According to the FreePress, a neighborhood near the airport might as well be in the South Bronx as in South Burlington.  

Having already suffered the indignity of being judged expendable in the name of progress and security, the fragmented community has also now been targeted for urban assault games.  

Few details seem to be available as to which law enforcement bodies are involved or who called open-season on the devastated neighborhood, other than that permission for the use appears to have been granted by Airport management.  Maybe gunfire and explosions are expected to condition local ears to receive the roar of F-35’s without a whimper.  

South Burlington Police Chief Trevor Whipple says it wasn’t his force disturbing the peace.

He said the South Burlington police haven’t used the empty houses for training and added he is unclear which agencies have.

Beyond the obvious insensitivity, it seems astonishingly unprofessional and dangerous to conduct such exercises without a great deal of prior public notice and some opportunity for public comment.

We all recognize the need for police services, just as we accept the need for some amount of military capability; but lately in the Green Mountain State, the line between the two is beginning to blur as communities get themselves equipped with tanks, and Tasers become the accepted means to control drunks and unruly kids.

I don’t really understand this push.  

On the one-hand you have the argument that the state’s population is aging out; that there aren’t many young people left and we need to grow the economy to attract them back again.  On the other, is the fact that the larger the population in our towns and cities, the more policing services and equipment we seem to need; and the greater the opportunity for criminal enterprise to find a toe-hold as well.

We already have an inordinately large prison population; so large in fact, that we have to export it.  It’s a well-known fact that that burgeoning prison population is largely the result of unrealistic drug laws and a broken approach to mental health and addiction at the state and national level.

How can we be so anxious to “grow” our towns and cities without first fixing those population-related vulnerabilities?  

It seems that the popular wisdom holds that we should invite Walmart and other cheap employers to invade local economies, expand our vulnerable populations, and, at the same time, attract the parasitic criminals who feed on their poverty and our enabling drug laws.

This, in turn, forces an expansion of police presence and provides a golden opportunity for armaments makers to expand beyond the profits they have enjoyed during our interminable modern wars.

Is it any surprise that people…neighbors, actually…have come to be largely beside the point when our growing need for security must be satisfied at any cost?

Come to North Beach on Saturday July 21 and join Philip Baruth and the cast and crew of Green Mountain Daily for our annual tribute to incinerated food.

In an election year, you’re bound to meet a number of statewide Democratic candidates who know that the Summit is a great place to meet the best informed (and most opinionated) voters in the state!

GMD has experienced some changes over the past year.  We have lost a couple of invaluable front pagers and brought on new talent.

We hope you’ll plan to join us and get re-acquainted.  

Here’s a memory from the 2010 Summit!

Despite the fact that

I am sure that the folks in South Burlington and Winooski feel greatly reassured.

_______________________________________________________________________________

I was discussing the proposal to locate F-35’s at Burlington airport with an engineer friend who had worked in the Canadian aircraft industry some years back.  While he was sympathetic to the noise issue, he seemed to think that the greater concern for environmental impacts might come from the accompanying, more powerful radar station that will have to be built to serve the expanded capabilities of these jets.

It was his view that, while the effects on humans would be negligible, flying creatures might not fare so well.  

Bear in mind that, so far, the jets do not seem to have been tested in areas with the same population density (human and otherwise) or natural topography as that of the Burlington area.

I couldn’t find a great deal of data readily available on possible threats to living organisms from radar radiation; but two studies caught my attention.  

The World Heath Organization opinion seems to be that the effects on humans are inconclusive, but not particularly concerning.

However, a limited study on the effects of radar on bird populations invites a very different conclusion.

Remember that the observations in both of these studies were drawn from examples of older, and presumably less-powerful generations of radar equipment.

I’m just throwing this out there. Should anyone have useful perspective to offer on the subject, please weigh-in and set me straight.

I still can’t understand why, with the noise issue being the most compelling argument against, there has been no actual demonstration of one of the jets in South Burlington.  This would answer a lot of people’s questions.

Could it be that the Air Force/Air National Guard is fearful that a real-life demonstration might awaken the concerns of people who are not now actively engaged in opposing the plan?

This is great news for Franklin County in general, and for St. Albans in particular.  Mike McCarthy ( link  to his website from the 2010 campaign) has just announced his intention to run for the House in 2012.

Even though they will soon be new parents, the McCarthy’s have decided the time is right for Mike to serve his community at state level.

This extremely creative and capable young business owner has chaired the Franklin County Dems ever since Euan Bear stepped down last year, and has an impressive history of community service; most notably with the St. Albans Community Justice Center, and Downtown Master Plan Board.

There is no one whom I would more like to see represent St. Albans in the Legislature.

With the current growth of St. Albans and Franklin County as a whole, it is more critical than ever that we expand the Democratic voice for the district at State level.

In 2010, when Mike made the extremely gutsy move of challenging former auditor, Republican Randy Brock, for the Senate, he gained considerable name recognition, admiration and friends around the county.

Now, as a somewhat more seasoned pol, Mike looks extremely promising to pick-up a second Democratic seat in the House that has seen many years of service from Kathy Keenan, who has also announced her intention to run again.

