Wednesday, August 22, 2018
Michael Major, a Chittenden County sheriff's deputy who challenged his boss for the department's top job, has resigned.
Major came in second to Sheriff Kevin McLaughlin in last week's Democratic primary. On Tuesday, Major filed his resignation paperwork.
"The atmosphere was a little dry in the office," Major said. "I'm sure some people are either upset or disappointed, but I just felt it was the right thing to do. I don't think my relationship with the boss would be the same, obviously."
About half of the voters on primary day chose McLaughlin, Chittenden County's longest-serving sheriff. Major got votes from one in four voters. The rest didn't choose a sheriff's candidate.
Tags: Michael Major , sheriff , Chittenden County Sheriff's Department , Kevin McLaughlin , primary , race , Image , Web Only
Vermont's senior senator made the assertion in a brief interview with Seven Days Wednesday afternoon, immediately after addressing the president's mounting legal problems on the floor of the U.S. Senate. "The clouds of criminal conduct surrounding those close to the president are darkening," he said in those remarks.
Leahy was referring to two major developments that came a day earlier: former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort's conviction on eight counts of tax and bank fraud, and former Trump attorney Michael Cohen's guilty pleas on eight counts of tax evasion, bank fraud and campaign finance violations. During Cohen's appearance Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Manhattan, he said he'd made illegal payments to two women "in coordination with and at the direction of a candidate for federal office," referring to Trump.
Tags: Senator , Donald Trump , Michael Cohen , Paul Manafort , Patrick Leahy , Bernie Sanders , Peter Welch , Image , Web Only
The crowd on Church Street, dressed in red and armed with signs and bullhorns, urged the hospital to offer its nurses better wages and increased staffing levels.
Their chants filtered into Burlington City Hall's Contois Auditorium, where the state's hospital oversight board would be tasked with reviewing, and eventually approving, the medical center's fiscal year 2019 budget.
At 9 a.m., top hospital brass lined up before the Green Mountain Care Board to testify for three hours on the institution's finances and plans for the future. But foremost in the officials' minds was the nurses, who have urged the board not to approve the budget until the sides agree on a contract.
Tags: Kevin Mullin , Green Mountain Care Board , John Brumsted , UVMMC , nurses , strike , Image , Web Only
Tuesday, August 21, 2018
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) has officially turned down the Democratic nomination for the U.S. Senate, according to the Vermont Secretary of State's Office.
Sanders, who took home nearly 91 percent of the vote in last week's Democratic primary, informed the state last Friday that he would decline the nomination, according to elections director Will Senning. Neither the candidate nor the Secretary of State's Office announced the move at the time, though it hardly comes as a surprise.
Tags: Senator , Bernie Sanders , Democratic nomination , Vermont Democratic Party , Image , Web Only
Kavanaugh spent the early 2000s as a lawyer, and later staff secretary, for president George W. Bush's administration.
“There was a lot of discussion at the time of detainee and torture policy as well as a specialized wiretapping policy,” Leahy said. “I wanted to know how much he was involved in it, because all of these things have been discredited since.”
White House lawyer Don McGahn also attended Leahy's meeting with Kavanaugh, and initially he refused to allow the senator to meet alone with the judicial nominee.
“[McGahn] said, ‘Well, they don’t do one-on-one meetings,’” Leahy recounted. “I said, ‘I’ve been here for 19 Supreme Court nominees, 17 since I’ve been on the Judiciary Committee. I always have a one-on-one meeting.’”
Tags: Patrick Leahy , senator , Brett Kavanaugh , U.S. Supreme Court , nominee , Donald Trump , Vermont , judiciary , Image , Web Only
The goal in both cities is to reclaim small spaces from vehicles, slow drivers along busy routes, and make people on bikes and foot feel safer.
Winooski's parklet popped up on upper Main Street earlier this month. It looks like a small outdoor living room and occupies two curbside parking spaces. A bus stop-like enclosure anchors one end, while thigh-high wooden planters and Jersey barriers set it off from traffic. A table and chairs are set up in a corner, and "parklet" is scrawled on a wall below a cascade of white petunias.
Tags: Burlington , Winooski , parklet , traffic , Old North End Greenway , Image , Web Only
Thursday, August 16, 2018
Wednesday night marked a deadline for filing campaign finance reports. Hallquist, the former CEO of the Vermont Electric Coop, reported raising $40,000 in the past month, and a total of $157,000 for the entire cycle — including $18,000 in loans to her own campaign. At the same period in the 2016 election cycle, Democratic nominee Sue Minter had raised more than $1 million.
Hallquist has spent $159,000, which leaves her about $2,000 underwater. She is hoping to get a big boost in donations following a flood of national news coverage of her primary win, which made her the first openly transgender major-party candidate for governor in U.S. history. She will need it.
