Vermont news

• LISTEN: Local Historian Discusses October 19, 1864 And Vermont Women's Role In The Civil War http://dlvr.it/RGV3XW pic.twitter.com/NMBVWtM8YF

  18-10-2019 22:38 via twitter.com
  LISTEN: Local Historian Discusses October 19, 1864 And Vermont Women's Role In The Civil War http://dlvr.it/RGV3XW pic.twitter.com/NMBVWtM8YF
  
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• Stephen P. Adams

  06-05-2024 23:26 via vtdigger.org
  
  Born April 1, 1941Montpelier, VermontDied May 1, 2024Burlington, VermontDetails of servicesThere will be a celebration of Steve’s life to be held at a later date in Stowe. In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations in Steve’s honor to the Mt. Mansfield Ski Club, the Kelly Brush Foundation, or the Michael J. Fox Foundation.Those wishing to express online condolences may do so at www.guareandsons.com.Stephen P. Adams of Stowe passed away on May 1, 2024 at the University of Vermo
  
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• Michael David Samara

  06-05-2024 22:52 via vtdigger.org
  
  Born March 5, 1948Manchester, New HampshireDied April 26, 2024South Burlington, VermontMichael David Samara passed away unexpectedly from a heart attack at his home on April 26th. Extraordinary staff from the South Burlington Emergency Departments and his beloved wife Lucy were by his side.Michael was born on March 5, 1948 to Josephine and Frederick Samara of Manchester, New Hampshire. He grew up in a close-knit Lebanese and Syrian-American family, with his Arabic-speaking grandparents living in
  
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• After reaching agreement with Middlebury College, student protesters take down encampment

  06-05-2024 22:30 via vtdigger.org
  
  Pro-Palestinian protesters established an encampment with close to 40 tents at Middlebury College’s McCullough Lawn on Sunday, April 28, 2024. Photo by Sophia Keshmiri/VTDigger
  Administrators at Middlebury College struck a deal Sunday with pro-Palestinian student protesters, who agreed in response to dismantle an encampment they established on the campus a week earlier. Like their counterparts at college encampments across the country, the Middlebury protesters had issued a series of
  
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• John Bossange: The eclipse traffic and crowds were a warning for Vermonters

  06-05-2024 20:58 via vtdigger.org
  
  Southbound traffic on I-89 in Williston is bumper to bumper as people leave the scene of a solar eclipse on Monday April 8, 2024. Photo by Glenn Russell/VTDigger
  This commentary is by John Bossange of South Burlington, a retired middle school principal.This is a photo of the interstate during the eclipse. It could well represent the reality of rush hour traffic on Interstates 89 and 91, or on other roads like Routes 2, 302, 100, 15, 7, 14 and 9 if we grow the population by another 155,000 peopl
  
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• Mary Jo Kwiatek: Thank you for voting no on Zoie Saunders

  06-05-2024 20:28 via vtdigger.org
  
  This commentary is by Mary Jo Kwiatek of Bennington, a special educator.
  I would like to thank the senators who listened to their constituents in voting no on Zoie Saunders’ nomination. From what I understand, a vast majority of the emails, calls and conversations at your local stores were from professionals in the field of education, myself included. (I have been an educator for more than 40 years.) Teachers, principals, superintendents and unions were unprecedentedly all in agreeme
  
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• Phil Scott appoints Democrat to fill Emma Mulvaney-Stanak’s House seat

  06-05-2024 18:56 via vtdigger.org
  
  Abbey Duke. Photo courtesy of the governor’s office
  Gov. Phil Scott on Monday appointed Abbey Duke, a Democrat, to fill the legislative seat vacated by former state Rep. Emma Mulvaney-Stanak, who was sworn in as Burlington’s mayor last month. Duke is the founder and CEO of Sugarsnap, a South Burlington-based catering company, and the chair of Burlington’s Parks, Recreation and Waterfront Commission. Vermont’s Democratic and Progressive parties had each sent the gove
  
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• At UVM, a fraught school year ends in protest over destruction in Gaza

  06-05-2024 17:57 via vtdigger.org
  
  A University of Vermont student speaks during a rally at a Palestinian solidarity encampment at UVM in Burlington on Monday, April 29. Photo by Glenn Russell/VTDiggerBURLINGTON — Last Monday, hundreds of University of Vermont students gathered around the steps of Howe Library and demanded that the school do more to help the Palestinian people.Interspersed with chants of “free, free Palestine” and “long live Palestine,” protesters reiterated a list of demands for UV
  
