The Deeper Dig

For the past few years, Vermont has had the second highest per-capita rate of homelessness in the country. During the Covid-19 pandemic, the number of people counted as homeless more than doubled, and the numbers keep going up. Lots of people are trying to grasp: Why is this happening? Why have we seen this huge, dramatic spike in the number of people experiencing homelessness here? Carly Berlin was brought on by Vermont Public and VTDigger last year to report on Vermont’s housing crisis. She’

For decades, Vermont Yankee, a nuclear power plant in Vernon, was the largest producer of electricity for the state. The plant has been shut down since 2014, and the company that now owns it is in the process of deconstructing it. That company, NorthStar, has recently submitted a plan that describes in detail the final steps of decommissioning, which is projected to be completed ahead of schedule, by 2026. However, national developments mean that radioactive spent fuel on the site is likely to

Edi Abeneto is food shelf supervisor at Feeding Chittenden, a Burlington-based nonprofit that focuses on hunger relief and serves more than 12,000 people every year. Abeneto has worked at the organization for more than 17 years. He speaks six languages, and among other duties, he facilitates communication and provides interpretation for visitors from a wide range of backgrounds. Over time, he said he’s built up trust with visitors that help him connect them to whatever help they need. “I was

Managing big emotions is hard for adults, so what must it be like if you’re 3 feet tall and still in diapers? Anyone who’s been around kids knows how they can get overwhelmed by big emotional reactions. Those can run the gamut from despair to rage to laughing fits, sometimes within the same five-minute period. So, how can you teach kids to manage emotions in a healthy way? Especially if you’re still figuring it out yourself? Deeper Dig host Sam Gale Rosen talks about this with Alyssa Blask Cam

Neshobe Island is a small island located on the Castleton side of Lake Bomoseen. It has two houses, a barn and some surrounding woods, and that’s about it. In the 1920s and ‘30s, though, the island hosted a who’s who of celebrities and intellectuals most summers. These included Noël Coward, Thornton Wilder, Irving Berlin, Margaret Mitchell, Dorothy Parker, Laurence Olivier, Vivien Leigh, Walt Disney and Harpo Marx. Host Sam Gale Rosen toured the island with its current owners and talked about

At the University of Vermont, the share of in-state students is dwindling, and it’s raising questions about the role and mission of the state’s flagship public university. VTDigger education reporter Peter D’Auria — with the help of data reporter Erin Petenko — has been looking at the enrollment statistics over time, as well as how they compare with those of other large public universities across the country. Here’s the short version: Peter writes: “over the past two decades, the number of und