Everyone thought Vermonters would flock to these relatively high-paying, benefits-producing jobs. Compared to the long, irregular hours and low pay of farm labor and the service industry, these jobs were gold. But now, some employers who invested millions in Franklin County operations are looking elsewhere. There just aren’t enough workers.
U.S. Border Patrol agents in mid-April reported a large forest fire in Canada rapidly moving towards the town of Franklin, VT.
On a cold, cloudy Saturday May 1, a group of women spread out across Hardwick’s Main Street picking up trash and exchanging banter. All members of Teen Challenge Vermont, an addiction treatment center in Johnson, they were more than excited to be outside helping the community.
The House Government Operations Committee approved S15, the universal mailed ballot bill, by an 11-0 margin Friday after making changes meant to reduce potential for election fraud.
Event co-organizer Greg Thayer spoke on how America is a “Constitutional Republic, not a democracy.” Thayer equated his premises to the principle of equality and that our Constitution is a representative form of government and not by a king or mob rule. Thayer continued “that the government gets its authority from the People, who can take it away too.”
President Biden is under pressure to find a way to control a Supreme Court whose present majority may find constitutional limits to what the Democratic party’s left wing is urging him to do. He has created a 36-member Commission to cope with the explosive question of packing the Supreme Court with additional Justices in order to create a compliant 7-6 liberal majority to support his proposals.
The arrest of Poole was the conclusion of a Vermont Drug Task Force investigation that began in July 2020 in cooperation with the Franklin County Sheriff’s Department and South Burlington Police Department. The investigation revealed that Poole sold methamphetamine and heroin.
Upon arrival troopers met with the Fairfax Fire Department and observed a vehicle in the driveway that had sustained fire damage from what appeared to be a plastic bottle containing gasoline that had been poured on the windshield and hood before being ignited.
If you look at the list of bills the legislature has passed so far, you might be tempted to think they are focused on the pandemic. However, if you look a little closer, you can see that these bills are actually reactionary. They would direct federal funding to emergency housing, food banks, and childcare assistance; all worthy programs, but they serve the immediate need, not the future need six months to a year from now.
Received fom Vermont Liberty.net During COVID, well-recognized Constitutional rights have been repeatedly compromised, without adequate justification. Four events planned in May are designed to educate and encourage Vermonters to defend our Constitution […]
A Vermont man who is a former Obama White House advisor and a partner in the group that purchased Marlboro College this year has been charged with wire fraud, money laundering, and making false statements to a financial institution.
Don’t miss breaking news! Vermont Daily Water Cooler is a roundup of important headlines from around the state.
The Vermont House of Representatives Thursday voted 102-42 along party lines to give initial approval to amending the Brattleboro Town Charter to allow youth voters ages 16-18 to vote in local town elections.
Yesterday Vermont Secretary of State Jim Condos announced the completion of the 2020 Vermont General Election Audit, which was conducted on April 28 at the Pavilion Auditorium located in Montpelier. No significant abnormalities or discrepancies were found between the audit results and the Official Returns of Vote.
Too many Americans have allowed themselves to be defined as the enemy. This attack on our values starts with the majority party in Congress and includes our President. Their attacks are relentless as well as mindless. They lie shamelessly, they ignore the Constitution, they are re-writing American history to fit their false narrative, and they pursue an agenda that will end the society that has made our country the envy of the world.
Her list of superlatives is considerable: Jonas was the first commander of the Office of Fair & Impartial Policing and Community Affairs when it was established in 2016. She was the first woman in the Vermont State Police to lead the Internal Investigations Unit. And she was the first woman in the agency to attain the ranks of captain and major.
The Vermont Natural Resources Council (VNRC) and the Lake Champlain Committee (LCC) have appealed a permit issued by the Agency of Natural Resources (ANR) to allow the sinking of a 152-foot-long ferry near the Burlington waterfront.
Proponents argue that they are trying to “create a balance” between making it easy to vote and maintaining ballot security. That’s the rhetoric, but the truth is that should S.15 become law Vermont would have no effective security mechanisms to verify the validity of an absentee ballot, and the objective is to have everyone vote absentee (though that is not required). There is no balance, nor any attempt to create any.
