Brattleboro has a new municipal budget. Town meeting members last night passed a 24.9 million dollar spending plan by a 110 to 4 margin, after several proposed amendments were rejected.. The special representative town meeting took just under two hours at Brattleboro Union high school last night.
A former Hartford Connecticut woman had been sentenced to more than 10 years in jail for a drug conspiracy in the Brattleboro area. The United States Attorney’s Office says 25 year old Linoshka Barbosa was sentenced Friday by United States District Judge William K. Sessions III to a term of 126 months’ imprisonment to be followed by a 3-year term of supervised release. Barbosa had been arrested for a drug distribution conspiracy between 2020 and 2023 involving cocaine, cocaine base, fentanyl, and numerous firearms. She pleaded guilty to the charges last October , and has been jailed since then. A co defendant , Elias Lopez , had also pleaded guilty and will be sentenced next month.
The Vermont Department of Health reported last week that the number of COVID-19 hospitalizations remain low and falling statewide, after a spike during the winter. Wastewater testing indicates that virus levels, which had increased at the Montpelier facility recently, also fell after they had spiked in January. The Vermont pandemic death total stands at 1,292 as of May 17, 2025, with 1 reported death from the previous week Vermont has the second lowest state fatality rate in the US, with Hawaii being the lowest.
The Vermont House has passed a price cap on prescription drugs administered in an outpatient setting. The price cap would go into effect on July 1st with a cap of 130% of the average sales price. On January 1st, the cap is reduced to 120% of the average sales price. The House Health Care Committee added language that would allow hospitals to propose rate increases to other service lines through the Green Mountain Care Board’s hospital budget process to offset the cuts from the cap. According to a nationwide study from a health care think tank, Vermont hospitals are charging more than five times the average sales price for outpatient drugs — the highest markup in the nation by a wide margin.
The Boston Red Sox on Tuesday announced they traded left-handed pitcher Sean Newcomb to the Oakland Athletics in exchange for cash considerations. Newcomb was designated for assignment over the weekend.