There will be a campaign announcement in Taylor Park at 4:30 PM Thursday, hosted by one of St. Albans’ most active community volunteers, Denise Smith.  Mike invites his friends and supporters to stop by his business, Cosmic Bakery tomorrow to sign his petition.

You can count me in, Mike!

This week,  Democratic Sec. of State Jim Condos succeeded in persuading the Vermont Supreme Court to revise the wording it chose when it crafted a recent opinion on access to public records.   In so doing, he protected the principle of government transparency and highlighted how critical precise language is to legal protections.

The case involved the Rutland Herald’s suing the city of Rutland and its local labor union over access to an investigation into city employees viewing pornography while working. The Herald won a partial victory when the justices ruled the newspaper can get access to disciplinary records stemming from the investigation of city employees, but the court told the city it could black out the names of the offending workers.

Condos urged the justices to strike reference to “nonpublic records” in the decision and replace the term with “exempt public records.”

Such a subtlety would probably elude most casual readers, but the two terms have a world of difference in implication.  

As Condos explained in his letter to the Supremes:

“The erroneous perception, at times, is that if a record is ‘nonpublic,’ its retention and disposition need not follow specified objective standards established” under Vermont law.

“Public officials sometimes inadvertently lose sight of the fact that even exempt public records must still be managed as public records.”

“As part of my, and my office’s, efforts to raise awareness and transparency associated with public records, I therefore try to discourage use of the term ‘nonpublic records’ and would welcome it if the Court would join me in trying to keep this point clear,”

Upon consideration, the court agreed with Sec. Condos, choosing to replace the term “nonpublic records” with “witheld” public records.

The jury is still out on the Free Press’ new tabloid format, which officially debuted today; but I eventually found all of the familiar landmarks and rather liked it’s table-friendly uniformity.  We can only hope that the emphasis on “feature” stories will not cause the paper  to economize on original staff writing and resort too frequently to the shallow pool of USA Today.

Case in point was page 10A,  anointed the “Environment” page, which featured two hand-me-downs from USA Today by Wendy Koch.  The first piece is an innocuous one on bike lanes, but the second fails to pass muster.

The Union of Concerned Scientists has produced a report  about the relative carbon footprint of a wide range of human activities, which emphasizes the fact that individual decisions to permanently change behaviors in relatively small arenas can have a huge impact on the global condition:

“Scaling it up – Think small changes can’t make a big impact? Take a look at what a cooler smarter town looks like.  Or a cooler, smarter country.”

What do you think the significant news is that  Ms. Koch has gleaned from this scientific effort?

Food grown locally, rather than far away, supports area farmers and is often fresher, but it makes little difference in the fight against climate change…How about e-readers vs. print books? Or opening a new car’s windows rather than running its air conditioner? The answer’s the same in each case: There’s no big difference in which consumes less energy overall, so don’t sweat it.

Those are the opening observations in Ms. Koch’s brief overview of the study, which she says

“debunks the myths of the green lifestyle”

And who has the final word in Ms. Koch’s story?  Why it’s the climate change deniers, of course!

Responding to the study’s authors, who quite reasonably argue that,

“Our failure to address this problem (climate change) will imperil us all.”

Ms. Koch allows David Kreutzer to dismiss the whole thing as malarky in the final two paragraphs of the piece. Mr. Kreutzer, whom Ms. Koch identifies as

a research fellow in energy economics and climate change at the Heritage Foundation, a self-described “conservative” think tank.

has this to say:

“I don’t think that’s true. There’s not a consensus we’re heading toward catastrophe,”   Americans should cut their carbon footprint “if it makes them feel good,” but not because they fear for the future.

Was this simply a misdirected effort at “fair and balanced” reporting by a tabloid hack; or does it represent a deliberate effort at false equivalency in service to an increasingly conservative media conglomerate?

Only time will tell.

I think we’ve now had a pretty fair demonstration of the kind of false equivalency that is routinely accepted and perpetrated by the media.

Organized labor does not equate to big money in the aftermath of Citizens’s United.

If ever there was a test for this frustratingly frequent misrepresentation of the resources of the left vs. the resources of the right, the Wisconsin recall election was certainly it.

Despite every effort of labor-backed Democrats to finance the campaign of Walker’s opponent,  Republicans were able to bring in much more than twice the Democratic cash for their own campaign.  Walker was carried back into office almost literally on a sea of money.

If this is the shape of things to come in the general election, hang on to your hats…because they may be all that Democrats have left, come January.  (Coincidentally, while I was writing that sentence I received a robo-fright-call from the NRA.)

We’ll get no help in correcting the perspective from national media, because they are committed to the Republican meme that “Big Labor” is a rich and powerful counterpoint to big business (aka Republican) interests.  To abandon that meme would be to bring into question all of the other false equivalencies that shape what they have come to regard as the meaning of “fair and balanced news.’

There’s the one about Democrats and Republicans in Congress being equally guilty of obstructionism; and the one that holds that Democratic criticism of George W Bush is somehow equivalent to the blatant racism and scattergun hate that has been directed at President Obama.  I could go on, but we’re all familiar with the expanded list.

