Sunday, February 10, 2019
When “Meet the Press” needed a guest to counter Alabama governor George Wallace’s segregationist views in 1964, the NBC show called on a progressive leader from Vermont. The late governor Phil Hoff delivered, supporting the new Civil Rights Act “while projecting Vermont’s self-image as a racially enlightened society,” according to the 2011 biography Philip Hoff: How Red Turned Blue in the Green Mountain State.
Yet the governor also appeared more than once before thousands of people gathered at the University of Vermont to watch a popular annual blackface show called “A-Walkin-’Fo-De-Kake,” or Kake Walk. The event was so significant — and accepted — that local and state elected officials handed out trophies and cake to the fraternity brothers who performed best.
The 1963 Kake Walk program listed Hoff, lieutenant governor Ralph Foote, Burlington mayor Robert Bing and UVM president John Fey among the dignitaries scheduled to present awards.
Tags: Kake Walk , University of Vermont , blackface , the Vermont Cynic , Image , Slideshow , Web Only
Friday, February 8, 2019
The Playspace provides childcare for kids ages 6 weeks and older while caregivers exercise or run errands for up to two hours. The gym has offered the service for about 20 years, according to Edge president Mike Feitelberg, and about 20 to 30 families use it each week.
In a letter emailed to Playspace users on Wednesday, Feitelberg wrote that the locations in Williston and on Eastwood Drive in South Burlington will close at the end of February, while the South Burlington Twin Oaks and Essex locations will close at the end of March.
“This was a very difficult decision we wrestled with for a very long time,” Feitelberg said in a phone interview on Thursday.
Tags: The Edge , Playspace , childcare , Vermont , Image , Web Only
The federal Department of Justice is withholding more than $2 million in law enforcement grants from Vermont pending a review of the state’s compliance with a federal law that requires local officials to cooperate with federal immigration authorities.
“These grants are the DOJ Byrne JAG grant and the DOJ COPS Anti-Heroin Task Force grant,” VSP spokesman Adam Silverman wrote in an email to Seven Days.
The feds are refusing to pay the state a promised $1.3 million toward heroin enforcement until Justice Department officials are convinced that Vermont is in compliance with federal law, according to Silverman. Another two grants, for about $480,000 each, are also on hold.
Tags: Donald Trump , opiates , bias free policing , fair and impartial policing , police , heroin , Department of Justice , Adam Silverman , Jeff Sessions , Image , Web Only
Young’s legislation to establish a regulated retail cannabis market is similar in many ways to a Senate bill, S.54, introduced last month. But the House measure, H.196, would allow existing medical marijuana dispensaries to pay a $75,000 fee so that they could sell to the general public at the beginning of next year. The state would then continue to iron out details about the regulatory structure of the recreational market before other dispensaries could open in April 2021.
In addition to giving Vermont’s would-be cannabis customers an earlier start, Young said the licensing fees would “get some funds in order to create the board and the regulated market.”
Tags: Cannabeat , H.196 , Sam Young , cannabis , marijuana , retail , regulate , tax and regulate , Tom Stevens , Statehouse , Image , Web Only
Thursday, February 7, 2019
As a condition of his release, the 36-year-old Bennington man may not possess firearms, ammunition or gun accessories while the case is pending. He was also ordered not to contact former Bennington state representative Kiah Morris, her husband, or a third individual named in a police affidavit.
State police seized two 30-round magazines from Misch's residence Wednesday while executing a search warrant, according to the Vermont Attorney General's office.
Tags: Max Misch , guns , large-capacity magazines , T.J. Donovan , Vermont attorney general , Bennington Superior Court , Kiah Morris , Image , Web Only
The legislation is a scaled-back version of a proposal that would have provided a one-year extension for all of the districts that were required to merge by July 1, 2019. That measure, which had support from a tripartisan coalition of House lawmakers, failed Wednesday.
Tags: House , Education , Act 46 , school consolidation , school merger , school district , merger , Board of Education , Heidi Scheuermann , Statehouse , Image , Web Only
The Thursday morning vote on H.57 was 8-3, with all three Republican members voting no. The yes votes came from the panel's six Democrats plus Reps. Sandy Haas (P-Rochester) and Kelly Pajala (I-Londonderry).
