Interview: Vermont’s History in Postcards
An exhibit on display this summer explores Vermont’s beauty and cultural history through postcards. “Whish You Were Here: Vermont Postcards” is on view through September 19 at UVM’s Fleming Museum in Burlington. Mitch Wertlieb talks with Alan Davis, whose book on the Vermont Postcards helped shape the exhibit. (VPR)
Backstage with the Gemini Twins’ Trapeze Show
You might not think of Brattleboro as a training ground for the trapeze. But the famous “Gemini Twins” have made this home and they coach other aerial artists in an old factory. This weekend, that training results in a show. (VPR)
Prison Commission Recommends Changes
A special commission on prison overcrowding is recommending that several hundred non-violent inmates be released from jail and placed under the control of a community-based corrections program. The report concludes that the state will have to build another major correctional facility if this and other steps are not adopted soon. (VPR)
Afghanistan Soldiers to Return Soon
Fifty members of the Vermont Army National Guard are expected to return from Afghanistan in early September. They were part of an infantry unit deployed a year ago to help train the Afghan Army. (VPR)
Median Income Increases Slightly
Vermont’s median household income is inching up and closing the gap slightly with the national average. That’s according to newly released data from the U.S. Census Bureau. (AP)
Shoreham Apple Co-op
group of investors has bought the warehouse and processing building that once housed the Shoreham Cooperative Apple Producers Association. The sale marks the end of the long history of the cooperative, whose membership has declined along with the orchard industry in the Champlain Valley. (AP)
Bank Robbery Suspect Caught
Police have caught up with a New Hampshire robbery suspect who led officers on a three-hour chase in Vermont and escaped while being treated at a hospital. (AP)
West Nile Virus
Two birds have tested positive for West Nile virus in Vermont. A hawk in Milton and a crow in Burlington were collected on August 6. (AP)
VermontDemocrats.com
Following news reports that VermontDemocrats.com was linked to the re-election Web site of President Bush, a Republican, the owner of the Web site has changed the format to include a link to the Kerry-Edwards campaign. Twenty-eight-year-old Jed Merrill of Park City, Utah, has been buying up domain names for various Democratic Party Web sites and linking them to President Bush’s re-election Web page. (AP)
School Diversity Program
A new program at Brattleboro Union High School aims to make students more aware about prejudice in the hallways and classrooms. Officials say the program – called a World of Difference represents a new focus on the issues of diversity and bias. (AP)
ATV Use in Jamaica
Officials in Jamaica are planning a town-wide meeting on a vehicle ordinance that has sparked some controversy. Select Board members agreed in July to pass an ordinance limiting, but not prohibiting, the use of all motorized vehicles on the town’s Class Four roads and legal trails. (AP)
Oak Tree May be Spared
The developer of a new Chili’s restaurant in Bennington has agreed to ask the company to save a 200-year-old oak tree at the site. That move comes after community members showed up to protest the removal of the tree last week. (AP)
Historic Bridge Renovation
An historic covered bridge in southern Vermont will be getting a face lift. The 164-year-old one-lane bridge is in the hamlet of Downers. The Upper Falls Covered Bridge will be restored with a $596,000 grant allocated by Senator Jim Jeffords. (AP)
Oldest Vermonter Turns 110
The oldest living Vermonter has celebrated another birthday. Carolyn Drew of Burlington has turned 110. Her friends and family treated her to a lobster lunch to celebrate the big day Thursday. (AP)
Goat Farmer Pleads Innocent
A goat farmer in Corinth has pleaded innocent to 15 counts of cruelty to animals. Sixty-four-year Chris Weathersbee had originally been cited on 44 counts of animal cruelty, but Orange County prosecutors reduced the number of charges at his arraignment this week. (AP)
Apartment Fire
A Sudanese family is starting over after their Burlington apartment was badly damaged in a fire earlier this week. The blaze destroyed the family’s possessions as well as their immigration papers. Amal Kori and her family are staying at the apartment of another Sudanese family in Burlington. Officials with the Vermont Refugee Resettlement Program are trying to find the family new housing. (AP)
Narcotics Theft
A Barre woman has been arraigned on charges that she stole medicine from a dying nursing home patient. Twenty-two-year-old Elizabeth Beddie allegedly stole patches containing a narcotic pain killer from a patient at a Berlin clinic earlier this month. She faces several charges that carry a maximum of seven years in prison. (AP)
Fell Death Penalty Case
Lawyers for a man charged with killing a North Clarendon woman want the U.S. Supreme Court to take up his fight against the death penalty. Donald Fell’s attorneys have filed a petition with the nation’s highest court as they seek to declare the death penalty unconstitutional for their client. (AP)