VPR News

VTDigger's recent examination of Burlington property ownership found that the majority of property in Vermont's largest city is owned by a small number of nonprofits and individuals.

Esai’s Table is a new play about the lives of three young, black men that’s just had its world premiere in Vermont. JAG Productions of White River Junction undertook this debut, in partnership with the historic Cherry Lane Theatre in New York, where the production’s next stop will be this coming March.

Marlboro College announced Wednesday it plans to close its southern Vermont campus this spring. The school says it is striking a deal with Emerson College, in Boston. In exchange for Marlboro's $30 million endowment and $10 million in real estate holdings, Emerson plans to take on Marlboro's current students and its tenured and tenure-track faculty.

In a popular scene from the Netflix series Our Planet , in the “Jungles” episode, a jay-sized bird called the western parotia performs a courting dance in the forests of New Guinea. He bows, shows off fancy footwork, spins and flashes his iridescent yellow throat patch to a potential partner. And watching all this from behind the camera was Northeast Kingdom resident and wildlife cinematographer Matt Aeberhard.

Attorney General TJ Donovan is advising Vermont towns to consider being part of a national lawsuit that seeks to make drug companies liable for creating an epidemic of opioid addiction.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture last week released a new set of interim rules for how hemp plants will be regulated under federal law. The rules come roughly a year after the 2018 Farm Bill allowed for commerical hemp cultivation. Vermont and other states already have a budding hemp industry. We'll hear how state regulators are making sense of — and offering feedback on — the new federal regulations.

Legal services and representation can be difficult to obtain for people with low incomes. A new study asserts that helping Vermonters get access to these services actually makes a big, positive difference for the state's economy.

Vermonters pride themselves on their connection to the land, but sometimes how one person values the natural world clashes with another's belief. Such a tension has been playing out in Huntington, a small valley town in Chittenden County where one dairy farmer has been accused of needlessly killing bears. The farmer, however, said if he didn't, his entire business could have been in trouble.

A New Hampshire boarding school has signed a $4.9 million deal to buy the former Southern Vermont College campus in Bennington. The Oliverian School describes itself as "a non-profit, alternative, college-prep boarding school for adolescents who have not thrived in traditional settings."

According to the Vermont Department of Labor, 29% of the state's labor force is 55 and older — that's up from 18% in 2004. We hear a lot about Vermont's aging population, and on this Vermont Edition we'll explore why mature Vermonters are a growing percentage of the labor force.

Last week brought the first early decision deadlines for high school seniors applying to college — and also a lot of potential questions: Just what is early decision and how does it differ from early action? Have college admissions changed since the "Varsity Blues" scandal broke earlier this year? How do college admissions officers view Vermont's new proficiency-based grading systems? What are the admissions options at Vermont colleges and universities?

Many of the Democratic presidential candidates are spending a lot of time in the early primary states — Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada, South Carolina — but the awarding of delegates in the primary and caucus states could be significantly affected by what's known as "the 15% rule."

The number of people who grew hemp in Vermont this year more than doubled, and with a steep increase like that, there have been some growing pains among farmers and processors.

One month after suffering a heart attack, Sen. Bernie Sanders kept up a brisk campaign schedule in Iowa over the weekend, and tried to ease voters' concerns about his health. Sanders' campaign swing followed the release of a New York Times/Siena College poll on Friday, showing him in second place in the Democratic presidential race in Iowa, three points behind Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts. Sanders has a strong base of support in the state, but his physical condition and electability

Participating in the Iowa caucus can be more complicated than casting a ballot . So at Iowa State University on Wednesday night, about 20 students staged a mock caucus to practice the process. The names of each Democratic candidate were taped to chairs set up around a room in the student union. Students were instructed to huddle around the chair of their preferred candidate and make a brief pitch.