Monday, January 27, 2020
During a visit Monday to Sen. Bernie Sanders' (I-Vt.) hometown, former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg made clear that, unlike Sanders, he would not be leading a “political revolution.” But if he won the Democratic presidential nomination, he promised, he would evict President Donald Trump from the White House.
"I think I'm the only candidate that can beat Trump," Bloomberg told reporters at a campaign event in Burlington. "Because I think the country wants evolution, rather than revolution."
Since entering the race last November, the billionaire businessman and philanthropist has largely bypassed the early voting states of Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina. Instead, he’s focused his firepower — and considerable fortune — on the 14 states that vote on March 3, including Vermont.
“I realize that candidates for president spend a lot more of their time in New Hampshire than they do here,” Bloomberg told a lunchtime crowd at the ECHO Leahy Center for Lake Champlain. “But our campaign is different. We’re trying to take our message to states all over the country.”
Tags: Senator , Michael Bloomberg , Bernie Sanders , Sam Young , Daniel Noyes , Joan Shannon , Web Only , Image
Burlington Police Deputy Chief Jan Wright received an eight-day unpaid suspension and must undergo a restorative justice process following an investigation into her inappropriate use of social media, the department said Monday.
Wright has been on paid administrative leave since December 16, when she admitted to anonymously using social media accounts under the pseudonym Lori Spicer. The investigation into her conduct found she also operated an anonymous Facebook account using the name Abby Sykes.
Wright has been reinstated from administrative leave and can now work on restricted duty, interim Chief Jennifer Morrison wrote in a letter dated Monday and released to the media. The deputy chief will lose five vacation days and must serve the other three days of unpaid suspension at Morrison's direction, the letter reads.
To return to full, active duty, Wright must use "restorative justice principles" to "rebuild the trust of those" she interacted with while using the anonymous social media accounts, Morrison wrote. Among those were at least three city councilors, including one Wright lied to directly in a Facebook message.
Tags: Burlington , Brandon del Pozo , Miro Weinberger , Jan Wright , deputy chief , internal investigation , Web Only , Image
Gray, a political novice who works in the AG's criminal division, had been planning a run for several weeks and declared her candidacy in a press release Monday. She said she's seeking the state's No. 2 office because she believes Vermont is at a "crossroads."
Tags: Molly Gray , Lieutenant Governor , Election , Rural Vermont , Ingram , Ashe , Siegel , Web Only , Image
Friday, January 24, 2020
Mayor Miro Weinberger placed del Pozo on paid administrative leave at 10:15 a.m. on Monday, July 29. The night before, the chief told the mayor he’d created an anonymous Twitter account to harass department critic Charles Winkleman. He also acknowledged he’d misled a Seven Days reporter when she asked him about it.
The chief surrendered his gun, badge, and city-issued cellphone, and the mayor told him to stay off social media, Weinberger has said in interviews. Human resources director Deanna Paluba met with del Pozo on July 29 and directed him to not work while he was being investigated, she said.
But del Pozo still had access to email and continued to direct some department business for three days, up until August 1, when his paid leave turned into medical leave. He also continued tweeting during those days.
Tags: Burlington police , Brandon del Pozo , Miro Weinberger , administrative leave , Web Only , Image
The Vermont House on Friday voted to increase the state's minimum wage twice in the next two years.
The compromise measure, reached in negotiations this week with the Senate, falls far short of Democratic and Progressive goals to raise the wage to $15 an hour. Instead, it would hike the current rate of $10.96 to $11.75 in 2021 and to $12.55 in 2022. In subsequent years, it would again be tied to inflation.
The 93 to 54 vote also falls short of the two-thirds majority necessary to override a potential veto from Republican Gov. Phil Scott. Among those voting no were eight Democrats and four independents.
Friday’s vote marked the second day in a row that House leaders failed to reach a veto-proof majority on a key Democratic priority. On Thursday, the House approved a paid family and medical leave bill by a vote of 89 to 58.
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Thursday, January 23, 2020
The bill in question, S.169, would mandate a 24-hour waiting period before most handgun purchases. It cleared the legislature last May but was vetoed in June by Republican Gov. Phil Scott.
Since then, legislative leaders have struggled to decide whether to compromise with the governor or attempt to override his veto, which would require a two-thirds vote in both chambers. While the measure met that threshold last year in the Senate, it fell short in the House on a vote of 82 to 58.
On Thursday, senators sought to convince their colleagues — and perhaps the governor — that the bill could, in fact, save lives. They invited professors Deepak Malhotra and Michael Luca to present their research showing that waiting periods cut the homicide rate by 17 percent and the suicide rate by 7 to 11 percent.
"If this policy passes, if the objective is to reduce gun deaths, that would be something you could very much expect," Malhotra told members of the Senate Judiciary Committee and the Senate Health and Welfare Committee.
Tags: Deepak Malhotra , Michael Luca , Phil Scott , Dick Sears , Tim Ashe , waiting period , Web Only , Image
Unlike the Senate, which last week approved the plan with enough votes to override a threatened veto by Gov. Phil Scott, the House fell well short of the votes needed to do so.
The final vote, following a lengthy floor debate, was 89 in favor and 58 against. At least 100 House votes would be needed for an override.
“This bill moves us one step closer to a Vermont that works for all of us,” Rep. Dylan Giambatista (D-Essex Junction) said.
After reaching an impasse on competing versions of the bill last session, House and the Senate leaders vowed to forge a compromise this session, and last week they did just that.
Tags: paid family leave , veto , override , minimum wage , Web Only , Image
Details of where and when remain to be ironed out, R. Christopher Di Mezzo said on Thursday. The event will be open to the public and press, he said.
Vermont and Maine are the only Super Tuesday states that Bloomberg has yet to visit, according to Di Mezzo. On March 3, those states will be among more than a dozen that will vote in presidential primaries.
"He's running a national campaign, and Vermont is one of our 50 states," Di Mezzo said of Bloomberg. "He's competing everywhere."
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The Vermont Senate is poised to pursue an ambitious overhaul of the state's system for returning prisoners to the community.
Senate Judiciary Committee chair Dick Sears (D-Bennington) said Wednesday that he'll seek to enact a series of reforms recommended earlier that day by a national research group charged with studying incarceration in Vermont. The proposals include replacing the state's complicated furlough system with one that would automatically release many nonviolent offenders upon serving their minimum sentence.
Such an overhaul could cut the state's prison population by up to 135 people and save as much as $14 million over five years, according to the Council of State Governments' Justice Center, which issued the recommendations.
"They're gonna be tough to implement, but my committee is ready to get going," Sears said. "We'll try to implement as much as we can."
Tags: Council of State Governments , Justice Reinvestment , Dick Sears , Alice Emmons , Phil Scott , Web Only , Image
Wednesday, January 22, 2020
The co-presidents of the Middlebury College Republicans, the group that invited the 77-year-old social scientist to appear, announced the March 31 talk in an op-ed published Wednesday in the Middlebury Campus, the student newspaper.
“We’d like to make clear that we not only welcome but also encourage any and all constructive forms of support or opposition to this event,” students Dominic Aiello and Brendan Philbin wrote in the piece. “We are fervent supporters of the right to peacefully protest and look forward to receiving input from the community in the coming months.”
Tags: Charles Murray , Middlebury College , Allison Stanger , protests , The Bell Curve , Web Only , Image