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Vermont officials have announced an inmate in the state's prison system has tested positive for COVID-19.

Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders is dropping out of the 2020 presidential race, clearing the way for former Vice-President Joe Biden to become to Democratic nominee.

Updated at 1:11 p.m. ET Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders suspended his 2020 presidential campaign Wednesday, bowing to the commanding delegate lead former Vice President Joe Biden established. "I wish I could give you better news, but I think you know the truth. And that is that we are now some 300 delegates behind Vice President Biden, and the path toward victory is virtually impossible," Sanders told supporters in livestreamed remarks , shortly after he had broken the news to campaign staff. YouTube Sanders' decision comes weeks after the coronavirus pandemic upended the Democratic race. The worsening outbreak delayed primary contests and the party's nominating convention and halted all in-person campaigning, forcing the two candidates to hold virtual events from their respective homes. Sanders suspended his campaign after mask-wearing voters went to the polls Tuesday in Wisconsin. The state controversially forged ahead with its primary, despite public health concerns. Results for the

Vermont reporters provide a round-up of ongoing local coverage of coronavirus for Wednesday, April 8.

John Prine, a wry and perceptive writer whose songs often resembled vivid short stories, died Tuesday in Nashville from complications related to COVID-19. His death was confirmed by his publicist, on behalf of his family. He was 73 years old. Prine was hospitalized last week after falling ill and put on a ventilator Saturday night, according to a statement from his family. Even as a young man, Prine — who famously worked as a mailman before turning to music full-time — wrote evocative songs that belied his age. With a conversational vocal approach, he quickly developed a reputation as a performer who empathized with his characters. His beloved 1971 self-titled debut features the aching "Hello In There," written from the perspective of a lonely elderly man who simply wants to be noticed, and the equally bittersweet "Angel From Montgomery." The latter song is narrated by a middle-aged woman with deep regrets over the way her life turned out, married to a man who's merely "another child

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VPR Newscast for 4/8/2020 at 12:04 p.m.

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VPR Newscast for 4/8/2020 at 12:04 p.m.

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Across the region, many general stores that typically welcome people in to buy essentials and serve as a community hub have moved to curbside pickup. That’s not the case at the Ripton Country Store, in part because the store also serves as the Addison County town’s post office. So, customers are still coming in to pick up food, mail, gas and other needs.

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VPR Newscast for 4/7/2020 at 5:04 p.m.

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As the economic fallout of COVID-19 tests the strength of social safety nets, a coalition of nonprofits in central Vermont has found a new way to keep pace with demand for services.

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Burlington Mayor Miro Weinberger delivered his annual State of the City address Monday and said "the state of the City is a state of emergency". We check in with the mayor and learn more about his plans for leading Burlington through the COVID-19 crisis.

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How are Vermont animal shelters adapting to the COVID-19 crisis? We talk with staff from two local humane societies, and hear how some residents are opening their hearts and homes to foster animals as shelters make room for new surrenders.

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Live call-in discussion: With restaurants and schools closed, some dairy producers and processors say they're seeing demand for Vermont dairy shrink. That's led to falling milk prices last month and some dairy farmers and producers dumping milk . We talk with Agriculture Secretary Anson Tebbetts and dairy farmers about the disruptions.

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Vermont's COVID-19 model was released Thursday and projects the "likeliest case" scenario of not having enough ICU beds, but having suffiecient stock of most PPE at the peak of the virus. This hour, the state's financial regulation commissioner, who's been overseeing modeling for the Scott Administration, breaks down how the model was created and what it mans for Vermont.

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Vermont Department of Health officials are encouraging the public to wear cloth masks to help slow the spread of the coronavirus. (That's in addition to regular hand-washing and social distancing). It's among the latest guidance as Vermont nears a predicted peak in COVID-19 cases. This hour, we talk with health experts and answer your questions about keeping the public safe.

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Midday Forecast by VPR

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Farm & Garden Forecast by VPR

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Morning Forecast by VPR

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Recreational Forecast by VPR

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Midday Forecast by VPR

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Dispatches from our fellow Vermonters, including a nurse on the front lines and an expectant dad. Plus, some essay and poetry for our times.Stay connected to our show: Sign up for our newsletter. And be brave!

