Category Archives: local/regional

Governor Scott: Please protect a woman’s right to choose.

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At the same time as Alabama’s draconian anti-abortion bill sits on the desk of Governor Kay Ivey, Vermont legislators have sent their own bill, in support of a woman’s right to choose, to Governor Phil Scott, for his signature. 

Signing H.57 will speak volumes on the respect Governor Scott has for women and send a clear message of independence to the GOP.  Passed overwhelmingly by the legislature, H.57 reflects the majority view in Vermont, that decisions regarding a woman’s body belong in the realm of private conscience, not to the state.

That is not to say that all Vermonters agree that abortion isn’t wrong.  That is where individual conscience and choice come to bear.

You don’t have to agree with abortion to support a woman’s right to choose.

Women’s bodies are their own.  To take any other position is simply un-American.

Women have the inherent responsibility to make decisions about their bodies in accordance with their ethical beliefs, their family relationships, and whatever health considerations may be involved.  That is a responsibility with which no political or legal authority has a right to interfere.  For help in making such a difficult decision, a woman may consult clergy, her doctor, or both.

Allowing the state a say in such a private matter opens the door to other invasions by the state. 

We have a declining birthrate.  Emboldened by legislation like Alabama’s anti-abortion law, might the state one day decide, in the national interest, to mandate that every married woman bear at least one child?

And what becomes of unwanted and/or critically disabled children that the mother is unable to care for properly?  Will the state accept full responsibility for a lifetime of care, with all that that might entail, for every child who is forced into an inhospitable world because abortion was not available to the mother?

I rather doubt that the GOP could be depended upon to show such sympathy and generosity to unwanted children once they emerge from the womb.

Governor Scott: please don’t yield to the callous disregard for women’s rights that has come to distinguish your male-dominated party.  

As a Vermonter first, you are better than that.

Will Vermont join California in requiring presidential candidates to release their tax returns?

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How about it?

California is the first state to adopt this rule, setting the requirement at five years of back taxes; but Illinois and New Jersey already have the matter under consideration.

Shouldn’t the most progressive state in the Union also be the most transparent?

Norms no longer seem to be sufficient.   With Trump’s cautionary tail sitting in the Oval Office, its time to codify some protections for our democracy before it’s too late.  We have to do what we can on a state level because Congress has been effectively neutered.

That is all I’ve got to say.  Thank you.

Kate Larose: Still very much on the case.

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5bd1e5bb-a460-4c6e-8858-3c4062e1d8edI’d like to introduce Kate Larose who was a talented 2018 candidate for the statehouse from St. Albans, and will hopefully be successful the next time she decides to toss her hat in the ring.

Kate is a generous, public spirited member of our community, who recently organized an excursion to the southern border in order to lend a helping hand to asylum seekers caught in the snare of Donald Trump’s xenophobic fantasies.  

Here is a link to the GoFundMe page that Kate has created for the ongoing effort.

Upon her return from the border at the beginning of March, Kate suffered a concussion that has left her with some temporary challenges.  Nevertheless, she penned the following which I am happy to share with our GMD readers:

“After thinking about it for 10 minutes I turned to my husband and asked, embarrassed, “Is it 2018 or 2019 right now?”  These moments are becoming less frequent in recent weeks, but my struggle to get my life back after smacking my head on the ice this winter continues on.  There are good days and bad days.

This morning I woke up and found I was having a good day.  And realized that it’s May 1st, celebrated as May Day— a reminder of the pain, suffering, and advocacy that it took to obtain current working conditions such as the 40-hour workweek, two-day weekends, and a ban on child labor.  And that this time last year I was running for office, in large part because bills like $15 minimum wage and paid family and medical leave were being debated in the statehouse, but not expected to pass.

Though I came up short on the votes in November, I was relieved knowing that there was a majority in the house and that the issues my neighbors told me were critically important to them—issues that would substantially change lives for the better for at least 90,000 Vermonters—would pass into law even with the governor’s expected veto.

