Despite new federal limits on who can get a Covid-19 vaccine and the arrival of the cold and flu season, many Vermonters can still get a booster, though details surrounding Medicare reimbursement and federal recommendations remain uncertain.

In a late August post on X, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced the Food and Drug Administration approved Covid-19 booster shots, but only for those 65 and above or with existing health risks. 

Vermont state officials are now awaiting a recommendation from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which typically guides public health directives and insurers’ coverage, for those who want to get a fall booster shot.  

“Really the best thing that I can recommend is either to go online and see if you can set up an online appointment (for a vaccine), or call pharmacies in your area to see if they’re available,” said Julie Arel, the state’s interim commissioner of health.

In Vermont, pharmacies are moving forward with administering the vaccine. Kinney Drugs and CVS have the updated Covid vaccines in stock. Pharmacies order directly from the manufacturer. Providers — doctors’ offices and other clinics — often get vaccines through the state, which is not yet able to order the vaccines from the CDC. 

Kinney Drugs’ spokesperson Alice Maggiore confirmed that the stores can administer the 2025-26 vaccines to people above 65 and individuals between 12 and 64 who attest to having one of the qualifying conditions, as outlined by the CDC. 

CVS is able to vaccinate anyone over 5 years old, who attests to eligibility under the same CDC’s preexisting conditions list, or anyone older than 65, according to a company executive, Amy Thibault. 

The underlying risks outlined by the CDC range from asthma or a smoking history to mental health disorders, like depression obesity, or physical inactivity. Patients do not need a doctor’s prescription to confirm the underlying condition at Kinney or CVS, both spokespeople said.

Typically, insurers cover vaccines received in a pharmacy. Whether some private and government insurers will be able to cover the vaccines remains uncertain. Even if people can get the vaccine by walking into a pharmacy, it’s unclear if they will have to pay for it:  “It’s a little bit mind boggling,” Arel said. 

Blue Cross Blue Shield of Vermont, the state’s largest private insurer, plans to continue to cover the vaccine for any member, at no cost and with no prior approval, said Andrew Garland, a vice president and spokesperson for the insurer. Blue Cross Blue Shield of VT intends to do so through 2026, as well. MVP, the state’s other private insurer selling plans on the marketplace, also does not anticipate changes in its vaccine coverage policy, said Elizabeth Boody, a spokesperson for the company. 

What employer-sponsored insurers and providers like Tricare, the military health system, might be able to cover, is still unclear.

Since the FDA has already approved the vaccine for those over 65, it is likely that Medicare, which covers the same age group, will cover the vaccines. Dorit Reiss, a vaccine policy expert at the University of California Law, San Francisco, told NBC News that once the FDA approves a vaccine, Medicare has the authority to cover it.

Generally a Covid vaccine undergoes three steps for approval: First the FDA authorizes the new vaccines — which it did in August. Then a panel within the CDC called ACIP (short for Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices) issues a recommendation on the vaccine. It is scheduled to meet Sept. 18-19, to do so. This year many are holding their breath ahead of ACIP’s announcement, since Kennedy gutted the panel and replaced it with many vaccine skeptics. 

The state is weighing whether and how it will need to break from that typical process, and is currently exploring what Vermont statute allows for breaking with that process.

While it is quite common for providers to prescribe a drug outside of what the FDA has authorized them for, it’s not typical, however, for that to happen with vaccines. The FDA’s lack of formal guidance on what qualifies as an underlying condition leaves room for interpretation surrounding who qualifies for the vaccine.

“There’s some flexibility in there, but because it’s not as clear as usual, there is going to be hesitancy, in all likelihood,” said Arel. “And anytime there’s hesitancy, anytime there’s confusion, it’s going to lead to lower immunization rates. We really want to try to avoid that.”

The Department of Health is also looking to Vermont’s neighbors in the Northeast for direction, Arel said. In August, the department joined with other state health departments in the region to build a coalition ready to respond to shifts in federal guidance. Though the group has no unified recommendation, she says it’s something they are considering to help mediate the current disjunctive state of vaccine recommendations and approvals. 

“If as a region, we can become more aligned, it helps people across the whole Northeast region to feel a level of confidence in their state public health department’s decisions and how we’re moving forward,” she said.

In Massachusetts, Gov. Maura Healy required in-state insurance carriers to cover the vaccines recommended by the state’s Department of Public Health, even if they are outside of the federal recommendations. The state’s commissioner of public health also issued a standing order that allows pharmacists to issue Covid shots to anyone over the age of 5. 

In response, Arel said Vermont is watching its neighbors and looking into where state statute might allow for potential action. 

“Getting clarity and having a message be clear and simple, is going to be the most important thing we do,” Arel said. “Unfortunately, we are still working through all of that, but we are committed to finding our way through it and making it as simple and easy as possible.”

Read the story on VTDigger here: As feds tighten Covid vaccine rules, Vermont works to maintain access .

This story by Matthew Thomas was first published in The Bridge on Sept. 9, 2025.

After past programmatic moves that it acknowledged can disrupt student learning, The New School of Montpelier is setting down solid roots on the college green in Montpelier. 

With last year’s purchase of Bishop-Hatch Hall at 41 College Street and Alumnx Hall at 45 College Street from the Vermont College of Fine Arts, The New School can create “stable places” for students, according to Elias Gardener, the school’s executive director. 

Gardener noted that The New School’s students “often are diagnosed with autism or have experienced trauma and are extremely dependent on predictable consistency.” 

The New School of Montpelier, a worker co-operative, is a Vermont Therapeutic School approved by the State Board of Education, Gardener said, with its tuition set by the Vermont Agency of Education. The school was founded in 2005 for 16 children with “complex challenges in central Vermont foster care homes,” whose educational needs the local public schools could not meet. “All of our students receive special education services identified on Individual Education Programs and placed by public schools.” 

The school has occupied the lower floors of Bishop-Hatch Hall since 2009 and Almunx Hall since 2013, Gardener said. He added that currently there are three programs running on the college green. The purchase and renovation of these buildings will allow the school to expand enrollment, which is very much needed, he added, because the school has more referrals than it can accommodate at the moment. 

“Both are historic buildings,” Gardener said, noting that Bishop-Hatch was built in 1958 and Alumnx Hall in 1932 and that each had “significant deferred maintenance needs.”

The New School started its restoration with Bishop-Hatch Hall. The extensive project, reviewed by the Vermont Division of Historic Preservation includes stabilization maintenance, such as replacing the roof and the original steam heat system. In addition, there will be safety updates, such as removing asbestos and installing new ventilation and sprinkler systems.

To increase student space, Gardener said the two lower floors are being renovated to make classrooms, which, upon completion, will allow The New School to add an additional program with the capacity to take up to ten more students. “We consistently have a multi-year waiting list with staffing and space being the two primary barriers to meeting the needs of the public schools,” he said. 

Gardener anticipates renovations to Bishop-Hatch Hall to be completed in March, 2026. 

The New School is planning a future fundraising campaign to restore Almunx Hall, which needs a new roof after having shingles sheared off in high winds and leaks in the cupola, he said, adding that the school hopes to make this repair in 2026. In addition, Gardener said the steam heating system needs to be replaced. The school also does not have the funding to restore the upper two floors of Bishop-Hatch Hall. “We are considering various options including conversion to housing, but for now they must be mothballed until they can be brought up to code,” said Gardener. 

“The New School is proud to be a steward of these historic buildings, particularly Alumnx Hall,” Gardner said. He added that it is important to the school to keep the hall open for community events and that the school uses the auditorium as a gymnasium and also a “vocational learning opportunity” for students involved in event set up and support, such as weddings. 

“There are so many exciting things the new owners of various buildings on the college green and Montpelier are doing,” Gardener said. “I love being a part of it.” 

Read the story on VTDigger here: Montpelier’s New School expands space for students with complex needs.

Vermont’s Department of Health confirmed the state’s first-known human case of the mosquito-borne Jamestown Canyon virus. The disease has relatively mild symptoms, especially for young people who do not have underlying health conditions.

The state began monitoring mosquitoes for Jamestown Canyon Virus this year, after it was found in nearby states. The monitoring showed insects in Rutland, Marshfield and Whitingham all carried the disease. This human case, which was confirmed in a Sept. 8 lab test in a Windsor County patient, further confirms the presence of the virus in Vermont, according to Natalie Kwit, the state’s public health veterinarian.

“It is a good indicator and reminder, just like anytime we find the virus in mosquitoes, to continue to take precautions against mosquito bites,” Kwit said.

Mosquitoes become infected when they bite animals — particularly deer — carrying the virus. They then spread it to other animals and people when they bite them. Humans are “dead end hosts,” meaning that the viral load people receive from an infected mosquito bite is too low to spread to other people.

It also means that many people with the virus never experience symptoms, while others can develop flu-like symptoms, such as fevers, headaches, chills and aches. People with compromised immune systems and older people are more at risk for more severe symptoms — for some, more serious disease could escalate to confusion and discoordination, stiffness and seizure. About half of people who do become symptomatic get hospitalized, according to the Department of Health. 

The best way to prevent infection is to prevent mosquito bites in the first place. The Department of Health recommends limiting time outside during dusk and dawn when the insects are most active, wearing long sleeves and insect repellent, and covering windows, doors, playpens and strollers with tight mosquito nets or screens. The department also advises people to clear any standing water that may accumulate in things like pots, buckets or children’s outdoor toys.

In late summer, the risk for mosquito-borne illnesses increases, Kwit said, since there has been more time for the virus to circulate in hosts and mosquitoes. The risk remains — and the state plans to continue monitoring mosquitoes — until the first fall frost. 

The state also tests the collected mosquito samples for West Nile virus and Eastern equine encephalitis — or EEE — virus, as it has in years past. There have been no confirmed cases of either in a human this year.

“We’re just learning about this virus, too,” Kwit said of Jamestown Canyon virus. “We’ve only just started actively testing for it in mosquitoes we collect in Vermont, so over time, we’ll get an understanding of where we’re finding it, as we’re gathering more evidence.”

Read the story on VTDigger here: Vermont confirms state’s 1st case of Jamestown Canyon virus in humans .

MONTPELIER — In the span of five years, the intricate web of sheriff’s deputies, prison staff and judges that orchestrated the transport of people to and from court hearings has upended.

“The whole infrastructure of our transport system that existed for 100 years doesn’t exist anymore,” Matt Valerio, Vermont’s defender general, told lawmakers on Tuesday. 

The Joint Legislative Justice Oversight Committee, composed of Vermont legislative committee leaders and other lawmakers, were discussing the nagging issue, which returned to the spotlight in late August. At that time, the Department of State’s Attorneys and Sheriffs decided to stop transporting people released from the Southern State Correctional Facility in Springfield, phasing out entirely a practice that had been cut due to a lack of resources. 

Instead, people would leave the rural prison on foot, left to find their way.

While issues like rising crime and criminal justice reform tend to attract more legislative and media attention, the bureaucratic underpinnings of the legal and carceral systems, like prisoner transports, have a quieter but daily impact on those navigating them. Spurred by Covid-19 practices and fewer transport resources, the state has increasingly relied on virtual court hearings as a solution. Valerio and others have decried that switch as jeopardizing the rights of criminal defendants. 

Post-release transports — the type the Department of State’s Attorneys and Sheriffs began during Covid and ended last month — make up a small fraction of the work conducted by state-paid transport deputies, according to Tim Lueders-Dumont, the department’s executive director. 

Scarcely more than 200 of the 4,000 rides these deputies provided last year were for people leaving prison, he told lawmakers on Tuesday. But cutting the rides reveals the fraying and overburdened system. 

Before the pandemic, the Vermont Department of Corrections provided occasional post-release transports. And when sheriffs had more resources, their overall volume of rides was far larger. According to Lueders-Dumont, the hours that county-paid deputies, rather than state-paid, have spent providing judicial transports has dropped from about 20,000 to 3,000, while the state-paid level has remained consistent at about 20,000 hours annually. 

“We are feeling so pinched,” he said.

So thin is the department’s staffing, Lueders-Dumont said, that he’s had to sometimes push back at judges’ transport orders, asking them to reconsider the need. He joked that he’s so far avoided being held in contempt of court — but only narrowly. 

When people are released from Vermont’s rural prisons onto the streets, they will do what they need to do to survive, Valerio told lawmakers. In rare past instances, that’s meant starting fires to stay warm, he said. 

To fix the decayed transport system, Valerio urged lawmakers to increase funding for both more sheriff’s transport deputies and for Department of Corrections transport staff. At the same time, he recommended restricting the use of remote arraignments — the first hearings in a criminal case — so that when people are released, they’re in their home county rather than a prison in another part of the state. 

But money may be hard to come by. Last year, Lueders-Dumont asked the Legislature to fund six new transport staff. Instead, he received only an extra unfunded position. And this year, the House’s budget writers are warning their peers it will be a penny-pinching session, driven by federal cuts.   

Read the story on VTDigger here: After post-release transports scrapped, lawmakers consider how to handle rides to and from prison.

Updated at 4:39 p.m.

A federal appeals court on Tuesday ruled that the Mid Vermont Christian School must be allowed to participate in state athletics, two years after being banned for forfeiting against a team with a transgender player. The court returned the case to district court for further proceedings.

The ruling comes after several years of litigation by the pre-K-12 private Christian school in Quechee. The Vermont Principals’ Association barred the school from participating in state athletics after the school forfeited a girls’ playoff basketball game in February 2023 to avoid playing the Long Trail School, which had a transgender player on the team.

