WVTK Local News November 23, 2009

Thanksgiving Holiday Ferry Service:
Basin Harbor Ferry and ACTR bus services WILL NOT run on 11/26 and 11/27. ACTR's Dial-a-Ride service IS available.
Essex County Transportation WILL NOT run on 11/26 and 11/27. The Essex to Charlotte ferry will continue to run as scheduled. The Fort Ticonderoga ferry WILL be open.

The U.S. Senate has approved the nomination of Vermont state Judge Christina Reiss to become the state's next federal judge. The 47-year-old Reiss (pronounced Rice) of Essex Junction is the first woman to serve on Vermont's federal district court.

U.S. Rep. Peter Welch will start Thanksgiving week with a visit to a food bank in Barre. The Vermont Democrat will hear about the growing problem of hunger in Vermont in his stop today at the Vermont Foodbank. The federal government says 10.2 percent of Vermont households struggle with hunger.

A 49-year-old Cabot man has been charged for allegedly sexually assaulting a juvenile boy over the past four years. Vermont State Police say James Davison was arrested and being held at a jail in South Burlington on $10,000 bail. He is to be arraigned today.

Police say a 53-year-old Vermont man was killed and a juvenile girl was injured when they were thrown off an all-terrain vehicle that went out of control on a road in Poultney. Police say the driver, Edward Kasuba of Poultney, died. The girl was taken to Rutland Regional Medical Center.

New Hampshire state police say a man who hit a large deer with his vehicle on Interstate 89 tried to warn oncoming traffic about the crash before he was struck by two cars and injured. Timotheus Phol of Hartland, Vt., was struck by cars driven by a Maine motorist and a Massachusetts driver

The results are in, hot from the oven: Green Mountain Technical and Career Center of Hyde Park, has captured top honors in an annual cooking contest in Vermont's capital, for the second year in a row. The second annual Vermont Culinary Classic drew high school culinary students from around the state.

Ben & Jerry's has named its newest ice cream flavor after Vermont native and champion snowboarder Hannah Teter. It's called Hannah Teter's Maple Blondie. It's maple ice cream with blonde brownie pieces and a maple caramel swirl. It's the first time the ice cream company has named a flavor after an athlete.

The Vermont National Guard wants hunters and other civilians to stay off an 11,000-acre firing range in Bolton, Jericho and Underhill. Soldiers heading to Iraq and Afghanistan use the range. Officials say hunters have been putting themselves and soldiers at risk by trespassing on the federal property.

Vermont's passenger trains are seeing a slightly positive trend in ridership despite the economic downturn. Both the Ethan Allen train between Rutland and New York and the Vermonter out of St. Albans saw slight increases in ridership in the 12 months ending Sept. 30 and again last month.

Mother Nature has postponed opening day for some of Vermont's ski areas. Stowe, Sugarbush and Okemo Mountain Resort had planned to open Saturday, but they have pushed back the date because warm weather has hindered snowmaking.