Tuesday, September 10, 2019
In an order issued late last week, the board wrote that Lewis had violated the Code of Judicial Conduct by failing to dispose of cases “promptly, efficiently and fairly.” Lewis formally accepted the reprimand instead of fighting it at a hearing that was scheduled to take place in October.
At issue was the judge’s handling of a nearly decade-long family feud over the guardianship of an elderly Newbury woman, Miriam Thomas, who has since died. As Seven Days reported last year, three of her children had accused a fourth of abusing his power as her court-appointed guardian and depleting her assets by more than $1 million.
In its reprimand, the board wrote that Lewis’ “repeated failure to address and decide issues” that came before him had cost the aggrieved siblings “significant attorney fees” and wasted both parties’ time and resources.
“The chronic failure to hold the guardian accountable for his actions with respect to his obligations while allowing him to pay himself enormous amounts of money over 7 ½ years, despite repeated filings that brought such issues to the Court’s attention, exemplifies a failure to dispose of issues fairly,” the board wrote.
Lewis declined to comment, saying only, “There’s two sides of every story.”
Tags: Bernard Lewis , Judicial Conduct Board , reprimand , Gregory Glennon , Web Only , Image
Monday, September 9, 2019
"Letting go is tough. Anytime a newspaper closes, the community it served loses," publisher Suzanne Gillis wrote in the farewell issue that hit newsstands on September 6.
The tribute examines the paper's legacy of reporting on news, arts and the politics of everything from reproductive rights to feminism.
"We did not cover fashion, diets or hairdos," Gillis wrote. As the publication sought to shine a spotlight on the inequities facing women, it rarely included men's viewpoints because, Gillis explained, "they were massively covered in the dominant male-owned and -staffed media."
The goodbye includes a note that the paper is for sale for an unspecified price.
Tags: Vermont Woman , media , newspaper , Web Only , Image
Tuesday, September 3, 2019
Leahy, flanked by Levine, announced the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention grant at the Vermont Health Department in Burlington.
Vermont has faced up to the challenge better than other rural areas, Leahy said, "but more needs to be done."
"I think we all know that the opioid crisis is the most complex public health challenge of our time," Levine said. Over the past five years, Vermont has built a strong intervention, prevention and treatment infrastructure, he continued.
"But there's much more we can do to turn what we know, data, into life-saving action," the state's health commissioner said.
Tags: Patrick Leahy , senator , Mark Levin , Vermont Department of Health , commissioner , opioids , Web Only , Image
Friday, August 23, 2019
The Vermont Supreme Court on Friday ruled that a police affidavit from the student's high-profile arrest is a public record even though a judge did not find probable cause for the misdemeanor charge against him.
Tags: Public records , University of Vermont , racism , free speech , Wesley Richter , Jacob Oblak , University of Vermont Police Services , Vermont Supreme Court , arrest records , probable cause , Web Only , Image
Tuesday, August 13, 2019
Deb Billado’s message, sent last week in the party’s official newsletter, derided the president’s critics as “left-wing hatemongers” and a “mob of hate-crazed, fear-driven people who have become deranged” because “crooked Hillary Clinton” lost to Trump. Billado described the president as a “principled man” who “can’t be bought.”
She suggested that former special counsel Robert Mueller was merely a “figurehead” whose “feeble” congressional testimony proved he “barely knew what happened in the investigation and obviously was not the person directing” it. She wrote that instead of blasting Trump for his efforts to solve the crisis at the southern border, Democrats, if they were patriots, would work with him to solve it.
“We know they are not capable of that,” Billado wrote. “Surely makes an observer think that they must hate America.”
Some elected Vermont Republicans immediately distanced themselves from Billado's comments.
Tags: Vermont Republican Party , Joe Benning , Deb Billado , Heidi Scheuermann , Corey Parent , Trump , Web Only , Image
Wednesday, July 24, 2019
The permit allows the vast dump in Coventry near the Canadian border to operate for another nine years, until 2028.
But an appeal of a different permit from the Vermont Agency of Natural Resources that is also required for the expansion is still pending. Until that's resolved, the expansion cannot go forward.
Tags: landfill , Casella , Coventry , Act 250 , PFAS , Lake Memphremagog , Web Only , Image
Thursday, July 11, 2019
The GMT board of directors unanimously voted to place Mark Sousa on leave following a nearly two-hour executive session during a special board meeting Monday morning, board chair Tom Chittenden said.
The agency also retained Burlington attorney Nell Coogan to conduct a third party investigation, Chittenden said. Coogan specializes in workplace investigations, according to the website for her firm, Heilmann, Ekman, Cooley & Gagnon.
Chittenden would not elaborate on the nature of the probe, which stemmed from “multiple points of information from a variety of sources,” he said.
Tags: Green Mountain Transit , paid administrative leave , Mark Sousa , Tom Chittenden , Jon Moore , Web Only , Image
Wednesday, July 10, 2019
Glennon, the incumbent, raised more than $14,000 to defeat former Winooski mayor Bill Norful — much of it in $150 contributions from local attorneys who had cases in Glennon's court. Norful last year cast the solicitations as "unethical" and "absolutely improper," but the well-connected judge fired back against the "disgraceful" allegations and had threatened to report Norful to the Vermont Bar Counsel.
The state's judicial code of conduct prohibits judges from personally asking for public support or campaign donations. Glennon defended the donations he received by clarifying that his campaign committee solicited donations on his behalf, Seven Days reported in August 2018.
But Glennon also approached lawyers who practiced in probate court about whether they'd be on his campaign committee, a Vermont Judicial Conduct Board investigator found.
Tags: Gregory Glennon , Bill Norful , Judicial Conduct Board , Probate Judge , Chittenden County , Web Only , Image , Video
Friday, July 5, 2019
Two drag queens say they haven’t been cowed by angry calls to cancel their planned story hour for children at the Kellogg-Hubbard Library in Montpelier.
The July 13 event will not be the first time Justin Marsh and Taylor Small have dressed in drag and read books to kids at a public library. But this event has gotten the most national attention.
A conservative Facebook personality named Elizabeth Johnston, better known as the “Activist Mommy,” has urged her 700,000 followers to contact the library and get the story time shut down.
“Call and respectfully express your disgust at this event being hosted at a taxpayer funded library in Montpelier, Vermont!” she wrote on June 9 beside an angry-face and fire emoji. “And click share!”
Tags: Drag Queen Story Hour , Vermont , Montpelier , library , Activist Mommy , Kellogg-Hubbard Library , books , drag queens , Emoji Nightmare , Nikki Champagne , Web Only , Image
Wednesday, June 12, 2019
In a new manifesto released Wednesday, the Charlotte writer and former journalist argues that the Green Mountain State must assert itself with bold policy ideas that could solve the state’s most pressing problems and serve as inspiration to its peers.
“In sum, the country is divided, Washington is a mess, and Vermont’s influence is waning,” Kiernan writes. “Therefore the central question is this: In a time of federal collapse, what can a small state do to thrive?”
Tags: Stephen Kiernan , "Vermont to the Tenth Power" , manifesto , Bill Sorrell , Peter Clavelle , Gretchen Morse , Rita Markley , Chris Bohjalian , Jay Parini , Bernie Sanders , Peter Welch , Patrick Leahy , Senator , government , politics , Web Only , Image