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• Bernie Sanders is running for reelection to the U.S. Senate

  06-05-2024 17:00 via vtdigger.org
  
  U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vermont, speaks at a rally at the Statehouse in Montpelier on Sunday, July 31, 2022. Photo by Glenn Russell/VTDiggerU.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., is running for reelection.The 82-year-old progressive firebrand announced Monday that he will seek a fourth six-year term in the U.S. Senate this November. Sanders, an independent who caucuses with the Democratic majority, was first elected to the post in 2006 and has served in Congress for more than three decades. 
  
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• Longtime Vermont priest to become new bishop of the state’s Roman Catholic Diocese

  06-05-2024 14:53 via vtdigger.org
  
  Monsignor John McDermott is set to become the 11th bishop of the Vermont Roman Catholic Diocese. Provided photoA 35-year veteran priest who has climbed the leadership ladder of Vermont’s Roman Catholic Diocese is set to become its new bishop.Monsignor John McDermott, who has served as second-in-command to several previous leaders, will become head of the state’s largest religious denomination in July, the Vatican said in a statement Monday.McDermott will succeed former Bishop Christ
  
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• Following father and brothers, Bernie Cieplicki Jr. caps family hoops history with hall of fame entry

  06-05-2024 14:01 via vtdigger.org
  
  Bernie Cieplicki Jr., right, shoots over an opponent during a University of Vermont basketball game in the 1990s. Photo providedJacob Miller-Arsenault is a reporter with Community News Service, part of the University of Vermont’s Reporting & Documentary Storytelling program.For Bernie Cieplicki Jr., being named to Vermont’s high school sports hall of fame means more than the wood-framed parchment he’ll receive next month. The honor caps off his time as the youngest so
  
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• Plan for home-based cannabis business in Rutland leads to fight among neighbors

  05-05-2024 16:00 via vtdigger.org
  
  Fred Watkins appears before the Rutland Development Review Board during a public hearing on Wednesday, May 1. Screenshot
  A proposal to establish Rutland City’s first home-based cannabis cultivation site has become so contentious it could create legal precedent in Vermont’s nascent retail cannabis industry.Rutland’s Development Review Board is reassessing a home business permit that the planning and zoning administrator issued to city resident Fred Watkins in February, after mo
  
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• Young Writers Project: ‘Let the light in’

  05-05-2024 15:01 via vtdigger.org
  
  “Capture This Memory,” by Myra Rocke, 15, of West Rutland.Young Writers Project is a creative online community of teen writers, photographers and artists, which has been based in Vermont since 2006. Each week, VTDigger features the writing and art of young Vermonters who publish their work on youngwritersproject.org, a free, interactive website for 12- to 18-year-olds. To find out more, visit youngwritersproject.org, or contact Executive Director Susan Reid at sreid@youngwritersproj
  
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• Then Again: The minister who sided with John Brown and the abolitionist cause

  05-05-2024 14:01 via vtdigger.org
  
  An etching of John Brown’s funeral appeared in the Dec. 24, 1859 edition of the New York Illustrated News. Image from Wikimedia Commons
  Joshua Young had a train to catch. Aboard it was his hero, the violent abolitionist John Brown, or his body at least. Brown had been executed days earlier, on Dec. 2, 1859, by the State of Virginia, and now his casket was headed home for burial in upstate New York.Young shared Brown’s hatred of slavery and both favored scorched-earth tactics to defe
  
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• David Moats: Searching for solutions and avoiding demagogues

  05-05-2024 13:01 via vtdigger.org
  
  Jerome Kaye grew up on the Lower East Side of New York in the 1920s and ‘30s and became radicalized by the economic injustice all around him. He was a member of the Communist Party in his younger years, and though he quit the party in the 1940s, the FBI continued to harass him for years thereafter.His son, John, became one of my best friends when we were college freshmen in 1965. I remember John telling me how his father had become impatient and disapproving of some of the radical movement
  
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• Up, up and away: Stowe skier aims to log 3 million vertical feet

