Vermont news

• Jack Hoffman: Seize the opportunity for a second chance on school reform

  02-12-2025 13:03 via vtdigger.org
  Jack Hoffman is a senior policy analyst with the Public Assets Institute. Before joining Public Assets, Jack covered politics and state government in Vermont for 20 years. 
  The Act 73 redistricting task force wrapped up their work, and they’ve given the state a chance to rethink the course of education reform it has been pursuing for the last decade.Vermont communities, as well as elected leaders, should seize this opportunity to get us out of the ditch we’ve been in and refocu
  
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• Audit finds more Vermont voters assigned to wrong state House, Senate districts 

  05-12-2025 23:07 via vtdigger.org
  MONTPELIER — An audit of local voter rolls prompted by the error-plagued race for a Vermont House seat in Bennington County last year uncovered 100 more cases across the state in which people had been assigned to vote in the wrong legislative district.As a result, the Vermont Secretary of State’s Office, which conducted the review, is calling for additional checks of town-managed voter rolls each time the state conducts the decennial process of redrawing legislative districts after
  
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• State panel permanently bans ex-deputy sheriff from police work following road rage conviction 

  05-12-2025 22:46 via vtdigger.org
  The Orange County Sheriff’s Department in Chelsea on Aug. 22, 2024. File photo by Glenn Russell/VTDiggerA former Orange County Sheriff’s deputy has been permanently banned from working as a law enforcement officer in Vermont nearly three years after he was sentenced to jail following his criminal convictions in a road rage case. The Vermont Criminal Justice Council voted at its most recent meeting last month to take the action against William Pine, according to Christopher Bric
  
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• Former state rep John Morley appointed to Orleans County Senate seat

  05-12-2025 22:39 via vtdigger.org
  John Morley. Photo via the Vermont Public Power Supply Authority websiteJohn Morley, a longtime village of Orleans employee and former state representative, will fill Orleans County’s vacant seat in the Vermont Senate. Gov. Phil Scott announced his appointment in a press release on Friday.Morley replaces Sam Douglass, who resigned in scandal this fall when his involvement in a national Young Republicans group chat replete with racist and bigoted messages was revealed in a Politico ex
  
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• As bitter cold hits Vermont, new shelters open for the first time this season

  05-12-2025 22:31 via vtdigger.org
  Cold settles in on Pearl Street in St. Johnsbury on Jan. 11, 2022. File photo by Glenn Russell/VTDiggerTemperatures remain bitterly cold across Vermont after extreme cold hit the region on Thursday.Tyler Danzig, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Burlington, said temperatures dropped into the negative teens on Thursday night, with negative 20s across the central and northern areas of Vermont. Wind chills reached -25 degrees Fahrenheit in parts of Caledonia County and -13 degre
  
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• Tyler Baker: Why Putney is an epicenter of progressive education in America

  05-12-2025 18:20 via vtdigger.org
  Tyler Baker is an assistant professor of history at Landmark College in Putney. He is the author of a forthcoming history of Landmark College, published by the University of Vermont Press.Putney is, on the surface, another rural Southeastern Vermont town, but there is more going on in the town than meets the eye — and has been for nearly a century.  The dirt roads, the rolling hills, and the single general store — they do not give the impression of a place that would reshape Am
  
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• In Lamoille County, property buyout process offers little solace for some flood survivors

  05-12-2025 12:55 via vtdigger.org
  Matt Lacefield surveys the wreckage of his home in Johnson after a flooding event on July 11, 2023. Courtesy photoThis story by Aaron Calvin was first published in News & Citizen on Dec. 4, 2025.Nearly two and a half years ago, Mandy Lacefield and her husband, Matt, woke in the night as dark water seeped into their home in Johnson.Lacefield and Matt, trapped in their home on River Road West overlooking the confluence of the Lamoille and Gihon rivers, had to be evacuated the night the river
  
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• Transitional housing in Vermont, in transition

