A well-heeled couple from California visit Vermont and “just fall in love” with the state, buy an abandoned country store in Woodstock, and then demand major local zoning changes. What could go wrong?
Death penalty commuted for St. Albans dog
Moose the animal-attacking dog won’t be euthanized but instead is in the supervised custody of a dog-lover in Highgate.
Next big labor Vermont shortage: lawyers
In a sure sign of the Apocalypse, Vermont is running out of lawyers.
Bobcat trapped in bathroom
An even dozen state senators have announced their retirement. What’s going on?
St. Albans to euthanize killer dog
St. Albans plans to kill a dog that has attacked people and killed other animals – that headline and others from VT media.
VT Water Cooler: courts continue Covid emergency through August
Vermont’s court system will remain in a Covid ’emergency’ through August.
VT Water Cooler: Northern Lights, midnight arson
A rare sighting of the Northern Lights from nearby Mt. Washington.
VT Water Cooler: Green-Up Day report / Montpelier PD goes to the dogs / New Yorkers want new bridge across lake
Does Vermont need another bridge across Lake Champlain?
VT Water Cooler: Foodbank says food costs up, federal $$ down, demand growing
The not-for-profit responsible for feeding Vermont’s neediest says food costs and demand are growing even as federal funding is in decline.
VT Water Cooler: Act 250 update passes House / F-35s to Europe
The Vermont House has passed an Act 250 reform bill with a heavy emphasis on housing.
VT Water Cooler: Roe reversal reactions ‘horrified’ to ‘happy’
Signs of the times: the Humane Society will now accept cryptocurrency donations.
VT Water Cooler: Starbucks shop to unionize, SB council relents on Beta park, barn fire kills two horses, overhauling Camel’s Hump trail
One of the most popular hiking trails in Vermont will get an overhaul.
VT Water Cooler: Econo Lodge OD arrests, some Abenaki question ‘recognized’ tribes, Covid #s high statwide
Headlines from around Vermont say Covid cases are pretty high – even if getting it isn’t the big deal it used to be.
VT Water Cooler: Police ‘citizen review’ board / Quiros sentencing / Air Guard deploys
Ariel Quiros faces sentencing today for EB-5 fraud.
VT Water Cooler: Pride Center vandalized / Housing crisis turns employers into builders, realtors
UVM Health Network stops work on building new psychiatric care beds, and BHS announces new $181 million plan to build new building.
Vermont Daily Water Cooler for Wed, Apr 27
Peter Welch DOES have a primary opponent – an activist from Brattleboro.
VT Water Cooler: Walmart evacuated / Greenup Day / senator won’t run
Is ANYONE running for governor?!
Water Cooler: Walk for eating disorders / Vermonter locked down in Shanghai / shelter pod pushback / who should own Burlington airport?
Those proposed homeless shelter pods are getting pushback in Burlington.
VT Water Cooler: Treating eating disorders / aggressive shoplifting in Burlington
WCAX continues its series on the treatment – or lack of it – for eating disorders in Vermont, and NBC5 describes a more aggressive form of shoplifting in Burlington.
Vermont Daily Water Cooler for Wed, Apr 20
Vermont actor busted on the Big Island, and a Milton dad left a four-year-old in a car for six hours – these headlines and others from VT media.
VT Water Cooler: ‘White power’ bomber charged / Homeschooling grows / Newport scam sentencing
A man charged with making a bomb in Wilder is a white power advocate, police say.
VT Water Cooler: Beansie’s reopens / musical chairs in Burlington schools / homeless hotel stressing police / lower net metering for solar?
Constant calls to Berlin’s homeless hotel is stretching police resources – that headline and others from VT media.
VT Water Cooler: Welch in Eastern Europe / Covid-19 on rise / new Burlington High School plan faces questions / helping people who ‘look like us’
Building a new high school in Burlington is the $300 million (and maybe more) question facing Queen City residents.
Minor league seats at big league prices / college builds housing / Rutland SA won’t run
The Lake Monsters unveil new luxury suites at eye-popping prices.
