Tuesday, April 17, 2018
The legislation, S.103, would have given the commissioner of the Vermont Department of Health expanded power to enter products into a state-run database if they contain toxins that may harm children. It also would have made that database publicly searchable by products’ bar codes.
In a statement announcing his decision Monday, Scott said he opposes the bill because it wouldn’t improve Vermont’s already high consumer safety laws, which were last updated in 2014, as well as put a harmful burden on businesses and manufacturers.
“These [proposed] changes, in my opinion, have no practical impact to how my Administration regulates these chemicals,” he said.
Tags: Tim Ashe , Phil Scott , toxic , toys , consumer protection , S.103 , Brian Campion , Bennington , Image , Web Only
An hour and a half after Nate Giffin, 32, robbed a nearby bank, police shot him, firing 21 to 23 rounds. Authorities said Giffin repeatedly raised his gun, even after being wounded. It turned out to be a BB pistol.
Giffin, a Burlington resident, repeatedly threatened police and made suicidal statements, Attorney General T.J. Donovan said. Giffin pointed his weapon at officers who had scrambled to the school, which was in session. Students were put on lockdown.
"I'm not going back to jail, so something is going to happen," Giffin told officers during the hour-long standoff. He made other statements, such as "Are you guys ready? We're going to rock and roll," and "Tell my dad I'm sorry," according to authorities.
Tags: T.J. Donovan , Vermont State Police , Montpelier High School , Matt Birmingham , Tony Facos , Rory Thibault , police shootings , Nathan Giffin , Image , Web Only
The former auto mechanic and voc-ed instructor, who announced his retirement in March, said he's spent his entire adult life collecting neckties, but he won't need them anymore once he finishes his work at the Statehouse this spring.
As a student at Michigan's Kalamazoo College in the mid-1960s, Sharpe said he started buying up funky ties as an act of rebellion. The cafeteria staff was instructed not to feed students on Sundays unless they wore a coat and tie to dinner.
“So my attitude at the time was: You want a coat and tie? I’ll show you a coat and tie. So I had some crazy coats, which have gone by the wayside, but it started a tie collection," Sharpe recalled Tuesday morning during a brief break from hawking his wares. "So there’s somewhere between 100 and 200 ties that I’ve collected over time — some of them pretty crazy, some of them pretty conservative."
More than 100 of them are now on sale, at a makeshift stand just outside the Statehouse cafeteria, for the competitive price of $8 apiece. Proceeds will go to the Friends of the Vermont Statehouse, a nonprofit devoted to historic education and preservation of the building.
Tags: Dave Sharpe , fashion , Dylan Giambatista , ties , neckties , Montpelier , Statehouse , Image , Web Only
Monday, April 16, 2018
The Burlington City Council unanimously passed a resolution Monday that would reopen the design process in an effort to alter the plan to add and preserve more trees.
The measure, introduced by Councilor Jane Knodell (P-Central District), came in response to opposition by the citizen group Keep the Park Green, which has argued that too many trees are slated to be cut down under the current redesign of the downtown park.
The renovations are set to begin in 2019 — and Knodell said the project would remain on track.
Tags: Max Tracy , Jane Knodell , Miro Weinberger , Keep the Park Green , Image , Web Only
That's more than five times what the senator raised during the same period last year, but it's less than the $1.29 million he collected in the second quarter of 2017 and the $1.95 million he raised in the third quarter of that year.
Sanders, who was first elected to the U.S. House in 1990 and the Senate in 2006, has not said whether he will seek reelection this November. No other contenders had filed reports with the FEC as of Monday afternoon.
The vast majority of Sanders' donations this year came from individual contributors, though the campaign accepted $10,000 from labor and environmental political action committees, such as the Climate Champions PAC and the National Nurses United PAC.
During the same three-month period, Sanders spent nearly $533,000. That left him, at the end of March, with nearly $6.9 million in his Senate reelection fund. But Sanders, who has declined to say whether he would mount a second presidential campaign in 2020, isn't using the money simply to stump in Vermont.
