Vermont news

• Weinberger and library director respond to hate speech

  27-07-2017 15:22 via vtdigger.org
  News Release — Mayor Miro WeinbergerJuly 21, 2017
  Contact:Katie Vane802.734.0617
  Mayor, Library Director Denounce Hate Speech Found at Fletcher Free Library
  Burlington, VT – Today Library Director Mary Danko and Mayor Miro Weinberger released the following statements in response to graffiti, which included a swastika and racial epithet, found at the Fletcher Free Library.
  “On Tuesday morning, I learned that graffiti had been discovered in one of the Library’s restrooms,&r
  
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• New York Times investigative reporter Eric Lipton to speak in South Burlington

  16-09-2026 18:00 via vtdigger.org
  
  Headshot courtesy of Eric Lipton; illustration by Taylor Haynes/VTDiggerAs the midterm elections approach, VTDigger and Seven Days will co-host a public talk with Eric Lipton, a four-time Pulitzer Prize winner and investigative reporter for The New York Times.
  When: Friday, Oct. 9. Doors open at 5:30 p.m.; the program begins at 6 p.m.Where: Delta Hotels, South BurlingtonTickets: Tickets are $15 and must be purchased online in advance. The event is expected to fill quickly.Accessibility and park
  
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• Step by step, Stacy Emerson is achieving her dream of becoming a registered nurse

  16-09-2026 15:18 via vtdigger.org
  
  Stacy Emerson at graduation with her instructor and mentor, Nancy Noble.Stacy Emerson describes herself as “a bit of a mother hen.” She’s on the older end of her classmates in her nursing cohort at Vermont State University (Vermont State), and she’s always looking out for her friends and coworkers. The friendships she’s formed among her nursing peers are so strong that, with their encouragement, she’s continuing on to complete her associate degree and plans t
  
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• Fatal crash case relocated amid concerns over an impartial jury

  16-09-2026 00:27 via vtdigger.org
  
  Kyle Hunt, second from left in the front row, sits with his attorney Timothy Fair during Hunt’s arraignment at the Orange County Courthouse in Chelsea, Vt., in March 2026. Hunt pleaded not guilty to a felony charge of vehicle operation-gross negligence/fatal and to a misdemeanor charge of giving false information to a law enforcement officer. Photo by Jennifer Hauck/Valley NewsThis story by Alex Ebrahimi was first published in the Valley News on Sept. 14, 2026.CHELSEA — On the eveni
  
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• Potential sale brings the former Sterling campus closer to new beginnings

  16-09-2026 00:14 via vtdigger.org
  
  The Sterling College campus in Craftsbury. Photo courtesy of Sterling CollegeWhen Sterling College graduated its last student in May, its trustees faced a hard question. With the school closing for good, what happens to the campus? This week, they got closer to an answer.The former school and Headwaters Community Trust, an organization that provides affordable housing and land in the Northeast Kingdom, signed a sale purchase agreement. The two sides have not finalized the expected transiti
  
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• Hundreds of layoffs announced at the two largest healthcare networks Vermonters rely on

  15-09-2026 23:37 via vtdigger.org
  
  TeleED hub: Alison Kapadia, MD, and Daryl Holthoff, RN, providing emergency care to patients via the TeleED hub. Photo courtesy of Dartmouth HealthHundreds of layoffs are underway at the two major healthcare networks Vermonters rely on.Facing similar financial challenges, both Dartmouth Health and the University of Vermont Health network announced the cuts Tuesday ahead of the Oct. 1 start to hospitals’ fiscal year. UVM Health is in the process of laying off 199 staffers, according t
  
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• Hundreds of layoffs announced at the 2 largest healthcare networks Vermonters rely on

  15-09-2026 23:37 via vtdigger.org
  
  TeleED hub: Alison Kapadia, MD, and Daryl Holthoff, RN, providing emergency care to patients via the TeleED hub. Photo courtesy of Dartmouth HealthHundreds of layoffs are underway at the two major healthcare networks Vermonters rely on.Facing similar financial challenges, both Dartmouth Health and the University of Vermont Health network announced the cuts Tuesday ahead of the Oct. 1 start to hospitals’ fiscal year. UVM Health is in the process of laying off 199 staffers, according t
  
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• My friend is being crushed for one sentence spoken to a president

