UVM's tuition rates are among the highest of all public schools in the nation. The state's low funding for higher education is to blame for much of the in-state tuition cost, but out-of-state students are paying huge bills because of a 1959 law that forces the school to charge them lots more.

Smoking is banned on Church Street in Burlington. It's a win for public health and many in Burlington who advocated for the ban, but (a minority of) city councilors and some Burlingtonians say it has some negative side effects.

With a record low voter turnout rate in the 2014 general election and a weird (and ongoing) finish to the race for governor, there's plenty to catch up on.

A Rutland man was put in voluntary quarantine after visiting West Africa and returning to the state. And then everyone went into Ebola overdrive.

The taxi-ish company Uber has launched in Burlington. Will convenience win out, or is Uber's hyper-competitive philosophy a bad fit for Vermont?

Everybody seems to want an invite to Ello, the new social network pitching itself as the anti-Facebook. We talk about Ello's Vermont roots and its challenges. Disclosure: VPR is an investor in Fresh Tracks Capital's Fund II . That fund was not used to finance Ello.

Vermont has a whole lot of craft breweries these days. Is there really a market for all this booze?

You might have heard about these blue-green algae blooms on Lake Champlain. But do you know what they smell like? What causes them? The health effects? VPR reporters Annie Russell and Taylor Dobbs take a field trip to an active bloom in St. Albans Bay to get some answers. For a map of algae problem areas, check here .

What's the point of primary elections? What are "open primaries"? In the first installment of The Catch-Up, VPR's new explainer series, we tell you what you need to know. For more information from the Vermont Secretary of State's office, check out this page .