Vermont on Friday July 03, 2009

VT: Smokers wince at tax increase
By John Briggs, Burlington Free Press
Cigarettes in Vermont cost a quarter more a pack and $2.50 more a carton, and the 6 percent state sales tax applies for the first time to liquor, all the result of legislation that took effect Wednesday. Liquor? No big deal, beverage store proprietors said. Cigarettes? That's another story.
Read More

Stimulus eases community college troubles
By Kimberly Leonard, Special to Stateline.org
States are digging into their federal stimulus money to help finance community colleges, where rising tuition, soaring enrollment and budget cuts threaten to shut students out of the system.
Read More

Weekly wrap: Report questions states' use of stimulus road funds
By John Gramlich, Stateline.org Staff Writer
States are spending too much stimulus money on new road construction and not enough on public transit projects, a national advocacy group claims in a report issued Monday (June 29). Meanwhile, Michigan and California consider teaming up to solve their prison problems and North Carolina and Rhode Island face off with Amazon.com over taxes.
Read More

VT: State senator runs for lieutenant governor
By The Associated Press, Times Argus (Barre/Montpelier)
State Sen. Edward Flanagan is running for lieutenant governor.
Read More

VT: Vt. air comparatively clean, could be cleaner
By The Associated Press, Times Argus (Barre/Montpelier)
Vermont's air quality is better than that in many parts of the United States, but could be better still.
Read More

VT: N.H. among states hit by E. coli in beef
By The Associated Press, Burlington Free Press
WASHINGTON — At least 12 people, two of them suffering kidney failure, have been hospitalized in connection with a possible E. coli outbreak in beef suspected of having sickened people in nine states, federal health officials said Wednesday.
Read More

US: Coming to 25 states -- higher taxes
By Mark Trumbull, The Christian Science Monitor
More than half of US states are responding to budget challenges with an answer that's often unpopular with their residents: tax hikes.
Read More

US: Mississippi tops obesity rankings; Colorado is leanest state
By The Associated Press, The Wall Street Journal
WASHINGTON -- Mississippi remains at the top of the list in this year's national annual obesity rankings, with Alabama coming in second. Outside of fairly lean Colorado, there's little good news.
Read More

Visit the Stateline.org Vermont Page

Read More