Elodie Reed

In a virtual hearing from a federal immigration courtroom in Chelmsford, Massachusetts, Judge Yul-mi Cho set a $1,500 bond for Diblaim Maximo Sargento-Morales, who was being held in Texas.

Senators advanced a bill Thursday to study the creation of a statewide Office of New Americans, which would coordinate services for immigrants in Vermont. “Immigrants in Vermont are the fastest-growing working-age demographic — they're vital to our economy and to our future,” said the bill’s sponsor, Sen. Martine Larocque Gulick, D-Chittenden County, earlier this week. “But the challenges they face are around licensing and education, language barriers.”

According to company spokesperson Joe Shields, keeping the facility open is not cost-effective due to its age and “evolving regulatory requirements.”

Federal immigration enforcement in Vermont is not new. What is, legal experts say, is what they describe as an intensifying rhetoric and “fear-mongering” at the federal level. Groups in Vermont are trying to combat fear with crowd-sourcing more information.

It will be the inaugural contractor to sign on. Co-founder David Richards said he expects this to impact several hundred — primarily immigrant — workers during peak building season.

The same committee examined whether farmworkers should have collective bargaining rights — but ultimately didn’t make a recommendation to the Vermont Legislature.

Families can head to Burlington, Rutland and White River Junction for reindeer games, hot chocolate, sweet treats, music and pictures with Black Santa.

The survey — focused on farms not covered by a grassroots farmworker labor and housing rights program — shows a vast majority of Spanish-speaking immigrant dairy farmworkers in Vermont make below minimum wage, work six to seven days a week and are hurt on the job.

“There is no hospital in Vermont that is not in jeopardy,” stressed the consultant who led work on the report. Recommendations include closing inpatient beds and converting emergency departments into urgent care centers at Gifford Medical Center, Grace Cottage, North Country, and Springfield hospitals.

The center, which will open Oct. 28, is meant as an alternative to the emergency room for people who are having a mental health crisis, but don’t need acute medical or inpatient psychiatric care.

Made up of Mikey Dyke, Judi Emanuel and their children, Caribbean Rain started performing as a formal band at the same time that the family relocated to Vermont. Following a recent health crisis, the family is more determined than ever to share their music.

The tabby will become a “Doctor of Litter-ature” in recognition of his contributions to the Castleton campus, where he has become a regular visitor for the past four years.

At a Vermont Commission on Native American Affairs meeting this week, Indigenous women spoke up about sexism and cultural appropriation among state-recognized Abenaki tribes.

Last week, Abenaki representatives from the Odanak First Nation addressed an uncomfortable, long-simmering dispute. Odanak citizens and officials said Vermont’s state-recognized tribes are misrepresenting themselves as Abenaki – and profiting from it – when they are in fact not Indigenous.

On a recent April evening, half a dozen farmers gathered inside a Burlington greenhouse. There they attended a gardening class put on by the Association of Africans Living in Vermont. The class is meant to help farmers adapt crops from warmer parts of the world – to Vermont’s rather short growing se…

A legislative committee voted unanimously Friday to endorse veteran Judge Rick Lawrence’s nomination to Maine’s highest court, setting the stage for a historic appointment.

Vermont is continuing to wind down measures in response to the coronavirus pandemic, including state-run COVID-19 vaccine clinics, the Scott administration announced Tuesday.At the same time, administration officials say they’re keeping an eye on the BA.2 coronavirus variant, a more contagious versi…

According to a recent VPR-Vermont PBS poll, nearly three-quarters of Vermonters say they would support Vermont’s dairy industry by paying more for products. But who in the industry Vermonters actually want to support — and how they can do that — is a little more complicated.

The Vermont Agency of Agriculture is rolling out a new program that will pay farmers for reducing the amount of phosphorous lost from their fields, above and beyond state and federal requirements.

Indigenous people in Vermont, together with other people of color, manage just 1% of the state’s farmland. But before Europeans colonized the region, Abenaki and Mohican people took care of nearly all of it.Now, some organizations are trying to redress these racial disparities by giving resources, l…