  15-09-2026 23:19 via vtdigger.org
  
  This commentary is by Benjamin Hoffer, an environmental engineering master’s student at École Polytechnique de Paris.On Sept. 8 I traveled to a tribunal in Paris to testify in a criminal case brought on behalf of the French president, Emmanuel Macron, against a 22-year-old student. I never got the chance. I was sequestered with the other nine witnesses, waiting to be called one at a time — and the next thing we knew, the courtroom was emptied. We were physically forced out of
  
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• Stowe man sentenced to life in NEK double murder

  15-09-2026 23:14 via vtdigger.org
  
  The Federal Building in Burlington in Sept. 2025. File photo by Glenn Russell/VTDiggerA Stowe man who avoided the death penalty was handed two consecutive life sentences in the 2023 fatal shootings of two men in the Northeast Kingdom.“This crime shocked Vermont in its callousness and left the families of two young men with a grief that will never end,” Vermont State Police Criminal Division Commander Major Ashley Barnes wrote in a press release from the U.S. Attorney’s office
  
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• Prosecutors present gun, cellphone evidence they say links Burlington man to shooting of three Palestinian students

  15-09-2026 22:42 via vtdigger.org
  
  Harry Jeppe, a firearms examiner with the Vermont Forensic Laboratory, testifies in Chittenden Superior criminal court in Burlington on Tuesday, September 15, 2026. Pool photo by Paul Heintz/Boston GlobeBURLINGTON — The state rested its case against the Burlington man accused of shooting and wounding three Palestinian students, presenting law enforcement and forensic witnesses whose testimony prosecutors say tied him to the crimes. The move by the state comes on the second day of the
  
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• Vermont’s largest hospital needs to further cut its revenue and spending next year

  15-09-2026 19:57 via vtdigger.org
  
  The University of Vermont Medical Center in Burlington on Monday, November 23, 2020. Photo by Glenn Russell/VTDiggerUVM Medical Center will need to take on even more austerity measures this coming fiscal year, the Green Mountain Care Board ruled late Monday.The board ordered the hospital to cut what it charges commercial insurers by 4.4%, a $32.4 million decrease from last year. Commercial insurance will bring in $1.054 billion in revenue for the medical center — the majority of the
  
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• The housing fix hiding in Vermont’s spare bedrooms

  15-09-2026 19:42 via vtdigger.org
  
  Dear Editor,Vermont has the highest share of households unable to afford the median-priced new home, according to the National Association of Home Builders, with approximately 92% of its households falling short of the income requirement. So how can Vermont create the housing Vermonters need and can afford and do it promptly? The cost of new construction is prohibitive, and it takes too long because of the time required to design, approve and finance it.Currently, 70% of Vermont households
  
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• VTDigger launches 2026 Vermont general election guide

  15-09-2026 13:18 via vtdigger.org
  
  Illustration by Taylor Haynes/VTDiggerVTDigger has launched its 2026 Election Guide ahead of this year’s general election.There’s no presidential race on the ballot, but all of Vermont’s state and county-level offices, our lone U.S. House seat and two other ballot items are up for Vermonters to vote on. Your vote will determine the balance of power in Montpelier and who occupies Vermont’s highest offices. 
  Go to the Election Guide
  The race for governor between polit
  
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• How to vote in Vermont’s 2026 general election

  15-09-2026 13:18 via vtdigger.org
  
  Vermont’s general election is Tuesday, Nov. 3.There are two ways to vote:
  Early voting by mail or in person, from when ballots are available to Nov. 2.In person at your polling place on Nov. 3. Bring the ballot mailed to you if you have one.
  All U.S. citizens who are residents of Vermont and will be 18 or older for the general election on Nov. 3, 2026, are eligible to register to vote in the election.Voter registrationTo vote in the general election, you must be registered to vote in Verm
  
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• Directed by voices or acting on his own? Mental state of man accused of shooting Palestinian students is focus of trial

  15-09-2026 00:36 via vtdigger.org
  
  Jason Eaton watches as Hisham Awartani arrives to testify in Eaton’s trial inChttenden Superior criminal court in Burlington on Monday, September 14, 2026. Eaton is accused of shooting three Palestinian students, including a now-paralyzed Awartani, in November of 2023. Photo by Glenn Russell/VTDiggerBURLINGTON — An attorney said his client was hearing voices directing him through the radio and was legally insane when he is alleged to have shot and wounded three Palestinian students
  
