Students’ outdoor expedition
A group of high school students is nearing the end of a semester-long outdoor adventure. This past winter the students skied the length of Vermont. They’ve just finished the return-leg of the trip: paddling in a hand-made canoe down the Connecticut River. (VPR)
Dean comments on Tenet
Howard Dean says CIA Director George Tenet’s resignation was long overdue; Tenet resigned Thursday. But Dean, a former presidential candidate, says Tenet was “taking the fall” for others in doing so. Dean said Saturday that Tenet has been “covering for President Bush for about a year.” (AP)
Navy training site in Puerto Rico
Howard Dean says the United States should clean up a former Navy bombing site on Vieques, an island in Puerto Rico. Dean visited the site over the weekend. Residents of Vieques say the U.S. Navy’s bombing range left contaminants that have caused several health problems, including a high incidence of cancer. (AP)
Daley change of plea hearing
A New Hampshire man accused of killing a Vermont State Police trooper with his car last year is due in court Monday for a change of plea hearing. Eric Daley, of Lebanon, New Hampshire, had pleaded innocent to second-degree murder charges. (AP)
Edgar Whitney arraignment Monday
A Johnson man who confessed to killing his wife is due to be arraigned today. The Lamoille County Sheriff’s Department says Edgar Whitney told officials last week that he strangled his wife, 35-year-old Jodie Whitney. He had reported her missing May 27 after she failed to show up for work at the Stoweflake Resort in Stowe. (AP)
Bennington middle school sold
A Massachusetts company will pay up to $300,000 to buy Bennington’s Mount Anthony Union Middle School and convert it to senior housing. The town is replacing the school with a new $20 million school building. (AP)
School bus costs
A mother in Sutton is petitioning to have school officials provide bus transportation to students in her town. Margaret Ball has two young children at Sutton Elementary School. Voters in Sutton, a small town in the Northeast Kingdom, did away with busing five years ago to save money. (AP)
UVM systems upgrade
The University of Vermont is giving its purchasing, accounting and other systems an upgrade. The university is replacing its decades-old financial reporting and personnel systems with an Internet-based program. The switch is slated to cost $26 million. (AP)
VINS education center
The Vermont Institute of Natural Science is opening the first phase of its new education center this week in Quechee. VINS has been based in Woodstock for the last 30 years. But it’s moving its headquarters to a new site in Quechee along the Ottauquechee River. (AP)
Stonebridge Inn renovation
Workers at the Stonebridge Inn in Poultney are bringing the historic building back to life, eight years after it was gutted by fire. With a price tag of about $790,000, the restoration project will allow the former inn to house several community organizations and a visitor’s center. (AP)
Windsor war memorial
A war memorial in Windsor is one step closer to becoming a reality. A $10,000 appropriation from the town’s War Memorial Committee will be used as a down payment to inscribe more than 1,700 veterans’ names on four granite boulders. (AP)
Cambodian farmers delegation
A delegation of Cambodian farm and economic development officials is getting some advice from Vermont’s farmers. The group is touring the state’s farms seeking lessons in marketing and cultivating organic crops. Over the weekend the delegation visited the Walker Farm in East Dummerston. (AP)
Strolling of the Heifers
Thousands of people turned out in Brattleboro Saturday to watch the town’s third annual Strolling of the Heifers parade. About 100 cows, heifers and young calves decorated with wreaths of flowers were led up Brattleboro’s Main Street by farmers and 4-H kids from Vermont, New Hampshire and Massachusetts. (AP)
Balloon causes power outage
About 200 households lost their power yesterday morning in Colchester after an early-morning hot-air balloon mishap. The balloon came in contact with some power lines at about eight o-clock in the morning — and Green Mountain Power turned off the power to prevent injuries. The mishap took place after pilot Steve Goodyear of West Kingston, Rhode Island, landed in a hayfield with four passengers. (AP)