Thursday, April 25, 2013

WVTK Local & State News April 25, 2013

For those taking the Lake Champlain Ferry, there is a change coming soon for your commuter cards. Starting May 1st, there will be a minimum $200 purchase for new cards and for recharges. Lake Champlain Transportation Company says the costs to manage them were more than expected. A 20 ride commuter book is still available and the discount stays the same.


A Castleton man and an alleged drug runner from Brooklyn, NY were arrested yesterday on drug and conspiracy charges. The arrests occurred after Vermont State Police found 12-hundred bags of heroin in a taxi carrying one of the suspects in Rutland County. Kenneth Trapp, age 31 of Castleton, was in the cab when it was stopped in Fair Haven. His alleged accomplice is Danielle Goding of Brooklyn, and she was arrested in a limousine headed back to New York. In addition to the drugs, police seized over 13-thousand dollars.

In a blast from the past, a farm in Vermont is planning to take a flat bottomed sailing barge to New York City to sell Vermont produce. Erik Andrus of the Vermont Sail Freight Project, and four volunteers, are building a 39-foot canal barge. The vessel will ferry up to 12 tons of nonperishable produce, such as maple syrup, rice, and beans, down the Hudson River to New York, where they will sell food directly to consumers. Andrus says that because the boat is powered by wind, it is more sustainable and efficient. The barge's maiden voyage will take place in July.

New York State police say they're looking for the public's help in finding two people who walked out of the Wal-Mart store in Plattsburgh with thousands of dollars in electronic merchandise. Troopers say a man and a woman entered the Wal-Mart Supercenter early last Saturday morning and stole about $8,000 in electronic goods from the store, including laptop computers, camcorders and digital cameras.

The U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee on this morning advanced a bill that would require police to get a search warrant before reading someone's email. Senator Patrick Leahy authored the bill to extend privacy rights to online content. Under current law, investigators only need to obtain a subpoena to look at email. This bill would require police to prove to a judge they have probable cause to access the material.

Vermont lawmakers are considering a bill that would allow brewers to ship their beer directly to consumers to expand their markets and reach their niche customers nationwide. The state already allows wineries to ship wine directly to consumers after changing the law, but beer shipments are illegal. That means beer aficionados who want to sample some of Vermont’s artisan craft beers either have to come to the state to buy it or purchase it online illegally.