School officials at the time said they were concerned that playing against “a biological male jeopardizes the fairness of the game and the safety of the players,” and its head of school, Vicky Fogg, told Valley News that allowing “biological males to participate in women’s sports sets a bad precedent for the future of women’s sports in general.”

The Vermont Principals’ Association governs rules around school sports in Vermont, and said at the time that Mid Vermont Christian violated its anti-discrimination and gender identity policies.

The school, along with several parents and students, sued in federal court in 2023, seeking reinstatement of the school’s membership to the Vermont Principals’ Association.

According to Tuesday’s court ruling, Mid Vermont Christian School argued that “forcing girls to compete against the biological males would affirm that those males are females,” in violation of their religious beliefs.

U.S. District Court Judge Geoffrey Crawford in June 2024 denied the school’s request to be readmitted to the principals’ association.

But on Tuesday, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit reversed that decision and agreed with the school’s claims, writing that they were “likely to succeed” in showing that the association’s exclusion of the school “was not neutral because it displayed hostility toward the school’s religious beliefs.”

Judge Michael H. Park, writing for the court, wrote that the principals’ association “publicly castigated Mid Vermont — and religious schools generally — while the VPA rushed to judgment on whether and how to discipline the school.” Park said that the punishment they imposed on the school “was unprecedented, overbroad, and procedurally irregular.”

The court sent the case back to the federal district court for further proceedings.

Jay Nichols said Tuesday the Vermont Principals’ Association, its officers and employees “do not harbor any hostility towards religious viewpoints,” but declined to comment further, citing pending litigation.

A spokesperson for the state’s Agency of Education declined to comment, also citing pending litigation.

The school was represented by the Alliance Defending Freedom, a preeminent conservative Christian legal group that has had a growing presence in Vermont education and politics.

The group, in a press release, called the ruling a “victory for religious schools.”

David Cortman, senior counsel and vice president of U.S. litigation for the group, said in the press release that the appeals court was “right to uphold constitutional protections by guaranteeing the school can fully participate while still adhering to its religious beliefs.”

Chris Goodwin, the Mid Vermont Christian School girls’ basketball coach, said in the press release that the school strives “to exemplify biblical truth in and through everything we do.”

“We’re grateful for our legal team at Alliance Defending Freedom who helped us get back in the game,” he said.

Some advocacy organizations disagreed with the ruling. Amanda Rohdenburg, the senior director of advocacy and land stewardship at Outright Vermont, a statewide nonprofit advocacy group for LGBTQ+ people, called the court decision “yet another affront to Vermont’s core values, policies, and laws, which are clear on their commitments to anti-discrimination based on gender identity.”

“Allowing private schools to violate these policies is not only a setback in the progress we’ve made to support all youth, but it also fuels a dangerous collective delirium about kids simply trying to be themselves,” she said.

Monica Allard, a staff attorney with the ACLU of Vermont, cautioned in an emailed statement that while the ruling was “disappointing,” it was “important to underscore that the court did not rule against Vermont’s policy of including trans kids in school sports.”

“This decision does not impact the rights of trans kids to participate fully in school activities — or the responsibilities of schools to ensure that all students have equitable access to educational and extracurricular opportunities,” she said.

Read the story on VTDigger here: Vermont Christian school that forfeited game over transgender player wins appeal to rejoin state athletics.

WILLISTON — Kellen Cloud’s line of work has always been dangerous.

For the better part of the past two decades, Cloud has worked at Green Mountain Flagging, a company that stations traffic controllers at construction sites around the state. He recalled when a coworker had their body pushed by an impatient driver, and when another had to jump out of the way of a truck that would not slow down.

“You have to be a little crazy to do this job,” he said with a laugh, during an interview last month at the company’s headquarters in Williston.

In recent years, though, Cloud said his job has gotten noticeably more dangerous. People seem to be driving more recklessly than in the past, he said — something data suggests could be a lingering impact of the Covid-19 pandemic. Meanwhile, data also shows more people are injured or killed in work zones today than a decade ago. 

It’s a concern that led Cloud, along with many others in the state’s construction industry, he said, to support a state plan aimed at bolstering speed enforcement in work zones using relatively new technology: automated cameras. 

The program, which Gov. Phil Scott signed into law in May 2024, would deploy cameras at a small number of highway work zones around the state over a period of 15 months. The cameras would capture photos of the license plates of cars going at least 10 miles per hour over the posted speed limit. After a review by a police officer, speeding drivers would be mailed a warning notice, and if they offended again, could face civil fines.

Under the law, the state was required to start a public outreach campaign about the use of the cameras on April 1, 2025, with a pilot taking effect July 1. But the program — which already exists in some form in more than 15 other states — has yet to materialize.

Vermont Agency of Transportation leaders have said they could not meet the pilot’s deadlines because no law enforcement agency has yet raised its hand to help out. Even though the cameras are automated, under the legislation creating Vermont’s program, a police officer must review the images the cameras collect and send out citations. 

That delay has frustrated some legislative leaders in recent months. They’ve criticized Scott’s administration for failing to implement a program the administration supported — especially when there’s often little consequence for speeding through work zones now.

That’s because while police officers typically park near construction sites with their cruisers’ lights flashing, they’re encouraged to remain at their posts rather than leave to chase down a speeder, several state officials said.

Joe Flynn, Vermont’s transportation secretary, said his agency is committed to getting the pilot program underway, even though it will be on a slower timeline than the Legislature dictated. He said officials are confident the cameras could change drivers’ behavior; data from Pennsylvania, for instance, shows speeding in work zones has dropped by 37% since that state first deployed a similar automated system five years ago.

“We just can’t see this being what we thought it would be,” Flynn said of the program as written in the 2024 law. “We need to just rework it. So that’s what we’re doing.”

But Cloud said that, for him and his colleagues, the safety improvements the cameras could bring are long overdue. Cloud is now Green Mountain Flagging’s operations director, training new employees regularly. He called the delay “frustrating” and “discouraging.” 

“It’s our job to protect,” he said. “Why aren’t we being protected?”

‘Pass a hot potato’

That a program using automated technology would be hobbled by concerns about human staffing seems counterintuitive. But leaders in the Scott administration have been adamant that unless lawmakers remove police officers from the process, the administration may not be able — or willing — to move the program forward.

The legislation states that a “law enforcement officer” has to be the one to issue citations for speeding through work zones, but it does not task a specific agency with that work. However, as the law was being finalized last year, according to Flynn, it was “starting to seem as though this was going to fall squarely” on the Vermont State Police, even though it wasn’t necessarily designed that way. 

During a House Transportation Committee hearing in May, state police leaders insisted they did not have the resources to help facilitate the program. Col. Matthew Birmingham, the director of the state police, said the agency had 54 open positions among its ranks of certified troopers at the time, or about a 17% vacancy rate.

“It just would not make any sense to me,” he told committee members. “There will be something that will have to be given up — and at this point I don’t know what that is because everything we’re handling is violent crime and crimes against people and potentially dangerous crimes like DUI and aggravated aggressive driving.”

Vermont Public Safety Commissioner Jennifer Morrison — whose department includes the state police — also pushed back on the idea the state police could take on the work. She told legislators the issue is “not one of our willingness to enforce traffic laws,” but rather “one of resource allocation.” To illustrate her point, she and the department’s policy director, Mandy Wooster, offered estimates of the amount of time it could take officers to review the violations generated by the pilot program each day. 

Wooster said part of the challenge would be officers needing to cross-reference the identity of the owner of a speeding car with a database of people who are members of the U.S. military, because soldiers and sailors on active duty can get extended time to pay or contest certain citations, such as speeding tickets, under federal law.

She told the committee that, when accounting for that database check, it could take seven or eight minutes to process each violation. She said the administration had been operating under an assumption there would be a maximum of 1,000 citations issued during a regular, eight-hour workday — which, when multiplied by the time to process each case, could result in well over 100 hours of officers’ time each day.

That’s in addition to extra time required if people who received a violation contested the ticket in court, which is allowed under Vermont’s law as written, Morrison noted.

“I’m not looking to pass a hot potato over to someone else,” the commissioner said. “But I’m very clearly signaling that we do not have the capacity to take this on as the sole owner of this project.”

Per the legislation, drivers would face no fine for a first offense caught on camera, an $80 fine for a second offense and a $160 fine for a third offense, provided those subsequent violations occurred within a year. A violation would not levy any points on a driver’s license, state officials have said. 

Not everyone agrees with the administration’s estimates, though. Rep. Phil Pouech, D-Hinesburg, the transportation committee’s ranking member, said Morrison and Wooster were relying on the “worst case scenario” and, in his view, exaggerating the amount of officer time the program would require. If 1,000 people were speeding through work zones every day, he contended, the state had a problem on its hands that warranted addressing immediately.

Pouech pointed to earlier testimony the committee received from a company that makes and operates automated speed enforcement cameras describing how it could take less than one and a half minutes to review each violation.

“The state police clearly just put up a giant smoke screen with their calculations of how much time this was going to take,” Pouech, who’s among the program’s most vocal supporters, said in an interview. “It seems like that was more of an excuse.”

In Pennsylvania — which Flynn said operates the closest example to what is being proposed in Vermont — a dedicated state police unit reviews all automated violations that carry fines, according to a report on the program. Last year, automated cameras were used roughly 2,500 times across 55 different roadway projects in that state. 

Pennsylvania State Police spokesperson Sgt. Logan T. Brouse wrote in an email that it takes three minutes for officers to process speed camera violations in that state on average.

Flynn said that, even considering data from other states, he stood by the administration’s time estimates for the program in Vermont. Compared to Pennsylvania, Vermont is a far smaller state with more limited law enforcement resources, he said. 

When Vermont’s state police say they can’t help run the pilot, Flynn said, “I take it on face value — and I don’t question what they say about (their) ability to manage this, or not.”

‘They’re sitting on their hands’

At the same time, officials considered — and decided against — having another statewide law enforcement agency support the program. The Department of Motor Vehicles Enforcement and Safety Division, which is under the purview of the transportation agency, has a number of certified police officers on its staff. 

The “DMV Police” inspect commercial vehicles for safety and conduct their own highway speed enforcement, among other duties, Flynn said. Notably, the force is fully staffed, with Flynn estimating the division has 30 employees statewide.

But Flynn said he was hesitant to commit one or more of his officers’ time to reviewing and issuing citations. The small force’s time, he said, is better spent out in the field where it often backs up other law enforcement agencies, including the state police.

“It just seemed to really be overly burdensome to field forces who otherwise are already fully busy on a daily basis,” he said. “Where can you best use the really highly talented and trained resources that you have, when really, this is an administrative process?”

Flynn said he now plans to meet with leaders from another realm of law enforcement — the state’s 14 county sheriffs — to find out if any of their departments could support the pilot program, rather than a statewide law enforcement agency. 

Lamoille County Sheriff Roger Marcoux, vice president of the statewide association representing sheriffs, said last week he needed to learn more about the program before he could say whether he or his counterparts could take on the additional work. He said conversations about the program seemed like a priority for the state transportation agency. 

Sheriff’s departments already partner with state agencies for some jobs, such as transporting youth who are in the custody of the Department for Children and Families, he said.

However, he continued, “the state police don’t have a monopoly on the staffing issues. You know, I’m short people. And every sheriff’s department is short people.”

Morrison, in testimony to the Legislature earlier this year, suggested lawmakers could also find a way to reconstitute the program so police don’t need to be involved at all. One option could be having the company the state chooses to operate the camera system issue fines to violators, itself, she said. 

Flynn said his agency was working on bill language it could bring to the Legislature for the 2026 legislative session, which starts in January, to amend the program. In the meantime, he said the state would “plus-up” the number of officers stationed around work zones who would be tasked, specifically, with pulling over speeders.

Rep. Matt Walker, R-Swanton, chair of the House transportation committee, said he would consider any new language the agency presents next year. He said he’s concerned, however, that the timing is such that it could end up being a year from the program’s original effective date that cameras finally make it onto the roads. 

Walker said his committee did not have enough time before the end of this year’s session, which was in mid-June, to make any adjustments to the existing law. During a hearing in late April, he said that from a “sixth-grade social studies perspective,” he was frustrated the executive branch of state government wasn’t following a law the Legislature had passed a year before, regardless of what it was requiring. 

“And at the nine-plus month mark, we are finding out that it’s not going to happen,” he said at the time. “So that is a little bit frustrating.”

Walker’s counterpart in the Senate, Lamoille County Republican Richard Westman, said he also had concerns about the timing of the program, but noted the program has been a larger priority for the House. The Senate Transportation Committee chair said the state transportation agency was short-staffed and has challenges of its own. 

Pouech, the House transportation ranking member, had stronger words. 

“It passed. The governor signed it, and now they’re sitting on their hands,” he said. “I feel bad for the people who work out there. … We have a speeding problem all over the state, and here is a chance to do something about the construction zones.”

A need for more enforcement is what concerns Cloud, the longtime Green Mountain Flagging employee, the most. He said the state has already tried other solutions, like public service campaigns using digital billboards. None of those efforts seemed to have meaningfully changed drivers’ behavior, he said.

He does not think the cameras are the only solution to make drivers more aware of workers on the road, “but it’s got to start somewhere,” he said. 

“If it’s time for some enforcement, then it’s time for enforcement,” Cloud said. “Something has to make them pay attention.”

