Interview: racial harassment in Vermont
Steve Delaney talks with Robert Appel, executive directive of the Vermont Human Rights Commission, about persisting incidents of harassment and discrimination in the state. (Listen to the story online or read the transcript.) (VPR)
Safety review at Vermont Yankee
In Vernon Wednesday night, nuclear regulatory officials promised an extensive safety review before allowing Vermont Yankee to raise its power output. (VPR)
Intelligence investigation called for
Senator Patrick Leahy is calling for a formal investigation to determine if the Bush administration manipulated intelligence information about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. Senator James Jeffords and Congressman Bernie Sanders also believe this issue needs to be resolved. (Listen to the story online or read the transcript.) (VPR)
Supreme Court nominee
Governor Jim Douglas says it may be several months before he makes a nomination to fill a vacancy on the Vermont Supreme Court. The vacancy occurred when Justice James Morse stepped down from the court in January to become the commissioner of Social and Rehabilitation Services. (VPR)
UVM basketball coach
There’s a new head coach for the women’s basketball team at the University of Vermont. New coach Sharon Dawley has spent the past 10 years as an assistant coach at Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire. (AP)
MAU fire code violations
A high school in southern Vermont has been cited for 50 fire code violations. The state Labor and Industry Department Board says the findings at Mount Anthony Union High School could curtail use of classrooms, the gymnasium and the auditorium until problems are corrected. (AP)
Circ Highway
Governor James Douglas says the Circumferential Highway is essential to job growth in Chittenden County. But a new federal study appears to question that assertion. An environmental assessment done for the Federal Highway Administration found that the road would bring no job growth in the next 20 years. (AP)
State accounting records
Vermont officials are still struggling to clean up state government’s financial books. With fiscal 2003 almost over, the major annual financial report for fiscal 2002 still isn’t done. Officials attribute the problems to difficulties with a financial management computer system the state installed two years ago, and to numerous incorrect entries that put the state’s books in disarray. (AP)
Pledge of Allegiance
Vermont is joining other states in asking the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn a federal court ruling that reciting the Pledge of Allegiance in schools is unconstitutional. Attorney General William Sorrell has joined 49 other attorneys general in asking the court to reverse an appellate decision that says reciting the pledge in public schools is unconstitutional because it mentions God. (AP)
Hunting in Canada
Vermont hunters who head to Canada this year in search of deer, moose, elk and caribou might not be able to bring back anything but memories. The U.S. Department of Agriculture has banned all Canadian shipments of meat or livestock because of concerns about mad cow disease. (AP)
Maple season
In the end Vermont’s maple syrup producers had a pretty good season this year. Despite unusual winter weather that some sugar makers felt would ruin the season, the weather cooperated enough in the end to produce a crop 14 percent below 2002. (AP)
Colchester schools budget
The Colchester School Board is hoping the fourth time will be the charm. The school board is proposing a 21-point-five (m)million dollar budget that will be voted on June 24th. The proposal is 890-thousand dollars less than the first budget that was rejected in March. (AP)
Nuisance log
Some residents of Burlington’s Old North End are hoping a log of daily happenings can make their neighborhood a better place to live. The log allows residents to record potentially dangerous or disruptive behavior and report it to authorities. (AP)
Death penalty sought for Sampson
A man who turned himself in Vermont after a murder and carjacking spree in three New England states two years ago is trying to avoid the federal death penalty. Prosecutors want death for 43-year-old Gary Lee Sampson, who is accused of killing two men in Massachusetts and one in New Hampshire. (AP)