Rutland Daily Herald from Rutland, Vermont • A5

Local State News Features Analysis The Rutland Herald A5 Sunday, March 20, 2016 On board Staff photos by Robert Layman Rutland Youth Theatre performed "The Orphan Train" Saturday afternoon at Rutland Intermediate School. The play showcased nine different accounts based on true stories of orphans who left New York City by train in search of homes. Lawmakers launching police study Keith Flynn said in an interview Friday. "We need to have those conversations." The House also voted to support an amendment by Rep. Ronald Hubert, R-Milton, calling for the study to include whether the state Office of Professional Regulation should regulate police officers the way it does nurses, funeral directors and a wide range of other occupations.

The aim would be to "come up with a way to decertify officers who are no longer doing what we want them to do for the state of Vermont," Hubert said. Currently, police are "not really regulated by anybody other than their own departments," said Allen Gilbert, executive director of the Vermont chapter of the American Civil See Police, Page A9 to show up in the rare event of a crime within their borders. Added to those are specialized law enforcement personnel working for the departments of Fish Wildlife, Motor Vehicles and Liquor Control, as well as the Capitol Police, who patrol the State House. Lawmakers began with a 1 32-page bill calling for creation of a new Agency of Public Safety, but that was reduced in the House Government Operations Committee to a three-page bill calling for a 13-member panel made up mostly of the heads of various public safety agencies to study the issues. "Is there a way of doing this that makes sense for Vermonters that can provide equal or better service than what we're providing now at a reduced cost?" Public Safety Commissioner By DAVE GRAM THE ASSOCIATED PRESS MONTPELIER The Vermont House voted Friday to launch a top-to-bottom study of Vermont's overlapping patchwork of police forces, as well as to pursue a new system under which officers could be decertified for unprofessional conduct.

Separately, the House voted to step up collection and dissemination of data designed to make sure police aren't engaged in racial profiling in connection with roadside stops. Vermont currently has a patchwork of law enforcement including the State Police, county sheriffs, city and town police departments, small towns that contract with the State Police or sheriffs for part-time coverage and patrols, and mostly rural towns that count on the State Police Vermont Today Man found hurt near road LINCOLN Members of the Vermont State Police Crime Scene Search Team were called to Notch Road after a man was found injured there early Saturday morning. Vermont State Police, along with the Lincoln Fire Department and Bristol Rescue, responded to a report of an injured male on Notch Road in Lincoln just before 3:30 a.m. Police said they found the man suffering from injuries, although they did not provide any details. The man, whose identity has not been released, was taken to the University of Vermont Medical Center in Burlington for treatment, according to police.

Police said Saturday afternoon there was no direct threat to the general public. Woman charged in fentanyl theft LEBANON, N.H. Officials say a Vermont woman is charged with stealing the opiate painkiller, fentanyl, from a patient she was visiting at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center in Lebanon, N.H. WMUR-TV reported that 44-year-old Stacy Olmsted of Springfield, is charged with stealing an rV bag containing fentanyl from the patient's room Friday. Fentanyl alone or in combination with other drugs was responsible for 278 of the 428 overdose deaths in New Hampshire in 2015, according to data released by the state medical examiner's office last week.

Olmsted was still in custody on $5,000 bail Saturday, officials at the Grafton County House of Corrections said. New DNA may aid missing teen case MONTGOMERY Vermont State Police officials say DNA evidence found in a teenager's car could shed new light on her disappearance. Brianna Maitland disappeared in 2004 after leaving her job at the Black Lantern Inn in Montgomery. The 17-year-old girl's car was found the next day at a nearby abandoned farmhouse. Police have said there's no evidence that Maitland left the area willingly and they believe she was a victim of foul play.

Maj. Glenn Hall told WCAX-TV that DNA could connect a suspect or person who was with Maitland that night. Loose change, a water bottle and an unsmoked cigarette were found around her car. Two uncashed paychecks were inside. Monument will receive upgrades BENNINGTON An elevator built in 1956 at Vermont's Bennington Battle Monument is getting new components.

