Friday, June 26, 2020
John Van Hazinga, the 42-year-old owner of the Ridin’ High skate shop in Burlington, was sentenced on Friday to five years federal probation after pleading guilty to a single felony count of distributing marijuana.
Van Hazinga must also turn over about $67,000 in seized drug proceeds and will be required to amend his tax returns to account for his ill-gotten gains.
Reached by phone Friday, Van Hazinga said he was “very happy” with the sentence. He’s joined Alcoholics Anonymous, is seeing mental health and drug counselors, and has given up weed, drugs and alcohol.
“I wish we had Bernie Sanders really running for the presidency, because then the whole attack on me would be reduced,” Van Hazinga said. “But, you know, we all gotta do what we gotta do. My lungs are so much better without me smoking so much.”
Tags: Cannabeat , Ridin' High , John Van Hazinga , Samantha Steady , weed , cannabis , pot , marijuana , federal agents , DEA , Web Only , Image
His mother, Cheryl, and her five sisters grew up in the Old North End in the 1970s and ’80s. Between them, they have 36 children and 28 grandchildren— many of whom still live in Vermont. Russell was born in Lowell, Mass., but grew up in the ONE alongside siblings Nikki and Ricky and dozens of cousins.
Several of those cousins constructed a white wooden cross on a greenbelt at Rose and Cedar streets on the day of Russell’s accident and wrote “RIP Splash Worthen.” Friends gave Russell the nickname because of his prowess at basketball, his mother said. The term refers to the motion of the net when a ball swishes without hitting the rim.
Since her son’s death, said Cheryl, “There’s literally been thousands of people showing up to pay their respects.” They’ve left behind messages, scrawled with Sharpies, on the cross. “North St. Legend,” one reads. “We love you so much Uncle Russell,” says another.
Tags: Russell "Splash" Worthen , Old North End , Web Only , Image , Slideshow
Beginning July 1, residents of low-risk counties in seven states stretching west to Ohio and south to Virginia will no longer have to self-isolate for 14 days when visiting Vermont.
That restriction has proven devastating to local restaurants and lodging establishments, which rely heavily on an influx of tourists from around the world — particularly the Northeast and Québec — every summer.
Gov. Phil Scott noted that many of these businesses are “on the edge” and 10,000 hospitality industry workers in the state are out of work due to the restrictions in place to contain the COVID-19 pandemic.
“By welcoming people from low-risk counties, we can help support the hospitality sector and the thousands of jobs it provides Vermonters,” Scott said at a press conference on Friday.
The move to further reopen the economy comes even as states in the South and West are experiencing a spike in infection rates, particularly in Florida, Arizona and Texas, where the governor paused reopening efforts and on Friday ordered bars to close.
But Vermont officials stressed that the state’s infection rate remains one of the lowest in the nation, and it has the hospital capacity and contact tracing programs in place to manage outbreaks when they flare up.
Michael Pieciak, commissioner of the Vermont Department of Financial Regulation, noted that, unlike the South, Northeast states have seen an 18-percent drop in new cases in the past week. Similarly, there was a 13-percent drop in active cases within a five-hour drive of Vermont, he said.
That continued positive trend, despite recent local outbreaks, gave the state confidence that it is safe to broaden the existing program and allow travelers from low-risk counties to visit Vermont more easily.
Since June 8, travelers from low-risk counties in the six New England states and New York have been able to travel by car to the state without quarantine restrictions. At that time, there were 55 counties in four states — New York, New Hampshire, Maine and Rhode Island — that met the requirement. There were no counties in Connecticut or Massachusetts considered safe enough.
Now the state will apply the same policy to seven additional states: Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Maryland, Delaware, Virginia, West Virginia and Ohio, plus Washington, D.C. Currently, 260 out of 500 counties in those states have low enough infection rates that residents can travel to Vermont under the rules.
About 19 million of the 85 million people who live in the 14 states and districts covered can now come to the state in their own cars.
“It is a significant percentage of the regional population,” Pieciak said.
Only seven counties in New York and New England have active case rates of more than 800 per million. Curiously, two counties in Vermont — Rutland and Grand Isle — have active case rates higher than 400 per million, meaning that if residents of those counties lived in other states, they wouldn’t be allowed to visit Vermont without quarantining.
Immediately following a recent outbreak in Winooski, Chittenden County also fell in that category but has since dropped back below the threshold. Pieciak said Vermonters are not subject to the same rules, and the state knows more about the case situations in its own counties.
Scott said he expected the states in the program would likely remain the same for the summer, but a state with a very low infection rate might be added.
