Vermont news

• Competition for a few open seats livens up mostly safe Senate races

  22-07-2018 22:32 via vtdigger.org
  The Vermont Senate debates an expansive set of gun restrictions. Photo by Mike Dougherty/VTDigger
  Two young upstart Republicans in two very different districts, an activist for women candidates, and a crowded field for a single open Washington County seat offer compelling narratives in otherwise snoozy races for Senate across the state.Republicans are poised to recapture the two seats left open by Sen. Carolyn Branagan, R-Franklin, and Sen. Peg Flory, R-Rutland, and have candidates running for t
  
  Read more

• State’s attorneys undermine ACLU survey with ‘collective’ response

  22-07-2018 22:20 via vtdigger.org
  John Campbell, director of the Department of State’s Attorneys and Sheriffs Association, speaks on the Senate floor during his time as Senate president pro tem. Photo by John Herrick/VTDigger
  The Vermont chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union distributed a survey to state’s attorneys candidates last month hoping to increase accountability for some of the most powerful, but least known, politicians in the state.Instead it got a “collective” response from more than h
  
  Read more

• AFL-CIO leaves Vermont labor coalition in dispute over lobbying

  22-07-2018 21:05 via vtdigger.org
  Jill Charbonneau, president of the Vermont AFL-CIO, addresses crowds gathered at the Statehouse on Wednesday to protest the governor’s proposed changes to collective bargaining. Photo by Michael Dougherty/VTDiggerOne of Vermont’s largest labor union alliances is leaving a statewide workers coalition over the handling of the tense process that led to major changes in how school employees will bargain for their healthcare plans starting next year.The Vermont State Labor Council, AFL-CI
  
  Read more

• New Chapter founders part ways with Procter & Gamble

  22-07-2018 20:00 via vtdigger.org
  Barbi and Paul Schulick founded the Brattleboro-based New Chapter organic vitamin and supplement company in 1986. Provided photo
  BRATTLEBORO — When Paul and Barbi Schulick sold their Brattleboro-based New Chapter organic vitamin and supplement business to Procter & Gamble — the world’s second largest consumer products company — in 2012, they hoped it would help their Vermont vision go global.
  “Procter & Gamble has the ability to turbocharge our mis
  
  Read more

• Advertisement

• Burlington plots wastewater upgrades

  22-07-2018 19:19 via vtdigger.org
  The Burlington wastewater treatment facility on Lavalley Lane in Burlington. Bacteria process wastewater in the aeration tanks, foreground. File photo by Bob LoCicero/VTDigger
  In late April, a faulty valve sent seven million gallons of partially treated wastewater into Lake Champlain. In early June, beleaguered bacteria were to blame for back-to-back releases that sent nearly two million gallons of partially treated wastewater and stormwater into the lake, closing area beaches. And last week, a
  
  Read more

• Moats: By embracing Putin, Trump spurns the past

  22-07-2018 19:00 via vtdigger.org
  Russia President Vladimir Putin and U.S. President Donald Trump meet in Helsinki on July 16. Kremlin photo via Wikipedia
  David Moats, an author and journalist who lives in Salisbury, is a regular columnist for VTDigger. He is editorial page editor emeritus of the Rutland Herald, where he won the 2001 Pulitzer Prize for a series of editorials on Vermont’s civil union law.
  President Donald Trump’s embrace of Russian President Vladimir Putin at the Helsinki summit may have yielded the u
  
  Read more

• ‘Red Scare in the Green Mountains’ explores Vermont’s McCarthyite past

  22-07-2018 18:30 via vtdigger.org
  Author Rick Winston, of Adamant. Photo by Jeb Wallace-Brodeur.
  In the tumult of geopolitical history, ultra-nationalist Donald Trump recently held a tête-à-tête with former KGB intelligence officer Vladimir Putin. This month also witnesses the launch of Adamant resident Rick Winston’s book about a previous hard turn to the right in America. Seven decades ago, thousands of people were persecuted for their ties, real or imagined, to communism.
  “Red Scare in the Green
  
  Read more

• Despite promises, some memory care residents are told to leave

  22-07-2018 18:00 via vtdigger.org
  Maple Ridge Memory Care in Essex. Photo by Alexandre Silberman/VTDigger
  ESSEX — When Bruce Bottamini was searching for a memory care residence for his wife, he said he felt assured by the many promises and marketing materials promoting age-in-place and end-of-life care.
  He settled on Maple Ridge Memory Care in Essex — known as Spring Village at the time — because he felt it would be a comfortable place for his wife Phyllis, who had Alzheimer’s disease, to spend the rest o
  
  Read more

• Advertisement

• Hospitals outline projections for revenue and rate hikes

  22-07-2018 17:00 via vtdigger.org
  Kevin Mullin is the chair of the Green Mountain Care Board. File photo by Mike Dougherty/VTDigger
  For those who are concerned about the continued growth of health care costs, Vermont hospitals’ proposed fiscal year 2019 budgets are a mixed bag.
  On one hand, the overall increase in patient revenues expected by the state’s hospitals is just 2.9 percent – lower than a target set by the cost-conscious Green Mountain Care Board a few months ago.Get all of VTDigger's health care news
  
  Read more

• Then Again: In procuring benefits, government red tape is nothing new

  22-07-2018 16:00 via vtdigger.org
  Bennington residents who were alive during the American Revolution pose together for a daguerreotype taken in the 1840s. Seated at far left is Benjamin Harwood, who fought in the war. Seated at far right is Samuel Stafford, who also might have served. Photo courtesy of the Vermont Historical Society
  Editor’s note: Mark Bushnell is a Vermont journalist and historian. He is the author of “Hidden History of Vermont” and “It Happened in Vermont.”Bureaucracy is nothing n
  
  Read more

Follow @NewsVermont_ on Twitter!