Read the story on VTDigger here: Vermont promised new tech to keep highway workers safe. It still hasn’t arrived..

This commentary is by Pat Suozzi, of Hinesburg. Suozzi is the president of the Federation of Vermont Lakes and Ponds.

In the recent opinion piece “Vermonters Get Rid of Your Lawns,” author Lucie Lehmann describes the wonderful transformation that took place when she removed her lawn and planted native perennials and grasses. Her yard came alive with color, attracting all sorts of birds, butterflies, native bees and more. She describes many of the benefits of doing this, including reduction in the use of pesticides.

I would like to add another very important benefit of less lawn: improving the health of Vermont’s lakes and streams.

Grass with its shallow roots does not absorb much rainwater. However, native plants, shrubs and trees, with their deeper root systems, are far more absorbent, which significantly reduces stormwater runoff. 

Even if you live far from a lake or stream, runoff from a lawn — laden with nutrients, sediment and other pollutants — will end up in a nearby stream and eventually into one of the state’s 800 lakes and ponds.The nutrients, consisting mainly of phosphorus, contribute to creating the toxic cyanobacteria blooms that have closed so many beaches along Lake Champlain and on other lakes in the state. Stormwater flowing across your lawn can also erode roads, carrying that dirt and gravel along with salts and other pollutants into the lakes and streams. 

Removing lawns and planting native species can help to reduce this pollution, protect water quality and bring you the pleasure of a garden full of life that will require little to no mowing and give you more leisure time to get out and enjoy a nearby lake. 

Interested but not sure how to get started? We can help.

The Federation of Vermont Lakes and Ponds has published a landscaping booklet that includes a variety of landscape design templates and planting plans, lists of native plants, shrubs, and trees, as well as maintenance tips. While this was created mainly for lake shore property owners, all of the designs, native plant lists and maintenance tips are completely relevant to anyone who would like to change their lawn desert into a garden.

Help protect Vermont’s lakes and ponds. Stop mowing and plant a garden.

Read the story on VTDigger here: Pat Suozzi: Vermont lakes and streams like fewer lawns, too! .

This commentary is by Joshua Reap, of Candia, New Hampshire. Reap is the board president of the Vermont Construction Academy, where he helps lead efforts to expand hands-on construction education and credential-based workforce training across the state. He also serves as the president and CEO of the Associated Builders and Contractors of New Hampshire/Vermont (ABC NH/VT), advocating for workforce development, opportunity in the trades and policies that support a strong, skilled construction industry.

We’re facing a workforce crisis: thousands of open jobs in the trades, and not enough people trained to fill them.

On one side, we have thousands of job openings across the skilled trades — positions in carpentry, electrical, HVAC and more — offering strong wages, long-term security and a clear path for advancement. On the other side, we have young adults uncertain about their future, displaced workers needing to retool and an aging generation of tradespeople preparing to retire.

The Vermont Construction Academy was built to bridge that gap.

With multiple pathways into the workforce — whether it’s our boot camps, registered apprenticeships or custom, off-site technical trainings — the academy is helping to redefine what career success looks like. 

We’re doing it at a critical time, when traditional education systems, especially public career and technical education centers are simply unable to serve the number of people who want to build a better future with their hands and minds.

We believe the trades deserve a seat at the table — not just because we need buildings built or roads paved, but because we also need problem solvers, creative thinkers and lifelong learners who understand how to lead, collaborate and show up with purpose. The academy doesn’t just teach technical skills. We develop the social skills, teamwork and integrity needed to thrive in today’s economy.

The truth is, our economy is changing faster than anyone can keep up.

As artificial intelligence begins to disrupt a variety of industries — from legal and financial services to media and customer support — the trades are emerging as a future-proof career path. You cannot replace a plumber with an algorithm. You cannot patch drywall with a chatbot. The construction industry is — and will remain — one of the most knowledge-driven, human-powered sectors of the workforce. In Vermont, we’re doubling down on that.

The latest workforce report from Associated Builders and Contractors National ranked New Hampshire among the top four states in the country for lowest construction unemployment in June. Much like our neighbors to the east, this report shows Vermont not far behind — and with the work we’re doing through the Vermont Construction Academy, we’re on track to close that gap even further.

We’re not just talking about it. We’re building real momentum.

Under the leadership of Ross Lavoie, the academy has expanded real-world, hands-on training opportunities. Ross regularly brings in industry experts to work directly with students, giving them the chance to learn by doing — welding, roofing, framing and more — all under the guidance of professionals actively working in the field. 

These immersive experiences are what set the academy apart. Our boot camps are upskilling students, veterans and career changers alike. We’re building partnerships with contractors who are eager to hire. We’re reaching individuals who have long been underserved or overlooked by traditional systems because that’s what the workforce actually needs.

We don’t do it alone.

Everything we do at the Vermont Construction Academy is grounded in our core values:

• Professional: We uphold the highest of standards in everything we do — from our teaching to our safety protocols.
• Initiative: We teach our students to take ownership of their success.
• Teamwork: We believe in building trust, shared responsibility, and strong site culture.
• Integrity: We hold ourselves accountable to quality, safety and doing the right thing, even when no one’s watching.
• Innovation: We embrace progress — new tools, new training models and new ways to meet workforce demand.
• Work ethic: We demonstrate determination, grit and ambition every single day.

We’re not waiting for someone else to solve the labor shortage. We’re solving it here in Vermont, one student at a time.

Beyond solving a workforce challenge, we’re also changing hearts and minds about what it means to “make it” in this world. Not every student needs a four-year degree to find purpose. Not every graduate needs to move to a city to find opportunity. Not every family needs to carry the burden of debt to feel pride in their future.

At Vermont Construction Academy, we offer something different. Something real. Something lasting.

It’s time to rethink what success looks like — and start investing in the workforce we actually need.

Read the story on VTDigger here: Joshua Reap: Trade education solves more than just a labor shortage.

Federal prosecutors in Vermont are awaiting word from U.S. Attorney General Pamela Bondi on whether they will seek the death penalty in the case against a former Stowe man charged in the 2023 fatal shooting of two Massachusetts men. 

Theodore Bland, 30, had been indicted by a grand jury earlier this year in Vermont with federal crimes that could carry the possibility of the death penalty, if he were to be convicted. 

During a hearing Monday, federal Judge William K. Sessions III asked Assistant U.S. Attorney Jason Turner, one of the prosecutors in the case, about how the parties were moving the case forward. 

“I’d like to know what the status is,” Sessions said to Turner.

“At this point,” Turner replied, “we are awaiting a decision of the attorney general with regard to whether the government intends to seek capital punishment in this case.” 

Turner said attorneys for the prosecution and defense both met with a committee at the U.S. Department of Justice to make their cases about their positions on whether the death penalty should be pursued in the case.

Sessions then asked if Turner had an “expected timeline” for Bondi’s decision. 

“I do not, your honor,” Turner responded. 

According to federal prosecutors, an indictment against Bland charged him with using and carrying “a firearm in relation to a drug trafficking crime causing the deaths of Jahim Solomon and Eric White in circumstances that constitute murder under federal law.”

On Oct. 25, 2023, Vermont State Police said authorities found the bodies of Solomon, 21, of Pittsfield, Massachusetts, and White, 21, of Chicopee, Massachusetts, in a wooded area of Eden, about a mile apart from each other. 

Both men, according to state police, had been fatally shot.

About 10 days before their bodies were found, state police said that their families had reported them missing. The families also reported that the men had been not in contact for several days and were last known to be in Vermont.

Court records filed in Bland’s federal case stated that the killings took place on Oct. 12, 2023, when “Bland’s firearm discharges caused the deaths of Jahim Solomon and Eric White.”

Dilan Jiron, 21 and a co-defendant in the case, entered into a plea deal with prosecutors in July. He pleaded guilty to charges of conspiracy to possess a firearm in a drug trafficking crime and helping Bland cover up the fatal shootings. 

Jiron, formerly of Hyde Park, faces up to 23 years in prison on the two charges. He is set to be sentenced in October. 

Vermont last carried out an execution in 1954. The state no longer has a death penalty statute on the books. However, Bland’s case was brought under federal law, which does permit the death penalty as a punishment for certain crimes. 

Former President Joseph Biden had imposed a moratorium on the federal death penalty, but President Donald Trump lifted that moratorium through an executive order after taking office in January.

Bondi has already approved pursuing the death penalty in another Vermont case brought in federal court against Teresa Youngblut, 21. Prosecutors have accused Youngblut of fatally shooting David Maland, a border patrol agent, in January during a traffic stop on Interstate 91 in Coventry. 

Youngblut, formerly of Washington state, pleaded not guilty Friday in federal court in Burlington to a new indictment brought in the case that included capital crimes, including one for murder in Maland’s death. Youngblut has been linked to a group known as the Zizians, whose members have been connected to several other homicides across the country.

Attorneys in Bland’s case said during Monday’s hearing that the prosecution has worked to provide the defense lawyers with evidence related to the case. 

“So then all parties are awaiting a decision from the attorney general from the Department of Justice,” Sessions, the judge, said as the hearing came to a close. “Once that decision is made perhaps we can have another status conference and see where we go from there.”  

Read the story on VTDigger here: U.S. attorney general to decide whether to seek death penalty for double slaying in Vermont.

Dear Reader,

Today we’re launching our Fall Member Drive to raise $150,000 for independent reporting that helps Vermonters make decisions about their lives and their communities.

A gift of $14 a month — less than 50 cents a day — keeps this service strong and free for every neighbor.

If you believe in the power of independent, trustworthy Vermont news, please become a monthly sustaining member today. If monthly isn’t right, a one-time gift in any amount still helps us reach our Fall Member Drive goal.

Across the country, local journalism is disappearing. Since I began reporting for Vermont newspapers in the early 2000s, the number of journalists in the United States has fallen by more than 75%. Today, one in three counties has no full-time local reporter.

But Vermont is an exception because of you.

A new report from Muck Rack and Rebuild Local News reveals that Vermont maintains the highest number of local journalists per capita in the nation, thanks in large part to VTDigger and the readers who support us. While we still have a long way to go to restore our press corps, this is an achievement worth celebrating.

I’m proud of what we’ve accomplished together. But keeping Vermonters informed takes ongoing commitment. When we say we can’t do it without you, we truly mean it: The only way to keep VTDigger strong is with continued support from readers like you.

If you value independent, in-depth reporting that explains complex issues, connects neighbors and holds power to account, I invite you to become a sustaining member today.

Locally owned newsrooms like ours prioritize accuracy, depth and community focus. That work requires time, editors, document requests, travel and follow-up. It’s only possible through reader support. 

Monthly support gives us the resources to stay on top of the issues that matter to you like housing, the environment, immigration, education and rural healthcare. It means we can have reporters in the Statehouse, attend court hearings and knock on doors to include the voices of everyday Vermonters.

Together, we can keep our community informed, connected and strong.

Sincerely,

Sky Barsch
CEO, VTDigger

P.S. Make a gift during our Fall Member Drive and you’ll be entered to win one of two $250 gift cards to Johnson Woolen Mills. New monthly sustainers will also receive a VTDigger sustainer decal.

Read the story on VTDigger here: VTDigger’s fall membership drive aims to raise $150,000.

Ryan Golding, owner of Mastaler Cleaning Service, has contracts with the state to provide janitorial services at multiple properties. But for the last two months, since the state rolled out its new digital procurement system VTBuys, he says the state hasn’t paid about $12,000 it owes.

“That whole time, I’ve covered all my labor costs, all the equipment, all my supplies,” he said in an interview last week. “I can borrow from Peter and pay Paul basically until I get paid by the state.”

Golding is one of three small-business owners who told VTDigger they haven’t been paid or received payments late since Vermont adopted its new digital one-stop shop for state contracts, bidding and vendor payment. Two others spoke on the condition of anonymity out of fear they’d lose future work with the state for speaking to the media. 

The Vermont Department of Buildings and General Services and the Agency of Digital Services intended to launch VTBuys July 1, but coding bugs delayed the system’s rollout. At the time, Wanda Minoli, Buildings and General Services commissioner, said the false start was a natural part of pivoting to such a sweeping new system, and she remained confident in VTBuys’ effectiveness as an upgraded e-procurement platform. 

After that initial delay, state leaders assured lawmakers late last month that VTBuys is now functioning well, paying state contractors and registering vendors. The initial hiccups, they said, had been quickly fixed. 

But the complaints from small businesses appear to contradict that assessment. Asked why some vendors had not been paid, Cole Barney, spokesperson for the Department of Buildings and General Services, told VTDigger in an email that some agencies across state government have a backlog of payments since the switch to VTBuys. He wrote that while delays are expected with any transition, the state takes seriously “our responsibility for paying our vendors timely.” 

“It is not a universal issue and there are a few factors contributing, including workflow approval errors and some user errors,” Barney wrote. 

Small businesses working with the state told VTDigger their experience with VTBuys has been far from the historical norm. While one acknowledged an occasional payment delay in the past, all described their invoice issues as new, not something they expected under the previous system. 

One owner of a small business said they’re owed about $10,000 from the state, a portion of the $100,000-$200,000 worth of work they tend to do for the state annually. 

“Every inquiry I make into how soon can we get paid,” the business owner said, “is basically (met with), ‘The system is too complicated, we don’t have enough help.’”

In the past, invoices would be processed in a day or two, the contractor told VTDigger. Now, with two-month-old invoices, they said they are disappointed with the lack of communication and urgency. 