This morning was the first time I’ve been able to give much thought to this since the accident, and I only got to this point due to privileges that most of my neighbors don’t have: decent healthcare coverage, access to short term disability insurance, a spouse who can use paid sick time to drive me to my many medical appointments.  (It comes as no surprise that a recent report found that 66% of all bankruptcies are tied to medical issues, given the high costs of healthcare and unpaid time out of work.)

There are no excuses for paid family and medical leave and $15 minimum wage to not become law in July.  No excuses for people not to have the same access to recovery and medical care that I have.  Yet too many politicians are wavering under the pressure being heaped on by lobbyists. The corporate donors. The voices of those who are able to take seats at the statehouse (because they’re not busy working two and three jobs to make ends meet).

Out of our Franklin county delegation of 13 elected officials, only one (thank you Rep. McCarthy!) is in support of minimum wage, and only two (McCarthy and Fegard) are currently in support of paid family and medical leave insurance.

So here I am a year later, still wondering to myself if it’s 2018 or 2019.

Contact your reps today and ask that they vote in the best interests of Vermonters: not in the interests of their circles of supporters or desired longevity of their political careers.

Franklin D. Roosevelt once said, “The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much; it is whether we provide enough for those who have too little.”  If you believe this to be true, please consider running for office.  Franklin county and Vermont needs you!”

 

WCAX/Gray TV’s Greta Van Susteren: “I am now the local media.”

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WCAX’s catch phrase was once “Vermont’s Own News station” but no more. In May 2017 the station became part of Gray Television, a large  corporation based in Atlanta, GA, with 144 local TV stations covering 10.4% of U.S. households. Layoffs hit the WCAX newsroom about a year later.

Although not considered to be as openly right-wing as Sinclair Broadcasting — which stipulates all outlets must carry conservative political content — Gray TV may be “Foxifying” WCAX  a bit.

This fall, just in time for the 2020 presidential race, Gray-owned stations will begin airing Full Court Press, a Sunday public-affairs program featuring FoxNews veteran Greta Van Susteren. On theHill.com Gray TV Chairman and CEO Hilton Hatchet Howell, Jr., characterized Full Court Press this way: “Our goal is to provide critical information without bias to allow viewers to form their own opinions and reach their own decisions by exploring all sides of a complex issue.”

For those not familiar with her, Van Susteren spent 14years as a prime-time FoxNews host — replaced by Tucker Carlson in 2016.Then in 2017 she was on MSNBC but was dropped after six months.plutotweet

At Fox, Van Susteren once wondered if the government was wasting our tax dollars at NASA because of the long delay getting satellite images from Pluto back to Earth.

More recently Media Matters reported something more problematic : With one terrible tweet, Greta Van Susteren helped fuel a conspiracy theory that made its way to the president, who repeated it within hours

On Twitter, former Fox News and MSNBC host Greta Van Susteren tweeted that the “FBI obviously tipped off CNN,” adding that “even if you don’t like Stone, it is curious why Mueller’s office tipped off CNN.”

Nearly three hours later, Van Susteren conceded that she might be wrong about CNN acting on a tip. Even so, the original tweet, which had accumulated thousands of retweets, remained up and continued to be shared. The new tweet, correcting her mistake, had just 95 retweets at the time of this writing. [The Mueller investigation later vigorously denied the claim in a court filing]

The 2016 presidential primary and general election brought in upwards of $100 million on political ads in broadcast and cable television in New England markets. And now Full Court Press here in Vermont with a little bit of FoxNews is going to get a share this fall for Gray Television. vanSuswcax2

Van Susteren told The LA Times: […] she expects Gray’s geographical reach to help in booking presidential candidates to appear on the program.

“Politics begins in local markets,” Van Susteren said. “I am now the local media. I’m going to reach their voters.”

Gives a whole new spin to the late columnist Peter Freyne’s moniker for WCAX: he always called it WGOP; only now, of course he might call it WFOX, or WGRAY.

