Vermont news

• Michelle Salvador: Both benefits cliff, minimum wage need fixing

  24-04-2018 00:55 via vtdigger.org
  Editor’s note: This commentary is by Michelle Salvador of Worcester, a social worker who has worked in substance abuse prevention for 20 years, prior to which she worked in children’s mental health and adolescent substance abuse treatment. She is a member of the VSEA, and active in Vermont Labor United.I‘ve never professed to be above average intelligence. But it does not take a high IQ to know the impact that public policy has on health, both positive and negative. Laws impact
  
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• Sen. Kesha Ram Hinsdale: It’s time for the Vermont Kids Code

  21-05-2024 13:01 via vtdigger.org
  
  This commentary is by Sen. Kesha Ram Hinsdale, D-Chittenden Southeast.
  As a Vermont senator and the mother of a toddler with a new baby on the way, I feel a deep personal responsibility to make sure the digital world our children grow up in is as safe and nurturing for them as the physical one. That’s why I’m grateful our Legislature came together at the end of this session to pass the Vermont Kids Code. I’m proud to have sponsored this bill, not only as a lawmaker but al
  
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• With prescription drug bills, Vermont lawmakers hope to lower pharmaceutical prices  

  21-05-2024 12:01 via vtdigger.org
  
  Stock photo via Pexels
  Vermont lawmakers are hoping that new legislation headed to the desk of Gov. Phil Scott will help patients afford prescription drugs, as rising pharmaceutical prices push up health care costs across the state. As legislators scrambled to wrap up the legislative session earlier this month, they passed two bills that aim to reform how prescription drugs are priced and distributed. “We’ve known about the impact that skyrocketing prescription drug costs
  
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• Lisa Jablow: Does the truth matter anymore?

  21-05-2024 12:01 via vtdigger.org
  
  This commentary is by Lisa Jablow of Brattleboro. She is a longtime animal advocate and a board member of Protect Our Wildlife and the Windham Disaster Animal Response Team.
  The wildlife advocacy movement has never been stronger in Vermont. Over the past few years, the Statehouse has been bustling with bills seeking to improve wildlife protection and conservation, thanks to a completely dysfunctional, intractable and self-serving Fish & Wildlife Board. At this point, the only route to
  
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• Gov. Phil Scott signs bill limiting prior authorization, other health insurer practices

  21-05-2024 00:56 via vtdigger.org
  
  Gov. Phil Scott listens during a meeting at the Statehouse in Montpelier on Thursday, January 18, 2024. Photo by Glenn Russell/VTDigger
  Gov. Phil Scott on Monday evening signed H.766, a bill that takes aim at health insurance company practices such as “prior authorization” and seeks to free health care practitioners from burdensome paperwork. “The intent of this bill is to improve the health care outcomes of Vermonters — which could lower overall healthcare costs &m
  
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• Scott vetoes bill that would ban some uses of pollinator-harming pesticides

  21-05-2024 00:22 via vtdigger.org
  
  The yellow-banded bumble bee (Bombus terricola) nectars joe pye weed. Photo courtesy/copyright K.P. McFarland/Vermont Center for EcostudiesGov. Phil Scott has vetoed a bill which would ban the use of seeds treated with neonicotinoid pesticides in most instances.Many environmentalists and beekeepers have supported the legislation, H.706, because of research that shows the deadly impact of neonicotinoids on native pollinators and honeybee colonies.In his letter to lawmakers explaining his veto, S
  
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• Vermont to see ‘unseasonably’ warm temperatures in coming days, weather service reports

  20-05-2024 20:42 via vtdigger.org
  
  High temperature predictions from the National Weather Service. Map from the National Weather Service
  Vermont is forecast to hit temperatures in the upper 80s in the next two days, far above normal for this time of year, the Burlington branch of the National Weather Service reported on Monday. Parts of the state, particularly the Champlain Valley and Connecticut River Valley regions, could see a high of 90 degrees on Wednesday, according to weather service meteorologist Brooke Taber. That&
  
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• UVM halts plans to build housing near Centennial Woods