“For a state that wants to encourage small business, this probably shouldn’t be happening,” the small-business owner said. “Because a small business can’t survive if they’re not being paid.”

A third small-business leader told VTDigger in late August the state owed them more than $60,000, almost $30,000 of which was two months past due. 

“These are significant sums for our company,” they wrote in an email.

The state has since paid the invoices — a huge relief, according to the source. But the company is a subcontractor on another state project that still has unpaid invoices from July, they said. 

Read the story on VTDigger here: State contractors blame Vermont’s new digital procurement system VTBuys for missing and late payments.

Over the past decade, the way people connect and build community has shifted in meaningful ways. 

As Joshua Smith watched these changes unfold, he noticed something important: while online platforms offered new opportunities, many people around him still craved real, local connection. Around the same time, the owner of WYKR, his hometown radio station, kept joking, “Josh, if you ever want to buy a radio station, let me know.” In 2023, Josh took him up on it.

Based in Wells River and serving parts of northern Vermont and New Hampshire, WYKR is the oldest country radio station in Vermont. True to its roots, Josh is revitalizing what radio was back in the ’70s and ’80s, featuring outdoor shows and programs, broadcasting the local basketball games, and keeping advertising affordable.

Josh is building something enduring. He took over The Bridge Weekly Showcase, a local paper, soon after buying WYKR. He formed Yankee Kingdom Media to sustain and grow both outlets. Local ownership, he notes, ensures the voices and stories of his community are heard. And it enhances the symbiotic relationship between local businesses. “Keeping local media local and independent? We can’t take it for granted,” he says. 

“I don’t know where I would have ended up.”

When Josh reflects on where he started—a disengaged student from rural Vermont—he’s clear about one thing: “I wouldn’t be here without VSAC believing in me.”

A self-professed theater kid at Blue Mountain Union High School, Josh wasn’t sure about college. His three brothers didn’t go, and although his parents wanted him to continue his education, he knew they couldn’t pay for it. Then, junior year, he began meeting monthly with a VSAC outreach counselor from VSAC’s GEAR UP college and career readiness program.

“My outreach counselor guided me through the entire process and took away any barriers I perceived. She also helped me remove the barriers of funding. She reinforced the fact that education is a right, not a privilege.”

Josh’s VSAC counselor helped him with his applications and financial aid paperwork, and coached him on what to expect in college. “VSAC looked at me and saw the full future version of me. Not my test scores, not my grades. Me,” he says.

Josh’s theater teacher had friends who taught at Webster University in Saint Louis, and they encouraged him to apply. So he did, along with a slate of other schools, all of which he was accepted to. Webster remained his first choice—and he ended up with a financial aid package that made it possible for him to go. 

From art school to international service

Josh originally dreamed of becoming a children’s book illustrator. Over the course of his college years, however, his perspective began to shift. He joined the Peace Corps after college, which changed everything, and high school French classes landed him a position in Niger. 

After being in Niger for two years, Josh renewed his option to stay for another two years. “I lived in a mud hut and pulled my own water from a well. And while there, I read all the books I was supposed to read in high school.” 

Josh’s Peace Corps experience ignited a passion for international service. He went on to earn a master’s in International Education from the School for International Training in Brattleboro and spent the next 12 years working with global humanitarian organizations, including Doctors Without Borders and Action Against Hunger. From Pakistan to the Philippines, Libya to Nigeria, Joshua managed the complex logistics of getting food and medical supplies to those in crisis.

“I repaired ambulances in Libya during the revolution and had a machine gun pointed in my face. Along with survival, the logistical challenges of getting food and medical supplies to places during a crisis were mine to solve.”

But even while doing this high-stakes work, he never forgot his roots—or the people who helped get him started. “The key to success is showing up and believing in yourself,” he said. “My self-confidence really came from working with VSAC. They made me feel comfortable with being uncomfortable. When you’re a teenager, there is no self-confidence. When you have someone who believes in your potential more than you do, especially when it’s an adult—that’s powerful.”

“I don’t believe in one career for the rest of your life. I’m on my third.”

After marrying his wife, Edith (whom he met while working in Niger), and moving back to Vermont, Joshua earned an MBA from Norwich University and dove into the nonprofit world. He led an organization supporting people with intellectual disabilities and sat on several local boards before the opportunity to purchase WYKR came about. 

Now 49, at the helm of Yankee Kingdom Media and living in Morrisville with his wife and three children, one of Josh’s greatest joys is hosting a podcast—Vermont Authors and Artists—bringing together his lifelong love of creativity, service, and conversation.

Through it all, he carries forward his commitment to continuous curiosity—something he learned in theater and through the arts and is now passing on to his children.

“I don’t believe in one career for the rest of your life,” he notes. “I’m on my third. Ten years ago, I wouldn’t have seen this career coming.”

The Vermont Student Assistance Corp. was created by the Vermont Legislature in 1965 as a public nonprofit agency. We advocate for Vermont students and their families to ensure that they have the tools they need to achieve their education and training goals. We create opportunities for all Vermont students, but particularly for those—of any age—who believe that the doors to education are closed to them. Growing families save for education with VT529, Vermont’s official 529 savings program. To help Vermonters plan and pay for college or job training, our counselors work with students in nearly every Vermont middle school and high school, and are also available to work with adults. Our grant, scholarship, and workforce development programs create opportunity, help students re-skill or learn new skills, and grow the economy. VSAC’s loan and loan forgiveness programs provide competitive education financing to students and families. Find us at www.vsac.org or visit Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn.

Read the story on VTDigger here: From rural roots to global impact: A Vermont media leader’s journey home.

Updated at 4:37 p.m.

The former executive director of the Vermont Council of Special Education Administrators was charged with felony embezzlement, the Montpelier Police Department said in a press release Friday.

Darren McIntrye, who served as the head of the organization from 2021 to 2023, embezzled more than $76,000 from the organization and used the funds “for personal gain,” police alleged in the release.

The investigation began in October 2024, when the organization reported the “misappropriation of company funds” to the Montpelier Police Department, Alesha Donovan, a police detective with the department, said in the release.

The Vermont Council of Special Education Administrators has been active in Vermont for decades, supporting special education administrators and employees in school districts across the state.

Mary Lundeen, the organization’s executive director, said in an email that the organization was “bound to promptly report” any irregularities “and to conduct an audit to determine the facts.”

“That is what it has done here,” she said. “We leave it to law enforcement and the courts to decide whether there are criminal acts.”

Read the story on VTDigger here: Former director of the Vermont Council of Special Education Administrators charged with embezzling funds.

BURLINGTON — Debbie Hazen recalls turning 6 when the nuns who ran the city’s former St. Joseph’s Orphanage locked her in an attic trunk in the early 1960s.

“They told me there were bats and snakes and spiders in there that were going to get me,” she said of the dark place.

Hazen never imagined she would eventually find herself outside the orphanage dedicating a “memorial healing space” for the more than 13,000 children who lived at the Catholic facility from its opening in 1854 to its closing in 1974.

“This has been a long time coming and quite the journey for all of us,” Hazen, now 70, told a crowd of 100 fellow survivors and supporters Friday. “For some, this will complete their healing. For others, there’s still much to do.”

The North Avenue memorial, which features a sculptural arbor and stones etched with the words of former orphanage residents, is the final project in a five-year restorative justice process.

“Your voices have been instrumental in shaping our approach to child protection,” Chris Winters, commissioner of the Vermont Department for Children and Families, told survivors. “This memorial is not just a reminder of the past, but it’s also a symbol of your resilience and of our commitment to a future where every child is safe.”

Former orphanage residents once feared no one would believe their memories of mistreatment, so they didn’t start publicizing their childhood conditions until the 1990s. But authorities didn’t launch an investigation until a 2018 BuzzFeed article exposed the full extent of past “unrelenting physical and psychological abuse.”

By 2020, the review confirmed “abuse did occur … and that many children suffered,” although the accusations were too old to pursue criminal charges. To compensate, local and state leaders initiated a “restorative justice inquiry” to help former residents push responsible parties to adopt measures “to ensure that these harms never happen again.”

Working with social service and legal professionals, former residents lobbied for a 2021 state law that eliminated time limits on filing civil lawsuits alleging childhood physical abuse — a success that won them the Vermont Center for Crime Victim Services’ 2021 Survivor/Activist Award.

But the orphanage’s overseers — the state’s Roman Catholic Diocese, the Sisters of Providence and Vermont Catholic Charities — would not meet with survivors as a group nor consider requests for childhood records or restitution.

As part of the inquiry, participants told their stories through several public projects, including two anthologies, a Vermont Folklife-supported oral history and traveling exhibition, and journalist Christine Kenneally’s 2018 BuzzFeed exposé and 2023 follow-up book, “Ghosts of the Orphanage.”

Inquiry organizers also released a 176-page final report that summed up the restorative justice process as both “helpful and healing” and “difficult and painful.”

The new memorial rose with help from Burlington’s Department of Parks, Recreation & Waterfront and supporters who donated $160,000. The dedication featured current and former  local and state leaders as well as survivors who came from as far away as Florida.

“I would like to acknowledge all the unseen victims who have gone unnoticed,” said Debi Gevry, 62, whose father, struggling to care for her and her two siblings, placed them at the orphanage in the 1960s.

“He did so thinking he was doing what was best for his children,” she said in a speech. “On a mechanic’s wage, he paid for our keep not knowing the suffering we were enduring on a daily basis.”

Gevry, who said she wasn’t hugged until after leaving at age 12, went on to raise her own family.

“I have yet to heal from the traumas hidden deep in my soul,” she said. “I have unknowingly passed on my fears and anxieties to the next generation. This is just a small example of the ripple effect abuse carries.”

Gevry closed by reading a poem she wrote. Chiseled into a memorial stone, it’s punctuated by the refrain, “We will be remembered.”

“I may never be completely whole,” she said, “but I will not be silenced.”

Read the story on VTDigger here: For Vermont survivors of orphanage abuse, the restorative justice process is over. The journey is not..

This story by Clare Shanahan was first published by the Valley News on Sept. 7.

WOODSTOCK — Vermont State Police are investigating the Windsor County Sheriff Department’s finances following an anonymous tip.

The Vermont State Police’s criminal division is involved in the investigation into “a financial matter regarding the sheriff’s office,” spokesperson Adam Silverman confirmed Thursday. The investigation started in mid-August because the division was “asked” to look into it. Silverman declined to provide further details.

As of Friday, Windsor County Sheriff Ryan Palmer said he had not been contacted by Vermont State Police about the investigation but suggested that does not seem to be unusual. He confirmed that he learned about the investigation through media reports.

“I’m not hiding anything. I didn’t do anything wrong. I didn’t do anything illegal. There’s nothing to hide,” Palmer said in a Friday interview.

Palmer confirmed in an Aug. 29 Facebook post that he was aware of the investigation, denied any “wrongdoing or criminal behavior” and wrote that he understands the “serious nature of the claims and the public concern this may cause.”

Palmer also suggested on Facebook that the tip Vermont State Police received may have been politically motivated.

“I would also note that these complaints were submitted anonymously, as we approach the 2026 election year,” Palmer wrote at the end of his message.

When asked about this comment, Palmer said he did not know if the tip was politically motivated but said, “I guess we’ll have to wait and see, but it is coincidental at best.” He described the timing as “curious.”

Palmer, 38, was first elected as Windsor County’s sheriff in 2022.

He ran as a Democrat and campaigned on a platform of change for the department, which had been run for 40 nearly uninterrupted years by former Sheriff Michael Chamberlain, a Republican.

After winning the Democratic primary against Tom Battista, a longtime veteran of the department, Palmer prevailed again in November with 15,629 votes to Chamberlain’s 9,824. It was the first time Chamberlain faced a challenger in nearly 20 years.

Since his election, Palmer has grown the department both in staffing and coverage area and he has not shied away from spending money to do so.

As of the beginning of 2025, Palmer had 22 full-time and nine part-time deputies, more than doubling his 2022 numbers and had increased patrols from nine to 15 towns, including four in Orange County.

The expansion kicked off as soon as Palmer’s term began.

In the first four months of 2023, Palmer spent $219,000 on five new cruisers and another almost $150,000 on other equipment through a combination of reserve funds, loans and grants, the Valley News reported at the time.

“My goal coming into this was to really change the paradigm and to change the way Vermont sheriff departments operate, because I felt there was a huge void in rural law enforcement and that has obviously been very expensive,” Palmer said of the investment.

In two and a half years under Palmer’s leadership, the Windsor County Sheriff’s Department has undergone two audits, both within the first six months of his term, according to reports filed with the Vermont state auditor. Vermont law requires that sheriff departments be audited by an outside accounting firm once every two years.

The first was a transition audit that primarily looked at money handled by Chamberlain, the former sheriff. The second audit concerned finances from Feb. 1 through June 30, 2023.

From Jan. 31 through June 30, 2023, the amount of money included in the Windsor Sheriff’s Department bank account decreased from just over $1 million to about $550,000, according to the reports. At the same time, the value of vehicles and equipment increased from about $70,000 to over $450,000.

The Department is about to kick off another regularly scheduled state-mandated audit, Palmer noted in the Facebook post.

Palmer has signed the paperwork to authorize the regular audit but it has not formally started, he said Friday. The last two audits each took about a month to complete.

For now, Palmer said he is focused on continuing his work as usual.

