Thursday, November 11, 2021
Nearly 600 Vermonters tested positive for COVID-19 in a single day, far surpassing a previous record-high figure for daily infections set a week ago.
The Vermont Department of Health reported on Thursday 591 new cases — nearly 100 more than the 496 infections reported on November 3.
The positive cases were identified out of roughly 13,800 tests. The new data raised the average rate of positive tests to 4.1 percent.
"It's another concerning data point," health department spokesperson Ben Truman said.
Franklin (72 cases), Lamoille (21 cases), and Rutland (74 cases) counties all set new records. Windsor, with 37 cases, tied its previous high.
But infections are distributed across the state. Chittenden County, Vermont's most populous, recorded 97 cases, the most in a day since the Delta variant arrived over the summer.
Tags: COVID-19 , coronavirus , new daily infections , Vermont Department of Health , Gov. Phil Scott , Web Only , Image
Monday, November 8, 2021
Party chair Paul Dame, who was elected Saturday, on Monday announced a “Let’s Go Brandon” rally to be held November 13 in the Rutland County town of the same name.
The phrase has gained viral popularity in certain conservative circles as a coded insult toward Biden. It’s a stand-in for the "Fuck Joe Biden” chant overheard at an October 2 NASCAR event won by driver Brandon Brown. An NBC reporter who was interviewing Brown on air described the chant inaccurately as “Let’s go Brandon.”
Dame said the party’s new leaders chose the theme because they wanted to “start with a little fun” before digging into the policy issues facing the state.
Tags: otter , brandon , trump , biden , republican. Let's Go Brandon , Web Only , Image , Breaking News
Friday, November 5, 2021
Superior Court Judge Martin Maley made the unprecedented move on Thursday by dismissing all criminal cases filed before January 1, 2021, involving six different charges: driving with a suspended license, misdemeanor drug possession, violating conditions of release, unlawful trespass, retail theft, or disorderly conduct.
Dropping such cases, Maley concluded, is necessary at a time when the court is struggling to wade through a docket that has ballooned to around 2,400 cases, up from an historical average of about 400. He justified the move by citing a clause in the Vermont Rules of Criminal Procedure that allows a trial judge to toss a case if dismissal "will serve the ends of justice." Some of the cases dated to 2017 and 2018.
"This court has never issued such an order, however, given the current circumstances, the court is persuaded that such action is necessary to allow the court to focus on the oldest and most serious cases on the docket, including cases involving defendant's [sic] incarcerated awaiting trial."
Tags: Vermont Superior Court , COVID-19 , court backlog , Martin Maley , Matthew Valerio , Rosie Chase , Jim Hughes , Franklin County State's Attorney , Franklin County Public Defenders Office , Vermont Defender General , Web Only , Image
Monday, November 1, 2021
Three Democratic state officeholders — Sen. Kesha Ram Hinsdale (D-Chittenden), Lt. Gov. Molly Gray and Vermont Senate President Pro Tempore Becca Balint (D-Windham) — have all confirmed to Seven Days their interest in running for Congress should a vacancy arise.
Gray hired a full-time campaign staffer in January, which sparked speculation about her intentions. Since August, Ram Hinsdale has had a full-time staffer of her own.
Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), 81, is expected to announce in coming weeks whether he plans to retire or run for reelection. Leahy's departure would have a domino effect on Vermont's political landscape. It could lead to a vacancy in the state's lone U.S. House seat were Rep. Peter Welch (D-Vt.) to run for Senate.
"If a seat does open up, it's something I would actively consider and would be able to do with a lot more context from around the state," she said.
Janeway is a Colgate College graduate who worked as campaign manager last year for the successful run of Rep. Tiff Bluemle (D-Burlington). Ram Hinsdale also employs a paid intern through a program with the University of Vermont and has volunteers, whom she provides stipends, helping her with legislation ahead of the upcoming session.
“Showing people that you’re listening outside of an election year is really critical for them to feel like you’re having an authentic conversation with them and not just asking for their vote in the three months before an election,” Ram Hinsdale said.
Some of those conversations are about spending federal coronavirus relief funds.
“We have to build together, and that's why I'm getting much more organized than I have in the past,” Ram Hinsdale said. “We have people who really want us to get outside of Montpelier and listen to them.”
Tags: Senator , Kesha Ram Hinsdale , Becca Balint , Molly Gray , Vermont , Patrick Leahy , Peter Welch , Bernie Sanders , Web Only , Image
Wednesday, October 20, 2021
Residents of the Sears Lane encampment are asking a judge to issue a preliminary injunction against the City of Burlington to stop a planned eviction there next week.
The one-page filing from Alexys Grundy and Grey Barreda says the city's October 14 eviction order does "not meet the criteria for emergency and exigent circumstances" and amounts to cruel and unusual punishment.
