Nobel Peace Prize winner has strong ties to Vermont
The winner of the 2004 Nobel Peace Prize is a trustee of Brattleboro’s School for International Training. Wangari Maathai, the Kenyan environmentalist and women’s rights activist, has visited Brattleboro a number of times. (VPR)
UVM Extension Service cuts
Some apple and grape growers are concerned about cuts at the University of Vermont Extension Service. The service is eliminating six jobs next June. One is held by Doctor Elena Garcia, a tree fruit specialist who is the only extension employee with expertise in grape horticulture. (AP)
UVM facilities renovation
The University of Vermont is planning a $10.4 million renovation of its environment and natural resources school. UVM picked William Maclay Architects and Planners of Waitsfield to design the project. (AP)
College president inaugurated
Middlebury College has inaugurated its new president. Ronald Liebowitz is the college’s sixteenth leader. He replaces John McCardell, who retired as president in June after 12 years as the college’s president. (AP)
Scarce monarch butterflies
Experts say few migrating monarch butterflies are being spotted in Vermont this year. A conservation biologist at the Vermont Institute of Natural Science says this is probably the worst year in a decade for spotting the butterflies. Experts say a wet summer and cool temperatures in the Northeast may have killed many caterpillars. (AP)
Award for work on childhood hunger
The leaders of a group that helps fight hunger among Vermont children has won a national award. Robert Dostis is executive director of the Vermont Campaign to End Childhood Hunger and Joanne Heidkamp is program director. They’re also collecting $115,000 from a coalition headed by the Ford Foundation. The money will be used to continue their work. (AP)
Winter strains needy families
Agencies that help Vermonters in need are bracing for a winter of high energy costs and more requests for help. Food banks, fuel assistance programs, community aid organizations and charities are facing level or lessened federal funding and increasing energy costs. (AP)
Salvation Army donations down
The Salvation Army in Barre is hoping that it will be able to meet its needs. Financial donations are down 40 percent this year. Executive Director Captain Louis Patrick says the shaky economy and the loss of a collection sites has decreased contributions this year. (AP)
Cemetery vandalism
A Vermont teenager is the fourth suspect arrested in the vandalism at a cemetery in Connecticut that caused more than $100,000 in damages. Seventeen-year-old Bryan Tucker of Castleton has been charged with 131 counts of interference with cemetery or burial ground and with second degree criminal mischief. (AP)
Brochu murder trial
The trial continues today in the Tara Stratton murder case. Defense lawyers for 52-year-old Alfred Brochu were denied a request on Friday to have the jury sequestered for the remainder of the trial. Brochu is accused of stabbing and mutilating Stratton in her Barre apartment in January 2003. (AP)
Teen prostitution ring investigation
New York City police are investigating a man to determine whether he is linked to the 2001 slaying of a Vermont runaway. The man, Woodolph Romeo of Nassau County, New York, is charged with forcing two underage girls into prostitution. The Vermont runaway, 16-year-old Christal Jones, was lured to New York City in 2001 for prostitution. (AP)