In our democracy, the importance of a free press is this: An informed citizen makes a good decision.

It’s Sunshine Week, a national celebration of the citizens’ right to know about government.

The State Board of Education’s order that the Stowe and Elmore-Morristown school districts merge raises a key moral question:

“Love means never having to say you’re sorry” was the catchphrase from the syrupy 1970 movie “Love Story.” It struck a chord with the public, and the American Film Institute puts it at No. 13 on the top 100 list of all-time movie quotes.

Newsrooms around America have been rattled by last week’s murders of five people at the Capital Gazette in Annapolis, Md.

Johnson State College held its final commencement on Saturday. On July 1, it merges with Lyndon State College to form Northern Vermont University.

Did young Phil Scott ever get to school on time? At the Thunder Road stock-car track, does Scott lurk in the back of the field and then, right at the end, floor it? Is he the guy who’s shopping for his wife’s present on Christmas Eve?

Gov. Deane Davis established Vermont’s first Green Up Day in 1970, and it has been held on the first Saturday in May ever since. Here are excerpts from Davis’ recollections of how Green Up Day came into existence:

We’ve been critical of Gov. Phil Scott’s performance during this legislative session, but he was magnificent last week as he explained why he signed three gun bills into law.

Baseball season isn’t even two weeks old, and already some fans are whining about injuries, bad luck and dumb managers who rely more on statistics than their feel for the game, or vice versa.

Changing horses in midstream is risky business, but that’s what’s happening at the Vermont Agency of Education.

Police shootings have been in the national spotlight for years, but has any police officer ever been involved in three fatal shootings in six months?

A pox on the politicians who have allowed American schools to become charnel houses, on the lobbyists who have turned the Second Amendment into a perverted religion, on the leaders who offer “thoughts and prayers” and do absolutely nothing to prevent the next school shooting.

Vermont needs to fish or cut bait on police coverage. The days are long gone when the state’s biggest menace was speeding tourists.