Wednesday, April 30, 2014
Burlington Mayor Miro Weinberger was scheduled to show up at the Bagel Café Wednesday morning for a weekly ritual that dates back to his campaigning days in 2012. “Mornings with Miro” is the mayor's regular standing date with residents of the city's New North End — and anyone else who wants to chat with him from 8 to 9 a.m.
On this particular morning, there was plenty of news to discuss: Fewer than 48 hours earlier, Weinberger had called for Burlington School District Superintendent Jeanne Collins to step down, as a result of a series of school budget blunders that have recently come to light. Collins responded by saying the mayor was out of line to call for her ouster.
On this particular morning, there was plenty of news to discuss: Fewer than 48 hours earlier, Weinberger had called for Burlington School District Superintendent Jeanne Collins to step down, as a result of a series of school budget blunders that have recently come to light. Collins responded by saying the mayor was out of line to call for her ouster.
Tags: Miro Weinberger , Jeanne Collins , Burlington City Council , Image , Web Only
Two weeks ago, WCAX-TV producer Alexei Rubenstein invited Vermont climatologist Alan Betts to appear on the station's daily interview program, "The :30." In an email, Rubenstein asked the National Science Foundation-funded researcher "to talk about [his] climate change work and Vermont and New England implications."
Betts agreed.
But on Wednesday, just hours before Betts was slated to appear, Rubenstein canceled. In an email, the producer explained that station "higher ups" had spiked the interview due to a lack of "opposing views." In a separate phone call, Betts says, Rubenstein "said it's because management is afraid of the hostile reactions they get."
Here's Rubenstein's email:
Betts was shocked. For 30 years, the Pittsford scientist has studied climate trends in Vermont and throughout the world. He's delivered more than 100 talks around the state and penned commentaries for the Rutland Herald, Barre-Montpelier Times Argus and Vermont Public Radio.
Never once, he says, has a news outlet demanded an "alternative viewpoint" to a phenomenon almost universally agreed upon by mainstream scientists.
Betts agreed.
But on Wednesday, just hours before Betts was slated to appear, Rubenstein canceled. In an email, the producer explained that station "higher ups" had spiked the interview due to a lack of "opposing views." In a separate phone call, Betts says, Rubenstein "said it's because management is afraid of the hostile reactions they get."
Here's Rubenstein's email:
Alan,
We have to cancel today. I’ve been informed by higher ups that we need to have “opposing views” as part of the segment. I do not agree with this, but that’s the way it is. I apologize for all the trouble. If you are interested in appearing in the future with someone who has an “alternative viewpoint” maybe that would work. Please call me if you have any questions.
Alexei
Betts was shocked. For 30 years, the Pittsford scientist has studied climate trends in Vermont and throughout the world. He's delivered more than 100 talks around the state and penned commentaries for the Rutland Herald, Barre-Montpelier Times Argus and Vermont Public Radio.
Never once, he says, has a news outlet demanded an "alternative viewpoint" to a phenomenon almost universally agreed upon by mainstream scientists.
Tags: climate change , wcax , alan betts , Image , Web Only
Speaking to beltway reporters at a forum organized by the Third Way, a centrist think tank, the Democratic Governors Association chairman summed up his party's prospects of regaining gubernatorial seats this November.
Reported Real Clear Politics:
Shumlin listed Maine, Pennsylvania, and Florida as states where the DGA has “very high hopes” of defeating Republicans. He added that Democrats have “good shots” in Ohio, Michigan, and Wisconsin. Shumlin also offered Georgia, South Carolina, Kansas, and Arizona as red states that the DGA is “optimistic” about Democrats’ chances in.Whom did Shumlin fail to mention?
You guessed it: Texas Democrat Wendy Davis, who rose to prominence last June after an 11-hour filibuster against new abortion regulations. She's now running for governor.
Tags: Gov. Peter Shumlin , Democratic Governors Association , DGA , Wendy Davis , Image , Web Only
Tuesday, April 29, 2014
Burlington Mayor Miro Weinberger and several city councilors are calling for Superintendent Jeanne Collins to step down after a rash of financial missteps that have led to consecutive deficits in the Burlington School District and an anticipated fine from the Internal Revenue Service.
