(In keeping with our policy to promote first-hand diaries by candidates for statewide office to the front page, here is the latest from Matt Dunne: – promoted by Sue Prent)

On Mother’s day, along with celebrating Sarah’s amazing parenting, I always take some time to reflect on my mother’s contribution to my life. She blazed new trails while mentoring a generation of women.  

My mother lived during a transitional time, when barriers were broken, but traditions remained intact.  She was the first woman editor of the Michigan Daily newspaper and went on to be one of the first women to go through tenure track and get tenure at Dartmouth.  

During that time at Dartmouth, she and the education department she chaired became a resource and sanctuary for the women students who were also finding their way at the most male of the Ivy League schools.  To place in context, in late 1970s the winner of the Winter Carnival fraternity song contest was “Our Co-Hogs Will Sleep Alone.” This wouldn’t have been quite so disturbing had the judge of the contest not been the Dean of Freshmen.

As she helped transform an institution and a generation of women who have gone on to a much more accepting world, she also ensured that we had family dinner every night, engaged fully in my brother and my education, and ensured some kind of order in the face of my father’s chaotic attempts at farming and supporting a wide range of young people many of whom ended up living at our house.  More extraordinary in retrospect was that she carried on with all of these tasks – trailblazer, mentor and mother – even after my father passed away at when I was 13 and Josh was 10.

I miss my mother in deep and complex ways. She sacrificed a lot attempting to bridge the roles of women before and after her time, a tension we as a society continue to negotiate without easy answers. She never got to meet my children or see how the farm has progressed — I like to think she would approve. But there isn’t a week that goes by that I don’t meet another person, usually a woman and mother, who stops me to explain what a difference Faith Dunne made in her life and career.  

Having lost her much too early, I am consistently reminded of the contribution she made, how we must continue the progress she advanced, and how lucky I was to have her as the biggest influence in my life.

Kudos to Bernie Sanders for once again hitting the nail on the head.  Charging that conflicts of interest may have tainted Fed decisions in dispensing bank bailouts, Sanders has called for specific language addressing such conflicts, to be included in the regulatory bill that is currently under consideration by the Senate.

It has to stop.  

(This expands on what Rama has already taken note of in the sidebar diaries, BP)

No two situations are identical of course but some similarities here are striking. The similarities are enough to feel once again that the Vermont legislature did the right thing voting overwhelmingly against VY’s continued operation.  

In New Jersey the Oyster Creek generating plant is a 40 year old boiling water reactor (VY is also a BWR) that was up for, and was granted a license extension by the NRC. The aging plant can now operate for twenty years past its original stop date.  A matter of days after the operating extension a tritium leak was discovered.

Oyster Creek is now one of the 33 plants nationwide leaking tritium according to the NRC. The plant owner, Exelon, is drilling monitoring wells and has been ordered by the State to “come up with a plan”.      

The tritium leaked from underground pipes at the plant on April 9, 2009, and has been slowly spreading underground at 1 to 3 feet a day. At the current rate, it would be 14 or 15 years before the tainted water reaches the nearest private or commercial drinking water wells about two miles away.  

The radioactive water leaks were found just days after the plant got a new 20-year license in 2009 that environmentalists had bitterly fought for four years. Those problems followed corrosion that left the reactor's crucial safety liner rusted and thinned.  

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission and Exelon insist Oyster Creek can operate safely until it is 60 years old. But environmental groups disagree.

The radioactive water leaks were found just days after the plant got a new 20-year license in 2009 that environmentalists had bitterly fought for four years. Those problems followed corrosion that left the reactor’s crucial safety liner rusted and thinned.

(Tritium tainted nuke water reaches N.J. aquifer, Times Argus, 05/08/10)

‘Nuff said.

Despite all the best efforts of Entergy to keep a lid on the controversy over Vermont Yankee’s leaks-and-creaks, and to push through its bid for relicencing, it appears that, internationally speaking, the cat is out of the bag.

This, just in from the global giant of environmental activism, Greenpeace:

Greenpeace Crashes Entergy Shareholder Meeting to Deliver Message from Vermonters to Close Vermont Yankee

JACKSON, MS – Greenpeace today crashed Entergy’s annual shareholder meeting, demanding the company stop its

effort to overturn the Vermont Senate’s vote to deny re-licensing for the Vermont Yankee nuclear reactor.

