Keeping your community covered. We're committed to producing high-quality, fact-based news and information that gives you the facts in this community we call home. If our work has helped you stay informed, take action, or feel more connected to Windham County – please give now to help us reach our goal of raising $150,000 by December 31st.
Keeping your community covered. We're committed to producing high-quality, fact-based news and information that gives you the facts in this community we call home. If our work has helped you stay informed, take action, or feel more connected to Windham County – please give now to help us reach our goal of raising $150,000 by December 31st.
Rescue Inc. Operations Chief Drew Hazelton has a succinct diagnosis for what ails Vermont's ambulance services.
“We're using a funding formula that predates our modern medicine,” the Brattleboro-based medic told the House Health Care Committee during a Feb. 19 hearing.
Federal regulators have announced that they're satisfied with security changes implemented since Vermont Yankee's shutdown. But it's not clear exactly what those changes are, and officials say that's by design. Radioactive material, including spent nuclear fuel, remains on site, and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission has expressed concern about publicly...
Six months after Vermont officials filed suit to stop a controversial use of Vermont Yankee's decommissioning trust fund, a federal court has dismissed the complaint on procedural grounds. The U.S. Court of Appeals District of Columbia Circuit, in an order dated Feb. 8, ruled that Vermont's legal complaint against...
In 2011, after five years of work, the Massachusetts Legislature approved a major overhaul of the state's alimony law. It did so without a single dissenting vote, “and it's very rare that happens,” said Steve Hitner, the man who led the effort. Now, a group led by Brattleboro businessman Rick Fleming is attempting to use that state's model to revamp the Vermont law that regulates - or, as the group contends, fails to regulate - the ways in which Vermonters...
Greater-than-anticipated amounts of groundwater-a total of 90,000 gallons so far-are encroaching into a key building at Vermont Yankee, and plant administrators are weighing options to deal with the contaminated liquid. Those options include shipping the water to an out-of-state storage facility. There also has been preliminary talk of releasing water that is within “allowable” pollution limits to the Connecticut River, though state officials say they've not yet received any such permitting requests from plant owner Entergy. The federal Nuclear Regulatory...
Town residents have spent months debating the pros and cons of hosting a natural gas-fired power plant, but the lack of a specific site has been a sticking point for many. At a public forum Feb. 3, a potential answer for that important question came not from the front of the room - where Vernon Planning Commission members sat - but instead from the back, where resident Art Miller announced that part of his family's dairy farm along Route 142...
Job-seekers who visit the Brattleboro Retreat's website are greeted by an announcement - in large font, highlighted in green - of a $4,000 hiring bonus for inpatient registered nurses willing to work evening and night shifts. Nevertheless, there are 19 nursing positions advertised on the site. “We have had a very difficult time hiring as many RNs as we need,” said Jeff Corrigan, the Retreat's human resources vice president. The Retreat is not alone among area health-care providers. That's why...
Federal regulators have given their blessing to Vermont Yankee's decommissioning plans. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) on Feb. 4 announced that the Vernon plant's Post-Shutdown Decommissioning Activities Report is consistent with federal guidelines. The report includes plant owner Entergy's decommissioning cost estimate and the company's schedule for Vermont Yankee's radiological cleanup. Before making any changes to its plans - including those that would “significantly” boost decommissioning costs - Entergy must notify the NRC in writing, officials wrote in a Jan.
