The Vermont state Senate voted Wednesday to close the Vermont Yankee nuclear plant following a public outcry over leaks of radioactive tritium, misstatements by plant officials and the collapse of a cooling tower in 2007, The New York Times reported Wednesday. Plant officials incorrectly stated under oath that there were no underground pipes that could leak tritium, according to The Times. The 26-4 decision to close the 38-year-old plant, which is one of 104 U.S. nuclear reactors, comes in the wake of President Barack Obama's support of programs designed to promote nuclear energy, including an $8.3 billion loan for a new twin-reactor plant in Georgia. The Vermont Yankee plant will close by March 2012 at a cost of over $1 billion unless the Senate reverses its decision and the House approves an extension of the current license, The Times reported.
The Colorado State University Board of Governors voted unanimously on Tuesday to ban weapons at the CSU Fort Collins and Pueblo campuses, The Coloradoan reported Tuesday. The ban is intended to improve campus safety by barring all weapons not carried for academic, military or law-enforcement purposes, CSU officials said. Visitors will be required to surrender their weapons or leave campus, according to The Coloadoan. While most faculty and staff support the ban, students oppose it, and Larimer County Sheriff Jim Alderson told The Coloradoan that CSU cannot interfere with citizens' Second Amendment rights. The group Rocky Mountain Gun Owners has threatened a lawsuit opposing the ban.
The school board of Central Falls, R.I., approved a plan to fire the entire faculty and staff of the town's sole public high school during a public meeting Tuesday night, The New York Times reported Tuesday. The plan called for the dismissal of the roughly 100 Central Falls High School faculty and staff members at the end of the academic year, and was proposed by Schools Superintendent Frances Gallo. The plan is in response to poor performance at Central Falls High one of Rhode Island's six lowest-achieving schools and includes a new governance structure and a mandatory professional development program for new teachers, according The Times. The decision came after the teachers' union rejected another plan to increase teacher hours without necessarily increasing salary, Gallo said during the meeting. Teachers and union members said that the board did not participate in "good faith" bargaining, The Times reported.