Collins sat in the back of Contois Auditorium during Monday's city council meeting, listening as councilors Max Tracy (P-Ward 2), Dave Hartnett (D-Ward 4) and Vince Brennan (P-Ward 3) each demanded “new leadership” within the school district’s administration. When it came time for him to speak, the mayor also called for "a change in school administration leadership."
"For the good of our children, the teachers and the schools, it is important that this trust be repaired quickly before lasting damage to the system is done," Weinberger read from a statement. The mayor characterized a change in leadership as an "early and essential step" in that effort.
The recent discovery that the district was on pace to overspend by $2.5 million in both fiscal years 2014 and 2015 sent the school board scrambling to recalculate a 2015 budget that would not have a deficit essentially built into it. To avoid that, the board is facing the awkward situation of having to ask Burlington voters to approve a budget that is higher than the one they voted down last March. It's also awaiting word from the IRS, which plans to penalize the district for failing to pay some of its payroll taxes.
After the meeting, those calling for "a change in leadership" got more specific about what they meant. The mayor's chief of staff, Mike Kanarick, said Weinberger thought "at a minimum, the superintendent" should be replaced. Hartnett said he felt the departure of both Collins and the district's finance director, David Larcombe, would be necessary in order to restore Burlington residents' confidence in the district. Tracy said he had been referring to Collins in his earlier comments about leadership change.
Collins sat in the back of Contois Auditorium during Monday's city council meeting, listening as councilors Max Tracy (P-Ward 2), Dave Hartnett (D-Ward 4) and Vince Brennan (P-Ward 3) each demanded “new leadership” within the school district’s administration. When it came time for him to speak, the mayor also called for "a change in school administration leadership."
"For the good of our children, the teachers and the schools, it is important that this trust be repaired quickly before lasting damage to the system is done," Weinberger read from a statement. The mayor characterized a change in leadership as an "early and essential step" in that effort.
The recent discovery that the district was on pace to overspend by $2.5 million in both fiscal years 2014 and 2015 sent the school board scrambling to recalculate a 2015 budget that would not have a deficit essentially built into it. To avoid that, the board is facing the awkward situation of having to ask Burlington voters to approve a budget that is higher than the one they voted down last March. It's also awaiting word from the IRS, which plans to penalize the district for failing to pay some of its payroll taxes.
After the meeting, those calling for "a change in leadership" got more specific about what they meant. The mayor's chief of staff, Mike Kanarick, said Weinberger thought "at a minimum, the superintendent" should be replaced. Hartnett said he felt the departure of both Collins and the district's finance director, David Larcombe, would be necessary in order to restore Burlington residents' confidence in the district. Tracy said he had been referring to Collins in his earlier comments about leadership change.
Tags: Jeanne Collins , Miro Weinberger , Burlington School Board , Burlington City Council , Image , Web Only
Monday, April 28, 2014
It is a matter of simple economics, The Globe says. Handguns are cheaper and more readily available in Vermont, which has looser gun restrictions than Massachusetts. And Vermont's demand for illegal drugs has been strong in recent years.
"It is a trade that is compounding public safety worries on both sides of the state border, as urban authorities in Western Massachusetts battle gun crimes and gang violence and Vermonters cope with the skyrocketing abuse of heroin and other opiates."
“For the drug dealer, it’s a great deal,” Tristram Coffin, the U.S. attorney for Vermont, told the Globe. “He’s got a commodity that he gets for a wholesale price and then can trade a relatively small amount of drugs for a pretty valuable weapon.”
The Globe cites the 2011 murder of a woman shot by a Massachusetts man who swapped a 9 mm Glock for crack cocaine outside a Brattleboro grocery store.
Vermont Public Radio tackled the subject a few months ago.
The Globe says that police have dubbed Interstate 91 the "Iron Pipeline" for the easy access it provides Massachusetts dealers to guns in the Green Mountain State.
Vermont does not require permits or registration to own a gun, or carry a concealed firearm. The Globe says the police chief in Holyoke, a city off I-91 in western Massachusetts, has made curbing illegal firearms his top priority.
Friday, April 25, 2014
In an unusual move, the Vermont Supreme Court today overturned the murder conviction of a Windsor County man who has spent three years in prison for a shooting he has long claimed was self-defense.
