Wednesday, October 26, 2016
The Democratic gubernatorial candidate has purchased $10,500 worth of air time to run the ad, according to a disclosure filed Tuesday with the Secretary of State's Office.
Tags: Sue Minter , Barack Obama , Audio , Image , Web Only
Tuesday, October 25, 2016
Tags: Spider Web Farm , Williamstown , fire , Image , Video , Web Only
The Burlington Free Press on Tuesday laid off four employees — including three newsroom staffers — in what appears to be part of nationwide downsizing by its corporate parent, Gannett.
Among those let go were features writer Sally Pollak, news reporter Cory Dawson and sports writer Lauren Read, according to multiple people with direct knowledge of the situation. Hours after the news broke Tuesday, the paper acknowledged the layoffs in a story on its website. In addition to the newsroom staffers, it said an employee in the advertising department was cut.
Pollak worked for the Free Press for 25 years, first as a sports writer and most recently as a food writer. She lamented the news on Facebook Tuesday afternoon.
“It was a good run: 25 years covering Vermont,” Pollak wrote. “Thanks to everyone for talking with me for stories and reading my stuff.”
Tags: Burlington Free Press , Image , Web Only
The five high school students were killed by a wrong-way driver on their way home from a concert on October 8.
The Harwood Union High School gymnasium was packed Monday night for an event held to honor the teens. Their classmates filled the wooden bleachers, using one another as back rests, and an older crowd occupied the hundreds of folding chairs that had been set up on the gym floor. The stage was a shrine to the students, with poster-size photos and five wooden stars wrapped in strings of lights, propped up by hay bales and potted flowers.
Organized by the Harwood Union junior class, the “celebration of life” included a bagpipe processional, fireworks that would rival a July 4th celebration, and a soulful performance by 2001 Harwood alumnus Grace Potter, who sang her song “Stars.”
Tags: Harwood Union High School , Liam Hale , Mary Harris , Cyrus Zschau , Janie Chase Cozzi , Eli Brookens , Image , Web Only
"I spoke poorly and I do apologize for that," he said at a Burlington debate hosted by My NBC5.
Zuckerman was responding to a May 2013 video posted to Facebook on Sunday by Nicole Citro, a Republican activist who has led the public push to base F-35 jets at the Air Guard's South Burlington headquarters. The video shows Zuckerman speaking out against the basing, which has since been approved, during a protest on the steps of Burlington City Hall.
"Some of the people that support F-35s say, 'This is about our safety and our freedom. Look at what they did on 9/11,'" Zuckerman says in the 27-second video. "When I look at what our planes did on 9/11 — they flew over a site that was already devastated by a terrorist action. I don't believe they stopped a single thing from happening. So let's not equate their existence with freedom when they're after the fact—"
According to news stories and the Air Guard's own account, Vermont's F-16s were among the first on the scene after terrorists flew two airliners into New York City's World Trade Center. They patrolled the city's airspace for 122 consecutive days after the attacks, according to a Guard history.
Tags: David Zuckerman , Randy Brock , Vermont Air National Guard , 9/11 , Image , Web Only
Monday, October 24, 2016
Conducted by Braun Research of Princeton, N.J., the live-caller poll surveyed 603 likely voters, using a mix of landlines and cell phones. Its margin of error was plus or minus 4 percent, meaning the race could be essentially tied — or Scott could have an even wider lead.
According to WCAX, 4 percent of respondents supported Liberty Union nominee and retired Red Sox pitcher Bill "Spaceman" Lee, while 2 percent planned to write in another candidate. Seven percent said they remained undecided.
That's a significantly smaller percentage than Castleton Polling Institute found in a recent survey it conducted for Vermont Public Radio. In that poll, 14 percent said they were undecided. Thirty-nine percent told VPR they supported Scott, 38 percent Minter and 2 percent Lee. That poll's margin of error was 3.9 percent.
Tags: Sue Minter , Phil Scott , WCAX , polling , VPR , Image , Web Only
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) spent the weekend stumping for Vermont's Democratic slate. Now he's putting his fundraising might behind two of its top candidates.
In a message sent Monday afternoon to his national email list, Sanders called on his loyal base of donors to contribute to Democratic gubernatorial nominee Sue Minter and Democratic/Progressive lieutenant gubernatorial nominee David Zuckerman. The email encourages Sanders' supporters to split their donations evenly between Minter, Zuckerman and three out-of-state candidates and causes: California State Senate candidate Jane Kim, California State Assembly candidate Eloise Reyes and California's Proposition 61, a ballot initiative designed to lower the price of prescription drugs.
By 8:30 p.m. Monday — six hours after Sanders sent the email — Zuckerman had already raised roughly $20,000 from 2,800 donors, he told Seven Days. Minter's campaign declined to comment on its haul but issued a statement thanking Sanders for his support.
"We're excited to have Bernie Sanders highlighting Sue as a candidate who shares his values, who will strengthen the middle-class and truly tackle Vermont's affordability issues, rather than simply rehashing trickle-down economics and the national Republican line," said Minter spokesman Elliott Bent.*
Tags: Senator , Bernie Sanders , David Zuckerman , Sue Minter , Image , Web Only
Friday, October 21, 2016
Nine months after President Barack Obama asked him to lead a national effort to expedite cancer research, Vice President Joe Biden traveled to Burlington Friday to outline the recommendations of his “Cancer Moonshot” initiative.
During a morning roundtable at the University of Vermont, Biden said that researchers had in recent years reached “a real inflection point” in the fight against the disease. But he argued that the medical community continued to face structural deficiencies that hobble communication and collaboration.
Specifically, Biden said, those fighting cancer struggle to access information about their malady, find clinical trials or even share their medical records with far-flung hospitals. Moreover, he argued, the pharmaceutical industry charges too much for life-saving drugs.
Tags: Joe Biden , Cancer Moonshot , Patrick Leahy , Sue Minter , Image , Web Only
On the radio, Obama cut ads for Vermont Democratic gubernatorial candidate Sue Minter and North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper, who is challenging incumbent Republican Gov. Pat McCrory. He’s also on the radio for [North Carolina Senate candidate Deborah] Ross and [Pennsylvania Senate candidate Katie] McGinty and Senate candidates Catherine Cortez Masto in Nevada, and Maggie Hassan in New Hampshire.
Minter campaign spokesman Elliott Bent confirmed the Post's story Friday morning.
“In the ad, the president endorses Sue because she shares his values: economy for the middle class, education, fighting climate change, protecting women’s right to choose,” he said in a brief written statement.
Bent said the campaign itself, not a supportive super PAC, would pay for the Obama ad. He did not reveal when it would go on-air.
Read the full story here.
Tags: Barack Obama , Sue Minter , election 2016 , Image , Web Only
Thursday, October 20, 2016
Returning to the paper’s top job is Jim Fogler, who served as publisher for four years before leaving in September 2014 to become vice president of business development at Party City. Fogler returned to journalism — and Gannett — in January, when he took a job as publisher of the Poughkeepsie Journal.
According to the Free Press story announcing the transition, Fogler will now publish both papers. Even after he took the job in Poughkeepsie, the story said, he continued to commute between the two regions, because his family remained in South Burlington.
“I’m excited to be back, and I look forward to reconnecting with the community as well as the team here,” Fogler told the Free Press’ Dan D’Ambrosio. “My plan is to split my time evenly between the two sites.”
Tags: Al Getler , Jim Fogler , Burlington Free Press , Gannett , Poughkeepsie Journal , Image , Web Only