By Ethan Weinstein After a week of falling case counts, Vermont’s Covid tallies rose to near highs in the last seven days. Amidst the surge, Gov. Scott at his weekly press conference did not announce any changes to mitigation policies. Rutland County reported 24 new cases on Tuesday, bringing the 14-day case total to 357.…

By Alan J. Keays / VTDigger Members of the Scott administration say a delay is needed to implement an initiative to increase the age young people can automatically be prosecuted behind closed doors in family court. They say beefed-up programs and services should be in place to help handle the influx of cases, and additional…

The Vermont Fish & Wildlife Dept. has confirmed the presence of Epizootic Hemorrhagic Disease (EHD) in Rutland County deer. EHD is a common viral disease of deer in North America but had never previously been confirmed in Vermont. Current and suspected cases in Vermont have been localized in Castleton and West Haven, although they are…

On Monday, Oct. 4, the state of Vermont distributed resources and information to all Vermont public and independent schools to enable them to establish Covid-19 response testing. The state is bolstering existing testing tools with rapid testing to help keep more kids in school. These resources are provided free of charge to Vermont schools. “We…

The U.S. Mint officially announced the designs for the 2022 American Innovation $1 Coin Program, on Monday, Oct. 4. This multi-year series that started in 2018 honors innovation and innovators by issuing $1 coins for each of the 50 states, the District of Columbia, and the five U.S. territories. The Mint works with the governors'…

By Emma Cotton/VTDigger Lawmakers from across the Northeast are urging U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack to strengthen enforcement and close loopholes in the National Organic Program that put regional farms at a disadvantage. A bicameral, bipartisan letter from lawmakers, sent to Vilsack on Wednesday, said that the industry is vital to the region and…

By Mike Dougherty/VTDigger As the pace of vaccinations slowed this spring, some experts began floating a new vision of Covid-19’s future as endemic. Rather than focusing on herd immunity — the threshold at which enough people had been vaccinated or previously infected that the full population would be protected against the disease — endemicity provided…

With a wide array of resources available, access to mental health services in Vermont continues to be ranked first in the nation, according to the annual report, State of Mental Health in America. “It’s an achievement Vermonters should be proud of,” said Emily Hawes, commissioner of the Dept. of Mental Health for Vermont. “Having equitable…

By Jim Harrison Fall is a good time to start planning for the upcoming session (begins in January) with the sharing of ideas and concerns. I hope you will stop by during one of my upcoming “office hours” (sometimes referred to as “dump and donuts”), especially while we can still enjoy being outside. Friday, Oct.…

Down slightly over last week’s record By Erin Petenko/VTDigger and Polly Mikula Vermont reported 1,448 Covid-19 cases within the past week, a slight decline from 1,520 the week before but far higher than the 1,050 cases reported just two weeks ago, according to a state data presentation. It was still the second highest week of Covid cases ever…

By Grace Benninghoff/VTDigger Vermont’s legislative leadership has called off plans to reconvene this October due to substantial delays to President Biden’s federal infrastructure bill. The decision likely forecloses the possibility that the Legislature could seek to enact more stringent Covid-19 protocols this fall, as some Democrats have urged. As the 2021 session wound down in…

Vermonters 65+ and 18+ with underlying medical conditions or who work in certain occupational settings are eligible Staff report Vermonters 75 years of age and older are now eligible to schedule and receive Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine booster doses. Registration started Monday, Sept. 27. Beginning on Wednesday, Sept. 29, that eligibility expands to any Vermonters 70…

By Jackie O’Brien/VTDigger Authorities are investigating why a Stowe Mountain Resort employee crashed and died while riding a zip line on Thursday. Scott Lewis, 53, of Stowe crashed into the anchoring platform that holds up a zip line at the resort just after 3 p.m. on Thursday, Sept. 21, police said. Lewis was working at…

By Liz Dimarco Weinmann For most of my four decades in Vermont, I worked for large marketing agencies and nonprofits based in New York City and Washington, traveling from Rutland throughout the country. For most of 2020 and 2021, I hunkered down here, a Zoomer Boomer working remotely, and I have had more opportunities to…

Board of trustees to make decision on name, Sept. 29 By Tiffany Tan/VTDigger The Vermont State Colleges System’s board of trustees will consider public comments before deciding whether to adopt “Vermont State University” as the new name for the planned consolidation of Castleton University, Northern Vermont University and Vermont Tech. About a thousand Castleton alumni, for…