All Things Considered on WAMC

Vermont State Police say two men killed in unrelated car crashes last weekend brings the total number of motor vehicle fatalities across the state this year to 57 — two more than last year's total.

Police said the 55 people killed on Vermont's roads last year was the lowest recorded number since 1944.

They said a record high of 161 deaths was reported in 1979.

Monday marked the end of the state police's Operation H.E.A.T., or High Enforcement Area Team, an initiative aimed at cracking down on dangerous driving. The effort started July 4.

The Vermont Department of Health has issued an emergency rule to further crack down on the sale of designer drugs known as bath salts.

Governor Peter Shumlin's office announced that the Health Department will expand the list of bath salt and compounds that are illegal to sell, make or possess in the state to include derivatives.  

A woman says a 6-week-old kitten hitched a ride on the outside of her vehicle as she drove about 100 miles over upstate New York roads.

Stacey Pulsifer tells the Press-Republican of Plattsburgh that she recently drove from her home in Plattsburgh to Elizabethtown in the Adirondacks, then back to her apartment. Along the way she stopped for coffee and heard meowing coming from her Jeep.

She asked two friends to help her search the vehicle. They finally found the kitten wedged behind a bumper and had to cut it free.

The state of Vermont is working with officials in St. Albans to sell the existing state office building and build a new state office building in the heart of the city's downtown.

If approved, the plan would bring 200 state workers closer to the downtown restaurants and shops, but it could also prompt the redevelopment of the existing state office building, putting it on the tax rolls, and additional downtown development.