WVTK Local & State News February 25, 2010

After nearly 4 hours of debate, the state Senate voted 26 to 4 to block the extension of Vermont Yankee's operating license past 2012. Some Senators wanted to delay the vote, saying the economic impact of closing the plant needs to be reviewed further. Vermont is the only state in the country with a law giving its Legislature a say over a nuclear plant's re-licensing.

Crews are working around the clock to restore power to customers still in the dark in southern Vermont. More than 19,000 customers were without power earlier this morning, down from more than 21,000 households yesterday. The majority of the outages are in Windham, Windsor, and Rutland Counties. Vermont Emergency Management officials say today’s forecast of a mix of snow, sleet, freezing rain and high winds could lead to more outages.

The Randolph man charged with kidnapping and murdering his 12-year-old niece is asking a federal judge to hold his trial in another state. Attorneys for Michael Jacques say it’s impossible for Jacques to get a fair trail in Vermont due to all the pretrial publicity. The defense has also requested that the trial be moved from federal to state court.

As the snow piles up this week, state agriculture officials are reminding farmers they need to try to get snow off of their barn roofs to try to avoid any collapses. They say many agricultural buildings aren't designed to hold a lot of snow. The warning comes especially for older roofs.

A Siena College poll released this week said 58 percent of New Yorkers would support wine sales in grocery stores. Governor David Paterson proposed the change as part of his 2010-2011 budget proposal, estimating it could bring in $250 million. Opponents said it would put many small liquor stores out of business and cost the state thousands of jobs.

A bone marrow drive was held yesterday at the University of Vermont. The bone marrow registry is running low on donors. If fact, according to the bone marrow registry 6 thousand people a day are still looking for a transplant match. The drive is a way to get people to sign up for the National Bone Marrow Registry. About 100 people signed up yesterday.