The Oregon Secretary of State wants to tell Vermont legislators her state’s hard-won knowledge about vote integrity challenges in a universal vote-by-mail system. But that exchange of information won’t happen if Rep. Sarah Copeland-Hanzas, Chair of the House Government Operations Committee, holds a vote this afternoon on S15, Vermont’s universal, vote-by-mail bill.
An amendment added this week by the Vermont Senate to H18, a bill clarifying legal language about child sex abuse, would give immunity against prosecution for the crime of prostitution – a potential first step towards the legalization of prostitution in Vermont.
Green Up Day Vermont (GUV) invites Vermonters to participate in the annual pickup of trash alongside Vermont’s highways this Saturday, May 1. Click here for details about your town.
Don’t miss breaking news! Vermont Daily Water Cooler is a roundup of important headlines from around the state.
The Vermont Department of Labor announced today that the work search requirement for unemployment claimants will be reinstated beginning Sunday, May 9 for all claimants in regular UI and specific claimants in the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) program.
Catholic Democrat politicians are certainly devout, but I am not talking about their religion. Joe Biden, Nancy Pelosi, Xavier Becerra, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Andrew Cuomo and others talk often about their Catholic faith. The supportive media regularly refers to them as Devout Catholics. But are they?
More than 150 Vermont downtowns and village centers are without a public wastewater system, which limits economic growth. Failed septic systems prevent the redevelopment of buildings; wastewater system limitations stop a general store from adding a market café; and a lack of public water and sewer is often a key limiting factor to a community’s ability to add new housing or businesses.
The climate craze has targeted Vermont dairy farms, as if getting rid of their methane emitting cows will make any detectable difference in the planet’s climate, while wrecking Vermont’s dairy industry.
Racism is a problem, it exists everywhere,” Kumulia “Case” Long told the House Human Services Committee Wednesday. “We are looking to tackle an issue that will never go away. The human race will always have something to fight over….however, If we can address economic inequality, we can help a much bigger group,” Long said. “We can help lift each other up.”
Don’t miss breaking news! Vermont Daily Water Cooler is a roundup of important headlines from around the state. Publication Headline Published NBC 5 Still on the fence about getting a COVID-19 vaccine? […]
The Vermont House of Representatives today is scheduled to consider H361, amending the Brattleboro Town Charter to allow youth voters ages 16-18 to vote in local town elections.
The US Department of Education (USDE) recently found that Vermont is one of only two states which “needs intervention in implementing the requirements of Part B Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA).” This shatters the myth that Vermont offers disabled students a superior education.
A BACK THE BLUE Rally in support of local police will be held in Rutland on Saturday, MAY 1, beginning at 10:30 am along Rt 7 in front of the Rutland Main St Park.
Yesterday, Vermont Daily published a news story about the Burlington Police Commission urging the Barre Police Department to involve the FBI in the investigation of the year-long disappearance of a black man. The proposed resolution was couched in terms of doing more to provide justice for Vermont’s BIPOC community. Today, Barre Police Chief Tim Bombardier provided the following press release (issued April 13), in which he says “the Barre City Police have continued to exhaust all investigative avenues in our attempts to locate Ralph and to identify the individual(s) responsible for his disappearance.” He is considering a response to the Burlington Police Commission.
Game Warden Supervisor Arnold Magoon was killed by a poacher 43 Years ago today. The Vermont Fish and Wildlife Department is asking Vermonters to take a moment to honor the memory of State Game Warden Arnold Magoon of Brandon and all of Vermont’s fallen officers.
A recent rediscovery of a classic, 19th-century fossil site in northwestern Vermont is giving paleontologists a better understanding of Earth’s earliest lifeforms.
Research data linking marijuana use to people with suicidal ideation, attempts, and completed suicides are steadily increasing.
Don’t miss breaking news! Vermont Daily Water Cooler is a roundup of important headlines from around the state.
