( – promoted by Jack McCullough)

[Note: Public hearing on Paid Sick Day Bill H.208 6-8pm, Thurs, April 18, Statehouse]



Ever since the Vermont Workers’ Center started the Workers’ Rights Hotline in 1998, we have heard from countless workers and their families about the hardship and suffering caused by the lack of paid sick days. It has become clear that the right to paid sick days is critical for the well-being of workers, their families and our communities. It is core to our human right to a safe and healthy workplace, our human right to health and healthcare, and our need to hold down a job and take care of our family at the same time. We have heard from all too many people whose health got worse as they continued to work rather than get care, who lost their job because they took their sick child to the hospital, or who struggled to pay rent after losing a few days’ wages.

What kind of society do we live in where ill people who desperately need to get healthcare and recover at home, or care for a sick family member, must instead go to work because they can’t afford to miss a day’s pay, or risk losing their job? We all have a human right to dignified work, which requires safe and healthy workplaces and the ability to provide and care for our loved ones. We have a human right to health that includes our right to get healthcare as well as our right to heal and recover. Sick workers must be able to go to the doctor and stay at home when they need to, instead of being forced to work. Parents and other caregivers must be able to seek medical attention for their child or family member and to care for them at home, without risking their jobs. That is why we need to secure the right to paid sick days in Vermont.  

Becoming a parent has given me a whole new perspective on paid sick days. Hearing from people through our Workers’ Rights Hotline raised my awareness of this issue, but experiencing it first hand has been a real eye opener. When the childcare center informs you that your kid has a fever and has to stay at home, you realize this means you can’t go to work. This affects all of us who care for children or other family members. As a society, we cannot afford that only those with higher incomes and certain types of jobs are able to care for their loved ones. It is not right that those who most depend on a day’s wages must choose between keeping their job or caring for their child. I am reminded of the sad story one of our VWC members told when she testified about the proposed cuts to the Reach Up program. Here’s what she said:  

“Someone asked me the other day why I don’t have a job instead of being on Reach Up. Let me tell you what I told them. … I was working at a restaurant in New Hampshire, about 40 minutes from where I live. I was making just $7.25 an hour. I was only getting 20-25 hours each week, and many of the shifts were nights and weekends so I had to find additional childcare. … Then I actually ended up losing that job because I had to stay home with my daughter when she was sick with tonsillitis and a fever. I couldn’t send her to school, so I had no choice.”

As workers, we are more than just employees. We are parents, caregivers, and members of our community. We are human beings. We take pride in work done well, we rely on our wages to pay rent and buy food, we are responsible for caring for others, and we take part in building healthy communities. We need paid sick days to live and work with dignity. This is a right that Vermont must ensure for all of us.

Join me for a public hearing on the Earned Paid Sick Days Bill, H.208, on April 18th at 5:30pm at the State House in Montpelier.  

James Haslam is the Executive Director of the Vermont Workers’ Center, which was founded in 1998 and has grown into a statewide community-based workers organization with thousands of members committed to standing for justice and organizing for human rights. Website: workerscenter.org

What’s up in law enforcement these days? Nothin’ much, to judge by our two-fisted Top Prosecutor’s latest declaration of war (as reported by Peter Hirschfeld behind the Mitchell Family Paywall):

Attorney General Bill Sorrell looks to have identified the next target in his war on childhood obesity.

…Sorrell on Wednesday trained his crosshairs on the fast food industry. Specifically, Sorrell said he wants to scrutinize – and possibly find new ways to regulate — advertising geared toward young children.

First of all, let’s make it clear that the fast food industry is a bane of our existence, as it encourages and fuels our obesity epidemic for the sake of profit. My complaint here is (a) I don’t see why this is the Attorney General’s responsibility, and (b) Sorrell doesn’t know what, if anything, he’s actually going to do.  

Sorrell said it’s still too early to say what form legal or regulatory intervention might take.

… Assistant Attorney General Wendy Morgan said attempts to restrict commercial speech are always legally challenging.

“It would be fair to say we’ve just begun to think about this,” Morgan said. “We do know there are serious First Amendment concerns.”