In defense of GENEROUS paid family leave

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While it certainly is fair to ask questions about the numbers involved in the paid family leave program under consideration by our Legislature, there is no question that, whatever the costs, they will, in the long-run, be outweighed by benefits provided under such a policy.  
Secure in the knowledge that paid family leave will be available when needed, young working families will find Vermont a more attractive place in which to take up residence, bringing with them the skills we sorely need in order to continue Vermont’s pathway to prosperity.  Even individuals who never draw directly upon paid family leave will benefit indirectly from the increased economic activity and social stability that paid family leave has been widely demonstrated to provide.
Furthermore, paid family leave can allow a family’s resources to extend further in caring for a family member’s temporary health challenges without the expense of hired nursing care.  
An added benefit of paid family leave lies in strengthening family bonds and relieving some of the emotional stress and guilt associated with conflicts between work and caring for a loved one.  There are actual costs attached to such conflicts when workers are forced to stay on the job even though they feel they should be at home.  Productivity suffers and the workers themselves may have ill health effects from the associated stress.
Virtually everywhere else in the world, paid family leave is the norm.  The U.S. is one of only three countries where it is not.  Only four out of fifty U.S. states offer paid family leave.  If our objective is to attract and hold a young workforce in Vermont, generous paid family leave is an essential incentive to make this small, wintery state competitive.
We cannot afford to be cheap about this fundamental benefit when our near neighbors, New York and New Jersey, have already outpaced Vermont in adopting paid family leave.

The Valley News: reporting on the minimum

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The business reporter for The Valley News recently did a story about minimum wage changes in the works in Vermont and New Hampshire legislatures. Both states have Democratic majorities with GOP governors who oppose hikes. In 2018 Vermont Governor Scott vetoed a minimum wage increase.

The focus of the VNews article is on “tipped” service workers that are allowed to be paid lower minimum wages than other workers and in theory can make up the difference in gratuities.

At issue in both states are changes to the overall minimum wage and possible hikes to the minimum for tipped workers. Currently: In New Hampshire, the minimum wage for employees who earn more than $30 per month through tips — known as the “tipped minimum wage” — is 45% of the applicable $7.25 per hour minimum wage, or $3.27 per hour.

In Vermont, tipped minimum wage for employees who earn more than $120 per month from tips is 50% of the applicable $10.78 per hour minimum wage, or $5.39 per hour.

Both states have written into their rules that if a server’s tip income falls below the general wage floor then the employer is required to pay the difference to bring the server up to the general per-hour minimum wage.

While that may seem to paint a bleak picture for the waitstaff’s income, the opposite is often true. As a rule, servers are the highest-paid non-management employees in the restaurant business.

Included are  quote and comments from Governor Sununu’s office (who opposes any change) and a representative of the Vermont Chamber of Commerce (a group that has opposed hikes in the past). The reporter also wrangled a couple comments from two high-end pub/restaurant-business owners (who presumably oppose changes). And finally he chatted to three servers who work for tips in the same prosperous local establishments. No comments by low-end tipped workers, a legislative sponsor, or  an economist are included.EPItipped1

If the article had included a supporter of the changes, they might have related a less rosy picture of the current situation … the negative points most people working at a sub-minimum wage for tips experience. The Economic Policy Institute wrote in 2018: that in states that have a lower tipped minimum wage [such as Vermont and New Hampshire] , tipped workers have worse economic outcomes and higher poverty rates than their counterparts in equal treatment states (regular state minimum wage plus tips, the law in eight states).

Now, to be fair I have to assume all the newly elected legislators from New Hampshire and Vermont Democratic majorities who support minimum wage hikes were reluctant to talk to the newspaper. Because otherwise the VNews business reporter would have managed to include a quote from one or even two of them…wouldn’t he?

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Leaving Howell: VT group threatens to move en masse if state won’t address concerns

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Taking a page from businesses that often leverage the threat of picking up and moving offices and jobs out of state unless certain tax breaks and incentives are provided, a group of Vermont residents in Howell Center are making a similar pitch.howellinsign

Calling themselves “Leaving Howell”; a group of 20-25 households in Howell Center (part of Howell Falls) have signed and published a pledge to sell out and relocate to New Hampshire. The group’s major concerns  — maintaining public infrastructure: roads, local aging sewage treatment plants, and reliable broadband service — carry state wide implications for commerce.

They draw a contrast between the millions of dollars and attention lavished on out-of-state and in-state businesses (programs difficult for the state to audit). This they say happens even while many local concerns that could be addressed with equal vigor by Vermont state agencies are given only scant and piecemeal attention.

