Thursday, September 24, 2020
Instead, the two gubernatorial candidates largely focused on hot-button social issues — such as gun rights, abortion rights and criminal justice reform — as well as their respective approaches to addressing climate change. The hourlong debate was cosponsored by Vermont Public Radio and Vermont PBS.
Days after the legislature overrode Scott's veto of the Global Warming Solutions Act, the governor again criticized the new law as unconstitutional and ineffective. "From my perspective, this just felt political, in order to check the box," Scott said. "It's like the 'easy button' from Staples. You know, you just press it. 'We've finished ... We solved climate change here, and let's move on.'"
But Zuckerman defended the law, which requires the state to reduce its carbon emissions and sets up a panel charged with doing so. "The climate crisis is real," he said, pointing to droughts across the state and a recent forest fire in Killington. "This issue has been mounting for years, and there has been inaction at the governor's level."
Tags: David Zuckerman , Election 2020 , Governor's Race , Phil Scott , Web Only , Image
The Senate on Thursday advanced the bill, H.99, on a vote of 25-5, virtually ensuring that it would receive final passage on Friday before heading to the governor's desk. The House passed the bill last week.
The vote followed a vigorous debate that pitted lawmakers who want Vermont to join 11 other states with bans against senators who feel the bill is an overreach that would do little to save the species it seeks to protect.
“This bill is about supply and demand,” Sen. Alison Clarkson (D-Windsor) told her colleagues. “By reducing demand for items made of endangered species parts, Vermont will play a small but significant part in helping many endangered species survive.”
Tags: endangered species , ivory ban , poaching , elephants , Vermont , Web Only , Image
“As someone who is strongly supporting Joe Biden,” Sanders said, “let’s be clear: A landslide victory for Biden will make it virtually impossible for Trump to deny the results and is our best means for defending democracy.”
Sanders’ 30-minute speech — “his first in-person appearance related to the election since before he dropped out of the presidential race” in April, per the New York Times — came a day after Trump refused to agree to a peaceful transfer of power if he loses the November 3 election.
“We’re going to have to see what happens,” Trump said on Wednesday in response to a reporter’s question. “You know that I’ve been complaining very strongly about the ballots, and the ballots are a disaster. We want to get rid of the ballots, and you’ll have a very peaceful — there won’t be a transfer, frankly. There will be a continuation.”
Tags: Bernie Sanders , senator , Donald Trump , president , Joe Biden , Patrick Leahy , election , Ruth Bader Ginsburg , Supreme Court , Web Only , Image
Tuesday, September 22, 2020
Following the votes, House Speaker Mitzi Johnson (D-South Hero) issued a statement saying the bills were needed to ensure that people of "all races, genders and identities" felt welcome in Vermont.
“In order to build a truly just and equitable society, we must be committed to breaking down structural racism,” Johnson said. “It is incumbent upon all of us to recognize it, name it, fight it, and right the centuries of wrong.”
The broadest bill, S.124, addresses changes to policing policies and training. It would require law enforcement agencies that are considering hiring an officer from another department to request their performance reviews.
Tags: racism , racial justice , deadly force , corrections , Web Only , Image
The Senate voted 22-8 to override Gov. Phil Scott’ veto of H.688, the Global Warming Solutions Act, enough to win the two-thirds approval needed in the chamber. The House did the same last week with a 103-47 vote.
Unlike House members, however, senators chose not to debate the merits of the override, instead moving straight to a vote without comment.
The vote is the second successful veto override of the extended legislative session. The first was when the legislature overturned Scott's veto of an increase in the minimum wage in February.
Tags: climate change , Global Warming Solutions Act , Gov. Phil Scott , veto , Web Only , Image
Scott is leading Progressive/Democratic Lt. Gov. David Zuckerman 55 to 24 percent, the poll found, and the incumbent governor has the highest favorability rating of the state's top officeholders. Sixty-eight percent of respondents approve of his job performance, while only 17 percent disapprove.