As Entergy executives delivered statements about company profits, Greenpeace activists delivered a letter from Vermonters

demanding that Entergy retire the reactor as scheduled in 2012. Entergy shareholders, upper management, and board members

were presented with the open letter at their lunch tables, which is available at: http://www.greenpeace.org/usa/…

“Entergy’s effort to overturn the Senate’s denial of a certificate of public good are in vain. Vermont Yankee is an aging and dangerous

nuclear reactor that will not be a part of this state’s energy future,” said Jarred Cobb, Greenpeace Organizer in Vermont. “Vermonters

are sick of Entergy’s leaks and lies, and are committed to closing this reactor.”

The Vermont Senate voted on February 24 of this year to deny an extension of a certificate of public good for Vermont Yankee

to operate past its scheduled retirement date in 2012. The decision was 26-4, and overwhelmingly rejected Entergy’s push to extend

the license of the 40-year-old reactor. Vermont Yankee employees are under investigation for lying under oath, and it took the

company months to find and stop a leak of radioactive tritium.

(Continuing our practice of promoting diaries by statewide candidates to our front page, here is the latest from Doug Racine: – promoted by Sue Prent)

Yesterday, the House passed S.88 – the Healthy Vermont bill – but they changed it from the Senate version one more time. Although they retained the Senate changes to get the bill back to its original intent of hiring an expert to design three options for a health care system for Vermont, they put language the Senate had voted to remove back into the bill. This provision requries the reporting of drug sample gifts to doctors. Sometime soon (it’s hard to tell exactly when), the Senate will have a final up-or-down vote to accept the bill. If we vote yes, it will go to the governor’s desk. If we vote no, the bill is likely dead for this year.

I am working to get the bill passed in the Senate because we need this fundamental health care reform work done this year. The bill now calls for 3 designs for the governor and the legislature to look at next year – one is a single payer design, one is a public option design, and the third is left open, so the designers can look at different models and be creative.

We have taken out the requirement that the House wanted that said that each design must have “ACO’s” (accountable care organizations) or “Community Health Teams” – the bill now says the designer may consider these, but they are not required.  

Last fall I made a promise to move Vermont forward on health care reform, and S.88 will do just that. Early next year, we will be looking at the design options and preparing to implement the best design for Vermont. I want one of my first acts as governor to be working to implement Vermont’s new health care system, so that all Vermonters will have affordable, quality health care whenever they need it, and we will be working to contain our costs so that we know we will be able to continue to provide health care to all Vermonters in the future.

I will be voting to support S.88, and I will be working to encourage my colleagues in the Senate to support it also.

Will you help? Many of you have worked for more than a year to build the momentum we needed to finally make progress on health care reform in Vermont. Now that we are so close, your action can make the difference. The vote will likely be close in the Senate. Please ask your Senators to support S.88.

-Doug Racine

http://dougracine.com/

Why the deafening silence from the left on the stock market chaos?

The sudden drop in market prices looks to me like someone manipulating prices.

Who are the culprits?

The list is practically endless. There are the usual market players in the US: Goldman Sachs, etc., who have proven that they like markets they can manipulate. There are any number of similar groups throughout the capitalist world. Then, there are the Chinese, who may be testing their ability to control markets other than their own.

If there’s one thing that the science of economics has proven, it’s that free markets remain free only through eternal vigilance of those who value freedom. Those who rely on the markets for wealth don’t like freedom at all!

Meanwhile, in the NYT on May 8, M. Durbin reveals that he doesn’t believe free markets should be free! And, he helps develop high speed trading systems! Take a look at this guy! http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05…

Often, when an exchange operator receives an investor order and finds that another exchange has a better price, it will “flash” the order to a few select traders in its exchange a split second before sending it to market, giving those traders an opportunity to improve their price, too.

Two paragraphs later:

We don’t allow trading based on private knowledge of pending business deals or court rulings, and we shouldn’t allow it in high-frequency trading, either.

But, he also says:

But that doesn’t mean we should ban flashing all together.

And:

When used properly, flashing ensures that investors trade at the best available prices.

And:

Because a great number of trades go through middlemen, regulators have no easy way of even knowing who the high-frequency traders are. With millions of trades made every day, this administrative hurdle means traders are essentially anonymous to regulators.

M Durbin, who develops trading systems, thinks insider knowledge is a good thing! But, he starts the article:

We don’t know all the details about the drop, but it was almost certainly the result of computer or human error in a high-speed trading program.

