Friday, October 12, 2018
This year’s offerings include the Road Pitch finals, in which startups from across the state compete for a $5,000 grand prize, as well as a panel discussion about blockchain technology, the second Vermont Investors Summit and a conference on healthcare innovations for treating substance abuse. Full disclosure: The final event is Seven Days’ 12th Vermont Tech Jam.
Innovation Week begins on Monday night with the first Sector Mash, an arts and tech sector puree featuring three-minute talks from organizers of various events and entities — think Champlain Mini Maker Faire, Big Heavy World, Internet of Things meetup, Vermont Arts Council. It takes place from 5 to 9 p.m. at Generator, Burlington’s community maker space. Nick Floersch is helping put it together.
Tags: Nick Floersch , Innovation Week , Code for BTV , Tech Jam , Champlain Mini Maker Faire , Burlington Code Academy. Generator , Image , Web Only
Thursday, October 11, 2018
The setting was the Varnum Memorial Library in Jeffersonville. The candidates are Democrat Lucy Rogers and Republican Zac Mayo, who are vying for the seat representing Cambridge, Jeffersonville and Waterville now held by retiring Republican Rep. Bernie Juskiewicz. The song they chose was "Society" by Eddie Vedder. The lyrics condemn materialism and greed, and end with a farewell to society. Mayo strummed a guitar while Rogers played cello.
Both sang the melancholy chorus:
Society, have mercy on me"It’s always been a personal favorite of mine," said Mayo. "It's always resonated with me."
I hope you're not angry if I disagree
Society, crazy indeed
I hope you're not lonely without me
Tags: Zac Mayo , Lucy Rogers , Bernie Juskiewicz , Vermont House , Cambridge , Waterville , Jeffersonville , Lamoille County , politics , Election 2018 , Legislative Races 2018 , Image , Web Only
In the third quarter of 2018, physicians issued 44 percent fewer prescriptions for more than 50 pills than they did in the same quarter in 2017. Since 2016, the medical center has registered a 71 percent decline in those prescriptions, the hospital said.
State health officials and law enforcement leaders have urged the medical community to curb prescribed opiates as Vermonters struggle with abuse of the drugs, and fatal overdoses have reached record highs.
Tags: doctors , law enforcement , opiates , Opioid Crisis , overdose , University of Vermont Medical Center , Image , Web Only
Wednesday, October 10, 2018
Republican Gov. Phil Scott stuck to the ideas that have been front and center in his first term — economic growth, affordability and protecting the most vulnerable. He spoke of progress made in his first term, especially in blocking increases in taxes and fees. And he warned of existential threats facing Vermont, including the state's aging demographics, decreasing student population and a lack of growth outside of Chittenden County.
Democrat Christine Hallquist agreed on Vermont's challenges and offered an ambitious agenda, including universal high-speed broadband, a $15 per hour minimum wage, paid family leave and the need for universal health care. She also emphasized her track record as chief executive of the Vermont Electric Coop as proof that she can effectively manage state government.
Squaring off at Rutland's Paramount Theatre in a forum sponsored by VTDigger.org, the two candidates did not engage in personal attacks, although there were occasional flare-ups over policy differences. There was no mention of Hallquist's historic status as the first openly transgender person to be a major party's nominee for governor.
Tags: Phil Scott , Christine Hallquist , Peter Shumlin , governor , Vermont , elections , Election 2018 , Governor's Race 2018 , Image , Web Only
The announcement comes as allegations of widespread priest abuse coverups in Pennsylvania have roiled the Catholic church. Locally, the Vermont diocese has grappled with allegations of horrific abuse at the long-shuttered St. Joseph's Orphanage.
Coyne did not provide a timeline for release of the list, but said he would convey "a sense of urgency" to the committee. He said he would soon reach out to potential committee members. Coyne is scheduled to hold a press conference later Wednesday.
"The crimes of the past were horrific and the damage to the victims and their loved ones horrendous," Coyne said in a prepared statement. "We will never be able to apologize adequately but will continue to try and hopefully have some positive impact in their lives going forward."