  05-12-2025 00:18 via vtdigger.org
  
  
  Dinner is served at Dismas House in Burlington on Friday, November 21, 2025. Photo by Glenn Russell/VTDiggerOver the past few months, VTDigger and Vermont Public reporter Carly Berlin has been looking into the changing landscape of transitional housing in Vermont. We’re excited to be able to share the results of that reporting in this podcast, produced by the Brave Little State team at Vermont Public.Note: Brave Little State is made for the ear. We recommend listening to the audio. We&rsq
  
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• New legal opinion complicates Saturday vote on shuttering high school grades in Danville

  04-12-2025 22:53 via vtdigger.org
  The Danville School, seen on Tuesday, Oct. 7. Photo by Glenn Russell/VTDiggerSaturday’s referendum on whether to shutter high school grades at Danville School cannot compel the Danville School board to move forward with closure, according to a legal opinion the Caledonia Central Supervisory Union received Tuesday.The opinion, sent to Superintendent Matt Foster just days before a controversial vote to end Danville School’s high school grades, makes the results of Saturday’s tow
  
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• Brattleboro hospital projects $14.5M shortfall in current budget

  04-12-2025 21:46 via vtdigger.org
  The Brattleboro Memorial Hospital campus on Belmont Avenue. Photo by Kevin O’Connor/VTDiggerBRATTLEBORO — Brattleboro Memorial Hospital is projecting to end its current budget with a $14.5 million operating loss, potentially extending a string of annual shortfalls since 2020.“This is not the budget outcome we had hoped for,” Elizabeth McLarney, one of two acting co-CEOs, said in a written statement Thursday.The 500-worker hospital, the main health care provider for about
  
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• Act 73 explained: 10 things to know about Vermont’s education reform law

  04-12-2025 21:11 via vtdigger.org
  Vermont’s new education reform law, Act 73, sets in motion a multi-year effort to restructure how the state funds and governs its public schools. During a live conversation on Dec. 2, 2025, I sat down with VTDigger education reporter Corey McDonald to hear him break down the new law and answer reader questions about what it all means.
  Below is the full recording of our conversation and a summary of ten key points Vermonters should know. Watch the full recordingTen key takeaways1. Why
  
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• Internal affairs probe finds fellow Rutland officers violated policies in 2023 pursuit that killed new recruit

  04-12-2025 17:42 via vtdigger.org
  A procession travels under a huge U.S. flag as it arrives for the funeral for Rutland City Police Officer Jessica Ebbighausen in Castleton on Tuesday, July 18, 2023. Photo by Glenn Russell/VTDiggerAn internal affairs investigation into the actions of police in a motor-vehicle pursuit that resulted in the death of a young officer was “preventable” if police had followed proper procedures, recent court documents show. A Salisbury man driving the vehicle being pursued faces a murder ch
  
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• Bernie Gracy:  AI can be Vermont’s advantage

  04-12-2025 13:04 via vtdigger.org
  This commentary is by Bernie Gracy. He is a technology executive who splits his time between Hollis, New Hampshire  and Averill, Vermont,  where he also serves as president of the Averill Lakes Association.Last month I attended my second “Rumble in the Kingdom” pitch competition — the annual gathering where entrepreneurs, students, technologists, community leaders and outdoor-industry innovators come together in the Northeast Kingdom to compete for seed funding. In a
  
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• ‘A costly unforced error’: Vermont Legislature’s top economist slams Trump’s trade war

  04-12-2025 00:45 via vtdigger.org
  MONTPELIER — The Vermont Legislature’s top economist called President Donald Trump’s trade war with Canada and Trump’s disparaging rhetoric toward the country a “costly unforced error” that is putting pressure on the state’s budget at an already challenging time.Tom Kavet was speaking to members of the Vermont House and Senate at a briefing Wednesday in Montpelier on some of the major issues legislators will face when they reconvene for the 2026 legisla
  
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• Norwich farmers market secures approval for permanent all-season structure

  04-12-2025 00:31 via vtdigger.org
  An artist’s rendering of the proposed building for the new Norwich farmer’s market. Image courtesy of the Upper Valley Agricultural AssociationThis story by Clare Shanahan was first published in Valley News on Nov. 28, 2025.NORWICH — The town has granted permission to a nonprofit to build a permanent all-season structure for the Norwich Farmer’s Market on a property across Route 5 from the market’s current location.The Norwich Development Review Board approved
  
