Category: Government

The Hill Country Observer covers local leaders, elections and elected officials, town and city councils bodies including libraries, schools, planning and other town boards, and all kinds of conversations and decisions that matter to our communities.

  • Issue:

    Vermont’s biggest insurer pushes back on Home-birth law

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    Vermont’s biggest insurer balks at providing coverage By CRAIG IDLEBROOK Contributing writer   DANBY, Vt.It was supposed to be a watershed moment for home-birth midwives like Heather Whitley. Last year, Vermont legislators responded to a grassroots campaign to bring home births more into the mainstream medical system, passing a bill that requires private health insurers read more

    Vermont’s biggest insurer pushes back on Home-birth law
  • Issue:

    A sign of tough times for group for hearing-impaired

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    By JUDY BERNSTEIN Contributing writer   QUEENSBURY, N.Y.The children, seated in chairs around the edges of the room, were concentrating — and laughing — as they signaled to each other with their hands. King monkey, cat, signed one girl to another. Cat, dog, signed that girl to a boy nearby, as the dozen kids, ages read more

    A sign of tough times for group for hearing-impaired
  • Issue:

    Berkshires adjust to new loss of clout

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    Political map shifts power further to east By DAVID SCRIBNER Contributing writer   It’s a long way from the days of Silvio Conte, the beloved Pittsfield Republican who represented the Berkshires in Congress for 32 years until his death in 1991. In the Conte years, Berkshire County felt itself to be the center of Massachusetts’ read more

    Berkshires adjust to new loss of clout
  • Issue:

    College plans Vermont’s first polling center

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    By EVAN LAWRENCE Contributing writer CASTLETON, Vt.When news organizations have tried to assess the public support for various state and federal candidates in Vermont, they’ve always had to rely on the work of out-of-state polling firms. But that could soon change, as officials at Castleton State College are in the process of setting up the read more

    College plans Vermont’s first polling center
  • Issue:

    State pushes to limit Housatonic cleanup

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    Mass. backs GE’s call to restrict scope of PCB removal By DAVID SCRIBNER Contributing writer LENOX, Mass.From Canoe Meadows, the 285-acre Audubon wildlife preserve in southeast Pittsfield, the Housatonic River winds its way south in a coil of oxbows through a floodplain flanked by farms and wetlands, creating one of the most diverse wildlife habitats read more

    State pushes to limit Housatonic cleanup
  • Issue:

    Fast track to a smart grid

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    Some raise privacy, health concerns as wireless meters arrive in Vermont By JUDY BERNSTEIN Contributing writer RUTLAND, Vt.Supporters say it’s a big leap forward for energy conservation in Vermont: Over the next few months, utility customers across the state are set to receive new, wireless electric meters. Power companies say the new “smart meters” will read more

    Fast track to a smart grid
  • Issue:

    ‘We’re going to come back’

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    Recovery starts to take shape in a town slammed by Irene By EVAN LAWRENCE Contributing writer WILMINGTON, Vt.On a drizzly day in late September, downtown Wilmington was full of activity, but not the usual bustle of tourists and locals. Some storefronts along the two main streets had been gutted down to the timbers. Others were read more

    ‘We’re going to come back’
  • Issue:

    Faster path for wind power?

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    Mass. weighs bill to streamline development process By CRAIG IDLEBROOK Contributing writer HANCOCK, Mass.When 10 windmills atop Brodie Mountain began generating electricity earlier this year, the Berkshire Wind Power Project became the largest commercial wind farm in Massachusetts. But some say the $65 million project, first proposed back in 1998, offers a cautionary tale about read more

    Faster path for wind power?
  • Issue:

    Study backs restoring trains to Berkshires

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    Service would boost tourism, attract more young adults, economist says By DAVID SCRIBNER Contributing writer PITTSFIELD, Mass.In 1971, when the last passenger train from New York City creaked into the nearly deserted Pittsfield terminal, the price of gasoline was 36 cents a gallon. For the most part, people at that time who traveled to metropolitan read more

    Study backs restoring trains to Berkshires
  • Issue:

    Equinox Farms responds to food safety and leafy greens

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    Small producers skeptical of push for national rules By CRAIG IDLEBROOK Contributing writer SHEFFIELD, Mass.As a veteran grower of leafy green vegetables, Ted Dobson has a hard time seeing the need for a new food-safety regimen being pushed by the federal government. For nearly three decades, Dobson has been producing lettuce, salad mixes and other read more

    Equinox Farms responds to food safety and leafy greens