All Things Considered on WAMC

The state of Vermont is considering construction of a temporary, seven-bed secure psychiatric facility on state property in Middlesex, to remain in place while a permanent new psychiatric hospital is built in Berlin.

State officials had been looking for locations for such a facility in central Vermont, and had been eyeing a site in Waterbury, but had not been successful in working out an agreement.

Vermont's unemployment rate rose three-tenths of a percent in August.

The Vermont Department of Labor says the state's seasonally adjusted rate for August was 5.3 percent. The rate was significantly lower than the national average of 8.1 percent.

Labor officials said the diverse mix of businesses in Vermont helped insulate the state against some of the economic problems faced by other states.

Copyright 2012 Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.

New data out from the U.S. Census Bureau show some improving economic indicators for Vermont.

The annual American Community Survey by the Census for 2011 says Vermont was the only state that showed an increase in median household income from 2010 to last year.

It went from $50,707 in 2010 to $52,776 in 2011, a jump of more than $2,000.

Vermont was listed among the lowest for people living in poverty and for income inequality.

Copyright 2012 Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.

The University of Vermont has concluded that a fraternity was not responsible for a survey that asked members whom they would like to rape.

The campus chapter of Sigma Phi Epsilon was closed last December and an investigation launched after a student reported the survey to university officials.

UVM said Thursday that the "Sigma Ep as an organization" was not responsible for putting the question in the survey. But other findings could lead to sanctions against the fraternity.

The president of Bennington College will retire at the end of the academic year after 25 years as head of the private, liberal arts college in Vermont.

During her tenure, Elizabeth Coleman has overseen the college's greatest growth period in its 80-year-history.

The institution has raised more than $175 million and constructed six buildings in her 25 years and had an all-time high enrollment of nearly 700 undergraduates and 136 graduate students in the last academic year.