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Maria von Trapp, whose family's story was told in The Sound of Music, has died. She was the last surviving member of the musical family of seven brothers and sisters and passed away in her sleep at home in Vermont at the age of 99 on Tuesday, PEOPLE confirms. Von Trapp, who was the second-eldest daughter, and her family fled their home in Austria to escape from the Nazis in the 1930s and eventually ended up in the U.S., where their story inspired a Rodgers & Hammerstein musical and the popular 1965 movie starring Julie Andrews.

What do you mean "us," Kemosabe? If Howard Dean wants to push a job-killing agenda of higher taxes and other redistributionist claptrap, that's his business. But could he please spare us the faux populism? In an email Dean sent out earlier today touting the "Inequality For All" house parties his DFA group is organizing [and what sounds like more fun than getting together to gripe about what other people have?], Dean wrote [emphasis added]: "These 'Inequality for All' Watch Parties are just the kind of action we need to start leveling the playing field between the 1% and the rest...

In a brief to be filed with the U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday, 19 Democratic senators are siding with the Obama administration against evangelical Christian businessmen who argue that paying for their employees’ birth control, a requirement under Obamacare, violates their company’s religious freedom. The senators—five of them women—argue in their “friend of the court” brief that the owners of the Oklahoma-based crafts store chain Hobby Lobby are not exempt from the Affordable Care Act’s contraceptive mandate simply because some forms of birth control offend their religious beliefs. Hobby Lobby’s owners, David Green and his family, are suing the federal...

Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, a potential 2016 Republican presidential contender, is trying to refocus the debate over National Security Agency surveillance on the terrorists who actually succeed in pulling off attacks in the United States.Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, a potential 2016 Republican presidential contender, is trying to refocus the debate over National Security Agency surveillance on the terrorists who actually succeed in pulling off attacks in the United States.“The federal government has not been effective enough monitoring and surveilling bad guys,” Cruz said this week as the Senate awaited President Barack Obama’s NSA reform proposals which he’ll announce...

MONTPELIER, Vt. -In a rare move, a Democratic senator held the floor for much of the Senate Republicans' caucus Thursday. "I know that I'm in a forum of skeptics and I want to emphasize that I am a supporter. I introduced a financing bill because I believe in it but I also think it's important to have an honest discussion about what this is going to cost and how to do it," said Sen. Peter Galbraith, D-Windham County. Act 48 required Gov. Peter Shumlin to explain how to pay for a single-payer system last January. He cited implementation delay for...

Vt. Health Access Commissioner Mark Larson announced Tuesday that the state's $80-million dollar insurance website won't be ready to handle small businesses in time. Insurance company officials told legislators the system would need to be tested by late-January to guarantee coverage for April. Vermont Health Connect isn't willing to bet on its contractors, who have missed every deadline so far. Officials told businesses the only option to buy exchange-approved coverage is to skip the website and buy directly through Blue Cross or MVP. "We believe that it is -- at this point -- a proven pathway. Many Vermonters have already...

A group of Vermont state senators have introduced an unfortunate bill that would affirm a woman’s right to abortion, in an effort to nullify provisions still on the books in the Green Mountain State that criminalize the procedure. From the proposed legislation: This bill proposes to repeal Vermont statutes that criminalize: (1) assisting in the performance of an abortion; and (2) advertising about the provision of abortion services. An act relating to decriminalizing the performance of abortions in Vermont and recognizing the right to have an abortion. As for why the senators put the bill forward, their explanation is painfully...

Vermont’s governor dedicated his entire state of the state address this week to the scourge of drug addiction, stressing that the uptick in heroin use is more deadly that guns or “all of the other things that we keep talking about.”“What started as an OxyContin and prescription drug addiction problem in this state has now grown into a full-blown heroin crisis,” Peter Shumlin said of the 770 percent increase in opiate treatment in his home state since 2000. The White House’s Office of National Drug Control Policy has also reported the number of deaths involving heroin jumped 45 percent...

WASHINGTON – While all eyes are on the ObamaCare rollout, an ambitious health care experiment is going forward in Vermont that would create a government-run alternative know as a "single-payer" system -- and it's starting to attract more attention from liberals frustrated with the Affordable Care Act's implementation. Democrats' faith in ObamaCare has been shaken by the technical failures of the federal and state insurance exchanges as well as, in some cases, premium increases. In Vermont, however, they see a potential first step toward the kind of national government-run health care system some have advocated for years. Filmmaker Michael Moore,...

Eighty-five of 100 U.S. senators voted to renew the president’s power to indefinitely detain Americans, denying them of their fundamental right to due process.On December 19, by a vote of 84-15 (Senator Bill Nelson, Democrat of Florida, did not vote), the Senate sent the Fiscal Year 2014 version of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) to President Obama’s desk. Although an overwhelming majority of Republicans and Democrats signed off on the evisceration of the Bill of Rights, a small coalition of Independents, Republicans, and Democrats refused to accede to such a devastation deprivation of rights. A list of the lawmakers...

