Friday, January 31, 2020
Vermont's two U.S. Senators voted in favor of a motion that would allow witnesses to testify. But the effort fell short, 51-49, despite two Republicans crossing the aisle to vote in favor — all but confirming the country’s third-ever impeachment trial will soon reach its finale.
Minutes after the vote, Leahy told Seven Days the decision means that, for the first time in American history, an impeachment trial may conclude without any witness testimony.
"It just boggles the mind," he said in a phone interview.
Tags: Senate , Impeachment trial , Sanders , Leahy , Trump , Web Only , Image
Scott said his own voluntary leave proposal would be a better, more modest place to start than a mandatory, $29 million program funded by payroll taxes on all working Vermonters.
“I share the goal to provide a program that allows workers time to take care of family and personal health needs, and to bond with new children,” Scott said in a statement. “That’s why my administration has advocated for, and acted on, a voluntary paid family and medical leave plan.”
The widely expected move means each chamber of the legislature will now have to decide whether to attempt an override of Scott’s veto. It will take two-thirds of each chamber's voting members — 100 in the House and 20 in the Senate — for the bill to become law.
Tags: Paid family leave , Gov. Phil Scott , veto , legislature , Vermont , override , Web Only , Image
Thursday, January 30, 2020
"Are you for real?" he asked representatives from Brookfield Asset Management, the project's majority owner. The crowd inside of Burlington City Hall erupted into applause.
"We wouldn't be sitting here right now if we weren’t for real," replied Aanen Olsen, Brookfield's vice president of development. "We appreciate what the city has been through in the last year and a half, and we absolutely do take it for real."
Thursday marked the first time the developers interacted with the public in the months since they announced a redesign of the downtown project last July. The company reps released renderings at a city council meeting late last October, when they pledged to begin construction this year.
Tags: Brookfield Asset Management , CityPlace Burlington , Web Only , Image
“It’s been four years — and some might say a tortuous journey — for us to get to this point,” said Sen. Michael Sirotkin (D-Chittenden) before Thursday’s 23-6 vote. “Hopefully it ends here today.”
Indeed, Thursday's passage marks a temporary pause in what has been a long and contentious pursuit of the Democratic-controlled legislature’s two marquee economic priorities. After reaching an impasse on competing versions of the bills last session, House and Senate negotiating committees swiftly hashed out compromise measures earlier this month.
Tags: minimum wage , paid leave , Phil Scott , veto , Web Only , Image
Wednesday, January 29, 2020
But while the move means the bill will face another committee vote on its long-awaited path to the floor, a key lawmaker says the return-to-sender is actually a positive development.
“It means that we have completed the 360-degree view from every single policy committee who has jurisdiction over a section of this bill, and we have now found a way to incorporate their recommendations,” said Rep. Sarah Copeland Hanzas (D-Bradford), who chairs Gov Ops and has been an avid supporter of S.54. “It strengthens the bill's path forward.”
Tags: Cannabeat , cannabis , Phil Scott , universal after school , S.54 , weed , pot , marijuana , legalization , retail market , Web Only , Image
Tuesday, January 28, 2020
Purdue Pharma, the infamous drugmaker behind OxyContin, is an unnamed co-conspirator in a criminal probe that was revealed Monday by federal prosecutors in Vermont, Seven Days has learned.
Christina Nolan, the U.S. Attorney for the District of Vermont, announced a $145 million settlement with electronic medical records company Practice Fusion over criminal charges that it conspired with an unnamed opioid manufacturer in 2016 to subtly push the addictive pills via doctors.
Nolan refused to identify the drug company, identified in court filings as "Pharma Co. X," because the company had not been indicted.
Seven Days verified that Pharma Co. X is Purdue by comparing documents referenced in the court filings with others that identify the program between Stamford, Conn.-based Purdue and Practice Fusion.
