Top stories developing around the region at the noon hour:
The Vermont National Guard and the Veteran’s Administration hopes to get a million dollar grant to help soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan; the federal Institute of Museum and Library Services awarded the American Precision Museum in Windsor nearly $137,000 for its Collections Information Project; after what’s being called a routine review of tax exempt status, two skating rinks in Washington County receive tax bills from the state; a Dorset woman heads to Afghanistan to consult on a land mine project for the Department of State; political activist Murray Bookchin died of heart failure Sunday.