We often hear that the ethical principle of informed consent is the bedrock of modern medicine, but it is not commonly understood why. The Jacobson decision provided a precedent for other decisions, particularly the 1927 decision of Buck vs Bell, which upheld the primary tool of the worldwide eugenics movement: involuntary sterilization.
The Burlington Police Commission tonight will consider a resolution asking the Barre Police Department to seek Federal Bureau of Investigation assistance on finding Ralph Jean-Marie, a black man from Brockton, MA who has been missing since April 13, 2020.
Vermont does not have the building trade labor force to meet today’s demand for new construction, home repairs, and residential and commercial remodeling. If the ARPA comes to fruition, many of the projects Vermont needs to accomplish will, at best, be wishful thinking. The labor force is not here.
The minimal efforts towards repeal of old boards take on an even greater importance in light of the dozens and dozens of new boards proposed for creation this year. Vermont Daily has reviewed hundreds of pending bills in the Vermont Legislature and identified countless new boards that have been proposed.
t takes 1,680 average oxycontin pills (.269 grams) to make a pound. Some pills are heavier, some are lighter. Using the oxycontin pill standard, Vermonters turned in an estimated 12,037,200 pills.
Imagine if you were baking a birthday cake and you had the benefit of having the Vermont Senate Finance Committee helping you. That’s what it’s like as we debate how to extend broadband throughout Vermont.
Exempting electric bikes from the vehicular ‘purchase and use’ tax, expanding the sale of unpasteurized milk, creating another state commission, and requiring an economic impact study of closing the Ryegate biomass power plant are among the bills to be taken up Tuesday by the Vermont House of Representatives.
$5 million allocated in 2010 by the Vermont Legislature for economic development loans hasn’t been recouped as planned. The Senate Economic Development Committee wants to know why, according to a report from the Campaign for Vermont (CFV).
“It’s time for Vermonters to pull out the whole tick out of State Government,” T-shirt creator and model John Klar says on this VTLiberty.net video. Klar and the organization he founded have planned a series of events around the state during May.
After a year’s hiatus due to COVID-19 restrictions, demo derbies are set to return to the Orleans County Fairgrounds this year.
Act 9, a new state law, would collect state income taxes from Paycheck Protection Program loan funding provided to Vermont businesses in 2021. This unexpected taxation of an emergency benefit has the Vermont business community in an uproar.
After someone spent almost three weeks at the Randolph Village laundromat during the winter of 2019-2020, Charlie McMeekin knew there was a bigger issue at hand.
Vermont’s observation of the National Day of Prayer will take place in person and virtually May 6.
About $125 million of federal recovery funding will help the State acquire longterm housing for Vermont’s homeless, Gov. Phil Scott said at a press conference today.
by Attorney General TJ Donovan As Vermont and our nation continue to work toward a more fair and equitable criminal justice system, the Vermont Legislature is considering an important bill that can […]
Everybody in Montpelier is already well aware of the decades long and now abandoned Capital Plaza hotel and parking garage project, but for the benefit of others let me quote Charles Martin, of the Vermont Chamber of Commerce.
The Department of Homeland Security has agreed to reopen the public comment period related to the proposed construction of massive surveillance towers in Derby Line and North Troy.
A rising star Vermont woman lawmaker will attend the Turning Point USA Young Women’s Leadership Summit June 10-13 in Dallas, Texas and is looking for other young Vermont women who want to come along.
The Vermont Dairy Industry Association (VDIA) recently presented 2020 Vermont Milk Quality Awards to three Vermont dairy farms.
Four events planned in May are designed to educate and encourage Vermonters to defend the Constitution in the face of government over-reach during the Covid State of Emergency
Unseasonably late snowfall has led to a series of accidents – including a rollover of an Agency of Transportation snowplow on I-91 in Barnet.
Don’t miss breaking news! Vermont Daily Water Cooler is a roundup of important headlines from around the state.
Terry Dinnan, 71, and Marty Illick, 70, were a different kind of power couple. Their power came from enthusiasm, passion, artistic pursuits, environmentalism, and volunteerism. They both died on Monday, April 19 after a boating accident in Lewis Creek just outside of their Charlotte home.