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With Vermont schools now closed, many parents are facing a daunting reality. Today, a conversation between two moms — one is a veteran home-schooler and remote worker. The other is new to all of this.Plus: How's everybody doing? Whether you’re out doing essential work, or staying home to slow the spread of coronavirus, we want to hear how it’s going for you. Share your voice/art/music for our next episode.

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A question about a popular camel won in one of our recent public voting rounds. Sadly, our reporting did not go as planned.Plus: Sign up for our e-newsletter! And submit your own question about Vermont at bravelittlestate.org.

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It's "Ask Bob" on Brave Little State! VPR's senior political reporter Bob Kinzel takes on your questions about Town Meeting, the location of Vermont's capital, the limited functions of our county governments and more.Plus: Sign up for our e-newsletter! And submit your own question about Vermont at bravelittlestate.org.

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Vermont is the only state in the country that's never sent a woman to D.C. We dig into the disparity, and poll Vermonters on whether they think it's a problem.Plus: We're launching a Brave Little State newsletter very soon! Sign up here.

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New England states are asking visitors to self-isolate for 14 days to slow the spread of coronavirus. This week on NEXT, we look at Rhode Island’s approach to out-of-staters as COVID-19 cases rise. And we head to Maine, where a toilet paper company is trying to meet demand for rolls of “white gold.” Plus, the unintended consequences of school choice.

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Before the coronavirus outbreak, a wife visited her husband nearly every day at the nursing home. This week on NEXT, how visitor limitations are separating the couple for the first time in 70 years of marriage. Plus, how homeless shelters are coping with the pandemic. And we talk with singer-songwriter Heather Maloney about music, meditation and how she found her voice during a silent retreat.

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This week on NEXT, elementary school teachers scramble to put together remote learning for students as schools close amid the coronavirus pandemic. Plus, the backlash in a New England town that reinstated a school mascot critics say is racist. And the resilient journey of an ESPN editor whose headline went viral for the wrong reasons.

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As the coronavirus spreads, we look at how New Englanders are preparing. And after the only black woman in Vermont’s House of Representatives was targeted by a white nationalist, state officials and community members debated racial harassment versus free speech. Plus, “The Portuguese Kids” tap their culture experiences for comic material.

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Mary's life changed drastically when she became the foster parent for four grandnieces and nephews. This week on NEXT, we explore the ways foster care is succeeding and struggling in Rhode Island and Massachusetts. And for families looking to adopt, we hear about the most affordable option — and other routes that could break the bank. Plus, bestselling author Lily King weaves parts of her life into her new novel, Writers & Lovers.

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We're answering 9 questions that put a smile on our faces, and we hope they make you chuckle, too. Plus, you might actually learn something from some of the answers! Are llamas ticklish? Why do pickles and cacti look alike? What are boogers made out of? How do fish see underwater without goggles? Do skunks like their smell? Do pigs poop? Are elephants afraid of mice? Are jellyfish made of jelly? Why are yawns contagious? Guests include Jo Blasi from the New England Aqarium, naturalist Marry Holland, therapy llama-handler Shannon Joy, and Elephant Listening Project researcher Peter Wrege.

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We’re sharing an episode of a Vermont Public Radio's Brave Little State. We know many of you are experiencing some changes now that schools in lots of states and countries are closed to slow the spread of COVID-19. For some families this is the first time you’ve had to try to do something like school at home. But others of you might do homeschooling all the time; and you’ve probably got some great advice for families who are new to this routine! This episode of Brave Little State brought together two families to talk about how to make the shift.

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As COVID-19 spreads across the globe, the World Health Organization has declared the novel coronavirus a pandemic. We’re answering questions about the virus with infectious disease doctor Krutika Kuppalli, who studies global pandemics. And chemistry professor Palli Thordarson, from the University of New South Wales on the science of why washing your hands with plain old soap and water is so effective against germs.

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Why do people dream? Why do people have nightmares? How do dreams happen? Can people who are blind can see in their dreams? We're listening back to our episode about dreams with psychiatrist Dr. David Kahn of Harvard Medical School.

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Why do people need to sleep? How do we actually go to sleep? How does sleeping get rid of toxins in the brain? And how come when it's nighttime I don't want to go to sleep but when it's morning I don't want to wake up? Those questions and more, all about sleep. We're highlighting an episode from 2018 with pediatric sleep psychologist Dr. Lisa Meltzer. And stay tuned; our next episode is all about dreams!