And…

Rep. Mike Fisher, a Lincoln Democrat and chairman of the House Committee on Health Care, said he’s unsure what, if anything, lawmakers can do to more tightly regulate the hundreds of millions of dollars being spent to boost consumption of unhealthy foods.

In sum, Bill Sorrell launches a new crusade on an issue that’s tangential to his job, he has no idea what he’s going to do about it, and some very smart people say there’s nothing much he can do.

All the hallmarks of a well thought-out policy proposal.  

 It is unlikely he is a robot. But Cheney was once described this way by Jon Stewart:

“this guy was wrong every time … you try that at work, see if you get to keep your job.”

So given his past record of being wrong on everything foreign policy-wise, doesn’t it stand to reason Republican congressmen would invite Cheney to share his unique insights on the new leader of North Korea, Kim Jong Un?

Cheney attended a leadership meeting in the office of Speaker John A. Boehner of Ohio before walking to the office of Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy of California to speak with the GOP whip team. He came at the behest of McCarthy, according to aides and members.

We don’t know exactly what Dick’s thoughts from the private Republican Congressional leadership meeting were as they are not being made public. However, one Florida congressman who attended the meeting said the former Vice President emphasized that we cannot underestimate the North Koreans and

Our intel on him is sketchy at best. He’s young, so he doesn’t have a track record, and don’t eliminate any possibility of what his intentions are: blackmail, actual use of force, or using it as a [bargaining] chip.

Sure, Republican’s can’t wait to take advice from Cheney, the one who once said confidently:

Simply stated, there is no doubt that Saddam Hussein now has weapons of mass destruction

Considering his past association with sketchy intelligence, not to mention the war-profiteering by his former firm, Halliburton,  it is now kind of a shift to read he is worried about “intel” being “sketchy.” Cheney, after all, still maintains forcefully that if given the chance, he would enter and conduct the Iraq War the same way all over again.

His sole correct position is on a domestic issue (marriage equality), almost certainly because he has a lesbian daughter. Then again, even a stopped clock is right twice a day.

And, it should be noted, nobody is asking Dubya, his former putative boss, for advice.

There’s an old Dilbert cartoon in which the pointy-headed boss tells his employees that they’ll get a positive evaluation if they eat a bug. A bug of the boss’ choosing. A nice big bug.

I envision a similar conversation on the fifth floor of the Pavilion Building between the Governor and a group of child-care advocates and providers. Because on Monday, they marched to a podium in the Cedar Creek Room and ate a bug.

Not literally, but metaphorically; they endorsed the Governor’s proposed cut in the Earned Income Tax Credit, with the money going to better child care subsidies for the working poor. It was clearly another effort by the Shumlin team to save his extremely unpopular proposal. But it was pretty clear the advocates were having trouble getting their bugs to stay down.

Julie Coffey of the Building Bright Futures Council, as quoted in VTDigger:

“I thankfully don’t sit in the Legislature and have to make the decision, the tough decision that they make every day in where to find funding … it’s the time to prioritize, and we appreciate the governor’s commitment to prioritize early childhood investments,” she said.

May I pause here and highlight a comment posted beneath this story by Sen. David Zuckerman?

When I had breakfast at an event sponsored by many early childcare providers, including Building Bright Futures, most of the providers I spoke with were not supportive of the EITC cut to fund the proposal. Many wanted an increase in funding, but the vast majority did not support the funding mechanism.

I am wondering whether building bright futures and other early childcare groups actually polled their members (thoroughly) to come to the conclusion to support this, or whether it was a board decision?

I am wondering, too.

Returning to our bug-eating theme, here’s a quote reported by Peter Hirschfeld behind the Mitchell Family Paywall:

“This is what was put in front of us,” said Jody Marquis, owner of a child care center in Newport.

Yeah, eat that bug!

I can understand the advocates’ position. They’re in an underfunded business, and they’d like to do more. The Governor is offering them the chance — but only if they go along with his “take from the poor and give to the poor” funding scheme.

After offering her version of a one-star Yelp review — “We ordered the poached salmon, but this is what was put in front of us” —  Marquis went on to parrot Shumlin’s EITC talking points almost word for word:  

“We are all being asked as a society to look at budgets, not spend more and not raise taxes. … This is the best way to take those funds and redistribute the money in a way that they get a better return on their investment.”

