Vermont Digger

A decorative antique well installed at a site where a PFOA-contaminated drinking water well was capped. File photo by Mike Dougherty/VTDigger The state of Vermont is offering well testing, free water and other support for South Bennington and Shaftsbury in the wake of research last year that found PFAS contamination in the Bennington area has spread and worsened over time. The state is also in active negotiations with the current corporate owner of the now shuttered ChemFab factory in Benn

This commentary is by Wes Hamilton, owner of Three Penny Taproom in Montpelier. A couple of giant credit card companies have enormous power over how businesses like Three Penny Taproom operate. They set the rules, they set the fees, and they apply them across the board. There is no negotiation and no way around it. If you want to stay open and serve your customers, you accept the cards and absorb the cost. That cost has grown into one of the most significant pressures we as small business own

“Looking Out Their Eyes,” by Astrid Longstreth, 16, of West Bolton. Young Writers Project is a creative, online community of teen writers and visual artists that started in Burlington in 2006. Each week, VTDigger publishes the writing and art of young Vermonters who post their work on youngwritersproject.org, a free, interactive website for youth, ages 13-19. To find out more, please go to youngwritersproject.org or contact Executive Director Susan Reid at sreid@youngwritersproject.org; (802

Weybridge writer Julia Alvarez holds her official look-alike Barbie doll. Photo courtesy of Mattel Ask Weybridge writer Julia Alvarez how her prolific career took root and she’ll dig back seven decades to her 1950s childhood, when she memorized verses recalled in her later poem, “Recitation.” Here I am starting again where I first began, in a pink party dress with a flaring crinoline, waiting to entertain my mother’s friends after their afternoon game of canasta … The 76-year-o

Rep. Becca Balint, left, and Sen. Peter Welch heard from a roundtable of town clerks on election integrity in May 2026. Photo by Sophia Balunek/The Citizen This story by Liberty Darr was first published in The Citizen on May 14, 2026. Some of Vermont’s Congressional delegation heard from a roundtable of town clerks on election integrity earlier this month. In Shelburne, Rep. Becca Balint, D-VT, and Sen. Peter Welch, D-VT, heard from Secretary of State Sarah Copeland Hanzas and five town

Global Foundries in Essex Junction in October 2022. File photo by Glenn Russell/VTDigger This story by Jason Starr was first published in the Williston Observer on May 14, 2026. It’s 442 acres and comes with its own bridge over the Winooski River.  The Williston side of the GlobalFoundries campus is one-of-a-kind, and the company is planning to put it up for sale.  “We’ve come to the decision that we’d like to find another owner for that campus,” GlobalFoundries Director of

Matthew Bernstein, Vermont’s child, youth and family advocate, in November 2023. File photo by Glenn Russell/VTDigger Restraint reform Advocates and lawmakers want to place new statutory limits on the use of restraints and confinement practices for some youth in state custody. And when those methods are used, they say, they need to know more about each incident. According to Matthew Bernstein, the state’s child, youth and family advocate, it’s an area overdue for reform. To begin with,

Middlebury College in Middlebury in November 2025. File photo by Glenn Russell/VTDigger This story by John Flowers was first published in the Addison County Independent on May 14, 2026. Middlebury College has spent more than two centuries turning young folks into good thinkers, businesspeople and problem-solvers. And the institution served notice this week that it also sees itself as a local and regional problem-solver. Topping its list — according to the college’s just-released strateg

Worcester residents at Doty Memorial School in June 2024. File photo by Ethan Weinstein/VTDigger Several grades in the Washington Central Unified Union School District would be moved to schools in other towns under a reconfiguration plan officials announced last week. The plan comes after the district’s failed effort in February to shutter two community elementary schools in Calais and Worcester after residents’ opposition. Under the plan, all fifth- and sixth-grade students fr

Dear Editor, As a registered nurse and the spouse of a stroke survivor, I have seen our healthcare system from both sides: professionally and personally. Nothing prepared me for how difficult it can be to access coordinated care after a stroke.  When my husband survived an ischemic stroke in October 2025, we were grateful for rapid emergency treatment. Like most families, we believed that discharge from the hospital — a regional comprehensive stroke center serving southern Vermont and

