Anne Galloway Responds

I’m writing to respond to several assertions made in last week’s Media Issue [“Disunion at Digger: A Spat Over the Possible Use of Artificial Intelligence Has Sown Discord in Vermont’s Largest Newsroom,” February 25].

The article opens with a vilification of my tenure as executive director of VTDigger. Sadly, that narrative perpetuates the reality that — even in liberal Vermont — strong female leaders in journalism are held to a different standard than men.

As for the company’s finances, VTDigger was not in a “hole” when I left in 2022. We were obliged to spend down a $900,000 grant award that year, and, as a result, the cash reserve, which peaked at $3.4 million at the end of 2021, dropped to $2.4 million, as expected, at the end of 2022.

The reporter states the pay was “paltry” when, in fact, at the time the union formed in 2020, VTDigger’s pay and benefits were on par or above compensation rates offered at other Vermont news outlets.

I didn’t “decline to comment.” There was no option. Like other VTDigger leaders cited in the story, I made it clear I was unable to talk about the union for fear of jeopardizing ongoing negotiations.

I’m proud of what the team at VTDigger has accomplished, and I wish the union and management all the best success.

Missed One!

[Re “All Over the Map,” February 25]: Vermont Sports magazine has returned from a hiatus. The new owners are based in upstate New York and also own Upstate Sports, but the magazine’s content is still all Vermont.

How Much Does He Make?

The story [“Self Reporting: As Local News Outlets Shrink or Disappear, Two Veteran Print Journalists Have Found Success Going Solo,” February 25], about the news aggregator Rob Gurwitt, might have left readers with the mistaken impression that the Upper Valley does not have a news source beyond Gurwitt’s newsletter. Founded in 1952, the Valley News has developed into the primary news organization for the Upper Valley, a term the newspaper coined.

As a longtime reporter and editor here, I’m dismayed and disappointed by the credulousness of your story about Gurwitt’s pivot to digital journalism. He is almost entirely reliant on the work of news reporters paid by other organizations to generate the “15 or so write-ups per day” that he sends out. He rewrites the work of people who venture away from their living room woodstoves and, apparently, earns a living from it. Bravo.

It would have been enlightening for Seven Days readers to learn how much Gurwitt’s project earns and where it derives its income beyond the vague “ad revenue and donations.” A seeming allergy to asking questions about money has become a well-known feature of Seven Days. Peter Freyne is spinning in his grave.

Mother Load

After reading Margot Harrison’s review of If I Had Legs I’d Kick You [February 11], I felt moved to thank her for how clearly she captured what was, for me, the experience of watching the film — and probably the experience of many moms. Her insight into how the film portrays the psychological reality of mothering within a patriarchal, nuclear-family culture was validating. As a casual filmgoer, I found that her review clarified the discomfort for me with the reminders that filmmaker Mary Bronstein incorporated of the Eraserhead parenting anxiety with the frantic energy of Uncut Gems, sprinkled with a Lynchian cringe.

I don’t usually look up Seven Days writers after reading their work, but this time I researched Harrison’s reviews and interviews and really enjoyed discovering how prolific she is. It’s a good reminder of how lucky we are in Vermont to have such literary standouts in the community.

Vermont Kids Come Back

Cathy Resmer’s highlight of her children’s postgraduation plans to move away from Vermont leaves out an important trend I’ve seen in myself and other native Vermonters [From the Deputy Publisher: “Introducing ‘Gen Zero,’” February 18]. I’m referring to the realization in your thirties that the close-knit nature of Vermont communities is as rare as serving tea with maple syrup (the real kind!) once you leave the 802. I hope we’ll hear about it later in this series, because it is a powerful force drawing natives and non-natives to move here.

Lamenting the loss of recent grads to more dense and dynamic destinations like cities in New York or Ireland may prove needless when those same grads return 10-plus years later with more life and career experience and a renewed sense of the unique place Vermont has in the wider world. All that being said: We definitely need more housing built, or coming back won’t be an option for future graduates.