VT Watercooler: Child porn bust / Bennington drug raid / pot store license applications / Nolan nets $156K / good year for sugaring
Another bookkeeper embezzling case – and other hot headlines from Vermont media.
Moran plant gets makeover / Amtrak terrorist watchlist / Rail trail progress / hazing at Norwich / Burlington eviction, runoff voting bills advance / National Guard to Europe
Godspeed the Vermont National Guard as members deploy to Europe. Burlington one step closer to making life even MORE difficult for landlords. Hazing at Norwich? These headlines and others from VT media
VT Water Cooler: New invasive fish on Lake Champlain / land use regs impact housing crisis / Health network wants 10% rate hike / Condos denies voting irregularities
There’s a new invasive fish in Lake Champlain. That headline and others from Vermont media.
VT Water Cooler: Brattleboro next home of juvy hall? / Don’t look now, Covid increasing / 2021 opioid deaths top 200 for first time ever / Challenge to Sarah George?
Sarah George, the state’s attorney law and order conservatives love to hate, may face a challenge in Chittenden County elections this year.
Water Cooler: Rest area schedules cut, truck crashes into laundromat
With all the federal $$ flowing, apparently there’s not enough to keep popular highway rest areas open as often.
Water Cooler: Molly Gray’s second-hand fundraising / Toney Woodstock nixes cannabis / mRNA lab in Colchester
They’re harvesting mRNA in Colchester.
Water Cooler: storm pic takes on Mt. Washington / fireworks bill fizzles / high school robot team in world championship
Ranked choice voting and fireworks bills stall.
Water Cooler: Wildlife bills advance / School PCB testing delayed / Dog survives bobcat attack
Not every day a dog gets attacked by a bobcat.
Water Cooler: racism, eugenics bill passes House / Senate leery of $$ for religious schools / getting to school in mud season
Two sisters will tell their families what it was like to get to school during a rural Vermont Mud Season. That story and others from Vermont news media yesterday and today.
Water Cooler: Housing stalemate, chip shortage
Vermont media headlines show Gov. Scott squared off against legislative leadership over solutions to Vermont’s worsening housing shortage.
Water Cooler: No free lunch in Brattleboro, NH birds euthanized due to avian flu
It will be pot luck or no luck at all for hungry Brattleboro town meeting representatives.
Water Cooler: U.S. alcohol deaths up 25% during lockdowns / gas inflation challenges VT businesses
What happens when you shut down AA? When you force alcoholics to stay at home but ensure that the liquor stores stay open?
Water Cooler: “Squad” staffer runs for U.S. House / Woman punches with brass knuckles
Hot headlines from the Vermont media include a former staffer for Ayana Pressley running for Congress in Vermont, and a Rutland woman allegedly committing assault with brass knuckles.
Water Cooler: Attack sub Vermont crew tours state / another Congress candidate / Spelling bee winner
Crew members of the latest USS Vermont naval vessel – an attack sub – toured Vermont and the State House today.
Water Cooler: Race for Secretary of State / skied down the wrong side of Mansfield / Welch has Covid
Secretary of State Jim Condos’ hand-picked successor will have competition in the 2022 election for Secretary of State.
Water Cooler: Exodus from Burlington Racial Equity Office / Winooski 100 years old / Homeless funding extended
100 years ago, prosperous, urban, one-mile-square Winooski concluded its lengthy divorce proceedings from rural Colchester – and promptly saw its industrial base go into a tailspin from which the Onion City has never fully emerged.
Water Cooler: Gas prices drive us to EVs? / Lost urn discovered / Loons rescued
Will high gas prices be an “incentive” to drive electric? Maybe – or maybe the cost of electricity will climb sky-high, too.
Water Cooler: Gas prices soaring / Caviar Emptor / privileged Vermonters / Bus drivers have new contract
For rural Vermonters who depend on the bus, a new labor contract ensures they can still get to work, the doctor, and the store. This story and others from today’s Vermont media headlines.
