Vermont news

• Legislators drafting special education reform plans

  19-02-2018 23:22 via vtdigger.org
  Gloria Durkee, a special education assistant, looks over the work of fourth-grader Grady Putnam, 10, at Westshire Elementary School in West Fairlee. Photo by Charles Hatcher/Valley News
  The House Education Committee is drafting a bill that moves on recommendations from two studies to fundamentally change the way the state funds special education.Funding would shift to a census-based grant from the current reimbursement system, meaning that districts would receive funding based on the total size
  
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• Vermont Gas requests 3.8 rate drop in fiscal 2019

  19-02-2018 23:10 via vtdigger.org
  Vermont Gas headquarters in South Burlington. VTD File Photo/Josh Larkin
  The state’s natural-gas utility has asked state regulators to approve a rate reduction that would see residential customers pay 2.7 percent less starting in the next fiscal year.Combined with cuts for commercial and industrial customers, the total average rate reduction will be 3.8 percent if the proposal submitted by the company on Feb. 15 is approved by the Public Utility Commission.
  Vermont Gas, which is owned by C
  
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• Margolis: Democrats hard-pressed to find officeholder to challenge Scott

  19-02-2018 21:04 via vtdigger.org
  Gov. Phil Scott appears to be in a strong position heading into his re-election campaign. Photo by Jim Therrien/VTDigger
  Editor’s note: Jon Margolis is VTDigger’s political columnist.
  The conventional wisdom around the Statehouse these days is that Republican Gov. Phil Scott is in control and the Democratic leaders of the Legislature are floundering.Get all of VTDigger's political news.You'll never miss a political story with our weekly headlines in your inbox.Daily
  Sundays only (Wee
  
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• Democrats hard-pressed to find officeholder to challenge Scott

  19-02-2018 21:04 via vtdigger.org
  Gov. Phil Scott appears to be in a strong position heading into his re-election campaign. Photo by Jim Therrien/VTDigger
  The conventional wisdom around the Statehouse these days is that Republican Gov. Phil Scott is in control and the Democratic leaders of the Legislature are floundering.
  Or as commonly expressed in the Capitol corridors, “Phil is eating their lunch.Get all of VTDigger's political news.You'll never miss a political story with our weekly headlines in your inbox.Daily
  Sunday
  
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• Smart Phones, Tractors And Medical Devices: Who Has The 'Right To Repair'? dlvr.it/QH0Ly1 https://t.co/38wNm3Ss6v

  19-02-2018 19:55 via twitter.com
  
  Smart Phones, Tractors And Medical Devices: Who Has The 'Right To Repair'? dlvr.it/QH0Ly1 https://t.co/38wNm3Ss6v
  
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• LISTEN: How Schools Identify Students In Crisis, Heal From Trauma dlvr.it/QH0Jls https://t.co/EBI2jrxfJM

  19-02-2018 19:48 via twitter.com
  
  LISTEN: How Schools Identify Students In Crisis, Heal From Trauma dlvr.it/QH0Jls https://t.co/EBI2jrxfJM
  
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• LISTEN: 'Who's A Good Boy?!': Vermont Dog Shows Well At Westminster dlvr.it/QGzyxq https://t.co/GVQolIWagH

  19-02-2018 18:47 via twitter.com
  
  LISTEN: 'Who's A Good Boy?!': Vermont Dog Shows Well At Westminster dlvr.it/QGzyxq https://t.co/GVQolIWagH
  
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• 'Who's A Good Boy?!': Vermont Dog Shows Well At Westminster dlvr.it/QGzw8V https://t.co/o3afwCrCuM

  19-02-2018 18:36 via twitter.com
  
  'Who's A Good Boy?!': Vermont Dog Shows Well At Westminster dlvr.it/QGzw8V https://t.co/o3afwCrCuM
  
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• How Schools Identify Students In Crisis, Heal From Trauma dlvr.it/QGzKhB https://t.co/mjp8p60hXA

  19-02-2018 16:57 via twitter.com
  
  How Schools Identify Students In Crisis, Heal From Trauma dlvr.it/QGzKhB https://t.co/mjp8p60hXA
  
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• Northern Vermont University to expand distance learning with USDA Grant

  19-02-2018 15:15 via vtdigger.org
  News Release — Northern Vermont UniversityFebruary 16, 2018
  Contact:Sylvia [email protected]
  Johnson – A new USDA grant of approximately $389,000 will enable the new Northern Vermont University (the official name of Johnson State College and Lyndon State College as of July 1, 2018) to develop a distance-learning network that will increase live course offerings and delivery methods for students throughout Vermont and the country.
  With both mobile a
  