Born: 11/22/1944 Shawnee, OK Died: 04/13/2026 Seattle, WA Details of service: A Celebration of Life is planned in Stowe, VT on August 2. Gordon Kingsmill Glass died in Seattle on April 13, 2026, age 81. His death was due to complications following a heart attack The elder son of David and Harriet “Happy” Glass, Gordon grew up in the West Hartford, Connecticut area, attending Amity Regional High School. He joined the US Air Force out of high school and went to Southeast A

Protesters outside the Essex Police Department in July 2021. File photo by Glenn Russell/VTDigger MONTPELIER — Vermont voters will have the chance to weigh in on another amendment to the state’s constitution this fall. The proposal, which got a final sign-off from the House on Wednesday, is aimed at ensuring all people are treated equally under the law regardless of their race, ethnicity, sex, religion, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, or nationality. A sta

A sign in front of Burlington High School when it was closed due to elevated levels of PCB’s in October 2020. File photo by Glenn Russell/VTDigger Buying time  House lawmakers began this legislative session intent on ending a controversial (and expensive) testing program for polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCB, in Vermont schools. Now, Senate lawmakers are thinking otherwise. H.542, a bill sponsored by Rep. Peter Conlon, D-Cornwall, would have ended Vermont’s PCB testing progra

Mike Carey stacks sandbags on State Street in Montpelier in July 2024. File photo by Glenn Russell/VTDigger The Federal Emergency Management Agency is set to release more than $20 million in funding to support the Vermont Agency of Transportation and the City of Montpelier to repair damage from severe flooding in 2023. FEMA has slated $11.78 million to the City of Montpelier for repairs to some of its municipal buildings, including severe damage to the capital’s City Hall, fire department,

Vermont state police carry Peter Booth out of the White Cap Business Park building as they arrest him during a protest against ICE operations there on May 14, 2026. Photo by Emma Green/VTDigger WILLISTON –– Four people were arrested Thursday at a protest against U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the latest in a series of similar actions around the state.   The protesters blocked entrances to a portion of a business park at 426 Industrial Avenue, where ICE runs a digital s

This commentary is by Gabe Lajeunesse, who serves on state and national boards focused on expanding economic development and protecting displaced populations. When VTDigger reported that international migration to Chittenden County fell by half last year, it was more than a demographic footnote. It was a warning. According to the census data highlighted in that story, the county gained only 220 international migrants between 2024 and 2025, down from 440 the year before. Combined with natural

The Brattleboro Memorial Hospital campus on Belmont Avenue. Photo by Kevin O’Connor/VTDigger Brattleboro Memorial Hospital and a union representing its 280 support staffers have signed their first contract, avoiding a threatened walkout amid a projected $14.5 million annual budget shortfall. The two-year agreement with Brattleboro Healthcare United workers, announced Thursday, comes a month after management at southeastern Vermont’s main health care provider successfully negotiated a separ

Barre City Manager Nicolas Storellicastro speaks at a meeting in Sept. 2024. File photo by Glenn Russell/VTDigger Nicolas Storellicastro is resigning from his role as Barre city manager to serve as deputy city manager in South Burlington, he told city officials Tuesday.  Storellicastro has served as Barre’s lead city employee for four years, which included one of the worst natural disasters in its centuries-long history: the 2023 flood event that devastated Barre homes and businesses.

Northeast Kingdom Human Services runs the Front Porch Mental Health Urgent Care in Newport. File photo by Olivia Gieger/VTDigger Northeast Kingdom Human Services will pay the state of Vermont $65,335 as part of a settlement deal resolving accusations of overbilling Vermont Medicaid and alleged neglect of a person in the organization’s adult daycare. The agreement also requires a series of reforms that the organization will make, focused on ways the organization supervises those with develo

The University of Vermont campus in Burlington. File photo by Glenn Russell/VTDigger The University of Vermont announced it was facing a $12 million structural budget deficit for next fiscal year due to a projected drop in overall undergraduate enrollment. The university expects to see a 15% decline in freshman undergraduate students this coming fall compared to last year, and a 7% decrease across all undergraduate enrollment. Tuition accounts for two-thirds of the university’s ge