Thursday, July 30, 2015
Burlington school officials say they will appeal the denial earlier this month of an O-1 visa that would have allowed Yaw Obeng to start his $153,000-a-year job as superintendent of city schools.
The denial keeps Obeng in limbo. But he still wants the job. And he says he's confident he'll get a visa.
"My intention is to be in Burlington for the long haul," Obeng said by telephone Thursday. "If it takes a couple extra months to make that happen, in the long term I think it's going to be worth that effort.”
Obeng is a senior administrator at the Halton school district in suburban Toronto. He says he doesn't plan to officially resign from that job until his work papers come through.
It's unclear when and whether that will happen. U.S. Citizenship & Immigration Services in St. Albans processed the O-1 application. Director Laura B. Zuchowski wrote the denial. She found the application failed to demonstrate that Obeng has the extraordinary ability and sustained national or international acclaim in his field — education — required to qualify for an O-1 visa.
Tags: Burlington , education , immigration , Yaw Obeng , Image , Web Only
Wednesday, July 29, 2015
Jaime Contois of Putney had a similar story. Also a new mom, she said she and her wife already pay $18,000 a year for health insurance — 22 percent of their combined incomes. "We are looking at not being able to afford insurance as we start a family," Contois told the board. "I ask you to deny the rate increase. It is unethical."
Blue Cross had filed to raise its premiums by an average of 8.4 percent next year, then amended the request to 8.6 percent. By this week's hearing, however, it had agreed with an independent actuarial consultant that it could live with a 7.2 average increase. Blue Cross covers 70,000 people with plans sold through Vermont Health Connect, also called the health exchange.
The board must settle on 2016 rates by August 13. The policies take effect on January 1.
For six hours spread over two days, the Green Mountain Care Board listened to technical testimony on requests from Blue Cross and MVP Healthcare to increase premiums for the policies they will sell next year through Vermont Health Connect. It was in the final half hour of the second day that seven individuals put human faces on the impact of those proposed increases — poignant presentations that likely made the board's decision more difficult.
Tags: Blue Cross Blue Shield , MVP Healthcare , Green Mountain Care Board , Image , Web Only
Tuesday, July 28, 2015
“I wonder why this happened, why we got this guy, why the mayor was so anxious to push this through,” Baird said at a meeting at the Peace & Justice Center in Burlington.
Two weeks after the Burlington City Council unanimously confirmed Brandon del Pozo as the city’s new police chief, some residents remain infuriated at a process they say was rushed, ignored their concerns and leaves them mistrustful.
Del Pozo, 40, was chosen after a months-long search involving a field of about 30 candidates seeking to succeed retiring chief Michael Schirling. Del Pozo is slated to start work September 1. Del Pozo has spent his 18-year career with the New York City Police Department. That raised suspicion among some about whether he was part of controversial NYPD practices over the years.
Tags: Burlington Police Department , New York Police Department , Brandon del Pozo , Miro Weinberger , Image , Web Only
Haslam announced Monday that he's stepping down as the center’s executive director in order to lead a new Vermont-based advocacy group called Rights and Democracy. It's slated to launch on Labor Day.
In his new gig, the 41-year-old Haslam hopes to elect state leaders who support causes the Workers' Center has long championed, such as livable wages, health care reform, affordable housing and environmentalism.
Suffice it to say, Haslam is dissatisfied with what politicians in Montpelier have accomplished on those fronts.
Tags: Senator , James Haslam , Vermont Workers' Center , Bernie Sanders , Peter Shumlin , Vermont politics , Image , Web Only
Monday, July 27, 2015
State regulators have dealt a blow to a Connecticut developer's plans for a massive commercial and residential project off Interstate 89 in Randolph.
In a ruling last week, the District 3 Environmental Commission asked Jesse "Sam" Sammis to scale back a project in order to protect several open fields where he proposed to build apartments and other structures.
Sammis wants to transform 178 acres of open land around Exit 4 into a development of 274 homes, a 180-room hotel and conference center, more than 500,000 square feet of office and light industrial space, a 10,000-square-foot fitness center and an interstate rest stop with an attached retail outlet.
"At present, the commission is not persuaded that the project as designed is compact enough to satisfy [land-use regulations]," commission chair Tim Taylor wrote. "We invite the applicant to present a new plan showing a more compact design."
