This week our senior Senator, Patrick Leahy, was justifiably angry when it came out that the A.I.D. had been sponsoring an illegal social media platform in Cuba in an effort to undermine the Cuban government.

As if we didn't already know that AID was a CIA front, right?

Still, there are a bunch of reasons that this was a terrible idea.

First, when the U.S. government funds anti-government activities in other countries it gives the governments of those countries a legitimate basis to claim that even legitimate pro-democracy efforts are no more than a tool of the United States imperialists.

Second, to the extent that the AID carries out and promotes legitimate humanitarian assistance, linking it to CIA programs like this gives governments a sound basis to reject that assistance.

Third, did it even occur to them that the Cuban Twitter users might be exposed as anti-government activists to the Cuban government?

Leahy's right:

 “Whose idea was it for this specific program? I’ve read the legislation. The legislation doesn’t say anything about setting up a cockamamie idea in Cuba with Twitter accounts and all on something that the Cubans would be so easy to discover,” Leahy said.

The Freeps gets it right in today’s story about the bundle of rapid-fire lawsuits coming at Green Mountain Keurig.  They currently number 14, a dozen class action suits charging uncompetitive practices plus the original lawsuits filed by Treehouse and Rogers – who both prevailed in their previous lawsuits against Keurig.  http://www.burlingtonfreepress…

If you buy the Keurig 2.0 (coming this fall) you can continue to fork over $50/pound for their Keurig pods, but you’ll no longer be able to use discount pods or your own coffee:

Lisa Smits of Fredericksburg, Va. is one of the hundreds of people complaining in various forums online, saying of the Keurig 2.0 in an email sent to the Burlington Free Press,

“This is like selling a toaster and in small print saying, ‘requires using our exclusive patented Wonder Bread.'”

Keurig’s sparkly new CEO from CocaCola Brian Kelley said not to worry, Keurig would be offering manufacturers of unlicensed pods the opportunity to “come into the system so they can be perfectly brewed too.”  But

Jim Rogers, whose family-held company does about $100 million in sales annually, said he wasn’t interested in joining the ranks of licensed manufacturers.

“We want to compete,” he said.

“We think we can kick their butt.”

A pretrial conference in the TreeHouse lawsuit is scheduled for May 1.

Also today, Motley Fool dumps a big bucket of ice on Keurig’s OTHER new product coming this fall, Keurig Cold.  http://www.fool.com/investing/…

The great little coffee company looks like it got too big and greedy.  Its too bad they didn’t remove “Green Mountain” from their name when they added Keurig – so it didn’t have to get smeared far and wide.

Previously..

http://www.greenmountaindaily….

You remember the police misconduct from a couple of summers ago? The one where a Shelburne police officer pulled Rod MacIver over and charged him with running a red light, even though the cruiser cam established beyond a doubt that he hadn't run the red light?

The Burlington Free Press is reporting that the case has been settled for a cash payment as well as a promise that Shelburne will “provide extra training to its police officers; to establish a formal, written policy to address complaints against police; and to ensure that its officers are not provided incentives for traffic stops and ticketing.“

 Don't you wonder what that training will be?

“From now on, if you see someone not violating the law, don't give them a ticket.”

“Don't lie about what you see drivers do while you're on the job.”

“Don't lie when you're testifying in court.”

There, that shouldn't take long. I cordially invite the Shelburne Police Department to use any of these ideas at the training they're going to do, free of charge.

There is just one thing I don't understand, though. Why is the training on not lying about your official police activities being referred to as “extra” training? 

This week the new commissioner of the NBA came alarmingly close to an honest statement about the nature of big-time NCAA sports.

We've been covering The Most Corrupt Nonprofit in America (that isn’t the Catholic Church)®, and it seems that every week there is a new outrage to report.

 For instance, did you know that an NCAA athletic scholarship, that great charitable benefit that enables impoverished minority youth to get a college education, actually leaves the players in a four thousand dollar hole every year? Well, it's true.

Fortunately, the NCAA workers have a friend in the NBA. The new commissioner announced he was ready to start paying NCAA basketball players, at least to the extent of making up the gap.  http://www.npr.org/2014/04/11/301882609/nba-commish-wades-into-debate-over-paying-college-players

Of course, there is a quid pro quo. The offer is contingent on a rule change keeping college basketball players out of the league for two years after their high school graduation, instead of the present “one and done” policy. Apparently they are finding that nineteen-year-olds, even talented ones, aren't good enough and tough enough to play in the NBA, so they'd like them to stay in the NCAA for more educational progress seasoning.

Yes, Adam Silver has come close to admitting that NCAA basketball is nothing more than an unpaid minor league for the NBA.

Once again, no apparent awareness of the hypocrisy comes from the NCAA or NBA. 

Jesse Winchester died yesterday, just a month short of seventy. His first album, released in 1970, introduced a new voice in American music, especially the song Yankee Lady. His description of living “in the hills of old Vermont, where what you do all day depends on what you want” appealed to me and thousands (millions?) of people who rejected the corporate, establishment life American society wanted for us.

