Tuesday, April 19, 2016
“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.”
Tags: ethics , Sen. Anthony Pollina , Sen. Joe Benning , Senate President Pro Tem John Campbell , Sen. Bobby Starr , Sen. Claire Ayer , Image , Web Only
The Vermont Department of Corrections' contract to house overflow inmates in a private prison in Michigan could be in jeopardy.
A plan gaining momentum in the Michigan Senate would see that state's DOC close two of its oldest prisons, and send inmates to North Lake Correctional Facility in Baldwin, Mich., which is privately owned by The GEO Group. The state of Michigan would lease the entire prison and run North Lake as a state facility, according to various media reports.
Currently, 230 Vermont inmates are held in North Lake under a two-year, $30 million contract inked by the Vermont DOC and GEO last year. That contract allows either party to void it with five months notice.
Tags: Vermont DOC , North Lake , Michigan , The GEO Group , Image , Web Only
Monday, April 18, 2016
Democratic gubernatorial candidate Peter Galbraith launched a stinging attack against the leader of his own party Monday, questioning the role Gov. Peter Shumlin played in an economic development initiative that federal prosecutors say was riddled with fraud.
During a noon press conference in front of the Statehouse, the former state senator and ambassador called for the creation of an independent commission to investigate the state's oversight and promotion of the Northeast Kingdom projects. He questioned the veracity of Shumlin's public statements on the matter and said Vermonters wanted to know the extent of his involvement.
“In short, what did the governor know? When did he know it? And what did he do about it?” Galbraith said, paraphrasing the late U.S. senator Howard Baker at the height of the Watergate hearings.
The candidate's comments came four days after the Securities and Exchange Commission and Vermont Attorney General Bill Sorrell unveiled civil charges against Northeast Kingdom developers Ariel Quiros and Bill Stenger. Authorities say the pair misappropriated more than $200 million in foreign investment intended for construction projects at Jay Peak, in downtown Newport and elsewhere in the region.
Tags: Peter Galbraith , Peter Shumlin , Jay Peak , EB-5 , Bill Stenger , Ariel Quiros , Image , Web Only
VTDigger.org's Anne Galloway reported late Friday that Shumlin's legal counsel, Sarah London, asked an information technology employee on April 8 to purge the state's servers of emails belonging to five former staffers. One of the ex-employees was former deputy chief of staff Alex MacLean, who left the governor's office in January 2013 to work as a contract project manager for Jay Peak Resort.
Tags: Peter Shumlin , Jim Condos , Tanya Marshall , Bill Stenger , Ariel Quiros , EB-5 , Jay Peak , emails , records , Vermont state archives , Image , Web Only
Saturday, April 16, 2016
Ariel Quiros and Bill Stenger, who allegedly misappropriated $200 million worth of foreign investment, donated tens of thousands of dollars to political players in Vermont over the past five years, according to early and likely incomplete estimates. Several of those recipients appeared at investor-recruitment events staged by the developers outside the country and advocated for the EB-5 investor visa program, through which Quiros and Stenger funded their development projects.
Tags: Bill Stenger , Ariel Quiros , political donations , campaign finance , Peter Shumlin , Patrick Leahy , Peter Welch , Bruce Lisman , Peter Galbraith , Image , Web Only
Friday, April 15, 2016
The Ways and Means Committee voted 7-4 on a new version of legislation that would legalize possession of up to an ounce of marijuana. It would also allow adults to grow as many as two plants per household if they obtain a $125 permit.
The bill's measures fall short of those in a legalization bill that the Senate passed. But the bill goes further than a version that the House Judiciary Committee passed a week earlier, which stopped short of legalization.
“I think there will be very positive reaction in the community,” said Matt Simon, New England policy director for the Marijuana Policy Project. “We’ll have to see what happens in the next committee.”
Tags: Cannabeat , Janet Ancel , marijuana legalization , Vermont legislature , Image , Web Only
A similar bill already passed the House, but that version included a ban on placing e-cigarettes on counters in retail stores. The Senate committee deleted that provision.
Tags: electronic cigarettes , Senate Health & Welfare Committee , Health Commissioner Harry Chen , Sen. Claire Ayer , Image , Web Only
An ethics rule would establish a five-member panel, with new members named every two years. The panel would investigate any allegations of ethical violations by senators.
The Senate Rules Committee would establish the procedures that the ethics panel would follow. In fact, the committee already has approved a two-page procedure manual, but it had yet to be shared with all senators.
Sen. Claire Ayer (D-Addison) jumped up to question why the ethics panel wouldn’t write its own procedures.
Tags: Senate ethics , Sen. Phil Baruth , Sen. Claire Ayer , Image , Web Only
Seated in a spare room at the Hotel Jay & Conference Center, Stenger slid a photograph across a table. Taken nearly three years earlier in nearby Newport, it featured Stenger, business partner Ariel Quiros and their lawyer, William Kelly, announcing their goal to bring 10,000 jobs to the rural region. Standing between the developers in the photo were the state's four most powerful politicians: Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Congressman Peter Welch (D-Vt.) and Gov. Peter Shumlin.
Tags: Senator , Jay Peak , Q Burke , Bill Stenger , Ariel Quiros , Peter Shumlin , Jim Douglas , Patrick Leahy , Bernie Sanders , presidential campaign , Recommended Reading , Image , Web Only
Wednesday, April 13, 2016
“You feel like it’s time for fresh ideas,” Komline said. “It’s time for me to start what my next thing is.”
She said she’s not sure exactly what that will be, but she plans to move to Montpelier and expects to work on legislative issues in some capacity.
Tags: Patti Komline , Tony Klein , Tim Jerman , John Campbell , Vermont legislature , Image , Web Only