Vermont // Current TV

Two families sue over religion in classroom

The ACLU of Vermont has filed suit against the Irasburg School District and a 7th... more

TravG73
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3 years ago
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Bush & Cheney Are Wanted Men In Vermont!

Bush and Cheney can't go to Vermont or else they will be arrested for war crimes!

Future_America
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3 years ago
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74 comments

Get your symbols people!

Get your ticket aboard the Biavian mothership.

pete0312
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3 years ago
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Vermont first to legalize virtual companies

The state of Vermont is set to become the first in the nation to offer a legal... more

wendygoft
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3 years ago
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10 comments

Vermont Is the Healthiest State

Vermont has moved into the No. 1 position as the nation's healthiest state,... more

lukewarmenthusiasm
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3 years ago
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1 comment

Burlington, Vt., is healthiest city, CDC says

What's the healthiest city in America? It appears to be Burlington, Vt.... more

Crazyotto
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3 years ago
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2 comments

Quidditch Comes to Real Life (photos)

Photographs from the first Intercollegiate Quidditch Tournament, held at Middlebury... more

ebindelglass
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3 years ago
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2 comments

Vermont collects $205 million from insurer

The state of Vermont has received $205 million in a lawsuit against accounts for an... more

Apocalipstick
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3 years ago
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Students Against War in Iraq

"Our mission is to unite and empower the students of Vermont to stand up... more

lukewarmenthusiasm
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3 years ago
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20 comments

Vermont, Maine only states to let inmates vote

RUTLAND, Vt. – The prison inmates had to think for a moment when Missy Shea of the Vermont Secretary of State's office asked them to name the only crime that would prevent an incarcerated person from voting in the state.

"Murder," answered one of the men gathered in the library of the Marble Valley Regional Correctional Facility. Others guessed treason or domestic assault.

"You're all going to have really good answers, but you're not going to get it," Shea said during a voter registration session at the jail earlier this month. "Election fraud."

No one in Vermont can remember the last time anyone was convicted of election fraud, making it and Maine the only two states that allow all inmates to vote. Officials in both states say interest in voting in the presidential election is up among prisoners as Democrat Barack Obama and Republican John McCain campaign for the White House.

"We do have a fair number of prisoners who are doing it," said Jeffrey Merrill, warden at the maximum-security Maine State Prison in Warren.

One of the Marble Valley inmates who registered to vote and requested an absentee ballot — inmates in Vermont and Maine are residents of the towns where they resided at the time of their incarceration — was Elliot Russell, 31, of Bennington, who is serving an eight-month sentence for aggravated assault.

"A lot of guys feel, being in jail, we get treated beneath other people when in fact we can be treated as equals," Russell said. "I'm glad I get to vote now. You couldn't do it in New York, but I'm going to do it out here."

In Vermont, the position on voting rights is enshrined in the state's 1793 Constitution: "Any elector who shall receive any gift or reward for the elector's vote, in meat, drink, moneys or otherwise, shall forfeit the right to elect."

"Vermont has taken the position the more we can get folks in prison involved in the community in a responsible way, the better their chances of reintroducing them to the civilian world in a responsible way," Secretary of State Deb Markowitz said.

Nationally, states began restricting felons' rights to vote in the early years of the 19th century, said Alexander Keyssar, a Harvard University historian and author of "The Right to Vote: The Contested History of Democracy in the United States."

----more at link-----RUTLAND, Vt. – The prison inmates had to think for a moment when Missy Shea of... more

J_Jammer [removed]
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3 years ago
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State urges Vermonters to prepare for pandemic

COLCHESTER, Vt.—The Vermont Department of Health is urging residents to prepare... more

bedeboop
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3 years ago
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Ronnie 'the limo driver' Mund angry cursing soundboard

Its Ronnie the limo driver sound board. This guy can curse up a storm. He is very angy... more

pete0312
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3 years ago
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2 comments

Vermont inn-to-inn hikes - the way to go

Lincoln , Vt. -- The young female backpacker reached the top of Mount Abraham just as... more

starr111
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3 years ago
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1 comment

Leaf-peeping in Vermont: An expert's guide

An expert's guide for having a great time in the Green Mountain State

starr111
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3 years ago
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Micro Hydro Turbines and Systems – Rediscovering Water and Hydro Power

From the front, the old brick mill in Middlebury, Vt., looks like any of the other quaint buildings lining the town’s main street. But inside, through yawning gaps in a patchwork floor of long, narrow planks, the gray-green waters of Otter Creek can be seen churning toward a 23-ft. waterfall. Anchored to a stone bridge above the river, the building once had a mill wheel that drove wool-processing equipment; later, a penstock carried water to a turbine, generating electricity for the town’s streetlights.

For the past 42 years, the power of the river has gone untapped—the turbine is long since dismantled—and Middlebury’s electricity now comes from the grid. The only sign of the penstock, the pipe that funneled water to the powerhouse, is a crumbling concrete frame, and the sluice gate that controlled the river diversion is missing its metal plate. Local resident Anders Holm plans to change that.

