Vermont Edition

VPR's new president and CEO Scott Finn has been traveling to each of Vermont's fourteen counties to hear what Vermonters what from their public radio station. On this Vermont Edition , we take the conversation from the 'Tell Me More Tour' on the air.

The recent confirmation hearings for U.S. Supreme Court Justice nominee Brett Kavanaugh have been controversial. And now the Senate Judiciary Committee — of which Sen. Patrick Leahy is the seniormost member — is trying to decide how to review allegations of sexual assualt that have been brought against Kavanaugh by professor Christine Blasey Ford.

JOLTED is a new five-part podcast from VPR about the averted school shooting at Fair Haven Union High School earlier this year, and how it led to Gov. Phil Scott’s unexpected reversal on gun control legislation.

It's a startling fact. Each year, more people 65 or older in Vermont die from falls than in motor vehicle crashes. So learning how to prevent or survive falls is an important skill to learn, especially for our senior citizens.

Our politics and ideology are shaped by our upbringing and life experience, but a UVM political scientist says there may be another key component to what we believe and who we vote for: the fictional stories we're exposed to in books, movies, and television. We're talking about how entertainment can shape our politics - from Game of Thrones to House of Cards and The Hunger Games .

Legal and cultural norms regard sharing nude or indecent photos of someone without their consent as a violation of privacy. But when it's done to shame or humiliate that person, Vermont law says nonconsensual pornography—so-called "revenge porn"—is a crime. Now a Vermont Supreme Court ruling has overturned a lower court's decision, bolstering the state's law and deeming it constitutional.

Ambulance departments in rural areas of Vermont face growing costs and increasing demands of time and training. Some volunteer-run departments have been forced to close when those demands become too much to manage. We're looking at how Vermont's rural ambulance departments are meeting those challenges to make sure someone answers when Vermonters dial 911.

Health officials in Vermont say that when someone dies of a drug overdose in the state, they fully expect it to involve the synthetic drug fentanyl. Fentanyl-related overdoses continue to rise, both in Vermont and nationwide. And reports about the potency and danger of fentanyl also continue to proliferate.

Hearing the travails of someone's mental health struggles is not easy. But Vermont cartoonist Rachel Lindsay has taken a different approach to sharing her story of living with bipolar disorder. She has told it in a new graphic novel called RX .

Arizona Sen. John McCain died Saturday, Aug. 25, at 81, and all this week the passing of the former naval airman, Vietnam veteran, senator and past presidential nominee has been marked with ceremonies and memorials from Arizona to Washington, D.C. Many of McCain's Congressional colleagues have reflected on his life and career, including Vermont Sen. Patrick Leahy, who worked alongside McCain for 32 years in the U.S. Senate.

Bennington Rep. Kiah Morris is speaking up about her decision not to seek re-election — and she said being the target of hate both online and in the real world played a factor in her decision to withdraw her candidacy.

Vermont is seeing more cases of aggressive driving on its roads. And more drivers are using cell phones while driving, even though it's against the law. We're talking with highway safety officials about how they're addressing these issues.

Vermont sets aside the second Tuesday in August for its primary elections, but the Vermont GOP had to wait until Wednesday night to find out who would represent the party in some of the most important statewide offices during the general election.

A new investigation from BuzzFeed News assembles allegations of horrifying abuse — possibly including murder — at a former Catholic orphanage in Burlington. We're talking to the report's author about what she uncovered.

Jim Condon, a prominent Vermont broadcaster and state representative for Colchester, died last week from esophageal cancer. He was 60 years old.