Monthly Archives: April 2016

Monroe takes the helm – with a smile!

local/regional, , ,

A tip of the hat to Michelle Monroe, newly elevated Executive Editor of the St. Albans Messenger.

The April 1 Messenger carried a banner headline: at the urging of his new wife, Peter Shumlin had decided to seek a fourth term!

If I hadn’t just launched my own April Fool’s Day post on GMD, I’d have bought it hook, line, and sinker. It was beautiful in its authenticity! The only tip off was that it was featured as an “Exclusive to the Messenger.”

If Shumlin really was going to run for a fourth term, he would certainly not give the Messenger the exclusive story!

The article explained that, after considering popular wisdom that a governor’s wife didn’t get to see much of her husband, the new Mrs. Shumlin decided that might not be such a bad thing.

Well done, Michelle!

The paper couldn’t be in better hands and I look forward to years of Messenger reporting under Monroe’s  journalistic guidance.

Do Trump and the Republicans have a Coke problem?

National, , ,

Coca Cola, the maker of America’s most well known sugary obesogenic drink, isn’t donating to the Republican convention as much as it has in the past. Coke and other major brands that were once-reliable contributors are facing criticism and increasingly worried about associating with Donald J. Trump and the Republican convention.Coca-Cola Co. Products Ahead Of Earnings Figures

Kent Landers, a Coca-Cola spokesman, declined to explain the reduction in support. But officials at the company are trying to quietly defuse a campaign organized by the civil rights advocacy group Color of Change, which says it has collected more than 100,000 signatures on a petition demanding that Coca-Cola and other companies decline to sponsor the convention. Donating to the event, the petition states, is akin to endorsing Mr. Trump’s “hateful and racist rhetoric.”

And Trump’s lose talk suggesting that if he doesn’t get the nomination, “I think you’d have riots, I’m representing a tremendous many, many millions of people,” did nothing to calm nervous corporate sponsors worried about their brand on display at the Cleveland convention. The largely sugar-free corporations of Apple, Google and Wal-Mart are also rethinking sponsorship and may join Coke by capping their donations.

“These companies have a choice right now, a history-making choice,” said Rashad Robinson, the executive director of Color of Change. “Do they want riots brought to us by Coca-Cola?”

Coca-Cola’s 2016 donation of $75,000 will fall far short of the $660,000 they coughed up for the 2012 Republican convention. Coke’s puny $75,000 is hardly enough to cover the additional 2,000 sets of riot control suits, (including the robo-cob-style Elite Defender riot suits) the city of Cleveland wants to have on hand for the July convention. Maybe Donald J. will chip in ?trumpriotwater

Reports are that Cleveland city water has been tested and is okay to drink. But maybe they will have some Trump brand bottled water on hand this summer for thirsty Elite Defenders because Coca Cola is making itself scarce to Republicans.

Entergy VY impacts local retail stores

local/regional, ,

Home Depot and Lowe’s big box stores near Brattleboro, VT, and Keane, NH, are unable to restock inventories of a favorite brand of family pools from suppliers. These are Inertex brand family pools, an inexpensive line that Entergy put into use recently at Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant.VYkidpool

The Vermont Yankee facility (although no longer producing power) faced a dilemma about the storage of thousands of gallons of water,  contaminated by low-level radioactive tritium, leaking into the plant.

The solution they settled on was to purchase a dozen different sizes and shape Inertex Swimee Poolz® from local big-box stores to serve as a stopgap water storage.

It wasn’t long before Inertex’s lawyers and insurance underwriters got word of the unique use VY found for the lightweight family pools. Alarmed by liability implications, beginning the  first of April they will impose a moratorium on shipping replacement units to retail outlets in the area around Northern Mass, and Southern Vermont to prevent VY obtaining more pools.

News of the distribution cut-back quickly leaked out to media outlets. And late Thursday, a spokesperson for the fool manufacturer provided details to a local reporter’s inquiry:

Natacio Piscina, a lawyer representing Inertex Co. Ltd., returned an official response:“It has come to our attention that Entergy Vermont Yankee in Vernon purchased and used several models of Inertex Swimee Poolz® line in a manner inconsistent with and in violation of the legally binding U.S. Swim Pool Association (USSPA) standardized agreement  and guidelines  for home recreational usage.(SPA sec.42.13)

Entergy VY management is well aware Inertex Industrial manufactures quality bladders and absorbent products specifically for leaks, overflows and toxic fluid containment. In fact VY has utilized these products in the past. Therefore it is our contention that Entergy is knowingly engaged in a willful misuse of our consumer models of Inertex Swimee Poolz®.