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• It’s lights out on Tomasi Meadow

  03-12-2025 23:55 via vtdigger.org
  Back country skiing in Stowe’s Sterling Valley. Photo by Wilson Ring/APTomasi Meadow, a wide field at the base of Mount Mansfield, is beloved by Underhill residents.  It’s so popular that in October, the Mansfield Nordic Club, a ski group that voluntarily grooms  the trails, asked: Why not make it better by adding lights that could extend the hours along the trail two evenings a week? Not so fast. Dozens of people turned up at an October town meeting about the lights
  
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• Vermont Conversation: Israel banished a rabbi’s daughter. Now they’re both speaking out.

  03-12-2025 22:59 via vtdigger.org
  
  
  Leila Stillman-Utterback. Courtesy photoThe Vermont Conversation with David Goodman is a VTDigger podcast that features in-depth interviews on local and national issues. Listen below and subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get podcasts.Leila Stillman-Utterback graduated from Middlebury Union High School in June and decided to take a gap year to pursue a dream. The 18-year-old Vermonter traveled to Israel to participate in a solidarity program that i
  
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• Vermont Conversation: A Vermont Jewish student banished from Israel speaks out

  03-12-2025 22:59 via vtdigger.org
  
  
  Leila Stillman-Utterback. Courtesy photoThe Vermont Conversation with David Goodman is a VTDigger podcast that features in-depth interviews on local and national issues. Listen below and subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get podcasts.Leila Stillman-Utterback graduated from Middlebury Union High School in June and decided to take a gap year to pursue a dream. The 18-year-old Vermonter traveled to Israel to participate in a solidarity program that i
  
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• Vermont Conversation: A Jewish student banished from Israel and her mother, a rabbi, speak out

  03-12-2025 22:59 via vtdigger.org
  
  
  Leila Stillman-Utterback. Courtesy photoThe Vermont Conversation with David Goodman is a VTDigger podcast that features in-depth interviews on local and national issues. Listen below and subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get podcasts.Leila Stillman-Utterback graduated from Middlebury Union High School in June and decided to take a gap year to pursue a dream. The 18-year-old Vermonter traveled to Israel to participate in a solidarity program that i
  
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• Dreaming big, diving deep: Ailyn Langley’s road to college

  03-12-2025 17:39 via vtdigger.org
  Raised in the hills of rural West Fairlee, Ailyn Langley has always gravitated toward nature—woods, water, and everything in between. As she grew older, her interest turned seaward, sparked by a school trip to the Boston Aquarium with her class at Rivendell High School. Her job in the fish and reptile department at the West Lebanon Aquarium Center deepened that curiosity.Now a first-year student at Dartmouth College, Ailyn hasn’t declared her major quite yet—but time around sa
  
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• Mary E Brace

  03-12-2025 15:45 via vtdigger.org
  Born Aug. 31, 1931Hinesburg, VermontDied May 27, 2025Berlin, VermontDetails of servicesServices were private per her wishes.  She is buried in Resurrection Park next to her husband Ruford in South Burlington VT.Mary was the eldest daughter of Earl Emmons Sr. And Mary Conway Emmons of Hinesburg VT. She married Ruford L Brace of Starksboro VT December 23, 1949. Ruford pre deceased her on February 1, 1996. Together they owned a dairy farm in Starksboro then started an angus beef farm, Braces
  
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• Montpelier’s acting city manager resigns in the middle of search for new city manager

  03-12-2025 14:45 via vtdigger.org
  Acting City Manager Kelly Murphy speaks during a city council meeting. ORCA screenshotThis story by Cassandra Hemenway was first published in The Bridge on Dec. 1, 2025.With the Monday announcement that Montpelier’s Acting City Manager Kelly Murphy is leaving her role by the end of the year, the urgency has picked up for the City Council to fill the vacancy left by long-time City Manager Bill Fraser, who’s 30-year tenure ended in June.The council has plans to announce finalists for
  
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• Rep. Troy Headrick: In response to the recent opinion piece, ‘Respect the process, honor the people’

