Vermont news

• Vermont Legal Aid sues on behalf of Vermonters denied jobless benefits

  02-12-2021 00:12 via vtdigger.org
  
  The Vermont Department of Labor web portal for self-employed people who have been affected by the Covid-19 virus. Photo by Glenn Russell/VTDiggerVermont Legal Aid sued the Vermont Department of Labor on Wednesday over delays in hearing appeals on unemployment benefits.The lawsuit is a class action on behalf of people who were denied unemployment compensation, wrongfully terminated from the compensation or asked to return some benefits.A spokesperson for the labor department said it is reviewing
  
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• George Longenecker: AI goes to college 

  13-05-2024 13:01 via vtdigger.org
  
  This commentary is by George Longenecker of Middlesex.
  I wanted to find out how easy it would be for a student to use artificial intelligence instead of their own minds. It’s been a few years since I retired and AI has made huge strides.ChatGPT (Chat Generative Pre-trained Transformer) is a chatbot developed by OpenAI. Launched in 2022, AI is the fastest-growing software application in history, with 100 million users and a value of $80 billion.  It’s only on
  
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• Rev. Devon Thomas: UVM, don’t punish student protesters

  13-05-2024 12:01 via vtdigger.org
  
  This commentary is by the Rev. Devon Thomas, pastor of the Ascension Lutheran Church in South Burlington.
  As a pastor, I feel it is my professional and moral responsibility to speak to the crisis of conscience facing our nation and state.As of this writing, the civilian death toll in Gaza stands at around 34,654 according to Gaza’s Ministry of Health. A third of these casualties are children.I do not say this without hesitation, and I thank my Jewish sisters and brothers who have already
  
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• After the flood, Johnson’s Foote Brook Farm forges ahead

  13-05-2024 12:01 via vtdigger.org
  
  Tony Lehouillier and Bruce Kaufman lower a black walnut tree into the ground at Foote Brook Farm as part of a regenerative farming project conducted by a team of volunteers last Friday. Photo by Aaron Calvin/New & CitizenThis story by Aaron Calvin was first published by the News & Citizen on May 9.The day after last July’s catastrophic flooding inundated Foote Brook Farm in Johnson — ruining or damaging crops, barns, machinery, feed and fertilizer — Tony Lehouillier go
  
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• Young Writers Project: ‘Words slipping through my grasp’

  12-05-2024 14:01 via vtdigger.org
  
  “A Library of Secrets,” 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@youngwritersp
  
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• Stowe Mountain Resort reaches parking lot agreement after lengthy appeal

  12-05-2024 14:01 via vtdigger.org
  
  Stowe Mountain Resort. File photo by the Stowe Reporter
  This story by Tommy Gardner was first published in the Stowe Reporter on May 9.Two years after Stowe zoning officials denied Stowe Mountain Resort a permit for a 286-space parking lot and neighbors to the proposed site opposed it, the sides have come to an agreement that essentially splits the difference.A settlement reached in Vermont Environmental Court on March 14 will allow the resort to construct a 150-space paved parking lot in its H
  
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• Bill Schubart: Can we get our legislative act together?

  12-05-2024 13:02 via vtdigger.org
  
  I don’t know whether it’s the natural wariness of Vermont’s early immigrants who succeeded the native peoples who had foraged and hunted here for millennia but were largely driven north into Canada by the colonial newcomers, or whether it was the Milton Friedman neoliberalism that swept American politically when Reagan came to power in 1981 and told us that government itself was the problem, not the solution, but Vermonters seem to have a natural wariness of government. Vermont
  
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• This soup kitchen volunteer is feeding more people than ever. Those being served aren’t who you’d think.

  12-05-2024 12:01 via vtdigger.org
  
  Carolyn Pieciak is the retiring founding leader of St. Brigid’s soup kitchen in Brattleboro. Photo by Kevin O’Connor/VTDigger
  BRATTLEBORO — Carolyn Pieciak can tell you how she made peanut butter, jelly and Fluff sandwiches for her son, state Treasurer Mike Pieciak, long before he sunk his teeth into Vermont’s financial ledgers.But the 78-year-old Brattleboro resident would rather chew over the smorgasbord of meals she has coordinated as founding leader of one of this re
  
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• Rep. Michelle Bos-Lun: Vermont has a state mushroom!

