This dog was captured last week after hanging around for awhile. No one recognizes him, no one has claimed him. He was either dumped or has been on the run for while.

He is a 1-3 year lightly built herding breed type dog. Looks like an English Shepherd in pictures but seems more like a Border Collie in person. 30-40 pounds. Unneutered. No microchip. Good house manners but some issues with resource guarding the lady who captured him. But overall a lovely young dog.

I'm posting him here just in case someone from outside Franklin county recognizes him.

I am possibly going to be relocating back to VT after a 15 year hiatus. Luckily I would be able to keep my current job and work remote. Unfortunately my employer would not be able to offer insurance. I just did some digging on Vermont's health insurance market place and nearly fell out of my chair! The monthly premiums with a 5 figure deductible is truly insane. I guess more or less wanted to offer my sympathy.

With heating oil up almost ten percent in the last few days how are the maga supporting Vermonters feeling? I see a lot of wood burning in my fireplace this winter thanks to this Iran bullshit. Remember to vote in November!

'Facing the prospect of a discrimination lawsuit, the Vermont Department of Corrections has agreed to provide federal immigration detainees in its prisons with better access to language interpretation, legal counsel and court hearings. 

The Vermont Human Rights Commission announced Tuesday it had reached a settlement with the department, following a discrimination complaint the commission filed in January. 

Immigration lawyers previously said the department restricted their ability to meet with federal detainees and that non-English speakers lacked language interpretation in state prisons.

With the settlement, the Corrections Department is resolving the discrimination complaint before it’s brought to civil court, according to Lauri Fisher, general counsel for the department.

Under the agreement, the department is required to ensure that immigration detainees are provided language interpretation services and regular access to immigration lawyers with the Vermont Asylum Assistance Project. The settlement does not include a monetary sum.

“It’s the one time I’d say, ‘I was pleased we got sued,’ because it made us better,” Fisher said in an interview Tuesday.  

Federal immigration authorities use Vermont prisons to hold detainees, often more than a dozen at a time. Though detainees can be held in any state prison, they’re most commonly taken to Chittenden Regional Correctional Facility in South Burlington or Northwest State Correctional Facility in St. Albans Town. 

The settlement marks a resolution between the Corrections Department and advocates for immigrants’ legal rights, who have been at odds after lawyers with the asylum assistance project alleged earlier this year that the department was impeding their access to detainees.

Their clients also weren’t receiving interpretation services, lawyers alleged in March, leaving immigrants to go without proper medical care or be disciplined without understanding why. 

Language interpretation for people who are detained is essential to provide access to services they have a legal right to receive, said Erin Jacobsen, VAAP’s advocacy director. 

“And if you can’t do that, then rights might as well just be wishes,” Jacobsen said.

Issues with language and attorney access began, immigration lawyers alleged, after Commissioner Jon Murad took over the department in August 2025. 

Murad previously defended his decision to end routine meetings between VAAP attorneys and immigration detainees. He said in March he was enforcing the department’s policies and cutting off practices that shouldn’t have been allowed under his predecessor. 

Fisher said Tuesday that the department hasn’t changed its position since March, rather that it’s changing its rules and policies. 

Previous policies were limiting, she said. Now the department has taken the opportunity to “grow” by following the recommendations of VAAP and the American Civil Liberties Union of Vermont, according to Fisher. 

“We’re just modifying (department policies) to adapt to modern times, if you will,” Fisher said. 

Under the agreement, the department will be required to identify someone’s preferred language when they’re taken into a facility. Then, prison and medical staff will be required to use a mobile interpreter to communicate with people in their preferred language. 

If someone’s preferred language isn’t English, the person can’t be disciplined for disobeying an instruction given in English, according to the settlement. 

Along with guarantees for language access, the department is directed to provide the asylum assistance project with a daily list of all immigration detainees in state prisons, according to the settlement. 

Under the agreement, a group of attorneys with the legal organization are allowed to go into the prisons in South Burlington and St. Albans Town every other week to meet with a group of detainees. Those attorneys will be able to use prison tablets for interpretation, and they’ll be allowed to bring in laptops or other devices after they’re inspected by corrections staff. 

