Friday, October 20, 2017
“Our Vermont brand is powerful,” Scott said at a press conference at the Vermont Tech Jam at the Champlain Valley Exposition in Essex Junction. “Think Vermont will tell unique and positive stories about Vermonters and Vermont businesses.”
The marketing scheme comes with a logo that puts the shape of the state between the words “Think” and “VT.” A dot turns the slender outline of the state into an exclamation point.
Scott, who often says that Vermont loses an average of six workers every day from its workforce, said he hopes Think Vermont will lower that number.
A website, thinkvermont.com, doesn’t dwell on such negative stats, nor on the others Scott routinely cites — that Vermont loses an average of three public school students a day and that one baby is born to an opiate-addicted mother each day.
Instead, the site draws a picture of quaint Vermont.
Tags: Phil Scott , Vermont , Think Vermont , Michael Schirling , Tech Jam , Image , Web Only
The Lake Carmi Implementation Team meets monthly, bringing together state and local officials and interest groups in an effort to create a cleanup plan for a lake that's been overcome this year with blue-green algae blooms.
"The last three meetings, there's been a very spirited crowd," said Emily Boedecker, commissioner of the Department of Environmental Conservation. "In a situation where I and the team members were feeling challenged, I asked for the wardens to be present."
Tags: Emily Boedecker , James Ehlers , Judy McLaughlin , water quality , Lake Carmi , blue-green algae , Image , Web Only
In a 5-0 decision, justices reversed a lower court judge's ruling that documents stored on private accounts are not subject to public records requests. The high court said that its decision applied only to documents that meet the legal definition under the public records act, not private correspondence.
"The notion that state employees have a privacy interest in records that are by law public records — those produced or acquired in the course of agency business — is incongruous," Justice Beth Robinson said in the 20-page decision.
Tags: Vermont Supreme Court , public records , Brady Toensing , Bill Sorrell , email , T.J. Donovan , Image , Web Only
The American Civil Liberties Union of Vermont is seeking to stop Burlington's plan to evict three people from a homeless encampment along North Avenue. ACLU attorney Jay Diaz filed a class action lawsuit on Friday morning against the city of Burlington.
A judge later on Friday issued a temporary restraining order that allows the campers to stay until the case is settled.
The city has given the campers until Monday to leave; they can face prosecution or fines if they do not, Diaz said.
Yesterday, city officials dismantled an encampment in Burlington's South End, arriving with dump trucks to clear out abandoned property.
Tags: Jay Diaz , ACLU , Brandon del Pozo , homelessness , Image , Web Only
Josiah Leach, 19, appeared briefly in U.S. District Court in Burlington and agreed to the plea deal.
Federal prosecutors and Leach's defense attorney recommended that Leach be sentenced to time served and five years probation. Judge Geoffrey Crawford accepted the agreement, and Leach will be formally sentenced in February.
Leach faced a five-year maximum sentence on a charge of threatening by means of interstate commerce. He spent 10 days in prison — after his arrest, and when he was found to have violated his conditions of pre-trial release.
Tags: Josiah Leach , South Burlington , South Burlington High School , U.S. District Court , mascot , Rebels , Image , Web Only
Thursday, October 19, 2017
The Energy & Environment Legal Institute, a Washington, D.C.-based law firm that often represents the interests of the fossil fuel industry, is seeking Sorrell’s records and communications as part of its lawsuit against multiple attorneys general, alleging that they engaged in a legal conspiracy against the industry.
Sorrell had failed to show up for a previous court-ordered deposition on the advice of current Attorney General T.J. Donovan. The limited deposition is to take place on Monday, and, according to Donovan, “We have every indication that Bill Sorrell will appear and be deposed.”
Tags: Bill Sorrell , T.J. Donovan , Mary Miles Teachout , Matthew Hardin , Energy & Environment Legal Institute , Image , Web Only
The city had anticipated needing to rent a storage locker to keep campers' belongings. But those at the camp gave permission to throw out the remaining tents, and in the end, city workers were able to collect and dispose of the unwanted stuff.
The city has reversed course on the issue several times, even in the last 24 hours.
Tags: Brandon del Pozo , homelessness , Image , Web Only
The store is expected to open in October 2018 and will employ about 75 people, according to a press release issued by the company. Vermont is the final state in the union without a Target, which has stores in Plattsburgh, N.Y., and Keene, N.H.
The venue will offer clothing, home supplies, health and beauty products, and even groceries, the company announced. That will bring a new competitor to the intensifying local grocery war that Seven Days recently reported.
"Our expansion to the Green Mountain State is long overdue and we are thrilled to meet our newest neighbors and community when our South Burlington store opens in 2018," said Mark Schindele, senior vice president for the company.
While Target has signed a lease for 60,000 square feet of space, the company said the store will be a "small-format" version of Target.
Tags: Kevin Dorn , Target , University Mall , Mark Schindele , Image , Web Only
The preliminary recommendation was released Wednesday as the state’s Act 73 Working Group on Water Quality Funding moves toward producing a final report for the legislature by November 15.
"In the near term, the Act 73 Working Group recommends existing revenue sources to fund clean water investments," the draft report concluded, while recommending that state leaders begin studying other funding options next year to cover costs starting in 2024.
Environmental activists and legislative leaders have called for new funding sources to tackle water quality improvement efforts in Vermont. The state reached an agreement with the federal government in 2016 to meet phosphorus reduction goals. Blue-green algae blooms provide an annual reminder of the underlying problem.
“We are struggling to see how we’re going to meet the goal with existing money,” Senate President Pro Tempore Tim Ashe (D/P-Chittenden) said Wednesday after reviewing the draft recommendations.
Those recommendations could be revised before the final report is issued, Vermont Agency of Natural Resources Secretary Julie Moore said Wednesday. The public has two weeks to submit comments on the draft report before that final report is prepared, she said.
Tags: Later Champlain , water quality , Julie Moore , Tim Ashe , Image , Web Only
The city of Burlington was not clearing out a South End homeless encampment that has previously been a source of safety concerns, Police Chief Brandon del Pozo said Wednesday — because the city has nowhere to put the residents' stuff. But on Thursday, he said officials are looking for a way to store the belongings that have accumulated there — and still planned to shut it down. Typically when belongings are confiscated, they're stored at the police station, said Lacey-Ann Smith, community affairs liaison for the Burlington Police Department. "It's usually like a pair of pants and a sleeping bag," Smith said. "There’s a lot of stuff down there and we don’t have any capacity."
Smith left an eviction notice at the encampment weeks ago, and had hoped that the campers would leave of their own accord — and bring their belongings with them. Three of the original seven campers are staying at Safe Harbor, she said; four remain.
The safety issues, which include allegations of drug dealing and use and domestic violence in the encampment, are still a concern, said del Pozo. But he accused the remaining campers of using the city's efforts to protect their property as a way to trespass on the land. Leaving their belongings, he said, "seems like a modus vivendi, a strategy to hamstring the city."
Tags: Miro Weinberger , homeless , Brandon del Pozo , Lacey-Ann Smith , Image , Web Only