MacLean Gander is retired from a long career as a professor and administrator at Landmark College. A former member of the board of directors of Vermont Independent Media, he was a longtime volunteer investigative reporter and columnist for this newspaper. This piece is adapted from his Substack site, Escape Velocity, where he posts essays about society, culture, and politics.
MacLean Gander is retired from a long career as a professor and administrator at Landmark College. A former member of the board of directors of Vermont Independent Media, he was a longtime volunteer investigative reporter and columnist for this newspaper. This piece is adapted from his Substack site, Escape...
MacLean Gander is retired from a long career as a professor and administrator at Landmark College. A former member of the board of directors of Vermont Independent Media, he was a longtime volunteer investigative reporter and columnist for this newspaper. RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL-I was reading a sports article...
Although the ruling felt tragic, it came as no surprise that the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, sending the country back to a time when women died from injuries suffered from wire hangers used to perform illegal abortions. We already had the memo in early May, in the form of a leaked draft of the majority opinion. We knew what was coming. So it's 1972 again, and I'm thinking it's only been since 1967 that a white man could...
I've covered a lot of stories that were difficult to report, but after weeks of covering now-former Town Manager Yoshi Manale's resignation and associated events, I have to say that this has been the most challenging. Part of the reason? No one will talk on the record, except to say nice, innocuous things. That's because everyone who knows what happened between Jan. 1, when Manale began work, and June 1, when his contract ended after a resignation clause in his...
In April, the Selectboard voted 5–0 to end its contract for emergency medical services with Rescue Inc., setting in motion a new model for EMS that would make it the responsibility of the fire department. But the fire has not yet burned out on that controversy, which has divided the local community, and on Friday, June 3, the Selectboard was served with a legal filing formally alleging violation of a provision of the Vermont statutes regarding open meeting laws. At...
Energy, innovation, and deep experience in city governance brought Yoshi Manale to the position of town manager last fall, replacing Peter Elwell, who had served in the role for many years. For a small town with city problems - crime, substance use, homelessness, and poverty - it seemed that Manale would bring new vision and direction to town administration. It did not work out that way. Last week, Manale and the town Selectboard reached a “mutual agreement” that he would...
When I sent a short story by email to The New Yorker about a character who had inherited half a million dollars and decided to put it into gold, I was startled to find that on my various news sites and my Facebook pages the ads became all about ways to buy gold. Then I bought some sweaters and winter clothes, and I began seeing ads from places like Gap, Garnet Hill, and L.L. Bean offering good deals on clothes.