Vermont news

• We're talking fall gardening with @charlienardozzi on Tuesday's show. Let us know what questions you have:… twitter.com/i/web/status/9…

  04-09-2017 22:33 via twitter.com
  We're talking fall gardening with @charlienardozzi on Tuesday's show. Let us know what questions you have:… twitter.com/i/web/status/9…
  
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• Governor proclaims September ‘School Safety Month’

  04-09-2017 20:27 via vtdigger.org
  Gov. Phil Scott signs a proclamation declaring School Safety Month. Photo by Cyrus Ready-Campbell/VTDiggerGov. Phil Scott signed a proclamation Friday declaring September to be School Safety Month in Vermont.
  Scott and state education and safety officials gathered at the Statehouse to praise the work done behind the scenes to keep schools and children safe and to commit to a safe year ahead.
  Rob Evans, the school safety liaison for the Agency of Education, said educators worked over the summer t
  
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• Rutland development group, Castleton University extend pact

  04-09-2017 17:44 via vtdigger.org
  Castleton University President David Wolk. Courtesy photoRUTLAND — Castleton University and an organization dedicated to promoting the economy of Rutland County have extended an agreement to work together to boost business in the region.
  The university and the Rutland Economic Development Corp. formed the partnership about 18 months ago and have recently announced they are extending it three more years.
  Lyle Jepson, REDC executive director and dean of entrepreneurial studies at the univers
  
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• Data dig: How state clawbacks for health care will hit each district

  04-09-2017 16:55 via vtdigger.org
  The state will recapture nearly $13 million in education fund money from school districts over the next two fiscal years.The recaptures are part of a deal that Gov. Phil Scott reached with House Speaker Mitzi Johnson and Senate President Pro Tempore Tim Ashe in late June during a special legislative session focused entirely on teacher and support staff health insurance contracts.Almost every school district in the state will have money recaptured. In fiscal year 2018, each affected district will
  
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• Vermont school improvement plan gets federal approval

  04-09-2017 16:31 via vtdigger.org
  Vermont Education Secretary Rebecca Holcombe. File photo by Erin Mansfield/VTDiggerAfter some back and forth with the Agency of Education, the U.S. Department of Education approved Vermont’s plan to comply with the federal law that gives states financial support for low-income schools.The state had been in a long-standing feud with the federal government over punishments tied to the same funds under the earlier No Child Left Behind law, but now state officials are pleased their proposal, w
  
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• VIDEO: The residents of ‘Teflon Town’

  04-09-2017 15:05 via vtdigger.org
  “I never really thought it would bother you,” David Barber said about dipping his arms in Teflon. Barber worked for the Chemical Fabrics Corp., or ChemFab, for over 20 years. He and his colleagues filled trays with liquid Teflon and operated machinery that dunked panels of fiberglass fabric into the chemical bath. Drying towers heated the material, baking the coating onto the finished product.
  State environmental officials would later understand that the exhaust from this process co
  
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• State sending 20,000 letters to collect alternative sales tax

  04-09-2017 03:30 via vtdigger.org
  Tax Commissioner Kaj Samsom. File photo by Erin Mansfield/VTDiggerThe Tax Department is sending close to 20,000 letters to Vermonters telling them they may owe sales tax for online and other purchases. The letters say residents have until Oct. 31 to pay without interest or penalties.
  When a seller doesn’t charge Vermont’s 6 percent sales tax, buyers are responsible for paying what’s known as use tax at the same rate. The tax applies to online, phone or mail-order purchases as w
  
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• PHOTO GALLERY: A day at the Champlain Valley Fair

  04-09-2017 03:20 via vtdigger.org
  Hanna Smith pets Promethiul the ram during a sheep handling demonstration. Photo by Bob LoCiceroNora Colchester holds prize-winning Langshar rooster George. He weighs 12 pounds. Photo by Bob LoCiceroBecky Bushey, of Brookfield, rides Stratton the ox out to take part in the daily parade. Photo by Bob LoCiceroA woman walks with her daughter on the pony ride. Photo by Bob LoCiceroSeth Yacovone performs. Photo by Bob LoCiceroA demolition derby entry at the Champlain Valley Fair. Photo by Bob LoCicer
  
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• Two UVM Health Network hospitals struggle financially

  04-09-2017 02:12 via vtdigger.org
  UVM President Tom Sullivan, left, and UVM Health Network CEO John Brumsted reveal the new branding for the network in 2014. File photo by Morgan True/VTDiggerTwo of the University of Vermont Health Network’s hospitals in upstate New York have posted millions of dollars of losses in the past few years, according to financial information provided by the network.
  Champlain Valley Physicians Hospital and Alice Hyde Medical Center together account for about one-third of the beds that make up th
  
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• After unmarked graves discovered, Warren set to exhume

  04-09-2017 01:18 via vtdigger.org
  Civil War-era tombstones in the Warren cemetery. Photo by Elizabeth Hewitt/VTDiggerWARREN — For the second time this year, Sidney Wing is making the three-day journey east to bury his mother.In June, Wing had driven most of the way from his home in Oklahoma for his mother’s intermentin Vermont when he got a call from the funeral director with some unexpected news: A Warren cemetery official had just informed him there were no vacant spots left in the family plot.The problem, accordin
  
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• David Deen: The value of clean water in dollars

  04-09-2017 01:05 via vtdigger.org
  Editor’s note: This commentary is by David Deen, who is an honorary trustee and former river steward of the Connecticut River Conservancy, formerly the Connecticut River Watershed Council. He is a Democratic state representative from Westminster and the chair of the House Natural Resources, Fish and Wildlife Committee.
  Measuring the economic impact of clean water is a newly evolving science. Here are some findings.
  Healthy water is worth big dollars
  We place a genuine personal value on cle
  
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• Barrie Dunsmore: Is the end in sight?

  04-09-2017 01:00 via vtdigger.org
  Editor’s note: This commentary by retired ABC News diplomatic correspondent Barrie Dunsmore first appeared in the Barre-Montpelier Times Argus and Rutland Herald Sunday edition. All his columns can be found on his website, www.barriedunsmore.com.
  How will it end? When will it end?
  As I am the geezer with the newspaper column, those are the questions I am constantly asked these days. (If I knew the precise answers I could start a new career in Las Vegas.) Of course neither I nor anyone else
  
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• John R. Killacky: Working with my pony

  04-09-2017 00:55 via vtdigger.org
  Editor’s note: This commentary is by John R. Killacky, executive director of the Flynn Center for the Performing Arts in Burlington. It first aired on Vermont Public Radio.
  I unhitch my Shetland and put her outside in a corral to cool down. As she grazes, I see in her the ancestral Mongolian ponies: compact muscularity, shaggy pelt, round belly, strong jaw, and deep-set eyes — plus her scrappy resiliency.
  For 6,000 years, horses adapted as a species. Once domesticated, they were esse
  
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• Smith: Gruber deal lets all involved avoid accountability

  04-09-2017 00:47 via vtdigger.org
  MIT economics professor Jonathan Gruber. Courtesy photo(Mike Smith is a regular columnist for VTDigger. He hosts the radio program “Open Mike with Mike Smith” on WDEV 550 AM and 96.1, 96.5, 98.3 and 101.9 FM and is a political analyst for WCAX-TV and WVMT radio. He was the secretary of administration and secretary of human services under former Gov. Jim Douglas.)
  It may have gone largely unnoticed, but buried in a news cycle that was dominated by the events in Charlottesville, Virgin
  
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