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Blue jays are pretty common. We see them all the time, and yet, they still have mysteries to share with us. Blue jays are also known as the "engineers of the forest." Their diet consists of acorns and beech nuts and they take these seeds to new areas and cache, or bury, their food. Sometimes they forget to come back to get these stored nuts and seeds allowing them to grow. The birds are planting new trees and expanding the forest.

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In the past 125 years, only two Januarys have stayed below freezing for the entire month. Some Vermonters relish a period of warmer temperatures while others lament the melting snow. Is there such a thing as a regular, consistent January thaw?

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You don't expect to see a moth in November, but these winter moths have adapted to thrive in the cold. The operophtera bruceata, or the Bruce Spanworm moth, spends the summer as a catapiller in the canopy of hardwood trees. They eat and eat, getting bigger until they fall down into the leaf litter and pupate. As the weather turns cold, around the end of October, they emerge as adults. This comes in very handy for these moths, because most of the birds have migrated away and there are very few predators left.

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If you've been in the woods or in the garden and spotted a quick flash of metallic emerald that was there one second and gone the next, then you have probably encountered a tiger beetle. These insects earn their name. They are fast, fierce predators, even as larva. There are 16 species of tiger beetles that have been spotted in Vermont. Out of those 16, almost half are considered to be of conservation concern.

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Hard hats in hand, Biologists Kent McFarland and Sara Zahendra head to the docks at Lake Champlain. They are taking a boat to Papasquash Island, owned by Audubon Vermont, to help count the new breeding population of common terns.

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We’ve been exploring all the ways that music has changed the world and us. In this episode we’ll discover that music might belong to more than just humanity. So many creatures on our shared planet also have a voice.

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“In the beginning was the voice. Voice is sounding breath, the audible sign of life.” Those beautiful words were written by Otto Jespersen, an early 20th century Danish linguist, in the book Language, Its Nature, Development and Origin. Jespersen was on to something with that statement, voice as “the audible sign of life.” It reminds me of another popular quote by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, “Music is the universal language of mankind.”

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You’re at a wedding reception, this song starts to play and suddenly the dance floor is full of people moving together in rhythm. The crowd intuits the pulse of the music, corporately agrees on where the beat is and starts to move together. That’s how group dance works. This ability is something we share as humans and with other members of the animal kingdom. But do we ever think about what it takes to make this happen? How do we dance together and why?

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Which came first, language or music? It’s not just a “chicken or the egg” type of question. Many linguists and theorists have debated this subject. For a long time the accepted norm stated that music appears “to be derived from language,” meaning that music is a subset of verbal communication. But modern research is painting a different picture. There’s an earlier episode of Timeline called “Baby Talk” that dives into that research regarding the development of human communication.

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Do you remember the opening scene of Stanley Kubrick’s “2001: A Space Odyssey”? The director starts a movie about space by first showing us early humanity. We are introduced to two warring factions of hairy proto-humans, yelling and grunting at one another over some unknown conflict. That night one of the tribes wakes up at sunrise to a strange, black, rectangular object. In the shadow of this monolith, one of the members of the tribe picks up a bone and examines it. After a moment, it begins to beat the ground with this first “tool.”

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How the events of last year changed Vermont schools and law enforcement. Also - where's Jack?

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How do you know if a young person is plotting a school massacre? And what do you do then?

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How a Republican governor who had been rated "A" by the NRA decided that Vermont, one of the most gun-friendly states in the nation, needed gun control laws.

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When does planning a school shooting become attempted murder? The question went all the way to the Vermont Supreme Court.

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Who is Jack Sawyer, and why did he want to kill his former classmates?

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What role does storytelling have in addressing the opioid crisis? In March, Vermont Public Radio hosted a gathering at the Turning Point Center of Burlington to talk through that question with the team behind My Heart Still Beats .

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"When you have anxiety, or chronic depression, your mind is constantly going. And I tried opiates and realized that my brain was just quiet for a little bit."

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"When you're told over and over, 'Your child's a problem child — he's bad, he's bad, he's bad, he's bad!' ... You believe your kid's bad."

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"There were three things you could be good at: fighting, drinking or sports. So, I stink at sports. I can't fight. But I guess I can drink."

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"You’re right, I probably do deserve to be in jail the rest of my life. Or, I do deserve to give my life for hers. But since I can’t, let’s save somebody else’s life."