Vermont news

• Final Reading: Increased reporting on state contracts is back in play in the House

  07-05-2024 02:02 via vtdigger.org
  
  Rep. Mike McCarthy, D-St. Albans City, center, chair of the House Government Operations and Military Affairs Committee, speaks as committee considers a bill pertaining to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission at the Statehouse in Montpelier on Tuesday, January 9, 2024. Photo by Glenn Russell/VTDigger
  About a month ago, the Senate voted to water down a bill aimed at making state contracts more transparent, opting instead to study what lawmakers had initially proposed. Now, though, some parts o
  
  Read more

• PHOTOS: Spectators gather for the Vergennes Memorial Day Parade

  28-05-2024 01:29 via vtdigger.org
  
  Spectators watch the Memorial Day parade in Vergennes on Monday, May 27. Photo by Glenn Russell/VTDiggerThe Vergennes Memorial Day Parade brought crowds to the Addison County town on Monday. Held since 1946, the parade featured everything from marching bands to tractors rolling down the street. The 1.5-mile route began at Vergennes Union High School before weaving through downtown. Scroll down to see scenes from the day.
  Read the story on VTDigger here:PHOTOS: Spectators gather for the Vergenne
  
  Read more

• Montpelier Amtrak platform undergoing $3M upgrade

  27-05-2024 14:51 via vtdigger.org
  
  New Montpelier Amtrak platform under construction. Insulation is being installed around the helical piers that will support the elevated and heated train platform. Photo by Phil Dodd/Montpelier BridgeThis story by Phil Dodd was first published by the Montpelier Bridge on May 21.To bring it into compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act, the Amtrak train platform at Montpelier Junction is in the midst of a $3 million upgrade that will include raising the platform to eight inches above
  
  Read more

• Can a cemetery die? With last-minute resuscitation, Rutland’s largest finds new life.

  27-05-2024 12:39 via vtdigger.org
  
  An arched gate announces Rutland’s 163-year-old Evergreen Cemetery. Photo by Kevin O’Connor/VTDigger
  RUTLAND — As this city’s sole cemetery commissioner and head of the Vermont Old Cemetery Association, Thomas Giffin can tell you all about the long life of the 163-year-old Evergreen Cemetery.“Every stone has a story,” he said in a recent interview. “You have governors, you have U.S. senators, you have Medal of Honor winners. … You have so much of
  
  Read more

• Advertisement

• Dan Barkhuff: What we owe to those who never came home

  27-05-2024 12:01 via vtdigger.org
  
  This commentary is by Dan Barkhuff. He is an ER physician at the University of Vermont Medical Center, a former Navy SEAL and the founder of Veterans For Responsible Leadership.
  On Memorial Day I reflect on two deaths from the 9/11 wars, and what, from the comfort of my home, as the chirping of the spring birds greets the dawn, I owe them. One was a Marine I only knew for an hour or so, and the other was a close friend of years and deployments.The Marine died because he took a few seconds to pu
  
  Read more

• Dick Mazza, icon of the Vermont Senate, dies at 84

  27-05-2024 01:30 via vtdigger.org
  
  Sen. Dick Mazza, D-Grand Isle, in his office in the back of Dick Mazza’s General Store in Colchester on Saturday, April 15, 2023. Photo by Glenn Russell/VTDigger
  Richard T. Mazza, a Colchester grocer who rose from humble origins to become the most influential member of the Vermont Senate, died Saturday. He was 84 years old. His daughter, Melissa Mazza-Paquette, confirmed the news Sunday evening. “Our family is so grateful to all who have reached out to our family over the past
  
  Read more

• Barriers meant to prevent truck stuckages at Smugglers Notch get tested right away

  26-05-2024 15:57 via vtdigger.org
  
  A view of the newly installed chicanes meant to curtail the trucks that get stuck in Smugglers Notch from its Stowe side. Photo by Gordon Miller/News & Citzen
  This story by Aaron Calvin was first published by the News & Citizen on May 23.The chicanery in Smugglers Notch continues.It seems to be a truth universally acknowledged that, no matter what signs, fines or impediments the Vermont Agency of Transportation may put against them, some tractor-trailer truck driver will still end up st
  
  Read more

• Young Writers Project: ‘Vermont’

  26-05-2024 14:00 via vtdigger.org
  
  “A Witch’s Home,” by Ace Lafountain, 16, of Montpelier.
  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@youngwriters
  
