Vermont news

• Vermont’s teacher and state employee unions balk at OneCare participation

  09-11-2019 03:26 via vtdigger.org
  
  VSEA Executive Director Steve Howard. Photo by Elizabeth Hewitt/VTDiggerVermont’s state employees union says it won’t participate in OneCare next year, while the teachers union remains on the fence, potentially dealing a major blow to the roll-out of state-led health reform efforts. The Vermont State Employees’ Association and the Vermont National Educators’ Association are in discussions with private insurer BlueCross BlueShield of Vermont about whether they’l
  
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• Lawmakers go to prison to hear from guards, inmates on corrections conditions

  09-11-2019 02:48 via vtdigger.org
  
  Members of the Joint Legislative Justice Oversight Committee speak with inmates at the Northwest State Correctional Facility in Swanton on Friday.From left to right are Rep. Mary Hooper, D-Montpelier (obscured); Sen. Dick Sears, D-Bennington; Rep. Alice Emmons, D-Springfield; and Rep. Butch Shaw, R-Pittsford. (The Department of Corrections does not permit inmates’ faces to be photographed.) Photo by Glenn Russell/VTDiggerSWANTON – A panel of state lawmakers who help develop prison po
  
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• Bridge connecting Williston, South Burlington closed indefinitely

  09-11-2019 02:06 via vtdigger.org
  
  A culvert under a bridge that spans Muddy Brook washed out in the Halloween storm, causing officials to close a bridge on a busy road that connects Williston and South Burlington. Courtesy photoA heavily trafficked bridge connecting Williston and South Burlington is closed indefinitely after sustaining high water damage during a storm on Halloween. 
  The bridge connects Marshall Avenue in Williston to Kimball Avenue in South Burlington, and crosses over the Muddy Brook, which also forms the
  
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• Leahy criticizes McConnell for impeachment remarks

  09-11-2019 01:21 via vtdigger.org
  
  Sen. Patrick Leahy speaks at a news conference at the Ethan Allen Homestead in Burlington on Friday, June 21, 2019. Photo by Glenn Russell/VTDiggerAs the U.S. House of Representatives readies for the first public hearings in the impeachment inquiry next week, Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., criticized the Republican Senate majority leader for saying the upper chamber has already decided it would acquit President Donald Trump.
  Earlier this week Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-K.Y., said that
  
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• Robby Porter: The ‘Cornices’ and the ‘Spreadsheets’

  09-11-2019 01:00 via vtdigger.org
  Editor’s note: This commentary is by Robby Porter, of East Montpelier, a self-employed woodworker and the owner and partner in small scale hydroelectric projects. He is the author of “Doodlebug, A Road Trip Journal.”
  Like the saying about bringing a knife to a gunfight, the “Cornices” are out-of-step with the times. In small, rural towns across this country, 30 or 40 feet above Main Street, proud, silent and sometimes crumbling, these decorative flourishes along the
  
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• Stephen Leslie: Small farmers worldwide are vital to sustainable future

  09-11-2019 00:55 via vtdigger.org
  Editor’s note: This commentary is by Stephen Leslie, who along with his wife Kerry Gawalt and daughter Maeve manages Cedar Mountain Farm, a Fjord horse-powered CSA market garden and Jersey cow dairy located at Cobb Hill Co-Housing in Hartland.  He is the author of “The New Horse-Powered Farm” and “Horse-Powered Farming for the 21st Century,” both from Chelsea Green Publishing.Small farmers everywhere are under economic siege. There are global forces allied agai
  
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• Orleans County man allegedly beat disabled adult in his custody

  09-11-2019 00:20 via vtdigger.org
  
  Raymond Gadreault.An Orleans County man beat and burned a disabled adult in his legal custody, according to the Vermont State Police.
  Raymond Gadreault, 71, was arrested Wednesday on charges of aggravated domestic assault, abuse of a vulnerable person and cruelty to a person in his custody. 
  He appeared in court Thursday and was being held in Northern State Correctional Facility on $75,000 bail.
  The alleged incidents took place between July and September, state police said, at a home in the
  
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