M. DURBIN, HOW THE HELL CAN YOU BE ALMOST CERTAIN THE MARKET DROP IS NOT THE RESULT OF MANIPULATION WHEN YOU KNOW INSIDERS MANIPULATE THE MARKET EVERY DAY?

And, what the hell’s the difference between a few cronies exchanging info for their (and/or their clients’) profit, and the Chinese government putting 1000 people on the job of exchanging info for the profit of the Chinese government? How will you detect their manipulation when you’ve developed a system with manipulation built in from the ground up?

M Durbin would probably spout the right wing line, “Gummints shouldn’t screw people. People should screw people. And, corporations are people, too!”

Here’s Part 2 of Deb Markowitz’s interview on VTblogosphereTV. In this clip, she clarifies the many roles of the Secretary of State’s office and explains its scope. It’s easy to be confused about the nature of the job, given that the Secretary of State on the federal level deals with foreign policy and state level Secretary of States only seem to gain notoriety when some election sketchiness rears its head (see Bush, George W.: Florida 2000, Ohio 2004).  

Sure there’s policing elections, but business licensure, professional standards, consumer protection, open government decisions, and citizen involvement all fall under the Secretary of State’s purview. That means Deb has had responsibility for some major functions of state government for the past 12 years. She’s challenged Douglas on government secrecy and displays more energy and enthusiasm for the work of government in this interview than I have seen from Douglas in the past eight years.

The clip rounds out with a discussion of a couple of issues Deb has highlighted in blog posts– a green zone for Windham County and the Douglas Administration’s evisceration of the Vermont Seal of Quality. Particularly on the last issue, she gives a great sense of how she would take apart Brian Dubie without a hint of animosity. Very promising!

Part 1 is here

Stay tuned for Part 3.

[Note: No endorsement implied. Just continuing the VTblogosphereTV tradition of showcasing the qualities of the guest.]

Deb For Vermont website

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(Promoted in keeping with our policy of promoting diaries by statewide candidates – promoted by GMD)

Today while touring local businesses and meeting with business owners in Jacksonville, Dover, and Wilmington, I called on Governor Douglas to put support back behind Regional Development Corporations and on Lt. Governor Brian Dubie to clarify his position on Regional Development Corporations.

It’s clear that Vermont needs more jobs, and our Regional Development Corporations and Regional Planning Commissions are on the front lines of supporting business growth and relocation efforts.

Yet under the “Challenges for Change” initiative, Governor Douglas proposed consolidating Regional Development Corporations and decreasing their funding.

I have spent much of my career in business, working to build a Vermont-based software company and now at Google, and I know how important it is to have local organizations that can be responsive to economic development opportunities.

Regional Development Corporations help spur economic development and create jobs across the state.  Companies like Dealer.com expand their operations with the help of their local Regional Development Corporations.

Job creation is a central focus for many Vermonters and while reducing state spending is necessary in these tough economic times, making cuts to groups that will help create jobs and grow Vermont’s economy is absolutely the wrong approach. These groups have proved their effectiveness and I believe they are necessary for moving our state forward.

So, Governor Douglas, change your position and put support back behind Regional Development Corporations.

Even your own Lt. Governor has been vague about whether he agrees with the current approach.

At a meeting with the Bennington Regional Development Corporation, Lt. Governor Dubie was asked about whether he supports Governor Douglas’ plan to cut funding and consolidate Regional Development Corporations.

His response, as reported by The Bennington Banner on April 22nd, was to claim he hasn’t been a part of the “Challenges for Change” initiative.  The Bennington Banner reported that:

Dubie, who said he is not “directly involved” in crafting Challenges for Change, said economic development should be a priority in Vermont.

The Banner went on to report that Dubie:

“…said he largely agreed with an op-ed piece penned by Bob Matteson, a longtime Bennington resident and former town manage, that opposed the consolidation.”

Where is the leadership?  Lieutenant Governor Dubie, please clarify for us whether or not you support consolidating and cutting the budgets of Regional Development Corporations.

Are you feeling kinda nauseous about the ongoing financial relationship between Vermont Teddy Bear and reactionary messianic right-wingnut Glenn Beck? Frustrated that while most respectable business have already broken off their advertising deals with him, VT Teddy Bear continues to support his show with advertising revenue?

Are you doubly disgusted that VTB has him promoting their Mother’s Day products in virtually the same breath he goes off on a rant against Mother’s Day – a day founded on the idea of promoting peace.

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(Diaries posted under the GMD user represent collaborative efforts of multiple admins.)