National

U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), is joined by Burlington Mayor Miro Weinberger and a member of the Wagner family, owners of Waggy’s store and deli, the first business to participate in the innovative financing program that helps pay for energy efficiency improvements. The deli is the first business to participate in the program that lets customers take advantage of savings on their monthly utility bills to pay for energy-saving improvements.

Authorized by a Sanders provision in a 2011 energy bill, a $1 million grant to the Burlington Electric Department helped launch the on-bill financing program.

How can the Republican Party connect with mainstream America? That's the question former Vermont Governor Jim Douglas explores in what is titled, "GOP RIP? How the Republican Party Can Connect with Mainstream America," part of the Mark L. Rosen Memorial Lecture Series at the University of Vermont. Douglas served the people of Vermont for nearly four decades, beginning with his election to the Vermont House of Representatives in 1972, the same year he graduated from Middlebury College. He left the Vermont House in 1979 to become a top aide to the late Vermont Governor Richard Snelling. He was elected Vermont’s secretary of state in 1980, and in 1994, state treasurer. In 2002, he was elected the 80th governor of Vermont and was re-elected to this position in 2004, 2006, and 2008. In 2009, he announced that he would not seek election for a fifth term, and in 2011 he became an executive-in-residence at his alma mater, where he teaches a class titled “Vermont Government and Politics.” As governor, Douglas was chosen for several leadership positions by his colleagues nationally. In February 2010, President Barack Obama appointed him co-chair of the Council of Governors.

At its May commencement ceremony, UVM will present Douglas with an honorary degree.

Sister Helen Prejean, author of Dead Man Walking: An Eyewitness Account of the Death Penalty in the United States, presents - 'Dead Man Walking: The Journey Continues'. Sponsored by the vanderHeyden Endowment for the Fine Arts, with additional support from the McCarthy Fund and the Society of St. Edmund. Sister Helen Prejean sparked a national dialogue on the death penalty and has helped shape the Catholic Church’s newly vigorous opposition to state executions. While living and working with the poor in New Orleans, Sister Prejean was asked to correspond with a death row inmate Patrick Sonnier at Angola. She agreed and became his spiritual adviser. After witnessing his execution, she wrote, Dead Man Walking: An Eyewitness Account of the Death Penalty in the United States. It became a movie, an opera and a play for high schools and colleges.

Since 1984, Sister Helen has divided her time between educating citizens about the death penalty and counseling individual death row prisoners. She has accompanied six men to their deaths. This inspired her second book, The Death of Innocents: An Eyewitness Account of Wrongful Executions, which was released by Random House in 2004.
Learn What Matters at Saint Michael's College, The Edmundite Catholic liberal arts college, www.smcvt.edu

U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) announces a major climate change legislation. Sen. Sanders is joined by Sen. Boxer (D-Calif.), Bill McKibben, autohor, activist and founder of 350.org, Mike Brune, executive director of the Sierra Club and other leaders from the environmental community.