"We need this [injunction] because this 68 Sears Lane is our home and for most of us this is all we have," Grundy and Barreda wrote. "We need to have reliable, generative conversations and realistic time span expectations to start making the progressive changes both the City and the Camp want to see."
Tags: Sears Lane , Burlington , homelessness , Vermont Superior Court , eviction , Mayor Miro Weinberger , Web Only , Image
Friday, October 8, 2021
As secretary of administration for the past five years, Young has wielded tremendous power in state government. Though technically on a par with the five other cabinet secretaries, Young’s long, diverse career in public service and key role crafting the annual budget made her first among equals in Scott's inner circle.
In a press release announcing Young's pending retirement, Scott lauded her as one of the “most distinguished public servants in Vermont history.”
“She has been at the center of our efforts to make Vermont more affordable and deliver Vermonters a more efficient and responsive state government,” Scott said. “Susanne’s expertise, dedication, common sense and humor will be sorely missed, but I wish her the very best in her well-earned retirement.”
Before joining Scott’s administration in 2016, Young was deputy treasurer and legal counsel to governor Jim Douglas and a deputy attorney general under AG Bill Sorrell.
“Susanne is a role model for public service; her energy, competence and ethics are second to none,” Douglas said in the release. “It was a privilege to work with her.”
Young graduated from Northfield High School in 1974, the University of Vermont in 1978 and Vermont Law School in 1981. Then she began her career with the state. In addition to serving as deputy attorney general and deputy treasurer, she was general counsel for the Vermont Department of Corrections and other departments within the Vermont Agency of Human Services. Her current salary is $154,461.
Young called the role of secretary of administration the most challenging of her career but also the most rewarding.
“I am proud and humbled by the opportunity to be part of an incredible team of dedicated, focused individuals who have worked to achieve Governor Scott’s goals while meeting the unexpected challenges presented by the pandemic head on,” she said in the release.
Her last day will be November 6. Deputy Secretary of Administration Kristin Clouser will serve as interim secretary.
Tags: Susanne Young , Gov. Phil Scott , Web Only , Image
Wednesday, September 29, 2021
The Vermont publishing house and Mercola, an osteopath and prolific disseminator of COVID-19 misinformation, were the subject of a September 27 Seven Days cover story. Coauthor of a best-selling book, Mercola also had half a million followers on his YouTube channel, according to the New York Times.
YouTube announced the decision in a blog post Wednesday, writing that while vaccines have been "a source of fierce debate" for years, the coronavirus era has called for stronger policies. The media company said it had already removed more than 130,000 videos for violating its COVID-19 vaccine policies.
"We’ve steadily seen false claims about the coronavirus vaccines spill over into misinformation about vaccines in general, and we're now at a point where it's more important than ever to expand the work we started with COVID-19 to other vaccines," the statement said.
Tags: COVID-19 , coronavirus , misinformation , Joseph Mercola , YouTube , Chelsea Green , Web Only , Image
Tuesday, September 28, 2021
One of the programs, dubbed "test to stay," would provide a new option for unvaccinated students who had close contact with a person with COVID-19. Instead of quarantining for up to 14 days, these students would be offered rapid tests each day before entering school, until seven days after their last known exposure.
A similar program is in use in Massachusetts, Education Secretary Dan French said at the governor's weekly COVID-19 press briefing.
Tags: COVID-19 , Phil Scott , Dan French , Vermont K-12 Schools , Test to Stay , COVID-19 testing , Close Contacts , Quarantine , Web Only , Image
Republicans are suing the cities of Winooski and Montpelier in an effort to strike down recent charter changes that allow noncitizens to vote in local elections.
The suits, brought by the Vermont GOP and the Republican National Committee, contend that the cities' new charters violate the Vermont Constitution, which limits voting to U.S. citizens 18 and over. In the complaints, attorney Brady Toensing wrote that the limit should apply to municipal elections, contending that in modern times, they are not distinct from their state and national counterparts.
"Over the years, the state has become more and more involved in what previously were strictly local matters, erasing distinctions that previously existed between local and state affairs," he wrote.
Both municipalities passed the charter changes by wide margins, and the Vermont legislature approved them earlier this year, too. But Gov. Phil Scott vetoed the measures on the grounds that “highly variable town-by-town approach” to local voting effectively creates “separate and unequal classes of residents.” The state House and Senate overrode Scott's veto in June.
Wednesday, September 22, 2021
Vermont's seven-day average case rate has increased 27 percent since the start of the Labor Day weekend. Cases have risen more quickly among people who are not fully vaccinated.
At Gov. Phil Scott’s weekly news conference Tuesday, state officials outlined the measures they hope to put in place as part of a long-term response to the pandemic. Officials said that Vermont is one of 26 states that have approved OSHA state plans to expand a federal vaccine mandate for large businesses to include public employees, including school districts.
Tags: vaccines , mandate , Gov. Phil Scott , Delta variant , Web Only , Image