December 9, 2002 – News at a glance

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High school design competition
Thirty high schools from across Vermont participated in this year’s technology and science challenge Saturday at the University of Vermont. (VPR)

House recounts
None of the nine recounts in Vermont House races have produced a new winner. The recounts settled disputed election outcomes in Addison, Caledonia, Chittenden, Franklin, Grand Isle, Lamoille, Orleans and Windsor county House districts. None of those races saw its outcome reversed. (AP)

Republican caucus
Republican House members celebrated their party’s gains yesterday and elected new leaders for the coming two-year legislative session. Representative Connie Houston of Ferrisburgh is the party’s House leader. Assistant leader is Rick Hube of Londonderry. (AP)

Food shelf demand
Emergency food shelves across Vermont are seeing a sharp increase in demand, a situation blamed on the ailing economy. At the Brattleboro Area Drop-in Center, director Melinda Bussino says the center’s clientele has grown by 38% from last year. (AP)

Vermont Yankee license extension
The new owner of the Vermont Yankee likely will wait a couple years before applying to extend the nuclear plant’s license beyond its scheduled expiration date in 2012. Jay Thayer, vice president of Entergy Corporation, says federal rules require the plant to apply for the extension by 2007, five years before the license expiration date. (AP)

Hyde Park cell tower
A citizens’ group in Hyde Park that is fighting construction of a cell tower has won a $2,000 grant. A developer wants to put up the 180-foot cell tower on Hyde Park’s Carpenter Hill. Members of a citizens’ alliance say the tower would ruin views of surrounding hillsides and decrease property values. (AP)

Youth peace rally
They had coaching from veterans in the peace movement, but high school and middle school leaders of a peace rally yesterday in Montpelier did the organizing work themselves. About 100 people of all ages turned out for what had been billed as a youth-led rally against war in Iraq. They marched from City Hall to the Vermont Statehouse. (AP)

Middlebury College endowment
Like a lot of investment portfolios, Middlebury College’s endowment has taken a beating in the stock market in the last couple of years. But college President John McCardell says there won’t be any of the layoffs seen at Dartmouth College and other schools. And Middlebury is going ahead with plans to build a new library, dorms and a dining hall. (AP)

Holocaust studies program
New Hampshire’s Keene State College has become one of the few colleges nationwide to offer a minor in Holocaust studies. The program, which started this fall, complements the growing archive of books, videotapes and historical papers at the college’s Cohen Center for Holocaust Studies. (AP)

Dartmouth swimming and diving
Dartmouth College alumni are urging college officials to reconsider their decision to eliminate the school’s swimming and diving programs. Over the weekend, the school’s 100-member alumni council endorsed a one-page resolution urging college President James Wright to find a way to continue the programs, which are being cut in an effort to save money. (AP)

Counterfeit money arrest
A 39-year-old Killington woman faces up to 20 years in prison after pleading guilty to possession of counterfeit money. State police arrested Sherri Porcaro in June after reports that someone had been passing fake $20 bills to Rutland area businesses. (AP)

Marijuana charges
A 19-year-old Rutland man has denied a charge that he smoked marijuana with a nine-year-old. Frank Reed pleaded innocent to a charge of contributing to the delinquency of a minor. Police say a woman told them that her nine-year-old foster child told her he’d been smoking marijuana out of a bong with his 15-year-old stepbrother and Reed. (AP)

Segway scooter
A Seattle woman who was among the first to buy a Segway says the New-Hampshire-made scooter has exceeded her expectations. Thirty-one-year-old Elizabeth Goza purchased the scooter when it went on sale through Amazon-dot-com last month and wrote an essay that won her early delivery. (AP)

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