Wednesday, April 25, 2018
"Six years," Carr said, when asked why he is leaving after three terms in office. "It's been long enough."
Carr intends to devote more time to his work as a small business consultant. "A friend of mine calls me a 'CFO in a box,'" he said. "A chief financial officer that a small business wouldn't have. I'm a commercial lender by background. I can come into a business and say 'Here's what I see' because it's the same thing their lender would see."
Tags: Stephen Carr , David Sharpe , Helen Head , Vermont House , committee chair , retirement , Image , Web Only
The kits, which allow users to determine if heroin is laced with the potent, often undetectable opiate, have been handed out to 130 people across the state, Health Department officials told Seven Days.
Health Commissioner Mark Levine said that the project has been a success: 90 percent of users said in follow-up interviews that they changed their behavior — by discarding the batch of heroin, using less, making sure they had an overdose-reversing drug on hand, or using in the presence of someone else — if the kit detected fentanyl.
Tags: Brandon del Pozo , fentanyl , Health Department , Mark Levine , opiates , Opioid Crisis , overdose , Rutland , Image , Web Only
Deputy Corrections Commissioner Mike Touchette told the Vermont House Corrections and Institutions Committee in January that the investigation would be complete in short order.
“We are very near the conclusion of our — Vermont’s — administrative review, clinical review [of Brown’s death,]” Touchette told the committee on January 19.
Tags: Corrections , Mike Touchette , Camp Hill , Pennsylvania , interstate compact , Roger Brown , Herbert Rodgers , Timothy Adams , Alice Emmons , Matthew Valerio , Image , Web Only
Head has served in the legislature since 2003, and is chair of the House General, Housing and Military Affairs Committee. She is the second House committee chair to announce retirement this year. Rep. David Sharpe (D-Bristol), of the House Education Committee, announced his departure on Town Meeting Day.
"It's been a wonderful experience here, and an incredible honor, but it's time to move on," Head remarked. She has no immediate plans, but hinted at a possible return to her non-legislative career as a nonprofit administrator.
Tags: Helen Head , John Killacky , Flynn Center for the Performing Arts , David Sharpe , Vermont House , retirement , Image , Web Only
Tuesday, April 24, 2018
Finance Commissioner Adam Greshin said the plan does not include a tax increase, because districts that beat the target would get a tax break, meaning the state wouldn't be taking in more money overall — even though some Vermonters would pay more.
“What the proposal does is, it levels the average statewide property tax,” Greshin told the House Education Committee Tuesday.
Tags: taxes , education , staff-student ratio , education funding , Dave Sharpe , Dylan Giambatista , Phil Scott , Adam Greshin , Brad James , Rebecca Holcombe , Agency of Education , Image , Web Only
Monday, April 23, 2018
The story was sparked by the revelation in federal court last week that Hannity was a client of President Donald Trump's attorney and fixer, Michael Cohen, whose home and office were raided the week before by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Speaking on Fox News after the court hearing, Hannity said his work with Cohen focused almost exclusively on real estate.
"I hate the stock market," he said. "I prefer real estate. Michael knows real estate."
Hannity loves real estate so much that he bought dozens of properties out of foreclosure over the past decade, according to the Guardian. Some of those were purchased with support from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development — a fact that Hannity failed to disclose during an interview last June with HUD Secretary Ben Carson.
So where, exactly, are the Fox News host's Vermont holdings?
Tags: Sean Hannity , Michael Cohen , Vermont , real estate , Ludlow , Okemo , Image , Web Only
State Police Capt. Kevin Lane told the House Judiciary Committee Friday that the agency stopped using the technology because of state rules put into place in 2016 and the potential cost of replacing the devices as they reach the end of their useful lifespan.
“Looking at replacements was expensive, and some of the reporting requirements when the law changed were very challenging to meet,” Lane said.
Tags: privacy , law enforcement , ALPRs , license plate scanners , license plate readers , Image , Web Only
“It has to happen,” Human Services Secretary Al Gobeille told members of the House Health Care Committee last Tuesday. “If we did nothing with rates and nothing to improve their business position, Brattleboro Retreat would go bankrupt.”
Retreat CEO Louis Josephson moderated Gobeille's prognosis during an April 20 interview but acknowledged that without a rate increase, the facility would likely have to “shrink dramatically” to stay in business.
That could have a catastrophic impact on what's already considered a mental health crisis in Vermont.
The 119-bed Retreat, which operates on a budget of approximately $70 million, serves both children and adults. Since Tropical Storm Irene destroyed the Vermont State Hospital in Waterbury in 2011, Vermont has contracted with the private psychiatric hospital to reserve 14 beds for patients who are in state custody and tend to be severely ill.
According to Josephson, half of the Retreat’s revenue comes from patients on Medicaid, the health insurance program funded by the state and federal governments. The rates set by the state to pay for those patients have remained essentially flat for eight years. Expenses, meanwhile, have steadily risen.
Tags: Brattleboro Retreat , Al Gobeille , mental health , Louis Josephson , Image , Web Only
The decision, which comes after weeks of legal challenges, could pave the way for 18-year-old Jack Sawyer to soon be released from jail.
The move has seemed inevitable since April 11, when the Vermont Supreme Court overturned Judge Thomas Zonay's decision to hold Sawyer without bail on the charges — three counts of attempted murder and one count of attempted aggravated assault. He still faces two misdemeanor charges of criminal threatening and carrying a dangerous weapon.
In their ruling, justices said Sawyer's actions were "preparatory" and not "undertaken in the attempt to commit a crime."
In a Friday filing with the court dismissing the charges, Kennedy said the Supreme Court decision rendered the charges "untenable" and left her with "no choice."
Tags: Jack Sawyer , Rosemary Kennedy , Vermont Supreme Court , Kelly Green , Fair Haven Union High School , school shooting , Image , Web Only
Friday, April 20, 2018
The House Government Operations Committee held its first hearing on the bill Friday morning. Both Democrats and Republicans appeared to be skeptical that the bill would accomplish its purpose: to keep Vermont immune from the effects of big-money politics. That’s because corporations would still be able to donate unlimited funds through political action committees and independent organizations.
“Many of us have gotten lots of calls asking us to get corporate money out of Vermont politics,” said committee chair Rep. Maida Townsend (D-South Burlington). “This bill, the PACs would collect the money and put it into our political system. If it’s direct from corporation to candidate it’s not OK, but if it goes from corporation to PAC to candidate, it is OK?”
Rep. Jim Harrison (R-Chittenden) wondered, half-jokingly, if S.120 didn’t simply create “a way to launder the money,” and pointed out that “any candidate could set up a PAC and accept corporate contributions.”
Tags: Maida Townsend , John Gannon , Jim Harrison , Chris Winters , S.120 , campaign finance , Image , Web Only