WVTK Local & State News April 27, 2010

The National Weather Service Has issued a WINTER WEATHER ADVISORY FROM 5 THIS AFTERNOON THROUGH 11 AM TOMORROW. Weather Channel Meteorologist Ray Stagich Says Cloudy & Rainy Today with a High In The Mid 40’s.

Sentencing for the former Vergennes Police Chief has been delayed till tomorrow. Michael Lowe is facing 18 months to 4 years in jail. Lowe's lawyers are expected to ask a judge to spare him jail time. Lowe pled guilty to drug and other charges back in January. He has since undergone drug treatment.

The Rutland City Police Commission made very clear it has no intention of complying with a request by the Board of Alderman to fire police chief Tony Bossi. Commissioners say firing Bossi would equal punishment not accountability and insist keeping him on board is the best way to improve the department. The aldermen are not satisfied though. They plan to look at how they can strip power from the commission and are considering asking voters to do away with the commission altogether.

The driver of a stolen car Friday that lead police on a high-speed chase on Interstate 89 has been order to undergo a psychiatric evaluation. 19-year-old Brendan Houston was in court yesterday and pled not guilty to a number of charges. Authorities say Houston suffers from number of mental issues and that he has escaped mental health facilities in the past several weeks.

Due to cuts in state aid, the Tupper Lake Central School District is looking at cutting 30 teachers for next year. And that's not the only bad news, the school district will still face a 10-percent increase in the tax levy to make ends meet. Officials say 55-percent of the districts funds come from the state, next year, the district is project to receive about 48-percent.

The Vermont State Education Chief say Vermont's schools likely wouldn't have been a match for the program, that's why the state isn't applying for federal "Race to the Top" grant money. In order to receive the grants the state would have to do a number of policy and legislative changes.

After a month's delay, close to 6,500 disabled Vermont veterans or their surviving spouses are about to get letters verifying their disabilities. The letters are documentation for aid and property tax breaks. Officials say the letters should be delivered by Tomorrow.

The operator of New England's power grid says there should be no problem meeting the region's demands for electricity this summer, even in the event of an extended heat wave. ISO New England said the region could generate more than 32,000 megawatts this summer, enough to handle the demand during the highest electricity use months.

New York Sen. Chuck Schumer wants the Federal Trade Commission to crack down on how social networking websites use and share personal information. The Democrat has written a letter to the FTC in response to Facebook's launch of new features last week. Facebook says the new features will encourage social activity across the Web, but Schumer says new privacy policies limit user control over how much personal information is shared with sites that partner with Facebook. Schumer is calling on the FTC to set guidelines for how those sites use and share information.

State workers got a head start on this weekend's Green Up Day. About a dozen workers yesterday afternoon joined Governor Jim Douglas in picking up trash along Route 12 in Middlesex. They said last year on Green Up Day, Vermonters picked up 250 tons of garbage from roadsides. The most common litter was fast food wrappers, coffee cups and beer bottles.