Water Cooler: Electric snowmobiles, masks off in Essex, Burl/SoBu bike path, Rice & Rutland in state hoop championship
Powerhouse Rice Memorial High School is, once again, seeking the state crown in boy’s basketball. And the masks come off in a big Chittenden County school district.
Water Cooler: Vermont Cannabis vs. tax-free NH / Jay Peak sale / Health insurance dispute
Randolph is supporting a ‘sister community’ in Ukraine.
Water Cooler: ATV voting at Town Meeting / fed $$ to modernize dairy farms / Sarah George wants alleged killer returned to VT
Across rural Vermont, many towns decided at Town Meeting whether to allow ATVs to be driven on town highways.
Water Cooler: Colchester OKs townwide sewer / New BHS would cost $207 million / More Town Meeting results
Town Meeting results, plus – what kind of people would leave their kid in the car while they went skiing? Not that couple in Killington, they told the judge.
Water Cooler: VT has highest % of LGBTQ / Balint changes campaign manager / Rutland rescinds mask ordinance
Masks mandates rescinded. Middlebury College suspends Russia abroad study. Becca Balint swaps campaign manager.
Water Cooler: finding snow plows and trophy trout / honoring VT’s first black sheriff
Russki wodka? Nyet!
Water Cooler: too much ice in rivers, too little on Lake Champlain / Pregnancy deaths up in Year One of pandemic, esp. among blacks
Nationwide, deaths among pregnant mothers rose during the first year of the pandemic.
Water Cooler: court records say driver in fatal had used drugs / Councilors blame Burlington mayor for Diversity chief departure
The young woman who caused a crash killing two teens admitting using drugs, court records show.
Water Cooler: 40 towns send retail pot ? to voters / free meals in schools / rape at UVM / bird flu
Next week, 40 communities will ask voters if they want to allow retail marijuana.
Water Cooler: Shortstaffed Burlington PD do best to protect and serve / when revival fires burned in Vermont
About 200 years ago, Vermont was afire with religious revival….How short-staffed Burlington PD protects and serves….Vermont welcomes its newest seasonal resident, Alec Baldwin.
Water Cooler: Burlingon police union endorses council candidate / Hospitals dispute medical care delay report
The Burlington police union is making public safety an issue in the upcoming City Council elections.
Water Cooler: Excessive force in Burlington / dogs saved from becoming dog meat / skiing parents leave child alone in car
Dogs rescued from becoming dog meat are alive and well and living in Vermont.
Water Cooler: free range cows, murder for profit, Sarah George & “her own brand of justice”
Free range cows, Sarah George, and murder for profit lead the Vermont media headlines.
Water Cooler: tipping point for restaurants / Super Bowl party for homeless / SB protesters support Canadian truckers
Protesters rally in South Burlington to support Canadian truckers. And restaurant owners are looking at the tipping point of long-term affordability.
Vermont Daily Water Cooler for Fri, Feb 11
South Burlington abandons municipal mask mandate. Vermonters are planning a freedom convoy. More federal dough for electric cars. These headlines and more from VT media.
Water Cooler: what if PCBs are found in Vermont schools? / Miro on suing cops / Burlington man gets Super Bowl ad spot
The State of Vermont will look for PCBs in its schools. What happens if they find them? And, Burlington Mayor Miro Weinberger weighs in on a controversial issue: should the public be allowed to sue police?
Another Cochran medals at Olympics / Long Covid a threat after Omicron? / Homeless ‘shelter pods’ in Burlington / Self-driving cars
The legacy of the skiing Cochran family of Richmond continues. Coming soon to Vermont metro areas near you: shelter pods for the homeless, and self-driving cars.
Water Cooler: Planned Parenthood clinic closes
Planned Parenthood says the pandemic is to blame for the closure of its Newport clinic.
Vermont Daily Water Cooler for Mon, Feb 07
Headlines from Vermont media.
