“We must have both jobs and a healthy environment in order to realize the true promise of Vermont.” Sept.2003 press release

Gov.Douglas announced in 2003 Clean and Clear an effort  to clean Lake Champlain that balanced regulations and voluntary efforts to reduce pollution and not slow or put harmful restrictions on development .Five years later how’s that working out Governor ? The Governor’s people have unveiled a plan to dredge and treat part of St.Albans Bay floor with alum.A strategy reportedly that will cost millions of dollars and only have short term effects as pollution continues to flow into the water .  

September 30, 2003

Governor Douglas Announces Clean & Clear Water Action Plan”After more than a decade of discussion…we can, and we must, act now.”……….”I believe strongly that our environment is not an inheritance from our ancestors to be spent down; it’s a loan from our children and we ought to be prepared to pay it back with interest,” Douglas said.

August 2008………

“We were playing basketball here last week and the ball went into the water. My friends were like, ‘Don’t get it, don’t get it,’ the water was so gross. We spent like 20 minutes trying to fish it out with a stick,”

St. Albans City resident

http://governor.vermont.gov/to…

http://www.burlingtonfreepress…

link for Blue-Green Algae in Lake Champlain info from State Health Dept.

http://healthvermont.gov/envir…

( – promoted by odum)

Today I heard a report about the number of Iraq War refugees that Sweden has accepted compared to the number that the US is allowing in. Recently the US is increasing the number allowed in but it is a slow process. Sweden, for example, has granted asylum to about 40,000 since 2003.According to a US citizenship and immigration services (USCIS) fact sheet revised on July 15, however, the US has admitted only 6,609 Iraqis this fiscal year through July 2.

I then stumbled across Vermont mentioned in an investing article about EB-5 visas. I suppose it’s just a great way to get that missing capital for your development project and isn’t directly related to the Iraqi immigration issue but it is a striking comparison in priorities.

Under the program, known as EB-5, a foreigner receives a green card for investing $500,000 in a business in a rural or high-unemployment area. EB-5 investors have to show that the money they are using was earned legally. In exchange for a $1 million business investment that creates at least 10 jobs for at least two years, the immigrant gets permanent residency in the U.S., or what’s known as a “green card.”

Though the EB-5 visa program has been criticized for favoring the wealthy, proponents say it attracts foreign investment and streamlines the process for investors who otherwise may park their money elsewhere.

Of the 31 investment zones approved under the program nationwide, 12 are active. Other approved investments include resorts in Vermont, an office building in New Orleans and dairy farms in South Dakota.

In 2007, such zones drew an estimated $500 million in investments, and that’s projected to double to $1 billion this year, according to the immigration services.

Only 806 gained permanent residency through the program in 2007.

One immigrant investor, who is 48 and semi-retired from the airplane leasing business, said he wrote his check last April and received his temporary green card six months later. He said that accounting and legal fees added about 10 percent to his $500,000 investment. He said he expects to receive a permanent green card in 2009.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/comm…

http://travel.nytimes.com/2008…

http://www.eb5greencard.com/fa…

http://www.chron.com/disp/stor…

Update

The number of EB-5 visas issued this year is expected to be higher, as investors act before the scheduled Sept. 30 sunset of the legislative authorization for the program. An extension has been approved in the House and is awaiting action in the Senate after it returns from recess on Sept. 5,

http://tampabay.bizjournals.co…

( – promoted by odum)

Never roll out a new product in August they say, but Bush is rolling out new rules for intelligence gathering. Got to get this stuff established on the books before January 2009. We are really going to be left with a different country after Bush is done with it. Traded away so easily, quietly in August as we lament Russia crushing freedom in Georgia and watch the Olympics. If elected Obama will have much to undo or McCain if elected will have much to work with.

More Federal Intelligence Changes Planned:

Quietly unveiled late last month, the proposal is part of a flurry of domestic intelligence changes issued and planned by the Bush administration in its waning months. They include a recent executive order that guides the reorganization of federal spy agencies and a pending Justice Department overhaul of FBI procedures for gathering intelligence and investigating terrorism cases within U.S. borders.

Taken together, critics in Congress and elsewhere say, the moves are intended to lock in policies for Bush’s successor and to enshrine controversial post-Sept. 11 approaches that some say have fed the greatest expansion of executive authority since the Watergate era.

