Town with closed school seeks no-confidence vote in state’s school funding system

Windham Elementary School has been closed since 2023, when financial, staffing and legal troubles led the Town to shutter the school and tuition children to nearby Townsend. Town Meeting voters in 2024 opted to sell the asbestos-ridden building to the Town for $1 for possible use as a community center. According to the Commons, the community newspaper for Windham County, school voters will be asked to approve a two percent funding increase. 

Douglass: Seven Days? How about Seven Hours? 

I am seeking corrections or the removal of the story and I have filed an ethics complaint with the management of Seven Days. Errors are common and mistakes happen, but not in these amounts. But I’ll leave you with one last thought, would Alison have reported about me if I had gotten a job at McDonalds or a gas station or really anywhere else than at her competition? 

Bill making homeless teens more independent moves through committee

This week, the House Committee on Human Services has heard testimony on H.657, a bill that changes or establishes multiple practices within the Department of Children and Families (DCF), including overseeing a qualified minor’s social security income, defining the proper use of restraints and transportation for minors, restricting the use of solitary confinement on minors, the use of pregnancy calendars or tracking pregnant individuals, and reforming unaccompanied homelessness for minors. 

10-year-old catches record fish, nets $26K

In June, 10-year-old Grayson Carey of Colchester landed the record-setting fish while competing in the Lake Champlain International Father’s Day Derby with his father and grandfather.  The Freshwater Drum, also known as “sheepshead,” weighed 28.5 pounds and measured 37 ½ inches long with a 29-inch girth.  It beat the previous state record set in 2016 by three pounds.

Bongartz pitches school merger ‘soft landing’

In the Senate Education Committee on Tuesday, Committee Chair Senator Seth Bongartz (D-Bennington) introduced a new plan to revise Vermont’s education system. The main goal of the system, said Bongartz, is to increase governance efficiency and enable a higher quality educational delivery, in a way that moderates the growth rate of state spending on education. 

Homegrown groups call on Canada to safeguard security, combat transnational crime

The ICAIE also notes that the greatest number of illegal border crossers coming from Canada to the U.S. were apprehended by U.S. immigration officials in the U.S. Customs and Border Protection Swanton Sector in Vermont and upstate New York, which The Center Square has reported for years. It also notes that the majority of illicit drugs seized at the U.S.-Canada border were by U.S. authorities in the CBP Buffalo, Detroit and Swanton sectors coming from Canada, The Center Square has also reported for years.

Colchester drug dealer gets 20 years for Swanton drug shooting

A federal court jury convicted Dominique “Wop” Troupe, 39, of Bay Road on four felony drug, gun and robbery charges following a six-day trial in Rutland in May 2024. Troupe helped plan the robbery in Swanton four years ago and reportedly had told the two gunmen he recruited for the case that nobody was supposed to be injured, prosecutors have said.  The armed robbery for the drugs went sideways. Elijah Oliver, 22, of Haverhill, Mass. died from two gunshots inside the residence at 45 First St. in Swanton about 4:35 a.m. Feb. 2, 2022, Vermont State Police said.

CLG: Armed man is shot and killed by Secret Service after entering Mar-a-Lago in middle of the night

Driver armed with a flamethrower rams LADWP substation in possible ‘terrorism-related event’; U.S. drones take to the skies as Trump’s fleet descends on the Middle East; Muslim states condemn U.S. envoy over remarks on Israel’s ‘biblical rights’; Israel’s Gaza ‘ceasefire’ death toll tops 600; American tourists left stranded in beautiful Mexico hotspot as cartels torch cars and wreak havoc in ‘code red’ attack

Barre battles State over secret fishing tourneys on its reservoir

When the Vermont Department of Fish and Wildlife issued permits for fishing tournaments on the reservoir for the 2026 season—without notifying the city that relies on it for drinking water—Barre officials were caught off guard. When they protested, state officials reportedly offered a creative solution: tournament participants could technically “parachute in” to avoid trespassing on city land.

Be bold, stand for truth, TPUSA audience urged

The question on everyone’s mind: what happens next?  Currently unable to procure a sponsorship necessary from any of their teachers at Spaulding High School to create an official Club America chapter, Fewer and Kastner will continue to operate the club as a TPUSA Activism Hub, and plan to hold future club meetings of a smaller scale.