Vermont Edition

Rep. Peter Welch is a member of both the House Oversight and Intelligence Committees And this week both committees questioned President Trump's former personal attorney Michael Cohen. Congressman Welch joins Vermont Edition to discuss what his committees learned in these hearings.

Improvisational comedy is about making it up as you go along, but the ideas of improv are increasingly finding their way to workplaces and other groups to increase teamwork, foster collaboration and spark new ideas. We're looking at improv in Vermont and how its ideas apply at work and in daily life.

This program originally aired on Feb. 22, 2018.

Vermonters catch a fever at this time of year. And it isn't necessarily the flu bug. It's the hankering to get outside and start hauling buckets full of sap to the sugarhouse or to wherever they do their boiling. It's backyard sugaring time. 

Vermont has produced its fair share of outstanding winter sports athletes. Vermont Edition shines the spotlight on those who have excelled at ski jumping as we look at how the sport has changed in Vermont.

Vermont's laws on workplace drug testing make it difficult to test employees after they're hired. Now lawmakers are considering a bill expanding an employer's ability to test workers suspected of being under the influence on the job, or if they cause an accident. We're looking at Vermont's existing drug testing laws, the proposed changes and what it means for workers and employers.

If you lived in Thetford, Vermont in October 2005, you must have felt the special energy. Not everyone in town started speaking in iambic hexameter or in A-A-B-B rhyme schemes, but you had to feel the poetic force that was present. Because for about a week back, something happened in Thetford that has probably never happened in any other city or town anywhere, before or since: Thetford was home to two current state poets laureate.

Sen. Bernie Sanders has announced that he is making his second run for the presidency. We'll hear what some of the state's top political reporters are thinking about Bernie 2020.

Mid-February is prime time for ice fishing in Vermont, but a recent tragedy is focusing attention on the risks of the winter sport. 

Scientists are warning of a staggering decline in insect population and diversity, with over 40 percent of all species at risk of extinction. That could have huge impacts on the wider ecosystem, and on human agriculture and the economy. We're talking about what — if anything — can be done, on large and small scales, to address the looming die-off.

The Montreal Expos started playing baseball at Jarry Park in 1969. They eventually moved to Olympic Stadium but it all came to an end after the 2004 season, when Major League Baseball moved the franchise to Washington, D.C.

Over the last several years, there has been a growing movement led by the Montreal Baseball Project to bring a team back to the city. Vermont Edition spoke with the group's president Warren Cromartie about the prospects of a team returning to Montreal.

Sen. Bernie Sanders is officially in the race for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination. We're talking with political scientists about Sanders' announcement, the crowded 2020 field and what it all means for Vermont.

The Vermont Human Rights Commission is a state agency whose sole mission is to protect and preserve the human rights of Vermonters. The small agency—just three investigators, an executive director and an executive assistant—works on discrimination in housing, state government, employment and in public spaces like schools and restaurants. Now the Commission's new executive director is pledging to take a more proactive approach to fighting discrimination. 

Two hundred years ago, the American Literary, Scientific and Military Academy opened in Norwich, Vermont as the first all-private military college. Today, it's known as Norwich University and is located in Northfield. We'll learn about its storied history.

Suicide is the eighth leading cause of death in Vermont, claiming more lives every year than car accidents in our state. And Vermont's young people die by suicide at one of the highest rates in the country. We're talking with doctors and researchers about effective suicide prevention. 

It's often repeated that Vermont's was the first state constitution to outlaw slavery, but the language of the document may actually have some caveats. Sponsors of a constitutional amendment want to change the language to make the ban absolute. We're talking about the history and the proposal.