Under the Justice Department proposal for state and local police, published for public comment July 31, law enforcement agencies would be allowed to target groups as well as individuals, and to launch a criminal intelligence investigation based on the suspicion that a target is engaged in terrorism or providing material support to terrorists. They also could share results with a constellation of federal law enforcement and intelligence agencies, and others in many cases.

Criminal intelligence data starts with sources as basic as public records and the Internet, but also includes law enforcement databases, confidential and undercover sources, and active surveillance.

“If police officers no longer see themselves as engaged in protecting their communities from criminals and instead as domestic intelligence agents working on behalf of the CIA, they will be encouraged to collect more information,”  Michael German (an FBI agent for 16 years )policy counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union, said “It turns police officers into spies on behalf of the federal government.”

http://www.washingtonpost.com/…

Gov Douglas in Atlantic City ,NJ attending a regional conference of the Council of State Governments blamed the Federal government for highway problems.

After a comment from Gov.Jodi Rell of Connecticut(R) he chimed in cleverly noting that the interstate is a national highway system and was built many years ago.

In a moment of candor he also admitted to enjoy blaming the feds.

“Whatever we invest today isn’t going to be enough,” said Connecticut Gov. M. Jodi Rell (R), noting that steel prices rose 93 percent in the last year. Meanwhile, she said, governors are “angry” because the Bush administration is promoting partnerships with private companies to lease or manage public assets such as toll roads or airports, rather than offering states more money.

“The truth is, we do like to blame the federal government, and rightly so. (The highway system) was a national, interstate defense highway system when it was created a half century ago,” added Vermont Gov. Jim Douglas (R).

The governors also touted smaller efforts their states were taking to help low-income residents cope with the economic slowdown.

In Vermont, farmers are given extra seeds so they can “grow an extra row” of food to donate to low-income residents, Douglas said. Vermont also is considering opening up state-owned forests for firewood and wood-pellet production used in home heating, he said.

Small efforts indeed .Give the farmers seeds and the poor firewood and blame the Federal Government for  building the highway system 50 yrs ago. Meanwhile here in Vermont Gov.Douglas is managing the cutting of $ 32 million more from the State budget.Still no word regarding cuts to Douglas’s 14 person “communications” team with salaries totaling approximately a million a year according to the Times Argus.

http://www.stateline.org/live/…

http://www.timesargus.com/apps…

Ouch ,This may leave a mark .

Pollina may have to return campaign contributions

Pollina faces the likelihood of having to return $28,000 in campaign contributions that go over the limit of what an independent candidate is allowed to accept from donors. Independents are limited to $1,000 donations from individuals per election while candidates from parties that hold primaries have a $2,000 limit, according to Elections Director Kathy DeWolfe.

Assistant Attorney General Mike McShane said he agrees with the DeWolfe’s interpretation of the current law. In the past there have been no penalties when a campaign inadvertently accepts too much money and then give is back, he said. In this case, he would wait until someone lodges a formal complaint against Pollina before taking action, he said, and no one has done that.

She gave Pollina’s campaign the news last week after reviewing his campaign’s finance reports that were filed July 31.

Pollina campaign manager Meg Brook said Tuesday she is researching details surrounding the campaign finance law before the campaign expects to respond later Tuesday. She said the campaign had been under the impression that part of the law changed.

Theoretically, Pollina could regain the money he’ll have to send back by asking a contributor to have a spouse or child make the contribution instead.

http://www.burlingtonfreepress…

And I could win a prize for that ! Washington Post Style section features the news that McCain people are offering prizes for comments .Although the targeted sites are not noticing any surge in pro-McCain comments .As John McCain knows a good surge can take months to show any progress or maybe the prizes aren’t that good .The McCain site has helpful daily talking points and links to targeted blogs ,liberal,conservative ,moderate and other [?]

Win Points for McCain!

Rewards Program for Online Commenters

On McCain’s Web site, visitors are invited to “Spread the Word” about the presumptive Republican nominee by sending campaign-supplied comments to blogs and Web sites under the visitor’s screen name. The site offers sample comments (“John McCain has a comprehensive economic plan . . .”) and a list of dozens of suggested destinations, conveniently broken down into “conservative,” “liberal,” “moderate” and “other” categories. Just cut and paste.

People who sign up for McCain’s program receive reward points each time they place a favorable comment on one of the listed Web sites (subject to verification by McCain’s webmasters). The points can be traded for prizes, such as books autographed by McCain, preferred seating at campaign events, even a ride with the candidate on his bus, known as the Straight Talk Express, according to campaign spokesman Brian Rogers.