  12-05-2024 12:01 via vtdigger.org
  
  This commentary is by Rep. Michelle Bos-Lun, D-Westminster. She is a second-term state representative for Westminster, Rockingham and Brookline. She is a teacher, gardener, hiker and forager. She enjoys discovering, photographing, cultivating and cooking mushrooms.
  Vermont has a new state symbol: Hericium americanum, also known as bear’s head tooth, a white, long-toothed mushroom indigenous to Vermont. Students from kindergarten through eighth grade helped move forward this legislation to
  
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• Phil Scott to seek 5th term as governor

  12-05-2024 00:55 via vtdigger.org
  
  Gov. Phil Scott speaks during his weekly press conference at the Statehouse in Montpelier on Wednesday April 3, 2024. File photo by Glenn Russell/VTDigger
  Gov. Phil Scott isn’t ready to hang up his hat.In a press release issued Saturday evening, the four-term Republican governor announced that he will seek another two-year term in this year’s election cycle. Throughout his political career, the 65-year-old Berlin resident has staked out a position as a moderate Republican. As g
  
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• Vermont Legislature adjourns after a contentious 2024 session

  11-05-2024 09:10 via vtdigger.org
  
  Members of the House of Representatives work on legislation at the Statehouse in Montpelier on Friday, May 10, 2024. Photo by Glenn Russell/VTDigger
  After a tumultuous day of dealmaking on housing, land use and property tax measures, the Vermont Legislature adjourned its 2024 session in the early hours of Saturday morning. The Senate gaveled out at 1:18 a.m. and the House at 2:07 a.m.The session was shaped by existential debates over the future of the state. Lawmakers grappled with projected do
  
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• Vermont lawmakers reach late-night property tax deal, but bill looks destined for a veto

  11-05-2024 07:09 via vtdigger.org
  
  Rep. Laura Sibilia, I-Dover, left, confers with Rep. Emilie Kornheiser, D-Brattleboro, on the floor of the House at the Statehouse in Montpelier on Friday, May 10, 2024. Photo by Glenn Russell/VTDigger
  The Vermont House and Senate reached an agreement late Friday night on the Legislature’s annual property tax bill to fund school districts’ budgets. It cleared both chambers around midnight, in the final hours of the 2024 legislative session, though it faces a likely veto by Gov. Phil
  
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• At the 11th hour, lawmakers strike compromise on Act 250 reform

  11-05-2024 06:20 via vtdigger.org
  
  Members of the Senate work on legislation at the Statehouse in Montpelier on Friday, May 10, 2024. Photo by Glenn Russell/VTDigger
  This story, by Report for America corps member Carly Berlin, was produced through a partnership between VTDigger and Vermont Public.In the final hours of the 2024 legislative session, lawmakers managed a considerable feat: They passed broad reforms to Act 250, a law that has governed and guided development in Vermont for half a century.The bill cleared its last hurd
  
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• Police identify family members killed Thursday in South Hero

  11-05-2024 02:54 via vtdigger.org
  
  Photo courtesy of Vermont State Police
  A South Hero man shot and killed his nephew on Thursday before turning the gun on himself and taking his own life, according to Vermont State Police.The bodies of Andrew “Drew” Lalumiere, 35, and John Lalumiere, 68, were found late Thursday morning outside a home on Kibbe Farm Road in South Hero. According to a press release issued Friday night by state police, John Lalumiere used a handgun to fatally shoot Andrew Lalumiere, and then used the s
  
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• Final Reading: The clock is ticking down on Vermont Legislature’s biennial session

  11-05-2024 01:34 via vtdigger.org
  
  Members of the Senate work on legislation at the Statehouse in Montpelier on Friday, May 10, 2024. Photo by Glenn Russell/VTDigger
  I write to you, Dear Final Reader, in what are — God willing — the waning hours of this year’s legislative session. As of 6:30 p.m. Friday, legislators are sticking to the script that they will have all their work wrapped tonight, no matter how late they need to stay.That’s despite the House and Senate still being, it would seem, quite f
  
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• Vermont legislature passes bill to create uniform ethical standards in local government