What will the media’s position be when the “99%” finally get it together to demand that Citizen’s United be overturned…or else?  Will they play to their comfort zone and try to strike an equivalent with Roe vs. Wade?

‘Wouldn’t surprise me a bit.

David Zuckerman announced today that he will be seeking a Senate seat from Chittenden County.  

He plans to run in the Democratic primary, and in the general election as a  P/D.

Having served 14 years in the House representing Burlington, Zuckerman is well known and respected as an effective advocate for progressive issues.  

With his spouse and co-owner of Full Moon Farm, Rachel Nevitt, Zuckerman is a party to the nationwide lawsuit by organic farmers asking for protection from Monsanto, should GMO materials contaminate their farms.

As a representative, Zuckerman was a leader on many issues that are due to come before the Senate in the coming years. From sustainable agricultural issues, health care reform, labor relations, end-of-life-choice, marijuana policy, labeling of GMO foods and progressive taxation, David Zuckerman was an outspoken leader.  “I look forward to hitting the ground running.  Through my experience on these issues, I am ready to contribute from day one to achieve results on these and other important topics,” said Zuckerman as he announced his campaign.

As Vermont’s AG launches into a challenge to Judge Murtha’s ruling in favor of Entergy/Vermont Yankee, it seemed like an opportune moment to take a look at some of the nuclear stories rolling out around the country.  

Then I received this astonishing piece of news, and all the rest  became quite secondary:

MIT has released a study which, they say, suggests that populations need not be evacuated in the future, should another event like Fukushima take place!

That’s right;  long captive by the now-threatened nuclear industry, in whose future it is heavily invested,  MIT has finally jumped the shark.  Ignoring the large body of scientific evidence very much to the contrary, MIT constructed its own experiment, carefully designed to “prove” a  thesis convenient to the industry: that low-dose radiation over long periods of exposure is essentially harmless.

In a single stroke, the MIT study attempts to overturn all existing science and eliminate a significant collateral cost from the nuclear balance sheet.

Are people concerned, in the aftermath of Fukushima, because evacuation plans almost everywhere have been found gravely wanting?  A simple paper fix from MIT, based on junk science, allows the industry to maintain that exclusion zones aren’t even necessary!

This isn’t the first time MIT has been found to be exercising extreme bias to make nuclear look more affordable. In fact, the advocacy role of MIT on behalf of the industry is boldly apparent in this description of a research grant program:

“Scholarship for Nuclear Communications and Methods for Evaluation of Nuclear Project Acceptibility” will develop a model to characterize the factors affecting social acceptance of nuclear projects by potential stakeholders.  The nuclear enterprise has long faced difficulties in gaining broad social acceptance for success… Reliance upon public education efforts continues to be the main, and largely unsuccessful, tactic to achieve success…”

Returning to my original intention to survey the more eccentric nuclear news, I found this curious news piece out of Woodridge, Illinois, where the senior reactor operator  of the Dresden Nuclear Power Plant in Morris, Illinois has been charged with hijacking an automobile at gunpoint.  

Michael Buhrman who wore a Halloween mask when he confronted the female car-owner in Kohl’s parking lot and ordered her to abandon her vehicle, was spotted by a witness and apprehended in short order.

Buhrman later told investigators the carjacking was a “stupid thing” to do and that he was only looking for a thrill, authorities said.

‘Good thing he didn’t act out his fantasies at work!  

From the NRC’s own incident reports we have the tale of an external power interruption disrupting normal operations at the Ginna Power Reactor in upstate New York.  Investigation revealed that this interruption had most likely been due to “wildlife, eg. racoon.”

This is a good illustration of the sort of incidents that can plague even non-operative reactors during the long periods before total decommissioning, when constant cooling must still be maintained to prevent meltdowns.  

Once a facility is no longer  generating income for the operators, the temptation will always be there to cut back on monitoring and maintenance staff, which could result in dangerous situations going undetected until they result in an emergency.

…And to top off the crazy, there are the efforts by NRC insiders to push licenses up to 80 years so as to skew the math, making nuclear appear more cost-efficient.

When I was a child in the sixties, the most frightening idea was the threat of nuclear war.  Now it seems we have as much to fear from nuclear peace.

Music tributes are usually Kestrel’s territory; but blind Bluegrass teller-of tales Doc Watson, who died today at 89, was special to my family.  

My husband introduced me gently to his inclination toward old time country music when he wooed me to the strains of Watson’s “Frog Went a-Courtin’ ” forty years ago.  He’d been a huge fan since the 60’s.  To this day, we probably have more Doc Watson CD’s in the car, on the counter and in the bookcase, than those of any other artist.

We are fortunate to have seen Doc perform in a tiny theater in Evanston, Illinois, late in the 1970’s, with his son Merle who pre-deceased him in 1985.   Then, when our own son was a young teenager, we took him to see the legendary folk singer perform in Burlington; this time with his grandson, Richard.

‘Sure wish we could do that again.