Vermont news

• Windham Central Supervisory Union makes historic $250K settlement to resolve student discrimination lawsuits

  11-12-2025 00:26 via vtdigger.org
  Leland & Gray Union Middle and High School in Townshend. File photo by Mike Faher/VTDiggerThe Windham Central Supervisory Union will pay a historic $250,000 in damages to two Black students who allegedly faced discrimination, under a settlement agreement signed last month.The consolidated lawsuit had alleged that school authorities did “little or nothing” to deal with the complaints reported at the Leland & Gray Union Middle and High School in Townshend. As part of the settl
  
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• Lyman Orton: Don’t punish Burr & Burton for its success

  13-12-2025 00:42 via vtdigger.org
  Dear Editor,Among superintendents across Vermont and the establishment in Montpelier, the drumbeat against Burr & Burton Academy in Manchester is becoming more strident and punitive. The chorus demands that the school become a public institution and misleads Vermonters with fallacious charges. There are yowls from that establishment that Burr & Burton costs more.  Nonsense. The tuition rate is the average of all Vermont high schools for the many sending towns surrounding it, accord
  
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• Beta Technologies plans to roughly double its Vermont workforce in the next 18 months

  13-12-2025 00:21 via vtdigger.org
  A Beta Technologies employee works on equipment at the company’s production facility. Photo courtesy of Katherine Levasseur/Beta TechnologiesTheo Wells-Spackman is a Report for America corps member who reports for VTDigger.Beta Technologies has added 300 staff members to its Vermont-based workforce in recent months, and plans to add roughly 1,000 more in the next 18 months, company CEO Kyle Clark told reporters Friday.The announcement comes a month after the electric-aircraft company
  
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• Panels explore new approach to storing spent nuclear fuel

  13-12-2025 00:05 via vtdigger.org
  The deconstruction of the former Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant in Vernon, as seen on Oct. 10, 2023. File photo by Glenn Russell/VTDiggerThis story by Olga Peters was first published in The Commons on Dec. 9, 2025.VERNON — On a chilly November afternoon, people representing organizations across Windham County filed through the door to Vernon’s Governor Hunt House Community Center. Inside, staff of the Good Energy Collective, a think tank and research organization based in Sacram
  
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• In Vernon, a panel explores a new approach to storing nuclear waste

  13-12-2025 00:05 via vtdigger.org
  The deconstruction of the former Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant in Vernon, as seen on Oct. 10, 2023. File photo by Glenn Russell/VTDiggerThis story by Olga Peters was first published in The Commons on Dec. 9, 2025.VERNON — On a chilly November afternoon, people representing organizations across Windham County filed through the door to Vernon’s Governor Hunt House Community Center. Inside, staff of the Good Energy Collective, a think tank and research organization based in Sacram
  
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• Peter Welch, Becca Balint call for greater scrutiny into Israeli military’s attack on Vermont journalist

  12-12-2025 23:27 via vtdigger.org
  U.S. Sen. Peter Welch, D-Vt., holds up a letter he sent to the U.S. State Department on Thursday pressing officials for more information about an Israeli military strike on a group of journalists including Dylan Collins of Weston. He spoke at a press conference outside the U.S. Capitol on Thursday alongside Collins (right) and U.S. Rep. Becca Balint, D-Vt. ScreenshotVermont’s Democratic U.S. Sen. Peter Welch and Rep. Becca Balint say that both the Israeli and U.S. governments have stonewa
  
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• Frank Landry

  12-12-2025 19:00 via vtdigger.org
  Born Jan. 7, 1960Newton, MassachusettsDied Dec. 6, 2025South Burlington, VermontDetails of servicesA Mass of Christian burial is being celebrated in the Chapel of Saint Michael the Archangel on the campus of Saint Michael’s College in Colchester on Friday, December 12, at 10:00 a.m.  Interment will be private at a later date. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the Professor Edward Pfeifer Scholarship Fund, Saint Michael’s College, 1 Winooski Park, Box 256, C
  
