WVTK Local & State News December 6, 2010

Vermont State Police are trying to find out who left several homemade bombs in an Addison neighborhood Friday night. The New Haven barracks received two phone calls about the explosives Saturday. Police say they found three at a house near Kayhart Farm. Another one was outside a house down the road on Lake St. Police say the houses were random targets. The explosives were plastic soda and detergent bottles filled with household cleaning chemicals. Anyone with information should contact the police.

A website based in Charlotte is giving residents the option to shop their local farmers' market on the web, then pick up their basket in one weekly location. Farm Stand Co Op Dot Com is a site started by a group in Charlotte, where a real-life farmers market has never taken off. The website allows people to shop a list of items, paid out of an account and delivered to several locations every week.

Five days after the storm, everyone who lost power in some wild weather last week is enjoying electricity again. Vermont Electrical Co-op finished restoring power to thousands of homes in Chittenden County Sunday.

The Vermont Air National Guard has a new general. Richard Harris of Essex Junction was promoted recently to the rank of brigadier general. Harris is an F-16 command pilot who has flown in Iraq. He started his Vermont Air Guard career as a second lieutenant in 1988. In his civilian life Harris is a commercial airline pilot.

New numbers from the state show that fewer hunters bagged a buck this hunting season. In Vermont's rifle hunting season as of December first there was about a 23 percent drop from last year and the second straight year of falling numbers. The final tally from the state won't be ready until the end of December.

Officials say the power outage Saturday morning in South Burlington was likely caused by a squirrel. A worker at the scene said the substation is prone to squirrel attacks. The outage that affected about 5-thousand customers also took out streetlights, area hotels, and the University Mall. Power was restored to most customers by noon.

Exactly one month to go until Vermont lawmakers will begin their session, and Shap Smith will once again lead the Vermont House of Representatives. The Democrat from Morristown was re-elected to his post Saturday by the House Democratic caucus. And earlier Sunday, Senate Democrats elected John Campbell of Quechee to be Senate President Pro-Tem. He replaces Peter Shumlin who will be sworn in as Governor on January 6th.

Mayor Bob Kiss says he thinks Burlington’s municipal phone, Internet and cable TV service will get past its current troubles and be a key asset to the city in the future. His comments followed revelations that Burlington Telecom's main source of financing - an arm of Citibank - was terminating its lease for nonpayment and demanding the return of equipment worth millions of dollars.

More people are trying to sneak into Canada from Vermont. Officials at the Canadian border say they've seen border arrests of illegal immigrants quadruple this past October and November. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police arrested 60 people over the past two months. That's up from about 15 arrests during the same time period in 2009.

Nearly 300 middle and high school students from Vermont and New Hampshire spent the weekend taking on an engineering challenge at the University of Vermont. This year's project was to create the perfect emergency shelter. The students spent months perfecting their designs. The shelters had to go up fast and be strong enough to withstand weather, especially high winds. For the third year in a row, the Sharon Academy team won the competition.

There was a sad end to the search for a missing hunter in Calais. On Sunday, search crews found the body of Scott Mackey, who had been missing since Saturday. Mackey was found about 800 feet into the woods. It's not clear why Mackey died at this point. The 61-year-old was a well-known member of the community and an avid hunter.

Despite high unemployment in the region, experts see a labor shortage looming in New England. The population has declined steadily in Massachusetts and other New England states over recent decades and baby boomers are getting set to retire in coming years. The result could be a shortfall of as many as 780,000 skilled workers by 2018, especially for jobs such as surgical assistants, preschool teachers, lab technicians, legal secretaries and office administrators.

A city man charged with possessing jewelry stolen from a downtown Rutland jewelry store has been charged with a similar crime in the past. Keith J. Lafaso was jailed on $50,000 bail this week after pleading innocent to a felony charge of possessing stolen property. City Police said he was in possession of 13 pieces of jewelry stolen from Freeman Jewelers on Merchants Row. Lafaso was charged in a similar break-in five years ago in Pittsford after he threw a rock through a convenience store window to steal cigarettes.

The Rutland High School senior class is hoping to raise funds for their activities by selling trees this coming weekend. The Christmas Tree Barn in Rutland Town will open from 10 AM to 3 PM Saturday and Sunday for the fundraiser. Colorado or Black Hill Spruce trees will be sold for $25. Hot-mulled cider and baked goods will also be offered. All proceeds go to the senior class.

Economic development agencies say green technology is the way of the future for the Green Mountain State. The Rutland Economic Development Corporation gathered green technology leaders from across the Green Mountain State for their Greener in the Mountains event Saturday in Rutland. Varying vendors for lighting, electricity, wood pellet heating and green insulation were all available to answer questions and give advice to those in attendance about how they can make green technology work for them.

The Vermont Air National Guard says night flying will take place this week and next week. Flights are scheduled for the evenings of Tuesday, December 7 through Friday, December 10, and again Tuesday, December 14 through Friday, December 17. During these training periods, there will be two scheduled multi-aircraft takeoffs during the early evening hours, and all F-16s are expected to be on the ground no later than 9 PM.