The potentially deadly mosquito virus Triple-E has been
detected in Vermont for the first
time this year. West Nile Virus has been
detected as well. Experts say there are
several common sense ways you can protect yourself from mosquitoes. One way is
wearing long sleeve shirts and long pants.
Also, wearing a bug spray that contains DEET can help. The EEE infected mosquito was detected in a
pool of water in Whiting. West
Nile has been detected in Addison , Rutland ,
and Franklin Counties
A Middlebury church is teaming up with local police on a
rather unusual cause this month. The
Champlain Valley Unitarian Universalist Society is offering an incentive to
people to get rid of unwanted or unused guns.
Everyone who turns in a gun to the Middlebury Police Department gets a
voucher for 50 dollars. The church
usually takes in up to two-thousand dollars each month in collections,
designating half of the money to its cause-of-the-month, with this month’s
focus being the gun program.
Vermont State Police in conjunction with local and county
law enforcement will be conducting increased patrols as well as Sobriety &
Safety checkpoints during the Labor Day 2013 Mobilization & CARE
Weekend, which runs from this Friday thru September 2nd. Last year there were a total of seventy-seven
(77) fatal crashes in Vermont . In over 30% of those crashes the driver and or
passenger were not buckled up. As of
today, there have been 38 fatalities on our roadways in Vermont .
The scheduled increased patrols and
checkpoints are an opportunity to use high visibility enforcement to turn the
tide in the number of traffic fatalities.
The death penalty is now off the table for Michael Jacques
of East Randolph , the man accused of killing his
12-year-old niece Brooke Bennett five years ago. The U-S Attorney’s Office announced Friday
Jacques will instead plead guilty, and will be sentenced to life without
parole. Jacques, who is currently in
federal custody in an out-of-state prison, will soon appear in court to plead
guilty and be sentenced.
State officials in Vermont
are taking a closer look at employees’ travel budgets. The Shumlin administration last week sent
state agency and department heads notice that travel budgets are being cut by
$170,000 overall for the year.
Legislators this year also inserted wording in the 2014 budget bill
requiring any employee driving more than 11,400 miles a year to use a
state-owned or leased car, unless granted an exemption by a department head.
Administration Secretary Jeb Spaulding said he hopes state agencies will make
better use of technology instead of having employees traveling to attend
meetings.
