WVTK Local News November 25, 2009

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.

Vermonters have contributed over $175,000 to Operation Holiday Homecoming, which is more than enough to bus 600 Vermont National Guard soldiers home from Indiana on December 23. The cost for the charter buses will be $85,000, much less than expected because some drivers are donating their time. The extra money will be donated to the Vermont National Guard Charitable Foundation, which helps Guard families during deployments.

Police across Vermont and New York are out in force to enforce safe travel and monitor seat belt use. Increased enforcement runs thru the weekend. In 2008, 398 people lost their lives in accidents across the country over the Thanksgiving holiday period. No lives were lost in Vermont. Police say the busiest time on the roads will be between 5 and 9 PM tonight.

Doctors at Vermont's largest hospital are questioning a recommendation from a federal task force that breast cancer screening for women in their 40s be scaled back. Dr. Sally Herschorn, co-director of the breast imaging unit at Fletcher Allen Health Care in Burlington, says roughly a fifth of breast cancer diagnoses in recent years have been in women aged 40 to 49.

New York's latest attempt to avoid a fiscal crisis devolved yesterday into Governor David Paterson seeking emergency power to close a $3.2 billion deficit because lawmakers are what the governor calls "afraid" of special interests. Senators promptly called him "King David" and then went home for the Thanksgiving Holiday.

The Windham Orchestra has put director David Runnion on unpaid leave after he was cited on sex charges. Investigators tell the Brattleboro Reformer Runnion asked a minor to send him nude images. A concert in Saxtons River that Runnion was to lead last week was canceled.

An elderly West Windsor man has been found incompetent to face charges after he allegedly fired off a barrage of rifle shots at his neighbor after going off his medications. The Lebanon Valley News reports Peter Burch will stay for now at the Vermont State Hospital.

FairPoint Communications, struggling to reorganize and emerge from bankruptcy, has hired two Maine firms to beef up its marketing and communications.The phone company says it has hired Portland-based Garrand and the VIA Group to help get the word out about its services.The company says it lost $77 million in the quarter ending Sept. 30.