Vermonters already expect vaccine outcome data are being compiled and monitored – but incredibly they are not.
Stella: vax data bill needed
Director of Racial Equity says Clean Heat Act ‘doesn’t meet the mark’
Xusana Davis: “It’s now my third or fourth session in the state and one of the things I often hear from legislators is, oh yeah, sorry, the equity piece isn’t quite there but we’ll fix it in January. We’ll fix it later. And what that says to me is there is something that motivates us to do this that is more important to us than justice. So the justice will have to wait.”
Benning quotes Jefferson: “I cannot live without books”
No technology can replace the quiet solitude and person-to-person educational learning experiences found in a library environment.
State college vice-chair and digital tech exec conflict of interest re: library plan?
The unprecedented move of making the Northern Vermont University library almost all-digital has raised conflict of interest questions about Vermont State College Board Vice-Chair Megan Cluver, who is also a senior manager of Deloitte, a digital technology firm.
Opinion: Denying tuition to religious schools ‘petty, close-minded’ / Unshoveled churches / Tax money helping China build manufacturing in U.S.A
If Rice and others forfeit tuition vouchers for including religion in their curriculum, why can the public schools teach woke?
Wilson: When Vermont fails, where will we go?
The tide has turned to what is now a social welfare state, implementing similar programs that have been a failure in California, and closer to home, in Burlington.
40 Days for Life spreads to three Vermont cities
The 40 Days for Life prayer vigil begins this coming week in Barre, Rutland and Burlington.
News Video: S.5 passes Senate committee
Despite testimony about how the ‘Affordable Heating Act’ would actually raise energy prices for poor and middle income Vermonters, a Senate committee unanimously approved S.5.
‘Affordable Heating Act’ passes 5-0 in Senate Committee
A bill that could add up to $4 to the cost of heating fuel passed the Senate Natural Resources and Energy Committee this morning.
Roper: Conflicts of interest that lead to bad laws like the “Unaffordable Heating Act”
Lawmakers’ ears appear to be stuffed with cotton.
Burlington cold murder case solved
Longtime news reporter Mike Donoghue broke one of the biggest crime stories in Vermont history on Thursday when he reported that the rape, beating and strangulation death of a Milton teacher more than 51 years ago in Burlington has been solved.
In Burlington, bike lanes replace parking spaces
The Queen City continues its new look: less parking, more biking.
Homeless hotel resident arrested in car thefts
Several days after two car thefts in which police say he was connected, Foy was apprehended walking down Rte. 302 shortly after 5 pm with a shopping cart that carried a computer stolen from WalMart.
Medical freedom bills introduced
A series of bills seeking a balance between public health policy goals and individual rights have been introduced into the Vermont Legislature.
Hospital wants $130 million outpatient surgery center in South Burlington
More surgical capacity is needed because by 2030 Vermont’s 65-plus population will grow by 30 to 60 percent, UVMMC officials said.
‘Democracy vouchers’ put free campaign cash in voters’ hands
Every February of municipal election years, Seattle voters receive four $25 “democracy vouchers” — blue slips of paper totaling $100 on which voters can write in candidates and direct public funds to those campaigns.
In 1945, segregation kept black legislator out of Montpelier hotels
Elected to the Legislature in 1945, many Montpelier institutions like the Pavilion Hotel and the Montpelier Tavern were closed to him due to segregation.
Federal prosecutor starts safe gun storage campaign
The U.S. attorney for Vermont is giving out free gun locks as part of a new gun safety campaign.
Empty positions strain mental health services in VT
Hundreds of Vermonters are seeking mental health support that just isn’t there.
Lawmakers take offensive against abortion alternatives
Vermont lawmakers are seeking to outlaw efforts to counter the pro-abortion agenda.
Kauffman: H89 answers the ‘what-if’ questions about Article 22
Too late for voters considering Article 22, expert/lawmaker discussion of new legislation answers some then-unanswered questions about the controversial amendment to the Vermont Constitution.
Drug clinic refugee trashes cabin, claims he was shot / 108 MPH / embezzlement
A man who had recently left a drug treatment clinic trashed a rented cabin, cut himself jumping out of a window, and then told police an intruder had shot him.
More pro-abortion than thou
2023 Vermont legislative leaders seem less about “choice” and more about making abortion the only known alternative to women in crisis pregnancy.
‘No fish is worth risking your life to catch’: Stay off Lake Champlain advisory extended
Following the death of three anglers off Grand Isle, and with 40-plus degree temps expected, the state game warden colonel advises staying off Lake Champlain until cooler weather returns later this month.
