Monday, October 26, 2020
"College education is one of the largest expenditures families face," Garimella said. "It is an expenditure that is increasingly important to securing a young person's future success, but one that is becoming out of reach for many families."
Tags: University of Vermont , Suresh Garimella , tuition freeze , Web Only , Image
The political parties were required to report campaign spending for the Town Meeting Day races on February 2 and 22 and March 17, but neither organization did, according to a settlement the Vermont Attorney General's Office announced late last week.
The Vermont Progressive Party filed a complaint with the AG's office in April after unsuccessfully trying to resolve the issue directly with the city committee, according to Progressive Party executive director Josh Wronski.
Progs took notice when the state Democrats announced they had hired a full-time staffer to boost the party's chances in the local elections — an effort that was ultimately unsuccessful — and started circulating a variety of campaign mailers that couldn't be traced back to campaign reports.
"This wasn't a political stunt," Wronski said, adding, "We've maintained the whole time that this is really about transparency. People have the right to know who's funding the flyers and the canvassers and the phone-bankers that are coming into their neighborhood."
Tags: campaign finance , Burlington City Council , politics , Town Meeting Day , elections , Vermont Democratic Party , Burlington Democratic Committee , Web Only , Image
Friday, October 23, 2020
Citing unnamed sources close to Sanders, Politico reported Thursday that the Vermonter is interested in serving as Biden's labor secretary should Biden win the presidential election next month. Neither Sanders nor the Biden campaign corroborated the report, and a Sanders spokesperson declined to comment Friday when queried by Seven Days.
But the possibility of a vacancy in Vermont's congressional delegation, which hasn't occurred since 2006, has renewed focus on the role Republican Gov. Phil Scott might play in filling it. State law dictates that the governor schedule a special election within six months of a vacancy and that the winner complete the former occupant's term. Sanders' current term ends in January 2025. The governor is also empowered to select an interim senator to fill the post until a special election is held.
Asked in February what he would do if Sanders stepped down from the Senate, Scott told Seven Days that he would appoint an independent who had no plans to run for the seat. But he would not say whether he would expect that independent to caucus with Senate Democrats or Republicans, which could decide control of a closely divided chamber.
"I think I would be looking for somebody that fits all the qualifications and is independent by nature, and I don't know [that] I would have a litmus test of any other sort," Scott said at the time.
But at an unrelated press conference on Friday, the governor changed his tune.
Tags: Bernie Sanders , David Zuckerman , Election 2020 , Governor's Race , Phil Scott , Senator , Web Only , Image
Employers will be able to apply for hazard pay on behalf of their employees starting next Wednesday in the second round of a program aimed at compensating frontline workers.
This time around, the Frontline Employees Hazard Pay Grant Program will cover employees from 26 different business categories, including grocery stores, pharmacies and childcare providers. The previous round of hazard pay grants, announced in August, was open to employees in just 14 categories, primarily health care and eldercare workers.
Once an employer is approved, employees can receive either $1,200 or $2,000 to cover work between March 13 and May 15. Employees who made under $25 an hour between March and May are eligible for the hazard pay grants, with exceptions for some health care workers who may receive the grants regardless. And employees who worked during that time, but who are no longer employed at the same business, are also eligible.
Applications will open next Wednesday, October 28 at 9 a.m., for the first-come, first-served program, funded by a $22.5 million appropriation from Vermont's allotment of the federal CARES Act.
Tags: COVID-19 , frontline workers , hazard pay , vaccine , Web Only , Image
Wednesday, October 21, 2020
Purdue Pharma, the notorious drugmaker accused of fueling the opioid crisis, will plead guilty to two counts of violating federal anti-kickback laws, a major win for Vermont U.S. Attorney Christina Nolan, whose office uncovered the scheme. The company, best known for producing the opioid OxyContin, will also admit to defrauding federal health agencies.
Purdue will pay a criminal penalty of more than $5.5 billion in what the U.S. Department of Justice said Wednesday is the largest such penalty ever levied against a pharmaceutical manufacturer in a criminal case. Purdue will also pay an additional $2.8 billion civil fine, making for an $8.3 billion total settlement.