  05-05-2024 12:01 via vtdigger.org
  
  Under Friday’s bluebird skies, Noah Dines takes a brief break from his daily laps on Mount Mansfield. Not too long, though. Sunny days like that are made for racking up the mileage. Photo by Gordon Miller/Stowe ReporterThis story by Tommy Gardner was first published in the Stowe Reporter on May 2.Four months into the year, Stowe skier Noah Dines has already skied the equivalent of 41 trips up Mount Everest. And he still has 1.8 million more feet to go this year before he rests.Dines, a fo
  
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• Steven Gorelick: Vermonters challenge the supermajority

  05-05-2024 12:01 via vtdigger.org
  
  This commentary is by Steven Gorelick of Walden, a member of the Vermont Post-Growth Council.
  More than 100 Vermonters rallied in the statehouse on April 25 to call attention to the failures of the state’s legislative supermajority, which is pushing through bills that are making the state less affordable and leaving the environment less protected. Predictably, some media outlets ignored the rally completely. WCAX covered it, but allowed Kevin Ellis, a lobbyist for energy and land develope
  
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• Final Reading: Senate passes annual capital bill — with new Statehouse furniture in the mix

  04-05-2024 02:31 via vtdigger.org
  
  Legislators gather in the cafeteria on the opening day of the Legislature at the Statehouse in Montpelier on Wednesday, January 3, 2024. Photo by Glenn Russell/VTDigger
  The Senate was talking about construction on Friday. Specifically, the chamber passed their version of this year’s capital bill — legislation that is both large, and contains multitudes.While the crux of H.882 is in funding bonded state infrastructure projects, the bill also includes a handful of policy proposals, so
  
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• Vermont Senate passes Act 250 reform bill after whirlwind debate

  04-05-2024 01:01 via vtdigger.org
  
  Sen. Kesha Ram Hinsdale, D-Chittenden Southeast, speaks as the Senate Finance Committee takes testimony on a proposed wealth tax bill at the Statehouse in Montpelier on Tuesday, January 30, 2024. Photo by Glenn Russell/VTDigger
  This story, by Report for America corps member Carly Berlin, was produced through a partnership between VTDigger and Vermont Public.After a flurry of last-minute deliberations, the Vermont Senate passed a mammoth bill on Friday afternoon that makes sweeping reforms to th
  
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• UVM commencement speaker out as pro-Palestinian protest continues

  04-05-2024 00:42 via vtdigger.org
  
  Protesters attend a rally at a Palestinian solidarity encampment at UVM in Burlington on Monday, April 29, 2024. Photo by Glenn Russell/VTDiggerLinda Thomas-Greenfield, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, will no longer speak at the University of Vermont’s commencement ceremony, the university announced Friday evening.The cancellation appears to be a victory for a nearly week-old encampment of pro-Palestinian protesters on UVM’s Burlington campus. Protesters had demanded that
  
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• Linda Thomas-Greenfield will not speak at commencement, UVM announces

  04-05-2024 00:42 via vtdigger.org
  
  Protesters attend a rally at a Palestinian solidarity encampment at UVM in Burlington on Monday, April 29, 2024. Among the protesters demands is the cancellation of this year’s graduation commencement speaker U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield. Photo by Glenn Russell/VTDiggerLinda Thomas-Greenfield, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, will no longer speak at the University of Vermont’s commencement ceremony, the university announced Friday evening.T
  
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• Through flames and floodwaters, Charlie O’s returns to downtown Montpelier 

  04-05-2024 00:01 via vtdigger.org
  
  Charlie O’s barstools for the first time in six months on Thursday, May 2. Photo by Juan Vega de Soto/VTDiggerMontpelier has its gritty heart and soul back. That was the feeling among the regulars who crowded Charlie O’s on Thursday as it opened its doors to the public for the first time in more than six months. “It feels wonderful. It’s still the dive for nice people,” regular Dave Rapacz said, referencing the bar’s slogan.  Floodwater an
  
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• Vermont, federal officials plan rabies bait drop as wildlife cases rise

  03-05-2024 21:48 via vtdigger.org
  
  A raccoon. Photo via Adobe Stock
  Federal and state agencies will be bait-dropping oral rabies vaccine doses throughout northwest Vermont counties to counter a growing outbreak among wildlife.In a press release this week, officials with the Vermont Department of Health and the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s wildlife services program said they plan to distribute more than 250,000 doses of an oral rabies vaccine in parts of Chittenden, Lamoille, Franklin and Grand Isle counties.It’s
  