Tags: Senator , political donations , fundraising , Bernie Sanders , Peter Welch , Patrick Leahy , congress , Federal Elections Commission , Image , Web Only
Asked what Congress should do if Trump fired Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein in order to remove Mueller, Welch said, "That would be grounds for Congress taking up the impeachment questions."
In recent weeks, Trump has repeatedly criticized Mueller, whom Rosenstein appointed last May to investigate alleged ties between the president's 2016 campaign and Russia. While Trump cannot directly terminate the special counsel or end his investigation, he could order the acting attorney general — at the moment, Rosenstein — to do so.
But, according to Welch, "That would be obstruction of justice. The president is not above the law. No citizen is above the law."
Asked whether he would personally file articles of impeachment, Welch said, "I think it would be impeachable, and I would very likely support impeachment if he interfered with the investigation by firing [Mueller]."
Tags: Senator , Donald Trump , Impeachment , Peter Welch , Patrick Leahy , Bernie Sanders , Rod Rosenstein , Robert Mueller , Image , Web Only
Saturday, April 14, 2018
The United States, France and Britain fired more than 100 missiles at Syrian chemical weapons facilities late Friday, a week after forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad allegedly used such weapons against his own people.
In written statements issued following Friday's air strikes, Vermont's congressional delegates said that Assad's use of chemical weapons merited a response from the international community.
"But it is Congress' responsibility to declare war," Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) said. "Threatening the use of military force by tweet, and firing off missiles without a coherent policy or clear legal authority, raises obvious dangers and constitutional concerns and risks drawing us into a wider war."
Tags: Senator , Syria , Air Strikes , Patrick Leahy , Bernie Sanders , Peter Welch , Image , Web Only
Friday, April 13, 2018
Private investigator Daniel Troidl found that even if board member Jeff Wick did make racially biased comments, “there is no credible evidence that such bias has manifested itself in the form of illegal employment discrimination.”
The report, which included interviews with administrators and school board members, concluded a controversial multiweek investigation.
As a result of the investigation, the school board passed a resolution on Tuesday that requires its members to receive training on inherent bias and how to avoid employment discrimination. The resolution also created a committee to make sure the salaries of employees that report to the board have been "appropriately established."
Tags: Jeff Wick , Yaw Obeng , Mark Porter , Burlington School District , Clare Wool , Image , Web Only
Gov. Phil Scott on Friday announced a series of steps to protect the Fair Haven Union High School community from a teenager who allegedly threatened a school massacre — but may soon be freed from prison.
The news came amid a flurry of developments in the case involving 18-year-old Jack Sawyer.
Earlier in the day, Sawyer’s attorney confirmed that her client had been served with an order, sought by Rutland County State’s Attorney Rosemary Kennedy, requiring him to not possess or buy any weapons after his release.
The "extreme risk protection order" was granted Thursday, one day after the Vermont Supreme Court ruled that there's not enough evidence to justify holding Jack Sawyer without bail. The ruling also indicates that the charges against him could be dismissed.
Tags: Jack Sawyer , Fair Haven Union High School , Kelly Green , Rosemary Kennedy , Phil Scott , Vermont Supreme Court , gun control , Image , Web Only
Thursday, April 12, 2018
The Clean Energy Development Fund is a state-administered initiative within the Department of Public Service that offers financial incentives for homes, businesses and other institutions to reduce their reliance on fossil fuels.
Andy Perchlik, the fund's manager, said that it has focused primarily on “advanced wood heating” in recent years. Unlike old-fashioned wood stoves and early pellet stoves, according to Perchlik, such systems have the convenience and technological sophistication of fossil fuel-powered heating systems but run on wood fuel that can be purchased locally.
The Scott administration’s proposal to remove $500,000 from the fund would effectively end that work, Perchlik said.
Tags: renewable energy , wood heat , heating oil , climate change , Phil Scott , Adam Greshin , Andy Perchlik , Department of Public Service , budget , Clean Energy Development Fund , Image , Web Only