Last Page: Prosecutor, side judge retires after four decades
Lamoille County side judge Joel Page hung up his robe February 1,marking 41 years of working day in and day out at the county courthouse in Hyde Park village.
Charges dropped against Montpelier city council critic
Every town has a Stephen Whitaker – the person who regularly stands up at local meetings and shares strong opinions and inconvenient facts. Few of them get handcuffed and led away – only to have their charges dropped, months later.
News video: Brady letters & lifetime ban for police misconduct
Here at the Vermont Daily Chronicle, we’re now trying to produce news videos. Today: Brady letters as another basis for the State permanently decertifying a police officer to work in Vermont.
New bills target police immunity and pregnancy center advertising, repeal retail cannabis
Legal protections now enjoyed by police and crisis pregnancy centers are in the crosshairs of two House bills introduced Tuesday.
Vergennes’ black sheriff, police chief
Born a slave on a Virginia plantation, Bates was first elected to the office of Sheriff in Vergennes in 1879, fourteen years after the end of the Civil War.
UVM athletic complex needs another $87 million
The pandemic and workforce shortages have led to an $87 million pricetag for completing the new UVM athletic complex.
Senator: Clean Heat Standard a ‘Rube Goldberg contraption’
A Democratic senator on the committee reviewing the ‘Affordable Heating Act’ compares the complex, inscrutable carbon-taxing bill to a Rube Goldberg contraption.
Wilson: Independent schools bill could leave NEK students with no high school
S66, a bill intended to cut religious schools out of public tuition, could lead to the closure of private Lyndon Institute, thus depriving NEK sudents of their long-standing tuition high school.
Staff shortage closes public school, State plans new youth jail in St. Albans
Ever since the Woodside facility in Essex closed, the State of Vermont has sought without success for somewhere, anywhere to safely and securely hold juvenile delinquents. Next stop, St. Albans.
Bill gives State another tool to ban police officers from working in Vermont
H251 would add the issuance of a Brady or Giglio letter as a basis of law enforcement misconduct under the jurisdiction of the Vermont Criminal Justice Council, the state’s police disciplinary board.
Drug dealer whose girlfriend died of gunshot in Killington gets 4 years
A Killington man whose girlfriend died in September 2021 of what he told police was a self-inflicted gunshot has been sentenced to four years in prison for related drug and gun charges.
Evslin: Vermont needs more forest, more housing
Failing dairy farms can be converted to a combination of forest land and housing.
How fast Vermont’s economy is growing
Unemployment dropped a percentage point, and economic growth was slow compared to the national growth during the third quarter of 2022.
‘We basically nuked a town with chemicals’
Train fire in Ohio….
The latest solution to Vermont’s housing crisis? Paying landlords to rent to people
The Vermont State Housing Authority launched the Landlord Relief Program last week with help from the state Department for Children and Families.
Paramilitary training camp bill passes committee
Unlawful militia conspiracy or lawful Second Amendment activity?
Angry, 400 lb. voter convinced town clerk Vermont’s not ready for Ranked Choice Voting (yet)
All it took was one raging 400 lb. voter to convince this town clerk that making complicated electoral changes must be accompanied with robust education of both voters and voting officials.
Sanders highlights teacher ‘pay crisis’
For decades public school teachers have been Bernie Sanders’ most loyal campaign volunteers and donors. Last night it was payback time.
McClaughry: Exterminating parental choice
This retreat from Vermont’s long practice of parental choice for their children in tuition towns will be a disgraceful victory for a public school monopoly that puts its own interests far ahead of the interests of the pupils that Vermont education is supposed to serve.
Keelan: Don’t let State take over local zoning to ‘fix’ the housing crisis
Let the State of Vermont ‘fix’ the housing crisis like the way it fixed the education spending crisis and the climate crisis? Beware the Trojan Horse.
Video: no conscience protection allowed in abortion/transgender shield bill
The acting Speaker of the House would not allow an amendment to the abortion/transgender shield bill requiring conscience protection for health care providers to be voted on by the full House.
Mary Anderson: first African-American woman Phi Beta Kappa
A woman born and raised in Shoreham was the first black woman elected to a prestigious academic society, and later became a professor at Howard University.
Hills to die on – or not
In the matter of legislative sausage making, nothing is ever cut and dried.
Letters: You first, woke legislators / Dollar devaluation looms / lamenting the lost libraries
For every bill or proposal you want to force on Vermonters, the first step must be for you to comply immediately, even before the law is passed. Lead the way!
Eshelman: Real per-pupil spending in school district almost $27K – more than Castleton college tuition, room & board
Despite higher-than-college per-pupil costs, only 40% of VT public school students meet grade level standards, and discipline and school safety are problematic.