The lift takes visitors up to the observation deck. Site administrator Marylou Chicote told the Bennington Banner that the "monumental" project has been underway since late February. Most of the work is mechanical, including wiring, switches and call buttons, and a new motor. Chicote said the 306-foot-tall monument opens for its 125th season April 16. It opened to the public in 1891 and was built to commemorate a pivotal Revolutionary War battle fought in 1777 in nearby Walloomsac, N.Y Soldiers from the Army of British Gen.

John Bur-goyne had been headed to Bennington to seize a store of arms and ammunition. The stone obelisk was built on the site of the storehouse. The Associated Press Local actor makes his Hollywood debut By GORDON DRITSCHILO STAFF WRITER Paul Burroughs said Hollywood films are a different kind of acting from what he's done on local stages. The veteran of Rutland-area community theater was out west earlier this month, making his movie debut filming a scene for "Nine Eleven," a drama about five strangers trapped together inside the World Trade Center. In community theater, Burroughs said, he has a month and a half to develop his character and learn his lines.

In Hollywood he had just a matter of days to get ready for his scene with veteran screen actor Gina Gershon. 'You're expected to hit the ball when you're at the plate," Burroughs said. Director Martin Guigui said Burroughs did just that. "He really held his own," Guigui said, reached on his lunch break during filming Thursday. "He made Vermont look good." The cast also includes Whoopi Goldberg, Charlie Sheen and fellow Vermonter Luis Guzman.

The director is also a Vermonter Martin Guigui grew up in Middlebury. Burroughs, 49, is from a Vermont family but grew up in Boston, coming to the Rutland area later in life. we'd do skits in the hallway. We'd put on costumes and act for my parents." Years later after the class at the Howe Center Burroughs said he took his own children to a production of Pinocchio in Rutland Town and someone suggested he audition for community theater. He went for it, and landed a role in a Marble Valley Players production of "Arsenic and Old Lace," playing a detective.

"He was the one who had no clue," Burroughs said. "Everything was over his head. I had the Boston accent, so I think it worked pretty well." From there, he saw an ad for the Vermont Actors Repertory. It was the beginning of a long-running involvement in community theater, with Burroughs doing two or three plays a year. "I started getting roles that were more sinister," he said.

"I was head of the Ku Klux Klan in 'The he said. "That taught me about contrast. I had to come in and be the biggest jerk I could be and say some stuff I wouldn't say normally. It really tested my acting. I did it, but my subconscious, in the back of my head, kept saying Are you really going to say those See Actor, Page A9 PHOTO PROVIDED Paul Burroughs, right, a veteran of Rutland-area community theater, stands alongside Charlie Sheen.

The two actors play roles in the movie "Nine Eleven," a film about five strangers trapped inside the World Trade Center. of a general fear. "It was more of a fear or not fulfilling your dreams in life that I wouldn't get to do what I really wanted to do," he said. Acting had been a desire since childhood, Burroughs said. "Me and my sister would watch the Lawrence Welk Show and then He came to acting after arriving in Rutland, starting with an acting class at the Howe Center in 2004.

"As I got older, I wanted to conquer my fear," he said. "I was in my late 30s. I had a fear of heights, so I started skydiving." The class, he said, was born less out of a specific phobia and more Shumlin welcomes General Mills' decision on labeling to Vermont's GMO law, which is set to take effect July 1. Campbell's Soup has also begun labeling its products voluntarily. The announcement from General Mills follows defeat in the U.S.

Senate Wednesday of legislation that would have undermined Vermont's law. But the measure did not garner the required 60 votes to move to a floor debate. Gov. Peter Shumlin hailed the decision by General Mills. "I want to thank General Mills for taking this common sense step that will give consumers of their products nationwide the basic right of knowing what is in the food they buy," he said.

"This shows that the United States has the capacity to join the 64 other countries that already require GMO labeling. I See Labeling, Page A9 VERMONT PRESS BUREAU Vermont officials see the announcement by another major food producer in the U.S. as another step forward for the state's GMO labeling law. General Mills, which makes several popular breakfast cereals among other products, announced Friday that it will begin labeling products with genetically modified organisms nationwide in response.