With time running out in the legislative session, supporters of marijuana legalization launched a sneak attack Wednesday from the Vermont Senate in hopes of forcing a reluctant House to weigh in on the matter.

By a 16 to 12 vote, the Senate moved to send its languishing legalization bill back over to the House, where it has stalled in committee for weeks.

“I thought there ought to be at least an opportunity for House members to express their support or opposition,” said Sen. Dick Sears (D-Bennington), who chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Sears moved to attach the contents of a previously passed Senate bill to an unrelated House bill, H.858, which makes miscellaneous changes to the criminal code.

“I’m not surprised,” Speaker Shap Smith (D-Morristown) said of the move, adding that it would not necessarily force the full House to vote on legalization.

Updated at 11:53 p.m.

Days after painting a dire picture of Jay Peak Resort’s financial health, federal receiver Michael Goldberg said Wednesday that he had enough money to keep the mountain open until revenues rebound next ski season.

“It’s business as usual. It’s actually better than business as usual,” he said Wednesday morning at the Hotel Jay & Conference Center. “We expect that the hotel will thrive. The only thing we’re praying for is snow [next] winter.”

Goldberg, who was appointed by a federal court two weeks ago to oversee the assets of two Northeast Kingdom developers accused of fraud, made the remarks at a press conference organized by Gov. Peter Shumlin. Earlier Wednesday, Goldberg, Shumlin and Secretary of Commerce Pat Moulton met with Jay employees to reassure them that their jobs remained secure.

“With all the press on this in the last 10 or 12 days, it’s obvious that the public kind of wonders: Is there a business here?” Shumlin told reporters. “Not only is this place alive and well but looking for staff. If you want a job, come and apply.”

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) vowed Tuesday night to remain in the Democratic presidential race “until the last vote is cast.” But in a statement released by his campaign after a day of defeats, he suggested he was focused on something other than winning the nomination. 

His new goal, he said, was to arrive at this summer’s Democratic National Convention “with as many delegates as possible to fight for a progressive party platform.”

The statement came after Sanders lost four out of five East Coast states Tuesday to former secretary of state Hillary Clinton. Her double-digit wins in Pennsylvania, Maryland and Delaware — plus a nail-biter in Connecticut — put her ever closer to clinching the Democratic nomination. 

Speaking Tuesday night in Philadelphia, which is scheduled to host the convention in July, Clinton praised her enduring rival and reached out to his millions of devotees. 

“Because whether you support Sen. Sanders or you support me, there’s much more that unites us than divides us,” she said.

 The Vermont State Employees’ Association had hoped Tuesday to stop the Shumlin administration from outsourcing work now done by state employees in the Office of Risk Management — but came up two votes short in the Senate.

The Shumlin administration has been exploring whether it could save money if it contracted with a private company to process worker compensation claims and advise on work safety. Secretary of Administration Justin Johnson said state officials solicited information about the cost and services that private companies might offer. The responses suggested potential savings ranging from 35 to 55 percent, Johnson said.

The state subsequently requested bids, he said. The binding offers submitted reflected the same levels of savings, he said. The bids are under review.

The state spends $1.8 million to operate the Office of Risk Management, Johnson said. The office has a dozen employees, he said. Privatizing the operation could save the state at least $500,000 a year.

That is the amount of savings that the Senate Appropriations Committee included in its version of the budget to run state government next year.

The Vermont Retail & Grocers Association has been shopping two changes to the law that mandates labeling of products containing genetically modified ingredients to smooth the law’s implementation.

One change would prevent consumers from suing should they find non-labeled products on store shelves during the 18 months immediately after the law takes effect. This change would allow retailers time to clear their inventory of products that were legally distributed without labels prior to July 1, said Jim Harrison, president of the retail and grocers association.

The second change would give an exemption to the labeling of food prepared in stores — such as potato salad, sandwiches and baked goods, Harrison said. 

“It wasn’t our feeling that these materially change the law,” Harrison said.

The Vermont Right to Know GMOs coalition has opposed any changes to the law. Andrea Stander of Rural Vermont said retailers have had plenty of time to work out how to deal with inventory and comply with the law.

“This is all part of a national effort to undermine the Vermont law,” Stander said. For example, national grocery and snack food organizations have sued the state, challenging the legality of the law. The lawsuit is pending.

The Senate Appropriations Committee included a provision in the budget bill that would delay the date when consumers could sue over the lack of GMO labels, but not for as long as Harrison wanted. The Senate proposed ending the protection a year after the law takes effect.

“It is a way to protect our small retailers,” said Senate Appropriations Chair Jane Kitchel (D-Caledonia). Product turnover isn’t always speedy in small stores, she said, noting that “a lot of items like pasta have long shelf life.”

Kitchel added, “In no way would this alter the underlying labeling requirements.” The Senate budget bill doesn’t address the exemption for food made in stores.

The House version of the budget didn’t include the provision delaying consumer lawsuits, so the two chambers will have to negotiate whether it is included in the final budget bill.

