Tuesday, August 22, 2017
Forty-five people were laid off Tuesday at Dealer.com, one of Burlington’s largest employers.
The layoffs at the Pine Street tech company amount to about a 4 percent workforce reduction, according to company spokeswoman Alison von Puschendorf.
Employees were aware of the looming layoffs. Cox Automotive, Dealer’s parent company, announced plans last week to trim from its 35,000-person worldwide workforce by approximately 3 percent — a total cut of about 950 employees.
The impact on Burlington was unclear until the layoffs Tuesday.
Tags: Dealer.com , layoffs , Burlington , Image , Web Only
Monday, August 21, 2017
In a notice dated August 14, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services slammed the state for failing to adequately monitor eight Northeast Kingdom development projects financed through the federal EB-5 program, which provides visas in exchange for foreign investment. Federal and state regulators have accused the developers behind the projects of engaging in a massive fraud scheme.
“It appears that the Regional Center failed to properly engage in management, monitoring and oversight for many years, as required by the Program,” USCIS wrote in its notice of intent to terminate the state-run center.
The Scott administration, which received the letter last Friday, released it to the media late Monday afternoon. At the same time, the governor announced that he had already decided, earlier this month, to phase out the program — a decision he had originally planned to disclose later this week.
While the Scott administration said it agreed that the state should get out of the business of regulating EB-5 projects, it plans to fight the federal order to immediately shut down Vermont’s regional center. It will instead argue that the center should stop considering new projects and gradually wind down its oversight of existing ones, according to Mike Schirling, secretary of the state Agency of Commerce and Community Development.
Tags: EB-5 , Mike Schirling , Mike Pieciak , Phil Scott , Peter Shumlin , Image , Web Only
By the time it peaked at 2:40 p.m., library staff estimated that between 400 and 500 people had gathered on the grass for the spectacle. The intersection of moon and sun marked the first total solar eclipse visible from the United States since 1979. At its peak in Burlington, the moon covered about 60 percent of the sun.
Monday's event at the library was part social gathering, part elementary school-style science experiment. Attendees came with all manner of viewfinders: cereal, cracker and shoe boxes. They used colanders to reflect the light, or balanced their special eclipse glasses on contraptions involving binoculars or cameras.
Tags: Burlington , eclipse , Fletcher Free Library , Miro Weinberger , Mary Danko , Image , Web Only
Friday, August 18, 2017
Assistant Attorney General Megan Shafritz said three complaints citing alleged "electioneering" came in Thursday but would not comment on whether the AG's office was investigating.
She also would not say if the AG had any role in the sudden disappearance of the phony site, jamesehlersforgovernor.com.
It portrayed Ehlers, a clean-water advocate, as ineffective and unstable with the motto "Crazy You Can Believe In," and listed the Vermont Psychiatric Care Hospital in Berlin as his campaign address.
Tags: James Ehlers , Vermont Attorney General's Office , Image , Web Only
Thursday, August 17, 2017
“I don’t think there’ll be a major impact felt,” Finance Commissioner Adam Greshin told reporters about the administration's plan. “That was part of the challenge of finding $12.5 million that won’t have a major impact on Vermonters, and I think we’ve done that.”
Lawmakers agreed. The 10-member Joint Fiscal Committee, which oversees state fiscal matters when the full legislature is not is session, unanimously signed off on the proposal Thursday afternoon at a Statehouse meeting.
Rep. Janet Ancel (D-Calais), Joint Fiscal Committee chair, said she was grateful the decisions did not involve state employee layoffs. “I think it’s a thoughtful way to move forward,” she said.
No one spoke at a public hearing on the budget rescissions before lawmakers voted.
The largest single chunk of savings — $4.5 million — will come from an anticipated reduction in Medicaid expenses. Some smaller cuts were found across state government, while there’s a $3.5 million projected increase in revenue from brokers’ fees paid to the Department of Financial Regulation.
