The Burlington City Council has taken one step toward adopting a ban on smoking on the city's cherished promenade.

On Monday evening, all but one councilor voted to send to a proposal to its ordinance committee that would prohibit smoking "strictly on the bricks" of Church Street.

In 2012, Mayor Bob Kiss vetoed a law that would have banned smoking in a larger section of the city's downtown, and several years earlier the council struck down a similar proposal. 

"It's not like this is a new idea," said Councilor Karen Paul (D-Ward 6), one of the co-sponsors. But, she added, it has "evolved for the better."  Paul and other supporters made the case that it's necessary to protect people from secondhand smoke, and it would promote Burlington's image as a healthy city. 

Vermont’s largest hospital has big plans for South Burlington. Fletcher Allen wants to purchase and develop two parcels for a project that would cost $52 million.

The 92-acre lot off Tilley Drive — which includes the Mountain View Business Park, where the hospital already leases space — and 38 adjacent acres would host Fletcher Allen's outpatient center. 
Spokesman Mike Noble said the proposed project is part of the hospital’s long-term goal of leasing less and buying more. An analysis by White and Burke Real Estate Investment Advisors lists the drawbacks of renting for Fletcher Allen. Among them: private landlords pass on property tax costs to tenants whereas Fletcher Allen — a nonprofit — wouldn’t have to pay property taxes if it owned the parcels.

Demand for outpatient services has grown nationally, and Fletcher Allen expects that trend to continue. Dave Keelty, director of facilities planning and development, described the Burlington Medical Center Campus as a "very finite resource." In other words, they don't have space to expand to meet that demand. Referencing Burlington's rigorous planning and zoning process, White and Burke noted that the constraints to new construction were "political" in addition to "physical" at the site. 

Calling Vermont the bravest state in the nation, Gov. Peter Shumlin signed legislation Thursday requiring producers to label food containing genetically modified organisms.

"We in this state today will sign the first bill in America, joining 60 other countries, where Vermonters will have the right to know what's in their food," Shumlin told a crowd of nearly 300 gathered on the front steps of the Statehouse.

Two other states, Connecticut and Maine, have passed similar laws, but those will not take effect until other states do the same. Vermont's law is scheduled to take effect in July 2016.

The exuberant governor compared GMO labeling to the state's major civil rights firsts.

"Vermont, as you know, has a long history of gettin' it right the first time," Shumlin said. "We got it right when we said we're the first [state] of this 50 states that abolished slavery. We got it right when we said we're the first state of the 50 states where you can marry the person that you love because we thought it was the right thing to do, not because judges were telling us we must."

What does Gov. Peter Shumlin think of Plan B? That is, the legislature's top-secret alternative to his own top-secret single-payer health care plan?

Evidently, not much. 

Speaking Wednesday morning at a Waterbury press conference, the gov weighed in on a newly leaked memo outlining a scaled-back approach to increasing health insurance coverage in Vermont. Written by legislative consultant and Emory University professor Kenneth Thorpe, the proposal has been whispered about for weeks in the halls of the Statehouse, but was first publicly revealed Tuesday by Vermont Public Radio's Peter Hirschfeld and Hamilton Davis. 

The way Shumlin sees it, there's nothing new or compelling about the alternative plan, which he said was based on "a failed model that hasn't worked."

"It shouldn't surprise us that some folks are taking some old ideas and tunin' them up, puttin' em back on the table," he said.

What was John Campbell thinking?

That's been the prevailing sentiment around the Statehouse since Vermont Public Radio quoted the Senate president pro tem Tuesday questioning the political viability — and the cost — of Gov. Peter Shumlin's proposed single-payer health care system.

"From what I see right now about the price tag that's associated with ... the financing for a single-payer system, I have my concerns," Campbell told VPR, adding that it "may not be something that would be politically viable in this legislative body, due to the costs involved."

The Senate prez also indicated that he hoped to have a Plan B ready "if this doesn't work out."

Since the story ran, Campbell has been trying to walk it back. Sort of. 

The top Republicans in the Vermont House and Senate on Wednesday called for a federal investigation into anonymous allegations of fraud allegedly perpetrated by the state's health exchange vendor.