"Has the NSA spied, or is the NSA currently spying, on members of Congress or other elected officials?" That's the question Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) put to the National Security Agency's chief in a bluntly worded letter Friday. It seems, however, that the agency cannot categorically say no. Sanders didn't use the word "spy" lightly. He was careful to define his terms, indicating he meant the collection of phone records from personal as well as official telephones, "content from Web sites visited or e-mails sent," and data that companies collect but don't release to the public.

The real life magic-mushroom, banana dictatorship envisioned by George Orwell just went full retard. From VT Senator Bernie Sanders: U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) today asked the National Security Agency director whether the agency has monitored the phone calls, emails and Internet traffic of members of Congress and other elected officials.“Has the NSA spied, or is the NSA currently spying, on members of Congress or other American elected officials?” Sanders asked in a letter to Gen. Keith Alexander, the NSA director. “Spying” would include gathering metadata on calls made from official or personal phones, content from websites visited or emails...

As 2014 midterms approach, some Democrats are running-not walking-away from Obamacare....coming out of the woodwork to voice opposition. •39th President Jimmy Carter: "His major accomplishment was Obamacare, and the implementation of it now is questionable at best." •Barney Frank, former Massachusetts Congressman: "I think we paid a terrible price for health care." •Former Democratic Presidential candidate, Howard Dean, a doctor: "The Affordable Care Act's Rate-Setting Won't Work." Obamacare was primarily designed to decrease the number of uninsured Americans and reduce healthcare costs. But experts say it will have the exact opposite effect. What started as a promise to insure 40...

The Talk Shows December 29th, 2013 Guests to be interviewed today on major television talk shows: FOX NEWS SUNDAY (Fox Network): Reps. Mike Rogers, R-Mich., and Adam Schiff, D-Calif.; Democratic former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean.MEET THE PRESS (NBC): Reps. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., and Joaquin Castro, D-Texas.FACE THE NATION (CBS): Gen. Michael Hayden, Former National Security Agency Director; NSA whistleblower Thomas Drake.THIS WEEK (ABC): A look at game changers in 2013 (I can’t help thinking it’s Auburn running back Chris Davis).STATE OF THE UNION (CNN): Secretary of State John Kerry. STATE OF THE UNION (CNN): Neera Tanden, president and CEO of...

MONTPELIER, Vt. - Betsy Bishop and staff at the Vermont Chamber of Commerce spent much of the year on the phone, convincing business operators to bring their insurance business to the state's online marketplace. But now, they're calling back to let them know the plans they picked won't be available Jan. 1 because of bugs and delays. "And we're having a bit of trouble convincing people to come off their decision. They're saying to us now we want to stay with Vermont Health Connect, which is great but there's no way for that payment mechanism to work," Bishop said. Bishop...

Back before a handful of other states adopted “Constitutional Carry” laws providing for permitless carrying of concealed firearms, the practice was called “Vermont Carry,” as the Green Mountain State stood alone throughout the 20th Century in not prohibiting it. Long known for lenient gun laws and low numbers of homicides, Vermont represented the perfect real-world test of economist John Lott’s “More Guns Less Crime” thesis. Which made it a threat to the gun-grabbers… Vermont had also enacted firearms preemption legislation, meaning laws were set by the state, prohibiting municipalities from establishing a “patchwork quilt” of conflicting ordinances that would make...

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), the Senate’s most unabashedly progressive member, told the Burlington Free Press on Friday that he may run for President in 2016 if there is not a suitably liberal candidate. Sanders, who identifies as a Democratic Socialist, cited the need for a candidate who can tamp down on Wall Street, oppose austerity cuts and tackle climate change.

America is turning into an oligarchy — that was the message Bernie Sanders, Vermont’s self-styled socialist U.S. senator, preached to more than 100 progressive activists last Saturday at the annual fall getaway of the S.C. Progressive Network. Sanders had been on a week-long romp of the former Confederacy, and during his tour, he hit up the Progressive Network gathering taking place among the live oaks, Spanish moss, and scattered cabins of the historic Penn Center on St. Helena Island. Sanders said he had never spoken publicly in the South, but it’s been something the New Englander had always intended to...

Enlarge image Credit Taylor Dobbs / VPR Bob Dougall of Bolton, left, and Diane Tardif of Essex Junction came to Burlington Monday to protest proposed gun control measures. Burlington’s City Council Monday night heard public comments about proposed charter changes that would increase regulation of firearms in the city.Contois Auditorium in Burlington’s City Hall was standing room only, and the city council opened the auditorium’s balcony for a one-hour public hearing on the proposed changes.Four charter changes were at issue: The first would ban guns from any establishment with a liquor license; another would require police to seize firearms...

Vermont’s health-care exchange website may be even a bigger mess than the federal-run HealthCare.Gov. And health care in Vermont may be headed for a unique train wreck due to its efforts to become the first state in the country to implement a single payer plan. One of the president’s key selling points of the ACA was the promise that if you liked your plan, you could keep it. We’re learning that’s often not the case as Obamacare is implemented across the country. And in Vermont, there has been no pretense of such assurance. As of January 1, 2014, in Vermont,...