New England News

The Vermont Health Department says efforts to control mosquitoes in Brandon and Whiting are working, but it doesn't eliminate the threat of Eastern Equine Encephalitis.

Earlier this month the state used aircraft to spray pesticides in Whiting and Brandon and the number of mosquitoes captured in traps in the area has been cut in half.

But Health Commissioner Dr. Harry Chen says that while the risk of EEE infection in Vermont has been reduced, there is no way to kill enough mosquitoes to eliminate the threat.

  The Massachusetts public health commissioner has resigned over the scandal at a state drug lab. WAMC’s Paul Tuthill reports.

     Massachusetts  education officials Monday will release the latest statewide student achievement test results.    WAMC’s Paul Tuthill reports.

   State officials will be looking for improvements in third grade reading scores in the latest round of MCAS testing.  Several of the state’s struggling urban school systems have stressed reading programs in the early grades. It’s a priority in Holyoke, where school committee member Michael Moriarity says just 25 percent of the third graders are proficient in reading.

Connecticut’s Supreme Court has agreed to consider whether the recent repeal of the state’s death penalty applies only to future defendants.

The state's highest court granted a request on Thursday by Eduardo Santiago to challenge the repeal's impact on those who committed capital crimes before the law was passed. He was convicted in a murder-for-hire plot that promised him a broken snowmobile.

The death penalty was repealed in April, but it was preserved for 11 inmates on death row and for pending cases.