Tuesday, March 28, 2017
On April 4, incumbent Andrew Champagne will try to inch past challenger Adrian Burnett in a runoff election for the position in Ward 2. Voters can cast ballots at the Integrated Arts Academy at H.O. Wheeler in the Old North End.
The contest comes after the March 7 tally ended in a deadlock: 272-272. It's the first race in recent history with such a result, according to assistant city clerk Amy Bovee.
Tags: Andrew Champagne , Adrian Burnett , Town Meeting Day , special election , ward 2 , inspector of elections , Image , Web Only
Monday, March 27, 2017
Despite a tough prognosis, 30-year-old McLaren was upbeat Monday in a telephone interview from the Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital in Boston where he is undergoing physical therapy.
“I am OK. I am as good as I possibly could be,” McLaren said in an interview with Seven Days.
He expressed gratitude for all the love and support he has received from family, friends and his fiancée, Burlington lawyer Adrienne Shea.
Tags: Ryan McLaren , Adrienne Shea , Kelly Brush Davisson , Burlington School Board , Image , Web Only
Friday, March 24, 2017
On Monday, the city will launch an effort to issue up to $8 million dollars in city infrastructure bonds to citizen investors via Neighborly, a San Francisco-based start-up company.
Chittenden County residents will have first dibs at purchasing the bonds through the program before the process is opened to all Vermonters. The program is expected to be funded by the end of the month, according to Rich Goodwin, the city's director of financial operations.
Under the Neighborly program, the repairs to the bike path can be paid for by the people who live alongside it and use it daily, said James McIntyre, the head of public finance for the four-year-old company. He described investment as a path for democratic involvement for citizens.
"Everyone who lives in the city of Burlington has a vested interest in these bonds whether they realize it or not," he said.
Last September, Burlington participated in the Neighborly Bond Challenge in Los Angeles, winning the chance for Neighborly to work free-of-charge as the city's broker-dealer. Of the pool of about two dozen entrants, Austin, Texas; Somerville, Mass.; Housing Trust Silicon Valley; and Lawrence, Kansas were also winners.
People can invest a minimum of $1,000 for between one and 20 years, which will yield an interest rate estimated to be between 1 and 4 percent, depending on the maturity of the bond, McIntyre said. The bond pricing will be released on Monday afternoon.
The bonds would be part of Burlington's 10-year, $27 million sustainable infrastructure plan, which voters passed in November 2016. According to Goodwin, the proceeds will cover "capital improvement infrastructure projects in Burlington including the waterfront bike path, building infrastructure, and possibly streets and sidewalks."
Between 250 and 300 people have signed up already to invest, McIntyre said. He sees it as a way to participate in local government or weigh in on the city's development decisions.
Goodwin touted the program as a means to lower transaction costs for the city — officials expect to save up to $185,000 — and make municipal bonds available to a wider range of investors. The minimum denomination of $1,000 is less than the typical $5,000, said Goodwin.
This is the first time Burlington has run such a program, though the state has been issuing small-denomination bonds for more than two decades, according to Goodwin.
"If the Neighborly program does prove successful in bringing down the cost of issuing bonds, the city may very well pursue this program in the future," Goodwin wrote in an email to Seven Days. "The city would likely evaluate whether or not to extend the program in the fall of 2018."
Tags: Neighborly BTV , Miro Weinberger , Rich Goodwin , government bonds , investment , Image , Web Only
Thursday, March 23, 2017
They ate a leisurely meal as snow fell outside. Carrillo paid for a homeless man's breakfast, Deida said. Afterward, Deida lay her head on her husband's chest as they sat in the car. The previous Sunday, they had found out that Deida was pregnant.
"He said, 'This year's going to be a good year,'" she recounted in an interview Wednesday with Seven Days.
Just hours later, at 9 a.m., Carrillo was pulled over by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents and arrested.
Tags: Lymarie Deida , Alex Carrillo , Will Lambek , Migrant Justice , Zully Palacios , Enrique Balcazar , Image , Web Only
Wednesday, March 22, 2017
State's Attorney Sarah George, who created the study commission, urged skeptics to keep an open mind, and stressed that current, less controversial practices have left hundreds of Vermonters struggling with addiction.
"They don't want to be committing crimes; they want to be reliable and trustworthy," George said.
She hopes the commission makes a recommendation in the next few months on whether the county should open an injection site where street drug users would have medical supervision and be exempt from arrest, she said.
