In this week’s edition of the Capitol recap,  the Vermont Senate gave final approval on Friday to legislation that seeks to expand access to reproductive care.

Researchers are looking for ways to help snowshoe hares adapt to a changing climate. Plus, Vermont State Police investigate the non-fatal shooting of a Milton police officer, the state senate gives its preliminary approval to a ban on guns in Burlington bars, uncertainty about federal money for high speed internet infrastructure, and National Prescription Drug Take Back Day is this Saturday. 

Cars and climate change have annual early spring migrations for amphibians more treacherous. Plus, a judge orders the feds to keep a detained Columbia University student in Vermont, college presidents condemn the Trump Administration’s higher ed actions, the state wants to make the electric grid more resilient, and a measles outbreak in Quebec is over. 

More invasive species, like sea squirts, are being found on New England’s floating docks and piers and they may stick around thanks to warmer ocean temperatures caused by climate change. Plus, U.S border agents detain eight farmworkers at a Franklin County dairy farm, Vermont Habitat for Humanity programs lose AmeriCorps volunteers after federal cuts, state officials on Earth Day pledge to strongly oppose efforts by the Trump Administration to weaken environmental regulations, and a buyer for Burke Mountain Resort.

Wild blue mussels have all but disappeared from New England’s coastline, a reality that’s been hard for people who harvest them for a living. Plus, Catholic Vermonters remember Pope Francis, who died Monday, Sen. Peter Welch pushes to permanently extend tele-health services for all Medicare recipients, labor negotiations between teachers and the school board sour in Rutland City, and hunters that sent a tooth from their deer to Vermont Fish and Wildlife can now find out how old that deer was.  

This week we bring you a series of stories from our public radio partners around New England exploring how the region’s flora, fauna and fungi are living with climate change. Plus lawmakers are trying to make a contingency plan in case the only Vermont-based health insurance company, Blue Cross Blue Shield, goes under. And Vermont’s unemployment rate holds steady, a new soil testing center for farmers opens at UVM, and where to watch trout travel upstream.

In this week’s edition of the Capitol recap, we examine a bill that would fundamentally overhaul Vermont's response to homelessness and provide a potential off-ramp to the mass-use of motel rooms as shelter.

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.