VPR Evening News September 20th, 2007

The U.S. Senate gives its approval to a mental health parity bill, minus provisions that would have watered down key parts of Vermont’s existing parity law; State officials are encouraging Vermonters who have “advance directives” to put them in an online registry; Congressman Peter Welch is leading an effort to persuade the EPA to give Vermont, California and other states permission to regulate how much greenhouse gas carbon dioxide can be emitted by cars; State officials raise the number of Southern Vermont Correctional Facility prisoners affected with strep throat; and commentator Allen Gilbert says that changes in state law have made it difficult for schools to address bullying.

Midday Newscast: September 20, 2007

State officials are encouraging Vermonters who have “advance directives” to put them in an online registry; a student from Rutland has won a college scholarship for her ideas about kitchen technology of the future; one of the issues that will be debated in the federal farm bill this fall is a national tracking program designed to protect consumers from the spread of animal disease; an agency that advises Congress says the U.S. Department of Agriculture should figure out a way to integrate state programs to keep costs down and focus on animals that pose serious risks.