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• Second annual Persist 5K Race on Mother’s Day open for early registration

  19-02-2018 15:10 via vtdigger.org
  News Release — Persist 5KFebruary 13, 2018
  Contact:Jean [email protected] 
  Andrea [email protected] #301
  Charlotte – Pre-registration is now open for the 2018 Persist5K run/walk/march, to be held on Mother’s Day, Sunday, May 13th 2018, at Burlington’s Waterfront. All people who support the rights and gifts that women bring to this world are welcome to join in the celebration.
  The first Persist5K run/walk/march, hel
  
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• Burlington expands paving program to include repaving of North Avenue, Pine Street, and other major arterials

  19-02-2018 15:05 via vtdigger.org
  News Release — Burlington Department of Public WorksFebruary 15, 2018
  Contact:Robert Goulding, Public Information ManagerBurlington Department of Public Works802-540-0846
  Burlington – The Department of Public Works (DPW) is expanding its 2018 paving list to repair road damage to North Avenue, Pine Street, Colchester Avenue and other severely weather-degraded major roadways. DPW has issued an addendum to its paving contract to address segments of impacted arteries and will begin the w
  
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• WDEV announces arrival of Dave Gram as talk show host

  19-02-2018 15:00 via vtdigger.org
  News Release — Radio VermontFebruary 15, 2018
  Contact:Steve CormierRadio Vermont802.244.7321
  Waterbury – WDEV General Manager and future owner, Steve Cormier, is thrilled to announce the addition of veteran journalist Dave Gram to the WDEV staff as the new host of what has previously been Open Mike with Mike Smith weekday mornings from 9am-11am on frequencies 96.1, 96.5, 98.3 and 101.9 FM and 550 AM. “His expertise and knowledge of Vermont made him our first choice to replace M
  
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• There’s Reason for Hope on Guns

  19-02-2018 14:28
  Don’t despair. It prevents change.
  
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• Olympics: Skiers’ silver linings; Kim honors Clark

  19-02-2018 14:19 via vtdigger.org
  U.S. cross-country skiers Jessie Diggins (left) and Sophie Caldwell. Photo by Reese Brown/U.S. Ski & Snowboard
  Welcome to The Home Team, VTDigger’s daily Olympic dispatch. Every morning, we’ll feature the highlights of Vermonters competing in the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea. Check out our full list of Vermont athletes on Team USA, and meet author Kevin O’Connor in our Olympic preview podcast.
  Skiers relay for best-ever result
  The U.S. women’s
  
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• Vermont ski jump conquers Olympic challenges

  19-02-2018 10:46 via vtdigger.org
  Tara Geraghty-Moats, a 24-year-old West Fairlee native, was one of more than 40 athletes at this weekend’s Harris Hill Ski Jump in Brattleboro. Photo by Kevin O’Connor/VTDiggerBRATTLEBORO — Vermonter Tara Geraghty-Moats, fracturing her elbow last fall, just missed making the 2018 U.S. Olympic ski jumping team. But that didn’t stop the 24-year-old from doing the next best thing: Performing before a home-state crowd of thousands at this weekend’s annual Harris Hill to
  
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• Father and son die in I-89 tractor trailer crash

  19-02-2018 10:37 via vtdigger.org
  A tractor trailer accident Sunday on I-89 near the Middlesex exit killed a father and son.Peter Belanger, 46, of Sutton, was driving a 2018 Freightliner tractor trailer unit carrying several thousand gallons of fuel in the southbound lane when his vehicle veered across the median, crossed the northbound lane, rolled and slid on the passenger side of the vehicle into a steep embankment, police said.
  The cab sustained “massive” damage, according to the Vermont State Police, who say &ld
  
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• Protest planned after immigration arrest of dairy worker

  19-02-2018 03:18 via vtdigger.org
  Migrant Justice is planning a protest this week against the detention of a farmworker by immigration authorities near the Vermont-Canada border earlier this month.
  The group, which represents immigrant farmworkers, says that Jose Luis Cordova Herrera, a 40-year-old father of three, was arrested by Border Patrol when he was leaving a dental appointment on Feb. 8.Border Patrol confirmed that an agent arrested a Mexican national and turned him over to Immigrations and Customs Enforcement on that d
  
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• Sanders Statement on Rounds-King Immigration Bill

