Wednesday, June 27, 2018
The high court determined in a 5-4 vote that nonmembers of public-sector unions do not have to pay dues for collective bargaining.
When unions negotiate with employers, the contracts they fight for benefit all employees, regardless of union status. Nonunion members have been required to pay "fair-share" fees in 22 states, including Vermont, to cover the costs associated with collective bargaining.
The court majority ruled that requiring such fees violates First Amendment rights, since unions engage in political activism. That means workers can opt out of union fees but still receive the benefits of bargaining.
Union supporters, including Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), have decried the ruling as an attack on working people’s power.
Vermont labor leaders said they were not surprised by the decision and remain optimistic that workers will choose to support their unions.
Tags: Vermont unions , Darren Allen , James Haslam , Rights & Democracy , Bernie Sanders , senator , union , labor , SCOTUS , Steve Howard , Vermont State Employees' Association , Image , Web Only
Thursday, May 31, 2018
Milne told Seven Days last week that he was considering a run for office this year and had hinted that he might challenge Republican Gov. Phil Scott in the primary or Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) in the general election.
The 59-year-old Pomfret resident and travel agency president ran against then-governor Peter Shumlin in 2014 and nearly unseated him. Two years later, he challenged Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) but lost by a much larger margin: 60 to 33 percent.
In an announcement to supporters and reporters Thursday morning, Milne said that more than 300 people had urged him to run for office in recent weeks. He directly criticized Sanders for an agenda he called "arthritic and driven by politics" but suggested that Sanders' reelection was a foregone conclusion.
"With his next term, I believe he has a final opportunity to prove that he is not just another flavor of the careerist politicians who’ve gotten us into this mess," Milne wrote.
Tags: Senator , Scott Milne , Patrick Leahy , Bernie Sanders , Phil Scott , gun control , Image , Web Only
Monday, May 21, 2018
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) has formally announced that he is running for reelection this fall.
In a press release announcing the decision Monday, the two-term U.S. senator said he would seek another six years in Congress to continue fighting wealth inequality in the country.
“Our struggle to create a government which represents all of us and not just the 1 percent — a government based on the principles of economic, social, racial and environmental justice — must continue,” Sanders said. “And that is why I’m running for reelection.”
The candidate said he would formally launch his campaign in June with rallies across Vermont.
According to campaign spokesperson Arianna Jones, Sanders plans to seek the Democratic nomination in Vermont’s August primary. If he wins, she said, he would “respectfully” decline the nomination and run as an independent in the general election. Sanders would, however, accept the endorsement of the Vermont Democratic Party.
Tags: Senator , Bernie Sanders , Jane Sanders , Jane O'Meara Sanders , Jasdeep Pannu , Vermont , Burlington College , Brad Peacock , Jon Svitavsky , Image , Web Only
Monday, April 23, 2018
The story was sparked by the revelation in federal court last week that Hannity was a client of President Donald Trump's attorney and fixer, Michael Cohen, whose home and office were raided the week before by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Speaking on Fox News after the court hearing, Hannity said his work with Cohen focused almost exclusively on real estate.
"I hate the stock market," he said. "I prefer real estate. Michael knows real estate."
Hannity loves real estate so much that he bought dozens of properties out of foreclosure over the past decade, according to the Guardian. Some of those were purchased with support from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development — a fact that Hannity failed to disclose during an interview last June with HUD Secretary Ben Carson.
So where, exactly, are the Fox News host's Vermont holdings?
Tags: Sean Hannity , Michael Cohen , Vermont , real estate , Ludlow , Okemo , Image , Web Only
Thursday, April 19, 2018
Within two weeks of the permit approvals, on March 12, the T-Mobile PAC cut a $2,500 check to Welch's reelection campaign. Soon after that, on March 27, T-Mobile filed another motion with Cheney’s Public Utility Commission, this time to update equipment at a Jay Peak cell site.
Welch and Cheney maintain that neither was involved in the other’s dealings with T-Mobile. They say a strict firewall separates their respective careers.
But the episode demonstrates how their work with regulated utilities could raise at least the perception of a conflict of interest. It also raises questions as to whether Welch has abided by a 2016 pledge to refuse campaign contributions from companies appearing before Cheney’s board.
Tags: Peter Welch , Margaret Cheney , T-Mobile , Public Utility Commission , regulation , Image , Web Only
Monday, April 16, 2018
That's more than five times what the senator raised during the same period last year, but it's less than the $1.29 million he collected in the second quarter of 2017 and the $1.95 million he raised in the third quarter of that year.
