Vermont

Terence B. Foley, 67, of Queen Village, a scholar, linguist and musician, died of cancer yesterday in hospice care at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Foley moved to Philadelphia in 2003 when his wife, Amanda Bennett, began her three years as editor of The Inquirer. He taught journalism courses at Temple, Drexel, and La Salle Universities and played tuba and string bass with area bands. He was a member of Local 77, American Federation of Musicians, Philadelphia.

In the absence of definitive federal action on protecting the world's ozone layer, the State of Vermont, population 550,000, has stepped into the breach. Effective in 1993, it will ban the sale or registration of cars containing the most common kind of automotive air conditioners. Gov. Madeleine M. Kunin, who is expected to sign the legislation in the next two weeks, has hailed the law as "landmark legislation. " (Actually, Hawaii is considering the same thing.) Automotive air conditioners were singled out because the coolant used in them, CFC-12, is regarded by scientists as the chlorofluorocarbon product most damaging to the stratospheric layer of ozone, which protects the earth from ultraviolet light.

Everyone knows that some prisoners do hard time and some do soft time. But only recently did we learn of a third alternative - Vermont time. John Zaccaro Jr., 24, the son of 1984 Democratic vice presidential candidate Geraldine A. Ferraro, is currently serving time in a $1,500-a-month luxury apartment in Burlington, Vt., where he is presumably doing penance for a drug conviction. Mr. Zaccaro owes his good fortune to a program of sentencing certain kinds of non-threatening felons to house arrest - a program that Vermont's embarrassed governor, Madeleine M. Kunin, is now reviewing.

Archbishop Carroll's Liz Mintzer made quite an impression on the Vermont coaching staff this summer while playing throughout the country with the 16-and-under Runnin' Rebels AAU team. So much so that Vermont coaches went to see Mintzer play again in the Villanova Shootout in September and eventually offered her a scholarship. Yesterday, Mintzer took Vermont up on its offer, making an oral commitment to accept a basketball scholarship. The 6-foot center said she would sign a letter of intent with the Division I team, which plays in the America East conference, as soon as possible.

THREE OF the colleges that made Brendan Kilpatrick's personal final four can be found in New England. Hmm, what have we here, a closet skier? "Not even close," he said, chuckling. "And I don't even plan on learning. When guys come back from skiing or snowboarding, they all seem to have broken arms or broken legs. I don't think that's for me. " Kilpatrick, a 6-5, 195-pound senior at Malvern Prep, is a quality basketball player and his next stop will be the University of Vermont.

Hockey, hockey and more hockey have been the traditional topics of conversation in sports circles in Burlington, Vt. - until recently. The No. 25 University of Vermont women's basketball team has changed that. The Catamounts (29-0) became the nation's only unbeaten school in Division I, navigating a perfect course into their first NCAA tournament appearance, which will come tonight at No. 16 George Washington (24-6), the Atlantic Ten champion, in a first-round East Regional game.

When we first pointed the car toward the northern end of Vermont, we were looking for a relaxed few days of soaking up a little American culture in a setting of bucolic meadows and green hills. But in the best spirit of the good, short vacation, what we encountered along the shores of Lake Champlain was unexpected and even more fun than our original aim. In the pleasant New England town of Shelburne, a few miles south of Burlington, we did find the strong dose of history we anticipated, in a sort of visit to Grandmother's attic that doesn't require blowing dust off any of the relics.

From our "Truth in Advertising" file comes word that Bob Newhart, who stars as the nerdy proprietor of a quaint Vermont inn on CBS's Newhart, has never been to the Green Mountain State. And it looks as if he has no intention of going in the near future. Montpelier on the Move, a civic group headed by Steve Faust, recently invited Newhart to participate in the state capital's annual Fool's Fest, a summertime vaudeville and music celebration. According to Faust, Newhart said thanks, but no thanks.

Jeff Myers scored 25 points to lead four Drexel scorers in double figures as the Dragons routed Vermont, 97-58, last night in the North Atlantic Conference opener for both teams. Drexel got 19 points from Mike DeRocckis, 13 from Cornelius Overby, and 10 points, plus 17 rebounds, from Malik Rose. Myers was 7 for 9 from the floor, including a 4-for-5 performance from three-point range. The Dragons improved to 3-1 overall. Vermont fell to 1-4. Drexel shot 16 for 28 from the floor in the first half, including 9 for 15 from three-point range, and went 13 for 13 from the free-throw line.

Turnovers cost Drexel dearly last night as the Dragons blew a 12-point lead in the final four minutes and lost to Vermont, 73-72. The Catamounts never had the lead in the game until Tobe Carberry sank a free throw to complete a three-point play with 13 seconds to go. Drexel's Bryant Coursey had a six-footer to win the game rim out in the closing seconds and his stickback at the buzzer also refused to drop. Drexel fell to 10-13 overall and 7-6 in America East. Vermont improved to 12-10 overall and 7-6 in the conference.

