Vermont news

• SCOV Law Blog: Trial court rejects prosecution’s dismissal

  01-12-2017 16:30 via vtdigger.org
  Editor’s note: This piece from the SCOV Law Blog is by SCOV Law editor Andrew Delaney.
  State v. Villar, 2017 VT 109Creative Commons photo by walknboston via FlickrThis case is interesting (I’d drop a footnote here that says “if you’re a nerd,” but footnotes are a pain in these posts, so we’re going with a parenthetical). Can the prosecution dismiss a case while it’s on appeal? The trial court judge said, “Nope.” SCOV disagrees.
  Juan Villar wa
  
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• Don’t buy the nuclear sales pitch

  04-06-2026 00:01 via vtdigger.org
  Dear Editor,In response to Louis Varricchio’s recent letter to VTDigger regarding the moratorium on nuclear energy passed 20 years ago, a few thoughts and facts might be in order. I was the lead lobbyist who worked for seven years to close the Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Plant. I learned a lot about nuclear plants and those who promote them. This plant was old and leaking. We were told not to worry, everything was just fine. It wasn’t. 
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  Today, Vermont has the du
  
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• Ex-sheriff’s deputy banned from police work over ‘trading cards’ of suspects

  03-06-2026 23:40 via vtdigger.org
  Illuminated police lights. Photo by Adobe StockA former Lamoille County sheriff’s deputy has been banned by a state panel from police work in Vermont after being accused of using booking photos and other images to make “trading cards” of suspects who had been arrested. The same panel also agreed on a written warning to a member of the Rutland City Police Department who faced allegations of violating the state-required Fair and Impartial Policing Policy by contacting feder
  
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• At Burlington Jazz Festival, curator Jason Moran turns spotlight to youth musicians

  03-06-2026 22:45 via vtdigger.org
  Jazz musician Jason Moran rehearses with members of the Vermont Youth Orchestra in Colchester on Tuesday, June 2, 2026. Photo by Glenn Russell/VTDiggerTo understand what’s different about this year’s Burlington Jazz Festival, note the location of Saturday afternoon’s performance featuring The Bandwagon: the A-Dog waterfront skatepark.The Skate Jam was the idea of, and stars, the festival’s new curator — pianist, composer and bandleader Jason Moran, known in the mus
  
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• Vermont Conversation: Celebrating and defending protest, America’s founding principle

  03-06-2026 22:23 via vtdigger.org
  
  
  The Vermont Conversation with David Goodman is a VTDigger podcast that features in-depth interviews on local and national issues. Listen and subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get podcasts.Former Greenpeace leaders and authors Andre Carothers and Annie Leonard. Photo by Brooke AndersonAs the nation approaches its 250th anniversary, two veteran activists are celebrating one of the country’s foundational principles: the right to protest, as emb
  
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• Invest in journalism that makes a difference for Vermonters

  03-06-2026 21:49 via vtdigger.org
  Dear Reader,Our reporting begins where the official version begins to fray. A number doesn’t reconcile, an answer arrives too smoothly, officials won’t talk. And when we start asking questions, we keep digging until we find answers. Reader donations make this work possible.Until Saturday, June 6, your gift will also send a new book to a Vermont child through the Children’s Literacy Foundation (CLiF). Will you help keep local news strong and support the news readers o
  
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• William Eagan

  03-06-2026 17:22 via vtdigger.org
  Born: 12/04/1943Rutland, Vt.Died: 05/26/2026Colchester, Vt.On May 26, 2026, William (“Bill”) Edward Eagan, Jr. passed from this world. Or, as the man who prized saying things just as they are would have put it — he died.Bill entered the world on December 4, 1943, the son of Margaret Anne Garneau Eagan and William Edward Eagan. Separated by the ravages of war, like many of that era, father and son would not meet until well after Bill’s second birthday. World-defining conf
  
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• Hundreds of housing units in the works at closely-watched project in Burlington’s South End

  03-06-2026 17:15 via vtdigger.org
  A rendering of the South End Coordinated Redevelopment Project, courtesy of Andrew Foley, development director at Jonathan Rose Companies. Credit: GOA Architecture.This story, by Report for America corps member Carly Berlin, was produced through a partnership between VTDigger and Vermont Public.A long-awaited housing development that could bring hundreds of new apartments to a series of empty lots in Burlington’s South End neighborhood is beginning to come together.The first phase of the
  