  19-02-2018 02:46 via vtdigger.org
  Sanders Statement on Rounds-King Immigration BillWASHINGTON, Feb. 15 – Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) issued the following statement Thursday after the Senate voted on four immigration proposals:
  “With an extremely anti-immigrant president in office who precipitated the current DACA crisis, I fear very much about the fate of 800,000 Dreamers who will soon be losing their legal protections under DACA and be subject to deportation.
  “The Rounds-King compromise bill, vigorously oppose
  
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• Support for those Struggling in Wake of Florida School Shooting

  19-02-2018 02:25 via vtdigger.org
  For Immediate Release:Press Contact:Melissa Bailey Mourning FoxCommissioner, Dept. of Mental Health Deputy Commissioner, Dept. of Mental Health802-241-0100 or [email protected] or [email protected]
  Support for those Struggling in Wake of Florida School Shooting
  Waterbury, Vt., Feb. 17, 2018 – Some Vermonters may find in the wake of the mass shooting at a Florida high school earlier this week, as well as an averted threat in Fair Haven, Vt., that they are feeling
  
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• Temporary fee to support broadband build-out passes House

  19-02-2018 01:59 via vtdigger.org
  Rep. Laura Sibilia, I-Dover. Photo by Erin Mansfield/VTDiggerThe House advanced a measure Friday that would raise more than $6 million to build out broadband infrastructure across the state.
  The bill, H.582, would temporarily increase a fee on telecommunications services from 2 percent to 2.5 percent for four years, ending in 2022.
  The money raised from the increase — estimated total nearly $6.3 million — would go to a fund that distributes grants to internet service providers that e
  
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• House OKs temporary fee to support broadband build-out

  19-02-2018 01:59 via vtdigger.org
  Rep. Laura Sibilia, I-Dover. Photo by Erin Mansfield/VTDigger
  The House advanced a measure Friday that would raise more than $6 million to build out broadband infrastructure across the state.
  The bill, H.582, would temporarily increase a fee on telecommunications services from 2 percent to 2.5 percent for four years, ending in 2022.
  The money raised from the increase — estimated total nearly $6.3 million — would go to a fund that distributes grants to internet service providers that
  
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• David Kelley: Limit leghold trapping

  19-02-2018 01:05 via vtdigger.org
  A recent poll conducted by the Center for Rural Studies at the University of Vermont revealed that 75 percent of Vermonters oppose leghold and body gripping traps. The good sense of Vermonters is that we should make these traps illegal. If not statewide, they should at least be illegal on the public lands that are owned and shared by all of us. The few people who want to continue this “recreation” shouldn’t have the right to impose this behavior on our lands when the vast major
  
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• Pownal considers appointment of town clerk

  19-02-2018 01:04 via vtdigger.org
  The Pownal town office building. A complaint to the state alleges mold and other issues in the workplace. Photo by Jim Therrien/VTDigger
  POWNAL — As have other small Vermont towns, Pownal finds itself struggling to work around an office overseen by an elected official no longer capable of doing the job.The prolonged ill-health of Town Clerk Karen Burrington and years of overdue license fee payments to the state have prompted a March ballot article seeking to make the elected position an ap
  
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• Gregory Dennis: When skiing melts away

  19-02-2018 01:00 via vtdigger.org
  For Winter Olympian Jessie Diggins, climate change is personal. She’s one of the world’s best Nordic skiers and an American — a rare combination in a sport dominated by Europeans.
  But the snowy world that has dominated her life and sport is disappearing.
  “Over the past three years, most venues have been exclusively on man-made snow,” Diggins told the New York Times. “In places like Davos, Switzerland, where they normally have three feet of snow, they’ve
  
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• Dan DeWalt: The president we deserve

  19-02-2018 00:55 via vtdigger.org
  Editor’s note: This commentary is by Dan DeWalt, an artisan and activist interested in democracy and the Constitution. He writes from South Newfane.
  Well we just celebrated the first birthday of the Trump administration. We must have eaten too much cake at the party because we’re all feeling sick.
  But let’s not be too quick to place the blame for the mess we’re in. We would like to blame the Misogynist-in-Chief. We would like to blame the “angry white class” w
  
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• Short takes: A rundown of this year’s Oscar nominated films

  19-02-2018 00:53 via vtdigger.org
  Most of the Oscar nominated films are in theaters now. All are worth seeing before Oscar night Sunday, March 4. In what was an otherwise lukewarm movie year, Hollywood saved the best for year’s end and reassured us that the industry continues to showcase brilliant performers of all ages. 
  Lady BirdA whip smart high school graduate is navigating the familiar elements of growing up. Director Greta Gerwig assembled and directed a cast that lifts this right to the top of this ye
  
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