  Read more

• Advertisement

• Bill Schubart: The time is now for Mental Health First Aid

  26-05-2024 13:01 via vtdigger.org
  
  May is Mental Health Awareness Month and in our world today there’s plenty of  reason to want to be aware.Vermont has established, as a policy if not in practice, that physical and mental health deserve and must receive an equitable health care commitment and investment. But our metrics for mental health wellness, especially among our young and aging populations, show that we’re failing in delivering on physical and mental health parity. Still, there are some positive changes in
  
  Read more

• Andre Clark: Ending homelessness is up to us

  26-05-2024 12:01 via vtdigger.org
  
  This commentary is by Andre Clark. He is a student in UVM’s Master of Public Health program, and founded a local volunteer organization, Street CATs-Burlington, which provides street-level outreach and partners with local organizations to get clothes, snacks, water and other needed supplies to the unhoused population. He experienced homelessness and housing instability from the ages of 13-25. 
  Vermont is in a housing crisis. Vermont has the second-highest per-capita rate of homelessn
  
  Read more

• This Vermont centenarian fought in Europe 80 years ago. Now he’s set to receive France’s highest honor.

  26-05-2024 11:06 via vtdigger.org
  
  Townshend centenarian Richard Jackson eyes mementos of his World War II service in the U.S. Army’s 100th Infantry Division. Photo by Kevin O’Connor/VTDigger
  TOWNSHEND — Local veteran Richard Jackson’s World War II stint in Europe was 80 years ago and 3,500 miles away.And yet, still on the top of his mind.“I became the gunner on a mortar squad, which by definition is not on the front line and instead 100 yards behind, so I felt blessed,” Jackson said in a rece
  
  Read more

• Olive Elizabeth Sedon

  25-05-2024 02:50 via vtdigger.org
  
  Born Jan. 6, 2002
  Tunbridge, VermontDied May 16, 2024Bradford, VermontOlive Elizabeth Sedon died on May 16th in Bradford, Vermont, after finally succumbing to a long and protracted illness.Olive burst like a comet into her family’s life when she was born on January 6th, 2002. Even as a baby, Olive had a fully developed personality that was by turns dramatic, hilarious, stunningly precocious and heartbreakingly sweet. Very particular in her tastes and preferences, many mornings Olive loved
  
  Read more

• Vermont Supreme Court denies request for relief in Panton farm runoff case

  24-05-2024 23:53 via vtdigger.org
  
  An aerial photograph, used as an exhibit in a six-day trial in Dec. 2021 and Jan. 2022, shows a section of the Vorsteveld Farm in Panton. Photo courtesy of the Addison Unit of the Vermont Superior Court
  The Vermont Supreme Court has denied a request from the owners of a Panton dairy farm that would have alleviated the burden of a court order issued in March 2022, which requires the farm to make expensive changes in order to stop runoff from flowing across a neighbors’ land and into Lake C
  
  Read more

• Fewer Vermont weddings expected this year after boom in 2022

  24-05-2024 22:42 via vtdigger.org
  
  The Equinox Golf Resort and Spa in Manchester on Wednesday, May 15, 2024. Photo by Glenn Russell/VTDiggerMANCHESTER — One afternoon in February, a woman in a strapless white gown rendezvoused with a man in a tux on the grounds of The Equinox resort. They held hands, hugged and kissed before the woman disappeared into one of the buildings.  That evening, under trees strung with fairy lights, Hannah Beaulieu and Liam Noonan again met outdoors — this time to pose for photos a
  
  Read more

• Former Democratic lawmaker John Rodgers to run for lieutenant governor as a Republican

  24-05-2024 21:36 via vtdigger.org
  
  John Rodgers on the Senate floor at the Statehouse in Montpelier. File photo by Mike Dougherty/VTDigger
  John Rodgers, a former Vermont House and Senate Democrat from Glover, is running for lieutenant governor as a Republican. “I don’t feel like I left the party. I feel like the party left me,” Rodgers said in an interview Friday, describing himself as a moderate. “I feel closer to Phil Scott than I do the leadership in the Legislature, and that’s what really m
  
  Read more

• Hinesburg moves to pull out of Green Mountain Transit as service reductions loom

