Friday, January 17, 2020
Siegel, the founder and director of the Southern Vermont Dance Festival and a self-described "proud single mom," had expressed plans to run for the office last week. She formally announced her campaign in a press release early Friday morning.
"We are in a new era of politics, where all voices and types of experience matter. Vermont needs statewide leaders who reflect the identities and experiences of regular Vermonters,” Siegel wrote in a press release.
Tags: Siegel , lieutenant governor , campaign , Brenda Siegel , Web Only , Image
Thursday, January 16, 2020
Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) backed the deal, calling it a reasonable compromise that would boost Vermont's export economy and dairy industry. But Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) opposed it, arguing that it failed to address climate change and would not stanch the flow of American jobs to Mexico. The third member of Vermont's congressional delegation, Rep. Peter Welch (D-Vt.), voted for the deal when it passed the House last month.
The trade deal, which now goes to the president for his signature, was years in the making. First negotiated by the Trump administration, it was significantly revised last year in order to win support from the Democratic House. The pact won the support of many labor unions, including the AFL-CIO, but it was panned by environmental groups.
Tags: Senator , Patrick Leahy , Bernie Sanders , Peter Welch , Donald Trump , USMCA , NAFTA , Web Only , Image
When Kunin, Vermont's first — and, to this day, only — female governor, ran for reelection in 1986, Burlington mayor Bernie Sanders told voters that he would do more for women if they replaced her with him.
"He claimed to be a better feminist than I was," Kunin said this week in an interview with Seven Days. "It shocked me at the time."
Sanders, now a U.S. senator seeking the presidency, has faced heightened scrutiny over his views on women in politics since CNN reported Monday that he'd declared in a private meeting that a woman could not win the White House in 2020. The other participant in the December 2018 meeting, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), confirmed the report.
"Among the topics that came up was what would happen if Democrats nominated a female candidate," said Warren, who is also running for president. "I thought a woman could win; he disagreed."
Sanders has denied the story. "Well, as a matter of fact, I didn't say it," Sanders responded when asked about the alleged remark at a Democratic debate Tuesday in Des Moines, Iowa. "Anybody knows me knows that it's incomprehensible that I would think that a woman cannot be president of the United States."
Kunin, whose path to power in the 1980s coincided and sometimes conflicted with Sanders', doesn't believe her former rival. "As far as the conversation between he and Elizabeth Warren, I tend to believe her, since she's been such a straight arrow on everything else," Kunin said.
Tags: Bernie Sanders , Election , Election 2020 , Elizabeth Warren , Hillary Clinton , Madeleine Kunin , Primary 2020 , senator , Web Only , Image
In May 2018, police have alleged, Leroy Headley shot Anako to death in the South Burlington home they once shared. She had repeatedly reported his threatening behavior to police — twice in the week before she was killed — but Headley still had legal access to firearms.
Reps. Maxine Grad (D-Moretown) and Martin LaLonde (D-South Burlington) are seeking to prevent such tragedies. The chair and ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee have introduced legislation that would require subjects of a restraining order to surrender their firearms. Their bill, H.610, would also expand the state's new "red flag law" to allow family and household members — not just law enforcement officials — to seek extreme risk protection orders, which allow for the temporary confiscation of firearms from those deemed dangerous.
Adolphe Lumumba told their committee that the bill might have helped Anako.
"I'm not here today to save my sister, but I know there's other people out there who can be saved by this," he said. "This is something my sister would have wanted, too."
The measure is one of several firearms-related bills lawmakers are considering this session.
Tags: Maxine Grad , Martin LaLonde , Phil Baruth , Dick Sears , Ed Cutler , Shawn Burke , Brian Grearson , Web Only , Image
Wednesday, January 15, 2020
A negotiating team made up of three senators and three representatives hammered out the deal during two days of what Rep. Tom Stevens (D-Waterbury) called “rough and tumble” negotiations.
While he was disappointed that a key disability insurance provision was not included in the bill, Stevens said he was nevertheless proud of the committee’s accomplishment.
“I think we have to start, and this is a great starting place,” Stevens said.
That theme — that the compromise was the beginning and not the end of the quest for agreement — ran through the remarks of the negotiating team.
Sen. Michael Sirotkin (D-Chittenden) said he wished they could have found ways to make the program stronger.
