Friday, June 26, 2015
Pride Center of Vermont is planning a 5:30 p.m. event Friday evening on the steps of Burlington City Hall to celebrate the landmark decision — and expects a crowd.
"This is such a significant moment in LGBTQ history," said Kim Fountain, executive director of Pride Center Vermont, in a statement. "Just 50 years ago, there were no rights protecting LGBTQ people. Today, the highest court in the country handed down a decision consistent with polls that show overwhelming public support for marriage equality."
The center noted that Vermont has been a national leader in the fight for marriage equality. In 2000, Vermont became the first state to offer civil unions to same-sex couples. In 2009, the state became the first to legislate a marriage-equity law.
As soon as the SCOTUS decision was announced, Fountain said, phones and social media lit up — and people are still texting, Facebooking and tweeting hours later. People are "ebullient, absolutely joyous," she said.
"I'm just so excited with how far we've come," said Hillary Boone, a former board co-chair for the center.
People at the center on Friday noted that many rights accompany legal marriage — issues related to insurance, inheritances and more. "This helps to protect those folks," Fountain said.
The Pride Center is inviting people to the steps of Burlington City Hall tonight to share their stories and to thank the people who've worked for years to further the issue.
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Congressman Peter Welch (D-Vt.) unfroze Vermont’s gubernatorial race Friday by announcing he will run instead for a sixth term in Congress in 2016.
The 68-year-old Norwich resident had been contemplating a run for the state’s top political job since Gov. Peter Shumlin, a fellow Democrat, announced June 8 that he would not seek reelection next year. Acknowledging the congressman’s seniority and political prowess, other potential Democratic candidates had been awaiting Welch’s decision to make their own.
After discussing the matter with his wife, Public Service Board member Margaret Cheney, and close friends, Welch said he had decided to stay put.
“Congress is, these days, not highly regarded by the American people. But strange as it may seem, I really continue to love my job,” Welch said Friday morning during a conference call with reporters. “I am very, very energized about continuing my work here in Congress, very grateful to Vermonters who have shown their trust in me, and I want to continue to work on their behalf.”
Tags: Peter Welch , Peter Shumlin , Vermont politics , Shap Smith , Matt Dunne , Image , Web Only
Thursday, June 25, 2015
Unsexy as the announcement was, it affects all Vermonters. Several years ago, the legislature passed Act 148 to step up the state’s recycling and composting efforts. Despite Vermont's green rep, Markowitz said the state's efforts have plateaued during the last decade. The law has phased-in requirements, and a number of the new changes take effect on July 1. (Depending on where you live, based on local practices, they may be nothing new.)
Here are seven things you should know about the new rules:
Tags: Agency of Natural Resources , Deb Markowitz , recycling , Image , Web Only
That's because the court's 6-3 vote preserves Vermont's option to abandon its troubled health insurance exchange, Vermont Health Connect, in favor of the federal exchange or a federal-state hybrid. For a year and a half, Scott has urged Gov. Peter Shumlin to make such a move, but the Democratic governor has warned that a different outcome in the King case could have jeopardized the federal subsidies that make other systems viable.
“For 18 months, officials have dismissed repeated calls to explore alternatives to our dysfunctional exchange, saying to do so would put Vermonters at risk of losing their subsidies," Scott said in a statement Thursday after the court released its decision. "Now that the fear of losing subsidies is no longer a valid argument, we must find the best path to affordable, accessible health insurance for every Vermonter.”
Like other states that operate their own exchanges, Vermont was never at risk of losing the federal subsidies that make its health plans more affordable for those with low and moderate incomes. But the three dozen states that use the federal exchange and the three that use a hybrid — Nevada, New Mexico and Oregon — were in such danger.
Scott and other Vermont lawmakers have urged Shumlin to consider a hybrid exchange, among other options.
Tags: King v. Burwell , Vermont Health Connect , Phil Scott , Shap Smith , Peter Shumlin , Lawrence Miller , Image , Web Only
A new poll commissioned by Bloomberg Politics shows Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) drawing support in his presidential campaign from a quarter of likely voters in the Iowa caucuses. His 24 percent showing is a significant jump from a similar poll a month ago, in which 16 percent of Iowans selected Sanders as their first choice.
"The polls reflect what we're seeing on the ground," Sanders campaign manager Jeff Weaver tells Seven Days. "The more people hear Bernie Sanders' message, the more people will come to him. We are contesting these states aggressively and the results are showing."
They’re showing in more ways than one.
