State News Roundup

Officials of the Vermont Department of Education have announced an independent audit of the department following the discovery that between $300,000 and $400,000 in federal funds is missing.

The department has been unable to account for the whereabouts of the money, given to the state by the U.S. Labor Department's employment and training office to finance a variety of job-training programs for youths.

It remains unclear whether the money has been spent or if it is buried somewhere in an obscure account. Embezzlement also remains a possibility, although Richard Mills, the state's commissioner of education, said that...