The Home Front, Part 2: Recovering from wounds
For the first time in a long time, death or injury in combat is a very real prospect for members of the Vermont National Guard. For the families of these guard members the war has become a very personal matter. VPR’s Steve Zind has one story of a soldier’s effort to recover from his wounds and the effect on his family. (VPR)
Vermont’s electoral votes officially cast for Kerry
Vermont’s three members of the Electoral College cast their votes for Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry at a special Statehouse ceremony on Monday. After formally recording their votes, the group called for the abolition of the Electoral College. (VPR)
Federal grant encourages employee-owned businesses
Representatives of worker-owned businesses lined up with Congressman Bernie Sanders on Monday to promote employee ownership. Sanders’ office recently secured a $97,000 grant to help workers buy their companies through cooperatives or employee stock ownership plans. (VPR)
Officials warn of carbon monoxide poisoning
Fire officials are warning Vermonters about the dangers of carbon monoxide after a Hartford man died this weekend inside his home. (VPR)
Lamp to remain on display, out of governor’s office
A lamp that’s a statue of a slave will stay on public display in the Vermont Statehouse, but not on the Statehouse office desk of Governor Jim Douglas. The lamp is a replica of a nineteenth century sculpture of a nude woman about to be sold into slavery. It was a symbol of American abolitionists before the Civil War. (AP)
Campaign accounts
Democrat Peter Clavelle’s campaign for governor ended in debt while Governor Jim Douglas has money remaining. According to the final campaign finance reports, Clavelle raised a total of $530,000, spent $502,000 and reported unpaid bills of more than $30,000. (AP)
Vermont Yankee alert system
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission will consider a nuclear watchdog group’s complaints about Vermont Yankee’s emergency alert system. The New England Coalition got that word on Monday from the NRC after it complained that emergency alert radios in the area around the plant don’t work reliably. (AP)
Bombardier shake-up
Montreal-based Bombardier, the world’s third-largest aircraft manufacturer and biggest rail equipment maker, has fired its chief executive officer. Monday’s immediate dismissal of Paul Tellier is a move that analysts say increases investor uncertainty over the company’s direction. Bombardier is shuffling its top management responsibilities amid deepening problems in both its railway and airliner divisions. Executive chairman Laurent Beaudoin will take the CEO title and a head a new office of the president. (AP)
CVU scraps mascot
The Champlain Valley Union High School Board has voted to scrap the Crusader school mascot by next fall. The vote came after about 30 minutes of debate among community members over whether the mascot was a noble symbol or represented religious violence of a long past era. Debate among students and some community members in the five-town district that sends students to CVU follows similar upset over Brattleboro’s Colonels and Danville’s Indians. (AP)
Green Mountain Racetrack
The Green Mountain Race Track in Pownal has been sold. A group of investors has purchased the track for one million dollars. Progressive Partners Limited of Shaftsbury intends to create a mixed-use development on the 140-acre property. (AP)
Milton fire
A fast-moving fire destroyed a Milton home as frustrated firefighters scrambled to try to find water to put it out. Milton police, fire and rescue officials responded to 358 Bear Trap Road early Monday afternoon. There are no hydrants on the winding rural road, and a pond in front of the home was frozen. (AP)
Car crash fatality
A 29-year-old Cabot man whose car went into a lake after an accident in Woodbury has died at the hospital in Burlington. Vermont State Police say Anthony Patch’s Toyota pickup truck collided with a Dodge driven by Jeff Perry, also 29. Patch’s vehicle went into the lake and he was trapped inside for about 30 minutes. (AP)
Vernon homicide grand jury
Neighbors, police and a medical examiner have been called to testify before a grand jury that will decide whether to issue an indictment in the shooting death of a Vernon man last month. The grand jury is to decide whether charges should be brought in the shooting death of 52-year-old James Kellom of Vernon in the driveway of his neighbor’s home on November 7. (AP)