  11-05-2024 00:55 via vtdigger.org
  
  Members of the Senate Government Operations Committee listen to testimony at the Statehouse in Montpelier on Wednesday, April 17, 2024. From left to right are Sen. Tanya Vyhovsky, P/D-Chittenden Central; Sen. Ruth Hardy, D-Addison; Sen. Becca White, D-Windsor; Sen. Alison Clarkson, D-Windsor. Photo by Glenn Russell/VTDigger
  Vermont lawmakers have passed a bill that would create new uniform ethical standards for many local government officials — a change that proponents said is long overdu
  
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• Vermont lawmakers pass bill to create uniform ethical standards in local government

  11-05-2024 00:55 via vtdigger.org
  
  Members of the Senate Government Operations Committee listen to testimony at the Statehouse in Montpelier on Wednesday, April 17, 2024. From left to right are Sen. Tanya Vyhovsky, P/D-Chittenden Central; Sen. Ruth Hardy, D-Addison; Sen. Becca White, D-Windsor; Sen. Alison Clarkson, D-Windsor. Photo by Glenn Russell/VTDigger
  Vermont lawmakers have passed a bill that would create new uniform ethical standards for many local government officials — a change that proponents said is long overdu
  
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• Two major health care access bills meet different fates in Vermont Statehouse

  11-05-2024 00:32 via vtdigger.org
  
  Rep. Lori Houghton, D-Essex Junction, chair of the House Health Care Committee, discusses health care bills facing the legislature with Speaker of the House Jill Krowinski, D-Burlington, at the Statehouse in Montpelier on Thursday, February 1, 2024. Photo by Glenn Russell/VTDigger
  This January, lawmakers introduced two major pieces of legislation, both of which aimed to improve Vermonters’ ability to access health care. One bill, H.721, proposed expanding the publicly-funded Medicaid
  
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• Vermont’s 1st-ever wake boats rule is now in effect, but some are pushing for further restrictions 

  11-05-2024 00:20 via vtdigger.org
  
  The state’s first-ever rule managing wakesports took effect in April. Courtesy photo via PxHere
  Wake boats traversing Vermont waterways this summer will have to abide by strict new regulations. The state’s first-ever rule managing wakesports on lakes and ponds took effect April 15 after a two-year-long, citizen-led push.Though the state’s new rule has been in place for less than a month, some are already pushing to further restrict the activity of such boats. The creation
  
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• Jeffery Carl Dickson

  10-05-2024 21:10 via vtdigger.org
  
  Born Jan. 29, 1945
  Cleveland, Ohio
  Died April 4, 2024Jamaica, Vermont
  Details of servicesA service will be held for Jeff and his wife, Patti, at 10 a.m. on May 11, 2024, at All Saints Episcopal Church in Wolfeboro, NH, followed by a reception at the Inn on Main Street.Jeffery Carl Dickson, 79, passed away on Thursday, April 4, 2024, surrounded by his family at his home after a six-month battle with esophageal cancer. Born in Cleveland, OH, he had a talent for music early in life. He majored in j
  
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• Gaining the security to grow in place

  10-05-2024 20:31 via vtdigger.org
  
  It all started as a sharpening business in the late 1970s. Then it dabbled with a few production orders of costly saw blades. Over time, the manufacturing volume increased and the price decreased, making Super Thin Saws more accessible.With growth came needs — more staff, which turned to more space. That’s when the company entered its home base that has lasted until today, in Waterbury.Now Super Thin Saws owns those two building units it occupies. Just weeks after last summer’
  
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• Edward J. Sbardellati

  10-05-2024 20:26 via vtdigger.org
  
  Born Dec. 3, 1946Derby, ConnecticutDied April 14, 2024
  Middlesex, VermontEdward J. Sbardellati (Ed), 77, of Middlesex, VT passed away at his home on April 17, 2024.Ed was born in Derby, CT to his parents Edward Sbardellati, Sr. and Genevieve Sbardellati, née Bilcz, on December 3, 1946.Ed earned an AB History degree from Norwich University in 1968, an MS in Elementary Education in 1972 from Southern Connecticut State University, a MED in Special Education in 1975 from the University of Ver
  