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• New tech policy takes shape at Lamoille South Supervisory Union

  15-09-2026 00:26 via vtdigger.org
  
  Buses pick up students at the end of the day at the Westford School in Westford on Thursday, April 17, 2025. File photo by Glenn Russell/VTDiggerThis story by Liberty Darr was first published in the News & Citizen on Sept. 10, 2026.When Stowe parent Molly Triffin Gaines attended “meet the teacher night” for her daughter’s third grade class just ahead of the new school year, she was surprised and thrilled to find that cursive writing was back on the curriculum.Parents acros
  
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• State regulators tell Brattleboro hospital to revise its proposed budget for further review

  14-09-2026 23:46 via vtdigger.org
  
  Supporters of Brattleboro Memorial Hospital’s birthing center march in the town’s Fourth of July parade. Photo by Kevin O’Connor/VTDiggerState regulators will delay a decision on a proposed budget for the financially ailing Brattleboro Memorial Hospital after the southeastern Vermont healthcare hub filed its plan late and with last-minute changes — including a surprise reprieve for its set-to-close birthing center.At an online hearing Monday, Vermont’s Green Mounta
  
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• FEMA approves funding for at least 90 buyouts in Vermont, providing relief for flood survivors

  14-09-2026 23:30 via vtdigger.org
  
  Traffic flows along a temporary bridge across the Great Brook after the original was washed away in this summer’s flooding on Mill Street in Plainfield on Monday, September 23, 2024. The floodwaters also swept away several apartments in the building on the right. File photo by Glenn Russell/VTDiggerFlood recovery aid is on its way to dozens of Vermont families who have been waiting for years. The Federal Emergency Management Agency approved the vast majority of buyout applications th
  
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• Curt Crowell Peterson

  14-09-2026 22:49 via vtdigger.org
  
  Born: 02/05/1943Plainfield, New JerseyDied: 09/01/2026Windsor, VermontDetails of service:Curt Crowell Peterson of Hartland, Vermont, formerly of Weston, Massachusetts, passed away from prostate cancer on September 1, 2026.Born in 1943, he was the son of Carl Peterson and Gladys Crowell. He is survived by his wife, Jennifer Cross Peterson; his children, Jennifer, Mark, Gretchen, Heather, and Erik Peterson; his grandchildren, Ruth Peterson, Owein Labarr, Mae Peterson, and Parker Rowley; his siste
  
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• Vermont’s new homelessness policy abandons people in crisis

  14-09-2026 22:30 via vtdigger.org
  
  Dear Editor,I read Carly Berlin’s recent story in VTDigger about Vermont’s new homelessness assistance policy with sadness. Apparently both our Republican governor and the Democratic Legislature are complicit in this. My familiarity with the subject derives mainly from the dozen years I spent in the Vermont attorney general’s office representing the Department for Children and Families in administrative hearings, often concerning denials of assistance to people in housing emer
  
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• Vermont Lt. Gov. John Rodgers says he’ll pay reduced fine to settle weed grow business violation

  14-09-2026 20:50 via vtdigger.org
  
  Lt. Gov. John Rodgers presides over the Senate at the Statehouse in Montpelier in Feb. 2025. File photo by Glenn Russell/VTDiggerVermont Lt. Gov. John Rodgers plans to pay a reduced fine to state regulators in order to settle a case in which he grew at least 100 cannabis plants for his business at a site in Glover where he did not have permission to do so, he said.Rodgers acknowledged in an interview that he “made a mistake” by failing to follow the Cannabis Control Board’s ru
  
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• It’s time to close Vermont’s tax loopholes for the wealthy

  14-09-2026 17:57 via vtdigger.org
  
  This commentary is by Dan Jones, who has worked for many years on sustainability and resilience in Montpelier and was the founder and director of the Sustainable Montpelier Coalition.Recently, I received an interesting lesson on how privileged Vermonters will use our state’s protective tax laws to shield themselves when I got into a conversation with a woman who is a member of what I will call the “well-to-do” class.“This whole idea of taxing second homes more to pay for
  
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• Rural Vermont is running out of places to give birth

