Update, 9/1/15: Bruce Lisman announced this morning he is running for governor.

Bruce Lisman, a retired Wall Street executive, plans to run for governor as a Republican, two state legislators said Monday.

Lisman, of Shelburne, called a number of Republicans on Monday to say he'll file as a candidate Tuesday.

"I got a call from him, just letting me know he's going to announce," said Rep. Corey Parent (R-St. Albans).

Senate Minority Leader Joe Benning (R-Caledonia) got a call too. "I told him I was glad to see him running as a Republican."

Benning and other Republicans had worried Lisman would run as an independent, potentially splitting votes with Republican Lt. Gov. Phil Scott in the general election, should Scott run.

Scott is expected to announce within the next couple months that he's running for governor.

Scott said Monday that Lisman also called him. "It's good for the party if he chooses to run as a Republican," Scott said. "I think primaries are healthy."

Lisman is the founder of the public policy advocacy group Campaign for Vermont.

The attorney representing former Vermont lieutenant governor candidate Dean Corren told a judge Monday that a campaign finance lawsuit filed against Corren could have a chilling effect on candidates who want to use public financing in the future.

Corren, who ran on the Progressive and Democratic lines, appeared in U.S. District Court Monday in his fight against a Vermont Attorney General's Office lawsuit alleging that he violated campaign finance laws during his failed 2014 bid. Corren, who lost to Republican Phil Scott, received about $180,000 in public money for his campaign. As part of accepting public financing in Vermont, candidates agree not to seek contributions from outside sources.

Vermont Attorney General Bill Sorrell alleges that Corren violated this law when he asked the Democratic Party to send out an email touting his candidacy to 19,000 people on the party's list. Sorrell sued Corren in state court, seeking to have him pay $72,000 in penalties. (The email itself has been valued at $255.)

Corren in turn sued Sorrell in federal court, seeking a ruling that the email did not represent a campaign contribution. Corren also claimed that certain aspects of Vermont's campaign rules governing public financing are illegal.

"Just because you take public money doesn't mean you leave your constitutional rights at the door," Corren's attorney, John Franco, said during the hearing. "We're up against an unconstitutional statute that requires us to self-censor."

The state court has delayed proceeding on Sorrell's lawsuit against Corren until the federal case is resolved. That could take several months and last into the legislative session and the 2016 campaign. 

This story was updated at 4:30 p.m. August 30 with background on the former Ethan Allen Club and at 6:50 p.m. to include a statement from Champlain College. 

The Greater Burlington YMCA building is listed for sale for $3.75 million, and the nonprofit organization has purchased the former Ethan Allen Club property just a half a block away on College Street, and plans to move there.  

The Y closed on the property August 20 and paid Champlain College $2.5 million for the former social club. The college had purchased the club at 298 College Street in 2008 for $2.6 million with the intention of building student housing there. Neighbors voiced opposition and the plan never materialized. The structure has been used as a temporary homeless shelter, an art gallery and, at one point, as space for YMCA preschool programming.  

The Y hopes to relocate to the Ethan Allen Club property, Mary Burns, president and CEO of the YMCA, confirmed to Seven Days Monday. “I don’t have a huge announcement to make other than we’re working on putting together a project on that property.”
 
Details will be forthcoming this fall as the Y continues fundraising and planning. No proposal has been filed with the city yet. Burns declined to say whether the Y wants to renovate the building or tear it down and start with something entirely new.

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) is closing in on Hillary Clinton in Iowa, according to a poll released on Saturday.

A Bloomberg Politics/Des Moines Register poll shows 37 percent of likely Democratic caucus-goers named Clinton as their first choice for president. Sanders got 30 percent. Vice President Joe Biden, reported to be contemplating entering the race, was at 14 percent. In May, the same pollster put Clinton at 57 percent and Sanders at 16 percent.

