Ongoing problems with the state’s health care exchange have prompted renewed calls for major changes in the way that individuals and small businesses purchase health insurance in Vermont. But Gov. Peter Shumlin is resisting these changes.

Vermont Health Connect has had technical problems right from the start. For instance, the online payment system for small businesses has never worked and there’s no solution on the horizon. So the Shumlin Administration is allowing these businesses to buy their policies directly from the insurance companies through next year.

How do you take a clay model and carve it in marble two, three or even 10 times larger? Normally, you’d have to go to Italy to develop this rare skill.  But The Carving Studio and Sculpture Center in West Rutland is bringing Italy to Vermont.

They’re offering a special six-day course in advanced Italian compass enlargement techniques.

Vermont has the most cheese producers per capita in the nation and many of them were on hand to show off the complexity of their craft at the Vermont Cheesemakers Festival this month in Shelburne. 

Cheese enthusiasts lined up at vendors’ tables to taste all the products they had to offer. And while you may think this would lead to fearsome competition, Vermont cheesemakers have banded together to expand their market as VPR's Catherine Hays learned.

Just over a hundred years ago, billions of chestnut trees could be found along the east coast. However, the chestnut population was sent into functional extinction with the introduction of blight in 1904. But that doesn’t mean people are letting go without a fight.

Restoration efforts have taken hold nationally, but it’s the chestnuts in Berlin, Vermont that may hold the key to saving the species.

Valley News Local News Editor John Gregg analyzes some of the key primary races in New Hampshire, including the Republican race to challenge incumbent Senator Jeanne Shaheen.

Activists from Glover's Bread and Puppet Theater spread out in communities around Vermont on Wednesday to hold vigils in protest of the recent Israeli attacks on Gaza. And the troupe is planning similar action on the statehouse lawn on Friday.

Fifteen-thousand Vermonters people who are enrolled in the state's Health Care Exchange, Vermont Health Connect, can't change any of their information at the website,  and thousands of Medicaid enrollees can't renew their coverage online.

Groups of volunteers in over 100 towns have been educating and facilitating home owners and municipalities transition to small-scale renewable energy or to find ways to reduce energy consumption. It’s the work of Vermont’s town energy committees.

A construction worker was struck and killed by a car while removing temporary fog line makers on Interstate 89 in South Burlington last night.

Robert Stanhope, 61, was working for Whitcomb Construction Company. Vermont State Police say Stanhope was struck by a car driven by 22-year-old Emma Gentry of South Burlington at 11:15 p.m. on Wednesday.

Northern EMS was traveling by and stopped to assist Stanhope, but he was pronounced dead at the scene.

Anyone who witnessed the accident is asked to contact Vermont State Police in Williston.

Congressman Peter Welch has one of the most liberal voting records in Washington. At the same time, he’s one of the few Democrats to work closely with some of the most conservative Republicans in the House.  

Welch’s work on the House Oversight Committee serves as a good example of his approach to politics. For the past year, the committee has been the scene of some extremely partisan behavior.