Pat Bradley

Officials are holding the first of four hearings seeking public input on  how Vermont can begin implementing its long-term goal of getting 90 percent of the state's energy from renewable sources by 2050.

Last October, the state of Vermont released its long term Comprehensive Energy Plan, which outlined strategies and set a goal of obtaining 90-percent of the state’s total energy from renewable sources by 2050.  Vermont Agency of Natural Resources Secretary Deb Markowitz chairs the Vermont Climate Cabinet.

A Vermont town that lost its full-service post office when Tropical Storm Irene hit now has a privately managed one.

The Village Post Office in West Hartford is staffed by a contractor and provides scaled-back services. It operates in the West Hartford Village Store. Residents can buy a post office box. They also can drop off some mail and purchase postage stamps and flat rate shipping boxes. They will be able to pick up large packages at the store starting next month.

Efforts to fight a dangerous synthetic drug called bath salts appear to be paying off in the Vermont city of Barre.

Officials say calls to the police department and poison control center and visits to the emergency room have died down after a surge in use of the drug early this summer.

They attribute that to the state issuing an emergency rule to expand the list of bath salts and other compounds that are now illegal to sell, make or possess in Vermont.

The synthetic stimulants can cause hallucinations, violenc

With less than two weeks to go before the election, the Republican candidate for governor of Vermont is expressing confidence he can pull off an upset win over the Democratic incumbent, Gov. Peter Shumlin.

Randy Brock made a campaign swing through the eastern side of the state last weekend, and, at an appearance in Bethel, spent much of his time talking about health care.

He says he disagrees with the Shumlin administration's push for a single-payer health insurance system. He believes expanding competition and choice among insurers is the best way to bring down h

The state of Vermont is urging some state employees with children to drop their children from their state-sponsored health care plans in favor of the public plan known as Dr. Dynasaur.

Households that earn less than 300 percent of the federal poverty level would eligible.

Vermont Public Radio reports the switch could save a single person about $2,000 a year in insurance costs. If half of the eligible children are switched, it could save the state more than $5 million a year because 70 percent of the cost is

Vermont’s governor is requesting additional funding to a low income heating program at the same time they are changing how benefits are paid.

The federal government has allocated just over 19-and-a-half million dollars to Vermont for this year’s Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program.  Governor Shumlin said he will go before the Legislature's Emergency Board next week to ask for approval  to add $8.8 million in state funds to the program. Central Vermont Council on Aging Executive Director Beth Stern.

A support program that has been helping people in the aftermath of Tropical Storm Irene in New York’s North Country is ending.

Project Hope has provided outreach to those in need in the wake of last year’s storm disaster.  Crisis counselors went door to door in Clinton and Essex Counties to assure that everyone who needed help received aid. Project Hope Program Coordinator Gretch Sando.

Project Hope Crisis Counselor Fred Balzac.

A Vermont hospital says it's notifying about 200 patients that they were administered drugs recalled by the Massachusetts company linked to a deadly meningitis outbreak.

Officials say the drugs administered at Brattleboro Memorial Hospital were not the same steroid injections that have resulted in 23 deaths around the country and sickened nearly 300.

Jan Puchalski, director of patient safety and risk management, said Tuesday the drugs used include Nalbuphine, which is given for pain, and Hyaluronidase, often used on the eyes.

The state Attorney General's office has sued a company called VerMints, saying it has mislabeled its tins of mints as Vermont products.

The suit was filed recently in Washington Superior Court. It says from 2006 to 2010, the company sold over 1.3 million tins prominently labeled "Vermont's All Natural Mints," or "Vermont's All Natural Pastilles." It says many tins also were marked "Product of the USA."

The attorney general's office says the products actually were manufactured at a plant in Canada, mostly out of ingredients that originated outside of Vermont.

The Vermont State Employees Credit Union says unencrypted computer tapes containing personal data and transaction records of about 85,000 members were inadvertently thrown into a landfill.

Credit union CEO Steven Post says there's no evidence any of the information has fallen into the wrong hands.

Post says it appears data tapes were buried in a landfill and cannot be retrieved.

The credit union is working with regulators and law enforcement.