By Guy Page
A Mexican charged with attempted murder for allegedly strangling a woman in Addison County September is an illegal immigrant and should never have been in the United States, federal authorities say. Also, the Vermont Supreme Court heard oral arguments last week on a lawsuit challenging Burlington’s policy allowing non-U.S. citizens to vote in local elections, including school budget votes.
We’ll take your calls on both news stories on Hot Off The Press today from 11:05 AM – noon on WDEV AM-550, FM 96.1, and wdevradio.com. Call in 802-244-1777.
Ace crime reporter Mike Donoghue first covered the federal response to the strangling case on his Facebook page last night. The story is still developing and VDC will publish it at about 10:45 AM today.
Read more in today’s Burlington Daily News about Morin v. City of Burlington. The suit was originally filed in June 2024 by the Restoring Integrity and Trust in Elections (RITE), a conservative nonprofit. It targets Burlington’s March 2023 charter amendment, approved by 68% of voters, which permits noncitizen residents over the age of 18 to vote on Town Meeting Day, in city council, mayoral, and school district elections.
Scheduled guests on VDC today include Alison Despathy on the connection between Vermont inventor Eli Whitney and AI, and Chris Pratt of the Bridgewater Barn. I’m not sure how we’ll fit everyone in…. but it’s a good problem to have!
Heard on other people’s podcasts…..
Vermont is seeing a proliferation of podcasts and broadcasts offering alternatives to the legacy media. VDC has always given ink and air to other Vermont news media. In that vein…. Listeners to Right Side Up and Vermont Viewpoint heard some interesting comments this week….
“Mercy to the guilty is cruelty to the innocent,” Rep. Mike Tagliavia said on the October 9 episode of Right Side Up, his weekly audio podcast produced by 802 Scoop and carried on several platforms including Granite Grok, a kinda-sorta New Hampshire version of VDC that has been ‘shining the light on for ya’ since 2006.
The freshman legislator from Corinth made this observation after guest co-host Rev. Nathan Peets of Thetford warned that Vermonters are becoming acclimated to Burlington’s steady drumbeat of assaults and murders.
“The Global Warming Solutions Act, there’s a thing in there that says if we don’t do what we say we’re gonna do, anybody can sue us,” said Rob Roper, host of WDEV’s Vermont Viewpoint Tuesday. Greta Thunberg can sail her little sailboat up the Hudson River right into Lake Champlain, land in Burlington, and say ‘I sue you…. Lawmakers put that in there. They can take it out.”
FYI, Dave Soulia of FYIVT played a part in both conversations. Tagliavia was referring to Soulia’s September 29 column, “Vermonters’ Right of Self-Defense.” Roper was interviewing Soulia, who quipped about Thunberg (now less interested in climate change and more about Palestine), “let’s see how the ceasefire in Gaza holds, we may be seeing her, you never know.”