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• Lily Pierce finds her calling in sign language 

  03-06-2026 16:58 via vtdigger.org
  The expressive nature of sign language resonates with Lily, who is captivated by its ability to connect people and communicate emotion. “Hearing people don’t always connect that emotion with their words and expressions,” she said. “Learning ASL really changed my perspective and how I see communication.” Lily’s outlook was solidified when her American Sign Language (ASL) class took a full-immersion trip to Gallaudet University in Washington D.C., a school
  
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• International trade organization adds to pressure on Hannaford to join Milk With Dignity

  03-06-2026 12:53 via vtdigger.org
  Supporters of the Migrant Justice’s Milk With Dignity campaign march to the Hannaford supermarket in South Burlington in May 2022. File photo by Glenn Russell/VTDiggerVermont immigrant activist group Migrant Justice is set to begin negotiations with Hannaford’s parent company over working conditions on Vermont dairy farms. The activist group has long pressured Hannaford, a major New England grocery chain, to join its “Milk With Dignity” program, an agreement that wo
  
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• Leslie J. Matthews, PhD and Richard “Sandy” Hyde, PhD

  03-06-2026 01:18 via vtdigger.org
  
  Died: 05/07/2026Calais, VTDetails of service:There will be a celebration of their lives on Sunday, August 9, 2026 at 2 p.m. at the Maple Corner Community Center in Calais, VT. All are welcome.Leslie Matthews and Richard “Sandy” Hyde were longtime Vermont residents who wholeheartedly embraced the culture and environment of New England. Together for over 40 years, they hiked all the 4,000 footers of New England, and most of Colorados 14,000 footers. Leslie knew Vermont lakes and ponds
  
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• ‘A critical moment’: US Supreme Court lets Vermont continue suit claiming Meta hid harms to youth

  03-06-2026 00:15 via vtdigger.org
  
  Meta social media applications — Facebook, Messenger and Instagram — are displayed on an iPhone in March 2019. File photo by Jenny Kane/APTheo Wells-Spackman is a Report for America corps member who reports for VTDigger.Vermont officials can continue a consumer protection lawsuit against Meta, the company that owns Facebook and Instagram, the U.S. Supreme Court has indicated. In a brief, unexplained order last week, the nation’s highest court elected not to take up Meta&r
  
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• US Education Secretary Linda McMahon tours Essex tech center, prompting protest

  03-06-2026 00:07 via vtdigger.org
  
  U.S. Education Secretary Linda McMahon visited the Center for Technology, Essex on June 2, 2026. Photo by Corey McDonald/VTDigger.ESSEX JUNCTION — U.S. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon paid a visit to the Essex-Westford School District’s career and technology center Tuesday while dozens of protesters, including students, demonstrated outside the school.McMahon was in Vermont as part of her “Returning Education to the States” initiative, a tour of the country’s
  
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• As Vermont is a key link in global species movement, state and partners build out conservation networks and wildlife passages

  02-06-2026 23:04 via vtdigger.org
  
  The Merck Forest and Farmland Center in Rupert is situated between two vital migration corridors. Seen on Friday, May 8, 2026. Photo by Glenn Russell/VTDiggerAs climate change pushes wildlife northward, conservation groups and state officials are trying to preserve a shrinking chain of forest corridors in Vermont that scientists say are critical to species migration across the Northeast. Conservationists say the fragmentation of the landscape through roads and development weaken links in t
  
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• Who governs Lake Champlain? 

  02-06-2026 21:10 via vtdigger.org
  
  This commentary is by Mark Naud, who is an environmental and land use attorney in Burlington.I have practiced environmental law in Vermont for 30 years, working on land, water and governance issues throughout this basin. I served as chair of the Vermont Citizens Advisory Committee on Lake Champlain’s Future. And I will tell you something easy to forget when you are inside the daily work of environmental protection: What we have built around this lake is genuinely rare, and it works. 
  
