Recounts are scheduled to take place next week for three House races in Vermont.

In the Windsor-Orange 1 district in Royalton and Tunbridge, Republican David Ainsworth asked for a recount after Election Day results showed  him trailing Rep. Sarah Buxton (D-Tunbridge) by three votes. That recount will start at 9 a.m. Monday at the Windsor County Courthouse in Woodstock.

In the Orange 1 district that includes the towns of Chelsea, Corinth, Orange, Vershire, Washington and Williamstown, Rep. Susan Hatch Davis (P-Washington) is seeking a recount after results indicated she is trailing Republican Robert Frenier by eight votes. That recount will be held at 12:30 p.m. Monday at the  Orange County Courthouse in Chelsea.

In the Franklin 7 district that includes Enosburgh and Montgomery, Rep. Larry Fiske (R-Enosburgh) is seeking a recount based on results that show him trailing Progressive Cindy Weed by 15 votes. That recount will be done at 9 a.m. at state Superior Court in St. Albans.

One Senate recount will be held, but not until December 13 at state Superior Court in Montpelier. Sen. Bill Doyle (R-Washington), a 48-year member,  sought a review of the ballots. Officials results show Doyle trailing Democrat Francis Brooks by 191 votes.

As president-elect Donald Trump vows to clamp down on undocumented immigrants, Burlington Mayor Miro Weinberger wants to take steps in the opposite direction.

Speaking with Vermont Public Radio Thursday, Weinberger announced his intention to make Burlington a sanctuary city for immigrants, codifying protections for undocumented immigrants who are pulled over by police, and prohibiting municipal workers or law enforcement from asking about immigration status.

Burlington already meets most of those requirements, and considered formally becoming a sanctuary city in the early 2000s, Weinberger noted.

“Our practices have been consistent with cities that consider themselves sanctuary cities and what I think it is time for now, given the uncertainty in the community, is for us to take that step and to formalize our practices into policy,” he said.

Vermont’s departing Democratic governor and incoming Republican governor issued an unusually harmonious statement Thursday.

Gov. Peter Shumlin and governor-elect Phil Scott pledged to defend the rights and freedoms of all in the wake of a turbulent national election.

Without mentioning the name of president-elect Donald Trump, the joint statement said it was in response to the “presidential election and recent events across the state.”

Local organizations that support civil rights, refugees and access to abortion
say that since Donald Trump was elected president, they’ve received an outpouring of support.

The Vermont Refugee Resettlement Program holds volunteer orientations twice a month. More than 100 people showed up at Wednesday night’s event, community partnership coordinator Laurie Stavrand said.

“We’re just getting a lot of positive energy coming our way, which is great because it’s good when people take action,” she said Thursday. “It helps them, and it helps everybody else.”

In what he billed as a major speech, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) pledged Wednesday night to hold president-elect Donald Trump to some of the promises he made while also standing up to any racism, sexism and bigotry that Trump may condone.

The speech was delivered at George Washington University and streamed live online.

Sanders, who nearly snared the Democratic presidential nomination before campaigning for nominee Hillary Clinton, read a snippet from his new book, Our Revolution: A Future to Believe In. In it, he declared, “We set the agenda for the America of tomorrow.”

His speech offered an indication of the new role the 75-year-old senator expects to play during a Trump presidency: speaking out early, often and loudly against any transgressions. Earlier Wednesday, the Senate Democratic leadership appointed Sanders to a new role — chair of outreach — that could give him a bigger stage from which to speak.

“What you will see on Capitol Hill is, many Democrats will be prepared to work with Mr. Trump if he turns out to be sincere about the promises he made during the campaign,” Sanders told the GWU crowd. “If those promises turn out to be hollow, if they were nothing more than campaign rhetoric, we will not only oppose his economic policies, we will expose that hypocrisy.”

Sanders cherry-picked all the Trump campaign promises he could support, challenging Trump to come through in standing up for the middle class and elderly, for raising the minimum wage and ending “disastrous” trade policies.

“He was saying he was going to be the champion of the middle class,” Sanders said of Trump. “We’re going to hold him accountable.”

“Mr. Trump said, unlike many Republicans — the vast majority of Republicans — he said he will not cut Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid,” Sanders said. “Pay attention to see what he does.”

Trump talked about a $10-an-hour federal minimum wage, Sanders said. “We will hold him to those words,” he pledged.

