Dairy in decline/ drug crime: who benefits?/ Cell towers radiation/ VT ramifications of MN childcare fraud….& whatever you want to discuss!

Today is Feedback Friday on January 2, 2026! We will be live on VDC’s Hot Off The Press at 11:05 AM on WDEV AM 550, FM 96.1, and wdevradio.com livestreamed. As usual on Feedback Friday, there are no guests scheduled. 

Please call today at 802-244-1777. There are no preordained subjects, but as usual there’s been plenty of news and commentary this week. For every headline go to www.vermontdailychronicle.com. Here’s just a sample:

A “dairy town” no more

It may be home to Ben & Jerry’s Factory Store, but Waterbury’s last three dairy farms were driven out of business. Their former owners struggle to let go.

Burlington transients arrested for Montpelier Tractor Supply burglary

Both suspected burglars were jailed for lack of bail. 

Readers: Who is harmed by this crime? 

1) Business owners, in time lost handling the problem and higher insurance rates. 

2) Consumers, who must pay more to the extent these costs are ‘passed along’.

3) Taxpayers, who must pay for police and suspect ‘lodging’ and the criminal justice system.

4) Other victims of crime or accidents who aren’t being helped by police occupied with this burglary.

Who benefits from this crime? ONLY drug dealers across the production, transmission and distribution pipeline. Most often they are the ultimate recipients of the proceeds of the burglary.  

Despathy: Time to talk towers and radiation

A family in Pownal have spent a year dealing with the tortuous telecom siting process called Section 248a, trying to relocate a proposed cell tower away from their children and home in the woods of Vermont. 

Feds freeze all childcare aide to MN after fraud allegations

Deputy Secretary of Health and Human Services Jim O’Neill announced the action Monday, saying the freeze is part of a broader effort to halt what he described as widespread abuse of federal childcare funding. Does Vermont have similar problems? Is anyone trying to find out? We’ll talk about a public records request, and about Vermont funding of childcare.  Related story – Vermont Attorney General says child counseling service committed Medicaid fraud –

2024 Champ sighting off Port Henry? You decide…

As reported by CHNI and other news outlets, a drone video capturing a large, dark shape moving beneath a boat on Lake Champlain has landed filmmakers Richard Rossi and Kelly Tabor on an episode of William Shatner’s The UnXplained.

Roper: Will 2026 be the year Vermonters realize Democratic Socialist policies don’t work?

And are, in fact, disastrous.