Top stories developing around the region at the noon hour:
A legislative panel has endorsed a plan to replace the Vermont State Hospital in Waterbury with a range of other psychiatric services and facilities; the management plan for the Green Mountain National Forest is being criticized by most of the user groups that want access to the land in central and southern Vermont; a Vermont relative comments of the release of James Loney, who was kidnapped in Iraq four months ago; repairs begin on the bridge between Barnet, Vermont, and Monroe, New Hampshire.