Tuesday, January 19, 2016
Franklin County Deputy State’s Attorney Diane Wheeler subpoenaed three Seven Days staffers last November: news editor Matthew Roy, political editor Paul Heintz and reporter Mark Davis. She sought to depose them in McAllister's criminal case and to obtain copies of documents, "electronically stored information" and any other "tangible things" related to stories involving McAllister.
After Seven Days moved to have the subpoenas quashed, Wheeler withdrew Roy's, noting that he had not interacted with sources in the case. But she asked the court to order Heintz to testify about his interviews with an alleged victim and Davis to testify about interviews with McAllister. In both cases the journalists would have to surrender relevant notes or recordings.
Last Thursday, Mello dismissed Heintz's subpoena on the grounds that prosecutors could get the same information from the woman he interviewed. But the judge upheld Davis', ruling that prosecutors could not duplicate what Davis learned at McAllister’s Highgate farm. Mello wrote that the information “will likely be crucial to the State’s case."
Tags: Shield law , Norm McAllister , Vermont legislature , Freedom of the Press , First Amendment , Image , Web Only
Monday, January 18, 2016
So Ralston posted his musing on Facebook.
One person recommended: “Governor!”
“Lt. Gov.,” another answered. They were just the sort of responses you get when you publicly ask your friends what you should do. Ralston also launched a website through which he is seeking input.
And now he’s taking it to the radio airwaves, launching a weekly show titled “The Reluctant Politician” on Waterbury-based WDEV. It’ll air 1-2 p.m. on Thursdays starting this week.
It’s an odd approach — crowdsourcing advice on his potential candidacy — and one that runs the risk of making Ralston appear indecisive. If that’s how it strikes people, Ralston said, they don’t have to vote for him if he decides to run.
“I’m serious about this,” said Ralston, a Middlebury Democrat who served four years in the state House from 2011-2014 and owns the Vermont Coffee Company. “I want to talk to a lot of people.”
Tags: Paul Ralston , Vermont legislature , elections , Image , Web Only
Friday, January 15, 2016
The Shumlin administration says the rate changes are necessary to bring the state into compliance with its federal contract with the Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services. Officials noted, too, that the state had been paying more for group therapy than most other states.
The administration expects to save $1.8 million in Medicaid costs with the rate change, one of the few reductions in a Medicaid budget that has grown significantly this past year.
But Margaret Joyal, director of outpatient services at Washington County Mental Health Services, told the House Human Services Services Committee that the rate cut could force her agency to reduce the number of group therapy sessions it offers. It would likely double the waiting list for counseling. She predicted many clients would end up receiving more expensive individual therapy — but only after lengthy waits.
"Other agencies are just closing down their groups," Joyal said.
Tags: Ann Pugh , Mitzi Johnson , Margaret Joyal , Medicaid , group therapy , mental health , Image , Web Only
Thursday, January 14, 2016
The bill is a first step to bring privacy protections up to speed with evolving technology, Sen. Tim Ashe (D/P- Chittenden) told his colleagues.
Before passage, the Senate Judiciary Committee had stripped out the provision that generated the most controversy — a proposal to allow individuals to sue and collect penalties and legal expenses if the privacy of their medical records was breached. "We agreed that provision wasn't fine-tuned," Ashe said, but he also acknowledged heavy lobbying by physicians.
Tags: Sen. Tim Ashe , Senate Judiciary Committee , Paul Harrington , Vermont Medical Society , ACLU of Vermont , Allen Gilbert , Image , Web Only
A week after suspending one of their own colleagues, Vermont Senate leaders met Thursday afternoon to consider the creation of an internal ethics panel charged with reviewing allegations against sitting senators.
The establishment of such a panel was one of three changes to the body's rules drafted by Senate Secretary John Bloomer and presented Thursday afternoon to the five-member Senate Rules Committee. The other proposals would require members to publicly disclose certain information about their employment and board service and would require interns, aides and other employees to register with the Sergeant at Arms' office.
The debate over forming an ethics panel long preceded last week's suspension of Sen. Norm McAllister (R-Franklin) over alleged sex crimes. But according to Senate President Pro Tempore John Campbell (D-Windsor), the situation made it clear that the Senate lacked a "venue in which to deal with certain issues that you would hope did not arise, but clearly do."
Sen. Peg Flory (R-Rutland), who serves with Campbell on the rules committee, agreed.
"I think it's good to get ground rules set. I wish we had done this years ago," she said. "I remember last week [during the McAllister debate] stating, at the very least, let's take this as a call to set something up."
The specifics of the "ground rules" are still up for debate. The committee took no action Thursday and agreed to meet next week for further discussion. The full Senate would have to sign off on any changes to its rules.
Tags: Senate ethics committee , rules committee , John Bloomer , John Campbell , Peg Flory , Image , Web Only
But the Senate and House committees have taken different approaches to the so-called Act 46 "fix," setting up messy debates on the floors of both chambers next week — and difficult negotiations between the two bodies, if their respective plans pass.
