Interview: French guide to Montreal
Mitch Wertlieb talks with Middlebury professor Simon Barenbaum about the recent edition of “Vous Allez a Montreal?” a French-languarg guide to Quebec’s largest city. (Listen to the interview online.) (VPR)
New education commissioner
When the Vermont Board of Education chose Richard Cate as the new education commissioner, it chose a candidate with local roots. Cate is currently the deputy commissioner in New York State. (Listen to the story online or read the transcript.) (VPR)
Diversity conference
Community leaders and advocates met in Burlington Monday to discuss racial diversity and discrimination in Vermont. (Listen to the story online or read the transcript.) (VPR)
TLR mill cleanup
The cleanup is about to begin at a contaminated historic mill in Bellows Falls. The Environmental Protection Agency is in charge of the cleanup. (AP)
Stowe sewage smell
The town of Stowe is considering legal action over a bad odor wafting from its new sewage treatment plant. The $19 million plant went on line in the spring, but neighbors have been complaining ever since about bad smells. (AP)
Vermont Yankee offline
The Vermont Yankee nuclear plant was about to start up again Monday after a leaking valve forced it to shut down two days earlier, when another problem cropped up. Plant technicians discovered that one of two seals on a pump that circulates water through the reactor had failed. Plant officials say it’s not clear now how long Vermont Yankee will be out of service. (AP)
Dean campaign notes
Howard Dean is trying to get into the Guinness Book of World Records. Dean’s presidential campaign organized a fund-raising conference call Monday night that reportedly had more than 3,500 calls placed into it. Meanwhile, Oregon Secretary of State Bill Bradbury is giving up his role in Dean’s Oregon campaign to avoid any appearance of favoritism. Bradbury was co-chairman of Dean’s Oregon campaign. (AP)
Butter sale controversy
Vermont Senator Patrick Leahy is leading a group of lawmakers that is urging the federal government to halt a planned butter sale. The U.S. Agriculture Department is trying to decide what to do with eleven million pounds of butter that it has collected under the government’s price-support programs. The department wants to sell the butter, rather than give it away to charity. (AP)
Digital public television
Vermont Public Television is to receive more than $1.2 million toward an upgrade of the state’s first digital television station. The grant is the second in two years from the U.S. Department of Commerce to help fund VPT’s digital conversion. (AP)
Bantu refugees resettled
The city of Winooski held a party at City Hall Monday to welcome three families of Bantu refugees. The refugees are the first of up to 200 families expected to resettle in the Burlington area this year and next. They had to leave Somalia because of political problems. (AP)
Anti-drug funds
Two anti-drug groups in Washington County and one in Brattleboro will share $300,000 in new federal grant money. They money will be earmarked for programs aimed at keeping young people away from alcohol, tobacco and other drugs. (AP)
Police chase
A 20-year-old woman is being held on several charges after leading police on a six-mile car chase through Milton and Westford. Police say Diana Parrish, who is now living in Westford, is wanted on a charge in Virginia. She’s being held for lack of $5,000 bail at the South Burlington jail. (AP)
Arson suspects arrested
One of four suspects accused of setting fire to the Richford Recreation Center two years ago has pleaded no contest to arson. Twenty-four-year-old Daniel Jay Mason of Saint Albans was given a one-to-five-year sentence with six months to serve, plus probation. (AP)