Mom-and-pop tech company? Sounds like an oxymoron. But in Vermont, independently owned tech-related enterprises dot the landscape from Windsor to Middlebury, White River to Milton. The state’s bio-scientists, green engineers and software developers don’t always call attention to themselves, but the companies they own and work for provide some of the most interesting, and best paid, jobs in the state.... Read more

We started Seven Days in 1995 with 28 pages and six employees. A lot of things have changed over these 14 years: Our page count multiplied, and so did our staff. We added a lively website and created auxiliary products: 7 Nights, a dining and nightlife guide, and What’s Good, our college students’ guide to Burlington. We expanded our circulation from 12,000 to 34,000. We also redesigned the paper a couple of times.... Read more

Fourteen years ago, Pamela Polston and Paula Routly founded Seven Days with a staff of six. And now look at us! Stop by our annual open house on Friday, September 11, from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. to help us celebrate our anniversary and the South End Art Hop. We’ll be serving refreshments and showing artwork from students at the Center for Cartoon Studies. Onward to 15.

P.S. Ken’s car seat acquired an occupant this weekend: Baby Manya was born Sunday morning.... Read more

Massive corporate layoffs, imploding banks, global investors desperately searching for the stock market’s bottom — lately, nearly all the economic news has been about as apocalyptic as the Book of Revelation. Even in Vermont, where local banks and credit unions are actually doing OK, most of the financial news that gets reported is the depressing kind.... Read more