The bill was amended in an effort to clarify its intent. Opponents had claimed that H.57 would open the door to unlimited abortion rights. Supporters argued that the bill would not supersede federal laws, and that state law has contained no limits on abortion access since 1972 without any nightmare scenarios coming to pass.
The new version of H.57 eliminates a provision declaring that fetuses have no rights. It also adds language specifying that the bill would not supersede the federal ban on late-term dilation and extraction procedures, which abortion opponents refer to as "partial-birth abortions."
Fetuses currently have no rights in Vermont law due to the 1989 Vermont Supreme Court decision in State v. Oliver. The case involved a traffic crash resulting in the death of a fetus. The court ruled that there was no legal basis to charge the offending driver with negligent operation of a vehicle resulting in death.
The House Judiciary Committee will take up the bill next week.
Tags: Kelly Pajala , Sandy Haas , Vermont , abortion , bill , House , Statehouse , Image , Web Only
Wednesday, February 6, 2019
The Vermont State Police announced the arrest of Bennington resident Max B. Misch, 36, in a brief news release. He was scheduled for arraignment Thursday in state court in Bennington.
Morris, the only black woman in the Vermont legislature before she resigned last fall, cited Misch's torrent of hateful online messages as one reason she stepped down. She previously obtained a yearlong protective order against him. Misch is an avowed white nationalist.
On January 14, Misch crashed a Bennington press conference during which Attorney General T.J. Donovan announced he would not bring criminal charges against anyone accused of harassing Morris. Misch strode into the event, held at the Congregation Beth El synagogue, bearing the image of alt-right meme Pepe the Frog on his shirt.
Just 11 days later, the Vermont State Police began investigating an allegation that Misch had purchased high-capacity magazines, according to the news release. Last year, Vermont banned the purchase or possession of magazines that contain more than 10 rounds for a long gun or 15 rounds for a handgun, though people can legally possess magazines they owned before the law went into effect.
Police executed a search warrant at Misch's residence on Wednesday, the release states. Misch faces up to a year in jail and a $500 fine.
Donovan's office will prosecute the case, according to the release.
The state police, Bennington police and the Attorney General's Office did not return calls for comment Wednesday evening.
Clarification, March 5, 2019: This story has been updated to clarify Vermont's law regarding the possession of high-capacity magazines.
Tags: Max Misch , T.J. Donovan , Vermont State Police , Kiah Morris , Bennington , Image , Web Only
Anti-abortion groups and the Vermont Republican Party had urged members to attend the hearing and speak out against H.57, a bill that would establish reproductive rights in state law. “This is a watershed moment,” VTGOP chair Deb Billado said. “We wanted to urge people to be there and express their opinions.”
Opponents say the bill would go beyond current legal protections and create an absolute right to abortion — including late-term abortion. “The bill implies that at eight months and 30 days, you can abort a baby,” Billado said. “I find this to be a horrific thing.”
Supporters say that federal law supersedes state law and would prevent any expansion of abortion rights beyond current practice.
Tags: Ann Pugh , Rebecca Kelley , Deb Billado , Corey Parent , Greg Darling , Dotty Kyle , Vermont , abortion , H.57 , Statehouse , Montpelier , House , pro-choice , Roe v. Wade , anti-abortion , VTGOP , Phil Scott , governor , Statehouse , Image , Web Only
The 69-74 vote in the Vermont House was a setback for communities asking for more time to set up new, merged districts — but it did not signify the end of the road.
Dozens of districts are also looking to the courts for help. They’ve sued the state Board of Education, which ordered the mergers under Act 46, arguing that the mandate is unconstitutional. Those hoping for delay said the extra time would allow for the court cases to be resolved before the districts are forced to change their governance.
Despite Wednesday's defeat, a more limited delay may still be in the offing.
Tags: Act 46 , education , school merger , school district consolidation , Heidi Scheuermann , Kate Webb , Statehouse , Image , Web Only