Methinks she was well briefed. And then there’s this interesting tidbit from Hirschfeld:

Child care providers are putting more than words behind their advocacy. Vermont Birth to Three, one of the groups represented at the news conference Monday, has hired the Statehouse lobbying firm KSE Partners to push for the cuts to the tax credit.

Hmm. Can’t say I’m familiar with Vermont Birth to Three, but from a review of its website, it doesn’t look like it has the resources to hire Montpelier’s leading Democrat-connected lobbying shop. Perhaps they’ve gotten a generous donor to pick up the tab, eh?

If someone from VBT would like to disclose KSE’s fee and how they’re paying it, we’d be happy to pass along the information. But wherever the money is coming from, one thing is clear: the Governor is beginning yet another phase of his sputtering campaign for the EITC cut. This time, it’s a power play.

___________________________

p.s. I can’t resist this little howler from the VTDigger account. Its penultimate paragraph:

State officials say they don’t know what percentage of families that receive the EITC would benefit from the increased child-care subsidies.

Funny, that. Because earlier in that very same story, we learn that the EITC “benefits about 45,000 low-income working families,” and that Shumlin’s proposed changes in child-care subsidies “would make roughly 900 additional families eligible.”

This is not new math. The Public Assets Institute pointed it out months ago, and I’ve previously mentioned it in this space. If state officials “don’t know,” it’s simply because they choose not to know. Or they’re just lying.  

Breaking News…GMD…30 seconds ago…

Yes, it’s true.  An aging Fidel Castro announced today he wishes to see, what he called, “…the most socialist, yet yuppified and Gay state in the USA…Vermont!”

Castro explained:  “I’m going to die soon, so I want to see this Fall Foliage stuff, and maybe take a Winter horse-drawn sleigh ride in Stowe.  Comrade Colby has invited me up for September through January.  And I’m going.  Everything with the Comrades here is under control, and I want to see if I can learn some things about this whole Gay Movement, which we’ve been behind with in Cuba.  I’m going to Vermont.  Nobody is going to stop me.  

“In September, I will go bass fishing with Comrade Buknatski, and in October, I will watch the leaves turn RED.  I will go to the Three Penny Taproom in Montpelier and drink good beer with Comrade Hamilton, and ask him if this Bernie Sanders can be trusted with his one man crusade against Wall Street and his attempts to single-handedly lift the American embargo on Cuba.

“I wish to ‘hang-out’ at the Church Street Marketplace in Burlington, and go to the Dowsers Convention in Danville.  And find out if it is true that this other place in Montpelier, Charlie Os, actually serves Cuban Rum disguised in Bacardi bottles.

“And, in November, I want to go Catamount hunting with this rich asshole Governor they have there, Peter Shumlin, and try to understand why Vermonters elected him instead of Comrade Diamondstone.  

“I wish to learn much, and return to Cuba with a pledge of investments for a Three Penny Taproom in Havana, and for all natural and organic Cuban Rum made from Hemp.  Did you know that we here in Cuba make everything from Hemp?  Even our Birth Control.  We also use Hemp to run our Internet here so that we don’t have to pay for Socialist Networking.

“I also plan in September a quick weekend trip to Boston to watch the Red Sox get beaten by the Yankees, or whatever team is in Boston then.  And I will be in the fields of Vermont come Harvest Season, picking Kale with my south-of-the-American-border Comrades, who will then, hopefully, be able to drive me to one of these Fish Concerts in Vermont without the Police State stopping us on the road and asking to see my papers.  I will take Comrade Buknatski along so he can explain to me how these Vermont bass and other fish got to be so musical.

“Because we don’t have skiing in Cuba because we have no snow, I will bring along my surfboard.  Also a skateboard.  And yes, also I plan on ‘borrowing’ many American Cigarettes, while not passing out any Cuban Cigars.  I will also partake of this Vigiling they do in Vermont for everything, and play the bongos in a surprise appearance with Abby Jenne & The Enablers.

