Vermont Edition

More than 92,000 Bhutanese refugees now live in the U.S., relocated after enduring years of deplorable and often deadly conditions in refugee camps after being expelled from their home country. Now, federal health officials have tracked a troubling trend among this group of New Americans: a rate of death by suicide nearly twice the national average. And Vermont's 2,500 Bhutanese refugees are not immune.

Lawmakers and the Scott administration remain in a standoff after the state budget was passed with broad support from the legislature. Now, the governor has said he will call lawmakers back to a special session next week. VPR's Peter Hirschfeld joined Vermont Edition to talk about what happens next in Montpelier.

Starting July 1, Vermonters 21 and older can legally posses an ounce of marijuana and cultivate a small number of the plants. But marijuana sales and distribution remain illegal under state law, so if you're interested, how can you get the seeds to get started? We're talking about how to legally start growing under Vermont's marijuana laws.

The Vermont legislature has passed a bill that would raise the state's minimum wage to $15 an hour by 2024 . But Gov. Scott has opposed the legislation and it's a target for a veto. We're talking about what's in the bill and the debate over how it would impact the state's businesses and low-income workers.

Tuesday, May 15, 2018, is a day that Brandi and Matt Lloyd have been waiting for a long time. That's the day the couple, from Mooers, New York, are scheduled to undergo surgery. Matt will go first and have one of his kidneys removed. Then Brandi's surgery will follow. Her diseased kidneys will be removed and Matt's donor kidney will be placed in her body. If all goes well, they should each have one functioning kidney by the end of the day and be on their way to recovery.

Strong disagreements between Gov. Phil Scott and legislative leaders in Montpelier mean that the future of the budget, and many other bills at the Statehouse, is still very much up in the air. So where is all of this headed?

His novels earned him the 1970 Nobel Prize in literature and exile from the Soviet Union, but in Vermont Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn is also know for the nearly 20 years he lived and worked in the town of Cavendish. We're looking at the Russian writer's works, his time in the state and what his novels say to readers in 2018.

A new historical novel geared to a teenage audience tells the story of a young woman in the Northeast Kingdom in the run-up to the Civil War. Author Beth Kanell says she wrote the novel in part to challenge Vermonters on how they think about the state's history in relation to slavery.

It's that frantic time in Montpelier when lawmakers and the administration face the crunch to pass a budget as well as other lingering bills. We talk to Gov. Phil Scott about the continuing budget standoff and what he would like to see on his desk before the end of the biennium.

How will Vermont fund its schools? Gov. Scott's new plan would use nearly $60 million dollars in one-time funds to keep property taxes down, but Democrats in the legislature balked at a plan they say has a number of problems.

The CDC is warning of a spike in tick-borne diseases nationwide. Here in Vermont, Lyme disease is a huge and growing problem, and increasingly, other tick-borne illnesses like anaplasmosis and Powassan virus are a threat as well.

People around the country have been fascinated by the story of the Golden State Killer , the research by the late true-crime writer Michelle McNamara, and the arrest of a suspect in the decades-long mystery back in April. But one Vermont College of Fine Arts student's writing about a different California cold case generated interest of its own that caught investigator's attention and eventually an arrest.

Vermont has been seen as a leader in equal rights for LGBTQ people, but queer Vermonters living in rural areas can face unique challenges, from accessing healthcare to aging well as a queer senior to finding support networks. We're talking about the needs and experiences of LGBTQ Vermonters in rural communities.

Lately, you may have had the experience of waking in the wee hours of the morning to a cacophonous symphony of bird chirps and calls: a telltale sign that spring migration is in full swing and our feathered friends are returning to Vermont. Now that they're here, it's time for Vermont Edition's spring bird show.

Towards the beginning of her new book of essays, Vermont author Kimberly Harrington includes a short satirical piece titled "Just What I Wanted, a Whole Twenty-Four Hours of Recognition Once a Year." It's a good read for this time of year, as we approach the beloved/dreaded holiday known as Mother's Day. (It's Sunday, May 13, in case you were wondering.)