Vermont

More than 200 same-sex- marriage opponents, cheering and wearing buttons that read, "Marriage -- A Mother & Father for Every Child," converged on Montpelier's Statehouse as lawmakers began hearings on a bill that would allow gay and lesbian couples to marry. If approved, Vermont would join Massachusetts and Connecticut as the only U.S. states that allow gay marriage. The measure would replace Vermont's first-in-the-nation civil unions law with one that allows marriage of same-sex partners beginning Sept.

Teeth are chattering in New England, where scientists just spent about a month scrutinizing weather data before proclaiming that, yes, Maine has pulled even with Vermont in bragging rights for the region's lowest recorded temperature -- 50 degrees below. That's wicked cold, as a New Englander might say. The frigid Fahrenheit reading was recorded about 7:15 a.m. Jan. 16 at a remote data-collection station in Big Black River, about four miles from the Canadian border. It ties the record set in 1933 in Bloomfield, Vt., for New England's lowest temperature in roughly a century of record-keeping, and reflects the actual air temperature, not the wind chill factor.

Signs of a community under siege: "Danger, Mosquitoes." "Yes Mosquitoes. No Refunds." "Don't Be Bugged: Choose From a Wide Variety of Repellents." This year's mosquito population in parts of New England evokes images from Alfred Hitchcock's film "The Birds," in which flocks of normally benign birds attack humans. Just ask Sue Strutz, who moved to Vermont from Michigan City, Ind., two years ago. Her husband is the one who put up the danger sign outside their home.

A Virginia appellate court ruled Tuesday in a closely watched lesbian custody dispute that the biological mother must answer to the laws of Vermont, where she and her former partner entered into a civil union and raised a child together. The ruling skirted a broader question key to the national debate: whether Virginia can be forced to recognize such a union sanctioned in another state.

As Vermont governor, Howard Dean was known as a buttoned-down and bottom-line chief executive. He fought higher taxes, cut programs over the cries of fellow Democrats and often sided with business when the choice was jobs versus the environment. Which explains why many people back home scarcely recognize Howard Dean the presidential candidate, who has stirred liberals across the country with his blunt talk and passionate antiwar speeches.

What are the must-haves in Southern California potting sheds these days? We asked the folks at Gardener's Supply, the Vermont-based mail-order company. Its most popular tools and gadgets among California consumers are those that support sustainable gardening, spokeswoman Maree Gaetani says. "Our kitchen compost crocks are big -- including the new bamboo one," she says. The Bamboo Crock, a container for kitchen scraps that can be composted, is made from a sustainable material and has a 3 1/3 -quart removable pail and a snug-fitting lid. It measures 11 inches high and 7 3/4 inches in diameter.

The Supreme Court will take up states' rights -- of both the blue- and red-state variety -- in a pair of election-law cases to be heard this week that could have a big impact on the future of American politics. Tiny Vermont, a true blue state, hopes to restore small-town democracy by greatly limiting the role of money in politics. If its new spending caps win before the high court, they could change how campaigns are conducted across the nation.

The debate between Democratic presidential hopefuls was about to begin and the reporter from England was scrambling. As he pulled his laptop and tape recorder from a carrying case, out tumbled a dog-eared, coffee-stained paperback. It was a book on Howard Dean, written by nine current and former Vermont journalists. Many of them covered their former governor for years, "would bump into him at the dump," one recalled, and could call him at home at 10 o'clock at night for a quick quote.

In a white-clapboard town hall, built circa 1832, voters gathered Tuesday to conduct their community's business and to call for the impeachment of President Bush. "In the U.S. presently there are only a few places where citizens can act in this fashion and have a say in our nation," said select board member Dan DeWalt, who drafted the impeachment article that was placed on the official agenda for the annual town meeting, a proud Yankee tradition in New England.

In a high school gymnasium festooned with athletic banners, residents of this working-class town decided Tuesday to allot more money for ambulance services, increase funds for the visually impaired -- and ask President Bush to pull U.S. troops out of Iraq. The vote in Bethel was 80-58 in favor of the resolution. The central Vermont town was one of 52 communities in this famously liberal state to add a vote on a nonbinding antiwar resolution to the agenda of annual town meetings held Tuesday.