VPR News

Scientists are trying to unlock some of the secrets of spider silk by sequencing the genetic code of the spiders themselves. One new study is led by the University of Vermont and the University of Pennsylvania.

Despite several years of trying, some Vermont school districts haven't been able to come up with merger plans under Act 46, the state's school district consolidation law.

In south-central Vermont, especially around Rutland, a severe windstorm swept through last Friday, knocking down trees and leaving many without electricity.

Before we moved to Vermont, we lived in a wooded area north of New York City. Behind our tiny plot, some hundred acres of undeveloped land stretched away. We made it ours by walking in it, eating its berries and building tepee houses with fallen branches.

An impasse over the issue of teacher health plans continues to thwart a budget compromise between Democratic lawmakers and Republican Gov. Phil Scott, but both sides are back at the bargaining table this week.

Richard Nixon has long been regarded as the Dracula of American politics: regularly re-appearing no matter how often his political obituary had been written. And, apparently, here he is again: this time thinly disguised as President Donald Trump, whose recent firing of FBI Director James Comey has been compared to the 1973 Watergate Saturday Night Massacre when Nixon fired special prosecutor Archibald Cox and in the process forced the resignations of his Attorney General and Deputy Attorney

President Trump's firing of FBI Director James Comey on Tuesday night has provoked strong responses, including from members of the U.S. Senate . Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders says he's troubled by the firing and wants an independent prosecutor to investigate Trump's ties to Russia.

Nokian Tyres recently announced plans to build a plant in Tennessee, but Tommi Heinonen – head of Nokian Tyres North America – says there are no plans at the moment to move the company's North American headquarters out of Vermont.

When President Trump suggested that Andrew Jackson might have prevented the Civil War, critics quickly noted that Jackson died sixteen years before the war; calling this yet another example of Mr. Trump’s loose interpretation of American history. What’s more interesting, though, is why the president is so taken with Jackson.

Vermont lawmakers are hoping to end the legislative session by the end of this week, but there are some big issues still being debated.

There’s an interesting debate happening here in Vermont and elsewhere on what the label “Organic” actually means. Hydroponic growers want to mark their produce organic if they don’t use pesticides or unwanted chemicals in their process. Traditional organic farmers have pushed back, claiming that only produce grown in soil deserves the highly valued organic label.

Once a year, for about 10 days from mid-April through early May, nature offers a free show that provides viewers the chance to "oooh" and "aaah." It's the steelhead rainbow trout run, when the fish hurtle up the falls to get upstream to spawn.

Is it ever against the law for something to be ugly? If you don't like a building going up next to your house, do you have any power to stop it? We're talking about what rights individuals, communities and regions have to control the appearance of a changing landscape - and who gets to decide what passes muster.

A late-session budget proposal from Republican Gov. Phil Scott has Democratic lawmakers suddenly contemplating new ways to book savings in the public education system.

Sen. Patrick Leahy says a new budget agreement in Congress will preserve funding for many important Vermont programs for the rest of the federal fiscal year.