Vermont news

• Van conversion business owner agrees to plead guilty in fraud case

  30-11-2025 12:51 via vtdigger.org
  While the business is closed, the website for East Coast Van Builds in Bradford. is still online. Screenshot courtesy of Valley News
  This story by John Lippman was first published in Valley News on Nov. 26, 2025.A Bradford man faces a potential prison sentence and nearly $500,000 in restitution payments for taking payments for van conversions for which he failed to perform the work.Matthew Strong ran the now-shuttered business called East Coast Van Builds on Route 5 in Bradford’s Lower Pl
  
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• Barbara Benton: Do not judge an entire group of people based on the actions of one individual

  07-12-2025 13:03 via vtdigger.org
  This commentary is by Barbara Benton. She is a licensed clinical mental health counselor in Burlington, as well as a volunteer for the Vermont Afghan Alliance and other local organizations. In light of the recent violence in Washington, D.C. and the heightened anti-immigrant sentiment being promoted at the highest levels of this country, I want to reflect to Vermonters some of my experiences with the Afghans I have come to know.My association with Afghanistan started about 16 years ago whe
  
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• Vermont’s ‘crack climbing mecca’ deep in the Northeast Kingdom gains popularity

  07-12-2025 12:56 via vtdigger.org
  Deep in the Northeast Kingdom lie the Kingdom Heritage Lands, 132,000 acres of former and current timberland conserved for public access since 1998. The remote and undeveloped area is mainly the domain of wildlife, logging trucks, hunters and snowmobilers.Recently, however, increasing numbers of rock climbers have frequented a stunning band of chiseled granite towers set in the middle of the Kingdom Heritage Lands, at a cliff 30 minutes south of the Canadian border and on the northern edge of t
  
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• South Burlington couple donate tree for Church Street holiday season

  07-12-2025 12:52 via vtdigger.org
  Elsie and Raymond Whitney next to what remains of the “magnificent specimen” of a blue spruce they donated to Church Street in Burlington for the holiday season. Photo by Liberty Darr/Other PaperThis story by Liberty Darr was fist published in the Other Paper on Dec. 4, 2025.Raymond and Elsie Whitney take good care of the lawn outside of their South Burlington home. In the summer months, it is alive with a blossoming display of zinnias and in the winter months, steadily manicured unt
  
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• Young Writers Project: ‘Alive’

  07-12-2025 12:50 via vtdigger.org
  “Starglow,” by Taylor Crafton
  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 [email protected]
  
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• Danville residents vote overwhelmingly against shuttering high school grades at town school

  07-12-2025 01:05 via vtdigger.org
  Danville residents cast their votes on whether to shutter high school grades at a local school during a referendum on Dec. 6, 2025. Photo by Corey McDonald/VTDigger.Danville residents voted overwhelmingly on Saturday against shuttering high school grades at the Danville School.Well over 500 residents cast paper ballot votes during a townwide referendum at Danville School, with 480 votes against a measure to close high school grades versus 75 in favor, according to Danville’s moderator Tob
  
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• Finalist for Montpelier city manager job is a defendant in $5 million lawsuit 

  06-12-2025 01:16 via vtdigger.org
  Eric Duffy. Photo courtesy of the City of MontpelierThis story by Carly Ocasso was first published in The Bridge on Dec. 4, 2025.One of the three finalists to become Montpelier’s next city manager is facing a $5 million lawsuit stemming from a decision he made at his current job. After hours of interviews and some procedural controversy, Montpelier’s City Council chose three finalists on Wednesday to replace former City Manager Bill Fraser: Pinole, CA City Manager Kelcey Young,
  
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• Vermont health officials reaffirm importance of hepatitis B vaccine after federal advisory panel recommends delays

  06-12-2025 00:29 via vtdigger.org
  A parent holds his 16-month-old daughter as she receives the Moderna Covid-19 vaccination in Salt Lake City, Utah, on June 21, 2022. File photo by Rick Bowmer/APThe federal panel that advises the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s vaccine recommendations made one of its biggest moves on vaccine policy to date on Friday, saying that rather than vaccinate all newborns against hepatitis B at birth, parents and caregivers should delay the vaccine series until their child is 2 months
  
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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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