Hospital stays, deaths rising too By Erin Petenko/VTDigger Vermont broke its one-day case record for the third day in a row on New Year’s Eve, hitting 1,471 cases in a single day, the Dept. of Health reported Monday, Jan. 3. The next day, the record was broken again with 1,727 cases reported Tuesday. That record…

By Katy Savage After some speculation, Woodstock Rep. Charlie Kimbell announced he’s running for lieutenant governor. Kimbell, 57, is the only candidate to officially announce his campaign for lieutenant governor. He said he made the decision to run after current Lt. Gov. Molly Gray announced her bid to succeed Rep. Peter Welch in Congress. Welch,…

By Mike Dougherty/VTDigger and Polly Mikula To safely return to child care while Covid-19 cases surge, Billie Slade asked all the families she works with to rapid-test their children. Slade runs Wonder in the Woods, an in-home child care program in Dummerston that serves six preschoolers and four school-aged children. She hoped that if each…

By Liz DiMarco Weinmann As many of us look forward to a happier 2022, Covid is still ruling our world, and we are facing the most sunlight-challenged months of the year. No wonder many of us want to hunker down under a weighted blanket in front of a merry movie marathon, swilling gallons of cocoa,…

By Lana Cohen/VTDigger There is a shortage of foster homes in Vermont, and the pandemic is at least partially to blame. Placing older teenagers and children needing specialized care has always been difficult, state social workers say, but now finding appropriate homes for children of all ages and all levels of need is posing an…

Emerge Vermont, a statewide organization that recruits and trains Democratic women to run for office, announced Dec. 15 that it has selected its 2022 class. This year’s chosen group of 26 future women political leaders is Emerge Vermont’s largest and most diverse class, with women from all parts of the Green Mountain State who come…

Officials say boosters necessary The Vermont Dept. of Health announced Saturday, Dec. 18, that it confirmed the state’s first case of the Omicron variant of the Covid-19 virus. Genetic sequencing identified the new variant in a specimen collected on Dec. 8. The individual is a Lamoille County resident in their 30s. The individual was fully…

By Rep. Jim Harrison Just like Santa, legislators are busy making a list. The legislative list of issues may be seen as presents to some and to others a lump of coal in the stocking. It all depends on one’s perspective… The 2022 Vermont legislative session begins on Jan. 4 and unlike last session, the…

By Ethan Weinstein “We’re about to face another challenge,” Governor Scott said Tuesday, preparing Vermonters for the coming dual threat of Omicron and the expected post-Christmas surge. This week, the state detected the first case of the Omicron variant in Lamoille County. As the latest data suggests a booster vaccine dose provides far more protection…

Governor Phil Scott has joined the U.S. Dept. of Housing & Urban Development’s (HUD) House America initiative, according to a news release Dec. 15. Through this national partnership, HUD and the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness (USICH) have encouraged state, county, municipal and tribal nation leaders to commit to using a portion of the historic…

By Lola Duffort/VTDigger Becca Balint, the president pro tempore of the Vermont Senate, is running for the state’s lone seat in the U.S. House of Representatives, she announced Monday morning, Dec. 13. “I’m running because I believe that, even with the challenges of today, we cannot back away from fighting for each other,” the Windham…

By Lola Duffort/VTDigger America’s school boards have once again become battlegrounds as a network of national groups stoke fears about “critical race theory,” a once-obscure academic theory turned by conservatives into a catch-all bogeyman signifying progressive school initiatives. In Vermont, it sometimes feels as if the moment has passed. Events held by right-wing activists and…

By Grace Benninghoff/VTDigger Romance scams are spreading, and the Vermont attorney general’s office of consumer assistance has issued a series of videos and other resources to help Vermonters avoid the widespread and particularly devastating tactic. Here’s how it works: A scammer creates a fake online identity — it could be on a dating website, social…

By Ethan Weinstein With cases rising country-wide, Governor Phil Scott and his administration focused their weekly Covid press conference on encouraging Vermonters to get their booster shots and faulting the unvaccinated for the state’s current surge. “It’s become clear that this isn’t going away anytime soon,” Scott said. “If you’re still unvaccinated, I want to…

School tax rates likely to decrease By Peter D’Auria/VTDigger This spring, Vermont lawmakers may have a welcome question on their hands: what to do with a $90 million surplus in the state’s education fund. State tax officials unveiled the projected surplus in the “December 1 letter,” a series of financial projections that the tax commissioner…