An F-35A Lightning II assigned to the Vermont Air National Guard joins a KC-46 Pegasus assigned to Pease Air National Guard and an F-15 Eagle assigned to Barnes Air National Guard for a flyover tribute during the Boston Red Sox 2021 season home opener at Fenway Park, Boston, MA, April 2, 2021.
The Vermont Democratic Party (VDP) faithful welcomed Doug Emhoff, the husband of Vice President Kamala Harris, to Vermont April 21 in Burlington, where he was greeted by a group including VDP Chair Bruce Olsson.
Now doctors, dentists and other businesses are invading our personal lives by demanding we be vaccinated before visits or going into shops or offices – all in violation of Federal HIPPA law.
The vaccines are already causing death and harms. The vaccinated are getting fatal cases of Covid. This is not theory. Here are some studies from our Government in proof.
If Indiana Jones had been a woman, she’d be someone like archaeologist and educator Lucy Langdon Williams Wilson – a St. Albans native and Castleton grad.
The Vermont State Board of Education yesterday ordered four Vermont school districts to pay the tuition of four students attending religious schools.
The post-election audit of 2020 Vermont General Election results will occur Wednesday, April 28 at the Pavilion Auditorium in Montpelier, starting at 9am.
by Guy Page A pair of Vermont petitions in support of two popular ‘conservative’ themes – school choice and low taxes – are gathering support. The push for a ‘Cloud Tax’ by […]
The Journal Opinion, the community newspaper for Bradford and surrounding towns in a bi-state, quad-county readership area, won three awards, including 1st place in Spot News Photography, at the 2020 New England Newspaper and Press Association Better Newspaper Competition.
Vermont is not one of the 34 states that require some form of identification to vote. Vermont does not have voter signature verification. While officials boast no fraud has been proven, this fact is just as likely to be the result of a near total inability to detect fraud as the absence of it. S.15 would put Vermont in the unenviable position of having the least secure election process in the country.
The Democratic majority in the Legislature is trying to sweeten a big ‘tax the Cloud’ bill with a tiny tax exemption for military retirement. Instead the Legislature should tax neither.
Joining with 49 other current and former state-level officials across the country, Vermont Secretary of State Jim Condos and Lt. Gov. Molly Gray publicly asked corporate leaders to oppose electoral integrity laws “sweeping the country.”
Legislation introduced today by Sen. Bernie Sanders would guarantee tuition-free community college for all students, and allow students from families earning under $125,000 a year to attend public and/or minority-serving colleges and universities tuition-free and debt-free. The bill also allocates $10 billion annually to cover student support programs at minority-serving schools.
To the editor: Re: $2.7 billion in federal money for Vermont – this is not free money. This is a very heavy mortgage on our grandchildren, it is a slash at the […]
On April 20 at about 4:10 pm, Vermont State Police stopped a gray 2020 Honda Accord on Interstate 89 (southbound) in the town of Royalton. The Trooper stopped the Honda for traveling at 103 MPH in a 65 MPH speed zone.
Don’t miss breaking news! Vermont Daily Water Cooler is a roundup of important headlines from around the state.
“Vaccine breakthrough” is the term used by public health experts to describe a vaccinated person getting Covid-19, anyway. Vermont ‘vaccine breakthrough’ rate is small – but still 10 times higher than the national average, according to statistics shared today by Health Commissioner Mark Levine.
A joint resolution urging Congress to support statehood for the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, sponsored by Rep. Sarah Copeland-Hanzas (D-Bradford), was introduced into the Vermont House today.
We fought hard against both bills in their original committees to almost no avail and will continue to do so with what will likely amount to the same results. The unfortunate reality is, that these bills are seen by most legislators as favorable measures of public protection, regardless of any and all reason, logic, or emotional argument to the contrary.
“Vermont Senate Republicans are extremely disappointed that the House of Representatives has failed to fully repeal the tax on military retirement income,” said Senate Minority Leader Randy Brock (R-Franklin).