The other thing that his fans related to was that he was living in Canada, avoiding the war and the draft that we hated. It was a concrete connection between the lives of a musician and his fans, many of whom could imagine being in his same position (my father was encouraging me to consider going to college at McGill for the same reason) that was unusual, possibly unique.

Winchester eventually returned to the United States after Jimmy Carter announced his amnesty program, and went on to have a long and successful career as a singer and songwriter. If you don't know his music, or even if you do, here's a selection for your enjoyment. 

Maybe one of our readers knew him when he was here in Vermont and could share some memories. 

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=APirVxOpZFk&feature=youtu.be

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AQtLEAZBxr0&feature=share&list=PL29010266CED59FEA&index=4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5uKGWpqnS8E&feature=youtu.be

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NSxpuAazOMI&feature=youtu.be

A reading of this diary could benefit from the perspective leant by an earlier GMD diary about Bob Hartwell.

_____________________________________________________________________________

What’s up with Senator Bob Hartwelll of Bennington?

Seven Days is reporting that Hartwell, who chairs the Senate Natural Resources and Energy Committee doubts the very existence of human influenced climate change!

Quoth Senator Harwell:

“To suggest that mankind is causing the whole climate to shift, that’s a big reach,” he added. “I don’t think anybody’s ever proved that.”

Continuing his conversation with Seven Days’ Paul Heintz, Hartwell goes on to parrot nearly every right wing talking point on the subject.

Where are we? Texas?

This guy is a Democrat; and he chairs the committee that shapes all of Vermont’s policies with regard to energy.  

As VPIRG’s Paul Burns astutely observes:

“It helps to explain, perhaps, why the chairman has such a hostile view toward renewable energy development. I guess, in his mind, you can’t solve a problem that doesn’t exist.”

That a climate change denier occupies the key position on Vermont’s Senate energy committee confirms that even a whopping Democratic majority is capable of significant dysfunction when the Governor is more concerned with his own agenda for self-advancement than with building a sound progressive policy legacy to leave behind.

( – promoted by Jack McCullough)

(cross-posted to iBrattleboro, here; original version posted to Vermont Watch, here)

It was recently learned that Pathways Vermont, a housing first program currently serving six different regions within the state, is pursuing Specialized Service Agency (SSA) Medicaid funding designation status as a way to replace the federal grant funds the housing first program will be losing later this year, to the tune of $600,000.

Read the Pathways Vermont SSA designation application letter, here.

It is my understanding that this SSA designation status, if granted, would permit Pathways Vermont to receive medicaid funding the program currently does not have access to and of which the Designated Agencies (DA’s: i.e., Community Mental Health Centers: CMHC’s) basically have enjoyed what amounts to a virtual monopoly when it comes to these type of program and service funds.

Some of the DA’s are greatly opposing this application. Read written comments in the form of opposition letters some of the DA’s had submitted as part of the process (batch of five letters), here and (single letter), here.

Read the letter to Department of Mental Health (DMH) Commissioner Paul Dupre from the Vermont Council of Developmental and Mental Health Services, here.

There is a public hearing being held on Monday, April 14th, from 3:30pm to 5:00pm, at Department of Mental Health (DMH) headquarters in Montpelier. In addition, there is also a written comment submission period, which began on Monday, April 7th and ends on Friday, April 18th. More information on both, here.

Learn more about Pathways Vermont housing first program, including concerning its SSA application, provided within its recent newsletter (Spring 2014), here.

Read related commentary of mine concerning what works best to end homelessness, including about why it is my opinion that Pathways Vermont does an excellent job in doing so (via vtdigger; 8/6/2013), here.

Related information: Administrative Rules on Agency Designation (circa: June 1, 2003; updated link), here.

Incredible as it may seem, the Brattleboro Reformer is reporting that the NRC may allow Entergy to drop the Emergency Plan for Vermont Yankee as early as sixteen months after the plant ceases operations.

In requesting release from this obligation, Entergy asserted the following:

“Within 15.4 months after shutdown, no credible accident at VY will result in radiological releases requiring offsite protective actions…The potential for a release of a large radiological source term to the environment from the high pressures and the temperatures associated with reactor operation will no longer exist.”

And if you believe that, may I interest you in a slightly used bridge?

To back-up their request for exemption, Entergy has created a best-case narrative that is one part fact, one part wishful thinking, and one part fairy story. You can read some of their assertions in the Reformer story, but be prepared to groan and strike your forehead repeatedly.

Entergy’s sunny forecast does not appear to have availed itself of the cautionary message in the 2000 Technical Study of Spent Fuel Pool Accident Risk at Decommissioning Nuclear Power Plants.  As the document came from the NRC, one would hope that it will inform their decision.

One salient bit is the following:

“In its thermal-hydraulic analysis, documented in Appendix 1A, the staff concluded that it was not feasible, without numerous constraints, to establish a generic decay heat level (and therefore a decay time) beyond which a zirconium fire is physically impossible. ” (p.x)

In other words, Entergy cannot possibly know that,  after just sixteen months there will be no further potential for a radioactive release from the spent fuel pool.

Not surprisingly, the assumptions employed by Entergy in its optimistic math formulas appear to support its request for exemption.

