Tuesday, December 20, 2016
Burlington police say anti-Semitic flyers distributed at Burlington City Hall Auditorium before Monday night’s city council meeting were the work of a woman believed to suffer from mental illness.
The woman, whose name was not released, has engaged in similar activity in the past, police said. The flyers will not be investigated as a crime. Instead, police said they will work with the Howard Center’s Street Outreach team to refer the woman for treatment.
The document portrays recent events in Burlington, including the Burlington Town Center redevelopment and the construction of dorms for Champlain College students, as part of a Zionist plot to commit a “White Christian genocide” at the behest of Mayor Miro Weinberger.
Tags: Miro Weinberger , Brandon del Pozo , Burlington police , flyer , Contois Auditorium , Image , Web Only
Monday, December 19, 2016
It’s the final recount of the 2016 Vermont elections — but it might not be over just yet. Davis said significant questions remain about the vote-counting process and said she plans to take her case to the legislature. She was scouring state law Monday evening to figure out how next to proceed.
Frenier won on Election Day by eight votes. After an initial recount using a tabulator machine, Frenier’s lead shrank to six votes. Davis petitioned the court for a second recount, this one by hand.
Tags: Bob Frenier , Susan Hatch Davis , Vermont legislature , Sarah Buxton , David Ainsworth , Image , Web Only
This year was different. Some 200 protesters jammed the Statehouse meeting room hoping to make this pro forma ritual anything but. Across the country, protesters hoped a revolt by electors in each state would keep president-elect Donald Trump from taking office.
“One person, one vote,” they chanted, protesting the concept of the electoral college. “Dump Trump,” some of the signs read.
Tags: Senator , Peter Shumlin , Donald Trump , Tim Jerman , Hillary Clinton , Bernie Sanders , Martha Allen , Image , Web Only
Well, he’s interested in his own elliptical way.
“Yeah, sure, we want to take a look at that,” he told Seven Days last week. “We’ll continue to have that conversation and debate the issue and make our case for why that might be good to consider for future hires. But we’ll take a look.”
Commitment, Phil Scott style: “Have that conversation,” “debate the issue,” “consider,” and, not once but twice, “take a look.” All in one paragraph.
As long as Scott plans to “take a look” at that, Democratic state Treasurer Beth Pearce plans to fight back.
Currently, members of the Vermont State Employees’ Association and Vermont-National Education Association — the state’s largest public-sector unions — enjoy defined benefit pensions: They are guaranteed certain retirement benefits. In a defined contribution system, employer and employee pay into a retirement account, but no specific benefits are promised.
Scott touts defined contribution as a way to cut the cost of public sector pensions. But Pearce argues that it will reduce pension security without saving money — not in the short term, not in the long term.
Tags: Phil Scott , Beth Pearce , Vermont State Employees Association , Vermont-NEA , defined benefit , defined contribution , annual required contribution , Vermont State Employees Retirement System , Vermont State Teachers Retirement System , Image , Web Only
Friday, December 16, 2016
Scott made the announcements Friday afternoon as he slowly fills cabinet positions ahead of his January 5 inauguration.
Schirling, who retired from the police force in 2015, has been executive director of the economic development and technology nonprofit organization BTV Ignite for a little more than a year.
Scott cited Schirling’s innovation and leadership experience in hiring him to run an agency that will be under particular pressure to produce results. Scott campaigned on a promise of generating economic growth.
Tags: Mike Schirling , Lindsay Kurrle , Phil Scott , Image , Web Only
Wednesday, December 14, 2016
Ainsworth won by one vote — 1,004 to 1,003.
The tables have turned: Six years ago, it was Buxton who defeated Ainsworth by just one vote.
Tags: Sarah Buxton , David Ainsworth , Vermont House , Image , Web Only
He might have a hard time getting either.
“We just passed — literally in June — Act 174,” Senate Natural Resources and Energy Committee chair Chris Bray (D-Addison) said. “I really want to stay with and develop that planning process.”
Bray was referring to a new state law designed to give municipalities more say in siting energy projects.
Scott pledged during the election to push for a moratorium on large-scale wind projects, a heated issue in some parts of the state. This week, speaking to reporters at a press conference, he said he hopes for legislation to pass next year.
He was already hedging his expectations. “What I personally would like to see is to protect our ridgelines in perpetuity,” Scott said. “The reality is that won’t happen.”
Still, Scott expressed hope that he could convince legislators to agree to a short-term halt on wind projects.
Tags: renewable energy , Phil Scott , wind power , Chris Bray , Renewable Energy Vermont , Image , Web Only
The gymnastics move was Stoll’s attempt to dispel tension after a heated public comment session. During it, Burlington High School freshman Kolby LaMarche suggested to the board that he was being persecuted at school for backing Donald Trump.
“As a student who has been harassed for supporting president-elect Donald J. Trump, I blame in part the teachings of schools for their actions of their students,” LaMarche said to the board.
He said school teachings “have been shown to provoke students to be bigoted and violent to any who oppose them” and added: “As a student of Burlington school district I am asking for a new look into what students are being taught.”
LaMarche concluded by repeating a George Washington saying about the First Amendment: “If freedom of speech is taken away, then dumb and silent we may be led, like sheep to the slaughter.”
Tags: Burlington High School , Miriam Stoll , Yaw Obeng , Darcie Johnston , Kolby LaMarche , Jacob Bucci , Image , Video , Web Only
St. Ambroise Azagoh-Kouadio, a black Ivory Coast native, appealed a lower court judge’s decision to dismiss a wrongful termination lawsuit he brought against the Catholic school where he worked for 25 years.
Azagoh-Kouadio, known as “Azzie,” was a French teacher and girls soccer coach. The South Burlington school says it had good reason to fire Azagoh-Kouadio in 2014, weeks before his contract was set to expire.
A parent complained that he told a student that he “sometimes wants to slap her,” and Azagoh-Kouadio allegedly told another student to “Go kill yourself,” in front of classmates, according to court documents. Azagoh-Kouadio acknowledged making the remarks, but said they had been taken out of context, lawyers for the school argued in court documents.
Tags: Vermont Supreme Court , Rice Memorial High School , St. Ambroise Azagoh-Kouadio , Adrienne Shea , Image , Web Only
Tuesday, December 13, 2016
Currently, public school teachers and state workers receive “defined benefit” plans, which establish certain retirement benefits to be received by each worker. Scott favors a “defined contribution” plan, in which the state and the employee would contribute set amounts, which might or might not cover the cost of a retiree’s golden years.
Scott would allow current staffers to keep their defined benefits, while future workers would fall under a defined contribution system. But as far as Vermont’s two biggest public sector unions are concerned, the notion is a non-starter.
“We are steadfastly opposed to the idea and will continue to be,” says Doug Gibson, a spokesman for the Vermont State Employees’ Association.
Tags: Phil Scott , Neal Goswami , Vermont Press Bureau , Darren Allen , Vermont-NEA , Doug Gibson , VSEA , Beth Pearce , defined benefit pension plans , defined contribution pension plans , VPR , Image , Web Only