WVTK Local & State News December 30, 2009

The winter weather made for some dangerous road conditions yesterday. Heavy snowfall and quickly dropping temperatures meant ice was frozen to many road surfaces. Cars spun out or went off the roads in some places. It was too cold for rock salt to even melt ice. Crews say normal salt works best when temperatures are in the 20s. Vermont transportation officials are putting additives into a liquid brine hoping the experiment works better than salt to melt ice in the bitter cold. The transportation agency says hills on Route 7 were some of the most difficult roads to manage.

Crews started pulling chunks of the Champlain Bridge out of Lake Champlain Yesterday. It's a process that is expected to take at least 4 months. Six barges, 45 people, and about 30 pieces of machinery will be used to complete the work. Most all of the pieces will have to be cut up before they're removed, including the debris underwater. The biggest challenge will be removing parts of the bridge from the middle of the channel where the water is about 45 feet deep.

Vermont's major teachers' union is trying to get out in front of a report to be issued soon on public retirement systems, saying it fears it might propose changes that would harm pensions for teachers, state and municipal workers. The National Education Association's Vermont chapter launched its own report Tuesday ahead of next week's start to the Legislative session, saying it wants to help provide solutions to the state's short-term budget crisis without destroying a teacher pension system in place for six decades. NEA officials say they fear the special commission's report will call on teachers and other public employees to work longer, pay more into the system and receive less in pensions.

Amtrak will stop in Castleton, Vt., for the first time in more than 50 years starting this weekend. The Ethan Allen Express will make two stops a day at the recently renovated station starting Saturday. The Agency of Transportation decided to switch the train's daily stop between Rutland and Albany from Fair Haven to Castleton to meet growing and anticipated demand to Castleton State College and Lake Bomoseen areas.

An arrest warrant has been issued for a Lyndon man in the stabbing death of his estranged wife. State police say Anna Berwick had recently gotten a restraining order against Benjamin Berwick after the couple separated. She was found dead yesterday. He is hospitalized with a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

A Virginia woman may have disappeared with a 7-year-old girl at the heart of a custody dispute involving a former lesbian couple. A Vermont judge has ordered the youngster to be turned over to Janet Jenkins of Fair Haven Friday, but the judge says Jenkins' former partner, Lisa Miller, has "disappeared."

While the U.S. Senate's version of health care reform didn't include a so-called public option, state lawmaker Paul Poirier would like to see it happen in Vermont. Poirier tells The Times Argus he plans to introduce a bill creating a public health insurance option for low-income residents.

The state plans to go to anglers next month, hoping to find out more about their fishing habits and opinions on how Vermont manages its fisheries. Surveys will be mailed to both in and out-of-state anglers.

A 77-year-old man has died in a car accident in Bloomfield.Police say Robert Postier was traveling on Route 102 on Tuesday when his Jeep Liberty went off the road, struck a sign post and ignited. Authorities say a passing motorist pulled Postier from the burning vehicle but he was pronounced dead at the scene.