Tags: Phil Scott , Christine Hallquist , Keith Stern , Lenore Broughton , Don Turner , David Zuckerman , Skip Vallee , Eileen Dickinson , Tom Little , Paul Ralston , Marie Audet , Chris Bray , Claire Ayer , Ruth Hardy , Peter Briggs , Heidi Scheuermann , Marina Meerburg , Sue Minter , Vermont , campaign finance , governor , elections , primary , Governor's Race 2018 , Image , Web Only
The medical center on Wednesday released its fiscal year 2017 Internal Revenue Service Form 990 just hours after administrators and nurses left the bargaining table the night before without coming to an agreement.
The documents show that Eileen Whalen, president and chief operating officer, made more than $1,050,000 in salary and benefits during fiscal year 2017, about 20 percent higher than the $866,000 she earned the previous year.
Tags: Vermont Federation of Nurses and Health Professionals , University of Vermont Medical Center , nurses , John Brumstead , Eileen Whalen , Laurie Aunchman , Deb Snell , Image , Web Only
Wednesday, August 15, 2018
"We're drowning," said campaign manager Cameron Russell. "We're just trying to field as many [interview requests] as we can."
It's a nice problem to have.
Hallquist, former CEO of the Vermont Electric Coop, won Tuesday's four-way Vermont primary with more than 40 percent of the vote, according to unofficial totals from the Secretary of State. Her nearest competitor, water quality advocate James Ehlers, was a distant second at 19 percent. The result means that Hallquist is the first openly transgender person to win a major-party nomination for governor.
The media interest began building in the days before the primary, but hit full force as Hallquist's victory became official. "She was on CNN last night and [Wednesday] morning," said Russell. "She's been interviewed by NPR, the BBC, the New York Times, the Guardian, the Huffington Post, MSNBC, TMZ and Fox."
Tags: Christine Hallquist , Cameron Russell , Elliot Imse , James Ehlers , Brenda Siegel , Ethan Sonneborn , Teddy Waszazak , Vermont , governor , transgender , candidate , nominee , primary , results , Image , Web Only
Tuesday, August 14, 2018
Some of Vermont's most competitive primaries Tuesday were at the county level. The campaign season was unusually intense for judgeships in Chittenden County. Elsewhere, three county prosecutors fought — one unsuccessfully — to keep their jobs.
Here is what happened in some of the races we've been following:
Lamoille County State's Attorney Paul Finnerty lost the Democratic primary to challenger Todd Shove. With all but one district reporting Tuesday night, Shove won with 50.3 percent to Finnerty's 34.2 percent. Finnerty, who is serving his first four-year term, promoted restorative justice during his time in office.
Shove, a career prosecutor who recently left his job to campaign, criticized Finnerty for taking the concept too far. He also campaigned on the promise of improving the relationship between prosecutors and law enforcement.
In Essex County, longtime state's attorney and former state senator Vincent Illuzzi eked out a 288 to 248 victory against political newcomer Amy Davis in the Republican primary.
Davis, 31, handles divorce, custody and family cases as a partner at the firm Bucknam Black Davis. During the campaign, she criticized Illuzzi for not giving enough attention to his part-time job as county prosecutor, which he has held since 1998. Illuzzi also works as a lobbyist for the Vermont State Employees' Association in Montpelier.
Bennington County Democrats also stuck with their prosecutor: State’s Attorney Erica Marthage beat challenger Arnie Gottlieb by just 136 votes — less than 3 percent of votes cast.
Marthage is known for her aggressive prosecutorial approach. Seven Days reported in 2016 that Bennington County, under Marthage's leadership, imprisoned more people per capita than any other county in Vermont. Gottlieb, a veteran defense attorney, called Marthage’s style overzealous.
In Chittenden County, Sheriff Kevin McLaughlin held a strong lead — 54 percent to 25 percent — in the Democratic primary against his longtime deputy Michael Major. McLaughlin has been in the office since 1987, making him the longest-serving sheriff in county history.
Major, a 34-year veteran of the department, said during the campaign that he wanted to expand the department’s budget and staff by securing new contracts to provide law enforcement staffing. He expressed support for stationing an armed deputy at all of the county’s schools.
There were four other primaries for sheriff positions in Vermont:
- In Addison County, Peter Newton beat Ron Holmes in the Democratic primary to replace outgoing Sheriff Donald Keeler Jr.
- Bennington County Democrats chose incumbent Chad Schmidt over challenger James Gulley Jr.
- Caledonia county's Republican sheriff, Dean Shatney, beat out challenger Lester Cleary III.
- Orleans County Sheriff Kirk Martin beat Jennifer Harlow Jacobs in the Republican primary.
Glennon, the brother-in-law of Vermont Attorney General T.J. Donovan, has been on the job since he was appointed by then-governor Peter Shumlin in 2016.
In a four-way race for two assistant judgeships in Chittenden county, newcomer Suzanne Brown and incumbent Connie Cain Ramsey beat out Assistant Judge Charles Delaney and challenger Zachary York.
Tags: Kevin McLaughlin , Erica Marthage , Peter Newton , Ron Holmes , Michael Major , Arnie Gottlieb , Vince Illuzzi , primary , sheriff , prosecutor , judge , results , Image , Web Only