Thursday, April 18, 2019
Weinberger's chief of staff, Jordan Redell, texted, called and emailed the governor's office on the morning of April 10, just as Vermont State Police were preparing to announce that the state medical examiner classified Douglas Kilburn's death as a homicide, the emails state.
"She was energetically reaching out trying to have us intervene to pause the release," Jason Gibbs, chief of staff for Gov. Phil Scott, wrote later that day to the heads of the Department of Public Safety and the Vermont State Police.
"That does not feel right to me, at any level," he wrote in another internal email.
Tags: Miro Weinberger , Jason Gibbs , Douglas Kilburn , Cory Campbell , Thomas Anderson , autopsy findings , medical examiner , Web Only , Image
Wednesday, April 17, 2019
State police announced last week that the medical examiner had deemed Douglas Kilburn's death a homicide. Earlier that morning, Burlington Police Chief Brandon del Pozo had contacted the state's top health official with "concerns" about the quality of the medical examiner's work and suggested that his conclusion might be "amended," emails obtained through Vermont's public records law show.
"I have conferred with the mayor and we are in agreement in requesting clarification of these findings before they are made public," del Pozo wrote to Vermont Health Commissioner Mark Levine.
Tags: Douglas Kilburn , Brandon del Pozo , Burlington Police , medical examiner , Steven Shapiro , City of Burlington , autopsy , Certification of Death , Web Only , Image
Tuesday, April 16, 2019
The two men shot each other in the driveway of a North Willard Street home, police said in a press release. Benzel Hampton was shot in the head and died. The other man, whom Burlington Police Chief Brandon del Pozo did not identify, was also shot but is expected to survive.
Tags: Benzel Hampton , homicide , shooting , North Willard Street , Burlington police , crack cocaine , Web Only , Image
Saturday, April 13, 2019
“Do you remember what he did after 9/11? Does anyone remember?” he asked a few dozen community leaders at a downtown Gary convention center. “He went to a mosque. Do you remember that? He walked into a mosque to say that criminals, terrorists attacked the United States — not the Muslim community.”
But now, Sanders continued, “We have a president who, for cheap political gain, is trying to divide us up by the color of our skin, by where we were born, by our religion. My God.”
Tags: Bernie Sanders , campaign , Election 2020 , Indiana , Senator , Web Only , Image
Friday, April 12, 2019
The proposed change would replace a portion of Article 1, Chapter 1 of the constitution. The section banned slavery in 1777, but it has an exception allowing minors to be indentured servants for the payment of debts.
“Although the original constitution did prohibit slavery, it did not prohibit indentured servitude,” Vermont Law School professor and constitutional scholar Peter Teachout told the Senate Government Operations Committee on Friday.
Tags: Jeanette White , Brian Collamore , Chris Bray , Alison Clarkson , slavery , Vermont constitution , constitutional amendment , indentured servitude , indentured servant , history , Web Only , Image
Wednesday, April 10, 2019
The toxins in the groundwater were discovered in early 2016 in private drinking wells near a defunct manufacturing plant once operated by the company Saint-Gobain Performance Plastics. Gov. Phil Scott announced Wednesday that the company has agreed to pay millions of dollars to extend municipal water lines to 245 homes on the east side of Bennington.
State taxpayers will pay about $4.7 million to extend municipal water lines up sparsely populated roads on the outskirts of town, officials said, but Saint-Gobain’s contribution could be as much as $20 million.
Agency of Natural Resources Deputy Secretary Peter Walke said the company has also agreed to pay for ongoing PFOA monitoring in Bennington-area drinking water and to pay for treatment systems and new wells for about 20 residences where municipal water lines won’t reach.
Tags: PFOA , clean water , water quality , contamination , pollution , toxics , toxic liability , Phil Scott , Dick Sears , TJ Donovan , Peter Walke , Bennington , St. Gobain , Saint-Gobain , teflon , Web Only , Image
Tuesday, April 9, 2019
Vermont Rep. Robert Forguites (D-Springfield) died in his sleep over the weekend, House Speaker Mitzi Johnson (D-South Hero) told her colleagues at the Statehouse Tuesday morning.
There was a collective gasp in the House chamber when Johnson announced Forguites' death. Her voice breaking with emotion, Johnson called on her colleagues to support each other as they remembered “a man that represented the best of Vermont.”
Johnson said Forguites was found dead on Monday. He was 80.
Forguites was born and raised in Brandon, Vt., then served in the Army, according to his legislative bio. He served as Springfield town manager for 16 years and was first elected in 2014 to represent that city in the House. He is survived by a son, Adam.
Tags: Robert Forguites , Mitzi Johnson , Springfield , Vermont , House , Web Only , Image
Monday, April 1, 2019
Since U.S. Attorney General William Barr released a four-page memo last week summarizing the work of former special counsel Robert Mueller, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) has been demanding the release of Mueller's full findings.
“I don’t want a summary of the report,” Sanders said during a campaign rally in California. “I want the whole damn report, because nobody, especially this president, is above the law.”
Now the Vermont Republican Party is using those words against Sanders.
In a letter sent Sunday to his U.S. Senate office, party chair Deb Billado called on Sanders to "apply this same standard of transparency to yourself." She was referring to a long-running federal investigation of a Burlington College bank loan application made when the senator's wife, Jane O'Meara Sanders, served as president of the since-shuttered institution.
"Under your proposed standard, surely you would agree that all investigative material related to the criminal bank fraud investigation involving you and your wife should be released," Billado wrote the senator.
Tags: Senator , Bernie Sanders , Jane O'Meara Sanders , Deb Billado , Brady Toensing , Burlington College , Web Only , Image
Friday, March 29, 2019
Chittenden Superior Court Judge Kevin Griffin this week threw out a hate crime charge against Christopher Hayden, writing that harassing a public official is protected by the First Amendment.
Griffin dismissed a count of disturbing the peace by phone that stemmed from numerous racist messages Hayden sent to City Councilor Ali Dieng's government email address.
The state has filed seven charges against Hayden since October, including hate crimes for his targeting of Dieng, Mayor Miro Weinberger and Police Chief Brandon del Pozo.
Tags: Christopher Hayden , First Amendment , protected speech , racism , Ali Dieng , Miro Weinberger , Web Only , Image
Tuesday, March 26, 2019
Vermont AG T.J. Donovan filed suit in state court Tuesday against Cardinal Health and McKesson, two of the largest drug distributors who profited off the nationwide opioid epidemic.
Tags: opioids , Vermont attorney general , McKesson , Cardinal Health , T.J. Donovan , Purdue Pharma , opioid distribution , Web Only , Image