Water Cooler: Animal welfare bills / teacher sex assault of student / Toll to run for Lt. Governor /
The former chair of House Appropriations and sister of Sen. Jane Kitchell has thrown her hat into the ring for the Democratic nomination for lieutenant governor.
Water Cooler: Medical delay report delayed by Omicron / Cameras monitor highways for road safety / Foggy memory afflicts Covid sufferers
That report promised on how Covid-19 delayed much-needed medical attention? Delayed by Omicron.
Water Cooler: Renters forced out / Burlington mayor hopes voters resolve police chief standoff / debt $30 trillion
Burlington Mayor Miro Weinberger thinks – or at least hopes – city voters will toss out a few ‘soft on crime’ city councilors in March.
Water Cooler: Montpelier gets down ‘n dirty with ‘garbage juice,’ composting human remains / Welch, Gray lead in fundraising
Vermont lawmakers sure do talk about gross stuff sometimes.
Water Cooler: IT woes hold up help for low-income families / VT schools to get 100K N95 masks / Arts groups score big pandemic funding / It’s raining iguanas in Florida
The State of Vermont’s IT system is getting the blame (again) for sloooow delivery of money promised to needy families.
Water Cooler: permanent solutions for homeless / Long-term care staffing shortage urgent / Bald eagle slams into window
Today’s hottest news from Vermont media.
Water Cooler: another Cochran at the Olympics / Kidney donor needed / Queen City prostitution hearing / Farm supply chain woes
The fabled Cochran family is sending yet another generation to the Olympics in pursuit of skiing gold.
Water Cooler: Two dozen VT-connected Olympians / Death at a gas station / Man accused in shooting death released to parents
Vermont will be well-represented in the winter Olympics in China.
Water Cooler: Old Windsor prison new home for troubled kids? / Big land trust conservation deal / car hits deer, catches fire
Some state officials would convert an old, empty prison into the new home for Vermont’s most difficult children. Locals don’t think much of the idea.
Water Cooler: happy snowmobilers / unhappy postal customers / Rutland thefts up in 2021
That big dump of powder means happy snow machine riders on Vermont’s VAST trails.
Water Cooler: Supreme Court OKs Slate Ridge closure / House ignores one-member district recommendation / Woman left in sub-zero temps / Soldier rescues boy from ice
The Vermont House ignored all recommendations and amendments to move to single-member House districts. Business as usual.
Free Press to print just six days a week / Vandal wrecks beehives / Afghans to Brattleboro / Trump, Stefanik raise $3 mil
Vermont’s venerable daily newspaper will no longer print every day. How the mighty have fallen.
Water Cooler: / Quebec to fine unvaxxed / Burlesque festival on hold / tentative pension deal struck, teachers unhappy / Matthew Lyon owned slaves
Our neighbors to the north will impose financial penalties on the unvaccinated.
Water Cooler: Monday, Jan. 10
A worker shortage means fuel truck drivers will need to work longer hours.
Water Cooler: running in Antarctica / vigils & poli-speech on Jan. 6 / high school goes remote
If you think it’s cold in Burlington in January……just try running in Antarctica.
Vermont Daily Water Cooler for Thu, Jan 06
No Vermonters were arrested in the Jan. 6 incident at the Capitol building. Police seeking missing teen. State looking, again, for options for housing troubled youth. These headlines and others from Vermont’s media.
Water Cooler: field hospital for unvaxxed suggested
Vax ‘resisters’ seeking treatments should have to go to a field hospital, a Mountain Times letter writer says.
Water Cooler: Homeless huddle in hotels, pods proposed / Kimball of Woodstock running for LG / Bust in fatal bike crash
There’s a new candidate for Vermont lieutenant governor – a centrist Democrat little known outside the State House but well-regarded inside it.
Water Cooler: if hit the covered bridge, it’ll cost you / Scott: no return to 2020 lockdown / Minimum wage up / Nursing crisis discussed
Lyndon’s tired of drivers crashing into its covered bridges.
Water Cooler: take home tests hard to find / Rutland county town considers “Declaration of Inclusion” / WWII homefront was worse
As bad as 2020-21 were, the four years on the home front of WWII were worse, its veterans recall.
