Middlebury. Once inside, visitors instantly understand. It’s a candy destination worthy of Willy Wonka: Two colorful rooms brim with chocolates, gummies, jelly beans and taffy. With more than 1,500 varieties of candy, Middlebury Sweets…
Vermont’s First Afghan Restaurant, Bamyan Kebab House, Opens in Winooski
Updated June 27. Brothers Awran and Wazirgul Hashimi opened Bamyan Kebab House last Thursday at 65 Winooski Falls Way in the space vacated by Shafer’s Market & Deli. The Hashimis believe that their new business, which is named after their native province and its capital city in Afghanistan, is the first Afghan restaurant in Vermont.…
Japanese Takeout Spot Kaiju Kitchen to Open in St. Albans
Taka and Liz Sato will open their first restaurant, Kaiju Kitchen, for lunch and dinner this summer. The couple has spent May and June giving St. Albans a taste of chef Taka’s talents: maple syrup-sweetened matcha boba and Japanese festival foods, such as yakisoba, barbecued corn on the cob and soboro don. The limited weekend…
After a Two-Year Pandemic Hiatus, BrattRock Returns
Saturday night saw the triumphant return, after a two-year pandemic hiatus, of BrattRock: the Brattleboro Youth Rock Festival. Since 2016, the event has showcased some of the hardest-rocking, biggest-dreaming young musicians from southern Vermont and the surrounding tristate area. The evening also marked BrattRock’s debut at the Stone Church, a venue so cool it’s worth…
The Magnificent 7: Must See, Must Do, June 22-28
A Little Night Music Wednesday 22-Sunday 26, Tuesday 28 & Wednesday 29 Northern Stage takes on the life and work of the late, great Broadway composer Stephen Sondheim with Side by Side by Sondheim, a musical revue playing in the outdoor Courtyard Theater at Barrette Center for the Arts in White River Junction. With songs…
Harpoon Brewery’s Parent Company to Acquire Long Trail Brewing
A big deal is brewing in the New England beer world. Mass. Bay Brewing, the employee-owned parent company of Harpoon Brewery based in Windsor, Vt., and Boston, Mass., has reached an agreement to acquire Long Trail Brewing. Mass. Bay cofounder and CEO Dan Kenary confirmed the transaction, which is set to close for an undisclosed amount…