Scott, 62, is so popular that he could topple eight-term Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) in a hypothetical Senate matchup in 2022, the poll found in one of its more provocative questions. The governor has expressed no interest in challenging Leahy, and the 80-year-old senator has not said whether he will run for a ninth term. Still, according to the survey, 41 percent of voters would prefer Scott, while 38 percent would back Leahy.
That lead is within the poll's overall 4 percent margin of error. New Jersey-based Braun Research conducted the survey under the supervision of Castleton University professor Rich Clark. The pollsters reached 604 Vermonters via landline and cellphone during the first two weeks of September. Though the public media organizations surveyed Vermonters about the impact of COVID-19 in July, no major public polls of the election have come out since February.
The race to replace Zuckerman as lieutenant governor appears far more competitive than the gubernatorial contest. The poll found that Democrat Molly Gray, an assistant attorney general, is leading Republican Scott Milne, a travel agency executive, 35 to 31 percent — also within the poll's margin of error. Twenty-four percent of those surveyed said they hadn't made up their mind yet or had no opinion on the LG race.
Tags: David Zuckerman , Donald Trump , Election 2020 , Governor's Race , Joe Biden , Lieutenant Governor's Race , Molly Gray , Phil Scott , Scott Milne , Web Only , Image
The Senate voted 23-6 to accept the report of a legislative committee that hammered out long-standing differences between the House and Senate over the best way to tax and regulate cannabis in the state.
“This has been a long, winding road to get to this point,” Sen. Dick Sears (D- Bennington) told his colleagues before the vote.
Sears said he would be the first to admit “this bill is not perfect,” but he felt it was a good compromise that he hoped Gov. Phil Scott would sign into law.
“I would be surprised if he didn’t, quite frankly,” Sears said. “In many cases, the conference committee kept his positions in mind.”
Tags: cannabis , legal , tax and regulate , Gov. Phil Scott , Web Only , Image
In a move to appease protesters camped out at Battery Park, the Burlington City Council agreed on Monday to offer a $300,000 buyout to Sgt. Jason Bellavance, one of three cops accused of using excessive force in recent high-profile cases.
Later in the meeting, councilors also backed a proposal to reexamine ranked choice voting and took actions to correct the body's violation of the open meeting law earlier this month.
Cosponsored by councilors Jack Hanson (P-East District) and Franklin Paulino (D-North District), the police resolution calls for Bellavance to resign by October 5. The agreement offers the sergeant 18 months of health care coverage, legal fees to cover his review of the agreement and "releases of claims," it says.
The city is finalizing the deal with Bellavance, but the sides have essentially agreed to the terms laid out in the resolution, a mayoral spokesperson said.
Tags: Burlington Police Department , Jason Bellavance , Cory Campbell , Joseph Corrow , Burlington City Council , protests , ranked choice voting , Seven Days , open meeting law , Web Only , Image
Monday, September 21, 2020
A jury previously found Brian Folks, 45, guilty of 13 felonies related to sex and drug rings that federal prosecutors said he operated in the Burlington area between 2012 and 2016.
Tags: Brian Folks , Sex Trafficking , Drug Trafficking , Human Trafficking , Christina Nolan , William K Sessions III , U.S. District Court , Web Only , Image
Ingram, who ran unsuccessfully in the August primary for the Democratic nomination for lieutenant governor, announced her decision Monday morning to a group of reporters gathered outside of the Unitarian Church in Burlington. She argued that Milne, a Pomfret businessman best known for nearly defeating then-governor Peter Shumlin in 2014, has the necessary experience to help the state withstand the economic fallout of the coronavirus pandemic.
"Although I have been a lifelong Democrat and I'm still a Democrat, I believe that Mr. Milne is the best person for this important position at this time," Ingram said, urging "all Vermonters" to vote for the Republican nominee.
Tags: Brenda Siegel , Debbie Ingram , Democrat , election , Election 2020 , endorsement , lieutenant governor , Lieutenant Governor's Race , Molly Gray , race , Republican , Scott Milne , Vermont , Web Only , Image