Tags: Brandon del Pozo , Burlington , heroin , opiates , Opioid Crisis , safe injection , Sarah George , Image , Web Only
Tuesday, March 21, 2017
Matt Cameron, a Boston-based immigration attorney, has agreed to represent Cesar Alex Carrillo, Enrique Balcazar and Zully Palacios pro bono. He called the arrests a "clear, simple case of retaliation" and painted a picture of a vindictive, overreaching Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency in Vermont.
"There's nowhere else where they would surveil people like [them]," Cameron said in a phone interview with Seven Days on Tuesday.
He called the Vermont office "over-resourced" and contended that the three most recent arrests, coupled with the arrests of Victor Diaz and Miguel Alcudia last year, point to a broader trend. "Why are we wasting resources on thoroughly decent people like Zully and Enrique who are doing really important work for their communities?" he said.
Tags: Matt Cameron , Migrant Justice , Enrique Balcazar , Alex Carrillo , Zully Palacios , Image , Web Only
Monday, March 20, 2017
Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Congressman Peter Welch (D-Vt.) questioned ICE's actions and the potential impact on a crucial state industry. Their statement says: "Instead of focusing on removing those people who pose a threat to public safety or national security, the Trump administration is targeting all undocumented persons, including the people that help keep our dairy farms and rural economy afloat."
It also says, "Instead of common sense reform, we now have a divisive and xenophobic executive order issued unilaterally by President Trump that is tearing families and communities apart, and endangering our dairy farms here in Vermont."
Activists took to Twitter and the streets Friday and Saturday to denounce the arrests of Enrique Balcazar, Zully Palacios and Cesar Alex Carrillo, who were all detained within a three-day period in Burlington.
Tags: Migrant Justice , Will Lambek , Zully Palacios , Cesar Alex Carrillo , Enrique Balcazar , T.J. Donovan , Bill McKibben , Tim Ashe , Image , Web Only
Friday, March 17, 2017
Immigration officials arrested two more undocumented Migrant Justice advocates Friday afternoon, leading to protests that drew hundreds of people.
Enrique Balcazar, 24, and Zully Palacios, 23, were arrested and detained by undercover Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents during a traffic stop on Shelburne Road in Burlington, said Will Lambek, a spokesman for the Vermont-based human rights organization.
Migrant Justice members arrived on the scene to see both Balcazar and Palacios being loaded into an ICE van. Neither had a criminal record, according to Lambek.
The incident marks the third ICE arrest in three days. On Wednesday, 23-year-old Cesar Alex Carrillo was detained on his way to a Burlington courthouse to respond to a misdemeanor DUI charge. The charge was later dismissed, though Carrillo was not present at the hearing.
Tags: Migrant Justice , Cesar Alex Carrillo , TJ Donovan , Enrique Balcazar , Will Lambek , Zully Palacios , Image , Web Only
Thursday, March 16, 2017
By most measures, the prognosis wasn't good. Burlington should be ready for a "multi-year slog" to fight opiates, Weinberger told the crowd that filled Burlington City Hall Auditorium.
Police Chief Brandon del Pozo, Rep. Selene Colburn (D/P-Burlington), University of Vermont Medical Center chief operating officer Stephen Leffler and Chittenden County State's Attorney Sarah George fielded questions from the audience and described their steps to address the problem.
The city has redoubled its efforts over the last 18 months, Weinberger said. Its strategies included hiring opioid policy coordinator Jackie Corbally, increasing data collection to measure success and forming a CommunityStat group to collaborate on solutions.
Tags: MIro Weinberger , Selene Colburn , Brandon del Pozo , Stephen Lefler , Sarah George , Image , Web Only
Cesar Alex Carrillo, 23, faces deportation after his arrest by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers outside the Edward J. Costello Courthouse, according to Migrant Justice, a Vermont-based group led by immigrant dairy farmworkers.
Carrillo is married to a U.S. citizen who is pregnant with their second child, according to Migrant Justice.
"When they arrested Alex, they took away a father, a husband, a human being," his wife, Lymarie Deida, said in a statement released by the group. Deida and Carrillo have a 4-year old daughter.
During the hearing that brought Carrillo to the courthouse, prosecutors dismissed a DUI charge stemming from a 2016 arrest, though he was not present, Migrant Justice said.
Tags: Migrant Justice , Burlington , Victor Diaz , Cesar Alex Carrillo , ACLU , ICE , Image , Web Only