Tuesday, June 6, 2017
About 60 percent of residents casting ballots voted to pass the spending plan — the district's third attempt at a budget in three months. The approval — by a 3,146 to 2,067 margin — ended an acrimonious budget season in a community where budgets have almost always passed on the first try. That is, until controversy over the "Rebels" nickname and school spending blew up this year.
The budget passed in three of four voting districts. Only voters in the Chamberlin district said no, by a tally of 608 to 572.
About 36 percent of registered voters turned out. The $49.2 million budget calls for a spending increase of 4.89 percent. Because of new revenues and other factors, the spending plan will result in a 1.2 percent property tax decrease.*
Tags: Rebels , South Burlington , education , South Burlington name change , South Burlington school budget , Image , Web Only
Sunday, June 4, 2017
The most notable source of income: book royalties. Sanders received a $795,000 advance for his best-selling book, Our Revolution. He got another $63,750 for his forthcoming Bernie Sanders Guide to Political Revolution, a book aimed at young readers coauthored with Kate Waters. And he took in $6,735 in royalties for his 1997 memoir Outsider in the House.
That’s more than $865,000 for peddling his working-class ideas. Not bad.
Then there's the $2,521 Sanders earned last year in royalties for his 1987 spoken-word folk album, We Shall Overcome.
Senate rules do not require members to report their government salaries on their annual disclosures, but all rank-and-file members earn $174,000 a year. That, combined with the more than $878,000 Sanders reported in his filing, puts the democratic socialist's 2016 payday at roughly $1,052,000.
Tags: Senator , Bernie Sanders , Jane O'Meara Sanders , Kate Waters , Image , Web Only
Friday, June 2, 2017
JPay, which also provides money transfers, tablets, and a probation and parole payment system, paid a $7,380 penalty to the state and $400 in refunds to 82 Vermonters, Donovan said.
The company advertised and ran a “JPay Day” contest, offering anyone who used their services on April 20 entry into a drawing for a $1,000 prize, Donovan said. Vermont law requires that any company running such a contest offer a way for people to enter without making a purchase or paying an entry fee. JPay failed to provide that option, Donovan said.
Tags: T.J. Donovan , JPay , Department of Corrections , Attorney General's Office , Image , Web Only
Isaiah Hines, the 18-year-old senior who pushed the school board to abandon the Rebel nickname, became a viral hit this week for the race-related Facebook post. It’s also the latest virtual tussle over the controversial school name, which a group called the Rebel Alliance has staunchly defended.
Hines, who is black, posted a long retort last week to someone who circulated a photo that shows him in school standing next to a projected image of a slideshow that reads, “White People Are Fragile.” Christy Fay posted the image online and wrote, “THIS is considered acceptable in our high school?”
The short answer, according to Hines, is yes. Someone took the photo last school year as he presented about white fragility as part of a final project for his AP psychology class. Westfield State University professor Robin DiAngelo came up with the phrase, said Hines, who got the OK to discuss the topic from his teacher before presenting.
Tags: South Burlington , Rebels , Isaiah Hines , Rebel Alliance , South Burlington Wolves , South Burlington High School name change , Image , Web Only
Thursday, June 1, 2017
That figure includes more than $24,000 in penalties this year alone, according to a news release from the agency’s consumer protection chief, Henry Marckres.
Price scanner violations occur when a customer is charged more than the price posted on the shelf or label. In one eight-month stretch in 2016, the Fairlee Dollar General paid nearly $30,000 in fines stemming from such violations, agency records show. The chain’s three Barre stores have paid a combined $40,500 in fines for scanner violations since 2014, according to the records.
“We feel it is important that consumers are aware of these inaccuracies, so they can take an active role in ensuring they are charged accurately, by checking their receipts and paying close attention in the store,” said Kristin Haas, the head of the agency’s food safety and consumer protection division, in a prepared statement.
Tags: Dollar General , Henry Marckres , Agency of Agriculture , Image , Web Only
Wednesday, May 24, 2017
Gov. Phil Scott on Wednesday vetoed pending legislation that would legalize marijuana in Vermont. But he promised to work with lawmakers to fashion a new bill that might win his support next month.
“I am not philosophically opposed to ending the prohibition on marijuana,” Scott said at a highly anticipated press conference in his Montpelier office. “However … we must get this right.”
The legislation would have allowed adults over age 21 to possess up to an ounce of marijuana and grow as many as two mature plants per household, starting in July 2018. It also would have created a commission to report back by November with a plan to tax and regulate marijuana sales, as other states have done.
The Republican governor said Wednesday that he would provide legislators with “explicit” recommendations to craft a bill that might meet his approval. He suggested that lawmakers tackle them when they reconvene July 21 for an expected two-day veto session.
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Friday, May 19, 2017
“Please understand it gives me no satisfaction to say so,” Scott told the Senate in a brief adjournment speech to the chamber. “But I truly believe we can eventually find common ground.”
Tags: Phil Scott , Vermont legislature , adjournment , Image , Web Only
Tuesday, May 16, 2017
At least two of his Democratic colleagues in the U.S. House have called for the impeachment of President Donald Trump over his ties to Russia, but Welch declined to do the same Tuesday at a South Burlington press conference. In a written statement, Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) also fended off calls for impeachment, while Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) did not immediately respond to a request for his position.
The Washington Post reported Monday that Trump shared highly classified intelligence with Russia's foreign minister and U.S. ambassador last week during a meeting in the Oval Office. The day before that meeting, the president fired FBI director James Comey, a decision he later said was influenced in part by the bureau's investigation of his campaign's ties to Russia. That prompted Rep. Al Green (D-Texas) to accuse Trump of obstructing justice and join Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) in calling for the president's impeachment.
Welch took a more cautious stance Tuesday morning during an unrelated press conference at Burlington International Airport. Vermont's sole U.S. House member called Trump's actions "pretty stupid." But when asked whether the president had committed an impeachable offense, Welch said, "He's got the legal authority. I think it's a judgment issue."
Tags: Peter Welch , Patrick Leahy , Donald Trump , impeachment , Image , Web Only
Friday, May 12, 2017
But Scott, who has said he would not sign a budget that doesn't cut teacher health care costs, soon made clear he wasn't satisfied. “It doesn’t meet some of the standards that I had put in place,” the Republican governor told reporters several hours after the vote. By the end of the day, even a short-lived agreement between the Democratic leaders of the House and Senate had broken down.
The extended impasse led legislative leaders to abandon — for the second week in a row — their plan to adjourn for the year.
Asked late Friday whether they could still reach an agreement with Scott, Senate President Pro Tempore Tim Ashe (D/P-Chittenden) said, "Of course we can." But by then, increasingly antsy rank-and-file members had already begun filtering out of the Statehouse — with plans to return next week on a to-be-determined day.
Tags: Vermont Senate , Phil Scott , Tim Ashe , Mitzi Johnson , Image , Web Only
Thursday, May 11, 2017
In separate announcements Thursday afternoon, House Speaker Mitzi Johnson (D-South Hero) and Senate President Pro Tempore Tim Ashe (D/P-Chittenden) offered an alternative to Scott's proposal to mandate statewide negotiation of public school health insurance plans — a change the governor claims could save up to $26 million.
Johnson and Ashe characterized their plan, which would require the savings but allow school districts to determine how to achieve them, as a "compromise." But it was, in fact, a repurposed version of the same proposal Ashe had offered the governor a day earlier.
Tags: Phil Scott , Vermont Legislature , Tim Ashe , Mitzi Johnson , Image , Web Only