Thursday, August 10, 2017
Lawmakers this year established the six-member commission to consider the future of Act 250, the 47-year-old law that governs development.
The House speaker and the Senate Committee on Committees were each directed to appoint three members. Legislation specified that in both cases, the appointees were not to be all from the same party.
Tags: Act 250 , Dustin Degree , Vermont Legislature , Dick Mazza , David Zuckerman , Tim Ashe , Image , Web Only
Monday, August 7, 2017
Scott, speaking to reporters after an unrelated event in Shelburne, declined to say who would lead or serve on the commission. Vermont legislators had hoped to create a panel that would make recommendations for how the state might tax and regulate marijuana. Scott said his focus, and the makeup of his panel, will be different.
The commission’s priority will be to look at highway safety, he said. Chief among his legalization concerns is that no convenient roadside test exists to measure a driver’s impairment from marijuana.
Tags: Cannabeat , marijuana legalization , Phil Scott , Vermont legislature , Image , Web Only
Thursday, July 27, 2017
Environmental activist James Ehlers is running for governor of Vermont.
The Winooski resident on Thursday registered as a Democratic gubernatorial candidate with the Secretary of State’s Office and confirmed his candidacy to Seven Days via text message. If he wins the party’s primary, he would presumably challenge first-term Republican Gov. Phil Scott, who is expected to seek reelection in 2018.
At his weekly press conference later Thursday, the governor delivered an ambiguous answer when asked about his political plans.
“I’m trying to get through this next term, so I’m not ready to acknowledge my candidacy today, but I’m intending to run in the future,” Scott said. “But I’m not announcing today.”
Got that?
Tags: James Ehlers , Phil Scott , Faisal Gill , Image , Web Only
Friday, July 21, 2017
The action came after economists — one hired by the governor's administration and another hired by the legislature — warned that all is not rosy with the economy, nationally or in Vermont.
The state is expected to see $28.8 million less in general fund revenue this fiscal year, economists Tom Kavet and Jeff Carr said.
Tags: Phil Scott , budget cuts , Vermont legislature , Jeff Carr , Tom Kavet , economy , Donald Trump , Image , Web Only
Tuesday, July 18, 2017
The Vermont Department of Motor Vehicles' facial recognition program violates state law and should remain suspended, Attorney General T.J. Donovan said Tuesday.
Donovan said the program, which includes 2.7 million images of license applicants and has previously been shared with police, violates a 2004 law barring the DMV from using "biometric identifiers" in granting identification cards.
The DMV suspended use of facial recognition in May after Seven Days, using documents uncovered by the American Civil Liberties Union of Vermont, published a story on the program.
The DMV should not restart the program unless it gets legislative approval, Donovan said.
"This is about balancing public safety with the privacy rights of Vermonters," Donovan said.
Tags: T.J. Donovan , Vermont DMV , facial recognition database , facial recognition program , Image , Web Only
Friday, July 14, 2017
Former state senator Norm McAllister took the witness stand in his own defense on Friday morning and said the woman who has accused him of sexual assault cajoled him into a months-long consensual relationship.
He was the final witness, and faced tough questions during cross-examination. Jurors began deliberating the case around 5:30 p.m.
McAllister forcefully denied ever coercing or assaulting the alleged victim during testimony in Franklin Superior Court. He claimed that she initiated a sexual relationship in January 2014, several months after she had come to live and work at his farm.
At the time, McAllister said, he was grieving the loss of his wife, who died of cancer in September 2013, only two months after she was diagnosed. Meanwhile, the victim had lost her children to the Department for Children and Families, and took the job in hopes of getting them back.
Tags: Norm McAllister , Bob Katims , John Lavoie , Franklin County , Image , Image , Web Only
Thursday, July 13, 2017
The alleged victim in the sexual assault trial of former state senator Norm McAllister took the witness stand Thursday morning and said she agreed to a sex-for-rent scheme with him out of desperation.
Back in 2012, the woman testified, the Department for Children and Families had taken her children. She was living in a homeless shelter in St. Albans. To have any chance to get her kids back, she needed a job and a place to live, she testified. She answered a Craigslist ad for someone willing to live and work on a Highgate farm.
McAllister, who had taken out the ad, told her he had other applicants with more experience, she recalled.
She recounted the following conversation while on the witness stand in Franklin Superior Court: To land the job, she told McAllister she would be willing to do anything, including household chores, cooking meals or running errands.
Tags: Norm McAllister , Bob Katims , John Lavoie , Franklin County , Image , Web Only
Wednesday, July 12, 2017
Deputy Franklin County State's Attorney John Lavoie said that McAllister targeted a woman who was desperate to live in a dilapidated trailer he owned and to work on his Highgate farm. She allowed him to take advantage of her for years, Lavoie said.
"Rape is not about sex," Lavoie told jurors in Franklin Superior Court. "It's about the rapist using sex to exercise power and control."
Lavoie devoted most of his opening argument to unveiling a 30-minute recording of McAllister speaking on the telephone with the alleged victim. On the recording, McAllister discusses, in often graphic detail, some of their sexual encounters.
Tags: Norm McAllister , Bob Katims , John Lavoie , Franklin County , legislature , Image , Web Only
Tuesday, July 11, 2017
Attorneys continue to question prospective jurors individually. But of approximately 100 people summoned for the jury pool, 70 have been sent home for a variety of reasons: they've formed an opinion about the case, they have a personal connection to someone involved in the case or they have a personal connection to a sexual assault victim.
Deputy Franklin County State's Attorney John Lavoie and McAllister's attorney, Bob Katims, have each used three of their six allotted challenges. Judge Martin Maley said he wants to select four alternates to the 12-person jury.
Tags: Norm McAllister , Franklin County , John Lavoie , Bob Katims , Martin Maley , legislature , Image , Web Only
Monday, July 10, 2017
Jury selection began Monday in the second sexual assault trial of former state senator Norm McAllister, and attorneys were having trouble identifying jurors who are eligible to serve.
By day's end, not a single juror had been chosen from among the roughly 100 people summoned to Franklin Superior Court. Selection was to continue Tuesday, and the testimony was expected to commence on Wednesday.
Last week, prosecutors from the Franklin County State's Attorney's Office and Bob Katims, McAllister's attorney, submitted a list of prospective jurors who they believe should be struck, either because they had formed opinions about the case or had other conflicts. That was based on questionnaires the prospective jurors had completed.
But Judge Martin Maley agreed to strike only half of them. The remaining ones were being interviewed one by one by the judge and attorneys.
Tags: Norm McAllister , leglsiature , Bob Katims , John Lavoie , Martin Maley , Image , Web Only