Friday, May 31, 2019
Seven Days highlighted the ticket sales at the Spanked Puppy last year in one of the stories in Give and Take, a series that examined Vermont’s massive and lightly regulated nonprofit sector. While most gambling is illegal in Vermont, for-profit entities such as the Spanked Puppy are allowed to sell break-open tickets, provided the proceeds go to a nonprofit.
The pub’s former owner, Michelle Simms, 61, was cited in February to appear in court for felony embezzlement, according to Skyler Genest, the chief investigator and director of compliance and enforcement for the Division of Liquor Control. The Colchester Sun first reported on Simms' case.
“We did a forensic audit of their accounting practices,” Genest said. “We found what would be described as loose, at best, accounting procedures for those proceeds, and some large discrepancies that there was really no justification for.”
Tags: Give and Take , Michelle Simms , Spanked Puppy , break-open tickets , Division of Liquor Control , Chris Rosato , Skyler Genest , Web Only , Image
In a press release Friday, Mayor Miro Weinberger said Redmond helped the Marketplace become "one of the Northeast's great urban places."
"I am grateful for Ron’s service to the City and the Church Street Marketplace, helping to grow and strengthen the Marketplace as a downtown destination for residents and visitors,” Weinberger said.
Tags: Burlington , Church Street , Ron Redmond , Miro Weinberger , mayor , executive director , marketplace , Web Only , Image
Cynthea Hausman said she drained about $15,000 in savings before agreeing to settle her lawsuit in October 2018.
“I just ran out of money,” Hausman told Seven Days on Thursday.
Tags: Cannabeat , Cynthea Hausman , Joel Bedard , Vermont Hemp Company , Katherine Desmond , hemp , cannabis , Vermont , Web Only , Image
Thursday, May 30, 2019
Scott has sought to distance himself politically from Walker, who pursued conservative, anti-union policies as governor. “I didn’t invite the speaker,” Scott said at a Thursday press conference in Waterbury. “But I felt an obligation to make sure that we welcome governor Walker to our state.
“Vermonters know me,” Scott added. “I’m a centrist and I’m open-minded and I’m willing to listen to other points of view, and that should be the message here.”
Tags: Senator , Phil Scott , Scott Walker , Bernie Sanders , Elizabeth Warren , Erhard Mahnke , David Zuckerman , Mari Cordes , Laura Walker , Donald Trump , Web Only , Image , Slideshow
Wednesday, May 29, 2019
The Senate had hoped that House members, frustrated by the collapse of negotiations on a minimum wage and paid family and medical leave package, would reconsider their abrupt Friday decision to adjourn until January 7.
Alas, it was not to be.
“We are sorry that we had to ask you to come back for this,” Senate Majority Leader Becca Balint (D-Windham) told her colleagues during a caucus before the brief afternoon floor session, “but it felt important enough for us to leave that possibility open.”
Tags: Vermont , legislature , Senate , House , Phil Scott , governor , Mitzi Johnson , Tim Ashe , Web Only , Image
Louis Hamlin II, of Huntington, was one of eight men charged in a recent sweep by local, state and federal officials.
His son, Hamlin III, became notorious decades ago when he was just 16. He and a 15-year-old youth, Jamie Savage, were arrested in 1981 for torturing two girls, ages 12 and 13, as they walked through the woods. The cases shocked Vermonters and led to changes in the state's juvenile crime laws.
Tags: Child pornography , Louis Hamlin III , Louis Hamlin II , Mark Hulett , Web Only , Image
Green Mountain Transit officials say a bus driver didn’t follow company protocol when he ejected students from his route last week, but his actions were not race-based.
Burlington School District officials met with the transit company Tuesday following Burlington mother Rebecca Mack’s viral Facebook post that claimed a bus driver forced only children of color to exit the bus for “singing and clapping.” Mack said the children, including two of her own, told her that white kids were allowed to remain seated.
The May 23 incident prompted the Burlington City Council to demand GMT attend its next meeting to explain what happened.
“This was the most personally racist event that had ever happened to them,” Mack, a white woman, told Seven Days about her children's experience. “It’s something that’s never going to go away.”
On Wednesday afternoon at its Industrial Parkway headquarters, GMT allowed Seven Days to watch onboard video of the incident. The bus cameras captured the scene from three different angles.
The footage shows bus No. 914 carrying a couple dozen children from Edmunds Elementary and Middle schools, the majority of them students of color. A group in the back begins chanting and banging on the windows soon after the bus departs shortly after 3 p.m. The driver, who identifies himself as Nate, tells them to stop.
Tags: Green Mountain Transit , Burlington School District , Tom Chittenden , Mark Sousa , Yaw Obeng , Rebecca Mack , bus , Web Only , Image
Four F-35s from Hill Air Force Base in Utah landed around 7:45 a.m. after being diverted on their way overseas due to weather and refueling schedules, according to Vermont National Guard public affairs deputy Nathan Rivard.
The planes were expected to remain overnight and then depart, although Rivard would not say exactly when.
The visiting fighter jets provided a sneak preview of the 18 F-35s scheduled to arrive starting in August for permanent basing with the guard, which shares a runway with commercial operations at Burlington International Airport.
Tags: F-35s , Vermont Air National Guard , Burlington International Airport , jet noise , Gene Richards , Web Only , Image
Tuesday, May 28, 2019
A total of 2,640 dwelling units will be affected by noise at or above 65 decibels in 2023, compared to 976 on sound maps for 2015.
The new projections, based on computer modeling, suggest high-decibel noise will affect larger portions of Winooski and Williston, and slightly less of certain parts of South Burlington.
Tags: F-35 , Burlington , Winooski , noise map , BTV , Web Only , Image
At a press conference Tuesday, the mayor announced his appointment of Lukas McGowan to run CEDO, the city department that oversees everything from a lead abatement program to housing policies and the city’s tax-increment financing districts.
McGowan, who currently lives in South Woodstock, worked as a regional field director for then-presidential candidate Barack Obama’s 2008 campaign and later as vice president Joe Biden’s speechwriter. McGowan also served in the White House Office of Legislative Affairs, according to his résumé. He earned degrees from Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government and from Columbia University.
McGowan left government in 2012 and went on to help run a San Francisco tech startup called Thumbtack, which connects consumers with services such as plumbers, photographers and other small businesses and sole proprietors, he said. The company started with 10 employees and grew to 400, Weinberger added.
McGowan’s wide-ranging experience in both the public and private sectors make him well suited for the job, the mayor said.
Tags: Burlington , Lukas McGowan , Community Economic Development Office , Miro Weinberger , Web Only , Image