Friday, October 16, 2015
Three other longtime employees outside the newsroom will also leave Vermont's largest daily newspaper under the deal the Gannett Corporation offered across the chain to employees who are at least 55-years-old and have 15 years of service as of October 12.
The Gannett buyout, targeting higher-paid employees, is the latest cost-cutting effort by the national media company, which has slashed its workforce during the last 10 years.
Will the shrinking news staff in Burlington shrink some more? In Burlington, all five positions will be filled, including the executive editor slot, according to Free Press Media president and publisher Al Getler. It's too early to say who will take over as the top editor, he said. “It's too important a presence for the state of Vermont to not do a thorough search," Getler said. "It's going to take some time."
Tags: Burlington Free Press , Gannett , Michael Donoghue , Michael Townsend , Image , Web Only
Wednesday, October 14, 2015
The 22-point plan, which took roughly a year and a half to develop, seeks to address what's often called Burlington's "housing crisis." It begins by outlining the problem: Residents pay, on average, 44 percent of their income on housing because demand has outstripped supply, driving up costs.
The plan has changed since Weinberger first proposed it. The mayor's initial plan drew criticism for glossing over the housing challenges facing low-income residents. The version approved Tuesday repeatedly affirms the city's commitment to affordable housing. Longtime advocate Erhard Mahnke of the Vermont Affordable Housing Coalition told the council that the plan had "come a long way since its early iteration." He thanked the administration for increasing funding to the city's Housing Trust Fund, which gives grants to organizations to create and preserve housing for low-income people.
Other proposals, meant to encourage the construction of more housing, should interest developers, who've said regulations make Burlington too costly to build in.
Tags: Miro Weinberger , Burlington city council , affordable housing , Image , Web Only
Monday, October 5, 2015
The story, posted online Monday morning, breaks little new ground but is among the most comprehensive profiles of Sanders written to date. Talbot focuses heavily on Sanders' style and his discomfort with glad-handing and dispensing personal anecdotes to voters or reporters.
Talbot got the presidential candidate to open up more than he usually does about his childhood in Brooklyn, where he attended public schools, and he discussed how his family, while not poor, struggled to get by:
“There was tension about money,” Sanders said of his family. They lived in a three-and-a-half-room rent-controlled apartment, and his mother pined for a house. “It wasn’t a question of putting food on the table. It was a question of arguing about whether you buy this or whether you buy that. You know, families do this. I remember a great argument about drapes—whether we could afford them. And I remember going with my mother when we had to buy a jacket. We went to literally fifteen different stores to buy the damned cheapest—I mean, the best deal.” He went on, “I do know what it’s like when the electric company shuts off the electricity and the phone company shuts off the phone—all that stuff. So, for me, to talk to working-class people is not very hard."The profile includes excerpts of interviews with Sanders on the campaign trail and features lots of familiar names, including Rep. Jim Condon (D-Colchester), University of Vermont professors Garrison Nelson, Richard Sugarman and Huck Gutman, and, ahem, Seven Days publisher Paula Routly.
“Bernie’s the last person you’d want to be stuck on a desert island with," Nelson told Talbot. "Two weeks of lectures about health care, and you’d look for a shark and dive in.”
Tags: Senator , Bernie Sanders , Bernie Bits , politics , media , Presidential Campaign , Image , Recommended Reading , Web Only
Friday, October 2, 2015
The University of Vermont announced Friday that Grossman is giving $20 million to his alma mater. In response, the trustees voted to put his name on the business school, the recipient of the gift. It will henceforth be called the Grossman School of Business.
At a ceremony on campus, Grossman talked about the importance of his UVM education. Then Grossman divulged to the crowd of trustees, deans, administrators and students: "I want you to know I was a C student."
Grossman, a New York City resident, made his fortune selling cardboard boxes with Southern Container Corporation. His Russian immigrant grandfather started the business in 1904, and it grew substantially over the decades until the family sold it in 2008 for $851 million. Grossman credited his father and grandfather for passing down the ethic "to give back to the communities and the people that made our success possible."
Tags: University of Vermont , burlington , business school , grossman family , Image , Web Only
Thursday, October 1, 2015
The three-day family survey, which will take place October 15-17, is part of an ongoing effort to collect detailed information about the region's homeless residents. Last fall, volunteers did the same thing for homeless individuals living in Burlington, drawing on the model of a national organization called the 100,000 Homes campaign. The concept: to collect detailed information about who is homeless, then find housing for them, prioritizing the most vulnerable.
According to the registry coordinator, Christopher Brzovik, 40 homeless individuals were housed after participating in last year's survey, and so far all of them have retained their apartments.
With the family survey, "we are hoping to reproduce that success," he said. The Burlington Housing Authority, the Champlain Housing Trust, the Committee on Temporary Shelter (COTS), the United Way of Chittenden County, the University of Vermont Medical Center and Women Helping Battered Women are all helping to organize the event.
