Friday, August 31, 2018
A Jericho woman snapped selfies of Air Force Two under the careful watch of snipers and plainclothes United States Secret Service officers standing conspicuously inside the airport’s perimeter fence. The amateur photographer sheepishly described herself as a Pence supporter, though she declined an interview.
There was no media scrum or large crowd of waving supporters to greet Pence, who landed shortly after 1:30 p.m. Within a few minutes, his motorcade of about 15 SUVs, including Vermont State Police vehicles, slipped through the airport fence and drove away.
Tags: Mike Pence , Vermont , Hubbardton , Burlington International Airport , Phil Scott , Air Force Two , Lake Hortonia , Image , Web Only
In a long-awaited decision, justices ruled 4-1 that the 2015 law, which forbids the distribution of sexually explicit images without the subject’s consent, is constitutional.
In an interview, Defender General Matt Valerio called the decision "bizarre," and said his office is contemplating a U.S. Supreme Court appeal.
Justices said revenge porn represents the "highest" violation of privacy, noting that it is illegal for doctors or banks to disclose personal information about patients or clients. Forty states have enacted laws against revenge porn, justices wrote.
Tags: Vermont Supreme Court , revenge porn , Beth Robinson , Marilyn Skoglund , Matt Valerio , Bennington County , First Amendment , Image , Web Only
Friday, August 24, 2018
The Republican nominee for six statewide offices in Vermont dropped out of five of them Friday, according to the Secretary of State's Office.
In last week's GOP primary, Washington resident and perennial candidate H. Brooke Paige won the nominations for U.S. Senate, U.S. House, secretary of state, attorney general, state treasurer and state auditor. But on Friday, he formally withdrew from all but the secretary of state's race, according to elections director Will Senning.
Paige said he’d chosen to continue challenging Democratic Secretary of State Jim Condos because he was frustrated with the state’s electoral system. “They’re the people in charge of this chaos,” Paige said.
The candidate's decision scrambles Vermont's general election ballot and could lead to new opponents for top statewide officeholders, including Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Rep. Peter Welch (D-Vt.). According to state law, the Vermont Republican Party now has seven days to replace Paige in the contests.
Tags: Senator , H. Brooke Paige , Bernie Sanders , Peter Welch , Jack Moulton , Jim Condos , Election 2018 , Statewide 2018 , Image , Web Only
Wednesday, August 22, 2018
Vermont's senior senator made the assertion in a brief interview with Seven Days Wednesday afternoon, immediately after addressing the president's mounting legal problems on the floor of the U.S. Senate. "The clouds of criminal conduct surrounding those close to the president are darkening," he said in those remarks.
Leahy was referring to two major developments that came a day earlier: former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort's conviction on eight counts of tax and bank fraud, and former Trump attorney Michael Cohen's guilty pleas on eight counts of tax evasion, bank fraud and campaign finance violations. During Cohen's appearance Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Manhattan, he said he'd made illegal payments to two women "in coordination with and at the direction of a candidate for federal office," referring to Trump.
Tags: Senator , Donald Trump , Michael Cohen , Paul Manafort , Patrick Leahy , Bernie Sanders , Peter Welch , Image , Web Only
Tuesday, August 21, 2018
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) has officially turned down the Democratic nomination for the U.S. Senate, according to the Vermont Secretary of State's Office.
Sanders, who took home nearly 91 percent of the vote in last week's Democratic primary, informed the state last Friday that he would decline the nomination, according to elections director Will Senning. Neither the candidate nor the Secretary of State's Office announced the move at the time, though it hardly comes as a surprise.
Tags: Senator , Bernie Sanders , Democratic nomination , Vermont Democratic Party , Image , Web Only
Kavanaugh spent the early 2000s as a lawyer, and later staff secretary, for president George W. Bush's administration.
“There was a lot of discussion at the time of detainee and torture policy as well as a specialized wiretapping policy,” Leahy said. “I wanted to know how much he was involved in it, because all of these things have been discredited since.”
White House lawyer Don McGahn also attended Leahy's meeting with Kavanaugh, and initially he refused to allow the senator to meet alone with the judicial nominee.
“[McGahn] said, ‘Well, they don’t do one-on-one meetings,’” Leahy recounted. “I said, ‘I’ve been here for 19 Supreme Court nominees, 17 since I’ve been on the Judiciary Committee. I always have a one-on-one meeting.’”
Tags: Patrick Leahy , senator , Brett Kavanaugh , U.S. Supreme Court , nominee , Donald Trump , Vermont , judiciary , Image , Web Only
The goal in both cities is to reclaim small spaces from vehicles, slow drivers along busy routes, and make people on bikes and foot feel safer.
