Housing bill included statewide inspection system for short- and long-term rentals By Xander Landen/VTDigger Gov. Phil Scott on Friday, July 2, vetoed legislation that would have set up a rental registry and statewide system to enforce property safety standards. The governor said that the bill, S.79, would “reduce the number of housing options for Vermonters at…

By Erin Petenko/VTDigger As vaccinations rise throughout the state — hitting 81.9% of eligible Vermonters on June 29 — readers have written to VTDigger to ask: Just how many vaccinated Vermonters have ended up with Covid-19 anyway? The Vermont Dept. of Health has the answer: 239 Vermonters since Jan. 1. But the small sample of data, plus…

By Alan J. Keays/VTDigger Some housing units will be closed at the Marble Valley Regional Correctional Facility in Rutland so workers there can be shifted to the Springfield prison to cover staffing shortages there.  “I wouldn’t say it’s dire but I would say it’s concerning,” Al Cormier, chief of operations for the Vermont Department of…

By Ethan Weinstein  Lt. Gov. Molly Gray kicked off her Recover Stronger tour in Rutland on Wednesday, June 16. Her goal: learn what Vermonters learned from the pandemic, and what the state should do as it eases back to pre-pandemic life. Stopping at Rutland Intermediate School, RRMC, and the Village Snack Bar, Gray chatted with…

State provides update on Delta variant, emergency housing program and veto session By Hannah Laga Abram It’s been a week since Vermont lifted all Covid-19 restrictions — and the skies didn’t fall. On the contrary, as Gov. Phil Scott emphasized in Tuesday’s press conference, new case numbers continue to decrease throughout the state, Vermonters continue…

By Xander Landen/VTDigger Though they adjourned last month, Vermont lawmakers are preparing to log back on to Zoom once again next week.  Legislators will return June 23 for a remote veto session, during which Democratic leaders will attempt to revive the three bills that Gov. Phil Scott killed this year. They also plan to pass a housing reform…

By Lola Duffort/VTDigger Vermont ranks fourth in the nation for overall child wellbeing, according to Kids Count, an annual 50-state report produced by the Annie E. Casey Foundation, an influential national child welfare nonprofit. The foundation used 16 indicators across four domains — economic wellbeing, education, health, and family and community context — to come up with…

By Kit Norton/VTDigger The administrative costs of running OneCare Vermont, the company that enacts statewide health care reforms, are greater than the Medicaid savings that are credited to its efforts, according to a report issued Monday by State Auditor Doug Hoffer. The 38-page document, which looks at the operating expenses associated with the state’s all-payer health…

Governor Phil Scott has appointed Delaney Courcelle of Rutland to serve on the Vermont Commission on Women (VCW), the state’s non-partisan commission working to advance rights and opportunities for women and girls. Courcelle is a senior majoring in Business Administration at the University of Vermont’s Grossman School of Business. Excelling at coursework concentrations in entrepreneurship and…

Governor lifts all Covid restrictions, recommendations remain in place for the unvaccinated  By Hannah Laga Abram Gov. Phil Scott Monday morning lifted all state-mandated Covid-19 restrictions.  The state of emergency, in place since March 13, 2020, will expire at midnight June 15.  The order came after the announcement that Vermont became the first state to…

Vermont pediatricians are offering guidance to families with children on how to navigate the summer and stay healthy and active. Vaccines are the most effective tool we have to end the Covid-19 pandemic. But as Vermont moves forward with its reopening plan, it is important to remember that young children are not yet eligible for the…

The 2021 Vermont maple syrup production totaled 1.54 million gallons, down 21% from the previous year, according to Pam Hird, New England state statistician of the USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service, New England Field Office (NASS).  Vermont maple syrup producers set out 5.90 million maple taps in 2021, an increase of 4% from the 2020…

By Emma Cotton/VTDigger It’s hard to connect with social services in Rutland and Bennington counties.  That’s the gist of two surveys recently conducted by a group called Families at the Center in Southwestern Vermont, which, through a localized pilot project, aims to expand Vermonters’ access to services such as housing, child care, recovery support and…

By Emma Cotton/VTDigger On the heels of abnormally dry conditions, softened but not eliminated by last week’s rain, early June has brought several days of increasingly common record-breaking heat to Vermont.  Swimmers flocked to lakefronts and rivers over the weekend and early this week, and at least one school district closed early on Monday, lacking air…

At 79.4%, officials are hopeful that threshold could be reached this week By Polly Mikula As of Tuesday, June 8, 79.4% of the eligible population in Vermont has received at least one dose of a Covid-19 vaccine, leaving just 3,139 to go before the state hits its goal of 80%. At that point all remaining…