“Over Christmas, I will help this Bill Doyle with his Town Meeting Poll for next March, to give it a hipper, more Revolutionary list of questions, such as: ‘Do you think Vermont should secede from the Union and form an International Workers’ CO-OP and Peoples’ Nirvana with Cuba, Venezuela, Jamaica, and Seattle?’.  I also plan to do much relaxing indoors, as I understand the weather up in Vermont mostly sucks.

“That is all I have to say at this time.  I will see you later.  Perhaps at that Grand Opera House they have in Barre.

“Oh, and one more thing.  To let you know, I originally thought that the Carters who were coming to Cuba were Jimmy and Rosalynn.  It was to my surprise that they were black people and turned out to be this Beyonce celebrity and a hip-hop sports promoter named Jay-Z.  But it turned out good for us, as this Mr. Z said he will work on getting our Havana baseball team into the American Major Leagues.  Thank you.  And thank all you American Comrades for Baseball and drinking Cuban Rum.”

However, leading Republicans have called Castro’s planned visit to Vermont a violation of America’s long standing boycott on all things Cuban, and an attempt, with the help of the entire State of Vermont, to finalize President Obama’s “socialist coup.”

Senator Millard Pissant of Florida said that Castro’s visit will include the delivering of President Obama’s “real birth certificate” that will show, Pissant said, “that Barack Obama was born on a hillside camp in the Sierra Maestra, just like in that great movie, The Manchurian Candidate.  I therefore call on all Americans,” Pissant continued, “to help us in impeaching this RAPING of our American Way Of Life!  What started with Desi Arnaz and I Love Lucy has now become Ba-Ba-Loo Bama and I Love Vermont.  Monstrous.  Unbelievable.  I mean totally…RAPACIOUS!”

This story will be updated here once we hear from Michael Colby in Walden, who, we understand, is now busy ‘networking’ with, as he calls them, a bunch of Lib-er-al Fucks who want to know how much Colby will charge them to have their pictures taken with Castro in the horse-drawn sleigh and then posted on FACEBOOK.

We now return you to your Social Networking…….

Peter Buknatski

Montpelier, Vt.

Breaking News…GMD…30 seconds ago…

Yes, It’s true.  An aging Fidel Castro announced today he wishes to see, what he called, “…the most socialist, yet yuppified and Gay state in the USA…Vermont!”

Castro explained:  “I’m going to die soon, so I want to see this Fall Foliage stuff, and maybe take a Winter horse-drawn sleigh ride in Stowe.  Comrade Colby has invited me up for September through January.  And I’m going.  Everything with the Comrades here is under control, and I want to see if I can learn some things about this whole Gay Movement, which we’ve been behind with in Cuba.  I’m going to Vermont.  Nobody is going to stop me.  

“In September, I will go bass fishing with Comrade Buknatski, and in October, I will watch the leaves turn RED.  I will go to the Three Penny Taproom in Montpelier and drink good beer with Comrade Hamilton, and ask him if this Bernie Sanders can be trusted with his one man crusade against Wall Street and his attempts to single-handedly lift the American embargo on Cuba.

“I wish to ‘hang-out’ at the Church Street Marketplace in Burlington, and go to the Dowsers Convention in Danville.  And find out if it is true that this other place in Montpelier, Charlie Os, actually serves Cuban Rum disguised in Bacardi bottles.

“And, in November, I want to go Catamount hunting with with this rich asshole Governor they have there, Peter Shumlin, and try to understand why Vermonters elected him instead of Comrade Diamondstone.  

“I wish to learn much, and return to Cuba with a pledge of investments for a Three Penny Taproom in Havana, and for all natural and organic Cuban Rum made from Hemp.  Did you know that we here in Cuba make everything from Hemp?  Even our Birth Control.  We also use Hemp to run our Internet here so that we don’t have to pay for Socialist Networking.

“I also plan in September a quick weekend trip to Boston to watch the Red Sox get beaten by the Yankees, or whatever team is in Boston then.  And I will be in the fields of Vermont come Harvest Season, picking Kale with my south-of-the-American-border Comrades, who will then, hopefully, be able to drive me to one of these Fish Concerts in Vermont without the Police State stopping us on the road and asking to see my papers.  I will take Comrade Buknatski along so he can explain to me how these Vermont bass and other fish got to be so musical.