“If you look at where things were before I took over to now, I think that we’ve done a lot of good and that’s kind of my focus in moving forward.”

Read the story on VTDigger here: Anonymous tip sparks probe into Windsor County sheriff’s finances.

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@youngwritersproject.org; (802) 324-9538.

To live in the moment — to use our senses to ingest our surroundings and find an appreciation for every small felicity, in spite of our challenges — can be, for many, the only worthy purpose of life. For others, fulfillment is found in the promise of posterity. And for a third type, such as this week’s featured writer, Oliver Ellis of Belmont, happiness comes from straddling the two worlds: Experiencing new emotions, discovering new convictions through the process of committing them to the eternal page.

A young poet’s manifesto

Oliver Ellis, 14, Belmont

Anyone

can be a poet.

Anyone

can use their gift.

Anyone

can take a handful of words 

and make someone laugh with them.

The pen is my trigger,

the words my recipe – 

for tears,

for smiles,

for love,

and               

for hate too.

A pen is a search engine

without a filter,

and somehow it seems to know

what your weak spots are.

And every day – every single day – 

I pick up that pen and write. I write all the time, because   

someday there will be nothing left.

I use my words as an

excuse.

An alibi.

It’s who I am.

A conscientious

objector to    

conforming

and

being just like

everyone else.

     I think we need more words. Because at the end of the day, what else will be left? Not our silly paper money, that’s for sure. Not our fancy cars, not our mansions. Not our strict laws or closed-minded biases. 

     But I have a notion that our words and our emotions will always be, as a reminder of what’s at stake in this world: nothing and everything.

Read the story on VTDigger here: Young Writers Project: ‘A young poet’s manifesto’.

This story by Aaron Calvin was first published in the News & Citizen on Sept. 4

On the Thursday before Labor Day, the town of Johnson gathered around its community oven.

This has been a regular occurrence at Legion Field on School Street for nearly eight years and has expanded to include Halloween bakes and “skate and bakes” in the winter, when an ice rink is set up in the park. Members of the town’s community oven committee, many of whom have been involved since the oven’s inception, pull a pie out of the stone column’s fiery maw — sometimes it’s a classic cheese pie, sometimes a custom creation — and place it before a crowd that devours each slice.

Thursday’s affair was like many of the bakes that had gone before it, but more so. There were the usual pickup soccer games, but this time they were led by athletes from Vermont State University’s Johnson campus. Hardwick’s Kingdom Creamery was selling ice cream and a raffle raised $268 for the Johnson Food Shelf. There were Charcuterie boards adorned with meat and cheese from the Johnson General Store. At a set of grills next to the oven, Jesse Whitworth grilled hamburgers and portobello mushrooms, the fragrance of which mingled with the sound of live music; all 90 burgers were gone by the end of the night.

The community oven was first lit in late October 2017, built in an effort led by former legislator and selectboard member Mark Woodward and librarian Jen Burton. Jasmine Yuris, who now chairs the community oven committee, was there at the beginning, as was Sophia Berard, who was shaping the dough before handing it to her husband, Luke Gellatly, who knows the temperament of the oven well enough to produce pies consistently with a chewy, char-kissed crust.

Yuris remembered the early conversations around building a community oven, following the example of other towns in Vermont.

“How can we make food access something that everyone experiences, rather than this idea of charity, which is just for people who need it? We all need it and deserve it,” she said.

The oven cost $8,000 to build eight years ago and has likely produced well over that amount in free meals since then. In classic Vermont fashion, it’s built upon remnants of the past — some of its stones were once part of a former talc mill in the town, according to Seven Days.

Even as the work of the oven appears straightforward, the labor and logistics required to put on the community bakes is challenging. Yuris made the dough used in the bakes in her own home the first few years before securing dough from Elmore Mountain Bread — Berard worked there as a baker before becoming a therapist. This year, for the first time in the oven’s history, they’ve used actual pizza dough. Gellatly makes the sauce with water from Johnson’s cold spring. Toppings and salad ingredients are sourced from Morrisville nonprofit Salvation Farms or purchased locally at Foote Brook Farm.

Other than the occasional repair to its stone edifice, the oven has not changed much since it was built, but the oven committee mission has evolved over the years. In the early phase of social distancing during the Covid pandemic, volunteers donned masks and gloves, and the oven became a takeout spot.

After the flood of July 2023, the oven provided free food to the community in the wake of the devastation, while pizzas were packed up and sent to the selectboard as it worked through the response. When a less damaging flood hit a year later, the committee considered calling off the bake scheduled for that week, but pressed ahead.

“I remember that was more of a question of, like, we’ve all been through this before. Is this too traumatic for us to still hold this thing and continue?” Yuris recalled. “But it all comes back to everybody’s got to eat, and it’s better to eat together, especially on a day like that, so we just continued and did the thing.”

The expanded bake night held last week was a combined effort between the oven committee and the nascent food access task force, one of several ad hoc groups formed in the wake of last year’s “Reimagine Johnson” effort, coordinated by the Vermont Council on Rural Development in effort to address the challenges the town faced after repeated flooding.

After a successful community dinner hosted at the Vermont Studio Center, the task force looked to hold an August event to benefit the Johnson food shelf, which has seen increased need over the summer after serving over 300 people in July alone, according to board member Diane Suter. Hampered by the fact that, unlike the oven committee, the task force is not an entity formally associated with the municipal government, the decision was made to expand the final bake of the summer for the benefit of the food shelf.

“We’re trying to be additive,” Whitworth said.

The task force and oven committee already share members and have similar missions. Yuris, who serves on both, said that, amid the town’s effort to consolidate the groups, she hopes to see a new food access committee take over and expand the oven’s efforts.

The oven, after all, has become more than a way to feed everyone. It’s grown into a symbol of what can be achieved through collective work, much like its new neighbor at Legion Field, the Johnson Public Library, which was moved from its flood-prone former home on Railroad Street earlier this year. When selectboard member Adrienne Parker and her partner Blake moved to Johnson from Rhode Island during the pandemic, volunteering for the oven committee was what she described as the “gateway drug” to getting more involved in the community.

“After the flood, we liked Johnson almost more because we saw how the community responded to each other. Everyone was thinking about each other,” Blake said. “In the places we’ve lived before, it’s kind of like, you’re on your own. Here, everyone’s thinking about everyone else and being strong for each other, thinking of how you can help your community members, even if you’re not affected, and I don’t know, that’s just really beautiful.”

Jasmine Yuris is a News & Citizen community columnist.

Read the story on VTDigger here: Give pizza a chance: Johnson feeds the town with community oven.

Dear Editor,

I was fortunate to attend a presentation on the geology and hydrogeology of the Memphremagog region sponsored by Memphremagog Watershed Association on Aug. 13. 

I learned so much from Vermont geologists Steven Wright and Jonathan Kim, who is also a geologist with the Vermont Geological Survey. 

It was a great opportunity to learn how our region was formed by glacial advance and retreat over many millennia, how rivers and lakes were formed and how this affects our watershed today. Of the many facts provided, it was fascinating to learn how the Clyde River, Lake Willoughby and Crystal Lake all contributed their north-flowing waters to what became the Lake Memphremagog we know today.

Another point of interest to me is that Kim emphasized that the groundwater and surface water in our watershed are a system, meaning the ground and surface waters are interconnected and constantly cycle, with groundwater becoming surface water and vice versa. Whatever enters the groundwater drains to surface waters, including rivers and other tributaries of the South Bay and Lake Memphremagog. 

This is an important consideration given the location of the state’s only landfill in Coventry, sited in the drainage basin of the lake. Harmful, even hazardous, “forever” PFAS chemicals have been measured in the groundwater wells and underdrains around and beneath the landfill for years. 

This is evidence that PFAS, or perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances, and other contaminants escape the landfill, enter groundwater and inevitably drain into the surface waters of Lake Memphremagog, accumulating over time. 

Those whose drinking water comes from the lake, including well over 175,000 Quebec neighbors, are at risk of exposure to PFAS and other harmful chemicals from a variety of sources. 

This is a fact that must not be taken lightly. 

Protecting our lake’s water — and all who depend on it for survival, including fish and wildlife — from chemical contamination from any source must be a priority. 

The state Agency of Natural Resources — regulators of waste management in Vermont — bears responsibility to prevent discharge of PFAS and other chemicals into our environment. 

Residents on both sides of our Vermont-Canadian border deserve the strictest regulation, the safest and most effective waste management technologies and practices to ensure the health and safety of the public and the environment.

Peggy Stevens

Charleston

Read the story on VTDigger here: Peggy Stevens: Protecting Lake Memphremagog from PFAS must be a priority.

Former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean has heard all the talk about Democrats hemorrhaging voters because of unaddressed economic fears. But the onetime physician, presidential candidate and national party chair has a different diagnosis.

“It’s true the Democrats forgot the working class, but we are not appealing to the next generation,” he began a recent interview. “Younger people don’t like longwinded mealy-mouthing, which is a problem in our party. Washington has never had a clue, but it’s particularly out of touch with a bunch of old folks running everything.” 

Dean was 22 when he earned a political science degree, 29 when he graduated from medical school, 33 when he won election as a state representative and 37 when he became lieutenant governor — only to turn 40 and skyrocket into the political stratosphere.

As governor from 1991 to 2003, Dean pushed to expand health care, starting with Dr. Dynasaur coverage for children and teenagers. As a presidential contender in 2004, he plugged into student support by pioneering online organizing, spurring Politico to deem him “the father of all web campaigns.” As head of the Democratic National Committee from 2005 to 2011, he popularized a “50-state strategy” in hopes of growing the grassroots.

Then hitting 75 last year, Dean toyed with another run for governor, only to ultimately stay on the sidelines.

“I didn’t talk to anybody who I trusted who thought it was a good idea, and I don’t really know how to negotiate this world anymore,” he recalled. “I do my banking at the counter, where they say, ‘You could save yourself a lot of trouble if you just go online.’ I won’t because of the security problems. And I’ve never used Amazon. I want to keep my money in Vermont.”

And so the grandfather of three is aiming to embolden a new generation.

“People in their 70s and 80s need to understand our place and get the hell out of the way,” Dean said. “I’m not saying we ought to kick old people to the side or turn everything over to 20-year-olds, although we need a society where they feel they fit in. But I think leadership has to be between 35 and 50.”

Dean admits that can be a challenge in the Green Mountain State, where the median age is the third highest in the nation, the U.S. census reports. The number of older Vermonters has risen by 80% since 2000 — about one in every three residents is now over 60 — while figures for youth under age 20 have dropped by almost 20%.

Dean adds it’s not always easy to hand over the remote when you’ve long held the control.

“As a parent, there’s a role for you as your kids get older, but it’s not what it was.”

That said, Dean isn’t ready to go quietly.

‘The nurse knocks’

Two decades ago, most 20-year-olds knew everything about Dean, the original Vermont youth magnet before U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders ran for president in 2016 and 2020. But today’s students either weren’t born or in school when the doctor unintentionally made history on Jan. 19, 2004, with his TikTok-enduring “Dean Scream.”

Born in New York City in 1948, the son of a stockbroker graduated from Yale University in 1971, then tried his hand pouring concrete, washing dishes and finally attending the Bronx’s Albert Einstein College of Medicine. Meeting and marrying fellow student Judith Steinberg, he was rejected by his top three hospital choices before winning acceptance at his fourth — the University of Vermont Medical Center in Burlington.

Juggling jobs as a physician and part-time lieutenant governor, Dean chose not to run for the state’s top spot when it came open in 1990. Then Gov. Richard Snelling died of a heart attack a year later.

“I was seeing a patient and the nurse knocks,” recalled Dean, who finished the checkup (“I knew the patient wouldn’t be able to get another appointment for quite some time”) before his emergency swearing-in on Aug. 14, 1991.

Serving as governor through 2002, Dean proved hard to pigeonhole. On one hand, he was a fiscal conservative who cut income taxes while balancing the state budget 11 years in a row — all while receiving an “A” rating from the National Rifle Association. Then again, he signed a landmark 2000 law creating same-sex civil unions after the Vermont Supreme Court ruled that all couples have the right to marriage benefits.

The separate-but-equal compromise forged by the Legislature angered both voters wanting no distinction (same-sex marriage wouldn’t come until 2009) and those who opposed any deal. Dean faced so many threats, he had to wear a bulletproof vest when he ran for his fifth and final term.

Amid it all, Dean helped lead the National Governors Association and hinted at higher aspirations by hosting his 49 peers and then-President Bill Clinton at the group’s 1995 conference in Burlington. But everyone was still surprised when he entered the 2004 race for the White House.

‘The Darkest Horse’

The press soon introduced Dean to the nation, but not necessarily in the way he had hoped.

The cover of The New Republic of July 1, 2002, carried the headline, “Invisible Man:  The most intriguing presidential candidate you’ve never seen.” The American Prospect of July 15, 2002, presented a profile titled “The Darkest Horse.” The New York Times of Dec. 18, 2002, summed up its story: “The governor of Vermont will battle the ‘Who’s he?’ factor.”

Dean told the Times he wanted to follow in the footsteps of President Jimmy Carter, a onetime little-known governor who the Vermonter supported as a 1980 delegate to the Democratic National Convention. But Dean was polling far behind a slew of his party’s members of Congress, all of whom supported then Republican President George W. Bush’s invasion of Iraq.

That’s when Dean spoke out.

