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By SHAUN ROBINSON

MONTPELIER — The Vermont Senate voted on Friday evening to approve its version of this year’s landmark education reform bill, H.454. The decision came just before 6:30 p.m., after hours of discussion on the floor and days of debate in committee hearings and a number of other meetings behind the scenes this week in the Statehouse.

By SHAUN ROBINSON

MONTPELIER — A bill that would make a host of changes to the state’s election laws, including an expansion of who must file campaign finance disclosures, appeared to be facing dim prospects Friday — even though the House approved the legislation in March.

By SHAUN ROBINSON

MONTPELIER — Vermont Gov. Phil Scott signed lawmakers’ state budget proposal for the 2026 fiscal year into law Wednesday. The plan lays out $9.01 billion in state spending for the yearlong period starting July 1 — and includes a handful of new measures designed to limit the impacts of potential cuts to the state’s federal funding.

By SHAUN ROBINSON

MONTPELIER — The Vermont Senate voted Thursday to scrap its version of this year’s landmark education bill, H.454, and replace it with the version of the legislation the House passed last month. 

By SHAUN ROBINSON

MONTPELIER — The Vermont House and Senate this week agreed on a state budget proposal for the 2026 fiscal year, which starts in July. The chambers’ joint $9.01 billion spending plan — which includes provisions legislators say could limit the impacts of potential federal funding cuts — now heads to Gov. Phil Scott for his consideration.

By SHAUN ROBINSON

Rumeysa Ozturk, the Turkish graduate student who spent weeks in federal immigration detention in Vermont and other states after an op-ed she co-wrote drew the ire of President Donald Trump’s administration, walked free from custody Friday. On Saturday, she arrived back in her home state of Massachusetts.

By SHAUN ROBINSON

MONTPELIER — The Vermont Senate on Thursday passed its proposed state budget for the 2026 fiscal year, which starts in July.

By SHAUN ROBINSON

President Donald Trump’s administration on Thursday told states and other recipients of federal transportation funding that they could lose those dollars if they do not comply with the White House’s interpretation of federal laws — including on immigration.

By SHAUN ROBINSON

MONTPELIER — Two months ago, leaders from an Abenaki nation based in Quebec urged Vermont lawmakers at a panel in the Statehouse to reconsider a contentious past decision: granting state tribal recognition to four groups based throughout the state. 

By SHAUN ROBINSON

A federal judge in Vermont said Monday he needs to hear more evidence before ruling on whether Rümeysa Öztürk — a Turkish graduate student arrested by federal agents in Massachusetts late last month, and then briefly detained in a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in St. Albans — should be released from ICE custody. 

By SHAUN ROBINSON

MONTPELIER — The Vermont House on Friday passed its version of the state budget for the 2026 fiscal year, including a proposal that would let top lawmakers access more state dollars to plug feared future losses in federal funding. The bill now heads to the Senate for further consideration and then would go before Gov. Phil Scott.

By SHAUN ROBINSON

Vermont Democrats have a new leader.

By SHAUN ROBINSON

MONTPELIER — Rep. Troy Headrick, I-Burlington, posed a question in a recent flyer sent to his colleagues in the Vermont House and Senate: “What if we got it wrong?”

By SHAUN ROBINSON

MONTPELIER — The Vermont House on Friday passed its version of an annual bill to true-up state spending midway through the fiscal year — and, at least for now, appears to have far more common ground with Gov. Phil Scott over its proposal than not.

By SHAUN ROBINSON

An organization that offers legal assistance to asylum-seekers in Vermont has created an online form for people to report immigration enforcement activity they see, or suspect they’ve seen, in and around the state — an effort, advocates said this week, to create a more comprehensive picture of how federal officials are operating across the area.

By SHAUN ROBINSON

MONTPELIER — Vermont’s economy, and the country’s as a whole, is in “exceptional” shape, the state’s economists told a panel of top fiscal lawmakers Wednesday — but cautioned their outlook was tempered by uncertainty over the actions President Donald Trump has pledged to take, or already taken, early on in his second term.

By SHAUN ROBINSON

ST. ALBANS, Vt. — Poulin Grain, an animal feed manufacturer with two plants in northern Vermont, relies on crops imported from Canada, such as corn and oats, to make its products. But the company’s costs would grow substantially — and, perhaps, unsustainably — if President Donald Trump’s proposed 25% tariff on products from Canada goes into effect, Poulin’s senior vice president, Mike Tetreault, said Monday. 

By SHAUN ROBINSON

MONTPELIER — Vermont Gov. Phil Scott proposed a $9 billion budget to state lawmakers Tuesday for the 2026 fiscal year, a spending plan that, once again, he said prioritizes making the state more affordable and tackling demographic challenges.

By SHAUN ROBINSON

MONTPELIER — John Rodgers, a Glover Republican, was formally elected Vermont’s next lieutenant governor on Thursday as a vast majority of state legislators voted to affirm his upset win in last fall’s race over Progressive/Democrat David Zuckerman.

By SHAUN ROBINSON

A Vermont defense contractor will pay the federal government $426,000 to settle allegations that it sold the U.S. military protective eyewear with components sourced from outside the country — a violation of defense procurement policy, officials...

By SHAUN ROBINSON

Nearly four years ago, U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials outlined a proposal for a line of surveillance towers along the Canadian border in Vermont and New York. Since then, VtDigger has found, the agency has been quietly making good on its...