Thursday, November 19, 2015
It's the second time this year that the Office of the State Auditor has pulled the curtain back on one of the most problem-ridden and complicated initiatives of state government.
Vermont Health Connect is an online health insurance marketplace that individuals without insurance from work use to purchase coverage. Launched two years ago, it has lurched unevenly into operation, frustrating thousands of customers with its failed technologies. It was to be the portal for small employers that provide insurance to their workers, too, but that function has never worked.
Tags: Vermont Health Connect , Doug Hoffer , Hal Cohen , healthcare , policy , Image , Web Only
Wednesday, November 18, 2015
Last month in Iowa, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) told reporters he planned to deliver a formal speech explaining democratic socialism, the political ideology to which he's long subscribed.
"I think we have some explaining and work to do," he said at the time. "Because I think there are people who, when they hear the word 'socialist,' get very, very nervous."
After several delays, Sanders' presidential campaign announced Wednesday morning that he would deliver the speech Thursday afternoon at Georgetown University.
When Sanders first disclosed his plans last month, senior adviser Tad Devine told Seven Days that the democratic socialism address would be just one of several "set-piece" speeches on topics ranging from tax policy to foreign policy. But it looks like Sanders now plans to roll several topics into one speech.
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Tuesday, November 17, 2015
The next day, former secretary of state Hillary Clinton swamped him, taking the coveted endorsement of the two-million-member Service Employees International Union.
"Hillary Clinton has proven she will fight, deliver and win for working families," SEIU president Mary Kay Henry said in a written statement Tuesday. "SEIU members and working families across America are part of a growing movement to build a better future for their families, and Hillary Clinton will support and stand with them."
The SEIU's endorsement is a further blow to Sanders' presidential campaign, which has struggled to win the backing of major national unions, despite the senator's longstanding support for the labor movement.
Tags: Senator , Bernie Sanders , Presidential Campaign , SEIU , union endorsements , Hillary Clinton , minimum wage , Image , Web Only
"I am stepping away today because it is the right thing to do," Smith said during a 2 p.m. news conference. He added that it is unlikely he will resume his campaign. He did not endorse another candidate.
In a short, emotional statement, Smith explained that his wife, Melissa Volansky, had received her breast cancer diagnosis earlier in the fall and undergone surgery — which the family had hoped would be all the treatment required. Last week they learned that doctors advised additional treatment.
"We are optimistic that she will make a full recovery, but as so many Vermonters know, a diagnosis like this reshapes one's priorities," Smith said. "This is a time during which Melissa and the kids need me most."
A clutch of Smith's closest supporters watched with glum faces as he announced his withdrawal from the 2016 race.
"Sad, very sad," said Selene Hofer-Shall, a fundraising and operations consultant for his campaign. When asked who she might support in the gubernatorial race instead of Smith, she said, "That is a tomorrow problem."
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"Now is not the time for demagoguery and fear-mongering," he said at Cleveland State University's Wolstein Center. "If you think about it for a moment, you understand that what terrorism is about is trying to instill terror and fear into the hearts of people — and we will not let that happen. As Americans, we will not be terrorized. We will not live in fear."
Sanders' comments came three days after alleged members of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria carried out coordinated attacks in Paris that killed at least 132 people.
Since then, at least 25 Republican governors and one Democrat — New Hampshire Gov. Maggie Hassan — have said they would block Syrian refugees from resettling in their states, though it is unclear whether they have the authority to do so. On Monday morning, Vermont Gov. Peter Shumlin, a Democrat, said he would to welcome Syrians to the Green Mountains. Earlier this year, President Barack Obama pledged to resettle 10,000 Syrian refugees in the U.S.
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Monday, November 16, 2015
“The trend of rising incarceration has been reversed,” Shumlin said in a press conference outside the Chittenden Regional Correctional Facility in South Burlington. “That’s not only right for our hearts, it’s right for our pocketbooks and our heads.”
Shumlin, Attorney General Bill Sorrell and other officials credited programs that divert non-violent offenders from the court system into treatment programs, including a DUI Court in Windsor and the Rapid Intervention Community Court in Chittenden County. Shumlin said 800 defendants are enrolled in such programs.
The governor also touted laws that reduce inmate recidivism, decriminalize small amounts of marijuana and ban government agencies from asking job applicants about their criminal history. Shumlin said he would support similar legislation banning the practice by companies in the private sector in Vermont.
