VPR News

According to local lore, ocean researcher and SCUBA inventor Jacques Cousteau got his start diving in the Northeast Kingdom town of Barnet in 1920. And now, researchers are exploring that same lake bottom to learn more about the role aquatic plants play in lake health.

Economists are starting to warn that the United States may slide into recession sometime in 2020 or 2021. Few got through the 2008 recession unscathed — so as politicians and economists start to ramp up speculation about what the next recession might look like, where's the line between smart planning and panic?

The state advocate for utility ratepayers has called for an investigation into Green Mountain Power’s plans to expand its home energy storage program. Vermont's Department of Public Service wants to know if all customers benefit.

If you're looking for a Vermont-made beverage to quench your thirst, you could drown in options: craft beer, locally-distilled spirits and even Vermont-made sodas. You can increasingly add craft cider to the mix. We're talking about all things hard cider and the growing popularity of the centuries-old drink.

Last week, kids zipped up their backpacks, got on buses and headed back to school. For many school districts around the state, it's time to start thinking again about ongoing school district mergers under Act 46. For some districts, consolidation is underway and will likely result in a school closure in the coming years.

So much attention is focused on Lakes Champlain and Memphremagog - with good reason - that it's easy to forget that Vermont has more than 800 other lakes and ponds. Each with its own charms and challenges. Vermont Edition focuses on these oft-overlooked bodies of water in the state.

Voters in Hartford will decide whether they want their town to flout federal law when they weigh in on a Town Meeting Day ballot item that would impose new restrictions on communication between local police and federal immigration authorities.

The Johnson campus of Northern Vermont University has partnered with the New York-based JED Foundation , which works with high schools and colleges to destigmatize mental health issues, address substance use and prevent suicide.

Back in the day communities all over Vermont had their own town dump, basically holes in the ground where people could just get rid of whatever garbage they were able to haul over. But the politics and the economics of solid waste have changed — and Vermont's last unlined landfill, in Salisbury, closed on Sept. 1.

Organic dairy farmers in Vermont say inconsistent enforcement of industry standards have allowed large-scale producers to market milk that is not truly organic. The farmers are asking Congress for help to close regulatory loopholes they say have given some large farms an unfair advantage in the market.

A Vermont inmate was found dead just after 1 a.m. Monday at a private prison in Mississippi. Vermont Commissioner of Corrections Mike Touchette said 39-year-old Christopher Chase apparently died by suicide.

Shoshana Bass first appeared on stage with her parents during the second act of the Bertolt Brecht play The Caucasian Chalk Circle when she was only nine years old. Since then she's toured the world with Sandglass Theater , the puppet and theater company in Putney that was founded by her parents, Eric Bass and Ines Zeller Bass.

It was the bloodiest battle of the American Civil War. But the 1863 Battle of Gettysburg proved to be both the turning point of the war, and a battle in which Vermont soldiers played a pivotal role. We're listening back to a conversation which first aired in 2017 with historian Howard Coffin about the role of Vermonters at Gettysburg and other battles in the Civil War.

An influx of child welfare cases in Vermont has the Scott administration looking for new ways to resolve allegations of child neglect.

Vermont is now among 34 states that may at some point see a Blue Alert. Similar to the Amber Alert network which rapidly publicizes a missing children, Blue Alerts are triggered when a broad group of law enforcement officers — from police to judges to Corrections officers — are injured or killed in the line of duty, and a suspect remains at large or a danger to the community.