Then Sanders shifted to the agendas he doesn’t want to see Trump pursue.

“We will not be involved in the expansion of bigotry, of racism, of sexism,” Sanders said, to thunderous applause. “I know I speak for millions of fellow Americans. Mr. Trump, we are not going backward in terms of bigotry. We are going to go forward in creating a nondiscriminatory society.”

Earlier Wednesday, Sanders had called on Trump to rescind the appointment of Steve Bannon as his chief strategist and senior counsel, echoing the rest of the Vermont congressional delegation and many congressional Democrats. “The president of the United States should not have a racist at his side,” Sanders said Wednesday night.

He then called on Trump to pay attention to science, not the chief executive officers of the fossil-fuel industry, when it comes to climate change. “Climate change is not a hoax,” Sanders said. “Millions of us have got to stand up and tell Mr. Trump to read a little bit about science.”

The small-plane crash on Savage Island involving two Vermont National Guard airmen in September happened as the pilot practiced an emergency landing, according to a report from the National Transportation Safety Board.

He idled the plane at an altitude of 450 feet to “simulate an engine failure,” but then experienced aerodynamic stall about 15 to 20 feet above the ground before hitting the private island “nose low and left wing down,” the NTSB’s “factual report” recounts. The pilot reported “that he misjudged the wind speed and did not realize he was completing the simulated training maneuver with a tailwind.”

The pilot and a passenger in the back seat were uninjured. The report indicates neither occupant was administered a toxicology test. The Piper PA-11 plane, built in 1947, had substantial damage.

There will be no need for the legislature to decide who will be the next lieutenant governor after all, Secretary of State Jim Condos said Wednesday, walking back a statement he’d made a day earlier.

Lieutenant governor-elect David Zuckerman received 52.1 percent of the votes cast. That put him above the 50 percent mark and removed any constitutional requirement for the legislature to decide the race, Condos conceded Wednesday.

Zuckerman, a Progressive/Democrat, defeated Republican Randy Brock in the November 8 election. Zuckerman takes over from Republican Lt. Gov. Phil Scott, who was elected governor last week.

On Tuesday, Condos had said Zuckerman received 48.95 percent of the vote, putting him below the 50 percent constitutional threshold. But Condos said Wednesday that number included spoiled and blank ballots — which should not have figured in.

Senate Secretary John Bloomer had questioned Condos’ earlier figure, noting that blank ballots have never counted when figuring whether candidates received a 50 percent majority.

An earlier version of this story was first posted at 9:50 a.m.

When president-elect Donald Trump takes office in January, Vermont’s two U.S. senators will play new roles in the opposition.

Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) announced Wednesday morning that he will vacate his position as ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee in order to serve as the top Democrat on the Senate Appropriations Committee. Hours later, the Senate Democratic caucus named Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) to a party leadership post — chair of outreach — and reappointed him ranking member of the Senate Budget Committee.

Both developments were striking, but for different reasons.

Leahy has served as the top Democrat on Judiciary since 1997, when then-senator Joe Biden relinquished the role. He turned down an opportunity to chair Appropriations in December 2012 when the late Hawaiian senator Daniel Inouye’s death made him the most senior member of the Senate. The position went, instead, to Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.), who is now retiring.

At the time, Leahy explained that with Democrats in the majority and President Barack Obama in the White House, he would be able to represent Vermonters best with the Judiciary gavel. In a statement Wednesday, the Vermont senator said that Trump’s election had changed that calculus.

Two months before he leaves office, Gov. Peter Shumlin appointed his longtime health care reform director to a six-year term on the state panel that regulates Vermont’s health industry.

Robin Lunge will join the five-member Green Mountain Care Board on November 28, Shumlin’s office announced Wednesday.

She will replace Dr. Allen Ramsay, whose term on the board expired September 30.

Updated November 16, 2016

Two state officials disagreed Tuesday over whether it will be up to the legislature to decide the lieutenant governor’s race in January.

Progressive/Democrat David Zuckerman came out the clear vote leader on Election Day over Republican Randy Brock. Unofficial vote totals that day showed Zuckerman leading 50 to 44 percent.

When the election results were certified Tuesday, Secretary of State Jim Condos said Zuckerman had received 49.85 percent of the vote — less than 50 percent. By the state Constitution, that meant the legislature would have to ultimately pick the winner.