Vermont police report that a staggering amount of heroin is flowing into the state right now. But where are the drugs coming from?

The cops say they’re from urban areas such as New York, Philadelphia, Lowell and Holyoke, Mass., Albany, and even Chicago and Detroit. Rutland Police Chief James Baker says a bag of heroin that sells for $5 in a big city can fetch as much as $30 on the streets of his city.... Read more

Whoever replaces Brian Burgess as the next Vermont Supreme Court justice will likely spend a good deal of time “on the bench” — in both senses of the term.

Vermont’s top judges recuse themselves with unusual frequency, legal experts say, owing mostly to the state’s small size and the potential conflicts that arise from friendships and past professional associations.... Read more

Vermont health officials are spending $1 million to study how a silent killer will impact its citizenry in the coming decades. Cancer, heart disease or heroin addiction? Nope. Try climate change.... Read more

Allen Gilbert has been thinking a lot about drones lately. Not the ones that rain Hellfire missiles on militants in remote parts of the Middle East and Asia. But spy drones that could monitor the movements of Vermonters — and, indeed, of all Americans — here at home.

“I think we’ll have drones flying overhead in Vermont within a year,” predicts Gilbert, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Vermont. ... Read more

Vermont has a lot of nonprofits — more than 6000, according to a list from Vermont Business Magazine — and competition for donor dollars can be fierce. It takes more than phone-a-thons to raise the dough needed to keep the state’s arts, human services, health, educational and religious institutions afloat. ... Read more

When deer in Pennsylvania tested positive for chronic wasting disease last October, Vermont officials sounded the alarm. The Vermont Department of Fish & Wildlife issued a press release warning that the spread of CWD, a relative of mad cow disease, poses “the biggest threat to North America’s deer hunting culture and tradition.

“Therefore, the Fish & Wildlife Department is taking measures to prevent the introduction of infectious diseases to the state’s deer herd,” the press release continued.... Read more

Gun control in Vermont? Turns out that was just a fantasy. The massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School last December was an unthinkable tragedy that ignited a national debate about gun laws. But it didn’t happen here. Most Vermonters aren’t touched by gun crimes. Gangs don’t terrorize our neighborhoods. Aside from the occasional hunting accident or robbery gone wrong, shootings are, fortunately, a rarity in these parts.... Read more

Winooski police Sgt. Mike Cram was patrolling Route 7 during last Friday’s snowstorm when the laptop computer in his SUV started flashing and beeping like a slot machine. The automated license-plate reader mounted on the vehicle’s roof had just recorded a “hit.” An alert on Cram’s computer indicated the driver of a red Cadillac heading in the other direction had a suspended license.... Read more

When my car broke down last month, and I needed to be in Montpelier for a story, I hopped on Chittenden County Transportation Authority’s LINK Express. While regular bus riders are probably smart enough to buy prepaid swipe cards, I climbed on board with a pocket full of fives and tens.

The one-way fare was $4. So when I slid my $5 bill into the fare box, I expected to hear the sweet sound of four quarters clanging into the coin-return slot. But I never heard it. The machine didn’t have a coin-return slot. Damn thing just kept my dollar.... Read more

When the U.S. Border Patrol agents arrested Jose Tomas Flores-Rocha for bringing Hispanic prostitutes to “service” workers on Vermont dairy farms, their search turned up a mysterious business card.

The card read “Don Chingon” — Spanish slang for “The Man” or “The Main Man.” Underneath that moniker was the name Alejandro Enrique Y Hernandez, with a Hyde Park, Vt., address.... Read more