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Under Scott's plan, Vermont would go from having more than 100 school districts to five and see the state government assume a much more direct role in deciding how much schools spend, which schools close, and what is taught.

Economists say the Vermont and national economies are performing far better than economists predicted six months ago, and that “aggregate measures of economic activity have rarely been better.�

Old medical bills that have reached “terminal bad debt status� can be purchased for pennies on the dollar from collectors and health care providers. Officials are planning to introduce legislation to utilize that opportunity for Vermonters.

The overriding question for lawmakers this year isn't how the Legislature is going to hit its emissions-reduction requirements, but whether to keep them in law.

The proposed doula certification program would be a step toward allowing Medicaid coverage for doula services.

A first-in-the-nation policy that seeks to reduce the amount of fossil fuels Vermonters use to heat their homes would add an estimated 58 cents per gallon to the cost of heating fuel over the next 10 years, according to a report issued by the Public Utility Commission.

People with incomes under $50,000 and couples with incomes under $65,000 do not pay state taxes on their benefits. A bipartisan effort at the Statehouse wants to raise those income exemption levels.

Republican Gov. Phil Scott will introduce legislation that would create clearer legal standards for when a defendant can be held without bail. He said the provision will address a practice that his administration has coined “catch and release.�

In his fifth inaugural address, Scott framed the latest election results as a clear mandate � and he telegraphed big plans for Vermont's schools.

Thursday’s election was an unusual but not unprecedented event. Rodgers beat Zuckerman in the November elections, but because neither won more than 50% of the vote, the state Constitution required lawmakers to name a winner.