“The entire state would benefit if Howell and other towns were actively managing these challenges. State development agencies should refocus on local municipal needs and problems” said Percy Alleline, the group’s spokesperson. “If tax incentives and grants can be used to supposedly lure and retain out-of-state businesses here, why not a similar effort for Vermont’s small town residents’ needs?” Alleline added that Leaving Howell membership almost doubled in size after news spread last year about the Agency of Commerce and Community Development’s plan to give young out-of-state professionals $10,000 to move here and work remotely online. “For many, that personalized relocation program and the accompanying advertising blitz was a last straw — and anger turned to action.” Group members have observed that craft brewed beer can help but will not save us.

Few people in Howell Falls doubt that the problems facing small towns require  state help, but some are uneasy with this level of activism. While development officials say it is unlikely all of the group would pack up and leave en masse for New Hampshire, the threat is not taken lightly by town selectman worried about their property tax base. “A loss of even one or two households in town could affect our tax base.’  

The Howell Register in an opinion piece agrees with the organization’s overall goals but doubts their methods. They believe few are likely to scuttle across the Connecticut River to Live free or Die. Four of the group’s principals — Percy Alleline, William Haydon, Royce Bland and Tobias Esterhase are large land and business owners. The Register concluded “… there are three of them and Alleline that are seventh generation residents… real Vermont ‘Howellers’. ”

McAllister Loses One

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My confidence in Vermont jurisprudence has been somewhat bolstered by the news that Judge Michael Kupersmith has denied attorney Robert Katims’ motion on behalf of Norm McAllister to dismiss prostitution charges against him, “in the interest of justice.”  Pul-lease!

The disgraced ex-senator’s second trial on the same charges is expected to proceed in April.

You may recall that  three women accused him of sexual crimes ranging from soliciting for prostitution all the way to rape. All of his accusers were epically unlucky and poor. They had been forced by their circumstances to rely on McAllister, a landed farmer and politician, for housing or employment. One of his accusers died before her complaint could be heard.  

A second accuser, who was a teenager at the time of her alleged assault, was persuaded to come forward despite the fact that she was mortified by the prospect of testifying in public. After a grueling cross-examination in which she was further victimized, she perjured herself on an irrelevant detail which she feared would damage her relationship with her then boyfriend.

The state’s attorney dropped her complaint like a hot rock and she was allowed to sink back into the woodwork, alone with her humiliating memories.

The remaining complainant was herself put through the brutal experience of testimony and cross-examination, but the state was not allowed to share any of the other allegations against Mr. McAllister; nor even audio recordings, made under police supervision, of Mr. McAllister admitting he had engaged in coercive sexual behaviors with his accuser.

Without ever having to, himself, testify,  Mr. McAllister was convicted on only the least punitive of the prostitution related charges against him.  

Not content with that lenient outcome, McAllister insisted his attorney challenge the verdict on a technicality.  The attorney’s arguments were successful in getting the judge to void the conviction and tentatively schedule a new trial.  

Mr. McAllister’s next move was to request a full dismissal.  If all had gone as he had learned to expect from his prior experiences with the justice system, he was undoubtedly expecting to get off, scott-free.

Thank goodness Judge Kupersmith has a stronger instinct for justice than does Mr. McAllister:

“(McAllister) was a member of the Vermont Senate,” the judge wrote. “The Court must infer that he had a measure of political experience and power by reason of his attaining that office…It would significantly erode public confidence in the judicial system if the public could infer that the Court dismissed the charge as an act of political favor.”

A lot has happened in the interim since the first case against McAllister was brought to trial in 2016.  Donald Trump was elected, Bill Cosby was convicted and the “Me Too” movement elevated public awareness and indignation over sexual abuse which had, until recently, been enabled by misogynistic tropes and cultural apathy.

Here’s hoping Mr. McAllister will finally feel compelled to take the stand.  If he wants us to believe he is so blameless, let’s hear how he answers questions under cross-examination.