Affordable Heating Act scheduled for committee vote this week
Critics of the so-called Affordable Heating Act will testify before a likely committee vote later this week.
Deadly Ice
Stay off the ice, police and Fish & Wildlife authorities urge, following the deaths of three ice fishermen off the eastern shore of Grand Isle County last week.
First ordained black minister in USA pastored in Rutland
While a soldier during the American Revolution, Haynes wrote extensively, criticizing the slave trade and slavery. He continued these activities after the war, and also began to prepare sermons, family prayers and other theological works.
Abortion shield bill passes without conscience protections
In a speech on the floor of the House, a Northfield lawmaker decries the abortion shield bill’s lack of conscience protections for health professionals.
Reader: “I recommend the VDC to all my like-minded friends, and some who are not”
“The heads up you provide regarding proposed legislation is a launching pad for my efforts to write to [legislators] either in opposition or approval,” a Windsor reader writes.
Library closings, mental illness crisis, shooting threats in VT school news
A terrifying hoax about active shooters in 21 schools was among several highly concerning Vermont school headlines last week.
Bufka: S.5 shoddy workmanship, more stick than carrot
If the people building the more stick-than-carrot Affordable Heating Act were building a house, I would go nowhere near it.
Citizens push back against teacher takeover of public school curriculum, infringement on gun rights
A farmer from the islands and a retired doctor in Derby show how citizen advocacy is done.
Air force jets shooting down unspecified ‘objects’ in northern skies
U.S. Air Force jets are shooting down one ‘object’ after another in skies over Alaska and northern Michigan. What’s going on here?
Burlington seeks state OK for warming buildings with woodchip plant ‘waste heat’
The Vermont Climate Council is frowning on burning ‘biomass’ – what will this mean for Burlington’s plan to heat UVM, the hospital and other buildings with waste heat from McNeil?
Roper: Partisan legislators are going after the wrong schools
“Public schools are in a crisis,” school superintendent Libby Bonesteel said. “Every school system has students who are explosive in ways that we have never seen before…. Teachers are quite literally scared, and administrators are at a loss. People are getting hurt, and rooms are getting trashed.”
UPDATE: third fisherman dies off shore of Grand Isle County
A third fisherman this week has died after going through the ice off the shores of Grand Isle County.
Bananas: Will my heart make it to Valentine’s Day?
Even the hour I gained last month is one hour closer to imminent death thanks to the inherent risks associated with daylight savings time.
Another year-round Legislature study bill introduced
Now the House also has a bill to study whether the Legislature should meet year-round.
Anti-religious school tuition bill could stop ed funding to secular, private schools
Secular private schools now receiving public tuition could suffer financial harm under a bill meant to stop tuition to religious schools.
State’s top cop denies slow movement on trooper investigation
The school shooting hoax has occupied much of Jen Morrison’s attention this week, but she says she’s not dragging her feet on the investigation into allegations of racist, sexist comments made by off-duty state troopers.
CDC adds Covid-19 to routine vax schedule for adults, kids
Now that the CDC has added a Covid-19 vax to the ‘routine vaccination’ schedule, will it be required for students?
Roper: Abenaki testimony shows farce of GWSA ‘social justice’
An Abenaki activist asks senators where the social justice and equity went when S5, the not Affordable Heating Act, was drafted.
Fernandez: from the Dog River to the Euphrates
Prophesied long ago…….
Fisherman dies after rescue from fall through ice
A fisherman has died after his Thursday fall through the ice on Lake Champlain, police say.
The Irasburg Affair
The Irasburg Affair was a much discussed – and disputed – collision of an emerging Black America with small-town, overwhelmingly white Vermont.
Why Vermont court protected school district after vaccinating 6-year-old against parents’ wishes
People were shocked when a court refused to hold Brattleboro schools liable for vaccinating a child without parental consent.
William Matthews: ‘the Jackie Robinson of his age’
On July 4, 1905, William Matthews started at second base for the Burlington Baseball Team of the Northern League – at the time the only black professional baseball player. He was later known as “the Jackie Robinson of his age.”
Winooski landlords, tenants butt heads over ‘just cause’ eviction charter change
No-one enjoys the eviction process. Winooski landlords say a pending charter change will just make it worse.
Supreme Court work-around on religious school tuition introduced in Senate
A bill introduced into the Vermont Senate appears to exclude religious schools as eligible for public school tuition – without actually saying so.
Church pushes back against political speech bill, organizes e-mail campaign
More than 400 emails opposing H113 have already been sent to lawmakers.
