The 1960s and '70s saw a lot of people arrive in Vermont with the back-to-the-land movement. Their idealism followed the legacies of people like Helen and Scott Nearing, and even Henry David Thoreau well before them. On the next Vermont Edition, we discuss the impulse to find meaning in a life close to nature. Our guest is Rebecca Kneale Gould, a writer and senior lecturer at Middlebury College.

Sen. Patrick Leahy joined an unlikely group in Burlington today to show off his new legislation that will make it easier for used cell phones to work on a variety of cellular networks.

At the Women Helping Battered Women offices in Burlington, Leahy introduced women’s advocates and a telecom official to speak about the new bill, which he said will help shelters like the one in Burlington.

Leahy said the new law will help shelters use donated phones to pass out to women in need.

The state of Vermont is working to reduce phosphorus pollution in the Lake Champlain watershed.

A lot of the focus has been on farms, and now the state is turning attention to smaller scale agriculture, and that means owners of much smaller parcels of land will also have to react to the regulations already on the books.

For many of us, summer is a time to kick back with a good book.  And in some neighborhoods, finding something new to read is as easy as strolling down the street. Little free libraries have been sprouting all over the world—including Vermont. Some are no bigger than a bird house. Others are as large as a phone booth. You leave a book, and take one—no card necessary.

Beware the wild parsnip.

That’s a warning sprouting in emails around the state, as the invasive weed spreads. It looks like a little yellow umbrella atop a stem that can be as long as five feet tall. It won’t hurt to brush along it, but if you break the stem, and the sap on your skin is exposed to sunlight, you can get a nasty burn. Harry Roberts, of Norwich, is seeing more and more of this pesky weed as he motorcycles around the state.

“It’s a very sinister plant and it starts at the roadside and if you don’t mow the adjacent field it takes over the field,” he says.

Public Post looks into Vermont's customizable emergency alert system, which is online and expanding. Several ski areas have taken on major projects, from a new orange  "six pack bubble chairlift" at Okemo to a parking garage in Stowe. And now's the time to nominate your favorite summer or fall event for the Vermont Chamber's top ten list.

Seneca Mountain Wind is stopping development of a project that would have placed about 20 turbines at a remote mountaintop site in the Northeast Kingdom. The company has withdrawn its electrical connection request with ISO New England and terminated land leases in Newark, Brighton and Ferdinand.

According to a press release late Friday afternoon, “SMW’s decision reflects its commitment to obtain community support before advancing this project, which was not evident in any of the three jurisdictions where SMW had development plans.”

A report published by Bloomberg news say talks between IBM and GlobalFoundries over the sale of Big Blue’s chip making division, including facilities in Essex Junction, broke down over price.  

Bloomberg cites sources “familiar with the process.”  The report says at issue were IBM’s manufacturing plants, which GlobalFoundries “placed little or no value on” due to their age.

Rumors of a deal between the two companies have been circulating since April.

With their contract set to expire in just over a week, FairPoint Communications and the union representing workers continued their negotiations this week. 

The International Brotherhood of Electrical workers represents about 1,800 FairPoint employees in Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine. 

The union says members have voted overwhelmingly to authorize a strike if necessary. 

Mike Spillane is a Vermont member of the IBEW negotiating team. Returning Friday from talks in Nashua, New Hampshire Spillane said the sides are still far apart.

Controversy is swirling in the Upper Valley around one of the oldest food co-ops in the United States. After two popular employees were fired from Co-op Food Stores of New Hampshire without explanation last month, members began questioning how management treats employees.

At a recent Board meeting attended by about 300 members, two starkly different answers emerged.