The arrangement mimics how VAAP lawyers previously operated before last fall.  

Many of the changes mandated by the settlement began during the months of negotiation, according to Jacobsen, but the legal agreement requires that the department’s policies be updated. 

If the department doesn’t abide by the agreement there could be further legal action, but Jacobsen said the department has been cooperative. 

“I am not imagining that this is going to be a problem,” she said.

My son was recently laid off from Engelberth Construction once they completed the project he was working on. His supervisor seemed really happy with him and offered to be a reference.

He's looking to switch into a more skilled field and he's very interested in learning more about HVAC. He's a quick learner and does well with hands-on experience. Any ideas from people working in the industry?

Schools in Barre start the year without a budget. The third vote will be held on Tuesday, September 15.

Despite a 2.11% increase, the district is inundated with misinformation from former Barre Town officials and former school board members.

The district has one of the lowest per pupil spending rates in the state despite having an above-average population of students who require special education services.

The Governor’s rhetoric has also played a role in his hometown failing to pass a budget.

We just closed a house in central vermont that has a fenced in backyard with lots of brush that we don’t want. Too much for us to do it by hand. We thought of the idea to hire those goat grazers but it seems it’s expensive and also for bigger projects as ours would only be an acre or two.

Just cross posting in case someone where there are ALPRs locally want to investigate the source funds that were used.

My partner and I have been renting a home in southern VT since March. After moving in, we noticed our water had a sulfur smell, but we were advised by our landlord that it was fine to drink, bathe in, etc.

After about a week drinking this water we started to develop GI issues, and so did our dogs and cats. We asked our landlords to have the water tested, and stopped using it for drinking and cooking, opting to buy and refill 5-gallon jugs. The results from the state took over a month to come back, and it was determined that there was lead in our water as well as some other nasty stuff. Our landlords advised that we stop using the water for drinking and cooking immediately (which we had already done), and that they would reimburse us for our water purchases.

They recently put in a small reverse osmosis tank under the kitchen sink that holds about a gallon of water. It comes out in a trickle and is very cloudy. We told our landlords that we would not use the filtered water for drinking and cooking until it too was tested, and we did not receive a reply. The person who installed the filter believed that what was actually necessary was a replacement of the well which would cost in the 10s of thousands of dollars, and that the landlords were using this stopgap measure so they wouldn't have to pay for it.

I guess this is more of a rant than anything. I personally have been renting in Vermont for most of my adult life and have never had a landlord that is "above board" and it's really discouraging. Are our current landlords negligent? After we leave, I assume they are going to put the house on the market, or list it as an AirBnB which they had done previously, but will they be responsible for letting a potential buyer or future renter know about the water quality? And do we, as tenants that will be moving out shortly, have any recourse?

Has anyone been to Sugar Ridge up in Danville for their Halloween event? I’m going the second weekend and I cannot figure out how much candy I should plan on bringing. I’ve tried calling and leaving messages, but nobody’s getting back to me. I’m just not trying to run out of candy or have a TON of candy left over.

I am sure that like most mental health programs it’s extremely underfunded and you’re probably overworked. I’m looking at more of the day to day situations that you deal with, the position I am considering is Residential Counselor I at a crisis step down facility.

This was a first

Scott says if we raise taxes on the top, the rich people will just move out of the state. If Gov Scott is living here because it's a cheap place to be rich, he's not a frikkin Vermonter someone I want making decisions for me. Good riddance.

I'm a rural resident, and I've been following the rapid growth of Rural Vermont Rising with interest. Mainstream Dems and the media seem to be ignoring or downplaying a big, well-organized uprising that has drawn in some skilled newbie politicos and spokespeople. They seem to have a lot of grassroots support from all over.

It says a lot for our own Rep. Troy Headrick, an Independent from Burlington, that he sees the head-in-the-sand response from his colleagues. It gives me hope that we'll find a way to preserve Vermont's beauty and specialness while allowing enough growth to actually support regular people who live here.