"It looks like what people call the 'era of inevitability' is over," said the pollster, J. Ann Selzer, according to Bloomberg Politics. "[Clinton] has lost a third of the support that she had in May, so any time you lose that much that quickly, it’s a wake-up call." 

Sanders on Saturday appeared on CNN's "State of the Union" and largely ducked a question from host Jake Tapper about the poll results.

"Not only in Iowa and New Hampshire but all over this country we are generating enormous enthusiasm," Sanders said.

When legislators return to Montpelier in January, one of the first orders of business will be to hold hearings on a bill that would require Vermont businesses to provide paid sick leave.

That was a promise from legislative leaders and Gov. Peter Shumlin on Wednesday at a press conference at Hen of the Wood restaurant in Burlington, a high-end eatery where the owners said they offer workers 10 days of flexible paid time off a year.

“We will be holding hearings immediately,” said Senate Majority Leader Phil Baruth (D-Chittenden), a supporter of mandatory paid sick leave. Baruth watched last year while the House narrowly passed a bill that fellow senators put on ice as the session ended.

A Senate committee will start considering that bill in January, Baruth said. The legislation would initially require employers to provide at least three days of paid sick leave a year for full-time employees, upping the time to five days a year later. 

Last session, that bill failed to gain traction in the Senate, where President Pro Tempore John Campbell (D-Windsor) was among those who expressed concern the mandate would be a burden to employers. Campbell, who didn’t attend Wednesday’s press conference, said afterward he still holds those concerns, but has promised the bill will get a hearing next year in the Senate Economic Development Committee.

“I just want to make sure both sides have a chance to voice their concerns,” Campbell said. “It’s really going to come down to what the committee comes up with.”

Whether the measure will pass the full Senate is unclear, but there will be a large crew of people pushing to make it happen before the 2016 legislation ends. Supporters said Wednesday they want the bill to pass because they think it's good policy, but there are other factors at play in making 2016 a goal for the legislation.

For Shumlin, the three-term Democratic governor who announced in June he won’t seek reelection next year, passing paid sick leave legislation would be one among a diminishing number of achievements he can add to his legacy before he retires. Advocates also can't guarantee the next governor will be as supportive.

For House Speaker Shap Smith (D-Morristown), shepherding paid sick leave legislation into law would give him a solid bona fide Democratic issue to put on his resume, as he seeks the party’s nomination for governor.

Smith dismissed his political ambitions as a factor Wednesday. “The election has nothing to with it,” he said. “It’s the right thing to do.”

Regardless, Smith will be up against other Democratic candidates who support the concept. If he’s able guide the bill into law in 2016, that success will give him a boost in a Democratic primary race where the issue is likely to resonate. The Democratic Party put out a statement Wednesday declaring, "The Vermont Democratic Party supports earned sick days in our platform because it addresses both workers’ rights and public health." 

Former senator Matt Dunne of Hartland, who is also expected to seek the Democratic nomination for governor, said he “certainly” would support the bill that passed the House.

The 72-63 House vote on the bill this year fell largely along party lines. Does that mean this issue could be among those that define the difference between Democratic and Republican candidates for governor in 2016? Not necessarily.

Lt. Gov. Phil Scott, who is expected to seek the Republican nomination for governor, said he’s worried about posing mandates on employers, but he didn’t dismiss the idea of mandated paid sick leave. “The flexibility will be key,” he said. “There is a nuance in how you get there.”

If the bill reaches the Senate floor next year, Scott — who presides over the Senate — might have to decide if it offers enough flexibility to suit him. It's his job to break any tie votes. Whichever way the vote goes, it's likely to have an influence on the governor's race.

Burlington School Board chair Mark Porter was all smiles Wednesday when he announced that the city's pick for school superintendent has cleared visa hurdles that threatened to derail his appointment.

Canadian citizen Yaw Obeng has obtained a visa and will begin his $153,000-a-year job as Burlington schools superintendent within the next few weeks. He'll also start a second, part-time job as a University of Vermont adjunct professor. That position was critical to securing Obeng an H-1B visa allowing him to collect a U.S. paycheck. 

