Gazing down Church Street, Brian Sisco takes a drag off a Marlboro and ponders a city proposal that would snuff out his regular smoke breaks.

“How far can the government go?” asks Sisco, a 25-year-old Burlington resident who works at his father’s store, Designers’ Circle Jewelers. “I realize children and families come here, but I’m not blowing smoke in babies’ faces.”... Read more

Mona and Leo Boutin used to raise beef cattle on their picturesque Williston farm. The cows would graze in the grassy field that sweeps up to the forest line, and drink from the babbling brook that cuts through the couple’s land.

That was before the Boutins worried about lead contaminating their groundwater. Water experts have since collected samples from the creek, and the couple has stopped drinking the well water.... Read more

Is it a coincidence that Winooski public schools have been dragged into two political controversies within months of each other? Some say both episodes were instigated by school board member Doug Isham, a news junkie who describes himself as “leaning conservative.”... Read more

Every morning, Tim Twinam fires up the computers in the corner of his log cabin in Williston and searches for lost souls.

From a desktop in his Vermont country home, the bushy-haired Englishman scans his website for messages from religious captives — members of a reclusive and vindictive sect who are desperate to escape, and ex-members scarred from their experiences inside.... Read more

Congolese refugees and college activists protested outside Sen. Patrick Leahy’s Burlington office last Friday to call attention to a variation on the Blood Diamond dynamic. Mining of the mineral coltan — used in computers, cellphones and game consoles — is fueling a conflict in Congo that has killed more than 5 million people in the last decade. Demonstrators marched down Main and Church streets, pushing carts loaded with computer parts smeared in fake blood.... Read more

Every Sunday, the Burlington Free Press peels back the curtain on the stories it’s working on for future issues of “Green Mountain,” the paper’s weekly environmental news section.... Read more

Vermont entrepreneurs looking for money to start a business have a new source of cash thanks to a state investment fund, but competition is going to be fierce.

The Vermont Entrepreneur’s Seed Capital Fund — a revolving investment fund created by the legislature to help new, high-tech companies get off the ground — is the state’s latest economic development gambit.... Read more

Unless you’re a medical researcher, science geek or local business buff, chances are you’ve never heard of BioTek Solutions, a Winooski-based company that makes “multi-mode microplate readers” and “microplate pipetting systems.” But you probably have heard of cancer, Alzheimer’s disease and bird flu — diseases for which scientists are finding lifesaving cures with the help of BioTek brand equipment made right here in Vermont.... Read more

When Anthony Korda invested $500,000 into a massive expansion of Jay Peak Resort, he didn’t do it for the fresh powder. He did it for the Florida sunshine.

Korda, a 50-year-old lawyer from London, England, had wanted to live fulltime in the Sunshine State ever since visiting the U.S. for a family vacation years ago. He considered seeking out a law firm to sponsor him for a work visa but was deterred by what he knew would be a cumbersome, years-long process.... Read more

When police arrived at the crash scene, two cars were in flames, a 4-year-old boy lay paralyzed, and a mother stood accused of crippling her son because she drove drunk.

A mother with two kids in the back of her 2002 Saab 95 had rear-ended a Volkswagen Golf along rural Route 22A in the town of Orwell, shortly after sunset on September 18. The impact sent both cars careening over the center line and into a roadside ditch. Upon impact, the cars caught fire.... Read more