One of the more interesting performers in the state legislature this year has been Windham Senator Peter Galbraith. It was widely noted that the former UN diplomat turned Vermont State Senator is following a unique path that appears to irk many fellow Senators.

And this past week according to VtBuzz

Sen. Peter Galbraith, who has made himself ever-more unpopular with his colleagues, continued on that path Friday.

Galbraith deliberately dragged out the discussion  on campaign finance reform by quizzing a fellow Senator at length about minute details of a pending bill. A desperate  attempt to halt Galbraith’s mini filibuster was made by Senator Phillip “Phil” Baruth who attempted to enlist Mason’s legislative procedural rules on tedious speechifying as a means of shutting off the verbiage. Senate President Lt. Governor Phil Scott ruled against Baruth. That was in character: the Republican Lite Guv always keeps an eye out for any possibility of minimizing regulation; he probably feared creating a burdensome regulatory precedent that might stifle future tedium.

At the close of the hectic week I am not sure where Galbraith’s one-man legislative grand finale places him on the list of winners and losers. But the long-winded Senator’s antics got me thinking less might be more.

Galbraith haiku? Yes I think it can be done in three lines (take your pick). And happily it is too short to ever be tedious.

Galbraith admonished.  

Mason’s rules not precedent:

Galbraith on and on.

And:  

Baruth, he rose, read

Mason’s rules – not precedent

Great Scott tedious.

 As promised Hartford Rep. Kevin “Coach” Christie has introduced the Vermont Drone Bill H.540 which proposes to regulate the use of drones known as unmanned aerial vehicles. The bill seeks to permit law enforcement agencies to use a drone only if the agency obtains a warrant or if “emergency” circumstances exist. Various reporting requirements – including documenting frequency of use and cost – are also featured in the proposed bill. And drones would not be allowed to be equipped with weapons. Drone use by persons other than a law enforcement agency would follow and comply with FAA requirements and guidelines according to the bill.  

Not to go looking for problems where none exist but an article in Modern Farmer, of all places, has left me wondering if Rep. Christie or some of the 24 co- sponsors of Vermont Drone Bill H.540 might want to take a quick review of the state’s hunting laws. Wild boar or hogs are no small problem and are causing immense damage to farmland and property across the country. Says Modern Farmer: “we are well on our way to a global pig crisis.” Vermont has passed legislation this session making it illegal to own, import, or possess wild boar – because once they get established in an area, boar are next-to-impossible to “eradicate”. And this brings it back to drone regulation.  

In their free time from work at high-tech defense military-drone contractor Raven Research and Development, two Louisiana engineers Cy Brown and James Palmer are putting drones to use hunting wild hogs. The two-man team uses a remote control airplane armed with a thermal imaging camera, called the “Dehogifier”:

Brown and Palmer send their drone buzzing around a piece of farm property. When they spot a pig on the live video feed, Palmer – a crack shot – uses a rifle with a night vision scope to kill it clean. It’s sleek, fast, reliable – and not what you’d call sporting.

Vermont’s hunting regulations must already cover this use (right?), and for the time being we may be safe from Modern Farmer’s global pig crisis …  but conditions change. The Louisiana “Dehogifier” team is already enthusiastically looking to refine its system:

Brown said the only other way to increase its efficiency would be to affix a gun directly to the drone (a terrifying thought). “It would be so easy to rig it with a gun, it’s trivial,” he said. “But a lot of people would have no sense of humor whatsoever about that sort of thing.”

Right, defense engineers marketing a rifle-armed remote-controlled unmanned aerial vehicle. Who wouldn’t get a laugh out of that?! Funny thing, humor.  

A Duke University research study titled Political Ideology Affects Energy-Efficient Attitudes and Choices shows that light bulbs labeled efficient and good for the environment are less likely to be purchased by conservatives.

This research demonstrates how promoting the environment can negatively affect adoption of energy efficiency in the United States because of the political polarization surrounding environmental issues. Study 1 demonstrated that more politically conservative individuals were less in favor of investment in energy-efficient technology than were those who were more politically liberal.

Politically moderate or conservative participants chose more expensive CFL bulbs over less expensive incandescent bulbs with the same frequency when no environmental label was on the package. However when the light bulbs packaging sported a “protect the environment” label conservatives and moderates were less likely to buy the CFL.

The last skirmish in the energy efficient light bulb wars was fought in 2011 when various moves were made by Conservative US Representatives Joe Barton and Michele Bachmann. Conservatives Barton, Bachman and others proposed legislation to stop the implementation of the 2007 Bush-era law passed overwhelmingly by congress that set standards of efficiency for light bulbs.  

I don’t find it surprising that this study now shows conservative light bulb dead enders are still fighting on. It reminded me of back in the 1960’s when new cars were first required to have seat belts. One of my uncles was adamant that“no government regulation” would tell him what to do. So he unbolted all the safety belts from his new family car. Just another “common sense” conservative solution for the whole family.

I came across this chart in a couple places online showing the impact of chained CPI on Social Security recipients and the impact of Obama’s tax increases on couples making over $500,000 a year.

 It makes an excellent bookend to this quote Digby had from an Obama 2011 press conference about his idea of shared sacrifice and balanced deficit reduction.

The least I can do is to say that people who are making a million dollars or more have to do something as well.  And that’s the kind of tradeoff, that’s the kind of balanced approach and shared sacrifice that I think most Americans agree needs to happen.

  The relationship between VTel and Vermont Telecom Authority (VTA), the state entity in charge of expanding internet and cell service is experiencing a lack of clarity, some static, and maybe a dropped connection. VtDigger.com has the play by play about it and a $5 million grant now at stake that was previously thought settled.