Sanders, who was first elected to the U.S. House in 1990 and the Senate in 2006, has not said whether he will seek reelection this November. No other contenders had filed reports with the FEC as of Monday afternoon.
The vast majority of Sanders' donations this year came from individual contributors, though the campaign accepted $10,000 from labor and environmental political action committees, such as the Climate Champions PAC and the National Nurses United PAC.
During the same three-month period, Sanders spent nearly $533,000. That left him, at the end of March, with nearly $6.9 million in his Senate reelection fund. But Sanders, who has declined to say whether he would mount a second presidential campaign in 2020, isn't using the money simply to stump in Vermont.
Tags: Senator , political donations , fundraising , Bernie Sanders , Peter Welch , Patrick Leahy , congress , Federal Elections Commission , Image , Web Only
Asked what Congress should do if Trump fired Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein in order to remove Mueller, Welch said, "That would be grounds for Congress taking up the impeachment questions."
In recent weeks, Trump has repeatedly criticized Mueller, whom Rosenstein appointed last May to investigate alleged ties between the president's 2016 campaign and Russia. While Trump cannot directly terminate the special counsel or end his investigation, he could order the acting attorney general — at the moment, Rosenstein — to do so.
But, according to Welch, "That would be obstruction of justice. The president is not above the law. No citizen is above the law."
Asked whether he would personally file articles of impeachment, Welch said, "I think it would be impeachable, and I would very likely support impeachment if he interfered with the investigation by firing [Mueller]."
Tags: Senator , Donald Trump , Impeachment , Peter Welch , Patrick Leahy , Bernie Sanders , Rod Rosenstein , Robert Mueller , Image , Web Only
Saturday, April 14, 2018
The United States, France and Britain fired more than 100 missiles at Syrian chemical weapons facilities late Friday, a week after forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad allegedly used such weapons against his own people.
In written statements issued following Friday's air strikes, Vermont's congressional delegates said that Assad's use of chemical weapons merited a response from the international community.
"But it is Congress' responsibility to declare war," Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) said. "Threatening the use of military force by tweet, and firing off missiles without a coherent policy or clear legal authority, raises obvious dangers and constitutional concerns and risks drawing us into a wider war."
Tags: Senator , Syria , Air Strikes , Patrick Leahy , Bernie Sanders , Peter Welch , Image , Web Only
Wednesday, March 21, 2018
But according to ABC News, a letter coauthored by Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) and then-senator Al Franken (D-Minn.) may have touched off a Federal Bureau of Investigation inquiry into whether Attorney General Jeff Sessions lied during his January 2017 confirmation hearing.
Leahy and Franken sent the letter in March 2017 to then-FBI director James Comey, asserting that Sessions had provided testimony that "appears to be discernibly false" regarding his contacts with the Russian government or its officials, which may have constituted perjury.
The senators asked Comey to "investigate all contacts the Russian ambassador, or other Russian officials, may have had with Attorney General Sessions or with his staff, and whether any laws were broken in the course of those contacts or in any subsequent discussion of whether they occurred."
Tags: Patrick Leahy , Jeff Sessions , Al Franken , Donald Trump , Andrew McCabe , Rod Rosenstein , James Comey , Robert Mueller , Image , Web Only
Monday, March 19, 2018
"This is just trying to intimidate the people in the Department of Justice and the FBI," Leahy said during a press conference at Burlington International Airport. "I don't think Bob Mueller will be intimidated by anybody."
Speaking two days after McCabe's dismissal, the senior member of the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee also said that he was "concerned about the attacks now ramping up on" Mueller, comparing the situation to Watergate.
For the first time this weekend, Trump directly criticized Mueller's investigation of Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential campaign, alleging that members of the special counsel's team were "hardened Democrats" and supporters of Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton. The day before, Trump lawyer John Dowd called on Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein to shutter the Mueller investigation.
Asked if the special counsel's firing would provoke a constitutional crisis, Leahy said, "I think so." But the senator would not say how he would respond to such an eventuality. "You'll see that if [Trump] does attempt to fire him, I'll make some very strong stands on that," Leahy said.
Tags: Patrick Leahy , Donald Trump , Andrew McCabe , Robert Mueller , Jeff Sessions , James Comey , Rod Rosenstein , Image , Web Only