  20-05-2024 20:19 via vtdigger.org
  
  A 2023 rendering of a proposed undergraduate housing project near Centennial Woods, which University of Vermont officials have said they are no longer pursuing. Image courtesy of the University of Vermont.
  The University of Vermont is stopping plans for a new undergraduate housing complex that would have accommodated about 540 students, citing soaring construction costs and a lack of available labor.“With interest rates where they are, and the competition for labor in the Burlington area
  
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• Brian Campion, Bennington state senator, won’t seek reelection

  20-05-2024 19:17 via vtdigger.org
  
  Sen. Brian Campion, D-Bennington, speaks on the Senate floor in the Statehouse on Tuesday, April 30. Photo by Natalie Williams/VTDiggerSen. Brian Campion, D-Bennington, won’t seek reelection.The chair of the Vermont Senate Education Committee has spent 14 years in the Legislature, first in the House before being elected to the Senate in 2014. “I’m proud to have made a real difference for the people from Bennington County and look forward to continuing to be involved in my
  
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• Rep. Larry Satcowitz: Gov. Phil Scott should sign the Flood Safety Act

  20-05-2024 17:45 via vtdigger.org
  
  This commentary is by Rep. Larry Satcowitz, D-Randolph. He is a member of the House Committee on Environment and Energy.
  The Flood Safety Act, S.213, makes changes to Vermont’s statues to help Vermont become more resilient to future flooding. The massive flooding of recent years caused billions of dollars in damage, destroying homes, businesses, roads and other infrastructure. This bill is a response to those events by addressing flood management in our river corridors, floodplains a
  
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• Reps. Michael Marcotte, Stephanie Jerome and Monique Priestley: The Data Privacy Act balances Vermonters’ personal privacy with business operations

  20-05-2024 16:42 via vtdigger.org
  
  This commentary is by Rep. Michael Marcotte, R-Coventry; Rep. Stephanie Jerome, D-Brandon and Rep. Monique Priestley, D-Bradford — chair, vice chair and clerk of the Vermont House Committee on Commerce & Economic Development.
  Everything we do and say online is cataloged every moment of every day of our lives. Sometimes we know what’s being collected and tracked, but we decide to trade permission for convenience. Most of the time, we don’t even realize what is being collect
  
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• Howard Dean will not run for governor of Vermont

  20-05-2024 15:46 via vtdigger.org
  
  Former Governor Howard Dean announces he will not be a candidate for governor at a press conference in Waterbury on Monday, May 20, 2024. Photo by Glenn Russell/VTDigger
  He’s out.After toying with the prospect of running for governor again, former Gov. Howard Dean said Monday morning that he would not challenge Republican Gov. Phil Scott this November.
  Dean announced his intentions at a press conference at the Waterbury town offices. Until he began speaking, it was unclear whether he woul
  
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• Howard Dean, Miro Weinberger rule out runs for governor of Vermont

  20-05-2024 15:46 via vtdigger.org
  
  Former Gov. Howard Dean, left, in May 2024 and former Burlington Mayor Miro Weinberger in September 2023. Photos by Glenn Russell/VTDiggerUpdated at 12:41 p.m.Two prominent Vermont Democrats who had floated the prospect of challenging Republican Gov. Phil Scott this November have decided against it. Former Gov. Howard Dean and former Burlington Mayor Miro Weinberger both announced Monday that they would not run for office this fall. With just 10 days remaining before the deadline to appear
  
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• Chittenden County forester taps into new path

  20-05-2024 12:01 via vtdigger.org
  
  Ethan Tapper stands on his property, Bear Island, in Bolton, reminiscing on the years it took to shape the 175 acres into what it is now. Photo by Liberty Darr/The Other PaperThis story by Liberty Darr was first published in The Other Paper on May 16.Ethan Tapper hopped out of his truck and pointed his binoculars to the sky, scanning the tops of the trees on his 175-acre property in Bolton.“I’m not a birder, but I love birds,” he said, a smile spreading across his face as he w
  
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• Tenant protections failed to gain traction in the Statehouse

  20-05-2024 11:00 via vtdigger.org
  
  A sign solicits renters on Colchester Avenue in Burlington in July 2022. File photo by Anna Ste. Marie/Vermont Public
  This story, by Report for America corps member Carly Berlin, was produced through a partnership between VTDigger and Vermont Public.As Vermont faces a razor-thin rental vacancy rate, an ever-tighter home-buying market, and an uptick in homelessness, lawmakers focused this year on clearing the way for more housing development.But when it comes to Vermonters who already have a hom
  
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• Young Writers Project: ‘My mother: the Earth’

  19-05-2024 14:01 via vtdigger.org
  
  “Florida Fisherman,” by Elise Ryan, YWP Media Library
  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@youngwritersproject.
  