In a letter to U.S. Attorney Tristram Coffin, Rep. Don Turner (R-Milton) and Sen. Joe Benning (R-Caledonia) wrote that there was "sufficient legal and factual predicate to begin a federal investigation" into whether CGI Technologies and Solutions had defrauded the state.

The allegations relate to a demonstration CGI officials conducted for state workers last summer to showcase their progress building Vermont Health Connect, the state's version of a federally mandated, online insurance marketplace. While billed as a live demonstration of the site's connection to the Federal Data Services Hub, an anonymous source quoted in a recent Newsweek story alleged that "the system was in no way operable" at the time.

In their letter to Coffin, Turner and Benning cited as evidence the Newsweek story and an unsigned letter they attached from a person claiming to be a "Vermont Health Connect team member."

"As minority leaders of the Vermont House and Senate, we hereby formally request a federal investigation into whistleblower allegations alleging a fraudulent software demonstration on July 26, 2013, by [CGI] to Vermont officials charged with overseeing and monitoring the company's state contract," Turner and Benning wrote. 

Updated below with comment from Department of Vermont Health Access Commissioner Mark Larson, who says the Newsweek story is inaccurate and "inflammatory."

How bungled was the rollout of Vermont Health Connect, the state's trouble-plagued health insurance exchange?

In a word, argues veteran reporter and New York Times alum Lynnley Browning, very. But Browning takes a full 3,400 words to make that point in a brutal new story published on Newsweek's website Thursday evening. 

In it, Browning writes that Vermont state officials "glossed over ominous warning signs and Keystone Cops-like planning" as they worked with contractor CGI Federal to build the federally mandated exchange. 

Defendants who argue compellingly that they committed a crime as a consequence of a past traumatic brain injury often go free in Vermont. That's because the state's courts have no way of dealing with such cases.

Judges cannot order defendants with TBI to be incarcerated, hospitalized or placed under state supervision — in contrast to those found incompetent to stand trial due to a mental illness or cognitive deficiency. As Seven Days reported last March in "Why Brain Injured Defendants Often Go Free," judges often have no choice but to let a defendant with TBI walk, even if he or she has committed numerous violent or sexual offenses and remains a threat to public safety.

But that could change this year. On Friday, Rep. Warren Van Wyck (R–Ferrisburgh) presented legislation to the House Judiciary Committee that would let judges order a brain-injured defendant to be committed to the custody of the Vermont Department of Mental Health, just like someone diagnosed with schizophrenia. And, like a person with mental illness, he or she could be tried for the crime if later deemed competent to stand trial.

Immediate reaction to Gov. Peter Shumlin's state of the state address yesterday focused on his declaration that drug addiction is a public health crisis that should be tackled with prevention and treatment rather than "simply doling out punishment."

Advocates for criminal justice reform were overjoyed that the governor used his bully pulpit to declare that drug crime is primarily a "health crisis," not simply a law enforcement problem.

"I think this is profound,' said State Rep. Bill Lippert, chair of the House Judiciary Committee, in an interview. "This is a really big deal. There is a fundamental shift that's been articulated."

But Shumlin's speech also included little-noticed proposals that came from the more traditional tough-on-crime playbook.

Gov. Peter Shumlin devoted his State of the State address Wednesday to highlighting what he called a "rising tide of drug addiction and drug-related crime" that he said threatens the quality of life in Vermont.

During a 34-minute speech, Shumlin said Vermont is imperiled by opiate addicts who cannot access  treatment and commit crimes to raise money for drugs. The governor proposed steps to bolster treatment for addicts, shift the focus of the court system from punishment to a treatment and slap tougher sentences on out-of-state dealers who bring drugs to Vermont.

"In every corner of our state, heroin and opiate drug addiction threatens us. It threatens the safety that has always blessed our state," Shumlin said. "It is a crisis bubbling just beneath the surface that may be invisible to many, but is already highly visible to law enforcement, medical personnel, social service and addiction treatment providers, and too many Vermont families. It requires all of us to take action before the quality of life that we cherish so much is compromised."