I agree with Professor Sonnenfeld that the social justice movement in our world today can be characterized as a Great Awakening. Matthew Yglesias called it The Great Awokening (Vox, 4/1/2019). In my town there is a prominent sign saying “Believe” (see photo above). That is consistent with a religious movement.
Police responded to the North Country Federal Credit Union on Main Street at around 3:00 p.m. A man dressed in dark clothing was reported to have robbed the credit union, during which time he displayed a firearm.
On March 2, I cast my ballot and the machine rejected it. I was outside campaigning for 12 hours. Over 30 people who voted for me told me they had their ballots rejected one to three times. Polls closed and candidates were allowed inside the auditorium where voting took place.
The Bottle Bill (H.175), the modernization and recalibration of Vermont’s Tax System (S.53), the bill requiring registration of construction contractors (H.157) and the COVID Recovery Bill (H.315) all increase revenues to the government while adding greater burdens on business and individuals. In addition, the roughly six billion dollars in unfunded liabilities was, once again, deferred and not resolved.
The Vermont State Police is investigating the deaths of two individuals whose bodies were found in Lewis Creek in Charlotte on Monday afternoon, April 19. The victims are identified as 70-year-old Martha Illick and her husband 71-year-old Terrence Dinnan, both of whom resided on Lewis Creek Road in Charlotte.
Don’t miss breaking news! Vermont Daily Water Cooler is a roundup of important headlines from around the state.
Vermont is one of just seven states that taxes military pensions. Veterans and their families have dedicated their lives to service, and it’s imperative that we ensure Vermont is a place where they can live, work and raise a family in retirement.
Frustrated by heavy union opposition to its plan to reduce the multi-billion state pension deficit, House leadership instead wants to create a problem-solving task force, with just a minority of labor voices at the table.
“Hospitals are getting some allocation of vaccine right now,” Health Commissioner Levine explained at last Friday’s press conference. “The goal of that is mainly for their emergency room setting where they may see somebody who is vulnerable and may not actually have any other contact with the health care system and this provides a great opportunity to begin their vaccine process.”
A bill to register building contactors is just the first step toward eventual licensing even for local handymen, and enforced compliance with energy conservation building standards to defeat climate change, no matter what the cost.
One of the remarkable things about Cady’s school board win, was that not only did she get a seat on the board of a public school when her own kids go to private school – but she actually campaigned on a school choice platform – and she won! On the “School Choice” tab of her website she argues that the competition that school choice creates can actually have the effect of improving our public schools as well.
China, Russia and radical Muslims are national security threats yet President Biden and Senator Sanders says global warming is our greatest existential threat. Biden’s priorities are refocused now on mitigating climate change.
The Biden administration has rescinded permissions for Michigan and Wisconsin to require Medicaid beneficiaries to either work or attend school or job training in order to enroll in the public health program for lower-income Americans. The Trump administration embraced the idea of requiring Medicaid beneficiaries to work, prompting a number of Republican-leaning states to apply for permission to impose such requirements in their Medicaid programs.
If All Lives do not Matter equally then our species will never forsake the barbarism that has been an all too common component of its evolution.
A former official for the 2020 Bernie Sanders campaign and the Planned Parenthood Action Fund has been hired as the Vermont Democratic Party’s next Executive Director.
Paul Jarris MD, one of the best Commissioners of Public Health (2003-2006) that Vermont has ever had, often said forthrightly that “about forty percent of what Vermont spends on health care is simply wasted.”
H175, the updated Bottle Bill, received initial approval in the Vermont House Thursday. The vote was 99-46. It’s up for final approval today.
Sure, a creemee – especially the maple creemee, that sexy marriage of our two hometown sweethearts, milk and maple syrup – is yummy. But is it “sure, I’ll let them inject an emergency-approved anti-viral into my body if they’ll give me a creemee” yummy?
A 58-year-old man from Coventry will face charges after driving his truck through a window at Maplefields in Newport.
Don’t miss breaking news! Vermont Daily Water Cooler is a roundup of important headlines from around the state.
Vermont will receive $ 104,438,131 from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to support the State with emergency protective measures to store, handle, transport, distribute, and administer the COVID-19 vaccine.
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