Water Cooler: Legislature to open remotely / Car heists up in Burlington / Gray picks staff for Congress run / More violence in Burlington / Killington masks up
The Vermont Legislature will meet remotely for the first two weeks – at least.
Water Cooler: Jay Peak refunding Canadians / VT highway deaths highest in 10 years / ‘Safe injection sites’ / Covid treatments scarce in VT
Covid treatments (as opposed to vaccines) are hard to come by in Vermont, Commissioner Mark Levine explains.
Water Cooler: Olympic skier Schiffrin tests positive
Vermont’s most famous current Olympic skier has tested positive for Covid-19.
Water Cooler: Prop 5 supporter gets defensive / another ‘first in the nation’ bill / tough times for owls
Another First in the Nation Ban proposed in the Vermont Legislature.
Water Cooler: VT diocese to demolish former cathedral / school failed black student, ACLU says / CNN producer denies child sex charge / OneCare budget OK’ed
I didn’t do it, says the ex-CNN producer with the Ludlow ski chalet facing heinous child sex charges.
Water Cooler: Lyndon considering covered bridge protection / TSA may open your gifts
Today’s media headlines…..
Water Cooler: Preschooler saves family from fire / another hotel for homeless / the flu is back
The flu is back.
Water Cooler: Why Harwood bond failed / Dems back City Council candidates
No voters explain for themselves why they voted against a huge Washington County school bond.
Water Cooler: hospital negotiates wage hikes / Brattleboro divided about cops / mentally-ill repeat offenders / no new psych eval for cleaver killer
Burlington’s cleaver killer won’t get the new psych eval he wants, a judge decides – this headline and others from Vermont media.
Water Cooler: who’s running for Lite Guv?
Speculation about candidates for Lt. Governor, fatal accidents, and the huge growth in expensive ‘traveler’ nurses at Vermont hospitals and home health networks lead the news in Vermont media today.
Water Cooler: nowhere to print newspapers, anymore / too few school nurses / Abuse alleged at Woodside / Camel’s Hump preservation plan
Fewer readers and advertisers. And now, no printing presses in Vermont and darn few elsewhere. Tough times for the newspaper industry.
Water Cooler: teacher faces sex charges / Docs urge statewide masking / Digger management, union reach deal / green Christmas?
A Franklin County coach and teacher is up on charges for a lengthy relationship with a minor.
Water Cooler: Burlington schools launch LGBTQ+ task force / farmers resent enviro regulation push / Franklin County teacher sex charges / NY gets statewide mask mandate
Burlington schools to get LBTTQ+ task force.
Water Cooler: ‘Closed’ Burlington homeless camp grows / Kids wait for mental health help at ER / Pharmacies short-staffed
The numbers of homeless people are growing at the ‘closed’ camp in Burlington.
Water Cooler: California abortion sanctuary if Roe falls / what’s next for Memorial Auditorium? / violent threats in schools / big pay raises in 2022
Hartford will hold a cannabis Town Hall. And what’s next for Memorial Auditorium in Burlington? Headlines from VT media.
Water Cooler: schools seek cash awards for hitting vax goals
Vermont schools – including students – will be pushing hard to get holdout students vaccinated. The motivation is money.
Water Cooler: Burlington cops investigate machete threat / Castleton prez leaves / pets lost in Newport Center fire
A machete-wielding assailant is under investigation in Burlington. More turnover at Castleton University.
Water Cooler: Former Digger trust chair calls for anti-free speech laws / ventilators ‘bridge to nowhere’ / how George Aiken electrified Vermont
A respected Vermont pundit and former chair of the Vermont Journalism Trust – owner of VT Digger – says hate speech is out of control and must be made illegal.
Vermont Daily Water Cooler for Fri, Dec 03
Burlington school principals on leave in wake of inappropriate restraint charge. Where’s my unemployment check? And, a surgeon’s worst nightmare – the patient’s, too.










