VT: Live Free; Don't Die

(Newser) - Racy snowboards have created a snowball of protests in liberal Vermont, the Boston Globe reports, where manufacturer Burton makes a Playboy line plastered with giant images of naked women. While some in Burlington say free speech guarantees their right to ride what they want, others worry about the effect of the boards on the city’s “pristine” image. "When you really think about it, it's a young man standing on top of a naked woman's body," says one Vermonter. More »

(Newser) - Patrick Leahy thinks fellow Sen. Joe Lieberman, after campaigning for John McCain, should no longer occupy the chair of key committees, the Democrat told Vermont Public Radio today. The Connecticut independent currently caucuses with the Democrats, and chairs the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs committees, the Hill notes. Lieberman went “beyond the pale,” Leahy said. More »

(Newser) - To Vermonters, the aging barns dotting their landscape are as important to the state's character—and tourism—as maple syrup or skiing. But the cost of maintaining them and the decline in family farms have taken a heavy toll, the Boston Globe reports. Now the state is conducting a "barn census" to catalog the structures that speak of Vermont's agricultural heritage as the first step toward preserving them. More »

(Newser) - The Supreme Court will soon hear arguments in what could be one of the biggest consumer-rights cases in years, reports the New York Times . The case focuses on whether customers who have been harmed by products that meet federal regulations can sue the manufacturer for damages, and is centered on a Vermont woman whose arm was amputated after an intravenous migraine drug gave her gangrene. More »

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