“Because we don’t have skiing in Cuba because we have no snow, I will bring along my surfboard.  Also a skateboard.  And yes, also I plan on ‘borrowing’ many American Cigarettes, while not passing out any Cuban Cigars.  I will also partake of this Vigiling they do in Vermont for everything, and play the bongos in a surprise appearance with Abby Jenne & The Enablers.

“Over Christmas, I will help this Bill Doyle with his Town Meeting Poll for next March, to give it a hipper, more Revolutionary list of questions, such as: ‘Do you think Vermont should secede from the Union and form an International Workers’ CO-OP and Peoples’ Nirvana with Cuba, Venezuela, Jamaica, and Seattle?’.  I also plan to do much relaxing indoors, as I understand the weather up in Vermont mostly sucks.

“That is all I have to say at this time.  I will see you later.  Perhaps at that Grand Opera House they have in Barre.

“Oh, and one more thing.  To let you know, I originally thought that the Carters who were coming to Cuba were Jimmy and Rosalynn.  It was to my surprise that they were black people and turned out to be this Beyonce celebrity and a hip-hop sports promoter named Jay-Z.  But it turned out good for us, as this Mr. Z said he will work on getting our Havana baseball team into the American Major Leagues.  Thank you.  And thank all you American Comrades for Baseball and drinking Cuban Rum.”

However, leading Republicans have called Castro’s planned visit to Vermont a violation of America’s long standing boycott on all things Cuban, and an attempt, with the help of the entire State of Vermont, to finalize President Obama’s “socialist coup.”

Senator Millard Pissant of Florida said that Castro’s visit will include the delivering of President Obama’s “real birth certificate” that will show, Pissant said, “that Barack Obama was born on a hillside camp in the Sierra Maestra, just like in that great movie, The Manchurian Candidate.  I therefore call on all Americans,” Pissant continued, “to help us in impeaching this RAPING of our American Way Of Life!  What started with Desi Arnaz and I Love Lucy has now become Ba-Ba-Loo Bama and I Love Vermont.  Monstrous.  Unbelievable.  I mean totally…RAPACIOUS!”

This story will be updated here once we hear from Michael Colby in Walden, who, we understand, is now busy ‘networking’ with, as he calls them, a bunch of Lib-er-al Fucks who want to know how much Colby will charge them to have their pictures taken with Castro in the horse-drawn sleigh and then posted on FACEBOOK.

We now return you to your Social Networking…….

Peter Buknatski

Montpelier, Vt.

(This bill was introduced on 3/19 and hasn’t been taken up in committee, so is very unlikely to pass. But it’s an obnoxious piece of legislation that deserves to be spotlighted.   – promoted by jvwalt)

Isn’t this curious? A bill sponsored by three Senate Dems and two Republicans would make it illegal to misrepresent oneself to get a job at a farm with the intent to expose animal cruelty.

Like Nebraska’s bill, Vermont’s S.162 says that anyone who “knowingly obtains access to an agricultural facility by false pretenses” or misrepresents themselves on employment applications is guilty of “agricultural facility fraud.”

In 2010, federal officials shut down a Vermont slaughterhouse after an undercover video produced by HSUS showed workers slapping, kicking and shocking newborn calves who were to weak to stand. The facility’s co-owner, Frank Peretti was convicted on animal-cruelty charges.

http://www.alternet.org/activi…

So the Democratic Sponsors are:

Robert A Starr, Essex-Orleans.

Eldred M French, Rutland

John S Rodgers, Essex-Orleans

Joined by Republicans:

Norm H McAllister, Franklin

Richard A Westman, Lamoille

Actual Text:

(b) A person commits the offense of agricultural facility fraud if the person, with the intent to commit an act that the person knows is not authorized by the facility’s owner:

(1) knowingly obtains access to an agricultural facility by false pretenses; or

(2) makes a knowingly false statement or representation as part of an application to be employed at an agricultural facility.

(c) A person who violates subsection (b) of this section shall be subject to an administrative penalty of up to $1,000.00 in accordance with section 15 of this title.

http://openstates.org/vt/bills…

Is there any other need for this law other than preventing people like the Humane Society from exposing animal cruelty?