Todd Daloz, an assistant attorney general, said his office would prefer that lawmakers make no changes to the law so close to the time of its implementation. Daloz noted that the office of the attorney general had established a rule that gives retailers six months to clear their inventories of non-labeled stock.

“Our main goal in the first six to twelve months is enabling compliance,” Daloz said.

He noted that delaying when consumers could sue over non-labeling would not affect enforcement by the attorney general’s office.

Daloz said he opposed granting an exemption to products made in stores. Those could contain the same genetically modified ingredients as items made by big manufacturers, he said.

Attorney General Bill Sorrell wrote a memo in late March advising how his office would enforce the law. “Our enforcement priorities will focus on willful violations of the labeling law,” he wrote. “Thus even after January 1, 2017, we do not expect to bring enforcement cases based solely on a company’s failure to remove improperly labeled products that were distributed before July 1, 2016.”

In the week and a half since federal and state authorities accused a pair of Northeast Kingdom developers of massive fraud, some of the state’s most powerful politicians have sought to walk back their support for the projects. 

But there’s one top pol who has little walking-back to do.

Doug Hoffer, the Democratic and Progressive state auditor, has long been critical of the federal EB-5 investor visa program, which the developers used to attract more than $350 million in foreign financing. Under EB-5, those who invest $500,000 in certain economic development projects are eligible for a green card; if they can later show the investment generated 10 jobs, they and their families can become permanent residents of the U.S. 

In a March 2012 interview with Seven Days, most of which was never published, Hoffer questioned the program’s moral underpinnings, its economic utility and its oversight structure. At the time, he called EB-5 “offensive on some levels” because it allows those with means to bypass the nation’s restrictive immigration procedures. 

“It’s a policy that rewards wealth with citizenship,” he said. “They don’t need to wait in line like everybody else.”

Democratic leaders of the Vermont House sought to quash a resolution Friday calling on Gov. Peter Shumlin to publicly release emails his legal counsel attempted to delete. 

The non-binding measure, sponsored by Rep. Chris Pearson (P-Burlington), asks the administration to hand over email accounts belonging to five former Shumlin staff members who left state employ more than three years ago. Shumlin’s lawyer, Sarah London, asked a state information technology officer earlier this month to delete the accounts as part of its archiving process. Critics have questioned whether her request was prompted by a looming crackdown on two politically connected Northeast Kingdom developers — a charge the administration has repeatedly denied. 

Speaking on the House floor Friday afternoon, Pearson argued that the Shumlin administration could easily restore trust by handing over the emails. 

“The point is that there’s an assertion of no wrongdoing,” he said. “Maybe it’s perfectly standard. But we have the opportunity to verify that. We’ve gotta shine some light on this and make sure nothing suspicious is happening.”

Rep. Willem Jewett (D-Ripton), vice chair of the House Judiciary Committee and a former majority leader, disagreed. He said that Pearson’s request could interfere with ongoing federal and state enforcement actions against the developers, Ariel Quiros and Bill Stenger, who have been accused of fraud. 

“I think we need to stand firm and respect the investigations that are ongoing,” he said. “We need to acknowledge how serious this is and the harm this has done and will continue to do.”

Updated at 11:24 a.m.

For the past two decades, a series of distant media corporations has owned Vermont’s Brattleboro Reformer, Bennington Banner and Manchester Journal. 

Next month, that’s set to change. 

The papers announced Thursday that a group of Stockbridge, Mass., residents plans to buy New England Newspapers next month from New York-based Digital First Media. The sale includes the buyers’ local paper, the Pittsfield, Mass.-based Berkshire Eagle, along with the three Vermont properties. 

“For local journalism, for local readers, for community newspapering, it’s like winning the lottery,” said Kevin Moran, vice president of news at New England Newspapers. 

The new ownership group, called Birdland Acquisition, includes three Stockbridge residents: former VISA president John “Hans” Morris, former Pittsfield District Court judge Fredric Rutberg, and M&T Bank chair and CEO Robert Wilmers. Former Buffalo News publisher Stanford Lipsey is also part of the group.

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump won big Tuesday in his home state of New York, but his rivals are still hoping they can seize their party's nomination in July at the Republican National Convention.

To do that, they will have to continue electing favorable delegate slates in every state in the country — including tiny Vermont, which sends just 16 delegates to the Cleveland convention. The Vermont Republican Party has been holding town caucuses in recent weeks and will make its final delegate selections at its state convention May 21 in South Burlington.

Senators poked at details of an ethics reform bill Tuesday, with one calling it a “pretty big pile of mud,” but when it came time to vote, every lawmaker in the chamber voted to give preliminary approval to the measure.

“Given the fact that we’re one of the few states with no ethics regulation, this is a first step to get us where we need to go,” said Sen. Anthony Pollina (P/D-Washington), lead spokesman for the bill on behalf of the Senate Government Operations Committee.

Perhaps speaking more to the public than to his colleagues at the Statehouse, Pollina twice asserted, “Nobody should think by this proposal that we believe there is widespread corruption in state government.”