  13-09-2026 16:11 via vtdigger.org
  
  This commentary is by Selin Tukel, a medical student at the University of Vermont Larner College of Medicine who is an advocate for equitable healthcare with an interest in obstetrics and women’s health.Access to maternity care in the U.S. has shrunk in recent years. Shockingly, more than half of U.S. counties do not have a hospital that provides labor and delivery services, according to the 2026 March of Dimes report. In Vermont, it took an average of about 22 minutes to reach the neares
  
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• Lawmakers examine Department of Corrections policy keeping more people in prison past their minimum sentences

  13-09-2026 15:35 via vtdigger.org
  
  Defender General Matthew Valerio testifies before the Joint Legislative Justice Oversight Committee at the statehouse in Montpelier in September 2025. File photo by Glenn Russell/VTDiggerVermont lawmakers responsible for overseeing the Department of Corrections are taking a closer look at a department policy that has expanded the criteria the department uses to keep people incarcerated beyond their minimum sentence. The policy, known as risk containment, has prompted concern from advocates
  
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• Pittsford Village Farm opens with new childcare operation and affordable apartments

  13-09-2026 14:52 via vtdigger.org
  
  The farmhouse restoration project at the Pittfsord Village Farm features two rental apartments, a childcare center and a retail operation. Seen in Pittsford on Thursday, September 10, 2026. Photo by Glenn Russell/VTDiggerWhat began as a vision among Pittsford residents in 2018 will become reality Sept. 15, when a childcare center in the newly restored Pittsford Village Farm is set to open.Already, two families have moved into new affordable apartments, and a new drink shop called Small Town Nut
  
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• Revealed in the river

  13-09-2026 14:33 via vtdigger.org
  
  Annette Spaulding prepares to dive in the Connecticut River on Aug. 15, 2025. Spaulding was a member of the team of historians that discovered a Colonial-era blockhouse built for the Crown Point Road that had been submerged in the river for many decades. Photo by Lonnie Lisai/The CommonsThis story by Robert F. Smith was first published in The Commons on Sept. 8, 2026.SPRINGFIELD — A trio of local history experts, working with historical records, personal exploration and eventually with ar
  
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• Real Vermonters don’t milk goats. They laugh at newly revived books with that title.

  13-09-2026 13:32 via vtdigger.org
  
  “Real Vermonters Don’t Milk Goats,” the state’s all-time bestselling humor book, is set to return to stores this fall in a 43rd anniversary edition. Photo by Kevin O’Connor/VTDiggerVermont political science professor Frank Bryan and writer friend Bill Mares were bumping along a muddy back road four decades ago when they spotted a pristine log cabin with a two-vehicle carport.“Flatlander,” Bryan later recalled saying of a perceived out-of-state owner.&ld
  
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• Upper Valley Haven readies its new year-round shelter for its first guests

  12-09-2026 13:23 via vtdigger.org
  
  An artist’s rendering of the Upper Valley Haven’s low-barrier shelter to be built at the intersection of Routes 5 and 4 in White River Junction, Vt. Courtesy Studio Nexus Architects + PlannersThis story by Alex Ebrahimi was first published in the Valley News on Sept. 10, 2026.WHITE RIVER JUNCTION — The Upper Valley Haven dedicated its new year-round shelter and resource center Wednesday, with an opening date for the 20-bed facility expected to be announced in the coming weeks.
  
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• Somber and hopeful, 47 immigrants become U.S. citizens on 9/11 anniversary

  11-09-2026 23:59 via vtdigger.org
  
  New Americans take their citizenship oaths during a naturalization ceremony at the Statehouse in Montpelier on Friday, September 11, 2026. Photo by Glenn Russell/VTDiggerMONTPELIER — Barbara Colombo became an American on Friday. She registered to vote before she left the building.Colombo, 52, was one of 47 immigrants sworn in as U.S. citizens Friday at a naturalization ceremony in the Statehouse.“It was very touching,” said the psychologist and professor, originally from Italy
  
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• Fall Member Drive: From reporting to real-world impact

  11-09-2026 23:42 via vtdigger.org
  
  Attendees at VTDigger’s Rutland event with Southern Vermont Reporter Greta Solsaa on Wednesday, March 26, 2025. Photo by Glenn Russell/VTDigger.Dear Reader,Every day, VTDigger reporters bring consequential information into public view. Then something important happens: Vermonters use it.They bring it into Statehouse debates. They make decisions with it. Sometimes, institutions change course because new information has come to light.That impact starts with readers like you who help fund th
  
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