It’s really telling when former Nuclear Regulatory Commissioner, Gregory Jackzo, goes so far as to say that all U.S. nuclear facilities ought to be”phased out” because regulators aren’t doing their job.

“The next accident is going to be something that no one

predicted. At a certain point you have to review the fundamental

problem…that evaluation tells you you can’t rule out a severe accident.”

And he is isn’t alone in that belief, which is echoed by another former commissioner, Victor Gilinsky, who cites the NRC’s recent decisions not to immediately and fully implement the recommendations of ASME, (The American Society of Mechanical Engineers) for reforms in the wake of the Fukushima disaster.

Such a vote of non-confidence from people with the inside track should raise general alarm, at least amongst those Americans who live within fifty miles of a nuclear power plant…and that is  a considerable number of folks.

Fifty miles is the currently accepted immediate evacuation radius in the event of a nuclear emergency; but that radius doesn’t even begin to cover the longer-term impacts should it not be possible to bring the emergency under full control in a timely manner.  

That such a thing can happen is no longer just speculation, as the untenable situation at Fukushima attests.  

Contamination continues to flow, only partially checked, from the crippled facilities and no one honestly knows when or how it will be brought under control.

Compounding all of this regulatory recklessness, and perhaps even encouraging it (since the NRC is historically captive to the industry) is the fact that, thanks to the Price-Anderson Act,  owners of American nuclear power plants enjoy relatively little real liability in the event of disaster.

Enacted in the late 1950’s to facilitate development of  a fledgling peacetime use for nuclear power, Price-Anderson has long been the invisible financial prop that allowed the industry to claim its product as “affordable.”

This is simple corporate welfare of the most egregious kind, since it plays with public safety and does so on the grandest scale.

Surely, the very least lesson the U.S. should have learned from Fukushima is that Price-Anderson must be repealed and the nuclear industry required to secure full liability for even the worst-case scenario.  Were that to happen, there is no question that the entire fleet would be retired in short order, because no insurer would take on such a liability.

In the most recent of his ongoing series of opinion pieces on wind energy, Sen. Joe Benning counseled us all that “Anger Isn’t Necessary.” The good Senator delivered stern admonitions against anger and personal attacks — not to mention “savagery with acerbic wit” by an anonymous blogger (cough*ME*cough).

Apparently he can dish it out but can’t take it. Because the earlier installments in his anti-wind series were full of anger, personal attack, and overheated rhetoric. (Acerbic wit, not so much.)

In part 1 of his series, Benning made his first printed reference to “rape,” after having been traumatized by a visit to Lowell Mountain during construction of the Kingdom Community Wind Farm. The rape, he called it, of “a pristine environment.” Guess he’d never been there before, since the site had been commercially logged for decades before Kingdom was built. And I guess he’d never visited a construction site of any kind before; they’re all pretty darn messy. Kingdom Community has cleaned up very well since then.

I do hope the Senator feels the same way about other big development plans. For instance, the massive Bill Stenger project that will wreak widespread destruction on the pristine slopes of Burke Mountain to make way for a massive ski resort. That finished product will be far more disruptive to the natural environment than any wind farm.  

Further on, Benning tries to put words into the mouths of wind supporters: “Big wind proponents claim these projects are the magical silver bullet that will solve our electric needs and cure man’s contribution to global pollution.” In fact, nobody has ever described wind as the sole solution, let alone a “magical silver bullet.” We see wind as one part of a multifaceted transformation of power generation.

Then he asserts that we need to evaluate whether wind is appropriate for Vermont, analyze the data on power production from wind farms, and develop a comprehensive energy plan. Which ignores the fact that all this work has been done, thoroughly, deliberately, inclusively, over the past 15 years or so. The state has examined the potential of wind power and identified a modest number of ridgeline sites that are economically viable. It has explored wind farms’ impacts on surrounding ecosystems, and found them to be minimal or nonexistent. It has reviewed the evidence on health impacts, and found them to be minimal or nonexistent. It has developed a comprehensive energy plan.

The work has all been done. The problem for Senator Benning is that he doesn’t like the conclusions. He wants the issue studied and studied and studied again until he gets the answers he wants.

