Pat Bradley

It's a long shot, but Republican Mark Donka of Hartford, a veteran police officer, thinks he has a chance to beat three-term Democratic incumbent U.S. Representative Peter Welch.

What made him decide to run, besides a nudge from some fellow Republicans?

The growing federal debt.

The 55-year-old Donka works in the Woodstock Police Department after serving the Hartford Police Department for 18 years. He thinks the country is headed "toward a collision course of disaster if we don't do something."

A Vermont man in the town of Readsboro has reached his goal of finding the gravesites of 78 men who enlisted to fight in the Civil War with the Green Mountain Boys.

It's taken Tom Boudreau 15 years of digging through town archives of burial records and Select Board minutes, federal pension records, newspaper obituaries, and other sources. Fewer than half of the 78 were actually buried in town.

Republican Wendy Wilton and Democrat Beth Pearce are engaged in the toughest political battle in Vermont this season: the race for state treasurer. And it may be the best chance the GOP has to pick up a statewide office next week.

Former Gov. Jim Douglas already has endorsed Wilton, and on Wednesday, former Gov. Howard Dean endorsed his fellow Democrat Beth Pearce for state treasurer, saying that Pearce will bring a nonpartisan approach to the office.

The contenders in the 115th assembly race met in a town hall style debate Tuesday night.

The informal debate between Conservative Karen Bisso and Democrat Tim Carpenter in Malone followed a basic format, but allowed questions from those who attended the forum. A number of issues were covered  and there was often congenial discussion between the two.  A recurring theme was displeasure with Albany as shown in their response to the state mandated tax cap. Democrat Tim Carpenter works for the Corrections Department and is a Plattsburgh city councillor

Vermont saw some power outages and minimal damage from Hurricane Sandy.  Governor Peter Shumlin stopped at Vermont Emergency Management’s Emergency Operations Center Tuesday morning to talk about the storm and its aftermath.

The Emergency Operations Center planned to cease its Hurricane Sandy operations by mid-afternoon Tuesday since Vermont was mostly spared by the storm. Governor Peter Shumlin said he was grateful to all those who prepared for the storm.

Firefighters in Adirondack towns relatively untouched by Sandy are getting ready to head downstate to help pump out basements, fight fires and direct traffic in the storm-ravaged New York City region.

Franklin County Emergency Services Director Ricky Provost tells the Adirondack Daily Enterprise (http://bit.ly/Se1ul7 ) that the governor's office is asking firefighters in northern parts of the state to come to southern New York to assist with storm recovery.

Vermont Gov. Peter Shumlin says he and other officials are grateful the state escaped passage of Superstorm Sandy without more significant damage.

Shumlin said Tuesday the state is now willing to offer support and assistance to other states hit harder by the storm, including sending two Vermont National Guard helicopters to New Jersey. He said he also would be in contact with Gov. John Lynch in New Hampshire and Gov. Dannel Malloy of Connecticut.

Residents of the northern Vermont town of St. Johnsbury are due to vote next week whether to approve a major public works project.

The $8 million project would involve digging up Main Street, Eastern Avenue and Western Avenue to separate sewage and storm drainage systems.

The current system combines the two, and heavy rains sometimes result in sewage backing up into the streets.

Federal and state grants would cover about 70 percent of the cost, with about $2.4 million being split by the local water and sewer funds and the town highway budget.

Many people across Vermont who feared Superstorm Sandy would be a repeat of last year's Tropical Storm Irene say they're grateful the state escaped this time, but they're concerned about the parts of the country that were hit the hardest.

Wilmington was one of the Vermont community's hit hardest by Irene. Flooding devastated the downtown.

People there watched with trepidation the forecasts before Sandy hit that predicated the area could be hit by high winds and some areas could experience flooding.

A northern New York county is struggling to keep it’s budget under the tax cap, while a neighboring county is reporting sales tax revenues that will help them stay under the cap.

Essex County officials are considering a local law to override the state mandated 2-percent tax cap.  Town of Moriah Supervisor Tom Scozzafava says they would have to hold two votes to actually block the cap.