Interview: environmentalists and wind energy
Steve Delaney talks with Mark Sinclair of the Conservation Law Foundation about the environmental pros and cons of wind energy. (Listen to the interview online.) (VPR)
House debates budget bill
Next year’s budget kept the Vermont House occupied all day Monday. An effort to boost spending for state aid to education was defeated by a vote of 79 to 64. (Listen to the story online or read the transcript.) (VPR)
Lawsuit over prison medical care
A lawsuit has raised questions about the quality of medical care at a state prison work camp. The suit says two nurses failed to follow doctor’s orders in the treatment of a prison inmate. (Listen to the story online or read the transcript.) (VPR)
Dean campaign staff changes
Presidential candidate Howard Dean’s campaign spokeswoman is resigning. (AP)
Smallpox vaccine postponed
State health officials decided Friday to temporarily postpone giving the smallpox vaccine to Vermonters. (AP)
Rainville visits high school
The head of the Vermont National Guard spent much of this morning with students and parents at Twinfield Union High School, in Plainfield. (AP)
Low level nuclear waste
Lawmakers from West Texas want to set up a low level radioactive waste dump to hold Department of Energy waste, including waste from Vermont. Vermont is part of a compact that would send low level nuclear waste from hospitals and the state’s only nuclear power plant to Texas. (AP)
Civil unions in Indiana
An Indianapolis judge is expected to deliberate for weeks before ruling on a challenge of that state’s ban on same-sex marriage. Superior Court Judge S.K. Reid heard arguments Monday on a suit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union on behalf of three same-sex couples. The lawsuit argues that unions between such couples deserve full legal recognition. (AP)
Septage plans cancelled
A waste disposal company has cancelled its plans to spread septage, or human waste, on some farm fields in Stowe. People who live near the fields had complained to the Stowe Select Board after the Hartigan Company applied for a state permit to spread the waste on about 52 acres. (AP)
SARS possible in Chittenden County
Health officials say two Chittenden County residents who recently traveled to China might have a mysterious flu-like disease that has killed about 60 people around the world. Both people have received medical care and are in good condition, and neither was hospitalized. Vermont Health Commissioner Paul Jarris says the two might have severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS. (AP)
Brattleboro Retreat union contract
One of the Brattleboro area’s major employers has reached a new two-year contract with unionized workers. Employees at the Brattleboro Retreat, a private psychiatric hospital, will receive a 3.5% pay increases in each of the next two years. (AP)