Top stories developing across the region at the noon hour:
The GOP begins a series of public meetings to generate recommendations for the party’s Vermont campaign platform; candidates release quarterly campaign finance reports; border states continue their effort to slow or stop a Bush administration proposal to make crossing the Canadian border a more formal process; St. Albans breaks ground on a public safety building and celebrates 25th anniversary of the Vermont Service Center of the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service; Brattleboro will try out biodiesel in its municipal truck fleet; the Bennington Fire Department chief resigns amid accusations of embezzlement.