“’What I want to know is why in the world the Democratic Party leadership is supporting the president’s unilateral attack on Iraq?” he was quoted at the national committee’s 2003 winter meeting. “I’m Howard Dean, and I’m here to represent the Democratic wing of the Democratic Party.”

By summer, Dean was deemed a “maverick” by USA Today, an “insurgent” by the Los Angeles Times and worthy of a cover story by Time magazine.

“Today he has a shot at winning his party’s nomination,” Time wrote in its Aug. 11, 2003 issue. “What’s unclear is whether he has surged because contributors and poll respondents think he is a new kind of Old Democrat — a candidate who will finally revive the left — or because those contributors and respondents know the truth — he is a rock-ribbed budget hawk, a moderate on gays and guns, and a true lefty on only a few issues, primarily the use of U.S. military power, which Dean seems to regard with a mixture of contempt and suspicion.”

Whatever Dean was, “he’s all that and a stick of gum,” political strategist Donna Brazile told the magazine. “He’s that hot. The flavor has not left him.”

‘Nothing to do with it’

By the beginning of 2004, more than 500,000 supporters had signed up on deanforamerica.com, each contributing an average of $77 for a collective total of $50 million, according to finance records.

“I get all this credit for the campaign,” Dean recently recalled. “I had absolutely nothing to do with it.”

The candidate instead points to tech-savvy youth who, in a first, harnessed the web for organizing and fundraising. But they knew more about programming a computer than working the political machine. Dean placed third in Iowa on Jan. 19 (the scream wasn’t the cause, but instead came in response), second in New Hampshire on Jan. 27 and third in Wisconsin on Feb. 17 before withdrawing from the race.

“Dean looked for a moment as if he might shake the political universe with a blunt-spoken, nontraditional style,” the Washington Post reported in a postmortem. “He found the same freewheeling approach that drew such fanfare was an engine of his demise.”

“His vaunted decentralized movement of political newcomers lacked experience and agility,” the Times added, “failing to quickly make or clearly communicate critical decisions.”

Dean went on to head the Democratic National Committee, offer commentary on MSNBC and teach as a senior fellow at Yale’s Jackson School of Global Affairs. Since retiring from those posts, he’s now chair of the Democratic Data Exchange, which collects and shares voter contact information.

“Really smart young people are running it — all I do is keep order,” he said. “The only reason I’m chair is because somebody decided I was the only one who could get along with all the people in the Democratic Party who hated each other.” 

When Dean ran to lead the Democratic National Committee in 2005, Republicans held the presidency and both chambers of Congress. Two decades later, the Vermonter says the situation is similar “but the generation gap is bigger than it’s ever been.”

Dean recalls when Americans received their news from the same national television networks, state newspapers and local radio stations.

“Today you have 10 different versions of everything,” he said. “It’s going to be a big problem for this new generation, which is going to be separated from each other by which TikTok influencers they watch, and for the world in terms of how you establish any kind of notion of what’s true and what’s not.”

‘What’s new about that?’

Dean is a strong proponent of shared context. When his children were in elementary school, he read them an unusual bedtime story: David McCullough’s 1,120-page biography of President Harry Truman.

“They still laugh about it,” he said. “They didn’t feel like it was being abusive.”

For adults, Dean suggests two books: “Thomas Chittenden: Vermont’s First Statesman,” a 1997 history by Frank Smallwood about the state’s founding governor; and “Philip Hoff: How Red Turned Blue in the Green Mountain State,” a 2011 account by Samuel Hand, Anthony Marro and Stephen Terry of the 20th-century leader who ushered in a shift from Republican to Democratic rule.

“All this shapes who we are and why we’re different,” he said.

For Dean, the books also shed light on the present disconnect between state and national politics — and why he sees hope.

“Yeah, you’ve got a neofascist government, but I’m an optimist, and I’ll tell you why,” he said. “When I went to college, I had two Black roommates. They had never been to school with a white person and I had never been to school with a Black person. My junior year was the first time women were permitted to enroll in the Ivy League. And I don’t know a single person in my class who dared to say they were gay.”

That was then.

“The amount of change that’s happened over my generation has just been staggering, and I have hope the new generation isn’t going to like authoritarian rule,” he said. “I see my role is to coach young people — and offer an occasional intervention when Democrats in Washington get particularly stupid.”

Dean is repeating his longtime calls for the national party to seed and feed the grassroots by coordinating and contributing to local and state organizing. He’s also offering his support to self-described democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani in his current bid for New York City mayor.

“Republicans are playing by a new set of rules now, and I think Democrats have got to toughen up,” Dean said. “We don’t have to give up our ideals, but we do have to talk differently.”

More plain spoken, he explained, and less politically correct.

“I just say what I want,” Dean concluded. “What’s new about that?”

Read the story on VTDigger here: Howard Dean says it’s time to pass the torch. So why is he still embracing the fire?.

For the fourth year in a row, the number of black bears in Vermont far outpaced what the state considers an ideal population size. 

Last year, the state had an estimated 6,800 to 8,000 bears, nearly double the objective of 3,500 to 5,500 bears, outlined by a Vermont Fish and Wildlife Department population model. The state calculates its goal for Vermont’s bear population based on a range of variables, including what is healthy for the bears and ecosystem, as well as humans’ attitudes toward the risk of conflict with the animals.

Why is the population doing so well? There are two big factors that determine population size, said Jaclyn Comeau, the Black Bear Project leader at the state Fish & Wildlife Department: mortality rates and reproduction rates.

The state has a pretty good sense of what is influencing bear mortality, she said. Hunters are responsible for most premature bear deaths, followed by vehicle collisions. Freak accidents, like a bear chewing an electrical wire, can also cause a bear’s early death. Still, populations are continuing to “grow and grow,” Comeau said. 

Looking at reproduction is “kind of that missing piece of information that we don’t have” when it comes to understanding what drives that trend, according to Comeau. A new study launched this summer aims to tackle that question and better pinpoint what type of habitat and food availability supports healthy bear birth rates.

Since the 1980s, the “backbone” to steady population growth has been the wider recovery of suitable habitat for bears, Comeau said, as forest grew back across a landscape previously dominated by deforestation and farm land. The agricultural Vermont of the 1940s and 1950s left bears confined to the spine of the Green Mountains, she said. In those days, killing bears was far more common, without the hunting regulations and restricted season Vermont has today.

Still, the Fish & Wildlife Department would like to better understand how availability of different food sources might influence where the bears go and how successful they are in reproduction, especially as they spread down from the mountains. 

In the mountains, beechnuts are bears’ primary fall food source, but the trees’ nut production pulses every two or three years. Historically, bear populations have risen and fallen with these cycles.  

In the valleys, oak trees — and thus, acorns — are more abundant and more consistent.

“We’re wondering if now that the bear population has moved out of the mountains, if they’re accessing higher-quality habitat where food is more consistent,” Comeau said. “Now that they’re in the valleys, potentially, the habitat might be more productive and allowing their populations to grow.” 

To answer that, the department’s study follows 18 adult female bears fitted with GPS tracking collars that allow biologists to see where the bears are, presumably getting food. The study aims to isolate these two distinct habitat areas by looking at nine bears in the Connecticut River Valley and nine others in the southern Green Mountains. In the winter, the scientists will visit the bears’ dens to confirm how many cubs the mother has, with the intent of following the family and cub survival through their first year of life. Fish & Wildlife anticipates letting the survey run for six years in order to collect enough data to draw conclusions.

Better understanding the conditions in which bears are thriving will allow the department to better protect and manage their habitat, Comeau said. 

The prosperity of Vermont’s black bears is a rare success, as many species decline due to habitat loss, changes in food availability and environmental shifts, among a range of other environmental shifts brought on by climate change. 

Black bears are especially flexible when it comes to habitat and food. As omnivores, they can survive off multiple food sources, and their wide range, from Florida and Mexico to Canada, shows they can adapt to a variety of habitats and temperatures.

Still it does not mean that a changing climate will leave the bears unaffected, Comeau said. 

Comeau worries what the encroachment of beech leaf disease in Vermont’s forests will mean for the bear population over the next decade. 

And as Vermont’s winter season shrinks, people should expect bears to enter hibernation later in the year and emerge earlier in the spring. That, plus a growing population spreading beyond the mountains, makes bears more likely to encounter humans. For Comeau, this underscores a need to figure out how to foster the best coexistence.

The department added that Vermont’s bear hunting season started Monday and runs through Nov. 14. Hunters are allowed to kill collared bears, but Fish & Wildlife asks that they avoid killing bears accompanied by cubs and that they return any collars.

Correction: An earlier version of this story mischaracterized how the state calculates the bear population.

Read the story on VTDigger here: Why is Vermont’s bear population booming?.

Vermont’s independent health care regulator, the Green Mountain Care Board, is considering a set of recommendations that would place tighter guardrails on expenses run rampant across the University of Vermont Health Network. The board’s staff presented the recommendations at its Wednesday meeting, a precursor to the board’s annual hospital budget decisions due Sept. 15. 

New laws passed this legislative session bolstered the care board’s ability to specifically tackle compensation for health care executives and the structure of network health operations, like UVM Health Network. Gov. Phil Scott, who signed these laws, released a statement Thursday commending the care board’s efforts to lower the overall cost of health care in the state. 

“In recent years, GMCB regulatory review has identified concerns with University of Vermont Health Network operations, and lack of alignment between executive compensation and State healthcare goals,” board chair Owen Foster told VTDigger in a statement following the hearing.  “This budget cycle GMCB’s staff has accordingly conducted a deeper dive and analysis of these issues and yesterday made recommendations to the Board.” 

Specifically, during its Wednesday presentation the care board staff illustrated the extreme income disparities between the UVM Medical Center and other hospitals owned by its parent company, the UVM Health Network. The network owns three hospitals in Vermont (UVM, Porter, and Central Vermont Medical Centers), three in New York, and a number of additional health care facilities in the region. 

UVMMC is the largest hospital in the network. Its budgeted revenue for 2026 is $2.4 billion, while Central Vermont’s is $318 million and Porter’s $142 million. 

In 2020-24, losses across the UVM Network reached $12.8 million, according to the board staff’s presentation. Still, the UVM Medical Center alone contributed more than $138 million in profit to the network during this period, the report also showed. Two of the three  New York hospitals in the network operated at a deficit. Of its proposed budgets for next fiscal year, UVMMC accounts for nearly 95% of the systemwide operating income. 

“The Health Network has made excess revenue margin here in Vermont, and the Health Network has needed to contribute those dollars to the New York Hospitals. Vermonters are paying for keeping those New York hospitals afloat,” explained Mike Fisher, the state’s health care advocate, in an interview with VTDigger after the budget hearing.

Exactly what can the board do to curb that disparity? “I’m not exactly sure,” Fisher said, but he was heartened to see the board make strides to pull hospital costs down, to be closer in line with what insurers will be able to pay them. 

To understand the hospital budgets, it’s important to understand the insurance rate review. The two are deeply interconnected. In August, as part of this review process, the Green Mountain Care Board, approved moderate premium increases for health insurers selling plans on the state’s Affordable Care Act marketplace. These rates influence how much hospitals can bill insurers for their services. 

Insurance rate review and hospital budgets are two sides of one equation, Fisher explained. “Insurance rate review is ‘how much money do you have to spend?’ Hospital budget [review] is analogous to ‘Where are you going to spend those dollars?’” he said.

“In years past those two sides of the equation haven’t added up. The board has allowed for more spending than it raised (through insurance payments),” he added.

For the coming fiscal year, the board recommended a commercial reimbursement rate reduction of 7.3% for UVMMC, as well as reductions to net patient revenue and expenses. It also recommended rate increases for Porter and Central Vermont Medical Centers of 2.9% (down, for both, from a proposed 3%) and budget reductions commensurate with reductions in net patient revenue.

The staff recommendations came after Mike Smith, who leads an independent liaison team,  delivered a scathing letter to the UVMHN Board, UVMMC Board and Green Mountain Care Board on Aug. 29, calling out the network’s proposed budget narrative. He outlined that UVMNH’s claims that it is working to improve affordability grossly conflict with the numbers on the page. While the network put forth lower rates, it outlined increases in use and type of services that more than offset that reduction.

Because of this, commercial insurers will see a nearly $46 million increase in what they pay the UVMMC in 2026, Smith writes, despite the $76 million reduction in rates. 

Smith’s letter also raised the concern that the care board outlined, stating that the medical center “was paying more than its fair share of network costs,” especially by lending money to the network’s New York hospitals. The network has made a net $68.9 million in loans to the New York hospitals between 2015 and 2013, Smith cites, adding that UVMMC and UVMHN invested an additional $20 million as part of an affiliation agreement, population health initiatives and capital investments. 

In response to the letter, UVM Health Network spokesperson Annie Mackin wrote that the “University of Vermont Health Network worked hard to submit budgets for FY ’26 that complied with GMCB guidance, and which took into account the increasing need of our patients for health care services and the increased expenses involved in providing care. However, much work remains, and we and our partners will need to continue taking steps to improve affordability not just in this budget cycle, but in the months and years ahead. We look forward to further digging into the questions and ideas the liaison team have raised.”

Regarding the concerns about the cost burden of the network’s New York hospitals, she said, “Our health care partners in northern New York contribute real benefits to Vermonters – from the care they provide, to the positive economic impact when patients from Plattsburgh or Elizabethtown seek specialized treatment in Burlington,” adding that the two New York hospitals in the red are “making meaningful progress toward stability.”

