By Morgan True, VTDigger.org The House vote to eliminate a philosophical exemption to childhood vaccines at the time of school entry left a bad taste in the mouths of some lawmakers, but efforts to reconsider that decision failed Wednesday, May 13. The legislation passed by the House on Tuesday would eliminate the philosophical exemption on…

By Elizabeth Hewitt, VTDigger.org Lawmakers gave their final stamp of approval this week to a bill that provides a quicker path to scrubbing certain convictions from a person’s criminal record. Under the new law, individuals convicted of certain crimes they committed before they turned 25 will have an expedited process to expunge their records if…

On May 17, U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders has introduced legislation to provide tuition-free higher education for students at 4-year colleges and universities in the United States. “We live in a highly competitive global economy and, if our economy is to be strong, we need the best-educated work force in the world. That will not happen if,…

By Paul A. Cillo The Legislature can work with local communities to improve education or it can push them around. That’s the choice at the heart of the education debate in Montpelier this year. But so far lawmakers are not showing much interest in cooperation. Instead, they are moving ahead with schemes to impose spending controls,…

By Morgan True, VTDigger.org The two insurers participating in the Vermont Health Connect insurance exchange are seeking rate increases from state regulators for next year’s plans. Blue Cross Blue Shield of Vermont is seeking an 8.4 percent increase and MVP Health Care is seeking a 3 percent increase over their 2015 rates, according to filings…

Staff report Investigations continue into the armed robberies that occurred at the Northfield Savings Bank in Waitsfield on two successive Tuesdays, April 28 and May 5. It is unknown if the two armed robbery incidents are connected. On Tuesday, April 28, at about 11:50 a.m., a lone individual entered the Northfield Savings Bank located on Route…

On Saturday, May 9, at about 10:45 a.m., VSP Royalton troopers and White River Valley Ambulance personnel responded to a stretch of train tracks running parallel to Vermont 12A in the town of Braintree for a report of a train/pedestrian collision.  The pedestrian, later identified as Kevin Kenyon, age 25, of Braintree, Vt., was pronounced…

By John Herrick, VTDigger.org Towns and solar energy developers have reached a temporary compromise over how to better locate solar energy projects across the state. The Senate Natural Resources and Energy Committee unanimously approved an amendment to the state’s renewable energy bill, H.40, that puts in place statewide solar setback guidelines and requires regulators to…

By Morgan True, VTDigger.org As the House bears down on a potential vote to remove the philosophical exemption for the immunizations required to enter school, new voices entered the polarizing debate on Tuesday, May 5. The Senate-passed bill would not remove the religious and medical exemptions to the vaccines required for school entry. A group…

By Anne Galloway and Elizabeth Hewitt, VTDigger.org The Senate gave final approval to the money bills on Friday. Amendments that would have pushed forward the Shumlin administration’s request to cut $8 million from the budget didn’t materialize, and the budget passed virtually unchanged. A proposal from the governor to cut state workers by an additional…

The Vermont State Police and the Department of Health are warning heroin users to be aware of the proliferation of doses containing a mixture of heroin and fentanyl or, in some cases, pure fentanyl, a powerful narcotic that has caused numerous overdose deaths. According to the Department of Health, fentanyl is an opioid drug that…

Staff report A federal judge Monday, April 27, dismissed an attempt to block the implementation of Vermont’s law requiring the labeling of food containing genetically engineered ingredients. U.S. District Court Judge Christina Reiss dismissed a preliminary injunction brought by the Grocery Manufacturers Association, which contends that Vermont’s GMO labeling law is unconstitutional. Possibly the most…

By Anne Galloway, VTDigger.org Gov. Peter Shumlin has signed legislation designed to keep guns away from dangerous criminals and people with severe mental illness. The governor has said that he doesn’t believe Vermont would benefit from new gun laws, but Friday, May 1, he called the bill he signed a “shadow” of what was originally…

On May 1, International Workers’ Day, 500 people from Vermont’s labor, racial justice, climate justice, disability rights, and migrant justice movements marched on the statehouse in Montpelier, entering the building while singing, before gathering outside for a rally. Demonstrators denounced Vermont’s political leadership for its failure to equitably address the revenue shortfall and healthcare crisis,…

By John Herrick, VTDigger.org The “2015 Vermont Forest Fragmentation Report to the Vermont Legislature April 2015” was released last week, which highlighted Vermont’s shrinking woodlands. The report was prepared by the Vermont Department of Forests, Parks and Recreation, pursuant to Act. 118 of 2014. Forests cover 75 percent of the state, a broad area compared…