The U.S. Attorney's Office declined to comment. Purdue said in a statement that the company has previously noted it is cooperating with federal investigators and "is engaged in ongoing discussions with the DOJ regarding a potential resolution of these investigations and therefore the company has no comment at this time.”
The filing sheds new light on how Purdue found ways to increase OxyContin prescriptions even as company's opioid empire was beginning to collapse.
Tags: Purdue Pharma , Practice Fusion , U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Vermont , Christina Nolan , OxyContin , opioid epidemic , conspiracy , Web Only , Image
The apology is a necessary step toward atoning for the sins of that “dark period” in Vermont’s history, said Rep. Kate Webb (D-Shelburne), the resolution's lead sponsor, during testimony on Tuesday before the House General, Housing, and Military Affairs Committee.
"For true healing to occur, we must acknowledge what this was, and the great suffering that it caused to Vermont citizens of the state — a state that was charged to protect them," Webb said.
Tags: eugenics , Kate Webb , resolution , apology , Sara Holbrook , Dorothy Canfield Fisher , Web Only , Image
A slew of surveys released in recent days suggest that Sanders has caught up with former vice president Joe Biden in Iowa, which is poised to hold its caucuses next Monday, and has opened up a lead in New Hampshire, which votes the following week.
"Things are looking beautiful," said Ben Cohen, a national cochair of Sanders' presidential campaign. He and fellow Ben & Jerry's cofounder Jerry Greenfield have been spending the week crisscrossing Iowa to campaign for Sanders. "The people we've been talking to are incredibly enthusiastic," Cohen said.
Even as Sanders focuses on the early voting states of Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina, his campaign has increased its investment in the 14 states that vote on March 3. On that day, better known as Super Tuesday, 1,344 delegates will be awarded — including 415 in California and 228 in Texas — compared with the 41 delegates out of Iowa.
A new poll released Tuesday by the Los Angeles Times shows Sanders leading the pack in California with 26 percent of the vote, followed by Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) with 20 percent and Biden with 15 percent. On the same day, the Sanders campaign announced that it was launching a $2.5 million ad campaign in California and Texas — a relatively small buy in such massive states but a sign of Sanders' ability to bankroll a long fight for delegates.
Tags: Ben Cohen , Bernie Sanders , Election , Election 2020 , Elizabeth Warren , Faiz Shakir , Joe Biden , Pete Buttigieg , Primary 2020 , Senator , Web Only , Image
Monday, January 27, 2020
The event had been set for 6:30 p.m. Tuesday at the Fletcher Free Library in Burlington.
Critics caught wind of the event and vowed to protest the discussion they considered to be an attack on transgender people and their rights.
"The response of the transgender activist community in Burlington follows a familiar pattern of eroding the principles of free speech and rational discussion," Gender Critical Vermont wrote in an email Monday afternoon announcing the cancelation.
Peggy Luhrs, a Burlington resident and lesbian activist since the 1970s, is one of the founders of the group and was scheduled to speak at the event. She told Seven Days the decision to cancel is only temporary.
"We will reschedule," Luhrs said. "We're going to look for a bigger venue, we're going to look for a place where we can have security. There's just no point in having a screaming match."
Tags: Burlington , Gender Critical Vermont , transgender rights , Web Only , Image
The council voted 10-2 to refer the item to a council subcommittee for further discussion. City Council President Kurt Wright (R-Ward 4) and Councilor Ali Dieng (D/P-Ward 7) voted no.
City Councilor Adam Roof (I-Ward 8), who championed the ballot item, said it became clear "there was a growing level of misunderstanding and confusion" about noncitizen voting. Some people assumed the ballot item would afford voting rights to undocumented residents, Roof said. Instead, it would have allowed those who come to the country legally — but are not citizens — to vote in municipal elections.
"My personal intention with this motion is to put the initiative in a better position to pass," he said, "and given how the public discussion has developed as of late, I don't believe that this time is this coming March."
Tags: noncitizen voting , Burlington City Council , Burlington , Adam Roof , Town Meeting Day , Web Only , Image