The liaison’s letter and the care board staff both also looked critically at executive compensation in the UVM network. For 14 executive positions at the network, they budgeted an average 9% increase — nearly a $50,000 average increase from fiscal year 2025 to 2026, care board staff outlined. The liaison’s letter cited that rates of employee benefits have outpaced average cost growth in the past five years  across all three Vermont hospitals — nearly doubling at the medical center. In response, Mackin added that the health network compensates “all staff, regardless of their position, at market rates that help us recruit and retain the people we need to provide high quality care.”

Overall, expenses at the medical center have grown 9.8% annually between 2019 and 2024 — far outpacing the annual inflation rate for that same period.

“The UVMHN must focus on affordability both in its words and in its budget submissions.

Concrete steps must be taken to bring this budget and future ones in line with an agreed affordability metric that pertains to Vermont and Vermonters,” Smith wrote in the letter.

In the coming days the care board intends to deliberate and evaluate the proposed budgets and its staff recommendations, before beginning voting next week. The fiscal year for hospitals runs Oct. 1 through Sept. 30. The care board must establish a budget for each hospital by Sept. 15.

Read the story on VTDigger here: State health care regulator attempts to rein in hospital budgets as costs balloon.

Burlington’s police union and the mayor signed a three-year contract this week expected to help address longstanding hiring and retention issues and make the city’s police department a more attractive place to work.

“I think we secured some benefits that are incredibly important, both for recruitment and retention,” said Joseph Corrow, president of the Burlington Police Officers’ Association.

The 76-page contract signed Wednesday increases the base salary over a 15-step salary scale that ranges from $88,400 to $114,979. It adds retention bonuses after 5, 10, 15 and 20 years of service and stipends for full time police officers who are on call.

It also increases benefits like life insurance, pensionable overtime, and allows up to eight years of pension buy-in for lateral hires.

These are big wins, Corrow said, because it will allow certified officers from other police departments to transfer more easily to Burlington, allow a portion of their overtime pay to go toward their pensions, and be able to buy back years in the pension system instead of having to start from scratch. For lateral hires, officers would be able to come into the department at the stepped salary depending on their years of experience.

Union members called it a strong contract that will help rebuild morale and staffing in the department, Corrow said.

“I am encouraged by the agreement, as it signals strong support for policing in Burlington and provides the salary and benefits package necessary to retain and recruit the best,” Interim Chief of Police Shawn Burke said in an emailed statement.

The department currently has 61 officers and eight vacancies, he said.

Policing Burlington is “both complex and demanding,” said Burke, who stepped in to fill the post vacated by Jon Murad in March. Murad led the department for five years and recently became the commissioner of the Vermont Department of Corrections.

An internal anonymous survey of rank-and-file officers conducted by the police union last summer showed a department struggling with both recruitment and retention issues, with 75% of officers surveyed calling morale “poor” or “terrible.”

This contract aims to fix some of those issues and positions Burlington as one of the most competitive police departments statewide, Corrow said. 

“It makes us stand out at the top,” he said.

The contract comes a week after the City Council passed measures pertaining to City Hall Park amid continued debate about public safety enforcement downtown. 

Contract negotiations ended in July and the terms were agreed upon and unanimously approved last month by the Burlington City Council.

The mayor and members of the council did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Read the story on VTDigger here: New 3-year contract aims to better attract and retain Burlington police officers.

Leaders of Vermont’s House Appropriations Committee have warned colleagues that next year’s state budget-building process could be among the most difficult in recent memory — potentially forcing some existing programs onto the chopping block — as lawmakers grapple with sweeping federal funding cuts in President Donald Trump’s tax and spending law.

“We expect the upcoming state budget cycle to present a number of challenges that most of us have not experienced as legislators before due to uncertainty in the economic forecast and changes in the federal budget,” wrote Rep. Robin Scheu, D-Middlebury, and Rep. Jim Harrison, R-Chittenden, in a memo to the full House last month. Scheu is the committee’s chair; Harrison is its vice chair.

Moreover, the leaders of the powerful budget-writing panel wrote, “We may need to ask policy committees to review existing programs to see if there are any that can be scaled back or may no longer be the priority they once were.”

The House’s “policy committees” focus on specific areas of law, such as education, health care or transportation. The Appropriations Committee, which oversees state spending, and the House Ways and Means Committee, which writes tax policy, are known as the chamber’s two “money committees.”

The memo, which was shared with VTDigger, was part of an email House Speaker Jill Krowinski, D-Burlington, sent to all 150 House members on Aug. 11. Krowinski’s email included a handful of other summertime updates for her colleagues, who adjourned their 2025 session in mid-June and are slated to come back to the Statehouse for the 2026 session in January. 

Harrison described the intent of his and Scheu’s message during a panel of top Vermont Republican leaders Thursday night in Ludlow. 

“One, the message was, don’t think of new ways to spend the money, even though there are a lot of them,” he said. “And two, we need you to start thinking about, what are the programs that we have that may have been a good idea and served a good purpose 20 years ago, but maybe aren’t as important today as something else — like health care.”

Citing projections economists shared with legislative leaders and Gov. Phil Scott in late July, Scheu and Harrison wrote that state revenues are expected to increase by about $61 million during the state’s 2027 fiscal year. That’s the time period, running from July 2026 to June 2027, for which lawmakers will be creating a new state budget starting in January. 

While that revenue upgrade is good news, Scheu and Harrison wrote, it won’t be enough to cover projected increases in salaries and benefits for state employees and “a myriad of other fixed costs,” they wrote, meaning “we can probably expect some adjustments to programs and services” to make up the difference. 

The economists also cautioned that their projections could need to be revisited because of uncertainty over the impacts of both the GOP-led federal spending package and Trump’s tariffs. 

“Don’t get comfortable,” Tom Kavet, one of the state’s economists, said in July. 

It’s unlikely, however, that the full Legislature will need to meet again this year to respond to losses in federal funding, Scheu and Harrison wrote. That’s because many of the changes included in Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill” do not take effect until 2026, or later, the legislators said. That includes certain cuts to Medicaid and access to federal nutritional assistance, among others. 

Lawmakers added several measures into the state budget bill for the current fiscal year, which they approved in May, that would trigger a special legislative session if federal funding cuts reached certain thresholds. But those thresholds are unlikely to be hit just yet, according to Scheu and Harrison.

Before legislators start work on the state budget next year, they will first get a proposed spending plan from the Scott administration. In an email Friday, Scott’s press secretary, Amanda Wheeler, said the administration was still too early in its budget development process to say whether any existing state programs might see significant cuts.

“We’ll review all funding impacts and deliver a balanced budget to the Legislature in January,” she said.

Read the story on VTDigger here: Eyeing federal cuts, Vermont House budget-writers brace for tough spending decisions.

This story was updated at 6:56 p.m.

BURLINGTON — Teresa Youngblut pleaded not guilty Friday to federal criminal charges that could carry the death penalty in the fatal shooting of a border patrol agent in northern Vermont.

Youngblut appeared at the hearing in federal court in Burlington in an oversized gray crewneck with braided hair. It was the first court hearing since prosecutors obtained an indictment with upgraded charges last month and filed notice they will seek Youngblut’s execution, if convicted of the capital crimes.   

Dennis Robinson, one of three federal prosecutors in court, told the judge near the close of Friday’s hearing that the government’s probe was continuing.

“We are still actively investigating the case,” he said, adding there are “individuals that have worked together to commit the crimes we are investigating.” 

Robinson did not provide names during the hearing of any other people who may be under investigation, or what crimes they may have committed. But he did say he has reason to believe individuals associated with a group are working together and communicating. 

Youngblut, a 21-year-old former Seattle resident, stood beside attorneys and gazed down at the defendant’s table and entered denials to each charge through a green medical mask.

Judge Christina Reiss started with the murder count, asking Youngblut after reading the charge from the indictment, “How do you plead?”

“I plead not guilty,” Youngblut said. 

Youngblut had initially been charged earlier this year with federal firearms and assault charges in connection with a traffic stop that led to the fatal shooting of U.S. Border Patrol Agent David Maland on Interstate 91 in Coventry on the afternoon of Jan. 20. 

The latest indictment charges Youngblut with murdering Maland and assaulting two other agents with a deadly weapon. The upgraded charges allege for the first time that Youngblut fired the fatal shot. 

Youngblut remains held without bail following Friday’s hearing. Youngblut’s parents sat in the second row of the courtroom, about 15 feet behind the defendant’s table.

Prosecutors alleged in charging documents that after the traffic stop on I-91, Youngblut exited the Toyota Prius that had been pulled over and opened fire, resulting in a shootout with law enforcement. 

Maland, 44, of Newport, was killed in the exchange of gunfire, court documents stated, as was Felix Bauckholt, a German national and a passenger in the vehicle Youngblut was driving.

Youngblut and Bauckholt had been linked to a loosely connected group of people known as the Zizians, whose members have been tied to at least six homicides across the country, including a landlord in California and a couple in Pennsylvania.  

Prosecutors in Youngblut’s case have considered federal capital charges for some time, with U.S. Attorney General Pamela Bondi signaling shortly after taking office in February that she would be pushing for the charges as well.

President Donald Trump issued an executive order on his inauguration day Jan. 20 — the same day as Maland’s fatal shooting — lifting a moratorium on the federal death penalty that was put in place during the Biden administration.

Bondi, in a later directive to federal prosecutors across the country, specifically cited Maland’s death as a case where capital charges would be warranted. 

Vermont has not carried out an execution since 1954, and the state no longer has the death penalty, but Youngblut was charged in federal court, where capital punishment remains an option.

And that option loomed over the discussion in court Friday. The prosecution and defense had a lengthy debate about the sharing of material in the case. Reiss, the judge, said the goal was to prevent the prosecution from obtaining information they were not entitled to have access to. 

Attorneys on both sides answered questions from the judge and proposed protocols to keep that from happening. 

Youngblut’s lawyers argued it was an “unacceptable risk” for privileged information to end up in the hands of the prosecution. 

“That does change every aspect of how we proceed,” attorney Julie Stelzig, one of three lawyers representing Youngblut, told the judge of the death penalty now on the table. Stelzig also spoke of the “heightened scrutiny” that has been brought to the case with the prosecution seeking her client’s execution. 

Stelzig raised specific concerns that Youngblut’s confidential medical records would be incorrectly opened as part of the case. “Our client was shot and is still receiving frequent medical treatment” in jail, she said, referring to injuries Youngblut sustained in the shootout. 

Youngblut’s parents remained silent when asked questions by reporters and walked swiftly past them outside the courthouse following Friday’s hearing. They got into their car across the street and stared straight ahead as they drove away.

Read the story on VTDigger here: Teresa Youngblut denies murder charge, other offenses, in fatal shooting of border patrol agent.

Hunger Mountain Co-op in Montpelier has purchased the neighboring property of rK Miles, a lumberyard that was damaged in a 2023 fire, as part of an expansion plan.  

The co-op purchased the 1.6-acre property for $487,500, according to a press release. Co-op leaders plan to use the lot to expand its capacity for parking, storage and other operational needs. 

“This purchase is a key part of our long-term vision to deepen the Co-op’s values of health, sustainability, and cooperation,” general manager Mary Mullally said in the press release. “Back in 2012, we anticipated a need for more parking and retail space. This agreement allows us to explore those options while continuing to serve our vibrant community.” 

The co-op sits along Stone Cutters Way, a one-way street parallel to the Winooski River. Its customer parking lot is located on the northwest side of the building, while the new purchase adjoins the co-op building to the southeast. 

The exterior of an 8,000-square foot building on the former rK Miles property still has fire damage that will need to be addressed before it can be used for storage, Mullally said in a phone interview. The property will allow the co-op to buy in larger quantities, and it should also be “relatively easy” to set up staff parking on the site as an initial goal, she said. 

But the press release and website for the project seem to anticipate concerns from members. In its “frequently asked questions” section, the co-op addressed the timing of the purchase with the recent ratification of a union contract with UE 255, the union that represents co-op employees. 

According to the website, the timing was a coincidence, and the purchase should not affect salaries because money used for the purchase is from reserve funds rather than the operating budget. The union did not respond to a request for comment before publication time. 

The FAQs also addressed why the purchase negotiation was not shared with members. It was instead left to a smaller council vote. 

“We began exploring the possibility seriously in the fall of 2024, after the property’s owner expressed interest in selling,” the co-op wrote on the website. “At that point, we followed standard fiduciary and governance practices by conducting due diligence in private. This included reviewing financial terms, legal considerations, environmental assessments, and potential risks.”

Mullally said the co-op published the FAQ section to “provide as much information as possible.” So far, the feedback received has been “extremely positive,” she said. 

The co-op has its annual meeting planned for Sept. 13. Members are welcome to bring their questions about the future of the property to the meeting, Mullally said. 

In the long term, the co-op has floated ideas for the property: Expanded retail space, community gardens, housing. But the co-op may need further assessments to determine if environmental remediation is needed, it wrote on the website. The co-op is also creating a flood risk management plan. 

Mullally said it has been “a long process,” but she’s happy it’s come to completion. 

“I’m so excited about what this means to the co-op’s future,” she said. 

Read the story on VTDigger here: Hunger Mountain Co-op purchases neighboring rK Miles property.

This story by John Lippman was first published by the Valley News on Sept. 4.

SPRINGFIELD — The 36-year-old man who was shot to death by police last month appears to have gotten caught up in an operation that was targeting another man for arrest, according to people who were at the address when the shooting occurred.