In a 5-0 opinion, justices ruled that a trial judge improperly excluded key evidence that could have bolstered Kyle Bolaski's claim of self-defense in the 2008 shooting of Vincent Tamburello, who had charged at a group of Bolaski's friends with a small axe. Additionally, the court said the judge gave improper instructions to jurors that made the murder conviction more likely.
Currently serving a 25-year-to-life sentence, Bolaski may soon be freed from a Kentucky prison in which Vermont houses long-term inmates. Bolaski, 30, was free on bail before his 2011 trial. With the case effectively reset to pre-trial status, courts traditionally revert to the prior bail status.
It is unclear when a new trial would occur, though a hearing on Bolaski's bail status will likely come much sooner.
Members of Bolaski's family in Chester and Tamburello's family outside Boston did not immediately respond to messages.
Today's decision was a dramatic twist in a six-year old case that has been fraught with controversy from the start.
Tags: cannabis related , Crime , Legal , Vermont Supreme Court , Image , Web Only
A beleaguered but nearly unified Burlington School Board approved a $67.4 million budget Thursday evening — its second offering after voters struck down a $66.9 million version on Town Meeting Day.
It’s scheduled to go before voters on June 3.*
In the meantime, board members have some explaining to do. The new budget is higher than the previous budget that was soundly rejected for being too costly, and it contains bigger cuts than the original.
That’s because the board recently discovered the earlier budget had been calculated based on "bad numbers," as school board member Kyle Dodson phrased it, that would have put Burlington on pace to end fiscal year 2015 with a $2.5 million deficit. This news came after a recent audit, which also estimated that the district will end FY 2014 with a $2.5 million deficit, making it the third year in a row that it’s overspent.
The problem, according to the audit, was that the administration was drawing up budgets based on the previous year’s projected budget rather than the actual spending that occurred. It was, in the words of the new finance committee chair, Miriam Stoll, a “shocking” discovery.
Tags: Burlington School Board , Jeanne Collins , Burlington City Council , IRS , Image , Web Only
Monday, April 21, 2014
Mark Davis
Alleged embezzler Lisa Peduzzi looks back during her arraignment in Chittenden Superior Court.
Lisa M. Peduzzi, 51, of Plainfield, pleaded not guilty to five counts of embezzlement and one count of attempted embezzlement on Monday morning in Chittenden Superior Court before she was released on $10,000 bail.
When she was arrested outside her home last Friday, Peduzzi told Vermont State Police investigators that she "deserves whatever she gets and that she will pay back the state, even if it takes until she is 90," according to a Vermont State Police affidavit.
Meanwhile, court documents provide new details of her alleged scheme, which Peduzzi told investigators was motivated by financial troubles. At one point the power company threatened to shut off electricity to her double-wide trailer home, which is now in foreclosure.
Tags: embezzlement , Image , Web Only
That's the main — if not terribly surprising — takeaway from a newly released poll conducted earlier this month by the Castleton Polling Institute on behalf of VTDigger.
The poll, which queried 682 Vermonters over the course of a week, found that 49 percent approve of "the job Peter Shumlin is doing as governor of Vermont," while 40 percent disapprove. Eleven percent said they weren't sure or didn't have an opinion. The poll's margin of error was +/-4 percent.
So what does it mean?
Less than two years after he moved his family to a home in Burlington’s Hill Section — and retrofitted the garage into a musical instrument-making shop — Adam Buchwald is selling his South Prospect Street home.
A luthier by trade, Buchwald is bowing out of a battle with his neighbor that dates back to when he and his wife first purchased the spacious, colonial home near the University of Vermont. Barbara Headrick, who lives next door, has been trying to shutter Buchwald's home-based business on grounds that the noise it generates has disturbed her peace.
What began as a zoning dispute has blossomed into a full-blown legal battle scheduled to come before the environmental division of the Vermont Superior Court in late May. But Buchwald, who’s said he expects the conflict to continue whether or not the court rules in his favor, isn’t waiting around. He has insisted all along that the machine sounds emanating from his insulated garage — if audible at all — are too minimal to be a nuisance.
A listing for the four-bedroom, four-bath house appeared on Zillow April 2. After a $40,000 price reduction, the asking price is now $799,000. The Buchwalds purchased the property for $766,000 in 2012.