Interview with Guy MacMillan
Sometime this spring, C & S Wholesale Grocers of Brattleboro will decide whether to move its headquarters operation across the Connecticut River to Keene, New Hampshire. Brattleboro is trying hard to keep the 400 or more jobs in town, and Keene is trying to attract them. (Read the transcript or listen to the story online.) (VPR)
Interview with Bill McGrath
On the Vermont side of the Connecticut River, Bill McGrath is in the center of the effort to keep the C & S Wholesale Grocers headquartered in Vermont. McGrath is the executive director of the Brattleboro Development Credit Corporation. (Read the transcript or listen to the story online.) (VPR)
Pollina Candidacy
Progressive Anthony Pollina will announce later this week that he will be a candidate for lieutenant governor this year. Pollina says he is very disappointed that the Vermont Democratic Party is trying to make his candidacy ineligible for public campaign funding. (VPR)
Williston Passes 1% Sales Tax
The business of every town meeting includes taxes and budgets. But in Williston, a new tax issue took center stage Monday night as voters overwhelmingly approved a 1% retail sales tax. (VPR)
Goshen Town Meeting
Today is the traditional day for Vermont’s town meeting. But voters in many communities got down to business on Monday night. The small Addison County town of Goshen was one of them. (VPR)
Brandon Town Meeting
Residents of Brandon will have a chance to vote Tuesday on a controversial one-million dollar bond proposal. The bond would pay for the construction of a new downtown municipal office building as well as the renovation of an existing building for a new police station. (VPR)
School Budgets Uncertain
There is a sense of uncertainty about the fate of school budgets this year. Some communities are seeing increases in their school budgets. Even districts with small budget increases are seeing large increases in their tax rates. (AP)
Legislature Recesses
Vermont lawmakers won’t be in Montpelier this week. They’re taking their traditional recess so they can attend Town Meeting Day in their home districts. A few communities already have held their town meetings but the vast majority will meet on Tuesday. (AP)
Water Shortages Likely
It’s going to take more than last weekend’s rain to pull Vermont out of its yearlong drought. The state climatologist says that it will take months of steady precipitation to bring the state back to normal levels. (AP)
OMYA Appeals in Federal Court
A Vermont company has taken its appeal of an Act 250 land-use permit to a federal appeals court. OMYA Incorporated argues that Vermont is improperly restricting truck traffic on U.S. Route Seven. (AP)
Dartmouth Murder Case
Prosecutors say the two Vermont teens accused in the Dartmouth murder case were trying to steal enough money to escape to Australia. Prosecutors also say the teens intended to kill any witnesses to their crime. (AP)
NH Campaign Mud Slinging
An unidentified advisor on Senator Bob Smith ‘s campaign team accused rival candidate John Sununu of being anti-Israel and soft on terrorism. A story in the New Republic quoted an identified Smith advisor of linking Sununu’s stances on terrorism to his ethnic background. Sununu, who is of Lebanese and Palestinian dissent, says the charge that his voting record is "anti-Israel" is baseless. The Smith campaign denies making the charges. Smith and Sununu are vying for the Republican nomination in New Hampshire’s U.S. Senate race. (AP)
Chip Contract for IBM
IBM says it has landed a $100 million contract to make chips in Essex for a California company. The two-year deal will not increase the number of jobs at the Essex chip-making plant. (AP)
PSB Approves Yankee Sale
The Public Service Board, after asking for a re-examination of the proposed Vermont Yankee nuclear plant sale, is now on record approving the deal. (AP)
Fletcher Allen Psychiatric Unit
Hearings are to be held on whether Fletcher Allen Health Care should move its psychiatric unit off the main campus to Colchester. Critics of the plan say psychiatric patients need to remain in close proximity to full hospital services. (AP)
$1,300 Found in Backyard
A woman cleaning winter debris out of her backyard found $1,300 in cash. Diance McCarthy turned over the money to Burlington Police, who linked it to a funds stolen from the Colchester High School Boosters’ Club. Police returned the money to the club. (AP)
Bennington Rail
There’s not much chance of a new passenger train between New York and Bennington, according to the House Transportation Committee chairman. Representative Richard Pembroke encouraged the town of Manchester to work on zoning amendments to permit a rail, so that the project will move quickly if funding becomes available in the future. (AP)
Shaftsbury Town Meeting
Voters in Shaftsbury have rejected the town budget, 214 to 70. A local citizen committee organized the “no” vote so they could negotiate spending cuts with the newly elected Select Board. (AP)