All Things Considered on WAMC

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.

The Vermont Health Department will be checking in monthly with an elementary school dealing with a rat infestation.

WPTZ-TV reports that a state health inspector visited Sudbury Country School on Wednesday. State sanitation chief Al Burns says the inspector found rat droppings in the school's boiler room and other evidence of an infestation.

He said the situation is under control and students are safe. The school has brought in an exterminator, put out bait boxes along the building's exterior and put all food in containers.

The kayaker who died on a dangerous stretch of New Hampshire's West Pemigewasset River has been identified as a Vermont man who worked as a reporter and for a river conservation group.

Lincoln police say the victim of Wednesday's accident was 29-year-old Alan Panebaker of Montpelier, Vt. An experienced kayaker, he was with two others when his kayak overturned south of the Flume Gorge and he became trapped under water.

Heavy rains the previous night created dangerous conditions on many of the state's rivers.

New Hampshire's Dartmouth-Hitchcock medical center is joining a national initiative to encourage its employees to vote in the November elections.

The American Hospital Association created its "We Care, We Vote" program this summer to encourage hospital executives, medical staff, employees and board members to question candidates about health care issues, including cuts to hospitals' Medicare and Medicaid payments.

Green Mountain Coffee Roasters is drawing new competition in the single-serve coffee market.

Starbucks will start selling its new single-serve Verismo brewer online this week for $199. The Verismo uses a high-pressure system to make lattes and other espresso-based drinks, along with brewed coffee.

Starbucks' move comes roughly a year after it struck a deal with Waterbury, Vt.-based Green Mountain to make coffee pods for Keurig machines. Starbucks says it will continue to sell its pods for Keurig machines.

Vermont State Police have released the name of the trooper who shot and wounded a man accused of making threats over a school bus radio in Danville.

Sgt. Brian May, a patrol commander at the St. Johnsbury barracks, remains on administrative leave, which is customary.

Suspect William Mahoney remains in stable condition at Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center in Lebanon, N.H., following the Tuesday night shooting in the Danville school parking lot.