“We just had to deal with the realities of the building, at this point,” Sirotkin said. “We couldn’t get everything we wanted, but I do think this is a meaningful step.”
Tags: paid family leave , deal , veto , Web Only , Image
The company sent parents an email Tuesday announcing that Loveworks sites in Milton and Montpelier as well as one on Williston Road in South Burlington will all be shuttered.
Two other Loveworks childcare centers, one on Shelburne Road in South Burlington and another in Essex, will remain open. But they must raise tuition 12 percent, effective February 28.
All five centers were losing money, and the restructuring is designed to keep two open, said Amanda Goodwin, director of marketing and communications for Little Sprouts, the Lawrence, Mass., company that owns the centers.
Tags: childcare , South Burlington , Milton , Montplier , Web Only , Image
Rep. Jim McCullough (D-Williston) last week floated a bill to increase the pay of committee chairs and leaders of both the House and Senate by 20 percent. “Leadership has much greater responsibilities than the rank and file,” McCullough said. “That means more work.”
His bill, H.614, calls for bumps for the speaker of the House and the president of the Senate, both of whom already make more than their colleagues.
Regular members of the House and Senate earn $743 for each week of the legislative session. The typical session is 18 weeks, which results in annual pay around $13,372. They get annual pay raises tied to inflation rates.
Tags: legislature , salary , income , legislative pay , Web Only , Image
The Vermont Department of Motor Vehicles committed to policy changes and antidiscrimination training to settle legal claims that its employees aided immigration authorities' crackdown on undocumented activists.
Migrant Justice, an advocacy group for undocumented farmworkers that sued the DMV and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in November 2018, announced the settlement Wednesday at the Vermont Statehouse.
"This agreement will create a set of protections that will be strong enough to guarantee the safety and security for all," Migrant Justice spokesperson Enrique Balcazar said through an interpreter.
Tags: Migrant Justice , Vermont Department of Motor Vehicles , Immigration and Customs Enforcement , Enrique Balcazar , American Civil Liberties Union , driver privilege card , Web Only , Image
Ingram, who told Seven Days last week that she was "leaning towards" joining the race, confirmed her plans in an email.
"Since the LG post is mostly a 'create your own adventure' kind of job, with few designated duties, it is the perfect platform to listen to people and to bring them together — two practices we don’t see enough of in our society today," she wrote.
An ordained minister in the United Church of Christ and executive director of Vermont Interfaith Action, Ingram was first elected to the Senate in 2016. The Williston resident previously served on her town’s selectboard.
Tags: Ingram , Senate , Lieutenant Governor , Debbie Ingram , Web Only , Image
Tuesday, January 14, 2020
Former Vermont legislator Kesha Ram and State Rep. Dylan Giambatista (D-Essex) separately announced Tuesday that they will each seek one of Chittenden County’s six Senate seats this November, in two of the latest of a cascade of political declarations since Lt. Gov. David Zuckerman announced his run for governor.
A third candidate, Louis Meyers, an internal medicine physician at Rutland Regional Medical Center and a past Senate candidate, also said he would run. A physician's experience would benefit the Senate on health care issues, he said.
Ram, 33, told Seven Days that she is seeking to return to the legislature after a four-year hiatus. She was elected to the House at age 22 and served four terms representing Burlington. In 2016, she ran for lieutenant governor, finishing third in the Democratic primary. She now works as a social and environmental equity consultant.
Ram has named Skyler Nash, a member of the Vermont Racial Justice Alliance, as her campaign manager, and a press release announcing her candidacy included endorsements from Chittenden County State’s Attorney Sarah George and Rep. Hal Colston (D-Winooski).
“I’ve always been a relationship builder, someone who strives to build consensus with conviction," Ram said in a phone interview. "I want to help restore that faith that we can work together to get important things done for Vermonters."
Giambatista, 33, shared his plans Tuesday morning on WVMT’s "The Morning Drive" radio show. Giambatista told Seven Days that the opportunity to serve a broader area appeals to him. He is in his second term and sits on the House Committee on Education.
A lifelong Vermonter, Giambatista worked as chief of staff to then-House speaker Shap Smith from 2014 to 2016 prior to taking a job in the Office of the State Treasurer. Before he became a politician, he was best known as a founding member and lead guitarist of the Vermont punk band Rough Francis.
Tags: Dylan Giambatista , state senate , Chittenden District , Web Only , Image