Vermont is down to 1,734 inmates, a level that was last reached in the early 2000s, and a reduction from around 2,100 inmates one year ago. It costs $62,000 a year to incarcerate someone in a Vermont prison.
Tags: cannabis related , criminal justice reform , DOC , Lisa Menard , Peter Shumlin , prison , Image , Web Only
The price tag to remove the contaminated dirt stockpiled in Burlington's Leddy Arena parking lot has been tallied up, and it's not cheap: $339,000.
Burlington Parks and Recreation director Jesse Bridges will ask the city council tonight to authorize that amount be paid from the $800,000 tax increment financing allotment that voters approved last year for waterfront park improvements. The mini-mountain of soil at Leddy will likely be hauled away to a landfill in Vermont or New York and used as "daily cover" — the dirt that is applied over each day's deposit of trash.
Bridges is working with Chittenden Solid Waste Disposal to get tipping fees waived or reduced, which could reduce the disposal price tag. But if environmental regulators say the dirt can't be used as "daily cover" and it has to be disposed as solid waste, the removal costs could go up, Bridges warned in a memo to the city council.
Trash company ENPRO beat out Casella in a bid to remove the 2,500-cubic-yard pile, now covered in tarps.
Tags: Burlington , environment , Leddy Park , Jesse Bridges , Image , Web Only
"The corn ethanol industry is spreading a Washington-sized load of manure across Vermont," he said in a written statement released Saturday.
But at a press conference Monday in Barre, Welch conceded that the ad's central claim — that he signed a letter drafted by an oil industry lobbyist — is true.
The dustup comes as the Obama administration finalizes regulations governing how much ethanol must be blended into gasoline. The corn and agribusiness industries have lobbied for the Environmental Protection Agency to increase those levels, while the oil and restaurant industries have lobbied to decrease them.
For years, Welch has taken the latter position, arguing that ethanol mandates drive up corn prices for farmers and food producers, hurt the environment and damage small engines. Two weeks ago, he and four other members of Congress, including Rep. Bill Flores (R-Tex.), authored a letter to EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy calling for stricter limits on biofuels. Another 180 members signed the letter.
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Gov. Peter Shumlin said Monday that Vermont will welcome refugees from Syria, and he criticized governors who said they wouldn't accept them due to security concerns related to the terrorist attack in Paris.
Shumlin said "seven or eight" Syrian refugees are in the process of relocating to Vermont. "The refugees from Syria are no different than the refugees from anywhere else in the world," Shumlin told reporters. "I would encourage us to do what Vermont has always done ... It’s the spirit of all Vermonters to ensure that when you have folks who are drowning, who are dying in pursuit of freedom, that Vermont does its part."
By Monday afternoon, the governors of 15 states, including New Hampshire and Massachusetts, declared they would seek to either stop accepting or place a moratorium on accepting Syrian refugees, citing security concerns. (The other states are Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Louisiana, Michigan, Mississippi, North Carolina, Ohio, Texas and Wisconsin.)
"I would say no as of right now," Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker told reporters, according to the Boston Globe. "No, I'm not interested in accepting refugees from Syria. My view on this is, the safety and security of the people of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts is my highest priority. So I would set the bar very high on this."
Tags: Peter Shumlin , refugees , Image , Web Only
Sunday, November 15, 2015
The intrusion of tragedy prompted CBS News to flip the script on a forum it had intended to devote to economic policy. For the first half-hour, the candidates parried with one another over terrorism and foreign policy, each determined to appear a credible commander-in-chief.
But the debate soon segued to the domestic policy issues that have so far dominated the race for the Democratic nomination — from tax policy to health care to gun control. The sharpest exchanges came not from disagreements over who could defeat the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, but over who could rein in the bankers of Wall Street.
Nobody onstage at Drake University’s Sheslow Auditorium appeared more eager to change the subject from Paris than Sen. Bernie Sanders, who has spent little time on the campaign trail discussing foreign policy. The Vermont independent spent just 18 seconds of his minute-long opening statement addressing the attacks, calling himself “shocked and disgusted” by them.
Then he pivoted.
“I’m running for president because, as I go around this nation, I talk to a lot of people — and what I hear is people concerned that the economy they have is a rigged economy,” he said. “People are working longer hours for lower wages, and almost all of the new income and wealth goes to the top 1 percent.”
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