A Vermont inmate is facing an assault charge after she allegedly assaulted her cellmate with a jail-issued tablet and a lock that had been placed inside a sock. Veronica Lewis, 40, is charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon in connection with the attack, according to state police. The assault occurred around 5 a.m. on May 29 at the Chittenden Regional Correctional Facility in South Burlington. The Vermont Department of Corrections reported the incident to state police as is standard protocol, and they initiated an investigation. That investigation determined that Lewis, who is ser ..read more

A 24-year-old woman from Brockton, Massachusetts, and her mother are in critical condition after their speeding SUV hydroplaned and crashed into a group of trees on Interstate 89 in Vermont, Sunday morning. Vermont State Police say they were notified around 8:12 a.m. of a single-vehicle crash with an unconscious person on I-89 northbound in the area of mile marker 93 in Colchester. Responding troopers found a badly-damaged Alfa Romeo Stelvio with two women inside, who were both unresponsive and severely injured, police said. The women, who were wearing their seatbelts, were removed from the SU ..read more

The Vermont Republican Party is prohibited from backing a candidate with a felony conviction, according to the party’s publicly posted rules. That is now a bit of a problem, since the presumptive Republican presidential nominee was recently convicted on 34 felony counts. “The state committee will not support or promote any candidate for elective office who … is a convicted felon,” read the rules, which govern everything from party meetings to how delegates must vote at national conventions. On social media, the party does technically appear to be following the rule — there are no men ..read more

Two men are dead, and three others are injured after the vehicle they allegedly stole crashed during a police chase in Colchester, Vermont, Friday night. Vermont State Police say the single-vehicle crash occurred around 7:35 p.m. in the vicinity 1172 East Lakeshore Dr. while the vehicle was being pursued by the Colchester Police Department. Two of the men were pronounced dead on scene, police said. Three others inside the vehicle were detained by police and then taken to the University of Vermont Medical Center in Burlington for treatment of injuries that are not believed to be life-threatenin ..read more

Vermont’s governor has vetoed a bill that would have allowed the creation of a pilot overdose prevention center in the state’s largest city of Burlington, including a safe injection site where people could use narcotics under the supervision of trained staff and be revived if they take too much. Gov. Phil Scott, a Republican, wrote in a letter to lawmakers on Thursday that while such sites are well-intentioned “this costly experiment will divert financial resources from proven prevention, treatment and recovery strategies.” The Democratic-controlled Legislature is expected to attempt an o ..read more

Vermont has become the first state to enact a law requiring fossil fuel companies pay a share of the damage caused by climate change after the state suffered catastrophic summer flooding and damage from other extreme weather. Republican Gov. Phil Scott allowed the bill to become law without his signature late Thursday. He said in his message to lawmakers that he is “deeply concerned about both short- and long-term costs and outcomes” and if the state fails in this legal challenge “it will set precedent and hamper other states’ ability to recover damages.” Maryland, Massachusetts and New York a ..read more

After 42 years, the investigation into the death of an infant in Vermont has been resolved, state police said Wednesday, and no criminal charges will be filed. On April 1, 1982, children waiting for a school bus on Mill Hill Road in Northfield found a dead baby near the road, police said. Investigators said they were able to confirm that the dead body was that of a “recently born male infant.” Since police were unable to identify the infant, the name Baby Doe was used for investigative identity purposes, authorities said. An autopsy was conducted and determined that the baby was full-term and ..read more

An undersea investigator says he’s found the wreckage of a long-missing plane thought to have crashed into Lake Champlain after taking off from Vermont. The private jet, with the registration N400CP, disappeared shortly after taking off from Burlington en route to Providence, Rhode Island, on Jan. 27, 1971. There were five people on board, and despite search attempts over the decades by police and private citizens, the wreck was never found. But Garry Kozak, an undersea search expert who has previously located other wrecks, announced Tuesday that he and a colleague used a side scan sonar syste ..read more

A Vermont man is facing a drunken driving charge after he allegedly crashed into a flagpole at a Vermont veterans cemetery on Memorial Day. State police said they received a call around 7 p.m. Monday for a report of a single-vehicle crash at the Vermont Veterans Memorial Cemetery on Furnace Road in Randolph. Troopers responded and found that a flagpole at the entryway of the cemetery had been “significantly damaged” as a result of the crash. Randolph firefighters were able to safely take down the pole, which was leaning heavily. The driver of the vehicle, identified by police as 35-year-old Jo ..read more

Vermont’s Republican Gov. Phil Scott has vetoed a bill to severely restrict a type of pesticide that’s toxic to bees and other pollinators, saying the legislation “is more anti-farmer than it is pro-pollinator.” The bill would have banned uses of neonicotinoids — commonly called neonics — as well as selling or distributing soybean and cereal grain seeds that are coated in the substance. The pesticides are neurotoxins and are the most widely used class of insecticides in the world, lawmakers have said. The Democrat-controlled Vermont legislature may consider overriding the governor’s veto durin ..read more