The Shumlin Administration is defending its decision not to allow small businesses to extend their current health care coverage for a year.

Some business leaders are calling for this extension because of ongoing technical problems at the state’s new health care exchange. But the administration says the plan isn’t needed because they’ve put new options in place.

The call for a one year delay picked up momentum this week when the Shumlin Administration announced that the exchange’s on line payment system for small businesses still isn’t working.

Vermonters are reacting to the death of former South African president Nelson Mandela.

Senator Patrick Leahy said Mandela will be remembered as one of the greatest world leaders. Senator Bernie Sanders said Mandela was a powerful force for good in the struggle to dismantle the terrible legacy of apartheid.

One Vermonter with a special connection to Mandela is Chris Wren, a VPR commentator and former New York Times Bureau Chief in Johannesburg.

Wren describes to VPR’s Neal Charnoff the day Mandela was released from prison:

Now that it's decided that F-35s are coming to Vermont, here is what you need to know about the jets, the basing and the heated local debate over the Air Force's choice.

1. By the time basing is complete in 2020, the Air Force will have spent more than $1.5 billion to bring F-35s to Vermont

Despite the intensity of the local debate about the issue, average Vermonters aren’t likely to see any major changes until 2020, when the Vermont Air National Guard says the jets will actually arrive.

Vermont Senator Patrick Leahy says he won’t support increasing sanctions on Iran during the current round of negotiations on that country’s nuclear program.

But Senator Bernie Sanders says he hasn’t ruled it out despite White House opposition.

Key senators from both sides of the aisle are pushing for more sanctions by Christmas, but President Obama is warning that passing new sanctions now threatens negotiations in the wake of a breakthrough interim agreement reached last month with Iran.

It’s the holidays, a time when friends, families and co-workers unite to celebrate. Quite often with alcohol flowing.

We take a look at some of Vermont’s liquor laws and how they developed with Department of Liquor Control Director of Enforcement Bill Goggins. And we’ll hear how law enforcement agencies around the state work to keep impaired drivers off the highway from Ted Minall, Coordinator of the Governor's Highway Safety Program.

Post your questions or comments here or email them to vermontedition@vpr.net.

There are a lot of legal and political questions surrounding the operations of the state’s new health care exchange. Will the state try to seek sizeable penalties from the contractor that missed a series of key deadlines and what will be the political fall out with the difficult roll out of the exchange?

Peter Hirschfeld is the bureau chief of the Vermont Press Bureau. He spoke with Vermont Edition about the rollout.

The former CEO of a northern Vermont credit union closed by regulators a year ago has pleaded guilty to embezzlement. 

According to court documents, Debra Kinney has agreed to pay the government $250,000.  The indictment contends that Kinney embezzled funds from the Border Lodge Credit Union in Derby Line beginning in late 2010.  The credit union served 1,100 members and was one of the state’s smallest.  It operated from Kinney’s home.

Last week, some business leaders called for a one year delay in implementing Vermont Health Connect, the state health care exchange. State officials were hoping that the exchange would be fully operational at the beginning of December but the online payment program still hasn’t been put into place. Some individuals and small businesses are concerned that time is running out for them to purchase policies through the exchange in order to have coverage beginning in January.

An alliance that includes 27 towns in three southeastern Vermont counties has unveiled a plan for reversing the region’s economic decline.

The plan sets a goal of 1,800 new jobs by 2018 -- an addition of $460 million annually to the region’s economy.

That’s despite the expected loss of hundreds of the region’s highest paying jobs when Vermont Yankee closes next year.

Laura Sibilia of the Brattleboro Development Credit Corporation says the plan reflects the ideas of many individuals and groups.