Winooski's parklet popped up on upper Main Street earlier this month. It looks like a small outdoor living room and occupies two curbside parking spaces. A bus stop-like enclosure anchors one end, while thigh-high wooden planters and Jersey barriers set it off from traffic. A table and chairs are set up in a corner, and "parklet" is scrawled on a wall below a cascade of white petunias.
Tags: Burlington , Winooski , parklet , traffic , Old North End Greenway , Image , Web Only
Tuesday, August 14, 2018
Some of Vermont's most competitive primaries Tuesday were at the county level. The campaign season was unusually intense for judgeships in Chittenden County. Elsewhere, three county prosecutors fought — one unsuccessfully — to keep their jobs.
Here is what happened in some of the races we've been following:
Lamoille County State's Attorney Paul Finnerty lost the Democratic primary to challenger Todd Shove. With all but one district reporting Tuesday night, Shove won with 50.3 percent to Finnerty's 34.2 percent. Finnerty, who is serving his first four-year term, promoted restorative justice during his time in office.
Shove, a career prosecutor who recently left his job to campaign, criticized Finnerty for taking the concept too far. He also campaigned on the promise of improving the relationship between prosecutors and law enforcement.
In Essex County, longtime state's attorney and former state senator Vincent Illuzzi eked out a 288 to 248 victory against political newcomer Amy Davis in the Republican primary.
Davis, 31, handles divorce, custody and family cases as a partner at the firm Bucknam Black Davis. During the campaign, she criticized Illuzzi for not giving enough attention to his part-time job as county prosecutor, which he has held since 1998. Illuzzi also works as a lobbyist for the Vermont State Employees' Association in Montpelier.
Bennington County Democrats also stuck with their prosecutor: State’s Attorney Erica Marthage beat challenger Arnie Gottlieb by just 136 votes — less than 3 percent of votes cast.
Marthage is known for her aggressive prosecutorial approach. Seven Days reported in 2016 that Bennington County, under Marthage's leadership, imprisoned more people per capita than any other county in Vermont. Gottlieb, a veteran defense attorney, called Marthage’s style overzealous.
In Chittenden County, Sheriff Kevin McLaughlin held a strong lead — 54 percent to 25 percent — in the Democratic primary against his longtime deputy Michael Major. McLaughlin has been in the office since 1987, making him the longest-serving sheriff in county history.
Major, a 34-year veteran of the department, said during the campaign that he wanted to expand the department’s budget and staff by securing new contracts to provide law enforcement staffing. He expressed support for stationing an armed deputy at all of the county’s schools.
There were four other primaries for sheriff positions in Vermont:
- In Addison County, Peter Newton beat Ron Holmes in the Democratic primary to replace outgoing Sheriff Donald Keeler Jr.
- Bennington County Democrats chose incumbent Chad Schmidt over challenger James Gulley Jr.
- Caledonia county's Republican sheriff, Dean Shatney, beat out challenger Lester Cleary III.
- Orleans County Sheriff Kirk Martin beat Jennifer Harlow Jacobs in the Republican primary.
Glennon, the brother-in-law of Vermont Attorney General T.J. Donovan, has been on the job since he was appointed by then-governor Peter Shumlin in 2016.
In a four-way race for two assistant judgeships in Chittenden county, newcomer Suzanne Brown and incumbent Connie Cain Ramsey beat out Assistant Judge Charles Delaney and challenger Zachary York.
Tags: Kevin McLaughlin , Erica Marthage , Peter Newton , Ron Holmes , Michael Major , Arnie Gottlieb , Vince Illuzzi , primary , sheriff , prosecutor , judge , results , Image , Web Only
City officials closed the old, ailing Myers Memorial Pool in 2015 after concluding it would cost more than $25,000 just to patch its leaks and keep the pumps going.
Tags: Winooski , municipal bond , pool , public pool , Myers Memorial Pool , Image , Web Only
Essex police later arrested Sheldon Rheaume in a Hannaford parking lot. Officers found the 23-year-old wearing a tactical vest and with a loaded 9-millimeter pistol in his car.
During a court appearance later Tuesday morning, a shackled Rheaume, wearing a white T-shirt and jean shorts, listened quietly and occasionally looked up at Judge David Fenster. Rheaume faces charges of aggravated assault and reckless endangerment, offenses that carry heftier potential prison sentences for him because prosecutors consider the crimes motivated by hate.
In court documents, deputy Chittenden County state's attorney Zoe Newman argued Rheaume poses a continuing threat to the public.
"[Rheaume] went into a store, seemingly at random, and, unprovoked ... held a loaded gun to the victim's head because of her race and/or ethnicity," Newman wrote.
Tags: hate crime , race , racism , Sheldon Rheaume , Essex , Maplefields , gun , pistol , handgun , AR-15 , Image , Web Only