Tags: Christopher Coyne , priest abuse , Catholic church , St. Joseph's Orphanage , Burlington , Image , Web Only
Tuesday, October 9, 2018
The downtown site was ready for the work, Sinex told Seven Days in an email. Not moving forward would delay the project up to three months and would mean higher costs for construction, he told reporters before the council's vote.
The council gave Sinex permission to lay the foundation of the proposed 14-story building before all the project's funding and contracts were in place. Sinex said at the time that he planned to start the foundation work within two weeks.
Nearly six weeks later, he has not filed the paperwork to get a city permit for the foundation, according to Burlington's Department of Public Works.
Tags: Don Sinex , Miro Weinberger , CityPlace Burlington , Kurt Wright , Jane Knodell , Image , Web Only
Friday, October 5, 2018
"I was disappointed," Scott said at a Friday press conference. "I'd offered to come before them, offered any information they might need." But he got no response to his offer.
In fact, the ethics commission has no authority to investigate or take testimony. It can only refer ethics complaints to other agencies or issue advisory opinions in response to inquiries. In this case, it issued an advisory opinion.
Scott said that the panel's process is "fraught with danger," apparently meaning that other parties would try to use it for political advantage. Which is what he believes happened in this case. "It seems suspect to me that a powerful political organization makes a complaint during October of an election year," he said.
Tags: Phil Scott , Chris Davis , governor , Vermont , ethics , Vermont State Ethics Commission , Election 2018 , Image , Web Only
Thursday, October 4, 2018
The guidance director was already facing six charges, filed on September 7, related to allegations that he faked a student transcript, behaved unprofessionally with a substitute teacher and showed general incompetence at his job.
In a September 26 charging document, Secretary of Education Dan French wrote that Macias “inappropriately engaged a student witness in a discussion of the licensing charges against him, in a manner that he should have known would cause the student severe emotional distress.”
French recommended that Macias’ educator license be permanently revoked.
Tags: Agency of Education , Mario Macias , Dan French , Ted Fisher , Russ Elek , Burlington , Burlington High School , education , guidance , guidance counselor , Image , Web Only
Tuesday, October 2, 2018
At a September 20 legislative hearing, Vermont's chief health care advocate, Michael Fisher, questioned what had happened to $2.2 million that the state paid the contractor, Centurion, in fiscal year 2017. Lawmakers got the impression that Centurion had pocketed the money as profit, which Department of Corrections officials in the room didn't dispute.
But that was not the case, according to Gobeille. The secretary wasn’t at the hearing, but he later told lawmakers that Centurion spent the $2.2 million on other health care expenses. “There’s no missing money,” he said. “I don’t want anyone to think that we paid for a bunch of pharmaceuticals that never got used.”
Fisher raised the money issue while discussing a lack of hepatitis C treatment in Vermont prisons. “Our chief concern is that inmates are getting the care that they need,” Fisher said. Gobeille’s explanation “doesn’t satisfy the concern.”
Centurion did retain about $450,000 in profit in 2017 and received about $2 million to cover corporate overhead costs, according to Gobeille. In the context of the roughly $20 million contract, “I don’t think that’s exorbitant by any respect,” he said.
Tags: Al Gobeille , Dick Sears , hepatitis C , Department of Corrections , health care , Image , Web Only
Gov. Phil Scott appears to be in violation of the state's ethics code because of the way he structured the sale of his stake in DuBois Construction, the Vermont State Ethics Commission said in an advisory opinion released this week.
During his 2016 campaign for governor, Scott acknowledged that it could create ethical problems for a sitting governor to own a stake in a company that regularly wins state contracts. When Scott won the election, he sold his stake for $2.5 million. But Scott himself financed the sale, which means that he retains a large financial stake in DuBois. He receives monthly loan payments from the firm that totaled $75,000 in 2017.
Paul Burns, the executive director of the Vermont Public Interest Research Group, said Scott’s attempt to solve one ethical problem created another.
"The governor acted in this situation as the bank himself, which means that he will have an ongoing financial interest in this business for at least 15 years” as DuBois pays off its debt, Burns said.
Tags: Paul Burns , Phil Scott , DuBois Construction , ethics , Election 2018 , Image , Web Only