Vermont Digger

“Crossing Familiar Waters,” a painting and accompanying narrative by Abigail Balon, 15, of Panton. 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

Champlain Valley School District school busses in Hinesburg on Monday, January 5, 2026. Photo by Glenn Russell/VTDigger This story by Liberty Darr was first published in The Citizen on Apr 2, 2026. An administrative committee at Champlain Valley School District is honing in on a final recommendation about whether to merge Charlotte and Hinesburg’s community schools. Although a draft report to the board isn’t expected for just over a month, an administrative committee, like the group tha

Aaron Schwartz/Sipa USA via AP This story by Raymond Fernández was first published in NOTUS on April 2, 2026. Vermont and West Virginia have little in common politically, but they both have outsize rural populations where many people are struggling to buy a home. That’s led to an unexpected partnership between progressive Sen. Peter Welch and Republican Sen. Jim Justice, who introduced legislation aimed at increasing homeownership in rural areas by expanding eligibility for credit throu

Backyard chickens in towns and cities throughout Vermont have been banned in some places, while allowed in others. Photo by Al Frey/Williston Observer Amanda Rancourt was facing a predicament. She had started raising chickens in response to rising egg prices. But last May, a clutch of baby chicks she was raising in her backyard had grown up. Unexpectedly, one of the supposedly all-female chickens had a surprise for Rancourt. The chicken turned out to be a rooster. Rancourt knew what

A motorist pumps gas in Montpelier on Friday April 3, 2026. Photo by Glenn Russell/VTDigger More than a month into the Iran war, Vermonters are facing the strain of ballooning fuel costs as commuters wince at high prices at the pump.   “It’s painful to the pocketbook,” said David Armstrong, who works in the construction industry, as he filled his truck at a gas station in Burlington on Friday.  Armstrong commutes about 40 miles a day for work, he said, and it cost him over $1

People peer at small-sized trucks during a “Mini Truck Day” event at the Statehouse in Montpelier on April 3. Photo by Glenn Russell/VTDigger Some of Vermont’s smallest haulers were parked outside the Statehouse on Friday to drum up support for a bill that is meant to make registering these so-called mini trucks easier. “If you asked me everything I like about this truck, I would not be able to stop talking,” said Xavier Stevens of Newport, who brought his 1995 Mazda Scrum — l

Dear Editor, I read your VTDigger article about a family struggling to survive who are facing eviction as the housing program comes to an end. This is an annual event. The stories of these families or individuals are heartbreaking — some, like this couple, may have extreme health issues that require access to electricity to survive. Others may be families with children who will be ripped from the only security they have known and face homelessness again. Just as last year, this happens aro

Current site of the George D. Aiken Forestry Sciences Laboratory in South Burlington. Photo courtesy of Maxwell Landsman-Gerjoi, Forestry Sciences Lab Manager at the George D. Aiken Forestry Sciences Lab The U.S. Forest Service announced Thursday that it plans to close its research and development office in Burlington as part of a national reorganization.  The office, based in the University of Vermont’s George D. Aiken Forestry Sciences Laboratory, employs five full-time researchers,

Dear Editor, Watching the evening news with my mom in the 1960s, we saw the daily body count from Vietnam — mostly young working-class men, drafted and placed in harm’s way to fight a war without clear objectives. They were too young to buy a beer legally, but old enough to die in the jungle half a world away. We watched the assassinations of a sitting president, a promising presidential candidate, and a civil rights leader who preached peaceful protest. We saw peaceful demonstrations t

Born: 07/22/1933 St. Louis, MO Died: 03/19/2026 St. Albans, VT Details of service: A celebration of his life will be held at a later date. Leroy “Lee” Charles Grunewald, 92, passed away peacefully at his home on March 19, 2026, surrounded by his family in St. Albans, VT. Lee was born on July 22, 1933, in St. Louis, Missouri, the son of the late George Ernest Anton Grunewald and Wilhelmina “Frieda” Brockmann Grunewald. He graduated from Beaumont High School in

An aerial photo of the Airport Parkway wastewater facility in South Burlington. Photo courtesy of South Burlington Public Works This story by Liberty Darr was first published in The Other Paper on April 2, 2026. In 2023, South Burlington residents approved a $33.8 million bond to pay for three wastewater projects in the city, including upgrades to the city’s aging Bartlett Bay wastewater treatment facility. Now, three years later, the city needs another $16.4 million to get the projects

