Interview: Downtown revitalization
Steve Delaney talks with Paul Bruhn about the challenges facing Vermont’s downtowns and village centers. Bruhn is executive director of the Preservation Trust of Vermont. (Listen to the interview online.) (VPR)
Sanders on Iraq
Congressman Bernie Sanders says he would support an international military action against Iraq if Saddam Hussein refuses to give United Nation weapons inspectors total access to that country. (Listen to the story online or read the transcript.) (VPR)
Libertarian Party
Officials of the Vermont Libertarian Party are calling for a significant reduction in state government services in order to lower tax burdens across the state. (VPR)
Death penalty law unconstitutional
The federal judge for Vermont says the federal death penalty law is unconstitutional. The ruling came in the case of a man accused of killing a Clarendon woman two years ago. (Listen to the story online or read the transcript.) (VPR)
Leahy urges death penalty reform
Senator Patrick Leahy is urging members of the House Judiciary Committee to take up his death penalty reform bill before Congress adjourns for the year. (VPR)
Ritter in Vermont
The former chief weapons inspector for the United Nations Special Commission in Iraq told Vermont audiences this week that the United States has no proof that Saddam Hussein has weapons of mass destruction. Scott Ritter says military action against Iraq should come only after inspection of the country’s weapons facilities and only if authorized by the U.N. Security Council. (Listen to the story online or read the transcript.) (VPR)
Pollina on economic growth
Anthony Pollina, the Progressive Party’s candidate for lieutenant governor, says he has a low-cost plan for the state to help Vermont businesses. On Tuesday Pollina announced an economic development effort that he says could jump start the struggling economy. (VPR)
Out-of-state inmates
It’s getting cheaper to send Vermont inmates to prison out of state. The Department of Corrections will continue to send about 400 inmates to prisons in Virginia. But it will cost $750,000 less. The contract was put out to bid and Virginia offered to charge less. (AP)
Reduced and free lunch programs
Vermont officials are concerned that not enough children are taking advantage of school lunch programs. They say that children need to be well fed to succeed in school. But as many as six-thousand children who are eligible for reduced price meals at their schools are not taking advantage of the federally funded service. (AP)
Kozlowski steps down
The former executive accused of stealing $600 million from his company has resigned his seat on the Middlebury College Board of Trustees. College officials say Dennis Kozlowski, former CEO of Tyco International, resigned his seat as a Middlebury trustee effective last Friday. College spokesman Phil Benoit says the college doesn’t expect it will have to return any of the millions of dollars in donations made by Kozlowski or Tyco. (AP)
Woodward friends’ report
Friends of Robert Woodward have released a new report further criticizing the investigation into his shooting death by Brattleboro police. The group Justice for Woody has been fighting the state’s exoneration of the police since the incident last December. Woodward was shot after he disrupted a Unitarian-Universalist church service. (AP)
Amazon settlement
Vermont is among a group of states that has won an agreement with Amazon.com designed to protect the privacy of customers. The Internet bookseller will provide more protection for consumer personal information and won’t sell its database to marketers. (AP)
Army deserter
A New Hampshire man is in custody in Vermont after being identified as a military deserter. Hartford police say Steven Studebaker of Canaan, New Hampshire, was picked up early yesterday after several traffic violations. Police say a computer check found that Studebaker was wanted for deserting the Army 16 months ago. (AP)
Dean on Iraqi policy
Vermont Governor Howard Dean says there’s a hefty dose of midterm election politics driving President Bush’s increased focus on Iraq. Democrat Dean says he thinks the focus on Iraq is to deflect attention from the economy and health care. (AP)