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• Former Rutland County school superintendent, husband deny underage drinking charges in teen’s death

  02-06-2026 01:09 via vtdigger.org
  
  Former Rutland Northeast Supervisory Union Superintendent Kristin Hubert, center right, and her husband John Henry Hubert appear at their arraignment in Rutland County Superior Criminal Court on Monday, June 1, 2026. The Huberts are charged in the 2024 death of Macy Piersiak for furnishing alcohol to a minor. Photo by Glenn Russell/VTDiggerRUTLAND –  A former Rutland County school superintendent and her husband have pleaded not guilty to charges of enabling the drinking of alcohol by
  
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• Peacham preemptively transferring ownership of its school building to town

  02-06-2026 00:49 via vtdigger.org
  
  Peacham village from the northwest. Photo by Ascended Dreamer via Wikimedia Commons. Licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.One Northeast Kingdom town took an unusual step to retain some control over its school’s fate just as the state Legislature finalized passage of this year’s landmark education reform bill on Friday evening. Around 40 Peacham voters unanimously approved an article authorizing the selectboard to purchase the town’s elementary school building for the nominal amoun
  
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• Debate over ICE masking bill complicates, for a moment, end of session in the Vermont House

  02-06-2026 00:26 via vtdigger.org
  
  Protesters and ICE agents in South Burlington in March 2026. File photo by Glenn Russell/VTDiggerWe’re outta hereThat’s all, folks.The Vermont Legislature adjourned for the year, and for the 2025-26 biennium, Friday night. Senators finished up their work just before 6 p.m., and the House followed suit two hours later. I’m not complaining about the time. I was happy, in fact, to be on the road home with a sliver of daylight left.The House took longer to finish in part because i
  
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• Hateful words have consequences

  01-06-2026 22:53 via vtdigger.org
  
  Dear Editor,I want to thank everyone who has reached out after my storefront in Cavendish was vandalized with anti-Zionist graffiti. The messages, calls and offers of support have meant more than I can say. People from Vermont and beyond have written to tell me that seeing Israeli flags in my window gave them comfort, courage and a feeling that they were not alone. I did not fully realize how much that visibility mattered until others told me.I was shaken by what happened, but I am OK, and
  
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• Kathryn DeSutter

  01-06-2026 22:01 via vtdigger.org
  
  Born: 06/30/1991Mooresville, North CarolinaDied: 05/25/2026Burlington, VermontDetails of service:Friends and family are warmly invited to an open memorial gathering at our home on Friday, June 5, from 2:30–6:30 PM — come as you are, stay as long as you like.
  A Celebration of Life will follow in the coming months.
  In lieu of flowers, Kathryn asked that donations be made to The Janet S. Munt Family Room in Burlington, an organization that has helped our children and cares for the comm
  
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• VTDigger launches campaign to send 400 books to Vermont children

  01-06-2026 21:00 via vtdigger.org
  
  Dear Reader,Today, VTDigger is launching a special five-day campaign in partnership with the Children’s Literacy Foundation (CLiF) to help put 400 new books into the hands of Vermont children.Through Saturday, every donation to VTDigger will do double duty: support independent local reporting and provide a brand-new children’s book through CLiF.Our goal is simple: 400 children’s books from 400 readers. Will you join us?
  Donate & send a book
  For some children, this will be
  
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• We came for the skiing. We stayed because of the school.

  01-06-2026 19:49 via vtdigger.org
  
  This commentary is by Jay Hachadoorian, a personal trainer who lives in Winhall.My wife, Christina, and I are not the people you’d expect to write about Vermont education policy. We’re personal trainers from just outside New York City. We’re not policy wonks or lifelong Vermonters. We didn’t come here with a plan.We came for a ski weekend in 2019, drove past a sign that said “The Mountain School at Winhall,” and Christina said it was her dream for our son to
  
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• ‘The worst thing that has happened to me’: Honduran immigrant shares his experience of the South Burlington ICE raid

  01-06-2026 15:01 via vtdigger.org
  
  José Estrada Jerez, 19, outside the Dorset Street house in South Burlington on May 17, 2026, where he and others had sheltered in place for hours during an ICE raid on March 11. Photo by Auditi Guha/VTDiggerWhen federal agents stormed into the house he had lived in just five months, José Estrada Jerez said he and his uncle were on their knees, their hands raised in surrender.“They burst in the door, their guns pointed at me and my uncle,” Jerez said. “I was alrea
  
