UPDATE: Ellie Light surfaced in yesterday's Plain Dealer, but still no answer on who she actually is or where she lives.

This week's issue of The Bridge, Montpelier's local newspaper, has an example of a nationwide phenomenon.

Specifically, it's a letter from Ellie Light of Montpelier pleading for patience for Obama to achieve his objectives.

The trouble with this?

It's the same letter, with the same signature, as has appeared in newspapers all over the country, all giving an address corresponding to the locality where the newspaper is published.

I learned this in a tweet from Romenesko yesterday, linking to the Plain Dealer.

Maybe this is a sign that The Bridge has hit the big time.

Or maybe Ellie Light really does live here. After all, everybody has to be somewhere.

I find this piece from TPM fascinating, in no small part because I can easily put myself right in some of these House members shoes. Frankly, I feel exactly the same way.

…more than half of House Democrats don’t want to pass the Senate version of the (health care reform) bill with the promise that the bigger differences they’ve already been hammering out would be fixed with a second bill.

The bottom line is that many members feel betrayed by the White House and Senate and just don’t trust that a fix would pass.

[…] “They are frustrated the White House fell for all the talk in the Senate that they thought they could make [their bill] bipartisan,” the aide said. “Members don’t trust the Senate, they definitely don’t trust the White House to come back and fix any of this.”

I doubt I’m the only one feeling a little empathy towards lefty Representatives after reading this piece. That’s probably a good thing on several levels.

Fan that spark of healthy skepticism and independent thinking into a full on flame, folks. Clearly, as far as dealing with the White House and the Senate on this, or other charged issues, the House progressives’ mantra should be trust, but verify.

 According to the Rutland Herald,

Entergy has lawyered up. Entergy Nuclear has hired a Washington, D.C., law firm to assist the company in its internal investigation over whether company officials lied to state regulators last year over the existence of radioactivity in buried pipes, which appear to be the source of increasing levels and types of radioactivity leaking at the Vernon reactor.

 This lawyering up comes after weeks of appearances and disappearances surrounding the aging plant.Underground pipes said by officials not to exist, proceeded to make their existence painfully evident to everyone.  

In a twist on this disappearing/reappearing process, Baruth’s Vermont Daily Brief points out that Vermont Yankee’s Chief engineer David McElwee has vanished from the iamvy.com feel-good webpage where he once appeared. McElwee said of the underground piping "We have none. Since this is not an item active in the review of … recommendations, we consider this issue closed,"    

Also performing a reappearance is Governor Douglas’ support for Yankee. After a week of criticizing the power plant operators, the Douglas team is back on point in their support for re-licensing.      

A judge has finally ruled on whether developer Jeff Davis can build a Walmart in a cornfield next to an organic farm in St. Albans Town. Judge Tom Durkin gave Davis the go-ahead, affirming the Act 250 permit awarded in April of 2008, according to an article by Michelle Monroe in the January 22 St. Albans Messenger.

It’s not quite a simple yes/no decision. The Vermont Natural Resources Council — in consultation with co-appellants Northwest Citizens for Responsible Growth (which has caught most of the local heat by the “give-us-our-Walmart-NOW” crowd) and farm owners Marie Frey and Richard Hudak — has 30 days to file an appeal. And there are side agreements on traffic issues and stormwater runoff mitigation measures.

Plus there are major bribes incentives of up to $400,000 for St. Albans City to be paid by developer Davis if construction meets certain deadlines (meaning no further delay fostered by any city entity).

One other interesting point. The developer, Jeff Davis, had filed a post-trial motion to deny/dismiss the affected/interested party-status of several groups. Judge Durkin denied the motion, noting:

“But for VNRC’s efforts to protect its particularized interests and those of its co-appellants, it is unlikely that the pending application would include the applicable revisions to stormwater treatment, traffic mitigation and economic impact JLD presented at trial. VNRC’s participation… resulted in an approved project that is unlikely to cause the adverse impacts once feared.”

Whether or not you agree with that last conclusion (“unlikely to cause the adverse impacts once feared”), the point is that the judge recognized the value of having a process that included the public and advocacy groups.