Wednesday afternoon in the Senate Education Committee, Sen. David Zuckerman (D/P-Chittenden) argued that the legislature erred in the closing days of last year's session by including the cost-containment provision in a bill that otherwise focused on encouraging school districts to consolidate. The provision capped per-pupil spending increases in next year's school budgets at 0 to 5.5 percent, depending on how much those schools spent this year. Spending in excess of those caps would be punished with a tax penalty.
According to legislative analysts, more than 125 districts are facing such penalties, partly due to a 7.9 percent spike in health care costs.
"Those towns that are hitting these thresholds are not necessarily towns that have been high-spending or are not as judicious with their budgetary process," Zuckerman argued. "Districts, and therefore the taxpayers in those districts, are being somewhat unjustifiably penalized for circumstances that are out of the school districts' control."
A bill Zuckerman introduced to repeal the spending thresholds passed his committee on a 4 to 2 vote.
Tags: Act 46 , spending caps , David Sharpe , David Zuckerman , Dustin Degree , Janet Ancel , Shap Smith , Rebecca Holcombe , Peter Shumlin , Image , Web Only
Tuesday, January 12, 2016
The Vermont Democrat endorsed Clinton last May, electing jeers on social media from supporters of his home-state senator, Bernie Sanders, who is locked in a close race with Clinton for the Democratic presidential nomination. Sanders campaigned for Shumlin ahead of the governor's narrow reelection in 2014.
According to the Clinton campaign, Shumlin will visit campaign offices in Burlington, Iowa City, Cedar Rapids, Grinnell and Newton to meet with supporters and volunteers. He'll also host an organizing event Wednesday in Keokuk and will speak Thursday evening at the Ankeny Area Democrats' Winter Banquet in Des Moines.
Tags: Senator , Peter Shumlin , Bernie Sanders , Hillary Clinton , Iowa , presidential campaign , Image , Recommended Reading , Web Only
Monday, January 11, 2016
The Marijuana Policy Project is planning to launch advertisements making the argument that regulation of marijuana will work better than prohibition of the drug, according to Matt Simon, the group’s New England political director. He said, “We want people to see the choice between prohibition that’s not working and a regulatory approach that can work.”
The ads, which for now will appear on the news website VTDigger.org, will target the general public and legislators, Simon said. Former Vermont Attorney General Kim Cheney, a Republican, will appear in the ads, Simon said. He wouldn't say whether the group plans to pay for television ads to reach a broader audience.
Simon plans to unveil the ad at a news conference Tuesday at the Statehouse, along with other indications that marijuana legalization efforts are ramping up.
Tags: Cannabeat , Gov. Peter Shumlin , Marijuana legalization , Image , Web Only
Friday, January 8, 2016
“I believe that divestment is not the appropriate strategy for our fund and is counter to our fiduciary responsibilities to the fund and its beneficiaries,” Pearce said in a statement issued Friday morning.
In his State of the State address the day before, Shumlin proposed following California's lead in divesting from coal-extracting companies. He also called on the state to immediately rid itself of ExxonMobil stock while studying divesting from other oil companies.
“The urgency for us to take every sensible action against climate change has never been greater,” Shumlin said in his speech.
Thursday's announcement was a marked shift for the governor.
In September 2014, Shumlin said he agreed with Pearce that divestment was not a good idea, arguing, as she does, that owning stocks gave the state "a seat at the table with oil companies." He told Seven Days at the time that he was "willing to take a look" at divestiture, but that doing so was not "the sharpest knife of all the things that we could do."
Tags: Fossil fuel divestment , Peter Shumlin , Beth Pearce , Image , Web Only
Thursday, January 7, 2016
For the past five years, Lt. Gov. Phil Scott has joined his Republican colleagues in the legislature to offer reaction to the State of the State speech by Democratic Gov. Peter Shumlin — but not this year.
Instead Scott, who aspires to deliver the State of the State address next year as governor, sat down in front of a camera at his gubernatorial campaign headquarters and offered his own assessment of Vermont's health. And in a contrived second segment of this live stream, he answered questions posed by a "moderator." As Scott fielded questions on his leadership style, finances and property taxes, four women — campaign volunteers — seated at tables behind him kept their eyes glued to their computer screens.
"Vermonters expect and deserve a renewed focus on making Vermont affordable," Scott declared in his opening statement. In gentle jabs at the party in power, he suggested that the legislature and governor had been overly optimistic about revenues for the past five years. The result: budgets to operate state government that spent more money than was available.
"I'm frugal," Scott declared. Such fiscal prudence was the signature characteristic of his response to the governor: "I won't sign or propose a budget that grows faster than the previous year's."
Tags: Bruce Lisman , cannabis related , Matt Dunne , Peter Shumlin , Phil Scott , Sue Minter , Image , Web Only