Vermont’s unemployment rate decreased for the sixth straight month in March, down to 3.4 percent, according to statistics from the Department of Labor.

This week, cat fanciers shared their homemade cat videos. Lawmakers in the House voted on a bill to boost the wages of construction workers on state-funded projects. Senators argued over how to curb distracted driving. And a bill to mandate the labeling of foods containing Genetically Modified Organism’s sailed through the Senate, but the Attorney General fears a lawsuit

These were some of the voices in the news this week.

Although it may have been evident in your neck of the woods for some time, this week the Green Mountain Club officially announced the start of mud season and urged hikers to stay off muddy trails "unless they still have extensive snow or ice cover," and until the trails dry out.

According to the club's press release, "high elevation soils take until Memorial Day to dry out, especially on north slopes and evergreen shaded trails."

Voters in Brattleboro overturned the town’s 2015 municipal budget in a town-wide ballot Thursday. The $16 million spending plan was approved at Brattleboro’s representative town meeting on March 22. But later, more than the required 50 town meeting representatives signed a petition to revisit the budget in a town-wide referendum. The budget failed by a wide margin, 771 to 478.

Earlier this week, a long running lawsuit by a couple opposed to Green Mountain Power’s Kingdom Community Wind Project was dropped after the couple settled with the utility out of court.

Don and Shirley Nelson are selling their Lowell farm to the state's largest electric utility for $1.3 million to settle a lawsuit over the ownership of land that is part of Green Mountain Power's 21-turbine industrial wind project.

The Nelsons were among the most vocal critics of the GMP's plan to build the Kingdom Community Wind project on a ridgeline near their home.

In 2012, after a 180 year run the Barnard General store closed.

In response, a local group raised $500,000 to purchase the building and find someone to run the store.

In May of last year, the store reopened and it appears to be doing well.

The store’s closing hit the community hard and it didn’t take much time for the local residents to get to work on a plan to reopen it.    

House lawmakers have given final approval to legislation that aims to expedite the clean-up of Vermont waterways. But the bill that passed the floor Thursday doesn’t include any funding for the effort. And even its chief proponent says it won’t address the pollution crisis unfolding in places like Lake Champlain.

Poetry Out Loud is a national competition for high school students, which calls on them to memorize and recite great works of poetry.

This year’s state champion is Sam Boudreau, a junior at Bellows Free Academy in St. Albans.

Boudreau was one of 5000 Vermont students who took part in this year’s program.

What if the Revolutionary War happened just because all the colonists were rowdy drunks ginning one another up at the various taverns liberally sprinkled around New England? That’s taking it too far, of course, but those early colonists did enjoy their beverages.

The Green Mountain Boys hatched their plans for liberty and freedom over tankards at the Catamount Tavern in Bennington. And the Continental Army gave a ration of spruce beer to all its soldiers on a daily basis.

When the 2014 legislative session started, leaders in the Progressive Party were expressing concern with some of the policies of Governor Shumlin. How do they feel about the Governor now as the session winds down?

We’ll talk with the House Progressive Caucus leader, Burlington Representative Chris Pearson, and with Enosburg Representative Cindy Weed and Senator David Zuckerman about the progressive legislative priorities for the end of the session.