WVTK Local & State News January 13, 2010

Storyteller and filmmaker Malcolm "Mac" Parker is under investigation for violating state securities laws, according to court papers. Paulette Thabault, commissioner of the State Department of Banking, Insurance, Securities and Health Care Administration, confirmed investigators are looking at whether the Addison resident violated state law by soliciting funding for a movie called "The Birth of Innocence." The website that described the project and sought donors is no longer available. The state says neither he nor the movie are registered to collect investments.

The Vermont Senate looks poised to move ahead with a measure that would ban motorists from typing messages onto cell phone keyboards while driving. On Tuesday, the Senate Committee on Transportation set to work on a "texting while driving" provision that proponents say would decrease the incidence of one of the deadliest distractions on Vermont roadways. Calls for texting bans aren't new. Over the past two years, the Vermont House has given broad bipartisan approval to bills that included bans on texting while driving. The effort has won new political momentum as Senate leaders take interest in the issue.

One candidate has dropped out of the race for lieutenant governor in Vermont, and a new one's in the running. David Zuckerman says he's decided to drop out of the race to devote his time to his farm, while fellow state representative Steve Howard says he's joining the race for the seat being vacated Brian Dubie as he runs for governor.

More than 200 people crowded into the Vermont House chamber for a public hearing on health care. Tuesday evening's hearing began with testimony from U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, who told lawmakers that federal health care legislation will expand the availability of community health centers in Vermont.

A radioactive tritium leak at the Vermont Yankee has prompted new questions among lawmakers weighing whether to approve a 20-year extension of the nuclear plant's license. A spokesman at the nuclear reactor said Tuesday plant staff were still trying to determine the source of the leak containing elevated levels of the radioactive isotope. The leak was detected last week at the plant site in Vernon.

The deadly start of the snowmobiling season has state police and snowmobile groups renewing calls to stay careful. Six people have died in snowmobiling accidents in Vermont since Christmas Eve, with officials stressing sledders need to be careful of thin ice.

A new state report finds dozens of bridges across New York are in even worse shape than Lake Champlain's Crown Point Bridge, which was brought down for structural problems last month. The deficient spans include a number of major spans, including the Ogdensburg-Prescott International Bridge.

Several Vermont political candidates want their state to call it quits with America. In what organizers call the first statewide slate of pro-secession candidates, nine people under the Vermont Independence Day banner are planning to run for governor, lieutenant governor and seven seats in the state Senate. They say they want a fresh start with a real democracy. Their cause is the latest incarnation of a movement that's bubbled in Vermont and elsewhere for years. Few observers give them much hope of winning even in a left-leaning state where the popular Republican governor's decision not to seek re-election has touched off a scramble among would-be successors. Five Democrats and a Republican are in a wide-open race for the seat headed to the November election.

A new city ordinance makes it illegal for people to idle their vehicles in Burlington for more than three minutes. The ordinance that took effect Dec. 31 makes exceptions for vehicles that run refrigeration units, vehicles that are being repaired or if shutting off the vehicle would jeopardize the health or safety of someone in it. But Burlington Police Chief Michael Schirling says enforcement is not high on police radar. The Burlington Free Press says a less restrictive ordinance enacted two decades ago that applied to idling during warm weather months did not lead to many tickets. Schirling says the department's parking division primarily enforces the ordinance, which focuses on education.

Vermont police are working up a case against a man who they say pretended to be a wounded veteran of both the Afghanistan and Iraq wars to get his truck fixed for free. But they also say suspect Simon George of Wilmington has left the country for his native England. The Brattleboro Reformer reports there is no record George served overseas.