Cornfield (an executive with a company that markets political-organizing software) says McCain’s program has a couple of bugs.The first, he says, is the lack of disclosure instructions to participants. To rise above AstroTurf — a practice considered ethically dubious by many political operatives — Cornfield says participants should use their real names and identify themselves as part of a campaign participation program (as in, “I’m Mike Cornfield, and I’m part of the McCain Action Team”).

http://www.washingtonpost.com/…  http://www.johnmccain.com/Acti…

Some or most of this isn’t new but it’s from an interesting source .An unpleasant  website that yielded this assessment on the Vt. race from the conservative side . It may add to the speculation about  Gov.Jim Douglas’s out of character early campaign spending rate of his hard won 3/4 of a million in funds. USNews and World report has Obama is carrying New York and New England by double digits.Couple that with poor economy,Jim fatigue etc.and maybe there really are some substantial straws to grasp at.

Vermont: Gov. Jim Douglas (R) may have been the Republican rooting hardest for Sen. Hillary Clinton (D) in the presidential primaries. This liberal-filled state will likely see record-high turnout this November thanks to Obama’s presence on the ballot. This will help State House Speaker Gaye Symington (D).

Vermont, along with North Carolina and Washington, promises the most excitement among governor races this year. Put another way: Douglas is perhaps the most vulnerable incumbent governor in 2008.

In Douglas’s favor, liberal Anthony Pollina is once again running as a third-party candidate, this time as an independent. Pollina says he is reaching out to conservatives as well as liberals, and he probably won’t match the 10% he garnered in 2000. Still, Symington will need to run a very strong race to beat Douglas. Leaning Republican Retention. 7/23

 http://www.humanevents.com/art…

Entergy’s Vermont Yankee as Gov.Douglas loves to remind us ad nauseam supplies one third of our energy at some of the cheapest rates in the Country.Our low rates may disappear as Enexus bets on higher rates to survive .Analysts fear Enexus may be too small to survive unless rates continue to rise in New York and New England .

If or when Entergy spins off Enexus they will siphon off funds from the stock offering proceeds to pay off it’s own debt.It’s called a credit default swap.This leaves the new company with a lower credit profile .The fault is Entergy takes a big cut and leaves less for the shell.The shell then needs to make fast money to capitalize.If all parts of the 13 headed Entergy hydra put their efforts into actually running the power plants rather than these corporate contortions we would all be better off.Leaving aside for now where the ultimate liability for five nuclear plants will be  buried in 13 corporate entities .Enexus will be a small under capitalized company that will be relying on higher electric rates to survive as an entity .

That concern was echoed by Charles Adey, who submitted testimony to the Public Service Board on behalf of Vermont’s Department of Public Service. “I am concerned that Enexus Energy will have less financial ability than Entergy Corp. to withstand adverse market changes, weather, poor plant performance or fund unexpected capital expenditures under the intended capitalization strategy,” stated Adey.

But Entergy is betting that energy costs will continue to rise. “As our existing contracts expire, we expect to benefit from the expected increase in power prices in the New York and New England markets,” stated Entergy in documents filed with the SEC. “Most of those existing contracts have contract prices that are lower than currently prevailing market prices.”

If energy prices in the Northeast remain high, Entergy will “realize growth in our revenues and operating income.” The power purchase agreement between Vermont Yankee and the state, which expires in 2012, would not be affected by the spinoff, though any new contract will likely reflect increases in energy costs.

“At this point, I still believe that the drawbacks of the transaction outweigh the benefits to Vermont residents,” stated Adey. “I cannot state that the proposed transaction promotes the public good without a clear demonstration of tangible benefits for Vermont residents.”

Entergy will use the assets of the spin-off to leverage more than $4 billion on the stock exchange. Money raised through the Enexus stock offering will be used by Entergy to pay off debt. The transaction is known as a credit default swap, in which a contract is transferred in a process known as succession.

