Homeowners are taking more precautions to protect their property from flooding in the face of climate change – but it’s resulting in some counterintuitive choices. Plus, one of the Vermont Legislature’s longest-serving lawmakers won’t seek reelection, President Biden approves a disaster declaration tied to January storm, Efficiency Vermont has a new tool to help Vermonters figure out weatherization and EV incentives, and the Vermont Center for Ecostudies is studying how tick pesticides impact other insects.

Constructing apartment buildings with mass timber, which is touted as an environmentally friendly alternative to steel and concrete. Plus, local reaction to new EPA rules on so-called forever chemicals, Addison County’s top prosecutor gets her law license reinstated, new state unemployment numbers are in, and rabies is on the rise in Caledonia County.

Property tax burdens are forecast to spike amid rising school budgets. What state lawmakers are — and aren’t — doing to draw down tax burdens. And how Gov. Phil Scott is responding.

The hard choices education officials will need to make as numerous school budgets continue to get voted down. Plus, Vermont’s new education secretary indicates she wants to explore school consolidation, why Gov. Scott isn’t satisfied with a new bill updating Act 250, a federal grand jury indicts a man for setting fire to the door of Sen. Bernie Sanders’ office, volunteers are asked to help clean up the Burlington waterfront ahead of Earth Day, and the tentative sale of an independent Vermont book publisher to a huge international counterpart.

Efforts by an organic farmer and men serving time in a Maine prison to grow fresh produce for the incarcerated population there. Plus, Vermont House lawmakers move a bill that will only slightly reduce property taxes this year, a lawsuit is filed over a school district’s handling of its budget vote on Town Meeting Day, controlled springtime burns get underway in the Green Mountain National Forest, doctors at UVM are studying new ways to treat rectal cancer, and two Vermonters win coveted Guggenheim fellowships.

Good news on the health of birds in the northern woods of Maine. Plus, Vermont ski resorts rebound from a tough winter with help from the eclipse and late season snowstorms, what this year’s early ice out at Joe’s Pond signifies for algae blooms this summer, Vergennes is chosen as the site for a new juvenile treatment center, a mentoring program in Randolph helps high school students with their transition to college, and a program to help BIPOC Vermonters become homeowners is expanding.

Pondering the future of Goddard College’s campus after the school announced it’s closing down after 86 years in operation. Plus, volunteers helping with long-term flood recovery relief say they need help, an annual book festival in Woodstock is canceled just two months before it was set to begin, a Fair Haven school district budget fails on a second vote, Vermont welcomes its unofficial start to spring as a cinder block falls through the ice at Joe’s Pond in Danville, and amphibians begin their seasonal breeding migrations.

An initiative to make health and safety information more accessible to Vermont’s immigrant and refugee communities has proven its worth – but funding is running out. Plus, lawmakers pump the brakes on a major education overhaul plan, advocates to improve migrant farmworker housing call on the state to provide more funding, Chittenden County officials issue a warning about a jury duty phone scam, and exploring ways to make a New England shellfish more sustainable as ocean temperatures continue to rise.

The Vermont House wants to set up another decade of major spending on the housing crisis — and tax increases to go with it. Meanwhile, the Senate and Gov. Phil Scott would rather focus on regulatory changes making housing easier to build.

How Franklin County’s newly appointed top prosecutor hopes to bring stability to a position that’s gone through a recent rough patch. Plus, the state treasurer reiterates support for a superfund bill to make big oil companies pay a share of damages related to climate change, the Vermont Bond Bank creates a flood resiliency fund, the EPA sets federal limits on so-called forever chemicals that go beyond state requirements, Rep. Becca Balint urges the Biden administration to withhold weapons shipments to Israel, and Goddard College will shut down after 86 years of operation.