"This is wonderful news for the community of Burlington and its children,"  Porter said during a press conference at school district headquarters on Colchester Avenue.  

The school district's immigration lawyers floated the idea of pursuing a visa through UVM after Obeng struck out in two previous visa applications, forcing school officials to delay his July 1 start date.

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) rarely gets through a speech without criticizing the media for covering campaigns as if they're a "soap opera or a baseball game."

But even Sanders couldn't resist the opportunity Monday to handicap the presidential horse race during a brief media scrum in Conway, N.H. When a reporter noted that many pundits believe Vice President Joe Biden's flirtation with a presidential run was "a direct result of the frontrunner Hillary Clinton's vulnerability," Sanders said he sensed that vulnerability.

"Well, I think the evidence is pretty clear," the senator said. "We are gaining. I think what the polls seem to indicate is that Hillary Clinton's support seems to be receding a bit. But we've got a long way to go. Joe would be a formidable opponent."

Asked several times about Biden and his not-so-subtle machinations, Sanders struck a positive note, saying, "You're not going to find a guy who's more decent than Joe Biden is." But he also made clear that he was ready to take on his former Senate colleague.

"What I promise Joe, if he decides to get into this race, is that I will, as I have done up 'til now, run an issue-oriented campaign," Sanders said. "Joe's views, I suspect — I know — on a number of issues are very different than mine. And what the American people are entitled to is a serious debate on serious issues."

Developer Eric Farrell has won approval to convert a former orphanage currently owned by Burlington College into an apartment complex. 

The Burlington Development Review Board voted unanimously Monday evening to approve Farrell's application, granting him permission to redevelop the 19th century building into 63 studio and one-bedroom apartments.

Burlington College bought the property in 2010 with plans to renovate the aging structure, but its financial problems got in the way. The college sold most of its lakefront campus to Farrell to reduce its debt, and officials also agreed last January to sell Farrell the former orphanage for $2 million.

The college will continue to occupy a newer addition to the building. Farrell has agreed to give students who want to rent his market-rate apartments first priority. 

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) has scored the endorsement of America's biggest up-and-coming political sensation.

That's right. I'm talkin' about Deez Nuts.

The parody presidential candidate — actually a 15-year-old farm boy from Iowa named Brady Olson — made a splash last week when he picked up the support of between 7 and 9 percent of those surveyed in North Carolina, Iowa and Minnesota by Public Policy Polling. 

Though he's running as an independent, Mr. Nuts made a surprise entry into the Democratic and Republican primaries on Friday.

"Just gonna throw this out there now," Nuts wrote on his Facebook page. "This is not for the general election. My endorsement for the Democratic nomination goes to Vermont senator Bernie Sanders."

A Vermont Supreme Court ruling has cleared the way for Burlington to pursue a contentious and repeatedly delayed plan to build the Champlain Parkway, a two-lane road that would run from Interstate 189 through the South End.

Designed to alleviate traffic by providing another route into the city, the project was green-lighted in an Act 250 permit from the state in 2012. That spawned four lawsuits from individuals and companies over traffic concerns and property disputes, three of which the city settled.

On Friday, the Supreme Court ruled on the only remaining case — an appeal brought by Charles Bayer, owner of the Innovation Center on Lakeside Avenue. Bayer, who could not be reached for comment, is concerned that the Parkway, which would pass by the Innovation Center, will generate excessive traffic near his property. He appealed to the state's highest court after the Environmental Court upheld the permit decision in a July 2014 ruling, while adding conditions that require the city to monitor traffic and work with Bayer to address potential problems.

In a unanimous decision, the Supreme Court justices agreed with the lower court. The decision emphasized that the Environmental Court "did not find that the project 'will' but rather 'may' cause unreasonable traffic congestion or
unsafe conditions" and noted that the traffic forecasts were based on "inflated numbers."