“Let’s put some perspective on this,” Scott said. “We have the fourth-lowest number of cases in the nation right now, and we have been, consistently.”
He noted that only Montana, Alaska and Hawaii had a lower total number of infections than Vermont — and Scott said he wasn't going to jeopardize that track record.
“We have a lot to be proud of and a lot to be thankful for, and we remain committed to staying in that top five,” he said.
Ingram, who announced her candidacy back in January, has spent the last three months in the Senate focused on crafting legislation related to the coronavirus pandemic. Her campaign launch came on the same day that the legislature was working to adjourn for the session; lawmakers would return to work in late August to craft a budget.
The break will give lawmakers running for office a chance to finally shift their focus to the campaign trail ahead of the August 11 primary.
"I am running for lieutenant governor to give a fair chance to every Vermonter," Ingram said in the video, standing before the College Street Congregational Church in downtown Burlington, where she is a member.
Ingram, of Williston, is an ordained minister in the United Church of Christ and the executive director of Vermont Interfaith Action. She was first elected to the Senate in 2016 and previously served on her town’s selectboard.
Tags: Debbie Ingram , lieutenant governor , campaign , kickoff , Web Only , Image
Thursday, June 25, 2020
"Molly Gray is the most exciting thing to show up on the Vermont political scene in a long time," Shumlin told Seven Days in a phone interview.
"We have consistently struggled to elect young women to high office in this state," he continued. "She's a born and bred Vermonter, grew up on a farm, incredibly bright, dedicated, honest. And she understands Vermont. My view is, we couldn't ask for a more exciting candidate."
Tags: Molly Gray , Peter Shumlin , endorsement , Tip Ashe , lieutenant governor , Web Only , Image
The Winooski News, which sent out its first-ever newsletter Thursday morning, is a volunteer effort from students at the University of Vermont.
The publication aims to provide students real-world reporting experience and offer hyper-local coverage to a city without its own dedicated news source, said Richard Watts, director of UVM's Center for Research on Vermont, which oversees the school's minor in reporting and documentary storytelling.
"We know that local news actually helps people in communities become more engaged with what's going on around them," Watts said. "Part of having a vibrant community is having local news."
Tags: Winooski , The Winooski News , Student journalism , UVM , Web Only , Image
Wednesday, June 24, 2020
Northfield sock maker Darn Tough Vermont cut nearly 50 manufacturing jobs, while National Life Group laid off 53 employees at its Montpelier office.
"Many people are talking about the post-COVID world, but with each day, we learn that this virus will be with us for a long time," Vermont Chamber of Commerce president Betsy Bishop said of the news. "The National Life and Darn Tough announcements are likely just the early signs of changes in our economy."
Darn Tough was expanding operations before the coronavirus hit American shores. The company signed a lease at a second facility in Waterbury, and CEO Ric Cabot told Vermont Public Radio in January that he planned to add another 100 employees to his workforce of more than 300.
"A few months ago we couldn't grow fast enough," the company said in a June 22 Facebook post announcing the layoffs.
Tags: Darn Tough Socks , National Life Group , Betsy Bishop , Coronavirus , covid-19 , layoffs , Web Only , Image
Police were looking for a drug dealer in July 2013 when an undercover officer spotted Shamel Alexander riding in the backseat of a New York taxi. Officer Andy Hunt pulled over the cabbie and eventually questioned Alexander. Alexander was not the dealer police were seeking, but, after searching his bag, the officer found $1,500 worth of heroin.
Alexander also sued the Town of Bennington for civil rights violations, claiming his arrest was part of a pattern of racial profiling by the Bennington Police Department.
Bennington twice tried unsuccessfully to get the case dismissed before agreeing to settle, the ACLU said.
"Our client is grateful to have this case resolved, having shined a spotlight on system-wide discriminatory police practices in Bennington," staff attorney Lia Ernst said in a press release. "This settlement does not alleviate the need for top-to-bottom changes to a deeply troubled police department and to a municipal leadership that continues to deny there is even a problem with unconstitutional police practices in Bennington."
Town Manager Stuart Hurd said the municipality did not admit liability as part of the settlement. "This has been pending for four years," he wrote in an email. "All parties agreed it’s best to avoid further long and protracted litigation."
A 2017 study by University of Vermont economics professor Stephanie Seguino found that Bennington police stopped Black drivers at more than double the rate of white drivers. It was one of the worst racial disparities in the state, the researchers found. The study was cited as part of Alexander's civil rights lawsuit and criticized by the Town of Bennington as "seriously flawed."