Groundbreaking at the Pittsford Village Farm in June 2025. Photo credit: Pittsford Village Farm It’s a seemingly normal Tuesday in Vermont. Parents in Randolph drop their kids off at a local childcare center on their way to work. Friends meet up for lunch at a popular local café in Waitsfield. A young couple in St. Johnsbury signs a lease on an apartment they can actually afford. On the surface, these moments may sound ordinary. But behind the scenes is something less visible that ma

Born: 09/03/1946 Derby Line, VT Died: 03/27/2026 Montpelier, VT Details of service: A celebration of Paul’s life will be announced in the coming months. Paul Francis Irons, 79, of Berlin, passed away peacefully on March 27, 2026 at Clara’s Garden Memory Care at The Gary Residence in Montpelier, in comfort and surrounded by love. A man of deep curiosity and intelligence, Paul leaves behind a legacy of self-reliance, community service, and belief in the goodness of othe

The Old Mill building on the University of Vermont campus in Burlington in March 2025. File photo by Glenn Russell/VTDigger The University of Vermont is asking legislators for $15 million from a statewide student financial aid fund so the school can put it toward a long-planned campus sports complex instead. While Gov. Phil Scott supports the proposal, it has gotten a cold reception so far from lawmakers. Scott included the funding move in his state budget proposal for the upcoming fiscal

Sang But, left, and Matt Lawrence program a cutting tool at Flex-A-Seal, a manufacturer of mechanical seals, in Essex Junction on Thursday, October 24, 2019. Photo by Glenn Russell/VTDigger Theo Wells-Spackman is a Report for America corps member who reports for VTDigger. The manufacturing industry generates billions for Vermont’s economy each year — but jobs in the sector are on the decline. That’s according to state Chamber of Commerce President Amy Spear, who spoke to a packed room

Rep. Peter Conlon, D-Cornwall, chair of the House Education Committee, listens as the committee takes testimony from Secretary of Education Zoie Saunders at the Statehouse in Montpelier in Feb. 2025. File photo by Glenn Russell/VTDigger MONTPELIER — After weeks of false starts and discarded plans, the House Education Committee passed an education reform proposal Thursday. But it’s a far cry from what was envisioned in last year’s landmark Act 73, and will almost certainly face political

José Ignacio “Nacho” De La Cruz leaves federal court in Burlington after being released on Thursday, April 2, 2026. Photo by Auditi Guha/VTDigger Updated at 7:19 p.m. BURLINGTON — A federal judge in Burlington ordered that José Ignacio “Nacho” De La Cruz, a longtime Migrant Justice organizer who faces multiple federal charges, be released Thursday pending a trial. Magistrate Judge Kevin J. Doyle was skeptical of the government’s argument that De La Cruz could not be released. Although t

Dear Editor, There’s a lot of talk right now about landowner rights being violated and government overreach, but there’s a bill, H.723, now before the Senate Committee on Natural Resources and Energy that would update Vermont’s land posting laws — the rules governing how landowners notify the public that their property is off-limits to hunting, fishing or trapping. As the law currently stands, landowners must physically post and date signs every year, no farther than

This commentary is by Gabe Lajeunesse, a small-scale developer who has sat on the Montpelier Planning Commission and the Vermont Community Development Board. He lives in Montpelier. The recent VTDigger commentary by Todd Heyman asked whether Act 181 has created a galvanizing moment for rural Vermont. The answer is yes — but the deeper truth is that this moment was avoidable. The Tier 3 rules were an ideological overreach, advanced by outside interests and pushed forward without a clear un

A Canadian Customs and Excise sign sits in Haut-Richelieu, Quebec, across the U.S.-Canada border as seen from Alburgh, Vermont, on Thursday, January 15, 2026. Photo by Glenn Russell/VTDigger Chittenden County, Vermont’s largest county and the center of the Burlington metropolitan area, has long been the state’s most diverse county and the home of many immigrant groups.  But newly released data from the U.S. Census Bureau suggests that international migration to the county has slowed d