  24-05-2024 20:52 via vtdigger.org
  
  Green Mountain Transit buses drive down Main Street in Burlington on Tuesday, May 14, 2024. Photo by Glenn Russell/VTDigger
  Hinesburg, one of nine municipalities that pay an annual fee to help fund Green Mountain Transit, is beginning the process of pulling out of the Chittenden County-based transit system.The town, which had for months questioned the fairness of its roughly $53,000 contribution, has just one Green Mountain Transit bus route, which runs between its village area and Burlington.T
  
  Read more

• Strafford man out of prison after pleading guilty to burning down cabin

  24-05-2024 18:42 via vtdigger.org
  
  John Blakeney, left, and Nick Howe, right, of Howe Enterprises, look over the site of a fire in Strafford, on Monday, Sept. 11, that destroyed a cabin early on Saturday, and speculate on how one of their portable toilets, partially melted from the heat, ended up in a nearby brook.Photo by James M. Patterson/Valley News
  This story by John Lippman was first published by the Valley News on May 22.CHELSEA — A Strafford man who set the cabin where he was living ablaze after police failed to re
  
  Read more

• Sen. Tanya Vyhovsky: Does Gov. Scott see himself as beholden to the Vermont Constitution?

  24-05-2024 13:01 via vtdigger.org
  
  This commentary is by Sen. Tanya Vyhovsky, P/D-Chittenden Central. 
  Much has been made lately about the appointment of Zoie Saunders as interim secretary of education. Saunders’ nomination for Vermont’s highest executive educational position raised eyebrows among senators given she only had three months of public school experience while actively pursuing the top education job in another state. After an outpouring of grassroots messages from parents, teachers and concerned Vermo
  
  Read more

• Phil Scott and Vermont legislators found at least some common ground on crime bills this year

  24-05-2024 12:01 via vtdigger.org
  
  Sen. Dick Sears, D-Bennington, listens to other senators chat during a brief recess on the floor of the Senate at the Statehouse in Montpelier on Wednesday, March 20, 2024. Photo by Glenn Russell/VTDigger
  In a session that was marked by contentiousness between Republican Gov. Phil Scott and the Democratic supermajority in the Legislature, there was one area, at least, where Vermont leaders seemed to find some common ground: crime policy.“I think that’s one of the bright spots of thi
  
  Read more

• Chellie Nayar and Dr. David Rand: We support the Climate Superfund Act

  24-05-2024 12:01 via vtdigger.org
  
  This commentary is by Chellie Nayar, a rising fourth-year medical student and a member of the Vermont Climate and Health Alliance, and Dr. David Rand, an internal medicine physician on the steering committee of the Vermont Climate and Health Alliance. 
  One of us is a 27-year-old approaching her final year of medical school; the other is 45-year-old internal medicine physician and father of a young child. Despite these differences, we feel a shared sense of horror and urgency as we watch ou
  
  Read more

• Matthew John Lomasney

  24-05-2024 03:03 via vtdigger.org
  
  Born April 29, 1977
  Barre, VermontDied May 13, 2024
  St. Johnsbury, VermontDetails of servicesNo public services are planned at the time. Donations in Matthew’s honor may be made to Long Trail Canine Rescue in Wilder, VT or Kingdom Recovery Center, St. Johnsbury, VT or plant a tree in memory of Matthew. He was especially fond of Cedar and Hemlock trees. Matthew loved trees. He will never be forgotten. May he rest in eternal peace.“Fare you well, fare you well, I love you more than wor
  
  Read more

• Plan for 240 apartments in White River Junction completes planning and zoning review

  24-05-2024 00:48 via vtdigger.org
  
  An artist’s rendering of one of four market-rate apartment buildings proposed in a planned development on a 25-acre lot on Sykes Mountain Avenue in White River Junction. Image courtesy of the Town of Hartford
  This story by Patrick Adrian was first published by The Valley News on May 22.WHITE RIVER JUNCTION — Planning and zoning officials have approved a plan to build more than 200 apartments off Sykes Mountain Avenue.A partnership of White River Junction-based Simpson Development Co
  
  Read more

• ‘More good than harm’: Phil Scott signs $8.6 billion state budget into law

  24-05-2024 00:06 via vtdigger.org
  
  Gov. Phil Scott speaks during a press conference at the Statehouse on Wednesday, Jan. 10, 2024. Photo by Natalie Williams/VTDigger
  Republican Gov. Phil Scott on Thursday signed Vermont’s $8.6 billion budget into law, funding state government for the fiscal year starting July 1. Negotiations over the state budget, H.883, were notably more amicable this legislative session than last, when it became a proxy war over the fate of the state’s emergency motel housing program. Last yea
  