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• New Vermont rules ban wake surfing on Lake Fairlee

  31-05-2026 15:47 via vtdigger.org
  
  Herb and Kirsten Detrick, of Post Mills, Vt., take a ride on Lake Fairlee on Wednesday, May 27, 2028. Kirsten Detrick is a former member of the Lake Fairlee Association and also attended summer camp on the lake. The couple has lived full time on the lake since 2018. Vermont’s Legislative Committee on Administrative Rules voted 5-3 last week to approve a proposal to expand rules governing wake sports in Vermont, banning the activity on Lake Fairlee and 11 other lakes where they were previo
  
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• This Manchester mansion has history — and now the world’s largest private collection of 20th-century Vermont art

  31-05-2026 14:53 via vtdigger.org
  
  Dani Edgar, collections manager at Manchester’s Southern Vermont Arts Center, hangs a William Dean Fausett painting that’s part of “For the Love of Vermont: The Lyman Orton Collection.” Photo by Kevin O’Connor/VTDiggerMANCHESTER — Lyman Orton arrived at a local auction six decades ago in hopes of furnishing his first house, only to spy a seemingly simple yet thought-provoking framed landscape.“The whole idea that artists fell in love with the state and
  
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• It’s time for Vermont to reconsider its outdated nuclear moratorium

  31-05-2026 14:03 via vtdigger.org
  
  Dear Editor,As Vermont strives to meet its ambitious climate goals and transition to a clean energy future, we need to confront a glaring contradiction in our state policy: our moratorium on nuclear energy.Passed 20 years ago in a different era, this policy is increasingly out of step with modern science and the realities of grid reliability. Relying solely on intermittent wind and solar means Vermont must continuously import power from out of state. Green Mountain Power already imports nuclear
  
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• Young Writers Project: ‘Delicious’

  31-05-2026 13:57 via vtdigger.org
  
  “Beach,” by Aiden Baker, 16, of Hardwick.Young Writers Project is a creative, online community of teen writers and visual artists that started in Burlington in 2006. Each week, VTDigger publishes the writing and art of young Vermonters who post their work on youngwritersproject.org, a free, interactive website for youth, ages 13-19. To find out more, please go to youngwritersproject.org or contact Executive Director Susan Reid at sreid@youngwriters
  
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• A federal program sends billions to pay for childcare meals. In Vermont, participation is plummeting.

  31-05-2026 12:56 via vtdigger.org
  
  Barbie Blanchard feeds one of her young charges during lunch at From Bottles to Busses day care in Rutland on Thursday, May 21, 2026. Photo by Glenn Russell/VTDiggerTheo Wells-Spackman is a Report for America corps member who reports for VTDigger.For Barbie Blanchard, who since 2002 has run a home-based childcare program in the Rutland area, providing meals for her charges has always been a given. Kids in her care get a carefully planned breakfast, lunch and afternoon snack every day.&ldqu
  
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• April jobs report points to a decrease in employment in the state

  30-05-2026 13:18 via vtdigger.org
  
  The Vermont Department of Labor in Montpelier. File photo by Elizabeth Hewitt/VTDiggerEmployment in Vermont has been in a steady decline this year that got steeper in April. The latest monthly data shows the state lost 900 jobs last month, an estimated 0.3% reduction in employees on payroll compared with March. It was the largest drop so far in 2026.​“The size of Vermont’s labor force continues to steadily decline even as higher costs put pressure on household budgets acr
  
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• Vermont Legislature adjourns 2026 session that centered, again, on education reform

  30-05-2026 02:27 via vtdigger.org
  
  Speaker of the House Jill Krowinski, D-Burlington, gavels the House into adjournment at the Statehouse in Montpelier on Friday, May 29, 2026. Photo by Glenn Russell/VTDiggerMONTPELIER — After a week of fits and starts with negotiations that at times dragged into the night, the Vermont Legislature adjourned its 2026 session on Friday, just shy of five months after lawmakers first filed into the Statehouse in early January.The Senate gaveled out for the year at 5:51 p.m., and the House clos
  
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