The Senator really hit his angry, personal-attacking stride in his second opinion piece, in which he described the invasion of “gargantuan wind machines put up by rich, out-of-state developers” who wrap themselves “in an appealing cloak of green” while enriching themselves by destroying the environment. He also depicted Bernie Sanders and Bill McKibben as the spearheads of “a well-funded media splurge.” If that isn’t anger and personal attack, I don’t know what is.

The thesis of his piece is a comparison between today’s Windies and Ethan Allen’s Green Mountain Boys, valiantly fighting against rich outsiders who plotted to evict or enslave them. Speaking as a wind advocate who is neither rich not an outsider, who doesn’t stand to earn a dime off any wind turbine (and who is, in fact, willing to pay somewhat higher electricity rates in order to limit the damage of global warming), and who has a lot of respect for the individuals and environmental groups that Benning is so thoroughly trashing, I find the Senator’s rhetoric insulting. Also misleading. And wrong on the facts.

Then came part 3, which was even angrier than parts 1 or 2. And I suppose the rising tide of rage from Benning is understandable, considering that his pet legislation, S.30, had been thoroughly dismantled by the State Senate. His wishes would not be realized; his arguments had failed to convince. In that circumstance he could either stand down or double down. He chose the latter.

He talked about wind proponents being “obsessed” with a technology that destroys mountains, kills wildlife, imperils human health, fails to generate much power, destroys democracy and permanently scars the landscape. And called wind power a “nightmare.” And asserted that opponents of S.30 had failed to read or understand the bill.

Well, if that’s not anger and personal attack, I don’t know what is. Listen, Joe, if you want respect for your side, you’ll have to offer some to your opponents. So far, you’ve done quite the opposite. If you’re occasionally the target for anger and personal attack, it’s only because we get a little tired of receiving it from you and your allies.

It doesn’t help that Benning is lying about the real aim of S.30. He claims to want more time for conversation, analysis and study. But, as Rep. Tony Klein told VPR, every S.30 supporter he’s talked to is opposed to any new ridgeline wind development anywhere in Vermont. S.30 is about stalling as long as possible, trying to run out the clock on wind development. It is not about conversation and study.

That includes Joe Benning himself; he’s made his views on ridgeline wind abundantly clear. He may claim that he wants a discussion, a civil dialogue. But in his mind, the debate is already over.  

Although it is well into the legislative season Hartford's state Representative Kevin “Coach” Christie will according to the Times-Argus, offer up legislation regulating drone use in Vermont. Rep.Christie was asked about drone regulation by a constituent at town meeting and after doing some research responded with a bill.

“[…] it seems to me this is something we might want to get a handle on sooner rather than later.”

 Details are few but the Hartford legislator’s bill reportedly will require that police obtain a search warrant before using unmanned drone aircraft to monitor citizens.

He says the legislation at its core is designed to start a conversation in Montpelier about a tool that could soon enter the inventories of state and local police departments.

 And as with all conversations, the language used can be key. In February there were reports that the drone industry was coming under a regulatory threat from legislation on Capitol Hill and in almost twenty state legislatures. Supporters of the domestic drone industry are attempting to soft pedal the surrounding “sensationalism” attached to the term drone. You know, the unwarranted loss of privacy, targeted killings (read, 'executions') without benefit of inconvenient and costly trials, sensational things of that nature. So the industry is attempting to adjust the language accordingly.

Gretchen West, the executive vice president of Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International (AUVSI) said she doesn’t use the word “drone” when talking about the domestic variety because it only feeds the idea that the military versions of the aircraft are coming to America.

 No agency in Vermont yet has drones nor do any use drones belonging to other agencies, according to the T-A report. Vermont Commissioner of Public Safety Keith Flynn says he has never had a conversation on the subject with the DHS or other federal agencies. When asked about legislated oversight of law enforcement drone use Commissioner Flynn replied broadly,

“The bigger issue is how we as a state want to deal with new tools as they come about,” Flynn says. “And that’s part of a bigger conversation.”

 Yup, there is a bigger issue, such as when do law enforcement agencies stop acting as if law abiding citizens are the enemy – any thoughts, Commissioner, on the issue? For now, I guess Commissioner Flynn is free to wait and see what he can see, with drones or without.