The grant’s status was thrown into uncertainty after a subgroup of the state’s Vermont Telecommunications Authority (VTA) failed to reach agreement with Springfield-based VTel on a final contract on Thursday.

And in the it-can-happen-to-anybody department, the problems include an recent awkward “pocket dial” incident in which a current VTA member was overheard by a VTel executive complaining about frustration with the company. This shouldn’t be confused with an earlier phone exchange involving a VTel executive and a state telecom official.  

At a ceremony in December, Governor Shumlin announced that VTel had received a state grant of $5 million dollars for broadband/cell expansion. Now it turns out the grant was never finalized and is still under negotiation between the state and VTel. According to Vermont Telecom Authority head Chris Campbell, this situation is not unusual.

“It’s not final until you actually sign on the dotted line” [of a contract]

In January, shortly after that grant announcement, the state’s in-house telecom Czar Karen Marshall left her job in the Governor’s office  to work for VTel. Marshall had worked extensively with VTel during grant negotiations.  

The principals involved are pledging that it will all work out in the end and Vermont will ultimately get its high speed broadband. But the limits of this public /private relationship are being laid bare. They are characterized perfectly by Lawrence Miller, the state’s economic secretary:

“All the contracting, all the installation, all of the work is in the hands of private companies,” said Miller. “The state has created a set of incentives, and granted out funds for some work, and we’re working to make sure that permitting and access to state land is done … But yeah, in the end, it’s up to the private providers to meet the challenge.”

Was that a shrug? Hello,did I hear shrug, you’re breaking up! Oops, we’ve been cut off. But it sounds as if Secretary Miller thinks all the state can do is “grant out funds” and hope the private providers meet the challenge. In the end it’s our tax dollars at work, five million of them, and  “it’s up to the private providers to meet the challenge”?

The very definition of laissez faire government, and a serious disconnect.

 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.

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.

 Maybe because Vermont Yankee and the stricken Fukushima power plants are of the same age and design, I figured the owner might have the same habit as Entergy of releasing bad or embarrassing news on Fridays. But after considering Tepco’s two-year-long inability to control the flow of just about everything from that facility, I hope controlling the news cycle is a low priority.

At Fukushima #3 on Friday there were reports that rats, yes rats, for a second time since March no less, had caused a power outage at the “stricken” Fukushima nuclear power complex. “Stricken” has become most of the media’s unofficial first name for Fukushima, “disabled” is the middle name.

Tepco has since installed mousetraps at the site and promised to plug holes through which rats and other rodents might enter buildings and gnaw on important equipment. It has also promised to speed up work to install backup power cables to the fuel pools.  

But Friday afternoon, four workers using wire meshing to seal a space around electric cables caused a ground fault, or the accidental flow of current to the ground. No one was injured, but the ground fault shut off electricity to the cooling system at the No. 3 reactor fuel pool.

By Saturday however, other news leaked out that not only had the rat-catching efforts caused a three-hour shutdown of the cooling system in number 3 reactor but that contaminated water was leaking outside the plant from a lined storage pool. Early in the week when radiation levels outside the plant spiked, workers detected new water leaking from one of seven underground pools at the plants

[…] up to 120 metric tons of contaminated water may have leaked into nearby soil surrounding the plant but that the leak is unlikely to have reached the sea, half a mile (800 meters) from the cooling pool.

Officials offered no explanation on why it is “unlikely” the radioactive water has not traveled the 800 meters (2,624 ft.) to reach the sea.

So two years into this emergency, plagued – or rather stricken – by rodents and massive leaks, Tepco declares:

"We need to revise our water management plans."

Atomic strength mops and mousetraps must be in it for the long haul, since according to Japanese government estimates it will take 40 years to fully clean-up the site.

Now we just need someone to build a better mousetrap.

VTDigger.com’s Nat Rudarakanchana has a terrific and thorough article about the State of Vermont shutting down one of its many EB-5 projects. Until it was shut down, Dream Life Retirement Resorts, LLC, had planned to build almost two hundred assisted-living apartment units with the aid of foreign investment from EB-5 funding. Three years ago American Dream was granted permission by Vermont Agency of Commerce and Community Development to seek foreign investor funding through the EB-5 program. But just last month, the state-regulated project was canceled 

[…] because of “material misrepresentations.” Three of the four individuals who represent the company cited themselves as attorneys for the project; none of the men identified [is] licensed to practice law in Florida, where the law firm cited in the agreement [is headquartered].

Some of the many highlights of Canadian Dream Life founder Richard Parenteau’s travails include the revelation that he was convicted of perjury in a dispute in Canada over a will, but is still a “background investor” in the Vermont sanctioned EB-5.

Parenteau, who declined comment for the story, is a very active entrepreneur but perhaps less talented at creatively naming those projects:

Over the last 20 years, Parenteau has created and dissolved more than two dozen companies in Florida and Vermont, […] Five of the entities bear the DreamLife name, including an insurance company, a real estate firm and a finance company, all three of which are now inactive.

The VtDigger.com piece has comments and general reassurances by past and present state officials about the sound regulation of other ongoing EB-5-funded projects. Vermont is an active player in regulating and promoting the EB-5 job-creating investment for visa-funded business complexes. But fear not, these state officials say, they are pros – they know the industry they regulate. And some have even joined in for the fun and profit.

Former Douglas Administration EB-5 official James Candido, who offers his thoughts on Dream Life in the digger article, invested in a luxury Montana Spa that obtains funds through EB-5. And of course, our current governor’s former deputy chief of staff/secretary of civil and military affairs Alex MacLean “completed” her state job and was hired to work for Vermont’s own EB-5 Bigfoot Bill Stenger.

Not that there is anything wrong with all that. It is just business as usual.

Then again, it's probably a good thing that state regulators called a halt before Dream Life's project became a regulatory nightmare.