Drescher a Proxy for Trump

Vermont’s democracy is endangered [“Drescher Confirmed for Supreme Court in Rare Tie-Breaker Vote,” February 3, online]. With Michael Drescher’s appointment to the Supreme Court, Vermont’s executive leadership signaled that they consider doing President Donald Trump’s bidding to be “doing one’s job.” Rather than adhere to his oath to the U.S. Constitution, Drescher prosecuted Mohsen Mahdawi for exercising his First Amendment rights of free speech and assembly. Gov. Phil Scott appointed Drescher to the highest position in our courts, and Lt. Gov. John Rodgers cast the tie-breaking vote to confirm.

Through these actions, this administration has rubber-stamped allegiance to Trump and governance by decree. In fact, to the extent Drescher did Trump’s bidding as opposed to acting by his oath, he was distinctly not doing his job in prosecuting Mahdawi for exercising his rights. Yes, “just doing the job” is a phrase many federal agents are hiding behind these days, but it’s a low bar for the Supreme Court.

Other disturbing examples: Rodgers suing his hometown for a piece of road based not on property lines but on his “personal experience”; Rodgers pushing legislation to lower taxes on his weed farm business while doubling taxes on competitors; Scott forcing an education secretary on the state after clear rejection by the legislature. And last year, Scott illegally redefined “disability,” kicking hundreds of Vermonters out of emergency shelters by executive order.

This administration has signaled its decisive pivot toward rule by fiat, eschewing collaboration and the democratic process. Especially now, Vermont needs leaders with integrity and vision for moving forward as a state, not just to benefit those in power.

‘Where Is the Outrage?’

Greater Burlington should be outraged that the high school administration decided to get rid of an outstanding athlete-coach-administrator because they wanted to pay a man more money and satisfy male administrators that a woman could not be an effective coach and leader [“Former Burlington Athletic Director Settles Equal Pay Suit for $475,000,” January 28].

Now that the courts have educated the administration, where is the outrage in the Burlington community?

Jeanne Hulsen is a great leader and coach. Many students were deprived of her skills due to incompetent leadership in the school system. Hopefully our new mayor will ensure this travesty does not occur again.

Quartz Compromise

The 89-acre industrial park proposal right next to the airport has been considered and determined to be a benefit to the citizens and economy of the area and Vermont [“Quarry Dustup: Morristown Residents Worry That a Proposed Project to Mine Quartz Could Spread Dangerous Silica Dust,” February 4].

The owners of the 436 acres should increase the park acreage by 15 and exclude the quartz mound from being quarried. The industrial park in itself would cause a great change to all the neighbors’ lives. Destroying lives through risk of lung disease is not a fair trade-off. The state has to protect its citizens. There is money to be made, but not at the expense of lives or the pursuit of happiness. Come up with a compromise. Leave the quartz and add 15 acres from your remaining 300-plus. It is better to start off being good neighbors than to fight for decades.

That’s just my no-dog-in-this-fight opinion.

Weighing In on Wetlands

I have followed the articles and opinions in Seven Days about the governor’s proposal to change the boundary for building near wetlands from 50 feet to 25 feet [“All Wet? Gov. Phil Scott Wants to Relax Wetlands Regs to Spur Housing Construction. Critics Say the Change Would Endanger the Environment — and Homes,” January 28; Feedback: “A Contractor’s View” and “Question Builders,” February 11; Feedback: “Confusing Article,” February 25].

The state wetland map needs to be updated before any action is considered. The face value of the Scott proposal seems simple and logical; however, after reading letters to the editor from Patrick Larsen and Bruce S. Post in Seven Days, I did some thinking and a small bit of research. Debated are: very important housing expansion versus very important wetland functions.

Thinking about wetland functions, and without any expertise in this field, I realized the importance to mammals and birds, and thus to all of us. Also, after Vermont flooding, the importance of flood protection to homes and offices.

I called a wetland engineer friend, employed for years in Connecticut as a point person for wetland protection. He often negotiated with builders about remediations or how to infringe at one point but broaden a different spot to accommodate building. The first issue he brought up was runoff from development causing wetland pollution, then flood control being such an important function.

