Seven suspected in Vermont-based ring linked to 99 burglaries

PUTNEY, Vt. (AP) - Seven people are suspected in a burglary ring that police say is linked to about 100 burglaries in five states, Vermont State Police said Monday.

Most of the burglaries - 60 of them - happened in Vermont. Another 30 were in New Hampshire, plus four in Maine, four in Massachusetts and one in Virginia, police said following a multistate investigation.

Congregational Church in Waterbury, Vt., a refuge after floods

WATERBURY, Vt. - Twice in less than a century, Waterbury's 1827 Congregational Church, at the crest of a small rise on Main Street, has played a critical role in helping the community escape the ravages of the rising Winooski River and recover after epic floodwaters have receded.

Mild winter helps storm-battered farms

MIDDLEBURGH, N.Y. - After being battered by flooding last year, farmers across the Northeast and Midwest can at least be thankful that a relatively warm and largely snowless winter has made it easier to get started healing their rutted and debris-strewn lands.

Pig image sneaks onto Vermont State Police decals

MONTPELIER, Vt. - A prison inmate who makes stationery and license plates pulled a fast one on state police by adding the image of a pig to the state decal on their cruisers.

On the 16-inch car door decals, made by prisoners in Windsor, one of the spots on a cow in a scene with mountains and a pine tree has been changed to the shape of a pig, a derogatory term for police.

Vermont Yankee seeks end to review of license extension

MONTPELIER, Vt. - The fight over the future of the Vermont Yankee nuclear plant moved Tuesday from a federal courtroom back to the state panel that regulates utilities, as plant owner Entergy Corp. asked the Public Service Board to wrap up its stalled review and issue a state license for another 20 years of operation.

Vermont struggles to rebuild mental health system

MONTPELIER, Vt. - The remnants of Hurricane Irene did what policy-makers hadn't been able to accomplish for more than a decade - close the state's antiquated psychiatric hospital.

The storm flooded much of the state Aug. 28, including the complex containing the Vermont State Hospital in the north-central town of Waterbury, but it's still raining down on the mental health system.

Extent of bat deaths questioned by national organization of cavers

MONTPELIER, Vt. - A national organization of recreational cavers is questioning a new estimate of the number of bats killed by a mysterious ailment that is spreading across the country.