Investigation continues into terrifying school shooting hoax
The fake calls about school shootings began at 8:40 AM yesterday and continued to come in for the next two hours. All told, 21 schools were threatened.
Biden SOTU speech bombs in ratings
Joe Biden’s State of the Union ratings bombed, although heckling by Rep. Marjorie Taylor-Greene was memorable.
Nonbinary at birth: parents may mark “X” on initial birth certificate
VTDigger reports that parents may now use X as a placeholder on their child’s initial birth certificate – no more binary requirement.
Senator explains why she doesn’t say the Pledge of Allegiance
For Sen. Becca White, not saying the Pledge of Allegiance “is a reflection on a religious belief, in the same way I’m sure many Christian Americans would struggle to say a pledge that said ‘Under Oden’ or ‘Under Zeus.'”
Vax freedom, fetal personhood bills introduced into House
Bills establishing vaccination freedom and fetal personhood were introduced Tuesday in the Vermont House of Representatives.
21 schools – and counting- hit by shooting hoax calls this morning
21 Vermont schools were hit this morning with ‘swatting’ calls falsely reporting shooting incidents.
Abortion/transgender shield bill headed to House floor
A controversial pro-LGBTQ bill has been approved by a House committee.
Beware blackouts on the road to electrification, environmentalist warns Senate chair
James Ehlers asks, “Why are Vermonters asking about grid reliability, Chair Bray?” – and then answers his own question in a letter to the Senate Natural Resources and Energy chair.
Roper: No such thing as a free lunch
If all of these suggested revenue sources sound familiar, it is because they are all being targeted by multiple programs that want funding.
Mermel: God bless Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders
Blunt in her assessment of Pres. Joe Biden, Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders delivered what may have been the best response to a State of the Union ever given.
Burlington homeless pods ready for occupants
The Elmwood Ave. pods provide “rapid rehousing with all of the services required to move from homelessness to permanent supportive housing,” a city official says.
Freed slave graduated first in his class at UVM, first black Phi Beta Kappa
Freed during the Civil War and brought north by a Vermont infantry officer, George Washington Henderson had a distinguished career as a scholar, educator, and pastor.
State college to close library, go all-digital / Death by alcohol up 36%
Vermont’s drinking problem – already serious – has grown worse over the last five years.
Few states give paid leave for domestic or sexual violence. Vermont could become one of them
The paid family and medical leave bill also would give time off for sexual and domestic abuse victims.
McClaughry: Germany’s coming electricity shortfall
Vermont’s renewable power development was patterned after Germany’s – and now our European ally is looking at electricity shortages, after closing their nuclear power plants. Sound familiar?
Employees detail dangerous conditions at Newport prison
The letter by frontline staff, who are members of the Vermont State Employees’ Association, alerts corrections management to a “toxic environment for both incarcerated individuals and staff” at the Newport facility and identifies alarming and disturbing conditions on the ground.
“Big Joe” Burrell, iconic saxophone player
A life-size statue of Port Huron, Michigan native and sax player Big Joe Burrell graces the Church Street Marketplace.
Abortion/transgender shield bills get look in House, Senate committees this week
A bill that would restrict advertising by pregnancy counseling services is under discussion in a Senate committee this week.
Summer studded snow tire ban, universal free school meals, emergency veterinary bills intro’d into House
New bills continue to flood into the Vermont House of Representatives.
Vermont #2 in nation in rate of homelessness – what can be done?
It may seem oxymoronic. And heartless. Or both. But I believe it’s true: purportedly compassionate policies offering plentiful, free emergency housing both grow and maintain Vermont’s core population of ‘homeless.’
Sec-State: Void in Vermont’s democracy filled with disinformation
A new Education and Civic Engagement Coordinator position has been created because sometimes people don’t know how to vote, or they don’t know the candidates, or they don’t know whether their vote will make a difference.
Lawmakers question need for job subsidies
So – why are we spending state money on ‘job creation’ when we already don’t have enough workers?
Roper: Lawmakers’ appetite for state programs is way bigger than the state’s work force
Amid the worst worker shortage ever, the State of Vermont is emulating the states workers are leaving in droves.
Bill requires churches to certify no political activity
A southern Vermont lawmaker explains why she introduced a bill requiring churches to certify annually they did not lobby or engage in political activity.
Wilson: Organic farms want $$, have no plan to fix problems
Some regulation is needed to protect Vermonters and the environment – but right now, Act 250 hinders farm and forest operations, a Lyndon lawmaker on the House ag/foresty committee says.









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