Our legal team has contacted Entergy officials at Vermont Yankee with our concerns and we are considering our next action. 

Piscina added an unofficial concern for Entergy VY’s sole focus on excessive cost containment, and he personally worries they were not utilizing safe solutions for occasional storage and fluid flow problems so common at nuclear facilities of this age.

Compounding problems, Vermont Yankee is struggling with criticism over a misguided goodwill community PR gesture called; VY’s April Poolz.FreeVYpoolz Once emptied of tritiated water and no longer needed, dozens Inertex Swimee Poolz® from the plant were donated to municipal parks and rec. departments in several nearby towns.

Town officials, initially pleased were soon shocked to learn the gift pools had once held gallons of low-level nuclear water. Stunned, officials in all but the small town of Linaw, NH, quickly returned VY’s tainted pools. “The April Poolz is ours now. And I… um, we are free to keep it” said Don Leacht, Linaw’s  Parks and Rec. director.

Frustrated Entergy VY officials are pressing for its return, but due to a “quirk” in NRC rules the town cannot be forced.

Reached for comment, NRC regional inspector Neal Shoehern explained the NRC does have a policy governing disposal of sanctioned Improvised Temporary Water Unit Storage (ITWUS).However, it has no authority regarding the re-use of unsanctioned improvised vessels. NRC’s  Shoehern said: “If  ITWUS not authorized it is not the NRC’s responsibility.”

Shoehern says the NRC is staying with the story that: “At Vermont Yankee there was no known danger to the public at anytime, ever from anything even remotely associated with the nuclear power industry, ever”

Milne sells majority stake in Quechee Highlands development

Business, local/regional, , ,

The Upper Valley News is reporting that Scott Milne will sign a tentative agreement today with Utah developer David R. Hall to sell his controlling interest in the Quechee Highlands development in Hartford Vermont.

Portrait of two businessmen shaking hands against white backgroundHall and Milne took questions at the Vermont Law School. (Hall was visiting VLS in South Royalton to discuss the massive new building he has proposed financing for the struggling school. It would house the  D. R. Hall Vista Center for study of experimental econo-systemic communal living.)

 

Quechee Highlands is Milne’s proposed project for a 15 acre mixed retail and residential development bordering Interstate 91 in Hartford. The project, years in the works, won a significant court case but has several permitting hurdles remaining.

The April 1st Quechee Highlands agreement with Hall may not be a surprise to Milne’s political fan. Speculation is that this is part of an ongoing plan to simplify his business interests. With an eye on a run on the Republican ticket against Democrat Senator Patrick Leahy, Milne acknowledged the need to simplify his business holdings – He explained  that the prior sale of the family travel agency freed him from obligations “should I get lucky … it gives me the ability to step back for six years.”

Motives for Utah millionaire David R. Hall’s purchase of the planned Hartford development are less clear, though it may also be part of a larger vision. Hall has quietly bought an estimated 900 acres of land in four towns in the area. He hopes to build a large contiguous plot to house 15,000 to 20,000 residents who would live in a utopian econo-systemic styled community, modeled on the Mormon teachings of Joseph Smith (who was born nearby in Sharon, VT).QuecheeVista

One local Republican office holder commented anonymously on Milne and Hall’s deal:

“At first glance it seems he[Milne] finally made a smart strategic move and freed his campaign to promote more development and rail against regulatory overreach without a blatant conflict of interest .”

However the outspoken Republican says she is worried over the municipal implications of a large retail mall near Interstates 89  and 91 interchanges, that would in her words be owned “…by a quasi- independently governed 20,000 resident tax free ‘city state’.”   

And added “It is only April 1st and heaven only knows how this will all play out for the Upper Valley. But honestly, now he looks to be more a troublesome wealthy fool than a visionary.”  It was not clear to whom she was referring.

Donald Trump Gives Us a Jingle

National, ,

We had the unexpected pleasure of speaking with Donald Trump himself this morning, when he telephoned our Wake-Up Hour host, W.S. Gilbert to give us a few thoughts. The live recording has inexplicably disappeared, but we can provide this transcript:

WSG: Thank you for calling-in, Mr. Trump…

DT: Don’t Mention it. I owe it to the little people who adore me to make myself available.
You know I’m all about the little people. I LOVE the little people…and the blacks…and the gays…they love me too.

