Thursday, December 5, 2019
Gov. Phil Scott has appointed William “Bill” Cohen of Rutland to the Vermont Supreme Court.
A superior court justice in Rutland for the last 20 years, Cohen fills a vacancy created by the September 1 retirement of Justice Marilyn Skoglund, who departed after 22 years on the state’s highest court.
“Bill understands the needs of Vermonters as well as the challenges facing the judiciary and the justice system,” Scott said in a statement released Thursday morning. “Among a very strong candidate pool, Bill distinguished himself as someone with the right experience, temperament and character to serve the judiciary with excellence as an associate justice.”
In an interview, Cohen said he was “extremely happy” to be appointed but would also miss the close relationships he has built in Bennington, where he is the presiding judge.
He described himself as a moderate and his judicial philosophy as “to attempt as best I can to not judge out of fear or favor.”
Tags: Vermont Supreme Court , William "Bill" Cohen , Gov. Phil Scott , Max Misch , Web Only , Image
Tuesday, November 12, 2019
Doug Hoffer on Tuesday released a report suggesting the state’s Remote Worker Grant Program suffers from a “serious structural flaw” that has “undoubtedly resulted in wasted taxpayer funds.”
He argues in a 17-page report that there is no way to prove whether the program is an effective incentive that lures new people to the state or a handout to those who were planning to relocate to the Green Mountains anyway.
Remote workers can only qualify for certain relocation and business expenses, such as high-speed internet access, once they have already moved to Vermont, he noted.
Tags: Remote workers , incentives , Doug Hoffer , state auditor , Web Only , Image
Monday, September 30, 2019
Caledonia County State's Attorney Lisa Warren will preside over trial courts in the Northeast Kingdom and Washington County, replacing retired judge Dennis Pearson. Kerry Ann McDonald-Cady, a deputy state's attorney in Windham County, will be assigned to Rutland and Bennington counties. She replaces former judge David Howard.
In a press release, Scott praised the prosecutors' "record of sound legal judgement to ensure justice, which protects the vulnerable and upholds public safety."
Tags: Vermont Superior Court , Gov. Phil Scott , Lisa Warren , Kerry Ann McDonald-Cady , Judicial Nominating Board , Web Only , Image
Monday, August 19, 2019
Health Commissioner Mark Levine announced Monday that he had notified the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services that Vermont would stop using Title X dollars to fund Planned Parenthood of Northern New England’s services at 10 clinics. Instead, the state will make up the $759,000 difference with general fund dollars set aside for just this purpose.
New rules by the Trump administration allow clinics accepting Title X funds to talk to patients about abortion, but not to give women information about or refer them to abortion providers.
“We refuse to let the Trump administration bully us into withholding abortion information from our patients in Vermont," said Lucy Leriche, vice president of public policy for Planned Parenthood of Northern New England. "The gag rule is unethical and dangerous, and we will not subject our patients to it."
“These changes by HHS will disrupt one of our state’s most essential public health programs,” Levine said in a release. “For nearly 50 years, Title X has helped ensure that Vermonters have access to quality family planning and we want to make sure this continues.”
Tags: family planning , abortion , Title X , Trump administration , Web Only , Image
Tuesday, August 13, 2019
Deb Billado’s message, sent last week in the party’s official newsletter, derided the president’s critics as “left-wing hatemongers” and a “mob of hate-crazed, fear-driven people who have become deranged” because “crooked Hillary Clinton” lost to Trump. Billado described the president as a “principled man” who “can’t be bought.”
She suggested that former special counsel Robert Mueller was merely a “figurehead” whose “feeble” congressional testimony proved he “barely knew what happened in the investigation and obviously was not the person directing” it. She wrote that instead of blasting Trump for his efforts to solve the crisis at the southern border, Democrats, if they were patriots, would work with him to solve it.
“We know they are not capable of that,” Billado wrote. “Surely makes an observer think that they must hate America.”
Some elected Vermont Republicans immediately distanced themselves from Billado's comments.
Tags: Vermont Republican Party , Joe Benning , Deb Billado , Heidi Scheuermann , Corey Parent , Trump , Web Only , Image
Tuesday, July 16, 2019
Vermont Public Safety Commissioner Tom Anderson announced his resignation in an email to colleagues Tuesday afternoon.
Anderson said he informed Gov. Phil Scott of his decision in late June and will step down effective July 31, citing “personal and family reasons.”
“This has been a very difficult decision,” Anderson wrote. “Leading the fine men and women of the Department of Public Safety for the past 30 months has been the highlight of my career.”
Scott tapped the former U.S. attorney for Vermont in January 2017 to run the Department of Public Safety, which includes the Vermont State Police, as well as divisions for fire safety, crime data and emergency response. At the time Anderson was a deputy general counsel for the U.S. Department of Justice.
Tags: Tom Anderson , Department of Public Safety , Web Only , Image
Monday, July 15, 2019
The 325 members of the St. Albans Cooperative Creamery will vote later this month on whether to become part of the 14,000-member Dairy Farmers of America co-op.
The move, which has been in the works for two years, was billed Monday by proponents as the best way for Vermont dairies to secure a stable market for their products and make needed investments in the creamery and its fleet of delivery trucks.
Harold Howrigan, president of the St. Albans Co-op board, said he's a sixth-generation dairy farmer from Fairfield who wants to see his operation thrive well into the future.
“The proposed merger of St. Albans and Dairy Farmers of America is one that will not only benefit the members of both cooperatives, but will strengthen the Vermont dairy landscape overall,” Howrigan said.
Tags: St. Albans Cooperative Creamery , Dairy Farmers of America , Senate Committee on Agriculture , Vermont legislature , Senate , Ruth Hardy , Anthony Pollina , Web Only , Image
Monday, June 17, 2019
Scott said the state has recently passed numerous drinking water protections, but he worried that the bill, S.37, lacked clarity and could negatively affect the business climate in the state.
“Numerous Vermont employers have expressed concerns to me, and to Legislators, that the unknown legal and financial risks, and increased liability, is problematic for continued investment in Vermont,” Scott wrote in his veto letter.
Tags: drinking water , contamination , lawsuit , veto , Phil Scott , Web Only , Image
Wednesday, June 12, 2019
Scott said he moved the presser from Thursday to Wednesday because he'd gotten so many requests for further comment.
On the waiting period bill, Scott offered a number of explanations, not all of them consistent. He began by recounting the gun measures he signed into law last year and his administration's efforts to improve the state mental health system.
Tags: Phil Scott. Alyssa Black , Rob Black , gun purchase waiting period , abortion , Web Only , Image
Monday, June 10, 2019
Gov. Phil Scott on Monday vetoed a 24-hour waiting period for handgun sales in Vermont and signed a bill protecting a woman's right to an abortion.
The legislature passed S.169 to create a cooling-off period to reduce acts of impulsive gun violence, especially suicides. But Scott, citing a number of other gun restrictions he has signed, said he didn't think the new bill hit the mark.
“With these measures in place, we must now prioritize strategies that address the underlying causes of violence and suicide," Scott said in a statement. "I do not believe S.169 addresses these areas."
Tags: guns , suicide , waiting period , Second Amendment , abortion , Phil Scott , veto , Web Only , Image