Something to think about every time some developer/Republican starts bloviating about “streamlining the process,” or amending Act 250 to prevent public input.

There’s been a lot of hand-wringing over the Supreme Court’s decision to blow the lid off corporate campaign contributions and overwrite a century’s worth of legal doctrine on the issue. The decision, of course, is predicated on the notion of “corporate personhood” – the idea that corporations are entitled to the same rights as so-called “natural” persons. In this case, the Court decided that this was a matter of protecting corporate-persons’ (I like to call them “corporate-Americans”) right to free speech, given that speech is money (which should explain to those that know me why I choose to talk so much).

But I, for one, am delighted by the decision. I believe it’s long overdue. Corporate-persons have long faced discrimination, and I am sick to death of seeing any kind of person singled out for any sort of discrimination in our society.

In fact, I hope the Supreme Court doesn’t just stop with speech, as there is clearly so much more to be done to fully guarantee corporate-persons the rights to “life liberty and the pursuit of happiness” that their fellow persons enjoy under our beloved Constitution. Here are just a few of the more egregious ways our society has institutionalized its bigotry against this singularly downtrodden class of person:

• Marriage equality and the right to a family! Nowhere are corporate-persons more discriminated against than in these areas, so fundamental as they are to what makes us all persons. If I went down to the courthouse to fill out a marriage license for myself and RiteAid, I wouldn’t just be denied, I would likely be mocked. It’s time to end the discrimination, as all persons should be equal in the eyes of the law. Not only should I be able to wed the person of my choice, we should be able to adopt, since it’s likely that RiteAid and I won’t be able to naturally conceive. Perhaps we might choose to start our family with the adoption of an abandoned inner city infant. Perhaps we’d adopt a small chain of convenience stores as well (I’ve already picked out names!)
• Justice for the brutally murdered! Made vulnerable by the ailing economy, corporate-person Circuit City was tragically killed just last year – in part due to the intentional actions of other persons such as Best Buy and WalMart. And yet, neither have been brought to answer for this murder before a criminal court. Justice for all persons (and for god’s sake, let’s have the trial in Texas so we can give WalMart the Chair!)!
• Suffrage! Why is an entire class of persons disenfranchised from the electoral process? Corporations should not be barred from registering to vote – and I mean corporations big and small! Why, I might just go out and sign the paperwork to create a few small corporations myself (call it a “litter” I suppose), and I’ll fully expect that my baby corps will be able to exercise their constitutional rights (although I suppose they may have to wait til their eighteenth birthdays).

  Along these lines, I daresay I hope I’ll live to see the first corporate-american President. After the court’s decision this week, I feel more optimistic than ever that we’re on the way (so long as a valid American birth certificate can be produced, of course).

• Jobs! I have no doubt that if a corporate-person applied for virtually any job in the classifieds, they wouldn’t even get an interview. Hell, the prejudice is so pervasive that I bet McDonald’s wouldn’t even hire a corporate-person as a burger flipper (which is doubly tragic, because they’d be committing an act of discrimination against their own people!). It’s time for a civil rights march on Washington demanding affirmative action. These overlooked citizens need jobs too (as well as the right to collectively bargain, but first thing’s first, I suppose).
• Bring on the entitlements! Medicare! Foodstamps! Unemployment! Not exactly sure how it’ll all work, but regardless, no class of persons should be discriminated against when it comes to our social programs.

I thank god that the Supreme Court, in its unquestionable wisdom and undeniable logic, has taken another major step towards righting these, and other wrongs. In fact, I’m starting a new corporation – a nonprofit, actually – to further the Supremes’ message and continue the struggle.

I’ll be sure to let readers know when the christening will be held.

(Crossposted at HuffPo)

(Continuing the policy of promoting diaries from officeholders and officeseekers – promoted by odum)

It’s only the second week and already there are no shortages of topics of intense debate. I want to talk about VEGI incentives and the request to the Emergency Board to raise the cap on these incentives. If VEGI, the Emergency Board and raising the cap mean nothing to you, I would say you are with at least 95% of the rest of Vermont, but it is an important issue and it does have advocates and naysayers.

