Nelson Evora carries the flag of Portugal during the opening ceremony for the Beijing 2008 Olympics in Beijing, Friday, Aug. 8, 2008. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)We at VTDigger spend a lot of time searching for state documents — reports, data, policy proposals — on the internet.And, amidst that searchi ng, we noticed something strange. Some of those Vermont state documents appear to have a connection to an unlikely entity: the Olympic Committee of Portugal.Here’s a screenshot from a Google search for Vermont records: A screenshot of the results of one Google search for State of Vermont documents. Peter D’Auria/VTDiggerNote that all these Vermont documents — from the state corrections department, VTrans, the Agency of Commerce and Community Development — have an unusual piece of text in their heading: Comité Olimpico de Portugal.What’s going on here? Is Vermont somehow linked to the Portuguese Olympic Committee, which, just last year, fielded the nation’s most successful Olympic team in its history? Does the state of Vermont have a secret connection to such proud medalists as Iúri Leitão, Pedro Pichardo, and Patrícia Sampaio?Sadly, the answer is não. The problem, according to Josiah Raiche, the chief data and AI officer at the Vermont Agency of Digital Services, is Google.“Bottom line here is that Google is picking up some incorrect information about the content,” Raiche said.The putatively Portuguese documents are all stored on a site called outside.vermont.gov, where the state keeps many publicly available records. When that site was first launched, in 2007, “it appears that somebody used the ‘Portuguese Olympic Committee,’ in words, somewhere in the original template that got put up,” Raiche said. None of these Vermont state documents actually contain the words “Comité Olimpico de Portugal” at this time, but Google continues to use that outdated tag for documents, Raiche said. The text only shows up on Google and no other search engines, he said, and does not represent a security threat. State officials have been aware of the problem for several years, Raiche said, and have flagged it for Google representatives during regular check-ins with the company. (Google did not respond to an emailed request for comment.)The issue may seem trivial, Raiche said, but is more impactful than it initially appears. More and more users are using different methods of interacting with state sites, he said, such as AI and screen reading — meaning a line of incorrect text could potentially have an outsize impact on their experience. “At one level, right, this is a weird oddity of Google,” he said. But “getting stuff like this right, and making sure it presents correctly, actually does, for reals, matter.”  — Peter D’AuriaIn the knowJill Briggs Campbell, Deputy Secretary of Education, told lawmakers in the Senate Finance Committee Tuesday that the state should pause rolling out a school construction funding program while education reform efforts take shape. But that doesn’t necessarily mean the state shouldn’t start saving for the program now. School districts may look much different in the coming years as the Legislature and the administration push for larger, consolidated districts, Briggs Campbell suggested. “I think we need a year. I think we just need a year to know where we’re going,” she said. “Who would we grant to, and what would they be planning for?”H.454, the massive education bill moving through the Legislature, creates — but doesn’t immediately fund — a school construction program. —Ethan WeinsteinTop Vermont Democratic senators on Tuesday called on the state’s Republican Gov. Phil Scott to terminate an agreement with the federal government that allows federal immigration agents to use the state’s prisons to lodge detainees.The push by Senate President Pro Tempore Phil Baruth, D/P-Chittenden Central; Senate Majority Leader Kesha Ram Hinsdale, D-Chittenden Southeast; and Sen. Becca White, D-Windsor, comes a day after a prominent Palestinian activist — who is a legal U.S. resident — was suddenly arrested by federal agents in Colchester during an appointment with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. The senators pointed to Mohsen Mahdawi’s arrest as an impetus for their comments to reporters Tuesday afternoon at a press conference in Baruth’s Statehouse office. White, who accompanied Mahdawi to his appointment, captured video of Mahdawi’s detention that has since been widely viewed.Read more about what they are advocating for here. — Shaun RobinsonCertifiableState Education Secretary Zoie Saunders told the Trump administration Monday that Vermont’s schools will continue diversity, equity and inclusion programs and reaffirmed the state’s compliance with federal anti-discrimination laws.“In Vermont, diversity, equity and inclusion practices are supportive of all students, and aim to create and sustain positive, welcoming learning environments,” Saunders wrote in the Monday letter to the U.S. Department of Education.Earlier this month, President Donald Trump’s administration wrote to states requesting they certify their compliance with Title VI, a federal civil rights law outlawing racial discrimination. But the feds’ request also referenced “illegal DEI” and seemed to restrict a variety of practices, arguing that school districts have “veil(ed) discriminatory policies” under initiatives like diversity programming, “social-emotional learning” and “culturally responsive” teaching.Despite earlier requesting each superintendent submit compliance certifications, Monday’s letter from Saunders was Vermont’s single certification, and in it, she told the U.S. Department of Education that the state and districts were in compliance with federal law.Read more about the debate about whether or not Vermont should certify its compliance here. — Ethan WeinsteinRead the story on VTDigger here: Final Reading: What does the Portuguese Olympic Committee have to do with the State of Vermont?. ...read more read less