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• Dispute over Abenaki identity in Vermont grows more entrenched

  03-05-2024 20:15 via vtdigger.org
  
  Darryl Leroux, associate professor at the University of Ottawa, left, and Gordon Henry, professor emeritus at Michigan State University, speak to a crowd during a panel at the University of Vermont on Thursday, April 25. Photo by Natalie Williams/VTDiggerBURLINGTON — For the third time in as many years, a crowd filed into a conference room at the University of Vermont last Thursday evening for a panel about Indigenous belonging. The focus, once again, was on Vermont’s four state-rec
  
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• Tom Evslin: The magical mythical equalized pupil

  03-05-2024 15:12 via vtdigger.org
  
  This commentary is by Tom Evslin, of Stowe, a retired high-tech entrepreneur. He served as transportation secretary for Gov. Richard Snelling and stimulus czar for Gov. Jim Douglas.
  The Vermont Legislature is playing an expensive shell game — and planning worse. The “equalized pupil” is the shell under which the pea is hidden.There are only two ways to avoid gargantuan property tax increases 
  Raise other taxes and create new taxes to support education. But there are many
  
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• Middlebury College president Laurie Patton to depart for American Academy of Arts & Sciences

  03-05-2024 14:03 via vtdigger.org
  
  Middlebury President Laurie Patton. Photo courtesy of Middlebury College
  This story by Katie Futterman, Maggie Reynolds and Ryan Mcelroy was first published by the Middlebury Campus on May 2, 2024. After almost a decade at the helm of Middlebury College, president Laurie Patton has announced her intention to leave her post in January 2025. As the 17th president and first woman to hold the position, Patton leaves a legacy of leadership and expansion at an institution that has faced unpreced
  
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• Don Keelan: Vermont institutions are disappearing

  03-05-2024 12:01 via vtdigger.org
  
  This commentary is by Don Keelan of Arlington, a retired certified public accountant.
  There seems to be a rash of closings of Vermont’s longtime institutions. The latest is in Plainfield, where it was announced that the nearly 90-year-old Goddard College will close at the end of the semester. Other institutions, such as churches, stores, fire/rescue facilities, schools and companies, are closing, too. Organizations are operating at or close to the margin of being unable to exist &mda
  
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• Michael Merwin Chater

  03-05-2024 04:21 via vtdigger.org
  
  Born Feb. 11, 1948Bronxville, New York
  Died April 21, 2024Hanover, New HampshireMichael Merwin Chater, 76, of Terrace Street in Montpelier passed away suddenly at Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center on 4/21/24.Mike was born on February 11, 1948 to William Guy and Janet M. (Conklin) Chater in Bronxville, NY. He attended public schools in Bronxville through middle school and attended Northfield Mt. Hermon, in Gill, MA. He received his Bachelor’s degree at Union College, Schenectady, NY in 196
  
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• Final Reading: Amid avian flu outbreak in herds elsewhere, Vermont tries to protect its dairy farms 

  03-05-2024 01:32 via vtdigger.org
  
  Dairy cows feed at Sprague Farm in Brookfield on Wednesday, September 7, 2022. File photo by Glenn Russell/VTDigger
  There have been no positive test results for avian flu in Vermont cows, State Veterinarian Kristin Haas assured members of the House Agriculture committee Thursday morning.The good news seemed slightly tempered by the admission, immediately following, that the state had not actually tested for it in any animals yet. H5N1, or highly pathogenic avian influenza, is a virus deadl
  
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• From dirt patch to a gateway garden, a Randolph volunteer cultivates community 

  03-05-2024 01:08 via vtdigger.org
  
  For 13 years, resident Rosalind Burgess has been volunteering her time  to beautify a once vacant, neglected lot in Randolph. On April 23, 2024 she pointed out some of the features and spring buds at the two-acre plot that the town has renamed Rosalind Park in her honor. Photo by Auditi Guha/VTDigger
  RANDOLPH — On a sunny afternoon in late April, a woman with a shock of white curls was hunched over a corner of a park, digging intently in the dirt.Local resident Rosalind Burgess, 75,
  
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