  Read more

• Phil Scott vetoes Vermont lawmakers’ priority energy bill

  23-05-2024 23:38 via vtdigger.org
  
  The solar array at Crossest Brook Middle School in Duxbury on Wednesday, August 25, 2021. Photo by Glenn Russell/VTDigger
  Gov. Phil Scott on Thursday vetoed a bill that would require Vermont utilities to buy more renewable energy at a faster pace, with most utilities purchasing all of their energy from renewable sources by 2030. Scott cited the cost of H.289 as his main concern. “I don’t believe there is any debate that H.289 will raise Vermonters’ utility rates, lik
  
  Read more

• Biden nominates Mary Kay Lanthier, Rutland County public defender, to Vermont federal judgeship

  23-05-2024 17:00 via vtdigger.org
  
  Mary Kay Lanthier in 2016. President Joe Biden announced Thursday, May 23, 2024, that he would nominate her to a federal judgeship in Vermont. Photo by Caleb Kenna.President Joe Biden plans to nominate Mary Kay Lanthier, the supervising attorney in the Rutland County Defender’s Office, to be the next federal judge for Vermont, the White House announced Thursday morning.Lanthier, who has served in her current role since 2007, would succeed Judge Geoffrey Crawford on the federal bench if co
  
  Read more

• Felicia Kornbluh and Matt Vogel: Jewish communities at UVM — and in Vermont — are diverse

  23-05-2024 13:01 via vtdigger.org
  
  This commentary is by Felicia Kornbluh, professor of history and of gender, sexuality and women’s studies at the University of Vermont; and Matt Vogel, executive director of UVM Hillel. 
  An old Jewish saying has it that where there are two Jews, you get three opinions. When it comes to Israel and Gaza, the number of opinions in Jewish communities, and even in the minds of individual members of those communities, might be a lot higher. Every Jewish person feels something about the cur
  
  Read more

• In Cornwall, newly conserved grasslands are for the birds 

  23-05-2024 12:01 via vtdigger.org
  
  Jill Kilborn, right, and Will Duane, both of the Vermont Fish and Wildlife Department, walk through the Lemon Fair Wildlife Management Area in Cornwall on Thursday, May 16, 2024. The open area provides habitat for grassland and shrub-dwelling birds. Photo by Glenn Russell/VTDiggerCORNWALL — Jill Kilborn spent the morning of May 16 in tall wading boots, roaming the wet, grassy expanses of a newly conserved, 110-acre piece of land and looking for birds. An abundant assortment of songbi
  
  Read more

• Child care program directors and owners: Act 76 is leading to newfound stability for child care programs and families

  23-05-2024 12:01 via vtdigger.org
  
  This commentary is by 15 child care program directors and owners from across the state. They are listed below the text of the commentary.
  Last year, we came together as child care program owners and early childhood educators from around Vermont to sound the alarm on the dire state of Vermont’s child care system. Pandemic-era federal funding was running out, and we were facing the impossible decisions of drastically raising tuition for families that already struggled with the cost, decreas
  
  Read more

• Vermont search and rescues are rising — and first responders fear more people are headed out unprepared

  23-05-2024 03:56 via vtdigger.org
  
  A member of Stowe Mountain Rescue with a person in a litter, a type of stretcher. Photo courtesy Stowe Mountain RescueLauryn Katz is a reporter with Community News Service, part of the University of Vermont’s Reporting & Documentary Storytelling program.At any moment Drew Clymer could be pulled out of rest or running errands to answer the phone and listen to the anxious voice of a hiker on the other end, lost with daylight fading. Say the hiker is in good shape, has the right gea
  
  Read more

• Vermont Conversation: Journalist Jonathan Mingle on how a rural community defeated a major gas pipeline

  23-05-2024 00:24 via vtdigger.org
  
  
  Jonathan Mingle and his new book, “Gaslight: The Atlantic Coast Pipeline and the Fight for America’s Energy Future.” Courtesy photosThe Vermont Conversation with David Goodman is a VTDigger podcast that features in-depth interviews on local and national issues with politicians, activists, artists, changemakers and citizens who are making a difference. Listen below, and subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts or Spotify to hear more.
  “Im
  
  Read more

Follow @NewsVermont_ on Twitter!