 

OneCare Vermont chafes under additional scrutiny

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The state legislature would like to have another pair of eyes cast over the books of Vermont’s fledgling all-payer, OneCare Vermont.   That collective pair of eyes belongs to Doug Hoffer and the state auditor’s office.  OneCare argues that this is unnecessary since the Green Mountain Care Board already regulates the organization.

Additional scrutiny may not be welcome at OneCare, but when you consider they’ve just been approved for a budget of $900 million public dollars, interest from the auditor’s office is not surprising. 

Even though OneCare Vermont is a private entity in the usual sense, the state of Vermont has a particular interest in determining the success or failure of managing healthcare costs through this all-payer model.  Healthcare costs represent a huge and growing public funding challenge; and all possible models are subject to debate. For that reason alone, an  audit of OneCare Vermont is a legitimate interest for the Auditor’s office.

Add to that, the fact that OneCare Vermont is a “freshman” enterprise and already being criticized for lack of transparency and for adding a new layer of bureaucracy to the system  rather than reducing it.  It can only benefit public confidence in OneCare Vermont’s management of their healthcare dollars to have the state’s own auditor take a look under the hood.

Auditor Hoffer is known for his political independence, investigative vigor and commitment to public service.  With everything that both the Green Mountain Care Board and the hospital partners have on their respective plates, they should welcome an assist in oversight from their state counterpart.

The amazing DNC voter data machine: Who gets the profit?

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Some news just washes by like untreated sludge in the stormwater overflow, but here’s some national news with a local angle that fetched up on the shore last week.

Reports are that Democratic National Chairman Tom Perez has organized a new data-exchange operation. Perez is matching the successful GOP voter-data operation on display in the last presidential vote that is believed to have boosted their turnout. The plan is for the Democrats to do as the Republicans did and form a for-profit entity; Perez’s new organization will be gathering all available Democratic data now scattered throughout state party organizations and some non-profits.

The complex operation is coming together  after months of serious internal wrangling. Politico.com reported last December that state party officials were looking to know who exactly would stand to benefit financially from the new for profit data base entity.

Now Howard Dean, with stints as a Vermont governor, a presidential candidate, and as DNC Chairman has agreed to  oversee the new DNC voter-info project. AP reports: The arrangement would allow the national party, state parties, and independent political action groups on the left to share voter data in real time during campaigns. That means, for example, that a field worker for a congressional campaign in Iowa and another for an independent political action committee knocking on doors in Florida could update a master voter file essentially as they work. When a presidential campaign spends big money on consumer data to update voter profiles, the new information would go into the central file as well. And all participating organizations would have access to the latest information.

The new exchange will operate as an independent for-profit enterprise led initially by Democratic strategist Jen O’Malley Dillon, once a top adviser to Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign. [emphasis added]DNCdata

The deal worked out with the DNC chair to calm the waters among the state party officials divvies up the control over the data-exchange between former Hillary people and people seen as progressives — Howard Dean and Ken Martin (leader of the Democratic state party chairs association, a MN liberal inspired by the late Senator Paul Wellstone).

As APNews reports: Martin and Perez would chair a party committee that would license the party’s voter files to O’Malley Dillon’s group, which would establish its own agreements with PACs and other groups. Dean would chair the governing board of the new outfit, and once assembled, that board will hire staff to run the operation.

Some competition and general wrangling for resources between the national organization and state party organizations are nothing new. But a for-profit business model — copied from the GOP — stocked full of licensed DNC voter data available for a price seems designed to invite grifters up to the campaign table for a big-money feast. And as always there is the ever-present potential for hackers gaining access to all that data — all those eggs in one basket could prove an irresistible target.

By splitting up oversight Perez, Dean, and all the professional movers and shakers in the presidential election industrial complex seem to have decided for now to navigate this one with some care. Except there are still questions: 1) who keeps the profits; and 2) why should state and local volunteers provide free labor to stock a data base for sale to favored, deep-pocketed entities/campaigns, when the “profits” are not going to the parties? I’d hate to see the Democrats following the Republican-capitalist model: privatize the profits and socialize the cost and the consequences.

I hope Perez, Dean, et al., at least manage to keep the peace. After all there’s not much riding on this next election but the whole ball of wax. But let’s not lose sight of our principles in the process.