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• In Charlotte, fencers find their Yoda in Viveka Fox

  19-05-2024 14:01 via vtdigger.org
  
  Viveka Fox, right, spars during a practice session of the Vermont Fencing Alliance in Charlotte. Photo by Catherine Morrissey
  Noah Diedrich is a reporter with Community News Service, part of the University of Vermont’s Reporting & Documentary Storytelling program.The two opponents faced each other on the strip inside the Charlotte Central School gym, glinting blades held upright in front of their stone-still bodies. Suddenly the fencers advanced, and the duel began. Lunge. P
  
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• Then Again: Vermont and New Hampshire, a long rivalry

  19-05-2024 13:01 via vtdigger.org
  
  New Hampshire’s colonial governor Benning Wentworth started a feud with New York when he issued grants to scores of towns in what is today Vermont. Wentworth’s goal had been to raise money to repay his colony’s debts — and enrich himself in the process. Image from Wikimedia Commons
  Just examine a map, and you’ll see that Vermont and New Hampshire should get along. They look like two peas in a pod, or better yet, a yin-yang symbol.Or perhaps we should think of them
  
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• 88 piano keys, 252 places: Why this Vermonter is hitting the high notes from Alburgh to Vernon

  19-05-2024 13:01 via vtdigger.org
  
  University of Vermont music professor David Feurzeig is aiming to perform a free concert in every one of the state’s 252 municipalities in his “Play Every Town Project.” Photo by Kevin O’Connor/VTDigger
  University of Vermont music professor David Feurzeig once prided himself on such worldly feats as attending the premiere of his “Songs of Love and Protest” in Dresden, Germany, and serving as a two-time featured guest at the International Composers Festival in
  
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• ‘There was no right vote’: Why a controversial wildlife bill died in the Vermont House

  19-05-2024 12:01 via vtdigger.org
  
  Rep. Katherine Sims, D-Craftsbury, speaks during a meeting at the Statehouse in Montpelier on Wednesday, April 3, 2024. Photo by Glenn Russell/VTDigger
  Over the last several years, a debate over how to manage wildlife has become a symbol of a broader cultural divide in Vermont. During the recently concluded legislative session, that debate culminated in S.258, a bill that would have changed the state’s wildlife management structure. Many supporters of the measure saw it as a pathway
  
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• Harriet Langburd: It’s time to create programs for incarcerated fathers 

  19-05-2024 12:01 via vtdigger.org
  
  This commentary is by Harriet Langburd of Burlington. She is a rising senior studying sociology and psychology at the University of Vermont.
  I intern at the Kids-A-Part program housed at the Chittenden Regional Correctional Facility, the only women’s prison in Vermont. The program is facilitated by Lund and is contracted by the Department of Corrections. My role is facilitating video and in-person visits with children and their mothers. I have seen firsthand how important these relationsh
  
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• Paul R. Philbrook

  18-05-2024 02:27 via vtdigger.org
  
  Born Nov. 6, 1931
  Norwich, VermontDied March 3, 2024Venice, FloridaDetails of services
  Celebration of Life: Sunday, June 2 from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. at Snow Farm Vineyard, 190 West Shore Rd., South Hero, VT.Paul R. Philbrook, born on November 6, 1931, in Norwich, Vermont, peacefully passed away on March 3, 2024. He was predeceased by his beloved wife, Sarah Cobb Philbrook.Paul’s life was marked by remarkable service and achievements. He bravely served in the Korean War as a radio operat
  
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• Amid criticism, postal service pauses plans to restructure facilities in White River Junction and Burlington

  18-05-2024 01:35 via vtdigger.org
  
  Carol Fairbanks loads sorted mail into bins at the U.S. Postal Service processing plant in White River Junction on Tuesday, April 14, 2020. File photo by James M. Patterson/Valley NewsThis story by Patrick Adrian was first published by the Valley News on May 16.The U.S. Postal Service plan to move sorting operations in White River Junction and Burlington to Connecticut is currently on hold, following concerns expressed by U.S. senators about the impact of USPS’s nationwide reorganization
  