Tags: homelessness , 100 , 000 Homes , Image , Web Only
Wednesday, September 30, 2015
The store at 947 Shelburne Road is closing as part of a cost-cutting effort, according to a corporate spokesman. Some of the store's 66 employees will be offered severance. Some could be offered jobs at other Kmart stores or at Sears, which is owned by the same company.
"Store closures are part of a series of actions we’re taking to reduce ongoing expenses, adjust our asset base and accelerate the transformation of our business model," Howard Riefs, director of corporate communications at Sears Holdings, wrote in an email.
A liquidation sale will start October 25. Kmart's stores in Bennington and Rutland and the company's Sears store in South Burlington will stay open, according to Riefs.
Neighbors have long complained that the Kmart plaza is an eyesore with acres of pockmarked parking, boarded up retail spaces and graffiti. Last summer, fresh concerns arose over truckers who were using the lot as a free, unauthorized campground.
Tags: Kmart , South Burlington , sprawl , mall , retail , Image , Web Only
Monday, September 28, 2015
Was someone asking after the health of his sex organ? Sort of. The man, presumably circumcised, was responding in loud disagreement to a clutch of roadside activists protesting circumcision. They dressed to stop traffic in all-white clothing with blood-red patches over their crotches and signs showing babies and bearing slogans such as: "How Dare You Cut His Penis!"
Circumcision is performed on males, typically when they are newborns, and entails cutting the foreskin from the penis.
Concern about the practice and shifting recommendations from public health experts contributed to a drop in rates of circumcision in the U.S. between 1979 and 2010. It fell from 65 to 58 percent of male newborns over that time, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Now the rate appears to be climbing back, possibly in response to research showing that circumcision can help reduce the spread of HIV and other STDs. Three years ago the American Academy of Pediatrics revised its position on circumcision to offer stronger support. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has also chimed in, saying the benefits outweigh the risks.
The anti-circ squad on the streets Monday remains dead-set against the practice. "It's really barbaric and harmful and babies scream like hell," said Franny Max of Montreal, as she stood in a white outfit waving a sign at traffic.
Tags: circumcision , south , burlington , american academy of pediatrics , centers for disease control , Image , Web Only
The department returned two pairs of night-vision goggles — its last remaining equipment from what is known as the Pentagon's 1033 program — and will not accept any gear in the future, del Pozo said.
The chief cited national concerns about the program, which transfers the Pentagon's excess assault rifles, armored vehicles and cars, and other tactical gear to local cops.
Opponents say the program exacerbates a trend toward the militarization of local police agencies.
“The militarization of local police departments is a genuine concern in our nation,” said del Pozo, who started work earlier this month after leaving the New York City Police Department, in a prepared statement. “There are times when military style equipment is essential for public safety, but they are very rare. Amassing a worst-case scenario arsenal of military equipment results in officers seeing everyday police work through a military lens. When I realized what a small role the military played in equipping our police, I concluded it was better to return the items and let our 1033 program memorandum of understanding expire.”
A Seven Days report in November found that in recent years, Vermont police agencies acquired 158 assault rifles, 14 military Humvees, and scores of scopes, sights and other equipment from the program, often with little public scrutiny. Agencies had requested more than twice as much military equipment than they got.
Tags: Burlington , police , Brandon Del Pozo , Miro Weinberger , Image , Web Only
Friday, September 25, 2015
Normally hallmark indications of an earthquake, these tremors, it turns out, are manmade. They're coming from the construction of the Chittenden County Transportation Authority's new transit center on St. Paul Street.
More specifically, explained CCTA project manager Stephen Carlson, they're caused by a massive hammer that is driving steel piles nearly 30 feet into the ground. The tall strips of steel will prevent dirt from caving in when workers start excavating in preparation for laying the foundation.
The station is being built next to a church, several office buildings and the Burlington Town Center mall. Carlson said he's been regularly visiting people at the surrounding buildings to make sure the noise levels and vibrations aren't too intrusive. He's also placed a seismograph — an instrument generally used to measure the force and duration of earthquakes — in Vermont Health Commissioner Harry Chen's office, which overlooks the construction site, to make sure the vibrations aren't significant enough to impact the structural integrity of nearby buildings.
Tags: CCTA , Burlington Town Center , Image , Web Only
Wednesday, September 23, 2015
A worker there who flies a large Confederate flag on a personal vehicle is upsetting some coworkers who don't want the flag in the department's employee parking lot.
City administrators, though, say the flag is within the boundaries of free speech. The Vermont chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union agrees.
When an employee started flying the flag recently, people noticed. It's a symbol of racism and hate, and it shouldn't be allowed in a city employee lot, said Tim Ahonen, a department code enforcement officer. He asked his boss, public works director Chapin Spencer, to order the flag removed.
Spencer replied that the employee has a right to fly the flag.
"I have checked with others in the city and we do not believe that we can prevent an employee from having a flag on their private car," Spencer told Ahonen via email. "The flag is a political statement that is in a public area as opposed to an enclosed work environment where employees are required to be to do their work. The analysis would be different if the employee wanted to put it on a plaque on his/her desk, for example."
Tags: Confederate , flag , Burlington , free , speech , Image , Web Only