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• Colleen Candace Dunn

  12-12-2025 18:44 via vtdigger.org
  Born Nov. 14, 1953Cambridge, MassachusettsDied Nov. 28, 2025Brookfield, VermontDetails of servicesThe family is holding a small closed ceremony soon, but is planning a much grander send off in the coming summer — a place where we can all gather one last time in her name and celebrate the life and the force that she was. More details will be forthcoming.Colleen Candace Dunn passed away on Friday evening, Nov. 28, after a difficult battle with lung cancer. She is survived by her three child
  
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• After fleeing danger at home, refugees in Vermont have faced the loss of food assistance

  12-12-2025 12:53 via vtdigger.org
  Juvenari Kambale, a refugee from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, in Colchester on Tuesday, Nov. 25. Photo by Glenn Russell/VTDiggerTheo Wells-Spackman is a Report for America corps member who reports for VTDigger.When Juvenari Kambale arrived in Vermont last December, he felt huge relief — his family was safe, and his children could attend school. He arrived through the now-suspended U.S. Refugee Admissions Program from his home country, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, vi
  
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• NEK double-murder suspect pleads not guilty to charges carrying the death penalty

  11-12-2025 23:31 via vtdigger.org
  The Federal Building in Burlington on Friday, September 5, 2025. Photo by Glenn Russell/VTDiggerBURLINGTON — A former Stowe man has denied upgraded federal charges in the 2023 fatal shootings of two Massachusetts men in Vermont’s Northeast Kingdom. The charges carry the possibility of the death penalty, if convicted.Theodore Bland, 30, pleaded not guilty Thursday in U.S. District Court in Burlington to capital crime charges brought against him in a new indictment returned by a grand
  
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• UVM men’s soccer coach, who led the team to a national championship, steps down

  11-12-2025 22:51 via vtdigger.org
  Rob Dow, the University of Vermont men’s soccer coach, is leaving his post to coach soccer at Penn State. Photo courtesy of UVM AthleticsRob Dow, the coach who led the University of Vermont men’s soccer team to a national championship last year, is leaving his job to coach at Penn State, UVM’s athletics department announced Thursday.Dow leaves the men’s soccer team as by far its most successful coach in program history. The team won 109 games under his direction, lost ju
  
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• Former Winooski High School soccer coach charged with lewd conduct with a student athlete

  11-12-2025 22:30 via vtdigger.org
  Winooski High School on Friday, Feb. 14, 2025. Photo by Neal Goswami/VTDiggerA former girls soccer coach at Winooski High School was arrested and charged with several sex crimes after he was accused of lewd conduct with a girl under the age of 16.Kane Smart, 44, who also worked as an environmental enforcement and litigation attorney with the Vermont Agency of Natural Resources, was arrested on Wednesday and charged with luring a child and with lewd and lascivious conduct with a child, according
  
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• Rutland Regional Medical Center withdraws request to close pediatric beds

  11-12-2025 18:23 via vtdigger.org
  Rutland Regional Medical Center. File photo by Mike Dougherty/VTDiggerRutland Regional Medical Center has voluntarily withdrawn its request to close five pediatric inpatient beds following a bruising public hearing and over 150 public comments in opposition to the decision.The hospital says it still intends to pursue a redesign of its pediatric services, but it will work directly with the Vermont Agency of Human Services to continue this transformation work rather than going through the state&r
  
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• Waterbury’s town clerks join growing list of municipal staff resignations

  11-12-2025 16:39 via vtdigger.org
  Waterbury Assistant Town Clerk Beth Jones (left) and Town Clerk Karen Petrovic (right) watch over Waterbury’s 2024 Town Meeting Day election. Photo by Lisa ScagliottiThis story by Lisa Scagliotti was first published in The Waterbury Roundabout on Dec. 10, 2025.In a letter to the Waterbury Select Board on Tuesday, Dec. 9, Town Clerk Karen Petrovic submitted her resignation, saying that Friday, Jan. 2, will be her last day in her elected role in town government.Petrovic’s notice came
  
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• Vermont Catholic Church receives bankruptcy court’s OK to sell Rutland property

  11-12-2025 16:00 via vtdigger.org
  Rutland’s former Loretto Home senior living facility, as pictured in recent advertisements offering it for sale. Pomerleau Real Estate photoVermont’s Roman Catholic Diocese, now seeking to reorganize its depleting finances in U.S. Bankruptcy Court, has received permission to sell its former Loretto Home senior living facility in Rutland.In a ruling this week, Judge Heather Cooper said she’d allow the state’s largest religious denomination to accept a $1 million offer fro
  