  03-12-2025 13:04 via vtdigger.org
  This commentary is by Rep. Troy Headrick, I-Burlington, sponsor of H.362, a bill relating to State recognition of Native American tribes and the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.In response to the piece “Respect the process, honor the people” —The United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples is not an optional or peripheral document. It is the global consensus on how governments must engage with Indigenous peoples when decisions involve their lands, histor
  
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• Data breach at Dartmouth College exposes personal information of 40,000 people

  03-12-2025 00:28 via vtdigger.org
  A student walks on the campus of Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire, on March 5, 2024. Photo by Robert F. Bukaty/APThis story by Clare Shanahan was first published in the Valley News on Dec. 1, 2025.HANOVER — More than 40,000 people in Vermont and New Hampshire may have been impacted by a data breach in a system used by Dartmouth College. Last week, Dartmouth started mailing letters to the people whose personal information was included in data stolen over three days in early
  
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• Hartford’s Mike Hoyt appointed to vacant House seat in Windsor County 

  03-12-2025 00:15 via vtdigger.org
  Mike Hoyt. Courtesy photoMike Hoyt, a Hartford selectboard member, will fill a vacant House seat representing Barnard, Bridgewater and Pomfret, as well as part of Hartford. Gov. Phil Scott announced the appointment Tuesday. Hoyt replaces Heather Surprenant, a Barnard Democrat who stepped down in September, according to a press release from Scott’s office. In an interview on Tuesday, Hoyt, who lives in West Hartford, said he was excited to build on his prior experience working in
  
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• Trump administration sues Vermont secretary of state for failing to turn over voter data

  03-12-2025 00:04 via vtdigger.org
  Secretary of State Sarah Copeland-Hanzas at the Statehouse in Montpelier on June 18, 2024. Photo by Glenn Russell/VTDiggerThe Trump administration has taken Vermont’s secretary of state to court, asking a federal judge to force the state to turn over information on registered voters. Filed on Monday in Vermont’s U.S. District Court, the lawsuit argues Secretary of State Sarah Copeland Hanzas violated federal election law when she refused to share registered voters’ addres
  
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• Feds release $21 million in funding for winter heating assistance to Vermont after shutdown

  02-12-2025 23:49 via vtdigger.org
  A person adjusts the temperature on a thermostat. Photo illustration by Natalie Williams/VTDiggerTheo Wells-Spackman is a Report for America corps member who reports for VTDigger.The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has released nearly $21 million in long-awaited federal funding for Vermont’s heating assistance programs, members of the state’s congressional delegation said Tuesday.“LIHEAP is an essential lifeline for more than 20,000 Vermont households every y
  
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• New Chittenden County court grapples with how to reduce court backlog and manage cases of recidivist defendants

  02-12-2025 23:39 via vtdigger.org
  Superior Court Judge Martin Maley listens to an argument at Chittenden County Community Accountability Court in Burlington on Friday, Nov. 21. Photo by Glenn Russell/VTDiggerBURLINGTON — A defendant appeared in court on a Wednesday morning in an oversized crewneck with her hands cuffed in front of her. Judge Martin Maley said she was already looking healthier after spending time in jail since her last court date. The defendant’s case, involving theft charges, was one of four sc
  
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• Kevin H. Pallas

  02-12-2025 18:56 via vtdigger.org
  Born Jan. 13, 1959Died Nov. 20, 2025Details of servicesA celebration of life will be held in January more information will be posted at a later date.Kevin Howard Pallas, 66, of Milton, passed away at the McClure Miller Respite House on November 20th , 2025 with his loving wife by his side.He was born January 13,1959 the son of Jon Sr and Marie (née Dickinson) Pallas, who have both predeceased him.Kevin studied at Daniel Webster College, and Rhode Island School of Electronics. He reti
  
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• Immigrant review plan following DC shooting raises concerns for Afghans in Vermont

  02-12-2025 12:54 via vtdigger.org
  Photo by Glenn Russell/VTDiggerFederal immigration officials recently announced plans to re-examine the green cards of individuals from “19 high-risk countries” and conduct an assessment of country-specific factors for pending and future immigration requests, stirring worry among Vermont’s Afghan community, advocates say.The announcement from the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services came after an Afghan man was named as the suspect in the Wednesday shooting of two Nationa
  
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