Police claim that, on the evening of Aug. 21, James Crary was in a vehicle when he allegedly “accelerated toward officers” who were “outside their vehicles” during a police response at 78 Valley St. Officers then opened fire, striking Crary multiple times. He was pronounced dead at the scene, Vermont State Police said in a press release.

The circumstances of Crary’s death are now under investigation by the Vermont State Police, which was not involved in the “underlying operation” that led to the shooting. The two police officers who fired their weapons — Springfield police officer Vincent Franchi and Windsor County Sheriff’s deputy Bryan Jalava — have been placed on paid leave and are cooperating with the investigation, according to police.

In interviews, people who said they were present at the time of the shooting described the aftermath.

“The police said, ‘We weren’t even here for James Crary,’” said Khristal Blanchard, a resident at 78 Valley St., who witnessed part of the incident.

According to Blanchard, police told her they had come to apprehend a suspect in a “hostage and kidnapping situation” earlier that day in Springfield.

Springfield police and Windsor sheriff deputies — officials have not disclosed how many — responded to the Valley Street address shortly before 9:30 p.m. on Aug. 21 “as part of an open investigation,” Vermont State Police said in the release. When they arrived, “they encountered a man” — later identified as Crary — “in a vehicle outside the home.”

Police then opened fire at Crary. The Chief Medical Examiner’s Office in Burlington conducted an autopsy and concluded Crary died from “gunshot wounds to the head,” according to Vermont State Police.

Investigators are reviewing cruiser and body cam video footage of the incident, including “third party” video of the incident, said Vermont State Police spokesperson Adam Silverman.

Springfield Police Chief Jeffrey Burnham referred questions about the police operation and shooting to state police.

Windsor County Sheriff Ryan Palmer said his department’s deputies were at 78 Valley St. that evening to “help Springfield arrest a suspect on a pretty serious charge.” 

Following the shooting, police apprehended the suspect, who was inside the house, and charged him with assaulting and robbing $300 from a Springfield man whom police say held against his will at a nearby apartment, according to court documents. 

‘I didn’t even know the cops were here’

Crary most recently had been living in Newport, New Hampshire, and authorities have not said why he was in Springfield the night of the shooting. People who were at the address that evening said Crary had come to check up on a female friend who was there.

“It was a pop-in visit,” said Randi Sargent, who was among a group watching a movie in the garage space when Crary had appeared at the door.

He stayed for a little while and “had just said goodbye and left,” Sargent said. Shortly afterward she heard four gunshots.

“I thought it was someone shooting at the house,” she said.

Blanchard said she briefly chatted with Crary in the driveway and then went back up to her room on the second floor of the house.

“I didn’t even know the cops were here,” Blanchard said.

When she got to her room, she heard gunshots and looked outside the window over the driveway.

“I saw James’ head go down and hit the steering wheel,” Blanchard said. “The car started to roll back and was smoking.”

She said she started to scream, and two people with her in the room pulled her away from the window.

Both Sargent and Blanchard said they heard a total of four shots.

Sargent pointed out bullet holes in the wall of the converted garage used as a lounge space that she said came from the police gunfire.

Several people were sitting on the sofa watching the movie when bullets pierced the wall, which barely missed her boyfriend sitting at the end, Sargent said. When they heard the shots, one in the group shut the door to the room.

“We laid on the floor over here and we barricaded the door until (the police) told us to open it,” Sargent said.

Blanchard said after the shooting she heard police yelling to “come down with your hands up” and the people upstairs — including the intended suspect — all came down.

Blanchard said she remonstrated the officers over the shooting: “What was this all about? Like, are you serious? Was this really called for?”

Blanchard said one of the officers responded: “This was not what we meant to happen. We’re so sorry for your loss. We weren’t here for (Crary).” 

Crary’s body lay covered in the driveway for more than 12 hours before it was taken to the medical examiner’s office in Burlington, according to people at the house.

Shooting victim leaves behind a daughter

Kristin Crary said her brother grew up alternating between his mother’s in Claremont and at their father’s in Canaan. He attended Mascoma Valley High School and often had jobs waxing and stripping floors.

Julie Morse, who knew Crary when they grew up together in Claremont and had been his friend for 20 years, said he “would never purposefully been out to hurt anybody ever.”

Morse said Crary liked buffing the floors of Hannaford and Market Basket on the overnight shift because “he could be left alone independently.”

Crary left behind a 10-year-old daughter who “meant a lot to him,” Morse said.

The day after the shooting occurred, Morse went to 78 Valley St. to talk with neighbors and people there about how events had unfolded. She said she suspects that Crary was trying to pull out of the driveway when he became “startled” by the large police contingent that had come to arrest Hewitt.

“James was just in the wrong place at the wrong time,” she said.

Read the story on VTDigger here: Witnesses: Police fatally shot man in Springfield during operation targeting someone else.

This commentary is by Charlene Webster, of Arlington, and Dorinne Dorfman, of Plainfield. Charlene has taught grades 3-6, special education and structured literacy in southwestern Vermont over her 40-year career. Dorinne teaches reading to grades 5-8 at Barre Town Middle and Elementary School, and has served as principal of Leland and Gray Union High School in Townshend and Champlain Elementary School in Burlington.

It’s never too early to start reading instruction and intervention in our schools. The best time for students to obtain strong foundational reading skills is between prekindergarten and the second grade. During a child’s pre-K through kindergarten years, deficits in language, alphabetics and phonemic awareness that may develop are small. 

Effective intervention, especially at this early stage, can close these gaps. Unlike other developmental milestones (such as walking and talking), reading rarely develops without direct instruction. Consensus research has shown that literacy gaps in the earliest grades predict reading problems later. The longer schools wait to remediate, the greater the reading failure gap, the harder to correct and the less likely students will ever become proficient readers.

In the past, American schools have chosen to “wait and see” by giving students more time to develop reading skills. This approach has been renamed “wait to fail” because rarely did gaps close without evidence-aligned intervention. 

Vermont passed legislation in 2024, Act 139, which abandoned this approach. Parents/guardians can pay careful attention to see how their schools are providing effective intervention beginning at the youngest grades. 

Parents/guardians will know effective remediation is being delivered when they see their children’s growth by receiving detailed progress-monitoring assessments and hearing their children sound out new words and read aloud with fluency and accuracy. 

In fact, when students as early as pre-K and kindergarten demonstrate poor skills on these predictive assessments, schools should provide intervention right away to close existing gaps before these students fail to make reading progress. 

These assessments include:

1. The names and sounds of all letters in the alphabet
2. Rapid Automatized Naming, which are skills in retrieving the names of letters, numbers and objects accurately and automatically.
3. Oral language skills: speech articulation, vocabulary, grammar, understanding longer sentences, attention and following directions.

Act 139 requires all students in grades K-3 be assessed and receive classroom instruction in the five components of reading: phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary and comprehension. Assessments must be valid and reliable, and administered following the test’s technical specifications at least once a year. 

Schools must notify the parents/guardians of students found significantly below proficient. Some schools have chosen to report all their students’ progress on the five reading components. Parents may always request results from these screenings.

Although Act 139 has put an end to misguided instructional approaches that have harmed student reading, thousands of Vermont students today continue to struggle to learn to read and write. 

For this reason, Act 72 — which was formerly called H.480 and was passed in June 2025 — requires public and approved independent schools to provide effective intervention to students significantly below proficiency in reading or whose poor reading skills impede school progress. 

Act 72 applies to all grades K-12 and requires an appropriately trained education professional to provide remediation. Schools must notify, support and share information with parents/guardians of students found significantly below proficient. 

Carrying out Vermont’s reading laws provides every student the opportunity to learn to read well and succeed in school and adulthood.

Read the story on VTDigger here: Dorrine Dorfman and Charlene Webster: Following up on Vermont’s Act 72.

BETA Technologies announced Thursday it will receive a $300 million investment from GE Aerospace — pending regulatory approval — as the companies team up to focus on hybrid electric aviation.

“We believe the industry is on the precipice of a real step change,” Kyle Clark, CEO of South Burlington-based BETA Technologies, said in a Thursday press release. “We look forward to partnering to co-develop products that will unlock the potential of hybrid electric flight.”

Clark and his new collaborators plan to design a hybrid electric turbogenerator, which will build on existing engineering at both companies to increase the range, speed and power of future aircraft at BETA and elsewhere.

The privately owned Vermont firm was founded in 2017, and has since emerged as a global leader in aerospace engineering, backed by contracts with UPS and the U.S. Department of Defense, among others. The company opened a 188,500-square-foot production facility in South Burlington in 2023, and also runs a battery testing site in St. Albans.

If the deal is approved, the new influx of capital will bring BETA’s total funding to nearly $1.5 billion. 

The equity investment from GE Aerospace will also give the legacy corporation the right to appoint a new director to BETA’s board.

BETA did not immediately respond to a request for comment on potential effects to its Vermont operations.

Read the story on VTDigger here: BETA Technologies lands $300M investment to advance hybrid electric aircraft.

After a week detained in a Vermont facility following her arrest in Manchester, Davona Williams vanished from the state Department of Corrections system Tuesday morning, leaving her lawyers and family unsure of her whereabouts for around 24 hours. 

Williams, 42, is originally from Jamaica and has lived in the United States for about 17 years, according to her attorney, Christopher Worth, a visiting assistant professor at the Center for Justice Reform at Vermont Law and Graduate School. Williams was in the midst of a yearslong process to gain legal status and was living in Manchester with her partner and three children, he said.

Wednesday morning, Williams called a family member and told them she had been transferred from the Chittenden Regional Correctional Facility to the North Lake Processing Center in Baldwin, Michigan, Worth said. 

The federal online system is supposed to notify legal representatives of transfers in immigration cases, but Worth said he was not notified. Williams has yet to appear in the federal ICE detainee locator, which reflects an “imperfect system,” he said.

The Bennington Banner first reported Williams’ move to the Michigan facility.

On the morning of Aug. 25, Williams was pulled over by ICE officials in unmarked cars, who were carrying out a prior order to have Williams deported, which was issued in 2013, Worth said. Williams was given time to call a family member to pick up her 18 month old son who was with her at the time of the arrest before she was transported to Chittenden Regional Correctional Facility in South Burlington, he said. 

While she remains in Michigan, Williams’ case is being litigated in the Boston Immigration Court. Since taking on the case last Thursday, Worth said filed an emergency stay so she could remain in the country. After a judge granted the motion, Worth said his next step is to argue against the 2013 order with the goal of having it dropped. 

Worth said he did not file a petition to prevent her from being transferred out of state because the most “pressing issue” in a short time frame was to block deportation.

“Davona is staying strong in the face of a challenging legal system that is stacked against her,” Worth said.

Rutland Area NAACP President Mia Schultz said it was scary to learn early Tuesday morning that Williams had disappeared from the system, and that ICE detention has been tough on Williams and her family. But Schultz said the local community has rallied around the family by starting a GoFundMe campaign to help her family pay bills during the immigration proceedings.

“She is beloved by her community,” Schultz said. “We’re trying to ensure the things she built here stay intact.”

Read the story on VTDigger here: Davona Williams transferred to Michigan after ICE arrest in Manchester.

In a rare media appearance, Vermont’s top federal prosecutor joined U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi in Florida to tout successful arrests of alleged human traffickers smuggling people into the United States. 

Acting U.S. Attorney for the District of Vermont Michael Drescher, along with law enforcement peers from Texas and Florida, celebrated the expanding work of Joint Task Force Alpha, a U.S. Department of Justice and Department of Homeland Security partnership targeting human smuggling and trafficking operations in Mexico and Central America. 

What once might have been considered a southern border issue has increasingly shown up at the country’s northern border with Canada, according to the country’s top law enforcement official. 

“We are investigating and prosecuting their crimes more aggressively than ever, and Joint Task Force Alpha is the tip of the spear,” Bondi said. 

Drescher highlighted the recent arrest of Norma Linda Lozano, charged with seven criminal counts including conspiracy to commit “alien smuggling.” She allegedly attempted to profit off transporting people who were in Vermont illegally after they entered from Canada. Lozano’s indictment was unsealed Wednesday, according to federal court records. 

“Offenses such as those charged pose a risk to the nation’s security,” Drescher said, noting Lozano allegedly trafficked children, one of whom was located alongside luggage in her vehicle. 

“I especially want to thank you, Attorney General Bondi, for bringing attention to the extraordinary work that the men and women of the United States Border Patrol and Homeland Security Investigations are doing in Swanton Sector,” he said, “the portion of the U.S.-Canada border that includes Vermont, northern New York and New Hampshire.”

Bondi touted Joint Task Force Alpha’s work, part of President Donald Trump’s efforts to eliminate international drug cartels. The Trump administration has labeled some of these organizations as terrorist groups.

On Tuesday, the U.S. military carried out an airstrike on a boat Trump said contained members of the Venezuelan cartel Tren De Aragua. Eleven people were killed, the NYTimes reported, and Trump said the boat was transporting drugs.  

At the Thursday press conference, Bondi characterized the southern border with Mexico as “secured,” a change she said was shifting cartel activities to the U.S. border with Canada. 

“As our U.S. attorney in Vermont knows,” she said, then referencing the northern border, “it’s gotten much worse.”

Read the story on VTDigger here: Vermont’s top federal prosecutor joins US Attorney General Pam Bondi to tout human smuggling arrests.