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• Adam Bunting: Education funding should be rooted in ‘genuine partnership and collective purpose’

  11-12-2025 13:03 via vtdigger.org
  This commentary is by Adam Bunting, superintendent of the Champlain Valley School District.I must admit I’m a little annoyed. I work hard not to be defensive of an educational status quo, as our schools, nationally, have significant work ahead to become more human and more future-centered. But I want to focus this letter on the Champlain Valley School District, because I worry that narratives like those offered by Sen. Scott Beck, R-Caledonia, House Minority Leader Rep. Pattie McCoy, R-Po
  
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• Vermont Conversation: A former EPA official on how the plastics industry sabotages real recycling

  11-12-2025 01:00 via vtdigger.org
  
  
  Judith Enck’s new book,co-authored with Adam Mohoney, is “The Problem with Plastic: How We Can Save Ourselves and our Planet Before It’s Too Late.” Photo courtesy of Diana ChipakThe 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.“Plastic is everywhere — wrapped around our
  
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• Vermont directs flood recovery funds to housing on higher ground 

  11-12-2025 00:04 via vtdigger.org
  Mud covers Second Street in Barre on July 12, 2023. File photo by Glenn Russell/VTDiggerThis story, by Report for America corps member Carly Berlin, was produced through a partnership between VTDigger and Vermont Public.In the aftermath of three consecutive summers of damaging floods, state officials have awarded nearly $50 million in federal flood recovery grants. The lion’s share of the funding is going toward housing construction on higher ground.“The majority of these funds are
  
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• Federal judge orders Trump administration to restore key academic record for Rümeysa Öztürk

  10-12-2025 23:48 via vtdigger.org
  Several hundred demonstrators gathered outside U.S. District Court in Burlington on April 14, 2025 to demand the release of Rumeysa Ozturk, a graduate student at Tufts University from Turkey. In early May, a Vermont judge ordered her release from an ICE detention facility in Louisiana. Photo by Glenn Russell/VTDiggerA federal judge in Boston has ordered the Trump administration to restore a record the government previously wiped so that Rümeysa Öztürk, the Turkish student who was
  
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• 40 years later, man convicted in Bennington County murder, Massachusetts kidnapping cases

  10-12-2025 23:35 via vtdigger.org
  The Bennington County Courthouse in Bennington seen on Sept. 8, 2022. File photo by Glenn Russell/VTDiggerThe unsolved murder case of Manchester resident Sarah Hunter nearly four decades ago finally came to a close Tuesday.The longtime suspect David A. Morrison pleaded guilty Tuesday afternoon to first-degree murder in Bennington County Criminal Court and was sentenced to life in prison without parole. Earlier that morning, Morrison pleaded guilty in Berkshire Superior Court to a kidnappin
  
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• Federal guidance requires Vermont to restore food benefits for some refugees and noncitizens, advocates say

  10-12-2025 23:23 via vtdigger.org
  SNAP sign at Shaw’s supermarket in Montpelier on Oct. 28, 2025. Photo by Glenn Russell/VTDiggerNew guidance from the U.S. Department of Agriculture requires that certain groups of noncitizens who were recently denied food assistance in Vermont should regain eligibility, according to advocates. Among those who will regain access to benefits are green card holders who entered the country as refugees and asylees, as well as Afghan Special Immigrant Visa recipients, advocates said.Advoca
  
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• Your donation powers essential health care reporting in Vermont

  10-12-2025 23:11 via vtdigger.org
  Dear Reader,My job is to help Vermonters understand what is happening and why. Your support makes that possible.Reporting on Vermont’s health care system has shown me how the rising cost of healthcare deeply affects people across the state. With some federal tax credits set to expire at the end of this year, many Vermonters are facing difficult choices as they look to buy plans on Vermont Health Connect, without the federal support that made them affordable. These shifts are complex, and
  
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• Mum on details, Vermont Air National Guard to deploy soon, following federal request

  10-12-2025 22:55 via vtdigger.org
  Vermont National Guard soldiers at Camp Ethan Allen Training Site in Jericho on Sept. 11, 2021. File photo by Glenn Russell/VTDiggerVermont’s Air National Guard will deploy, but officials are mum on the destination. The 158th Fighter Wing received a federal mobilization order, according to Joseph Brooks, a Vermont National Guard spokesperson, but he declined to say when and where. The deployment, which is reportedly expected this month, was first publicized by Seven Days. 
  