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• State intends to build new secure juvenile facility in Vergennes 

  18-05-2024 00:24 via vtdigger.org
  
  A rendering of the proposed Green Mountain Youth Campus. Photo courtesy of Vermont Department for Children and FamiliesThe Vermont Department for Children and Families formally announced Thursday it intends to build a secure youth facility in Vergennes, a project that would replace the state’s juvenile detention center shuttered in 2020.The proposed facility, named the Green Mountain Youth Campus, would be built on state property off Comfort Hill Road. The campus would be constructed by a
  
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• Anti-abortion groups spar in court with state lawyer over crisis pregnancy centers 

  17-05-2024 23:53 via vtdigger.org
  
  Branches Pregnancy Resource Center in Brattleboro. Photo courtesy of Branches Pregnancy Resource Center
  BURLINGTON — Attorneys representing national anti-abortion advocates and two Vermont-based crisis pregnancy centers argued before a judge on Thursday that a 2023 state law subjecting the facilities to false and misleading advertising statutes amounted to “viewpoint discrimination.”But the state’s top prosecutors, who have asked a judge to dismiss the groups’ laws
  
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• Iowa woman pleads guilty after banking more than $328,000 in dead mother’s Social Security checks

  17-05-2024 23:04 via vtdigger.org
  
  The U.S. District Court for the District of Vermont in Burlington. File photo by Elizabeth Hewitt/VTDigger
  BURLINGTON — An Iowa woman has pleaded guilty to illegally collecting hundreds of thousands of dollars from Social Security checks intended for her mother, a Brattleboro resident who died in 1994.Ella Mae Woods entered the guilty plea Friday to a single wire fraud charge during a hearing in U.S. District Court in Burlington. Sentencing is scheduled for Aug. 19.The case had been set f
  
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• At tiny Sterling College, a pro-Palestinian encampment continues protesting

  17-05-2024 20:28 via vtdigger.org
  
  Tents in a pro-Palestinian encampment at Sterling College. Photo by Peter D’Auria/VTDiggerLate last month, students across Vermont, and the country, set up pro-Palestinian encampments on university campuses to protest the ongoing Israel-Hamas war in Gaza.Tent encampments at the University of Vermont and Middlebury College lasted over a week, with protesters packing up earlier this month after administrators met some of their demands — and with the end of the school year looming.On a
  
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• At tiny Sterling College, a pro-Palestine encampment continues protesting

  17-05-2024 20:28 via vtdigger.org
  
  Tents in a pro-Palestinian encampment at Sterling College. Photo by Peter D’Auria/VTDiggerLate last month, students across Vermont, and the country, set up pro-Palestinian encampments on university campuses to protest the ongoing Israel-Hamas war in Gaza.Tent encampments at the University of Vermont and Middlebury College lasted over a week, with protesters packing up earlier this month after administrators met some of their demands — and with the end of the school year looming.On a
  
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• Man awaiting trial in ex-girlfriend’s death found guilty of federal drug, firearms charges

  17-05-2024 20:07 via vtdigger.org
  
  Deven Moffitt. Photo courtesy of Vermont State Police
  A Bennington man awaiting a state trial in the killing of his ex-girlfriend was convicted Thursday of drug and firearms charges in federal court.Court records show Deven Moffitt, 33, was found guilty on all three of his federal charges: possessing with intent to distribute fentanyl and cocaine, possessing firearms in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime and possessing firearms while being a convicted felon.Moffitt is scheduled for sentenc
  
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• Administration Secretary Kristin Clouser to leave after 2 years

  17-05-2024 19:23 via vtdigger.org
  
  Kristin Clouser. Contributed photo
  Kristin Clouser, secretary of the Vermont Agency of Administration, is departing from her role next week, Gov. Phil Scott announced in a press release Friday. Clouser has been in charge of the agency since December 2021. Before that, she served as deputy secretary starting in November 2020, and previously worked in the human services division of the Vermont Attorney General’s Office and as general counsel to the Agency of Human Services. Scott
  
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