Newscast: Thursday, March 21, 2013, 7:34 a.m.

About 85 percent of ninth graders in Vermont complete high school. But less than half of the state’s nineteen-year-olds are enrolled in college. The state is trying to improve that second statistic by allowing high school students to take free courses for college credit. The aim is to encourage them to seek more higher education. Fifty years after Vermont outlawed pay discrimination, the House has advanced a bill that would ensure equal pay for all employees by prohibiting discrimination based on sex. Governor Peter Shumlin and key lawmakers disagree about costs to renovate offices for the state Natural Resources Agency. The Senate has given preliminary approval to a bill that would prohibit employers from getting into the social media accounts of their staffs.