Vermont News

ALSO: The company that operates Vermont’s electric transmission system plans to replace a key power line in Franklin County over the next several years; A new program announced this week will add more incentives for Vermonters to weatherproof their homes; The Vermont Community Broadband Board is asking Vermont residents to check their addresses on the Federal Communications Commission’s national broadband map to see if their internet speed and provider availability are reported accurately.

ALSO: Police have charged a Burlington man in the stabbing death of 23-year-old Abubakar Sharrif; Burlington has received three proposals for redevelopment of the shuttered Memorial Auditorium; A video showing citizens violently apprehending an alleged shoplifter at the Rutland Home Depot has highlighted frustration over crime and the vigilantism that can crop up alongside it.

ALSO: An off-duty Orange County sheriff’s deputy who fired two gunshots into an occupied Jeep in a 2019 road rage incident has been sentenced to at least 18 months in jail; According to the state Department of Health’s weekly surveillance report, Vermont’s Covid-19 levels are “low"; The Harassment, Hazing, and Bullying Prevention Advisory Council is in the middle of an existential crisis.

ALSO: A Green Mountain Power employee died last Thursday in Halifax while working to restore power during a windstorm; The South Burlington City Council has approved changes in the city’s land development regulations that pave the way for Tesla to open a dealership; The Chittenden County Sheriff’s Office has received several reports of scam calls telling residents they have missed jury duty and face arrest unless they pay a $1,200 fine.

ALSO: Bread and Puppet Theater has acquired a 23-acre property that borders its farm in Glover, enabling the Northeast Kingdom institution to expand in the coming months; The Burlington City Council approved a plan Monday night to redraw its districts; Two years after battling cancer, Rutland Mayor David Allaire is seeking a fourth term in office on a platform that includes public safety and housing.

ALSO: Vermont’s Agency of Education has reached a final settlement in two lawsuits seeking to allow public money to pay tuition at religious schools; Vermont’s education fund is brimming with a surplus of nearly $64 million, but Vermonters’ property tax bills are slated to grow in the coming year; Legislators are looking to raise the tipped minimum wage.

Plus: Lawmakers contemplate ‘third-rail’ reforms amid housing crisis; Beating the rain, a record-setting Killington World Cup reigns; Phil Scott launches new equity initiative focused on Vermont municipalities

ALSO: Several Franklin County state legislators say they’re weighing whether to support impeaching the county’s newly elected sheriff next year and removing him from office; According to the Federal Communications Commission, more than 95% of Vermont households have broadband internet access, but state officials say that's an overestimation; After Thanksgiving, Irasburg Village School will lose its only middle school math teacher. 

ALSO: A community of emergency housing “pods” on Elmwood Avenue in Burlington won’t open until early January; An off-duty Rutland County sheriff’s deputy shot early Sunday morning in upstate New York after police said he refused officers’ orders to drop his weapon has been identified as Vito Caselnova; The clearcutting of 4 acres near Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller National Historical Park in Woodstock has drawn the ire of neighbors.

ALSO: Essex, Essex Junction, Shelburne, South Burlington and Williston are banding together to form a new communications union district; An off-duty Rutland County sheriff’s deputy refused police officers’ commands to drop his weapon after a gunfight outside a bar in upstate New York early Sunday morning, prompting the officers to open fire; Organizations helping to keep Vermonters sheltered briefed lawmakers Friday on a bleak picture of conditions on the ground, as the state grapples with dwindling federal assistance amid a historic housing crisis.

ALSO: Vermont State Police say one man is dead following a house explosion in Newfane early Friday morning; The Burlington City Council has been struggling since January to find consensus on how to redraw district lines; Sen. Bernie Sanders is expected to take over as chair of one of the U.S. Senate’s most influential policy committees.

ALSO: Voters said no to combining Addison Northwest and Mt. Abraham school districts; Hundreds of property owners in the Bennington area have already received money from a multimillion-dollar settlement in a chemical contamination case; The purple crowberry, a small alpine shrub, was last documented in Vermont in 1908 — until a hiker rediscovered it on Mount Mansfield.

ALSO: For most of Vermont’s cold-weather months, the state will once again pay to house Vermonters experiencing homelessness in hotels and motels regardless of the daily forecast; The November election was historic for Vermont, with record turnover among office-holders, and a record turnout of voters for a midterm election; The former coal-fired power plant on the Burlington waterfront was officially unveiled as the Moran Frame on Tuesday.

ALSO: U.S. Rep.-elect Becca Balint is donating to charity a $2,900 campaign contribution she received from FTX cryptocurrency executive Sam Bankman-Fried; GlobalFoundries sent a memo last week to employees around the world warning that it intends to reduce its workforce; A historic mill complex in Bennington has been acquired for $5.75 million.

ALSO: Now that Burlington voters have overwhelmingly approved a $165 million bond to help build a new high school, the school district will move toward completing design work and demolishing the old high school; Residents are furious that the town of Chelsea has lost its road crew just as winter is approaching and soon, the town could also be missing a selectboard; The High Street Mural Project is a $25,000 collaboration between local designers and newly resettled Afghan artists.

ALSO: U.S. Senator-elect Peter Welch and U.S. Representative-elect Becca Balint couched their excitement with deep concern over some Republicans’ continued denial of election results and the future of American democracy; A former Springfield police officer’s law enforcement certification was revoked Thursday by the Vermont Criminal Justice Council; VTDigger has promoted Paul Heintz and Maggie Cassidy to its top newsroom positions.

ALSO: Vermonters split their tickets in a big way Tuesday night, reelecting Republican Gov. Phil Scott by his widest margin yet and handing Democrats commanding, veto-proof super-majorities in the Vermont House and Senate; The 2022 deer archery season is on pace to match the state record, and wild game processing businesses in the state are having trouble keeping up; According to the attorneys who sued the Vermont Department of Corrections, the state agency is not meeting the requirements of a settlement over treatment of incarcerated individuals with hepatitis C.

ALSO: Becca Balint made history Tuesday night, becoming Vermont’s first woman and first openly gay person elected to Congress; Congressman Peter Welch is set to become U.S. Senator Peter Welch; Vermont Gov. Phil Scott again cruised to an easy reelection on Tuesday to win a fourth two-year term in office.

ALSO: The Chittenden Solid Waste District's drive to win voter approval of a $22 million bond to finance a recycling center in Williston has been complicated by state election laws; One man is dead after a shooting and a car crash in Rutland on Monday; Xylazine has become a growing factor in fatal opioid overdoses in Vermont.

ALSO: Daniel Banyai told a judge that he has not removed most of the 20 or so unpermitted structures located on his property despite court orders to do so; State officials are looking for ideas for keeping large trucks out of Smugglers Notch; Jonathan Farrell, who has worked at the Committee on Temporary Shelter in Burlington for 11 years, will be the organization's new executive director.