Spokesman for the NRC, Neil Sheehan says they are reviewing the figures.

“They show that the spent fuel will have decayed to the extent that the requested exemption can be implemented without compensatory actions,” he said. “The heat load starts to drop off pretty dramatically after it’s moved into the spent fuel pool.”

No doubt; but let us hope that the NRC reviews their own homework from 2000.

Apparently the state is totally powerless to compel Entergy to mantain an emergency plan if the NRC releases them from that obligation.

So get your cards and letters into the NRC before it’s too late.  Tell them we deserve their continued protection. If they fail us now, there will be yet another cautionary tale to share with any community that might be considering a nuclear power plant in their energy future.

Incredible as it may seem, the Brattleboro Reformer is reporting that the NRC may allow Entergy to drop the Emergency Plan for Vermont Yankee as early as sixteen months after the plant ceases operations.

In requesting release from this obligation, Entergy asserted the following:

“Within 15.4 months after shutdown, no credible accident at VY will result in radiological releases requiring offsite protective actions…The potential for a release of a large radiological source term to the environment from the high pressures and the temperatures associated with reactor operation will no longer exist.”

And if you believe that, may I interest you in a slightly used bridge?

To back-up their request for exemption, Entergy has created a best-case narrative that is one part fact, one part wishful thinking, and one part fairytale. You can read some of their assertions in the Reformer story, but be prepared to groan and strike your forehead repeatedly.

Entergy’s sunny forecast does not appear to have availed itself of the cautionary message in the 2000 Technical Study of Spent Fuel Pool Accident Risk at Decommissioning Nuclear Power Plants.  As the document came from the NRC, one would hope that it will inform their decision.

One salient bit is the following:

“In its thermal-hydraulic analysis, documented in Appendix 1A, the staff concluded that it was not feasible, without numerous constraints, to establish a generic decay heat level (and therefore a decay time) beyond which a zirconium fire is physically impossible. ” (p.x)

In other words, Entergy cannot possibly know that,  after just sixteen months there will be no further potential for a radioactive release from the spent fuel pool.

Not surprisingly, the assumptions employed by Entergy in its optimistic math formulas appear to support its request for exemption.

Spokesman for the NRC, Neil Sheehan says they are reviewing the figures.

“They show that the spent fuel will have decayed to the extent that the requested exemption can be implemented without compensatory actions,” he said. “The heat load starts to drop off pretty dramatically after it’s moved into the spent fuel pool.”

No doubt; but let us hope that the NRC reviews their own homework from 2000.

Apparently the state is totally powerless to compel Entergy to mantain an emergency plan if the NRC releases them from that obligation.

So get your cards and letters into the NRC before it’s too late.  Tell them we deserve their continued protection. If they fail us now, there will be yet another cautionary tale to share with any community that might be considering a nuclear power plant in their energy future.

As with whistleblower protections, sometimes creating safer environments in which to seek justice is as important as enshrining fair values in the letter of the law.

Today, President Obama acted to provide some of that additional support to women who seek to claim their right to equal pay, as it was upheld in his very first Executive Order as President: the Lily Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009.

While the right to equal pay was theoretically reinforced through the Fair Pay Act, women were still, for the most part, unable to ascertain whether or not they had been the victims of discrimination.  That’s because any business that did not want its compensation inequities discovered could simply make it a firing offense for workers to disclose the amount of their compensation to another worker.  And many of them did just that.  

With unreasonable time limits established as to how much time could elapse following an incident of discriminatory pay before the victim could no longer claim compensation, the system still seemed rigged to protect the victimizers rather than the victims.

Happily, the “rigging” was somewhat undone by the President’s action today.  While employers still cannot be compelled to reveal to a female employee how a male doing the same job is compensated; if one employee chooses to reveal the level of his compensation to another, he (or she) cannot be punished for doing so.

Furthermore, some of the time restrictions governing how much time a victim has, in which to file a claim of inequity, have been liberalized.

It will still take pluck and more than a little cooperation from a female worker’s male counterpart to force lasting change in the jurassic practices of wage discrimination, but it’s a healthy step in the right direction, which we can all celebrate.

Compensation “secrets” have long protected the world’s largest retailer, Wal Mart, from the kind of cold-eyed scrutiny that might make many a community turn them away when they come knocking at the permit door.

While trying to organize resistance to the location of the St. Albans Walmart, we who opposed the store found it very difficult to get any hard figures with which to challenge the retail giant’s rosy predictions of prosperity for the hosting town.  

We learned that Walmart does not share its sales figures for individual stores; nor does it reveal precise numbers of employees, their status or their compensation; and employees are naturally forbidden to reveal these figures themselves.

Nevertheless, their discriminatory wage practices rose to such a level that nearly 2,000 female “associates” managed to gather enough data to file a massive class action lawsuit against the company.

I  look forward to the opportunity provided by President Obama’s historic act to learn a great deal more about Walmart’s employment practices; particularly close to home in St. Albans.  These new protections should mean that Walmart employees will be more inclined to share and compare the specifics of their individual compensations.

…and I’ll be all ears.