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• Kelsey Julia Boleski

  10-05-2024 19:54 via vtdigger.org
  
  Kelsey Julia Boleski left us on March 3, 2024 in Crested Butte Colorado at the age of 34.An avid athlete, outdoorswoman, skier, biker, horsewoman, animal lover and creator of circles of friends which overlapped and connected people across the country. Kelsey was funny, moody, busy, driven, tenacious, adventurous, loving, loyal and honest about her struggles with mental health. Kelsey started crawling at six months old and walking at nine months and started running shortly thereafter. She ne
  
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• Keeping tradition alive means looking to the future, too

  10-05-2024 19:34 via vtdigger.org
  
  When Erin Smith’s father-in-law, Dave Sawyer, started building Windsor chairs in 1982, he was focused on staying true to the historic form. He also taught others to create the refined, delicate furniture. Many of the most prominent Windsor chairmakers today learned directly from him, Smith said.When Dave began thinking about retirement, his son George — Smith’s husband — realized the end of an era could be near. George came home to Woodbury to learn from his father, even
  
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• Plan on track to ship Upper Valley mail to Connecticut for sorting

  10-05-2024 18:43 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 9.WHITE RIVER JUNCTION — The U.S. Postal Service will proceed with a plan to move mail sorting operations for Upper Valley communities from White River Junction to Connecticut, according to a USPS facilities study released this week.T
  
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• Brian J. Walsh: Gov. Scott’s insistence on having his way is blatantly anti-democratic

  10-05-2024 13:01 via vtdigger.org
  
  Dear Editor,For someone whose schtick has been “at least I’m not as bad as Trump,” Gov. Scott’s egregious usurpation of legislative power is downright Trumpian. Perhaps the last few barely contested elections have kindled visions of a “King” Scott?Since the Vermont Constitution allows gubernatorial appointments with “the advice and consent of the Senate,” Scott’s installation of Zoie Saunders as interim secretary of education is inherently un
  
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• Howard Krum: Developers are not friends of Vermont (i.e., greed is not good)

  10-05-2024 12:01 via vtdigger.org
  
  Dear Editor,This is another naive and short-sighted opinion piece by Ali Jalili — profiteering, greedy and yes, villainous, developers have a horrific track record everywhere around the globe because exploitation is the cornerstone of their business model. Developers employ a win/lose approach: they win by extracting their massive profits only when someone else loses.Increased protection of Vermont’s social and natural resources is the only viable way to improve our economic outlook.
  
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• Vermont congressional delegation calls on FEMA to improve flood recovery efforts

  10-05-2024 03:28 via vtdigger.org
  
  Members of a FEMA outreach team, wearing dark blue shirts, talk to a resident of a flood-affected neighborhood on Wednesday, July 19, 2023 in Chester. The team was knocking on doors in flood-affected areas to advise residents how to register and apply for help under FEMA’s Disaster Survivor Assistance program. Photo by Stefan Hard/VTDigger
  Vermont’s congressional delegation on Thursday called on the Federal Emergency Management Agency to address shortcomings it said residents faced
  
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• As lawmakers race to adjourn, the fate of Vermont’s landmark data privacy proposals is uncertain

  10-05-2024 03:10 via vtdigger.org
  
  Rep. James Gregoire, R-Fairfield, speaks on the floor of the House at the Statehouse in Montpelier on Tuesday, May 7, 2024. Photo by Glenn Russell/VTDiggerThe fate of two landmark data privacy proposals appeared uncertain late Thursday as Vermont lawmakers barrelled toward a self-imposed Friday deadline to adjourn the state’s 2024 legislative session.In recent days, the Vermont House and Senate have gone back and forth over two bills aimed at the nation’s largest social media compan
  
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• Counting critters: Vermont Reptile and Amphibian Atlas turns 30

  10-05-2024 01:04 via vtdigger.org
  
  A blue spotted salamander crawls across the ground in New Haven in April. Photo by Cedulie Benoit-Smith
  Cedulie Benoit-Smith is a reporter with Community News Service, part of the University of Vermont’s Reporting & Documentary Storytelling program.When Jim Andrews began work on the Vermont Reptile and Amphibian Atlas in 1994, the goal was simple: collect information to help inform the decisions of the state committee deciding which species should be listed, and protected, as endanger
  
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