All State Music Festival
About 3,000 young musicians in more than 40 bands marched through Burlington last night to open the seventy-fifth Vermont All State Music Festival. Vermont Public Radio caught up with some of the musicians to get their impressions of the festival in this audio portrait. (VPR)
Governor, Senate Leaders at Odds
Governor Howard Dean is accusing Senate Democratic leaders of adopting a state budget for next year that is bloated and fiscally irresponsible. Senate President Pro Tempore Peter Shumlin says the governor has a lower bottom line because Dean is willing to abandon those Vermonters who need help the most. (VPR)
INS Increases Personnel
Vermont will receive more resources to patrol the border with Canada, according to the head of the Immigration and Naturalization Service. James Ziglar announced in Swanton Wednesday that Vermont would be assigned 20 new border patrol agents and 48 additional inspectors. (VPR)
Seatbelt Laws
Vermont law enforcement officials announced on Wednesday that they’ll be beefing up efforts to enforce the state’s seat belt law in the coming weeks. (VPR)
Hazen Teachers’ Strike Averted
Negotiators have reached agreement on a new contract for teachers at Hazen Union High School in Hardwick. The agreement came at 1:30 a.m., after 17 months of bargaining and only hours before teachers were to go on strike.
Agriculture Commissioner Responds to Critics
Vermont Agriculture Commissioner Leon Graves is lashing out at critics of large farms, saying they want to take agriculture back to the old days. Graves says he supports the proposal of one egg farm to add 135,000 more chickens to its flock. (AP)
Federal Farm Bill
President Bush is about to sign the farm bill, which will produce $9 million in retroactive price supports for Vermont dairy farmers. (AP)
Border Safety
The commissioner of the INS says the U.S.-Canadian border is safer now than it was before September 11. (AP)
Ryegate Paper Mill
Many Ryegate residents have said they don’t think the town should accept title and responsibility for an abandoned paper mill owned by Kimberly-Clark. (AP)
Federal Judges
The White House is criticizing Vermont Senator Patrick Leahy for keeping a slow pace of approving judicial nominees. Leahy chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee and says that his committee has approved more nominees than the Republican-controlled committee did during the last presidential administration. (AP)