Wednesday, March 14, 2018
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) took to the floor of the U.S. Senate on Wednesday morning to call for gun control legislation, but in doing so he understated the number of gun deaths in Vermont by an order of magnitude.
“In my small state of Vermont, between 2011 and 2016, 42 people were killed by guns,” Sanders said in his remarks.
That’s the same window of time Vermont Public Radio focused on last year in a series documenting gun deaths in Vermont, but Sanders’ figure was way off. VPR’s reporting, which was based on data provided by the Vermont Department of Health, found that 420 people were killed by guns between 2011 and 2016.
Tags: Senator , Bernie Sanders , guns , Senate , assault weapons , background checks , Image , Video , Web Only
Monday, March 12, 2018
"I would be lying if I said I wasn't disappointed," said Clark, the institute's director and a professor at Castleton University.
The state university has decided to "push pause" on its polling center, according to spokesman Jeff Weld, as part of a broader restructuring announced two weeks ago in response to a $1.5 million budget shortfall. Vermont Public Radio first reported Sunday that Clark's program was on the chopping block.
"I think the hope is that when future times warrant it, we'll be able to bring the polling institute back online," Weld said.
Tags: Castleton Polling Institute , Rich Clark , Castleton University , politics , Jeff Weld , Image , Web Only
Friday, March 9, 2018
The resounding message under the chapel’s vaulted ceilings was that gun control is not the solution to America’s gun violence problem.
“In the various conversations we’re having in the legislature right now, it is real and true that we have a great struggle not only in Vermont but in our country,” said Rep. Janssen Willhoit (R-St. Johnsbury).
Tags: guns , Bob DePino , Eddie Cutler , Bill Moore , Janssen Willhoit , Rob Roper , Ethan Allen Institute , Jace Laquerre , Patrick Brennan , University of Vermont , Image , Web Only
Wednesday, March 7, 2018
"It was just kind of, wow," Colston said Wednesday. "It just ... reinforced for me that this is my time to step in and serve.”
The nonprofit exec got into the campaign in early February, after the deadline to get on the ballot had passed. He distributed stickers, posters and postcards to help people vote for him. When 537 people did, Colston claimed one of two council seats that were up for grabs.
Kristine Lott, who was listed on the ballot, won the other seat. She was the top vote-getter, with 607 ballots.
Tags: Winooski , City Council , Town Meeting Day , Ebony Nyoni , Hal Colston , Kristine Lott , Image , Web Only
Friday, March 2, 2018
Debate focused on raising the legal age; the Senate had given preliminary approval to universal background checks on Thursday.
The age-limit proposal came from Senate President Pro Tempore Tim Ashe (D/P-Chittenden) and 15 cosponsors, effectively guaranteeing its passage in the 30-member Senate.
On the Senate floor, Ashe said the goal behind that proposal was to keep young people from impulsively harming themselves or others.
Tags: universal background check , minimum age , guns , firearms , Tim Ashe , Chris Bray , John Rodgers , Joe Benning , Image , Web Only
Thursday, March 1, 2018
The elite private college disciplined Dunn with a permanent letter in the senior's academic file, according to a report in the student newspaper, the Middlebury Campus.
Tags: Middlebury , #MeToo , Elizabeth Dunn , College Fix website , Image , Web Only
Wednesday, February 28, 2018
Just before the vote on S.221, its sponsor, Senate Judiciary chair Dick Sears (D-Bennington) said that he hadn't initially expected the proposal to make it to the floor. A narrowly avoided school shooting in Fair Haven, he said, brought a sense of urgency to the Senate’s work.
“The one thing I’m sure of is, Vermont’s not immune [to gun violence],” Sears said. “And I think we knew that before Fair Haven, but I think Fair Haven jolted us all.”
Tags: guns , Phil Scott , Dick Sears , Tim Ashe , Becca Balint , Mitzi Johnson , Maxine Grad , Image , Web Only
Tuesday, February 27, 2018
The report says Vermont corrections staff were there on November 14 when a corrections officer called the Vermont inmates “fucking pussies” as he ordered them into their cells. Vermont staff then watched the guard “pacing along the upper tier taunting inmates to come out of their cells and settle any issues with him.”
While the report didn’t document any physical abuse, it caught the attention of Vermont corrections officials. The guard has been removed from the unit housing Vermonters and placed under investigation in Pennsylvania, according to documents sent to Seven Days.
Tags: prison , corrections , Camp Hill , Vermont , Mike Touchette , Amy Worden , Image , Web Only
Thursday, February 22, 2018
Senate President Pro Tempore Tim Ashe (D/P-Burlington) promised Thursday that the proposal, which died in committee in 2015, would come to a vote next week on the Senate floor — likely as an amendment to related firearm legislation. In interviews around the Statehouse that day, 17 of Vermont's 30 state senators told Seven Days they would definitely vote for the measure, which would close the so-called "gun show loophole."
Six senators said they would vote against it: Joe Benning (R-Caledonia), Brian Collamore (R-Rutland), Alice Nitka (D-Windsor), John Rodgers (D-Essex/Orleans), Dick Sears (D-Bennington) and Bobby Starr (D-Essex/Orleans).
Tags: guns , universal background checks , Tim Ashe , Image , Web Only
State biologists proposed the dramatic drop from 70 permits issued last year. Since 2005, the moose population has shrunk from about 4,800 to 1,700. Tick infestation, warmer winters and other factors are believed to be harming the population of the lumbering creatures.
Tags: moose , ticks , hunting , Louis Porter , Fish & Wildlife Board , Image , Web Only