Vermont Edition

Your brain needs fructose and glucose. But your body can really do without the high fructose corn syrup or sucrose. And all those other added sugars hiding in processed foods and sweetened drinks.

On August 28, 2011, Tropical Storm Irene brought torrential rain and historic flooding to Vermont. The storm stranded thousands behind washed out roads, destroyed dozens of homes, and changed the landscape of Vermont.

The 2016 Champlain Valley Fair begins on Friday, Aug. 26, so join Vermont Edition in revisiting our trip to the fair from last summer. In late August 2015, VPR spent a day at the Champlain Valley Fair in Essex Junction and then shared the stories we captured in early September.

During the next few weeks, we'll be sharing a few memorable past Vermont Edition segments. We invite you to listen again to an interview with the members of the slam poetry group "Muslim Girls Making Change," as well as to a discussion about the ukulele. Plus, a new conversation about an old painting in St. Johnsbury that will soon undergo major repairs.

With a tricky job market and college tuition at daunting levels, career and technical education - once called vocational education - may be looking more and more appealing to today's students.

The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) became law in 1990. It ensured that people with disabilities had the same rights and opportunities as all Americans.

What has this summer looked like so far in terms algae blooms and the health of Lake Champlain? We're getting an update on the latest on the lake: the science of algae blooms and the state of the state's clean-up plan.

All that planting you did once the winter ended was invigorating. You dug, hoed and sowed, putting in vegetables, herbs, flowers, shrubs, and trees.

The statewide races for the general election are now set, and there are open races for governor and lieutenant governor. We're hosting a reporter’s roundtable to look at the key factors that could influence these races. We’ll talk about the candidates and the issues in all the major contests this fall.

The family that owns the Rutland Herald announced late last night that it's selling the Herald and the Barre-Montpelier Times Argus to a company based in Maine that owns several newspapers and news web sites there. The announcement followed speculation about the papers' future after reports of financial problems surfaced last week.

This primary campaign always promised to be wild and wide open with the governor's and lieutenant governor's offices up from grabs. It drew three candidates in both of the Democrat's primaries for top seats and two in the Republican gubernatorial race.

As debate continues over Syrian refugees resettling in Rutland, we're taking a look at the history of immigration into Vermont. We'll look at waves of immigration into the state throughout the past centuries, and how the pre-existing population has received new Vermonters: Irish, French Canadians, Jews, and more. And we'll talk about how immigration is tied to internal debates about our identity as a state.

"The exercise started out with the plague," says Chris Herrick, Vermont director of the Division of Emergency Management & Homeland Security, "then we had earthquakes." Herrick is describing the limit-testing scenarios that Vermont emergency responders managed during a massive 10-day drill that just concluded.

Low voter turnout aside, Tuesday's primary election will be very important. Vermonters will decide on who will be on the ballot in November when a new governor and lieutenant governor are elected.

Three Democrats are in the running for their party's nomination for governor: Matt Dunne, Peter Galbraith and Sue Minter. They face off in a live debate Thursday on Vermont Edition.