Interview: Banknorth
Steve Delaney talks with William Ryan, president of Banknorth Group, Inc. Banknorth is listing on the New York Stock Exchange Monday. (Listen to the interview online.) (VPR)
Negative campaign ads
The candidates running for statewide office spend hundreds of thousand of dollars in their quest to win an election. Much of the money goes toward advertising. As the election draws near, campaign ads become more hard hitting. (Listen to the story online or read the transcript.) (VPR)
“Get out the vote” campaigns
With just a day to go before tomorrow’s election, both the Democratic and Republican parties have squads of volunteers making calls and urging their supporters to get to the polls for the Tuesday General Election. (AP)
Burlington Free Press poll results
A new poll finds Democrat Doug Racine widening his lead a bit over Republican James Douglas in the race for governor of Vermont. The Burlington Free Press poll finds Racine at 46%, Douglas at 36%, independent Con Hogan with 9%, 1% supporting other candidates and 8% undecided. The same poll finds the Republican and Democratic candidates for lieutenant governor running about even, with Progressive Anthony Pollina a bit behind and 11% undecided. (AP)
NH Senate race
Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani is in New Hampshire Monday to endorse Republican Representative John Sununu, who is in a close U.S. Senate race with Democratic Governor Jeanne Shaheen. Mayor Giuliani will drum up votes for Sununu at Nashua City Hall at 5:00 p.m. Monday. (AP)
Harriman Reservoir
Voters in Wilmington will be asked yet again Tuesday to vote on a measure that would outlaw skinny-dipping at a popular swimming hole in town. At issue is the Ledges, a strip of beach along Harriman Reservoir that has been a nude bathing spot for years. Some people who live nearby have complained about the spot, saying they’ve seen lewd behavior there. (AP)
National Guard deployment
Thirty-five members of the Vermont National Guard are gearing up for a six-month stint as peacekeepers in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Members of the Guard’s 86th Air Ambulance Company have been getting training within Vermont in recent weeks, and will get additional training in Kansas. (AP)
Potash Brook agreement
Vermont and South Burlington officials have joined developers in an agreement they hope will reduce the polluted stormwater flowing into a brook that feeds Lake Champlain. The pact calls for new stormwater treatment systems and repairs to eroding stream banks along Potash Brook in an area of heavy commercial development at the junction of U.S. Route 7 and Interstate 189. (AP)
Citizens naturalized
Vermont is due to get its largest-ever batch of new citizens Monday. The U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service has scheduled a naturalization ceremony for 77 people. The event is set for 2:00 p.m. at the Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 782 on South Winooski Avenue in Burlington. (AP)
Missing teen
Police in Brandon are seeking information on a 14-year-old girl who has been missing from home for a week. Vicky Walton was last seen at home on October 26, though her mother says she may have been seen in Rutland on October 30. (AP)
Boy Scout leader arrested
A Rhode Island Boy Scout leader has been convicted of marijuana charges after he was stopped while trying to enter Canada through Highgate with some of his young troops. Forty-one-year-old Gerard Downing of Middletown, Rhode Island, pleaded guilty last week in Vermont District Court in Saint Albans to marijuana possession. (AP)
Mt. Washington severe weather
The Mount Washington observatory in New Hampshire recorded below zero temperatures during the weekend. The top of the mountain has 12 inches of snow and ice and experienced wind gusts as high as 95 miles an hour. (AP)