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Police defend use of controversial device that killed dog

WARREN — Michael Vick was not the only dog killer who made headlines last week; a Vermont State Police trooper used deadly force against a canine. The animal, which belonged to a suspected drug user, was accidentally “Tased” to death.... Read more

Katrina's winds shredded through the Gulf South like a giant scythe, but it was the flood in New Orleans that jolted the national psyche, leaving the deepest memory. The flood turned the Big Easy into a disaster zone, planting the image of a Third World backwater. When has the persona of a city been so altered so quickly, or a president so damaged by a single event?... Read more

MONTPELIER -- Vermont is upgrading its emergency 911 technology from the traditional telephone network to a system that transmits voice, data and graphics using Internet-protocol, or IP-based technology. The new approach will greatly improve Vermont's emergency-response capabilities, eventually allowing 911 operators to receive and send video images from the scenes of car accidents, locate callers who are lost or dialing from Internet phones, and alert entire communities about a natural disaster or terrorist attack.... Read more

MONTPELIER -- Want a helpful hint on how you could help slow the spread of an avian flu pandemic? David Harp of Middlesex suggests carrying a jalapeño around in your pocket for a week.

Harp isn't saying that the hot pepper is a preventative or cure for the H5N1 virus. Nor is he superstitious. Harp isn't even a public-health professional. He's just a concerned citizen who's been closely following news of the global spread of avian influenza and the range of public responses to it.... Read more

SWANTON -- Vermont's emergency responders don't have any serious deficiencies when it comes to their ability to handle a major terrorist attack near the U.S.-Canada border. But there are still some "chinks in the armor" that need to be fixed.... Read more

Firefighters last Friday torched the vacant house at 280 N. Winooski Ave. in Burlington in a daylong controlled burn. Landlord Clark W. Hinsdale II bought the property in 1984, but it had been vacant for two decades before Laurie Smith acquired it in a land trade with Hinsdale in November. Smith owns the building next door, at 274 N. Winooski Ave.... Read more

It's 7:40 a.m. A sign posted by the Department of Homeland Security greets visitors to the Franklin County Airport in Highgate, a modest airstrip not far from the Canadian border. "Welcome to Operation Double Impact," the sign reads. "No loaded weapons beyond this point." At the entrance to the tarmac, I identify myself to a state trooper, whose holstered 9mm handgun has a blue ribbon on its handle, which means there's no ammo clip.... Read more

VERMONT -- It didn't take long for the United States to go from being the world's only military superpower to looking like a third-world nation that gets international aid offers from countries such as Cuba, Sri Lanka and Afghanistan. As storm-ravished victims of Hurricane Katrina languished for days without food, water, medical care or adequate shelter, the government's slow and meager initial response revealed its appalling inability to handle a disaster of this magnitude.... Read more

Colchester Police Officer Mike Cannon thinks it's unlikely he'll ever have to respond to a terrorist attack. "I don't think Osama bin Laden is sitting under a tree somewhere thinking about how to get at Colchester, Vermont," he says. But that hasn't stopped the 45-year-old veteran cop and Technical Rescue Squad Leader from applying for, and winning, federal anti-terrorism funding for his 17-member rescue unit. Since March 2003, the Vermont Department of Homeland Security has awarded them three grants, totaling nearly $240,000.... Read more