As Headrick puts it, "I worry that a portion of the Vermont left has developed a profound blind spot about the people who work the land it so desperately wants to protect."

Considering returning to Vermont this winter. Highly skilled craftsman with over 30 years experience. Prefer the Woodstock area. Who’s busy and needs an easy to get along with, mature, no drama carpenter?

I noticed our local elementary school announced in their newsletter that students need to bring their own snacks every day, and then saw another school share a request for snack donations. Did the school lunch program get downsized so that snacks are no longer in the budget? When my kid was younger, they'd get carrot sticks, apples, pretzels - nothing fancy, but a small, healthy snack every morning.

We discovered the Vermont Bookstore Tour Passport prior to our recent vacation, and managed to visit ten stores on our trip through the state. We tried to see as much of each store as possible and always interact with staff if they were willing. Also, we bought at least one book at every store, and many more at others! My ranking is as follows:

(Note: Some of these stores had a huge selection of children’s books and games or toys, etc., and I took none of that into account for my brief reviews and ranking)

1. Northshire Bookstore in Manchester. Biggest selection of books by far, and I think you could maybe fit every other bookstore in Vermont inside of this place. Probably at least three or four times the size of our local Barnes & Noble. The store is in a very upscale area but didn’t feel exclusive. Friendly and helpful staff. It took a lot to make me rank this higher than my number two favorite, but it definitely deserves the recognition. Bonus points for a cafe and dedicated Booker and Pulitzer tables.

2. The Flying Pig Bookstore
   in Shelburne. Great selection and store location, the friendliest staff by far that we encountered, and quadruple bonus points for being one of only two stores with a special rack dedicated to Booker Prize winners and nominees. Also far outshines the others with the best store name!

3. Bridgeside Books in Waterbury. A couple other stores had better and more selections, but this place gets bonus points for whimsy, friendly staff, and an idyllic location.

4. Norwich Bookstore in Norwich. Really stunning store location - absolutely beautiful. Clean and organized with a great selection. Would have been number three but the store was a little cramped and hard to navigate with other customers, and for some reason the store chose to merchandise their new arrivals at the base of a staircase adjacent to the front door. Made for a serious logjam.

5. Vermont Book Shop in Middlebury. This was our first stop on the bookstore tour and reinforced our desire to maintain the quest. Excellent location (bonus points for being next to a cookie shop!) and nice selection. No real staff interaction.

6. Everyone's Books in Brattleboro. Quirkiest place we visited in maybe my aesthetically least favorite town in Vermont. Great selection of books and friendly staff. I loved their vibe and can see that this would have been number one on my list when I was in college.

7. Phoenix Books Essex & Burlington in Burlington. I think they had the best and largest selection outside of the Manchester store. Good location in that it’s on the walkable Church Street, but minus points because hard to find parking in the area. Nothing especially good or bad to say about them. Did get bonus points for proximity to a great pizza place.

8. Village Square Booksellers
   in Bellows Falls. Very hard to access in this heavily trafficked tourist destination. Ended up parking illegally and going in alone, making this the only store we didn’t visit together. Friendly guys behind the counter and a nice store layout. Selection was okay. This would likely rank higher if we visited on a less busy weekday.

9. Bennington Bookshop in Bennington. Cute store in a great downtown. Probably the smallest book selection of any place we visited. Nothing remarkable either way, but I did expect more from a place that bills itself as The Oldest Independent Bookstore in Vermont.

10. Bear Pond Books-Stowe
    in Stowe. If you read this far you can see that a friendly, helpful, and engaging staff goes a long way for me. Anything nice I would otherwise have to say about this store (good selection, location, etc.) was completely obscured by the negative staff experience I had here. I could find a reason to recommend every other store on the list, but not this one.

I'm heading up to the Stratton area in October. Staying 10/16-10/19. Looks a little light on events during this time.

Any suggestions or fun things to do? Staying with family and friends. 3 Young children. Looks like we are missing Oktoberfest which is a bummer. Willing to drive 30 min any direction.