Top stories developing across the region at the noon hour:
The first day of the new fiscal year is also the effective date of dozens of new Vermont laws; the defense team’s effort to spare Donald Fell from the death penalty began in earnest this morning; Senator Patrick Leahy leads an effort to revoke new EPA rules that ease the enforcement of mercury pollution standards; Leahy also praises retiring Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor; the whooping crane that drew so much attention in Vermont this week may indeed be elsewhere by now.
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