Tags: Medicaid , Vermont legislature , state budget , rescissions , Joint Fiscal Committee , Image , Web Only
Wednesday, August 16, 2017
“There’s a lot of work to do,” Peter Walke, deputy secretary of the Agency of Natural Resources, told the 21-member Vermont Climate Action Commission at its inaugural meeting Tuesday. “By December, we’re voting on three recommendations.”
The work is imperative and the timeline is tight, Walke's cochair told the group. After making its initial recommendations, the group needs to come up with a long-term plan by next July.
“I think we’re at a transformative moment in history,” said Paul Costello, executive director of the Vermont Rural Development Council. “Solving climate change is the most fundamental challenge of our time.”
Gov. Phil Scott created the commission in July. Before the first meeting, the commission had veered into controversy.
Tags: climate change , Phil Scott , Climate Action Commission , Peter Walke , Paul Costello , Image , Web Only
Tuesday, August 15, 2017
A Vermonter was among the neo-Nazis and other “Unite the Right” types who shook up Charlottesville, Va., in a march-turned-mêlée last weekend. Today’s white supremacists don’t wear hoods, apparently, so as soon as the tiki-torch-wielding images went viral, internet vigilantes around the country started naming and shaming them.
Locals first recognized 28-year-old Ryan Roy in a Vice News video clip. Wearing a backpack and holding a torch, Roy is seen briefly chanting “Whose streets? Our streets!”
On Tuesday Seven Days tracked down Burlington resident Roy, who said the rally “showed that we’re a legitimate movement, that this is a movement of people. It’s not like a fringe thing.”
In a 25-minute interview, Roy admitted to attending the weekend’s events and spoke unabashedly about his “white identitarian” views.
Tags: Ryan Roy , Charlottesville , white nationalist , Image , Web Only , Video
“Reaching this decision has been very difficult for me,” Turnau, a Charlotte resident, said in a statement released by VPR. “I care deeply about VPR and it has been an integral part of my life for the past 28 years. Every one of those years has been incredibly rewarding, and waking up and coming to work each day continues to be a joy. I’ve been working at VPR for more than half my life and I realized it was time for a new challenge.”
Turnau, who started working at VPR in 1989 as membership and volunteer coordinator, said she has no plans for what she will do after stepping down.
The announcement comes as the station recently wrapped up a $10 million capital campaign to pay for a large expansion and renovation of VPR’s Colchester headquarters and to establish a fund to bolster programming.
“She has led our beloved institution during a time of intense media disruption,” VPR Board chair Peggy Williams said in a prepared statement. “Thanks to her dedication, hard work and professionalism, VPR is stronger than ever and poised for an even greater future. She has kept our focus firmly on doing what’s best for VPR’s audience.”
Tags: Robin Turnau , VPR , Vermont Public Radio , Image , Web Only
For now, Toki, three other cats and a brood of six kittens are the only residents in the shelter, which shuttered in April because of financial woes. He meandered past vacant "cat condos" and rubbed affectionately against the legs of Kelly Frederick, who was hired in July to fix the failing organization.
Frederick hoped to find a new home for Toki, who'd been adopted once and then returned to the shelter. It's one item on a long list of challenges she's faced in her job as transition manager for the cash-strapped St. Albans shelter. There were also phones that broke last week and kittens left — abandoned — in front of the shelter.
Frederick shrugged. "I'm the boots on the ground," she said.
Tags: Franklin County Animal Rescue , Humane Society of Chittenden County , Image , Web Only
Monday, August 14, 2017
About 50 people turned out to Burlington City Hall Auditorium to hear about the latest iteration of a years-long process to renovate the downtown green space.
The new plan, including tweaks to a version presented late last year, has one less diagonal pathway, additional seating and bike parking, as well as more bulletin boards, explained Meagan Tuttle, a planner with the city's Planning and Zoning Department. The current design includes space for a stand-alone public restroom and a spray fountain that could double as a light display.
The latest changes reflected public input and feedback from historic preservationists, said Tuttle. The park, with its current soil compaction and erosion, "is being loved to death," said David White, the department's director.
Tags: David White , Genese Grill , Meagan Tuttle , Burlington , City Hall Park , Image , Web Only