Monday, November 3, 2014
After 16 years at the Burlington Free Press, reporter Tim Johnson was summoned to the paper’s vacant publisher’s office Thursday morning by executive editor Mike Townsend.
“He said, ‘I’ve got some bad news for you,’” Johnson recalls. “Essentially, he said I was being let go and that Thursday was going to be my last day of work.”
Johnson, 67, has spent most of his life in journalism. He got his start at a paper in Beverly, Mass., and served tours of duty at the Kansas City Star and the Philadelphia Inquirer. Johnson came to the Freeps in 1998, editing the “Towns” section and then features before he was named higher education reporter in 2006.
Despite that experience, Johnson — like most of his colleagues — learned nearly a month ago that he would have to reapply for a new job at the paper. As the Free Press reduced its editorial staff from 28 to 24, reporters and editors would be graded based upon their compliance with and understanding of Picasso — owner Gannett Company, Inc.’s new digital news guidelines.
“Townsend said it was all numerical. I gave them clips, but I don’t know if they even looked at them,” Johnson says. “I asked, ‘Is this happening because of my performance or productivity?’ And he said, ‘No, it’s Picasso.’ So I inferred that my grasp of Picasso was not sufficient for their taste.”
Tags: Burlington Free Press , Gannett , layoffs , labor , newspaper , Image , Web Only
Friday, October 31, 2014
Joshua Rose trafficked between 400 and 700 grams of heroin from New York to Rutland in 2012, U.S. Attorney Tristram Coffin said. Rose was arrested by New York police in September 2012 with 100 grams of heroin that was bound for Rutland, authorities said.
A week before the arrest, Rutland resident David C. Blanchard III fatally overdosed on heroin sold by Rose's network.
For several months afterward, two of Rose's New York-based lieutenants, Devon Cruz, 29, and Charles Hercules, 23, continued to run the operation, authorities said. According to prosecutors, they used several heroin addicts in Rutland as middle men.
Tags: crime , heroin , Opioid Crisis , overdose , Rutland , Tristram Coffin , Image , Web Only
As Mark Leibovich put it in his excellent 2007 profile of the recently sworn-in senator:
Sanders crinkles his face whenever a conversation veers too long from this kind of “important stuff” and into the “silly stuff,” like clothes and style. “I do not like personality profiles,” Sanders told me during our first conversation.So props to Mark Halperin and John Heilemann — the first-rate political journalists who brought you Game Change — for revealing another side of Sanders on their new Bloomberg TV show, "With All Due Respect."
Which side, exactly, did they reveal?
Tags: Senator , Bernie Sanders , Monster , Bloomberg , Presidential Campaign , Image , Recommended Reading , Video , Web Only
Wednesday, October 29, 2014
"Hi! Do you like this tree? They're going to cut it down!"
Taylor said she learned earlier this week that the tree, at the bottom of King Street, was to be taken down as part of a plan to improve the bike path. It's huge, with a massive trunk that splits into three as it climbs to a crown.
So the physical therapist chained herself to it Wednesday afternoon — she said she'd stay a couple of hours — and tried to convince everyone who biked, walked or ran by to call the Burlington Mayor Miro Weinberger.
If you're not already four Gucci beers deep at the Three Penny Taproom, you've got at least one more opportunity to get sloshed on this year's low-key contests: tonight's final gubernatorial debate. Hosted by WPTZ-TV and taking place at 7 p.m. at the ECHO Lake Aquarium and Science Center, it'll feature Democratic Gov. Peter Shumlin, Republican Scott Milne and Libertarian Dan Feliciano.
To help you along the path to political inebriation, Seven Days presents the 2014 Gubernatorial Campaign Drinking Game.
The rules are pretty basic. Simply take a drink every time:
Tags: politics , Peter Shumlin , debate , Image , Web Only
Tuesday, October 28, 2014
Referencing the ongoing labor dispute between the company and its workers, Sanders told reporters, "What this conflict is about is the 10 multibillion-dollar Wall Street hedge-fund companies that own FairPoint and want to slash labor costs by more than $700 million."
Roughly 1,700 workers in all three states, who belong to either the Communications Workers of America or the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, have been on strike since October 17.
FairPoint has requested $700 million in concessions, which would entail freezing pensions, requiring workers to help pay for health care premiums and getting rid of health insurance plans for retired workers. The unions offered a counterproposal amounting to $200 million in concessions, which FairPoint declined. Workers have also criticized the company's use of contract workers.
Vermont's Independent senator held a press conference Tuesday morning at his Church Street office to urge the communications company, which operates landline and internet services in Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine, to return to the bargaining table. And to make concessions when it does. "FairPoint cannot have it all," Sanders said.
Tags: Senator , Bernie Sanders , Fairpoint Communications , Presidential Campaign , Image , Web Only
Shay Totten, a former Seven Days columnist, identified Shumski as the the owner of the Twitter handle, @slappywhyte, in a post on his personal blog Tuesday morning. Tweets like the one below suggest support for the Tea Party.
Tags: Tea Party , Scot Shumski , Burlington , politics , school board , Image , Web Only
The man, whom officials did not identify, is not showing any symptoms of the virus and is considered "low risk," Shumlin said. He is in a "rural" community in housing arranged by state officials. Health department workers are visiting him twice a day.
"The person has no signs or symptoms of illness and isn't a high risk to anyone at this time," Shumlin said. "This is extremely low risk in my judgment. However, we're going to take every reasonable precaution to keep the public safe."
The man reportedly said he is a doctor and was traveling to Sierra Leone and Guinea to help in the Ebola outbreak. But he does not have a medical license in Vermont, and aid groups operating in West Africa turned him away, Shumlin said. He was apparently traveling alone.
After the press conference, Rutland Mayor Chris Louras released a statement confirming that the man is a resident of his city.
"On October 27th, a Rutland resident returned from West Africa and due to the uncertainty surrounding his intentions while there, officials have determined that the right thing to do was to offer the opportunity to voluntarily self-quarantine for the disease’s 21-day incubation period," Louras said. "Over the last several days, the City of Rutland and the State of Vermont have been working tirelessly and collaboratively to find a safe, secure location for this Rutland resident, and we have been successful."
Tags: Shumlin , Ebola , Fletcher Allen Health Care , quarantine , Department of Health , health , Image , Web Only
Monday, October 27, 2014
"The facts are that I opted out of the interview process and they laid me off," Monty said Monday in written responses to questions posed by Seven Days. "I loved my job, but I don't love Gannett. I will make a new way for myself that doesn't compromise my integrity."
After six years at the Free Press, she said, "Interviewing for a job I already held was degrading and demoralizing ... It compromised my integrity. And for the first time I couldn't see a future there for me."
According to Monty, the human resources executive notified her Wednesday morning that she no longer had a job.
"None of my local editors spoke to me of my decision or met with me at all," she said.
Sunday, October 26, 2014
Superintendent Stephanie Phillips, assistant superintendent Paul Irish and chief administrative officer Nikki Fuller announced in a public letter that they will leave their interim positions effective November 10. Approximately 70 people showed up at Sunday's meeting, and nearly all of the roughly two dozen people who spoke expressed support for what one resident called a "courageous step." The crowd included parents, teachers, city councilors and former school board members.
Bob Abbey, president of the teachers' union, Burlington Education Association, accused the board of fostering a "culture of fear and intimidation" and engaging in a "relentless campaign to silence the experts." He continued, "This board is plagued by the following: unprofessional behavior during public and private meetings, questionable decisions around personnel decisions, a continued lack of transparency and simply a lack of understanding for the work we do."
Tags: Burlington school board , superintendent , Burlington Education Association , Image , Web Only