Many people wait until the April deadline to file their tax returns electronically. In an increasing number of instances they’re discovering they are unable to submit their return because a scammer has already filed in their name in hopes of collecting their refund.

The Vermont Tax Department says there’s been a significant increase in the number of Vermonters targeted by the tax fraud scheme.

Tax Commissioner Mary Peterson says for the most recent tax year the state has identified 300 such tax returns.  

Could the state of Vermont collect millions of dollars in new tax revenue if the sale of marijuana is legalized? A majority of House members want to know the answer to this question.

The marijuana study is part of a larger bill that deals with the operations of the state’s four medical marijuana dispensaries.

Two states have legalized marijuana, Colorado and Washington, and they’ve imposed sizeable taxes on a variety of marijuana products.

Burlington Discover Jazz has announced its lineup for the 31st Annual Festival, which runs May 30 through June 8.

The Queen City will play host to hundreds of events, ranging from legends like Tony Bennett, contemporary artists such as Maceo Parker and Regina Carter, jazz greats Ron Carter and Benny Golson and emerging artists like Valerie June and Warren Wolf.

And of course, Vermont artists and student musicians will be featured throughout.

So why has this tiny corner of New England become such a magnet for jazz artists?

This Saturday is the eighth annual National Prescription Drug Take Back Day. The program was started by the federal Drug Enforcement Agency in response to the problem of unused prescriptions getting into the wrong the hands.

Rather than throwing them in the trash or flushing them into the wastewater stream, people can take unwanted prescription drugs to designated drop-off centers where authorities will dispose of them. This program is particularly aimed at getting addictive narcotics out of medicine cabinets and bathroom drawers where they can be easily stolen.

At an event in Burlington Thursday, Sen. Bernie Sanders steered clear of a question about the possibility of a presidential run by the liberal senator. Speculation about a Sanders run began after Sanders told The Nation magazine that he is "prepared to run for president of the United State."

What will the new transit and welcome center at One Taylor Street in Montpelier be like? That's yet to be determined, and largely up to the community.

Over the next three months, Montpelier will be hosting three meetings to garner community input on specifics about the site and building, as well as the scale of the project. At a fourth meeting, in July, architects will present the resulting plans.

The first week of May in 1864 saw a brigade of Vermont soldiers engaged in the Battle of the Wilderness in northern Virginia.  Twelve-hundred Vermonters were killed or wounded in two days of fighting for the Union.

In September of 2011, two migrant farmworkers were arrested during a routine traffic stop. The workers were not involved in the infraction, yet they were asked for immigration documentation.

That incident led to an outcry from the migrant farm community and, eventually, to a law requiring the state’s law enforcement agencies to adopt a bias-free policing policy.

Two years after that law was passed, many agencies have not complied with it nor is anyone tasked with monitoring compliance.

Plainfield resident and teacher Kerrin McCadden is the winner of the 2013 New Issues Poetry Prize for her book, Landscape with Plywood Silhouettes. The collection features poems that tackle the feelings of emptiness that follow divorce, the trials of parenting, and the connection to a place that can be called "home."

Broadcast on Thursday, April 24, 2014 at 7:49 a.m.

Learn more about Landscape with Plywood Silhouettes.

Several national companies that offer small loans at high interest rates have agreed to refund money to more than one thousand Vermont borrowers.

The agreement is the result of a lawsuit brought by the Vermont Attorney General against companies illegally offering what are called payday loans.

The loans are often used by individuals who are unable to secure a bank loan.  That was the case with Greg and Rhonda Wood of Thetford.  Four years ago a health problem forced Greg to stop working and his income dropped dramatically.