Monday, August 14, 2017
But the three locales share a dark designation: They’re among dozens on the Southern Poverty Law Center’s “hate map,” which tracks hate-group activity across the U.S.
Various places on the map are marked with insignias associated with racist, xenophobic and anti-Semitic groups. The map drew renewed attention after the weekend’s violence in Charlottesville, Va., during a rally of white supremacists.
Tags: Senator , The Daily Stormer , Burlington , Andrew Anglin , David Duke , Southern Poverty Law Center , Donald Trump , Bernie Sanders , Patrick Leahy , Image , Web Only
In the morning, Sanders toured the Northern Tier Center for Health clinic in Richford, where he peppered staff with questions about the opiate epidemic and access to dental care.
From there, he traveled to the Franklin County Senior Center in St. Albans and pitched his proposed legislation that would allow anyone to receive Medicare, the federal health insurance program currently available only to people over 65.
“We’re taking on the whole world to make this happen,” he told a crowd of more than 50.
Residents dined on strawberry shortcake and listened intently as Sanders decried the “outrageous” cost of prescription drugs. He compared the U.S. health care system unfavorably to Canada’s, which provides universal coverage.
Tags: Senator , Bernie Sanders , Medicare , Franklin County , Donald Trump , Charlottesville , Image , Web Only
Friday, August 11, 2017
Cathcart, who has spent four years as president and CEO of the South Burlington nonprofit, will resign to focus on her health, according to a press release the organization put out on Friday. Her final day will be September 15. The release says:
In the fall of 2016, Nancy Cathcart was preparing for long-needed bilateral knee replacement surgery when she was diagnosed with ovarian cancer. The Board and staff accommodated her leave of absence and part-time status through treatments. As she approached another extended leave of absence for knee replacement surgery, she made the decision to resign her position to focus on her healing and recovery.
Cathcart, who has worked in fundraising for numerous local and state nonprofits, called her tenure with the Humane Society "the greatest challenge and the greatest learning experience of my career."
Tags: Nancy Cathcart , Humane Society of Chittenden County , Image , Web Only
Burlington will play host to leaders from about 40 cities across the country during the Mayors Innovation Project's three-day annual summer meeting, which begins on August 16.
The event is for policy wonks and those interested in collaborative brainstorming, said Satya Rhodes-Conway, the organization's managing director. Or, she added, there's the way former Madison, Wis., mayor Dave Cieslewicz referred to it: A gathering of the "nerd mayors of America."
Tags: Miro Weinberger , Neale Lunderville , Brandon del Pozo , Beth Anderson , Mayors Innovation Project , Image , Web Only
Thursday, August 10, 2017
The commission's cochair, Agency of Natural Resources Deputy Secretary Peter Walke, sent an email Wednesday seeking members for the commission's Technical Advisory Group. He wrote that two people would serve as the group's cochairs: Kevin Jones, professor at Vermont Law School, and Annette Smith, founder of Vermonters for a Clean Environment and a vociferous critic of large-scale wind turbines.
While Jones' appointment has drawn little controversy, Smith's has caused at least three prospective TAG members to decline to serve — and prompted a statement of concern from the commission's sole representative of the environmental community.
Vermont Natural Resources Council energy and climate program director Johanna Miller, a member of the commission, said that naming the two as cochairs "calls into question the independence, transparency and, ultimately, the integrity of the commission." She called the move "disappointing and disturbing" and called on the administration to revisit "this preemptive decision at the first commission meeting."
That meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, August 15.
Tags: Annette Smith , Kevin Jones , Peter Walke , Ben Edgerly Walsh , Johanna Miller , Jon Erickson , David Blittersdorf , Paul Costello , Image , Web Only
Lawmakers this year established the six-member commission to consider the future of Act 250, the 47-year-old law that governs development.
The House speaker and the Senate Committee on Committees were each directed to appoint three members. Legislation specified that in both cases, the appointees were not to be all from the same party.
Tags: Act 250 , Dustin Degree , Vermont Legislature , Dick Mazza , David Zuckerman , Tim Ashe , Image , Web Only
Wednesday, August 9, 2017
Conner Lucas, a 28-year-old homeless man with an extensive criminal record, pleaded not guilty Wednesday morning to a charge of aggravated assault with a weapon. He was ordered held without bail.
Police said the incident began with a dispute in the park. Lucas allegedly pulled an “edged weapon” and slashed the hand of a man who tried to break up the fight. The trio continued walking up Main Street until the scuffle escalated and Lucas used the weapon to cut a second man’s throat near the Church Street intersection, according to police.
Authorities responding to the scene just before 8:30 p.m. found the victim “bleeding profusely from a stab wound in the neck.” The unidentified victim was taken to the University of Vermont Medical Center for emergency surgery on a severed vein, police said. The man was reported to be in stable condition.
Police later arrested Lucas in Battery Park.
All three men knew each other and “frequent the park and the area of Church and Main” streets, police said.
At the time of the stabbing, Lucas was awaiting sentencing for domestic assault and violations of conditions of release, police said. He’d been arrested previously for aggravated assault, domestic assault, theft of services, unlawful restraint, disorderly conduct and disclosure of sexually explicit images without consent.
Tuesday night’s bloodshed culminated just three blocks south of Church and Cherry streets, where in March another homeless man, Louis Fortier, allegedly stabbed Richard Medina to death in broad daylight.
Tags: Burlington , stabbing , Church Street , Conner Lucas , Louis Fortier , Richard Medina , Image , Web Only
Gov. Phil Scott on Wednesday appointed David Provost, executive vice president for finance and administration at Middlebury College, to chair the panel. Provost, a former senior vice president at Champlain College, serves as chair of the Burlington Telecom Advisory Board.
House Speaker Mitzi Johnson (D-South Hero) last week chose Barbara Griffin, a teacher at the Rivendell Interstate School District and a former Vershire school board member, as her appointee to the commission.
Senate President Pro Tempore Tim Ashe (D/P-Chittenden) has appointed former state representative George Cross, a Democrat from Winooski and a former school superintendent.
Tags: Vermont legislature , Phil Scott , David Provost , Tim Ashe , Mitzi Johnson , teacher health insurance , Image , Web Only
Tuesday, August 8, 2017
Vermont Public Safety Commissioner Tom Anderson said that the "startling" spate of fatal wrecks demonstrates the dangers of distracted driving and failing to wear a seatbelt.
Seven of the nine people killed were not wearing a seatbelt, officials said, including four young people who died Monday morning on Route 22A in Bridport. Officials said their Volkswagen Beetle crossed the centerline and slammed head-on into a pickup truck.
Tags: Tom Anderson , Jennifer Morrison , Vermont State Police , fatalities , highway safety , Image , Web Only
Monday, August 7, 2017
The brief presentation during a Burlington City Council meeting was the most substantial public update Burlington residents have received on the matter since the June 5 deadline for bids. Most of the deliberations have taken place behind closed doors.
Of the eight original bids to buy the Burlington-owned telecommunications company, the advisory board has chosen four finalists, Provost said.
Two "mature, financially stable companies" have put up "cash offers," Provost said. Both companies have experience operating fiber-to-home systems.
Another bidder is a private equity investor "with valuable local relationships and extensive telecom experience." That investor has a vision for "aggressive BT regional growth," Provost told the council. The fourth is Keep BT Local, a group of Burlington residents who propose cooperative ownership and who have publicly announced their interest from the start.
Tags: David Provost , Charles Winkleman , BTAB , Burlington Telecom , Keep BT Local , Image , Web Only