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• Vermont Gov. Phil Scott backs calls for embattled Addison County prosecutor Eva Vekos to resign

  10-12-2025 22:42 via vtdigger.org
  Eva Vekos and Phil Scott. Photos by Glenn Russell/VTDiggerVermont Gov. Phil Scott said Wednesday that he supported calls for the resignation of Eva Vekos, the embattled state’s attorney in Addison County. Meanwhile, Vekos was adamant Wednesday that she had no intention of stepping down. Calls from Scott and other top political leaders in the state come after VTDigger published a story on Monday in which sexual assault survivors criticized Vekos’ handling of their cases and desc
  
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• The best kept secret in Vermont philanthropy? Mission investing.

  10-12-2025 16:56 via vtdigger.org
  Mission Investing Report Promo ImageMaking a grant says, “I see the need.”
  Making an investment says, “I see your potential.”As we enter the holiday season, many of us reflect on what it means to care for our neighbors and strengthen the places we call home. Giving is one way we lift up Vermont communities. Investing is another.Every dollar you invest helps shape the world in ways you might not immediately see. At the Vermont Community Foundation, a portion of every inves
  
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• Steven Gaarder: Moving Vermont school taxes into the modern era

  10-12-2025 13:02 via vtdigger.org
  Dear Editor,The latest Education Finance Update from the Joint Fiscal Office projects a school property tax hike of nearly 12% that is, for many, unwelcome, but unsurprising given that costs are going up for everything. So it’s been proposed that we move money from the general fund into the education fund, which we did last year and have done in some previous years as well. I say: good plan.The use of property taxes to pay for education made good sense when most of people’s income c
  
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• Parents and providers fear Rutland Regional Medical Center’s planned pediatric closure would jeopardize patient health and drive up costs

  10-12-2025 00:00 via vtdigger.org
  Rutland Regional Medical Center. File photo by Mike Dougherty/VTDiggerFor Ned Coletta, the potential closure of pediatric beds at Rutland Regional Medical Center is not a question of regulatory power and hospital autonomy. It’s a question of whether his 4-year-old will have an appropriate place to stay while doctors manage and monitor his airway condition. It’s a question of how he and his wife could balance the two-hour drive back and forth to another hospital with caring for their
  
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• As Vermont’s referees step down, their spots remain largely vacant

  09-12-2025 23:27 via vtdigger.org
  South Burlington High School Girls Basketball practice on Nov. 18, 2025. Photo by Annalisa Madonia/CNSBusy Anderson is a reporter with the Community News Service, part of the University of Vermont’s Reporting & Documentary Storytelling program.Vermont is in the midst of an alarming referee shortage — a problem unfolding nationwide, but one that has hit hard in a state with a small and aging workforce.Between 2018 and 2023, the National Federation of State High School Association
  
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• Stowe EMS raises its rates to offset the hassles of insurance

  09-12-2025 22:51 via vtdigger.org
  Stowe Emergency Medical Services is raising its rates to keep up with the ever-increasing cost of aiding people in the area. Photo by Gordon Miller/Stowe ReporterThis story by Patrick Bilow was first published in the Stowe Reporter on Dec. 4, 2025.Stowe Emergency Medical Services is raising its rates to keep up with the ever-increasing cost of aiding people in the area.According to Assistant EMS Chief Scott Brinkman, the gap between billed revenue and the cost of providing services ha
  
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• Fire triggers sprinkler flooding, displacing dozens of Rutland residents in frigid weather

  09-12-2025 21:57 via vtdigger.org
  Sheldon Towers on Tuesday, Dec. 9, 2025. Photo by Greta Solsaa/VTDiggerRUTLAND CITY — On a freezing Monday morning, around six dozen people were forced out of their Sheldon Towers apartments after an isolated stove top fire set off the sprinkler system, causing significant water damage throughout the building.The Rutland City Fire Department responded to the scene Monday morning around 11 am, and found the sprinkler system extinguished the fire on the sixth floor, said Fire Department Chi
  
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