IT'S BEEN a long time since Binghamton coach Mark Macon has seen his players smiling after a game. In fact, it hadn't happened all season. Robert Mansell scored 18 points and Binghamton held off visiting Vermont, 57-53, to win its first game of the season last night, snapping a 27-game losing streak and shedding the dubious distinction of being the only winless team in Division I. "To see the happiness on their faces was uplifting," said...

BETHEL, Vt. - June Tierney and Kellie Burke never envisioned island living in the Vermont woods, but Tropical Storm Irene had other ideas. Their home, a two-story, natural-sided saltbox, was a rural idyll on a wooded 10-acre lot off a dirt road, with a stairway leading from their backyard down a steep bank to Gilead Brook, a small stream. When Irene blew through Vermont on Aug. 28, the brook became a raging torrent. After the storm, the main part of it had moved around to the other side of the house, leaving a smaller stream still flowing along its old bed. Now Tierney, a 47-year-old lawyer who works for the state board that regulates utilities, and Burke, 48-year-old high school librarian, have to cross a ford - a new, narrow road that dips into the old stream and has no guardrails - to get home, and face an uncertain future.

Jenna Woginrich has serious Pennsylvania connections. She grew up in Palmerton in Carbon County, a place she's described in interviews as "a small town with street lights, sidewalks and Wonder Bread and mayonnaise. " She also graduated from Kutztown University. Perhaps those stolid roots inspired the homestead dream. For although Woginrich makes her living as a Web designer for Orvis in Sunderland, Vt., she's also a farmer - and now the author of Barnheart , a memoir about "the incurable longing for a farm of one's own. " Woginrich raises chickens, sheep, bees, rabbits, and geese; she grows her own vegetables and bakes a lot of bread.

NEW YORK - The innkeeper wore a Mets cap. He skidded his bike to a stop, removed his backpack, threw the bike's frame over his shoulder, and trudged up the granite steps of the townhouse. It was raining, and from behind the wrought-iron doors we watched him fumble with his keys. He looked up, squinted at us and waved. We stood in the vestibule, where we had been waiting 40 minutes, sheltered from the downpour but unable to go farther into the building without a key. We had arrived early.

With another snowy La Nina winter expected and epic predictions from the Old Farmer's Almanac, snowmaking operations have begun in Vermont, where annual snowmaking at ski areas covers 4,360 acres of terrain, a land area five times the size of New York's Central Park. Thanks to sophisticated snowmaking technology, Thanksgiving weekend is the traditional opening for Vermont skiing. "With over 600 miles of snowmaking pipes and superior snow guns, Vermont ski resorts have enough capacity to fill Gillette Stadium with over 40 feet of snow in one hour," said Ski Vermont president Parker Riehle.

WATERBURY, Vt. - The floodwaters of Tropical Storm Irene that ripped up roads and washed into living rooms across Vermont took a dramatic toll on quaint old villages - filling white, steepled churches with muck and knocking 19th-century clapboard houses off their foundations. That's a big problem for a small state that cherishes its history. The classic villages of clapboard and stone buildings hugging the state's rivers and streams are the essence of Vermont and a big tourist draw.

His Life and Times By Willard Sterne Randall W.W. Norton. 619 pp. $35 Reviewed by Adam Tschorn As any student of Vermont history can tell you - and the recent flood devastation in that state underscores all too well - water has played a huge role in shaping what would become the 14th state to join the Union. The Connecticut River forms Vermont's eastern border with New Hampshire, and Lake Champlain forms the majority of the state's western border with New York.

MONTPELIER, Vt. - John Curran, an award-winning journalist for the Associated Press who covered stories from Miss America pageants to the Gulf oil spill to recent devastating flooding in Vermont, died Saturday. He was 54. The husband and father of three was stricken with an apparent heart attack while mowing the lawn at his Montpelier home, said his brother, Robert Curran Jr. Curran's AP career spanned more than two decades and earned him numerous awards for his feature, sports and profile writing.

THREE OF the colleges that made Brendan Kilpatrick's personal final four can be found in New England. Hmm, what have we here, a closet skier? "Not even close," he said, chuckling. "And I don't even plan on learning. When guys come back from skiing or snowboarding, they all seem to have broken arms or broken legs. I don't think that's for me. " Kilpatrick, a 6-5, 195-pound senior at Malvern Prep, is a quality basketball player and his next stop will be the University of Vermont.

Asked to describe Quenton DeCosey, Ed Bright went for the letter T. "A treat," Bright said of the St. Joseph-Metuchen senior basketball player, who gave Temple an oral commitment Wednesday night. "People at Temple are in for a treat," he added. "He is a tremendous young man. " The 6-foot-5 swingman is an even better player, according to Bright, who is DeCosey's mentor and the general manager of the Team Izod AAU program he plays for. "I don't use these words loosely, but he reminds you of a younger Kobe Bryant," Bright said.