Recent crimes were in the top news 50 years ago this week as a session of Addison District Court was just getting underway. Here are some of the other top stories that appeared in the July 23, 1970, edition of the Independent:
•  Burglars used a blowtorch to break open a safe at the John Deere garage in Orwell, making off with $10-$15. 
•  A Salisbury farmer pleaded not guilty to charges of receiving and concealing stolen property including a car battery and winter tire. In the same court session, two Brandon teens were charged with similar crimes. 
•  Silver Lake in Leicester joined the growing list of state waters polluted with mercury, according to tests by the Department of Fish and Wildlife. 
•  The first annual Vergennes Junior Olympics awarded medals to 42 local children for their athletic prowess.
•  Adelaide Knowles of Stowe became the first woman to seek a nomination as the Vermont representative to Congress. The Republican candidate campaigned in Addison County on a platform of “law and order.”
•  Michael T. Bishoff of Brooklyn, N.Y., a former Middlebury College student who was accused of setting fire to Recitation Hall during the college-wide strike on May 7, was ruled “mentally ill and not responsible legally” for his actions in Addison District Court. 
•  A St. Michael’s College professor surveyed the “bellwether community” of Salisbury to try and predict the outcome of the upcoming gubernatorial elections. Salisbury voters, who had voted for the winning party in every gubernatorial election since 1930, predicted that a Democratic candidate would win against incumbent governor Deane Davis. In this case however Salisbury’s record was broken; Davis continued to serve as governor until 1973. 
•  Bridport voters roundly defeated a proposal to send their seventh- and eighth-graders to Middlebury Union High School, instead of continuing to educate them at Bridport Central School. The vote was 128 No and 58 Yes.
— Emma Pope McCright