A super PAC affiliated with former Maryland governor Martin O’Malley on Thursday released what appears to be the first negative advertisement aimed at Sanders’ presidential campaign.
Citing the Vermonter’s mixed record on firearms legislation, the ad’s narrator says, “Bernie Sanders is no progressive when it comes to guns.” A separate 15-second ad released Thursday by the super PAC, Generation Forward, touts O’Malley’s support for gun control.
The Bloomberg poll, conducted by Selzer & Company, indicates that former secretary of state Hillary Clinton remains in a dominant position in the Hawkeye State, though her support has softened slightly. She drew 50 percent in this month's survey, compared to 57 percent last month. O'Malley and former Rhode Island governor Lincoln Chafee barely registered.
Tags: Senator , Bernie Sanders , Presidential Campaign , Bloomberg Poll , Iowa , Martin O'Malley , campaign trail , Image , Recommended Reading , Video , Web Only
Wednesday, June 24, 2015
Inside and outside the Beltway, musical and political connoisseurs have enjoyed listening to him croon such favorites as "This Land Is Your Land." Now Vermont's junior senator is making a run for the Democratic presidential nomination — and drawing big crowds on the campaign trail.
A related feast for the senses has surfaced on a YouTube video discovered Wednesday by BuzzFeed. It captures Sanders and company recording "Freedom" in 1987. Seven Days founder and co-owner Pamela Polston is among the backup singers lending her pipes to the effort. (Skip ahead to 1:10 and check her out on the right.)
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"He's a favorite son," says Martha Allen, a Canaan librarian who heads the Vermont-National Education Association. "And he's just right on all the issues."
The Vermont-NEA, which represents some 12,000 current and retired teachers, became the first union in the country Wednesday to endorse Sanders. Earlier this month, the South Carolina AFL-CIO's executive board passed a resolution supporting his candidacy, but its broader membership has yet to issue a formal endorsement.
While Vermont teachers may not make or break a national election, Allen promises to turn the Vermont-NEA's support into action — particularly in neighboring New Hampshire.
"We'll see what they need, where they need boots on the ground and send [our members] that way," she says.
Tags: Senator , Bernie Sanders , Presidential Campaign , Vermont-NEA , Labor , Endorsement , Martha Allen , Image , Recommended Reading , Web Only
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Monday, June 22, 2015
"The flag is a relic of our nation’s stained racial history," he said in a statement. "It should come down."
Sanders' comments follow last Wednesday's deadly shooting of nine parishioners at Charleston's Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church. Photos posted online of the alleged perpetrator, Dylan Roof, show him posing with the Confederate flag and other racially charged imagery. Since 2000, when it was removed from the Statehouse dome, the flag has flown above a nearby monument to Confederate soldiers.
“The tragedy in Charleston, as terrible as it is, has given the people of South Carolina an opportunity to finally turn a page on our past," said Sanders, who is running for the Democratic presidential nomination. "The flag belongs in a museum.”
Sanders was hardly the first to issue such a call. His campaign issued a statement on the matter Monday afternoon only after word leaked that two prominent South Carolina Republicans — Gov. Nikki Haley and Sen. Lindsey Graham, a fellow presidential candidate — would do the same later that day.
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For years, public officials have raised questions about high gas prices in northwestern Vermont. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), state Attorney General Bill Sorrell and plenty of others have organized hearings, held press conferences and even requested a federal investigation into the matter. Nothing much has come of their efforts.
On Monday, the law firms Bailey & Glasser and The Burlington Law Practice filed a class action lawsuit alleging that four local companies — R.L. Vallee, owned by Skip Vallee, which runs the Maplefields chain; S.B. Collins; Champlain Farms/Wesco; and Champlain Oil Company — have made exorbitant profits by illegally conspiring to keep gas prices high.
In a complaint filed Monday afternoon in Chittenden Superior Court, the plaintiffs describe the defendants' wholesale and retail profits as "extraordinarily out of line." At times, according to the filing, those profits have been twice the national average and the second highest of 450 gas markets in the United States.
The suit, which alleges a violation of the Vermont Consumer Protection Act, is being brought on behalf of people who purchased gas at stations owned or supplied by those four companies in Chittenden, Franklin and Grand Isle counties from 2005 until the present day. The plaintiffs claim that the defendants control more than 60 percent of suppliers and retail stations in those counties, and they suggest that the companies "may have pilfered over $100 million" from customers during this time period.
Tags: gas prices , Skip Vallee , Vermont Consumer Protection Act , price-fixing , Image , Web Only