That got me thinking about the different sizes of wetlands and their varied functions in different locations. This is a multifaceted issue. It is not clear-cut. Thus, I think the legislature must get actively involved. Environmental protections and housing shortages are both complicated and crucial to address. I hope they bring in environmental engineers as well as builders.

Misleading Graphs

I appreciated reading Alison Novak’s reporting on declining school enrollments and their implications for Vermont schools and communities [“Empty Desks,” February 18]. Unfortunately, the graphs accompanying the article are misleading. Novak reports on the 25 percent decrease in statewide K-12 enrollment over the past 20 years and the 16 percent decrease in Burlington enrollment in the same time frame. Yet the disproportionate scales on the published graphs make it appear as if enrollment has decreased at a much greater rate in Burlington than it has statewide.

Statistics and graphs like these play an important role in guiding voters and policy makers in making decisions about our schools. While social media is sadly rife with examples of people distorting data to suit their political motives, I hope we can look to a reputable news source like Seven Days to produce as honest a representation of data as possible!

Our Guard

I am in total agreement with what my senators, Bernie Sanders and Peter Welch, said in [“The Vermont Guard Is Redeploying — Likely to the Middle East,” February 7, online], and I definitely don’t want to be supporting President Donald Trump’s military actions around the world, either. What I don’t understand is how we can support Trump’s use of our own Vermont National Guard to carry out actions that we disagree with. Wouldn’t it be great if the National Guard would just refuse to go? It may not be following the rules, but I don’t see a lot of people following the rules or the Constitution at this time.

[Re “The Vermont Guard Is Redeploying — Likely to the Middle East,” February 7, online]: I just learned about Vermont’s “Defend the Guard” Act, which is H.355. Given the recent deployments of the Vermont National Guard to support wars in other countries, I think this initiative needs to get a hearing and should be passed.

As a retired Air Force colonel with 30 years of service on active duty, I’m concerned in general about how the military is being used — and, specifically, how Vermont’s National Guard is being misused — to support conflicts and wars that have not been discussed, much less voted upon, at a Congressional level. This is leading to the Vermont Guard being deployed and sent into combat at the whims of the president.

State Guard units emerged out of state militias that were established in order to provide a check on federal actions. Over the years, state Guard units have provided essential support for state needs, mostly humanitarian in nature. We must preserve this function as well as state control over state military resources.

It was disturbing to read that Vermont’s Air National Guard, after two months in Puerto Rico, may be headed to a new mission involving Iran [“The Vermont Guard Is Redeploying — Likely to the Middle East,” February 7]. Equally troubling was your depiction of President Donald Trump’s Operation Southern Spear, in which the Guard participated during its mid-December deployment. Describing as a “capture” what many around the world — including U.S. legal experts — consider to have been the kidnapping of a sitting, elected president and a violation of international law risks advancing a partisan, Trump narrative. Many see this as an act of international terrorism, where scores of civilians were killed by U.S. pilots, maybe even by Vermont Air Guard.

The article also refers to Trump’s “campaign to pressure Iran” as a possible reason for redeployment. Yet many observers warn that the only acceptable endgame for Trump and his allies in Israel is regime change, which would have been a more accurate way to describe the events unfolding. Characterizing the aim of redeployment as “pressure” minimizes the gravity of what is being planned for the Vermont Air Guard.

At a minimum, terms such as “capture” and “pressure” should appear in quotation marks or acknowledge to be contested (i.e., “Some view the move as an attempt to pressure Iran, but others see it as Trump and Netanyahu’s next step toward war”). Failure to note these things risks misleading readers and appears as a play-it-safe editorial line. You can do better, if you still consider yourselves to be “alternative press.”

Correction

Last week’s story headlined “Self Reporting” misidentified one of the story subjects Rob Gurwitt wrote about in the past. The “renegade traffic engineer” he profiled was based in Florida.

This article appears in March 4-11 • 2026.

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