"The resolution in today’s announcement re-affirms that the Department of Justice will not relent in its multi-pronged efforts to combat the opioids crisis," Deputy Attorney General Jeff Rosen said during a press conference announcing the deal.
Nolan's office began investigating Purdue in 2018. This past January, she announced a $145 million settlement with electronic medical records company Practice Fusion, which had conspired with Purdue to push pills to patients using an alert system embedded in medical software.
Tags: Purdue Pharma , Sackler family , Christina Nolan , OxyContin , opioid crisis , Web Only , Image
Tuesday, October 20, 2020
“It smells like a sewer,” she told the court in video testimony. “It’s strong. You can smell it as soon as you walk into the bathroom.”
Conte, who has been incarcerated at the Chittenden Regional Correctional Facility since February 2019, began filing grievances about the House 2 showers that June. She sued the Department of Corrections in September 2019, arguing that the state had failed to meet its obligation to maintain safe and sanitary conditions.
Judge Samuel Hoar, who presided over the bench trial, did not immediately hand down a ruling on Tuesday, instead requesting follow-up briefs from the parties.
Tags: Chittenden Regional Correctional Facility , Vermont Department of Corrections , Mandy Conte , Mike Touchette , Steffen Flibotte , Joshua Reese , Web Only , Image
Chris Viens, chair of the Waterbury Selectboard and an independent candidate for the House of Representatives, said during a local radio interview that he thinks having minority officers respond to incidents involving other minorities might help defuse racial tensions in the state.
“As far as the defunding of the police, I’d rather see segregated police,” Viens told WDEV radio during a candidate forum on Monday. “When calls come out that are minority related, those police officers that are ... minority will address those issues.”
Viens, an excavation contractor, said that, were his plan enacted, “if there is a tragic shooting” of a person of color by another person of color, “the whole racist issue might be put to rest.”
Tags: Chris Viens , Waterbury , Black Lives Matter , Web Only , Image
The cash is part of a second round of state business grants; a first round distributed $152 million starting in July. Vermont businesses also received more than $1.2 billion in loans through the federal Paycheck Protection Program; businesses can have those loans forgiven if they can prove that they used the funds to keep staffing at pre-pandemic levels.
The previous round of state grants had eligibility requirements that excluded some sole proprietors and newer businesses that did not have a full year of revenue in 2019. The state's program was also first-come, first-served, meaning businesses that applied late missed out on funding, even if they were eligible.
Goldstein said this round will be different.
“We took the lessons we learned from the first time around and worked to develop a program that would address the financial needs of those sectors that are still suffering greatly, and make it more possible for other entities that were closed out the first time around,” she said.
Tags: Vermont , business grants , economy , Joan Goldstein , COVID-19 , coronavirus , Web Only , Image
Cpl. William Drinkwine of the Burlington Police Department was charged Friday with illegally entering a Swanton woman's home in July, Vermont State Police announced Tuesday morning. State police offered few details about the incident, saying more information would be available upon Drinkwine's November 2 arraignment in Franklin County.
Tags: Will Drinkwine , Joshua Serna , Burlington Police Department , St. Albans Police Department , Vermont State Police , Maurice Lamothe , Web Only , Image
Monday, October 19, 2020
Plans submitted by the developers — a new partnership that includes Don Sinex and local businessmen Scott Ireland, Dave Farrington and Al Senecal — call for even more housing than those championed by former majority owner Brookfield Asset Management.
Drawings submitted to the Wards 2 & 3 Neighborhood Planning Assembly show more than 420 units of housing, including at least 84 affordable units. Previous plans had 357 apartments. The project would also include 45,000 square feet of ground-level retail shops, a rooftop restaurant and observation deck, 422 parking spots and a community meeting space. Renderings show a 10-story tall south tower and a north tower of nine floors.
The developers also say they intend to make good on their promise to reconnect Pine and St. Paul streets. The city had planned to use $21.8 million in tax increment financing dollars to pay for those and other street improvements, but project delays had put that funding in jeopardy. Glassberg told councilors, however, that the state legislature extended the borrowing deadline for another year.
Tags: CityPlace Burlington , Burlington City Council , development , Board of Health , coronavirus , Stephanie Seguino , police , Burlington Police Department , Burlington Police Commission , Web Only , Image