Vermont news

• Early numbers show many Vermonters dropping their insurance for 2026

  22-01-2026 23:41 via vtdigger.org
  Photo via Adobe StockSharon Poddick is someone who budgets down to the last dollar. When she lost her job in companywide layoffs a little over a year ago — and with it, her employer-sponsored health insurance — she and her husband started buying health care from Vermont Health Connect, the state’s Affordable Care Act marketplace.They started to “tighten everywhere we could tighten” when it came to their budget, as Poddick described it. Her car is paid off
  
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• Economic development leader denies embezzling as court records reveal new details of probe 

  22-01-2026 23:16 via vtdigger.org
  Melissa Bounty. Photo courtesy of Central Vermont Economic Development CorporationBARRE — The former leader of a nonprofit economic development organization has denied a charge accusing her of embezzling more than $70,000 from the group.A charging document filed ahead of Thursday’s arraignment for Melissa Bounty also provided new details into what authorities say she spent the money on. “She was making weekly purchases from Amazon which were not received at the office but
  
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• Here’s where Vermont shelters are opening to help in extreme cold

  22-01-2026 23:05 via vtdigger.org
  People who are unhoused line up to be admitted to a temporary shelter in Burlington on March 18, 2024. Photo by Glenn Russell/VTDiggerThis story, by Report for America corps member Carly Berlin, was produced through a partnership between VTDigger and Vermont Public.With subzero temperatures expected to set in on Friday, communities across Vermont are opening emergency shelters for people experiencing homelessness.VTDigger/Vermont Public confirmed that seven extreme cold weather shelter location
  
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• Brattleboro hospital nurses threaten strike amid budget woes

  22-01-2026 18:55 via vtdigger.org
  A sign marks the Brattleboro Memorial Hospital campus on Belmont Avenue. Photo by Kevin O’Connor/VTDigger.A union representing nurses at Brattleboro Memorial Hospital is threatening to strike after the 500-employee facility changed its contract offer upon projecting a $14.5 million annual budget shortfall for the current fiscal year.The 135-member Brattleboro Federation of Nurses said the hospital had proposed wage increases totaling 11% over three years, only to reduce that figure during
  
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• Temps to plummet as bitter cold front approaches, prompting emergency shelters to open

  22-01-2026 12:54 via vtdigger.org
  Rev. Jay Voorhees, pastor of Grace, Northfield and Trinity Methodist churches, near Montpelier’s cold weather shelter at City Hall on Wednesday, Jan. 21. Photo by Glenn Russell/VTDiggerExtreme cold temperatures are expected across the state of Vermont starting Friday night and continuing into Sunday, according to the National Weather Service, which forecasted windchills to drop to as low as minus 40 degrees in some areas. Two arctic fronts are anticipated to roll across Vermont in co
  
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• Vermont hires contractor with troubled record in $21.5 million deal for new youth residential program

  22-01-2026 12:52 via vtdigger.org
  Vermont has inked a five-year contract worth up to $21.5 million with a Pennsylvania company to run a new three-bed program for youth in state custody despite documented past allegations of negligence and mistreatment.Cornell Abraxas Group will run the West River Haven, a crisis-stabilization youth program in Brattleboro meant for children who require short-term specialized care and do not have another immediate placement option.West River Haven will offer support to children for up to 45 days,
  
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• David Moats: America’s promise of freedom is being tested

  22-01-2026 03:22 via vtdigger.org
  This commentary is by David Moats, of Salisbury. He is editorial page editor emeritus at the Rutland Herald, where he won the 2001 Pulitzer Prize for a series of editorials on Vermont’s civil union law.Twenty-three new citizens from 12 countries took the oath of allegiance to the United States at the federal courthouse in Burlington on Jan. 14. They came from four continents and represented a slice of America as diverse as might be expected. What united them was their pledge—to
  
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• Vermont Agency of Transportation proposes more layoffs as revenue sputters

  22-01-2026 01:03 via vtdigger.org
  Transportation Secretary Joe Flynn speaks during an interview at the Vermont Agency of Transportation District 6 maintenance facility in Berlin on Thursday, October 23, 2025. Photo by Glenn Russell/VTDiggerMONTPELIER — Vermont Gov. Phil Scott’s administration is proposing to lay off as many as 19 employees at the state Agency of Transportation in order to save money in its budget for the fiscal year starting in July.Overall, the governor’s fiscal year 2027 budget would cut 31
  
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• Vermont USCIS employees tapped to help ICE enforcement in Minnesota

  22-01-2026 00:35 via vtdigger.org
  A federal agent wears a badge of Immigration and Customs Enforcement at the immigration court at Jacob K. Javits Federal Building in New York on June 9, 2025. Photo by Yuki Iwamura/APAt least seven U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services employees based in Vermont have been told they will be temporarily reassigned to Minnesota to help with expanding enforcement actions there, according to an employee.The employee, who has worked at a USCIS office in Vermont for several years and is not one of
  
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• 3 years after Act 76, lawmakers eye Vermont’s lagging child care workforce

  22-01-2026 00:32 via vtdigger.org
  Taylor Kuske leads her charges on an outdoor excursion at Turtle Island Children’s Center in Montpelier on Thursday, November 13, 2025. Photo by Glenn Russell/VTDiggerToddlers can enter a state of conflict every 20 minutes, Shannon Edmonds-Folsom told lawmakers Wednesday morning. It’s a symptom of their gradual development, the child care manager at Jay Peak Resort said — and it’s part of what makes caring for young children such a challenging career.“Sounds like t
  
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