Tags: Randolph , Jesse Sammis , Act 250 , development , Image , Web Only
A week after Black Lives Matter protesters interrupted his appearance at a Netroots Nation conference in Phoenix, Sanders addressed racial injustice directly Saturday night at the Southern Christian Leadership Conference's national convention in Baton Rouge.
“To my mind it makes eminently more sense to invest in jobs and education, rather than jails and incarceration,” Sanders told the civil rights group, according to the Washington Post. “That is an issue that we have in common, do we not?”
More from the Post:
Sanders came to Baton Rouge armed with a bevy of statistics about black Americans and a handful of policy pronouncements. He called for the “demilitarization” of police forces, widespread use of body cameras, an end to privately run prisons and an effort to address the “over-incarceration” of nonviolent offenders.
His speech was interrupted frequently by applause — albeit more tepid than he typically elicits at campaign rallies.
Tags: Senator , Bernie Sanders , Presidential Campaign , Louisiana , guns , race , Meet the Press , gun control , immigration , Recommended Reading , Image , Video , Web Only
The Vermont independent, who is seeking the Democratic presidential nomination, followed up his statement with an email to campaign supporters. In it, he quoted Elizabeth from Ohio as saying, “I could afford to go back to work if minimum wage was $15. It costs my family less for me to stay home than to pay childcare and transportation costs to work for $9.50/hr.”
Those listening to Sanders and reading his email might readily have concluded that Sanders wants American workers to be getting at least $15 an hour now.
Not so. In fact, Sanders himself is paying some of his campaign workers less than $15 an hour. Full- and part-time interns on his campaign are making $10.10 an hour, Sanders spokesman Michael Briggs said. Some other staff members also appear to be making less than $15 an hour.
The champion of workers’ rights might be paying better than your average creemee stand, but his campaign staff's starting pay is not a whole lot more than the $10 an hour Walmart pledged to pay its workers starting next year.
Tags: Senator , Bernie Sanders , presidential campaign , minimum wage , President Obama , Recommended Reading , Image , Web Only
Sunday, July 26, 2015
In the two months since Gov. Peter Shumlin said he would not seek reelection, Lt. Gov. Phil Scott has been cagey about his electoral intentions.
"I am considering it," he said last month of a potential gubernatorial run. "It doesn't mean that I'm going to do it. It just means I'm considering it."
That consideration appears to have grown more serious. In a fundraising letter that arrived in mailboxes around the state Saturday, Scott signaled that he has his eye on higher office.
"Vermont families are still struggling, which means we have more work to do, and I am preparing to step up and lead," he writes.
Tags: Phil Scott , gubernatorial campaign , fundraising letter , Image , Web Only
Friday, July 24, 2015
There's still no firm date to remove the mountain of contaminated soil that the city plopped down in Leddy's parking lot after it was excavated from the city's waterfront for the first phase of the Burlington Bike Path reconstruction.
The city has a goal, though, for disposal: All 2,500 cubic yards of dirt should be gone by winter, says Burlington Parks and Recreation director Jesse Bridges. “It's not marooned," he insists.
Residents who live near the New North End park next to Lake Champlain want the dirt gone.
"People are pretty upset with the pile," explains Dave Hartnett, the independent city councilor representing Burlington's North District.
This week, Hartnett and fellow councilor Kurt Wright (R-Ward 4) met with Bridges to press for a removal date. So far Bridges hasn't committed to one. He says more tests must be conducted on the dirt, and then he needs permission from the state Department of Environmental Conservation and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on how to safely dispose of the soils.
Tags: Burlington , waterfront , bike path , Leddy Park , PCBs , Image , Web Only
Thursday, July 23, 2015
Does the bill have the legs to make it through the Senate, and would the president sign it into law? That is unclear, but Thursday's vote generated posturing on both sides of the polarized debate.
The House vote was 275-150 for the bill, which is backed by GMO seed manufacturer Monsanto. Congressman Peter Welch (D-Vt.) voted against it.
“If Monsanto is so proud of its product, then why on Earth is it waging an all-out war to hide it from families who simply want to know what’s in their food? The message to consumers in this bill is very clear: It’s none of your business,” Welch said on the House floor Thursday.
Tags: GMO labeling , Congress , Peter Welch , Peter Shumlin , Neil Young , Grocery Manufacturers Association , Monsanto , Image , Web Only