A 2019 study by the Montpelier-based Crime Research Group was also highly critical of Seguino's earlier work. Its analysis found no racial disparities in traffic stops by Bennington police.
Earlier this year, an outside report by the International Association of Chiefs of Police critiqued the Bennington department for a "warrior" culture and found many residents didn't trust its officers.
The town selectboard commissioned the review in wake of criticism that police mishandled harassment allegations reported by former state representative Kiah Morris. Morris, the only woman of color in the legislature at the time, cited racist harassment in later resigning her seat.
Tags: Bennington Police Department , Town of Bennington , Shamel Alexander , American Civil Liberties Union of Vermont , racial bias , policing , Web Only , Image
St. Stephen Catholic Church on Barlow Street in Winooski will hold its final Sunday mass on June 28 before the parish is dissolved and its assets merged with nearby St. Francis Xavier Parish.
St. Edward Catholic Church in Williamstown and North American Martyrs Catholic Church in Marshfield will also close, on July 1.
The Winooski closure is the first since the diocese announced a strategic plan last year that forecast future mergers. It was triggered by the departure of pastor Stephen Hornat, an Edmundite priest assigned to the parish for the last five years.
Hornat said the Society of St. Edmund, a Catholic order headquartered at Saint Michael's College in Colchester, is also facing a priest shortage and decided to withdraw those assigned to a few area parishes.
Earlier this month, the diocese informed the St. Stephen parish that it didn't have anyone to replace Hornat.
"The decision to close the church was made because of the decline in the number of priests and the inability of the Diocese to assign a priest to serve the community, as well as the very close proximity of St. Francis Xavier Church," said John McDermott, vicar general.
The diocese has lost about 60 percent of priests since 1990, according to figures published in the most recent issue of Vermont Catholic magazine. As of July 1, it will have 57 active priests serving 68 parishes and 114 church buildings, McDermott said. Nearly one-third of active priests are over the age of 60.
All three churches had been closed since March because of the coronavirus pandemic, during which time the diocese streamed mass online. Churches statewide were allowed to reopen on June 1 with reduced capacity, per an order from Gov. Phil Scott.
Though barely one square mile in size, Winooski has hosted two Catholic parishes for more than a century, the result of cultural divisions between French and Irish congregants. Originally the Irish parish, St. Stephen is the smaller of the two, with about 175 registered families, Hornat said. Its congregation trended older, but was enlivened by a handful of New American families with children.
"It was a very active parish," he said. "They were very much engaged in social outreach to the Winooski community."
The swift closure has left some longtime members feeling like their community has disintegrated overnight, music director Peg Lesage said.
"In the middle of this pandemic, it seems like one more blow," she said. "We can't even say goodbye the way we would normally say goodbye."
Lesage, who has attended St. Stephen since 1987, said the prospect of trying to join a new church while social gatherings are limited and mass-goers are masked feels daunting.
"It's hard to think about starting over," she said.
There are no immediate plans for the church property. The City of Winooski leases a portion of the land from the parish for the Winooski Senior Center, Lesage said.
McDermott said the pastor at St. Francis Xavier and Bishop Christopher Coyne will hear recommendations from parish members about how to dispose of it.
Last year, the diocese placed the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in downtown Burlington on the market for $8.5 million. The listing is still online.
Catholic church membership in Vermont has dropped from 142,000 in 1990 to 112,000 in 2019, the diocesan magazine reported. Annual infant baptisms have dropped by 80 percent. Funerals, meanwhile, are down just 12 percent.
Tags: Roman Catholic Diocese of Burlington , St. Stephen Church , Winooski , Catholic Church , Stephen Hornat , Peg Lesage , John McDermott , priest shortage , Web Only , Image
Tuesday, June 23, 2020
Newly appointed commission chair Jabulani Gamache was scheduled to lead a discussion on a statement about Sgt. Jason Bellavance and officers Cory Campbell and Joseph Corrow, all of whom have had violent interactions with members of the public. But when the agenda item came up, Gamache said he'd been warned not to proceed.
"I'm going to have Eileen Blackwood, I guess, explain why I cannot talk about this," he said.
Gamache never explicitly detailed the statement, but the commission's ensuing debate — and Blackwood's direct warning — made clear what it said.
"Moving to ask officers to resign could be construed as what in legal doctrine is known as constructive discharge," Blackwood said. "It is equivalent to firing somebody."
Tags: Burlington Police Commission , Burlington , police , Jabulani Gamache , Eileen Blackwood , Web Only , Image