http://www.reformer.com/ci_100…

The DHS just leaked vague warnings to the press for a POHA (really) Period of Heightened Alert, (Poha is also a type of rice flattened beaten but I digress)Possible threats to the elections and Olympics give rise to new warnings minus a color code change,we are still yellow  .Given the past questionable timing of security color code warnings its easy to be skeptical about this .The growing homeland security industry is here to stay.The word Homeland regretfully may be here to stay,it just doesn’t sound like the United States . Michael Chertoff is handing out the grant money,Joe Lieberman is head of the Senate DHS oversight committee. One almost misses Tom Ridge and his quaint duct tape and plastic your home strategy .Even here in Vermont we have Brian Dubie declaring symbolic emergencies to publicize possible heating fuel shortages.How much our country has changed in 8 years .Some things we now accept as normal,enhanced ID’s ,check points on the interstate,government listening in on telephone calls and of course the big one torture(enhanced interrogation) .Threats are real and need to be dealt with but aren’t we about to loose our soul here in an effort to save ourselves from unknown threats ? Take a look at Homeland Security Today Magazine online to get an idea of the amazing business world of the homeland security industrial complex.The New military industrial complex threat for the 21st Century.The concept explored in one article is the leveraging of existing power of local law enforcement and homeland security assets with surveillance technology.Linking local networks of camera,wireless communications etc. with federal level security personnel.The massive scale of this effort in all it’s homeland glory is quite arresting.

Chertoff Outlines FY 2008 Homeland Security Grants

The focal point of Chertoff’s announcement was an allocation of $1.69 billion under the Homeland Security Grant Program, which reflects an increase of $32 million over FY07. This year’s grants included $861 million for the State Homeland Security Program, an increase of $352 million; $781 million for the Urban Area Security Initiative, an increase of $34 million. In addition DHS allocated almost $40 million for the Metropolitan Medical Response system, and $14.5 million for Citizen Corps.

http://hstoday.us/index.php?op…

Wise Eyes

Thinking about surveillance and detection technology in outmoded ways can blind users to the worst danger of all-what they don’t know and can’t anticipate.People are discovering that using surveillance and detection technologies in new and innovative ways can leverage the existing powers and resources of law enforcement and homeland security assets.“The past half dozen years have witnessed an impressive proliferation of powerful surveillance and detection technologies, most originally developed for military use,” said James ( Keith James is program manager of SoBran Inc., Fairfax, Va., a critical mission safety and security services provider ) “They’ve radically expanded, augmented and automated visual surveillance functions over greater distances and with higher definition and speed the detection of specific chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear (CBRNE) materials.  The next step both the first responder and technology development community must take is to deploy these tools in ways that aid the goal of a more proactive, adaptive tactical response to threats.”

http://hstoday.us/index.php?op…

(I was just about to write this up, but apparently someone beat me too it.  Good work. – promoted by JulieWaters)

Entergy’s Vermont Yankee continues to radiate bad headlines for Gov.Douglas’s favorite out of State corporation.Power up 20% radiation up 30%.The levels could appear worse if the method of measuring hadn’t been recalculated .I am really weary of Entergy …but ,but  our electric rates are so low ,and ,and it’s one third of our power and it’s cleaner than coal and ……….What is the condition of this aging plant going to be like in 20 yrs. with dry cask storage on site and Entergy’s “crack” maintenance style ?

BRATTLEBORO – Vermont Yankee nuclear plant is releasing 30 percent more radiation into the environment since it boosted power production by 20 percent two years ago, according to a study from the Department of Health released Friday.

The increase in radiation is larger than what was expected, according to William Irwin, radiological health safety chief for the health department, but is still within state limits.

Irwin said Entergy Nuclear would have been in violation of the state regulation if the state hadn’t adopted a new way of calculating radiation exposure, which in effect reduces the levels by 40 percent.

Irwin said the increase to 18 millirems is within 10 percent of its state limit of 20 millirems per year. But he said the rate is expected to go slightly higher because Friday’s report doesn’t include expected increases in radiation from Vermont Yankee’s decision to store high-level radioactive waste outside the reactor building in air-cooled concrete and steel casks, as well as a decision to store low-level waste on site as well.

http://www.timesargus.com/apps…

Remarks of Gov Jim Douglas to Burlington Free Press Friday  

“They left me no choice.”

It’s like “Homer Simpson is running the place.” Yet, he noted, “with the exception of missing rods, all safety issues have not related to radiation concerns.

This is a management issue

… We are past the point of telling Entergy, ‘You’re not doing yourself any favors’ ” with the continuation of public blunders. ”

Are these the remarks of someone that has anything but a cozy relationship with this company? He is disappointed in a dear friend.It is the public aspect of the blunders not the blunders themselves he comments on ! The entire emphasis is on the position he has been left in ,not the safety concerns or the future of the plant.

edit from Julie Waters: the link to the Governor’s comments about VY can be found here