One person died in Vermont of Covid-19 during the 24-hour-period ending noon Thursday, according to the Vermont Dept. of Health website. One Covid-19 patient is hospitalized. The total number of diagnosed Vermont cases is now 1,445. Just over 100,000 people have been tested.

68-year-old Francis Hill died after firefighters pulled him to safety from his burning home. Amy Hill was treated for second-degree burns and smoke inhalation. Four pets died.

For the first time ever, Miro Weinberger has vetoed a City Council decision. Unless the Council overrides him, there will be no vote on instant runoff, ranked-choice voting in Burlington - at least not in November.

350.org, a group known more for its climate marching and lobbyings, says it plans to get its hands dirty planting up to 100,000 carbon-eating trees.

Until now, forest ‘carbon credit’ schemes have all required forests to remain pristine and unworked - and therefore not profitable for the owners. But a new plan would allow Vermont forest landowners to both work the land and profit from its carbon-consuming value. Because a piece of wooden furniture made from Vermont trees is more than just a dresser, a table, or a chair - it’s a “carbon sequestration device.”

UVM has backed off its plan to test students weekly and it has no plan at all to deal with off-campus partying, Burlington Mayor Miro Weinberger complained yesterday.

A hot dry summer has left the beautiful Maquam Bay a stinky, weed-infested place. Summer home residents are not happy.

Lawmakers who are hoping and praying for a federal solution to Vermont’s $400 million budget deficit have a friend in Congressman Peter Welch. He voted for a $3 trillion aid package, of which $3 billion would come to the State of Vermont and municipalities.

Hard to understand how a Legislature so focused on making schools safer from active shooters two years ago now wants to remove school police officers. But that’s just what some legislators and other Vermonters want.

Vermont musician Grace Potter will give a two-night, drive-in concert at the Essex Fairgrounds Saturday and Sunday.

Lawmakers who are hoping and praying for a federal solution to Vermont’s $400 million budget deficit have a friend in Congressman Peter Welch. He voted for a $3 trillion aid package, of which $3 billion would come to the State of Vermont and municipalities.

Vermont musician Grace Potter will give a two-night, drive-in concert at the Essex Fairgrounds Saturday and Sunday.

Social workers riding along with police? It’s being tried in the Northeast Kingdom.

A day before major police reform hearings, powerful Vermont lobbyists issue a call to weaken the power of Vermont police to enforce the law. Will Vermonters respond?

In what’s shaping up to be a big black eye for the Scott administration, almost 150 inmates kept out-of-state have contracted the Covid-19 virus. Is the alternative to build more Vermont prisons?

Molly Gray, the political wunderkind and the LG candidate anointed by the Dem establishment, has more than her non-voting record to defend. She’s also being called out for her residency record. And GOP candidate Scott Milne is wondering why someone who hasn’t voted in 10 years and not lived enough years in Vermont to hold office should even be considered.

UVM should be a campus police free zone, students and profs demand.

Big upheaval in the Smallest City in the U.S.A. after the mayor says he doesn’t “give two s---s” about police department morale.

The United States Dept. of Agriculture (?) has loaned $57 million for school building improvements to one-mile-square Winooski - probably the most heavily populated urban community in Vermont.

His name was Fred Seavey, and before he died July 1 following a June 30 car crash, he defaced the BLM painting on State Street in Montpelier.