Tuesday, January 22, 2019
As the longest-ever government shutdown drags on, Vermont will defy the Trump administration by providing unemployment benefits to federal employees who are working without pay.
On Tuesday, Gov. Phil Scott directed the Vermont Department of Labor to treat so-called "essential" federal employees the same as furloughed workers, who are already eligible for unemployment.
"It just seems preposterous that these folks are forced to work without receiving a check and are not eligible for unemployment," Vermont Labor Commissioner Lindsay Kurrle told Seven Days.
Tags: government shutdown , Vermont Department of Labor , Lindsay Kurrle , Phil Scott , unemployment , Image , Web Only
Friday, January 18, 2019
Sean Brown, deputy commissioner of DCF, said a federal employee inquired about benefits earlier in the week, prompting discussion that led to the decision.
“They have no ongoing expectation of income right now, with no end in sight for the shutdown,” Brown said.
Tags: shutdown , food stamps , SNAP , LIHEAP , Low Income Heating Assistance Program , Sean Brown , Department for Children and Families , Economic Services Division , Chittenden Emergency Food Shelf , Image , Web Only
Wednesday, January 16, 2019
Vermont's sole delegate to the U.S. House is poised to play a significant role in a revived congressional investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) on Wednesday named Rep. Peter Welch (D-Vt.) to the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. The panel oversees the nation's 17 intelligence entities, including the Central Intelligence Agency and the Federal Bureau of Investigation. It is widely expected to reopen a shuttered probe of alleged ties between President Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign and the Russian government.
Welch said Wednesday that he had asked Pelosi for the appointment because he was “extremely concerned about the breakdown of this committee from its traditional, vital function.” He criticized its last chair, Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.), for politicizing the panel and using it to defend the president against what Welch sees as legitimate inquiries.
“In the past two years, what we’ve seen is that the committee has lost its way,” Welch said. “It really became, under Mr. Nunes, basically a political arm of the Trump administration.”
Tags: Peter Welch , Nancy Pelosi , Adam Schiff , House Intelligence Committee , Vermont , U.S. House , Image , Web Only
Saturday, January 12, 2019
The charred, tattered remains of Klein’s original “Trump 2020” flag were still hanging atop the pole. It had been burned one November night by two girls, ages 14 and 15.
Klein attached the desecrated flag’s still-creased replacement to the pole and hoisted it up. Several people who spoke Saturday at Klein's North Avenue home called that a courageous act of defiance. They said they regarded the vandalism as a demonstration of the intolerance and un-American impulses of Trump’s opponents.
Tags: 2016 election , Anya Tynio , Donald Trump , Election 2020 , Ellie Martin , Eric Trump , Gus Klein , Lawrence Zupan , Image , Web Only
Friday, January 11, 2019
The Vermont Department for Children and Families and the nonprofit Hunger Free Vermont found out Tuesday that they must process all applications for the federally funded 3SquaresVT program by January 15 and issue the benefits by January 20.
State employees are "making heroic efforts to make sure they can process everything they possibly can before the deadline," said Hunger Free Vermont executive director Anore Horton, who has been trying to educate families to make sure they file their paperwork on time.
Tags: Senator , Sen. Bernie Sanders , Peter Welch , 3SquaresVT , Hunger Free Vermont , government shutdown , Image , Web Only
Thursday, January 10, 2019
“It now appears that as part of our campaign there were some women who were harassed or mistreated,” Sanders wrote in a message he tweeted out Thursday afternoon to his nearly 9 million followers. “I thank them, from the bottom of my heart, for speaking out. What they experienced was absolutely unacceptable and certainly not what a progressive campaign, or any campaign, should be about.”
In this instance, Sanders' apology followed a Politico report from Wednesday evening. According to the news outlet, the Sanders campaign's then-deputy national field director, Robert Becker, talked about his desire to have sex with a young campaign staffer before he forcibly kissed the woman at a Philadelphia bar in July 2016. Becker was also the “central target” of a discrimination claim made by two employees he oversaw in Illinois and Iowa. That federal complaint ended in a $30,000 settlement, according to Politico.
Tags: Bernie Sanders , Vermont , senator , sexual misconduct , 2016 campaign , Robert Becker , CNN , Washington Post , Image , Web Only
Wednesday, January 9, 2019
In an interview Wednesday, former campaign manager Jeff Weaver told the network that he had never intended to manage a potential 2020 campaign.
"If he decides to run again, Bernie would have to have a campaign structure which is much more robust, with a much bigger leadership team," Weaver told CNN. "It would have to be much more diverse than was the case in 2016, when it was too male and too white."
Tags: Senator , Bernie Sanders , Jeff Weaver , CNN , Jane O'Meara Sanders , Image , Web Only
Friday, January 4, 2019
U.S. Rep. Peter Welch (D-Vt.) says he will not accept his congressional salary until the partial federal government shutdown is over.
"I'm suspending my own pay until all our federal workers get paid," Welch said in a Friday interview. "It's an unfair burden that we are imposing on them." He said there are 686 federal workers in Vermont who are continuing to work without pay.
The 14-day shutdown was triggered by President Donald Trump's insistence on $5.6 billion in new funding for border security. So far, he has rejected all compromises.
Tags: Peter Welch , Donald Trump , Mitch McConnell , federal government shutdown , Image , Web Only
Friday, December 14, 2018
The company, R.L. Vallee, alleged that Sanders and his Vermont spokesman, Daniel McLean, sought to gin up a state prosecution and a class-action lawsuit after the company's CEO, Rodolphe "Skip" Vallee, produced a television advertisement attacking Sanders and his family.
A week after Vallee released the ad in September 2014, according to documents and testimony obtained by the company's lawyers, Sanders and McLean met with two members of the Vermont Attorney General's Office to discuss the senator's suspicion that the company engaged in anticompetitive practices. According to handwritten notes taken at the meeting by Assistant Attorney General Ryan Kriger, either Sanders or McLean suggested that the AG should "Bring [a] case just to make a point."
McLean emailed Kriger several times in the coming weeks to ask whether Attorney General Bill Sorrell would take action. In the end, he did not.
Tags: R.L. Vallee , Skip Vallee , Bernie Sanders , Senator , Maplefields , gas , oil , price-fixing , Image , Web Only
Thursday, December 13, 2018
The 56-41 vote on Thursday afternoon was a rebuke of Saudi Arabia over the killing of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi, who was assassinated inside the country's embassy in Turkey. Because the U.S. House has blocked debate of the resolution, the Senate vote was largely symbolic.
President Donald Trump has refused to condemn the killing, which the Central Intelligence Agency determined was likely ordered by Saudi Arabia’s crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman.
Tags: Senator , Yemen , Saudi Arabia , Bernie Sanders , Peter Welch , Donald Trump , human rights , Jamal Khashoggi , Image , Web Only