Thursday, July 23, 2015
The increase is within the limit set by the Green Mountain Care Board. The change in patient-revenue figures that hospitals anticipate range from minus 2.7 percent for Gifford Medical Center in Randolph to a 5.9 percent increase from Northwestern Medical Center in St. Albans.
University of Vermont Medical Center proposes a $39 million increase in patient revenues, a growth that precisely hits the 3.6 percent limit.
The Green Mountain Care Board, which approves budgets, got its first look at hospital budget data Thursday.
"This is the beginning of a many-step process," chair Al Gobeille told the small crowd attending the briefing. Looking at the individual growth rates, he said, "I wouldn't judge anyone over as bad or under as good."
Tags: Green Mountain Care Board , Affordable Care Act , Al Gobeille , Image , Web Only
What he’s really dishing up is Bernie Sanders. Basiliere is among hundreds of people who are hosting events around the country Wednesday night to spread the word about the Democratic presidential candidate.
This is taking the Tupperware party technique to politics. Back in 2004, when Howard Dean was running for president, his campaign supporters held meet-ups around the country. Now, the Sanders campaign is encouraging supporters to organize events Wednesday at homes, coffee shops and union halls from Maine to California.
Sanders hopes the events will provide those interested in his campaign ideas for how they can help, said spokesman Michael Briggs. “He’s looking for the grassroots movement that he keeps talking about,” Briggs said.
Tags: Senator , Bernie Sanders , Howard Dean , 2016 presidential campaign , Image , Web Only
Barnes had planned to go to graduate school until the job with Sanders came through. She will work alongside Sanders’ New Hampshire political director, Kurt Ehrenberg, in Concord, N.H., according to Sanders’ office.
In Vermont, Conor Casey will replace Barnes as executive director of the state party. He spent nearly eight years as legislative coordinator with the Vermont State Employees' Association.
Barnes has presidential-campaign experience in New Hampshire, which will hold the nation’s first presidential primary next February, following the Iowa caucuses.
Tags: Senator , Bernie Sanders , presidential campaign , Vermont Democratic Party , Vermont State Employees Association , Conor Casey , Julia Barnes , Recommended Reading , Image , Web Only
According to spokesman Scott Coriell, the governor's position is nothing new.
“Had he been asked before all this, I’m sure he would have supported it as well,” Coriell told the Associated Press' Dave Gram, who first reported the development Wednesday.
"As best as I can recall, this is the first time the governor has been asked about this," Coriell told Seven Days in a separate written statement.
But Shumlin has been asked before — and declined to endorse the idea.
Tags: Peter Shumlin , ethics commission , Campaign for Vermont , Image , Web Only
Wednesday, July 22, 2015
When Tasini interviewed Sanders for the October 2013 edition of Playboy, the senator said it "would be tempting" to bring his platform to the presidential race, despite all the drawbacks. Asked whether he was ruling out a run, Sanders said, "Absolutely? 100 percent? Cross my heart? Is there a stack of Bibles somewhere? Look, maybe it’s only 99 percent."
Back then, that qualified as news.
Now that Sanders is a little more than one percent running for president, Tasini's offering another first: an election-season book about Vermont's two-term senator.
Chelsea Green, the White River Junction publishing house, has ordered up a 50,000-copy print run of the book, called The Essential Bernie Sanders and His Vision for America (192 pages; $14). According to Chelsea Green spokesman (and former Seven Days political columnist) Shay Totten, it's scheduled for release September 8.
Tags: Senator , Bernie Sanders , Presidential Campaign , Jonathan Tasini , Playboy interview , Image , Recommended Reading , Web Only
Tuesday, July 21, 2015
In an agreement announced Tuesday, TDI New England would pay more than $720 million to the state over 40 years. Some of that money would help clean up the very lake that would serve as the conduit. Another sizable chunk would pay for renewable-energy generation in Vermont. Vermont electric customers would also get a piece.
“It’s a lot of money,” said Chris Recchia, commissioner of the Vermont Public Service Department. “This is probably the biggest energy project in Vermont since Vermont Yankee.”
Tags: Vermont Public Service Department , TDI New England , Donald Jessome , Hydro-Quebec , Conservation Law Foundation , VELCO , Image , Web Only
Monday, July 20, 2015
But Sanders drew the most weekend press coverage for what many perceived as a tone-deaf response to a Black Lives Matter protest earlier Saturday in Phoenix.
The independent candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination had been expected to receive a hero's welcome at Netroots Nation, an annual gathering of progressive activists staged this year at the Phoenix Convention Center. A group of African American activists had other ideas. They burst into the convention hall as Sanders rival Martin O'Malley, the former Democratic governor of Maryland, addressed the conference — and they didn't let up until Sanders left.
According to several media outlets, Sanders didn't handle the episode terribly gracefully.
When Sanders took the stage, according to Time, he "flashed with annoyance."
Despite watching O’Malley fumble, Sander[s] immediately began with his prepared stump speech, criticizing the media and calling for a political revolution, trying to speak over the protesters. “What are we doing here?” he grumbled to Vargas, who was unable to control the crowd. Halfway through his time, Sanders looked at the protesters and finally said “Black people are dying in this country because we have a criminal justice system that is out of control.”
Tags: Senator , Bernie Sanders , Presidential Campaign , Black Lives Matter , Netroots Nation , Martin O'Malley , Recommended Reading , Image , Web Only
"I'm just a rock 'n' roller who believes people should know what they're eating," Young said at a backstage pre-show press conference with Gov. Peter Shumlin. Then he upped the ante.
“We would like to see some of the high-rollers in Vermont who believe in this come up and match that, 'cause if you’ve got it, break it out,” Young said. “Remember, this is a big, multinational group of corporations working together to make sure you don’t know what you have on your food table.”
Tags: Senator , Neil Young , Peter Shumlin , GMOs , Vermont , Bernie Sanders , Donald Trump , Image , Web Only
Thursday, July 16, 2015
Green Mountain Power spokeswoman Kristin Carlson will end her run hosting a new interview show on Vermont PBS after just two episodes, according to station CEO Holly Groschner.
Vermont PBS has faced blowback since it announced last week that Carlson, a former WCAX-TV reporter and anchor, would lead the half-hour program, called "Connect ... with Kristin Carlson." Critics questioned whether it was appropriate for a corporate spokesperson to fulfill a journalistic role at the publicly funded station.
After hearing from viewers, staff members and board members, Groschner said, she and Carlson discussed the matter Thursday morning and decided to part ways. Both characterized the decision as mutual.
"We agreed that probably the best approach is to look at other opportunities of how to accomplish our mission of connecting Vermonters with Vermont stories," Groschner said.
Tags: Vermont PBS , Kristin Carlson , Green Mountain Power , Image , Web Only
That flight has started.
David Mears, a Vermont Law School professor who cut short his Fulbright scholarship work in China to join Shumlin's administration as Department of Environmental Conservation commissioner in 2011, is going back to the law school, Shumlin’s office announced Thursday. He’ll lead the South Royalton school's Environmental and Natural Resources Law Clinic, .
Mears’ departure is significant. It comes just as the state is about to hear from the federal Environmental Protection Agency on its Lake Champlain cleanup plans and just after the governor signed a hefty new water cleanup bill into law. The highly regarded Mears has been managing that for the state, but won’t be there to implement the plans.
Tags: David Mears , Vermont Law School , Peter Shumin , Aly Richards , Jon Copans , Joe Flynn , Image , Web Only