The Frequency

In our recurring series on class we hear from Isaac McDonald who spoke previously about growing up in the Northeast Kingdom, and is now back to talk about attending his freshman year at Columbia University on a full scholarship. Plus, high ranking state senate Democrats call for ending the contract that allows federal officials to detain people in Vermont prisons, in a state health department survey most Vermonters report being in good health, Clinton Community College in New York plans to move its operations to the SUNY Plattsburgh campus, Gov. Scott signs a bill designating November as the Vermont month of the veteran, and in our weekly sports report we predict an upset in round one of the NHL Stanley Cup playoffs by a team that only made it into the tournament on the last day of the regular season.  

In the latest installment of our recurring series on class, we meet Windsor County Sheriff Ryan Palmer who talks about the increasing pressures of maintaining a middle class life in Vermont. Plus, Rep. Becca Balint pens a letter to Trump administration officials asking them to justify the recent arrest of a Vermont citizen, the Communications Director of Vermont’s teacher’s union says the state’s Education Secretary should have been more forceful in resisting the Trump administration’s threats over DEI programs, an elementary school in the Champlain Islands will close following a school district board vote, and Vermont’s Commission on Native American Affairs is publishing a school curriculum on Abenaki history.  

In our recurring series on class in Vermont we meet Tom Burdick and hear about the challenges of breaking into higher education, and raising children in a different class from the one he grew up in. Plus,Canada has introduced a relief period for businesses from its counter-tariffs on some U.S. imports. A protest is scheduled tonight in St. Albans in support of a permanent resident living in White River Junction who was arrested and detained Monday when he arrived in Colchester for a citizenship interview. And, a jury is being selected this week in the upcoming trial of a Vermont man accused of killing a transgender woman in 2022.

In our recurring series on class in Vermont we meet…Kathy Quimby Johnson, who grew up in East Peacham Vermont in the 60s and 70s, when it was mostly farmers and summer people. Plus, Vermont’s tourism industry is seeing mounting evidence that Canadian visitors are canceling travel to the United States.Quebec's government is reconsidering whether to support large national energy projects, in light of President Donald Trump's decision to impose tariffs and threaten Canadian sovereignty. And a federal agency within the U.S. Department of Homeland Security faces a major workforce reduction in the coming weeks.

In our recurring series on class in Vermont we meet a filmmaker from Richford who discusses the challenges of attending college among more affluent peers. Plus, a federal judge halts a Trump administration order that would have deported two Vermont high school students from Nicaragua, some Vermont lawmakers consider adding citizenship and immigration status to the state’s fair housing law, a bill that would review how Vermont recognizes groups as Native American tribes is introduced at the Statehouse, and invasive zebra mussels are discovered on the American side of Lake Memphremagog.

Investigating whether there’s any truth to rumors that Vermont’s only law school might be moving from its home in South Royalton. Plus, two Nicaraguan students at CVU High School face deportation, a psychiatric unit for teenagers opens at Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center, tariffs have begun to affect Vermont’s business relationship with Canada, and we explore the early days of the new baseball season as well as the wrap-up of hockey’s regular season in our weekly sports report.

We preview the Paramount Theatre’s staging of the Tony Award winning musical Urinetown. Plus, Vermont communities lose FEMA funding for a hazard mitigation program canceled by the Trump administration, an executive order signed by the president condemns the Vermont Climate Superfund Act created to allow the state to seek damages from major oil companies, Vermont State Police investigate calls made to multiple schools with false reports of shooting incidents, and a Vermont lawmaker says he’s got an alternative and more cost-effective plan for restoring the Bennington Battle Monument.

The effort to get more people biking as a chief mode of transportation in Chittenden County. Plus, Vermont’s Education Secretary reverses course on a Trump administration directive to ban DEI programs for schools that get Title 1 federal funds, a Planned Parenthood center in St. Johnsbury will close in June, Ripton elementary school will shut down next year following a failed bid to recruit more students, the Vermont Humanities council says it will have to reduce programming after federal support was cut by the Trump administration, and the deadline for Real I-D-compliant identification needed for domestic air travel is less than a month away. 

State regulators have approved a new 12-bed adolescent psychiatric unit at a Bennington hospital, despite opposition from the only other adolescent psychiatric facility in the state. Plus, Vermont schools could be on the hook for millions of dollars in unreimbursed pandemic recovery projects, federal funding cuts are expected to limit vaccine access for underserved Vermont communities, state officials are collecting feedback for the next Vermont Climate Action Plan, and the EPA has tapped New England’s new regional administrator.