…And women! The women…you know, the women love me best of all. That’s because I understand what they want. Men are always saying, you know, “I don’t get women…” Well, I get women. I cherish the women. Just ask Melania…I cherish Melania, I cherish Ivanka. They’re my precious jewels. They just sparkle! I get that sparkle; and they deserve to sparkle. I love to make them sparkle…

WSG:  Yes, yes, Mr. Trump…Now there are a few policy questions I know my listeners would like me to ask.

DT:   I’m all ears…no, not really. Ted Cruz, now there’s someone who’s “all ears!” Have you seen the cartoons of him with the big nose and the weird eyebrows? Mean…very mean, but ya gotta say, there is a striking resemblance there. Not the most attractive guy. Ya gotta wonder what’s goin’ on down there, if you know what I mean. Could you believe that Enquirer story?!! I said to Melania, “Melania honey, can you see it?” She couldn’t; she couldn’t see it. Five women??! Even one woman…!

WSG:  Mr. Trump, Mr. Trump about policy…?

DT:  Yeah, yeah…policy. My policies are HUGE. You’ve never seen such huge policies…and GREAT. I mean, I’ll give you policies that are so great you won’t believe your ears. Ha, ha…even Ted Cruz won’t believe his ears…ha, ha…but really. You know what I’m all about?

I’m all about making America great again. That’s right. We haven’t been great since…well, we haven’t been great in a long, LONG time. Let me tell you. I’ll change all that. We’re going to be winning again. We haven’t been winning, you know…and when you aren’t winning, what are you? You’re a loser, right? Am I right?

WSG:  Yes, well…can I ask you about your recent remarks on women and abortion…

DT:  Ya know, that’s not what people care about…they want to hear more about the wall I’m
going to build. Did you know I’m going to build a great big wall (it’ll be HUGE) along the border and it’s going to have a beautiful little door in it so we can let in the little people (I love the little people)…and you know who’s going to pay for it don’t you? Mexico…

WSG: …But, Mr. Trump my listeners want to know if you really mean to punish women who have abor…

DT:   Gilly, Gilly… you don’t mind if I call you Gilly, do you? Gilly, you know I love the women, but when they’re bad, they’ve got to be punished. Right? You know my lovely daughter Ivanka?
Isn’t she lovely. You know, I cherish Ivanka; but when she is bad she has to be punished. Right? So I punish her…out of love. That’s what a parent does…out of love.

So those girls who get knoc… uh, those girls who have the ‘misfortune’ to get caught, they just have to make the daddies marry them. It’s all about the family. I have eight grandchildren, you know. You wouldn’t believe it to look at me, would you. That says plenty about what’s going on down there! Ha, ha…Have you seen how I’m killing in the polls this morning? It’s a complete blow-out…

WSG:   Mr. Trump…Mr. Trump let’s move on. Now, I believe you said the other day that you would consider using nuclear weapons? Isn’t that a pretty extreme position to take…

DT:   Look, I’m a businessman, right? My business is a HUGE success. Ask anyone. The steaks, the water, the magazine, the university…all of it. Huge success!

That’s because I know how to manage my assets. I don’t just leave ‘em lying around doing nothing. Right? And I don’t believe in being politically correct. That’s for sissy’s.

Look, we’ve got nuclear weapons; they’re our assets. Right? Sooner or later we’re gonna use them. Right? What’s the point in having them if we say we’ll never use them? Right?

I’m not gonna say when I’ll use them. That would be telling, and we don’t want to give away the game…but, we’ve got ‘em and we can use ‘em…any time.

Look, there are a lot of real bad guys out there. Right? They hate America. If they had the nukes, you can bet your ass they’d use them against us! But we’ve got ‘em so it’s game over; but only if we use them real soon…before they get ‘em.

It’s all asset management.

WSG:   I see…but what about the worldwide nuclear devastation that would unleash?

DT:  “Worldwide nuclear devastation.” Listen to yourself! That’s a lot of whiny liberal BS.

Look, I keep reading about how there’s a population explosion and that’s the cause of all our problems. Well, I’ve got another ‘explosion” that could fix all that. Am I right?? Am I right??

Ha-ha-ha-ha…look, if we’re quick, we’ll be the ones holding all the cards. We can blow the competition away!

Hey… how big do you think that bunker is under 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue? Let’s see: me, Melania, Ivanka, that husband of hers, the boys, the grandkids, the nanny, the cook, my hairdresser, my masseuse, my tailor, my press agent, my girl…that’s nineteen right there…

WSG:  I’m sorry Mr. Trump but we’re all out of time.