An ear, nose and throat specialist who grew up in town, Holm was born a few years after the hydropower system was retired. His father purchased the mill in the 1980s and rented it out as commercial space. But changing times—particularly the events of Sept. 11, 2001—convinced Holm to reduce his dependence on foreign oil. He covered his home with solar panels. Then he and his brother, Erik, decided to restore both the mill and the hydropower.

“Our original plan was to make power for our own property,” Holm says. “We didn’t intend to sell it. But then we realized the enormous power potential and knew we had to do more.” Unlike the old system, the new one will take advantage of every inch of head—the water pressure exerted by gravity—and will use a modern 1-megawatt turbine. Under ideal conditions, it will generate enough electricity for about 1000 homes, or most of downtown Middlebury.

Of course, reviving aging infrastructure is no small task. Holm, who recently built a mahogany deck at his home using only hand tools, didn’t shy away from the challenge. Instead he took two months off from his surgical practice to work on the project full-time. His first task: Reduce the flow of the river under the building’s northwest corner to a mere gurgle so that the foundation could be repaired. From the front, the old brick mill in Middlebury, Vt., looks like any of the other... more

starr111
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3 years ago
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Vermont Candidate to prosecute Bush if elected

BURLINGTON, Vt. - Lots of political candidates make campaign promises. But not like... more

asherp
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3 years ago
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35 comments

Vermont candidate to prosecute Bush if she wins

BURLINGTON, Vt. - Lots of political candidates make campaign promises. But not like... more

brad62
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3 years ago
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3 comments

Free Vermont!

The movement to make Vermont it's own country. Vermont has a history of... more

lukewarmenthusiasm
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3 years ago
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29 comments

The American secessionist streak

In a recent poll, one in five agreed that states have the right to peacefully secede... more

Libertas
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3 years ago
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16 comments

Canadian Border No Longer Invisible in Vermont

The changes started coming slowly to this small town where the U.S. border with Canada runs across sleepy streets, through houses and families, and smack down the middle of the shared local library.

First was the white, painted lettering on the pavement on three little side streets - “Canada” on one side, “U.S.A.” on the other. Then came the white pylons denoting which side of the border was which. After that, signboards were erected on some streets, ordering drivers to turn back and use an officially designated entry point.

And along with the signposts came an influx of American Border Patrol agents, cruising through the town in their sport-utility vehicles with sirens, chasing down cars and mopeds that ignored the posted warnings.

For longtime residents accustomed to a simpler life that flowed freely across a largely invisible border, the final shock - and what made most people really take notice - was a proposal by the border agents last year to erect fences on the small streets to officially barricade Derby Line from Stanstead, Quebec, and neighbor from neighbor.

“They’re stirring up a little hate and discontent with that deal,” said Claire Currier, who grew up in this border area and works at Brown’s Drug Store, which has operated on the same spot since 1884. “We’ve all intermingled for years.”

For the Department of Homeland Security, the changes are part of a gradual fortification of America’s northern border that began shortly after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and has accelerated in recent years.

The hardening of the northern frontier is unsettling to many in the small towns along the border. For as long as most of these people can remember, the line between the United States and Canada has been little more than a historic curiosity, rather than the hard and fast demarcation that is America’s southern border.

Named the Secure Border Initiative, the project calls for more than tripling the number of agents along the northern border, adding boats and helicopters, and deploying sophisticated new technology including hundreds of millions of dollars in new communications equipment, radiation detectors and three different types of camera-mounted sensors in the uninhabited wooded areas.

“It was freer before, but we live in a different world now,” said agent Mark Henry, the operations officer at the Border Patrol’s Swanton Sector, headquartered in Swanton, Vt. The sector encompasses about 24,000 square miles, extending from the town of Champlain, in upstate New York, on the east all the way across to the border with Maine. The sector now has 250 agents, up from 180 three years ago, and the number is scheduled to reach 300 next year. In 2001, there were 340 agents along the entire border with Canada.

“9/11 changed everything,” said Border Patrol agent Fernando Beltran, the operations chief for Swanton Sector’s Newport station, which includes Derby Line. “This may have been Mayberry before, but it’s not anymore.”

Residents of this town of 776 understand the need for enhanced security. They also wistfully remember a time when neighbors easily crossed into another country to visit neighbors. People went to church and to school on either side of the line. Members of the same family lived on either side. Some streets, an old factory, the local library and opera house, and a few houses straddle the line.

“I have one brother - he’s American. He was born on the U.S. side. I was born on the Canadian side,” said Arthur Brewer, who is 76. “It was like there was no border.”

Townsfolk are concerned about practical issues with fences. The two sides share a water system, a sewer system and snow-removal services. For years, the fire departments of both sides have helped each other without regard to a border, and fences, they fear, might disrupt travel routes for emergency vehicles.The changes started coming slowly to this small town where the U.S. border with Canada... more

goldenways
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3 years ago
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