Top stories developing across the region at the noon our:
Republican Congressional candidate Martha Rainville says she supports using the National Guard to secure the Mexican border; Governor Jim Douglas signs a health care reform bill into law; the publisher of a study ranking Vermont as the smartest of the 50 states says it’s due to regional excellence in education; the Vermont Supreme Court won’t reverse the Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power plant’s 20 percent power increase; Vermont Catholic Charities is selling an 18-acre parcel of land on Lake Champlain; Margaret MacArthur, who was credited with saving many rural New England songs from obscurity, has died this week at the age of 78; Passumpsic Bancorp of Saint Johnsbury is going to acquire Siwooganock Holding Co. of Lancaster, New Hampshire.