VEGI stands for Vermont Employment Growth Incentive and is a program that was started several years ago to encourage job growth in Vermont through cash incentives to employers.  The Emergency Board is the group that officially accepts the revenue projections, sets the levels of bonding and can approve emergency spending.  The Board is made up of the governor, the chairs of the two appropriations committees and the chairs of the tax committees.

Each of the incentive programs that we have in Vermont has a “cap”. That is the dollar amount that the program may spend or commit. VEGI had a cap of $10 million and they have asked to have the cap raised to $25 million.

More after the jump

Here’s how the VEGI program works. A business comes to the group in charge of these incentives and files an application for a VEGI credit. The business has to fill out a lengthy application and has to swear that the job growth would not happen without this incentive. There is a complex formula that determines if this would be a good investment of state dollars.  

These are performance based incentives. In other words, until the company has created the jobs, the jobs have been filled and folks have been working for a specific time period, the incentive is not paid.

If the company never creates the jobs, or only creates some of the jobs, the incentive is adjusted accordingly. These incentives are also paid out over a period of years. The idea is that these new jobs create more revenues for the state, so these incentives don’t “cost” the state money, they just share some of the new revenues with the company that creates these new revenues.

The VEGI program currently has the authority to commit up to $10 million in incentives and has most of that money committed. They have so far only paid out under $1 million, but the potential liability is still there for the other $9 million.

Three companies have suddenly come forward with very good applications and are looking at the creation of over 800 jobs in a several year period.

One company is a large Vermont company who is looking for a major expansion and another is a company that to be built in Vermont and would manufacture solar panels. The cap on the VEGI programs needs to be raised to cover these potential new, high paying jobs.

It is important to understand that these caps are the state’s liability and never have we come close to actually paying out the full amount of the caps. The business community feels that these types of incentives are very important to job creation. Many others feel that most of the jobs grown in Vermont happen without these incentives and that there is no proof that these incentives are helpful.

I’m happy to encourage 800 good paying jobs with VEGI, what a great thing to be talking about! 800 good jobs!

Thanks for reading,

Susan

PS: I’m happy to hear from you about the issues we face in Vermont and read your posts here. If you want to contact me, I’m easy to find through www.bartlettforgovernor.com

Cross posted from Nourishing the Planet.

For the past few months, we’ve been collecting information about agricultural innovations from all over the world (survey in English and French). We shared the initial responses in September and even more responses in November, but continue to receive interesting information and recommendations from farmers, NGOs, research groups, and policymakers in a multitude of countries. Below are a few tidbits we’d like to share.

The following projects, already featured on the Nourishing the Planet blog, have recently provided information for our survey, further describing their agricultural innovations and helping us as we seek to define innovations that best nourish people as well as the world in our upcoming report, State of the World 2011.

From our friends at the Developing Innovations in School Cultivation project in the Mukono District, Uganda: Describing the innovation as spreading a “passion for producing local foods to the next generation,” Edward Mukiibi helped flesh out the details of his project by filling out the survey after Danielle’s visit. You can read more here: Cultivating a Passion for Agriculture, Conversations with Farmers: Discussing the School Garden with a DISC Project Student, and How to Keep Kids “Down on the Farm.”

From Never Ending Food in Lilongwe, Malawi: The Nordins are educating others about permaculture and growing indigenous crops to increase income and improve food security. You can read about Danielle’s visit to their home and farm here: Malawi’s Real “Miracle” and Sweeping Change.

Please continue to share your agriculture innovations with us. We look forward to featuring your success stories on our blog and in Nourishing the Planet. Stay tuned for more updates from the survey-maybe next time it will be your innovation we highlight!

… seems to be to think about a problem (let’s say,people being denied healthcare due to pre-existing conditions – you, know, things like cancer and other things that affect a lot of adults). Then, think of the best possible solution. Then do the exact opposite (from one of the latest health care revisions being tossed around):

Insurers could not deny coverage to children under the age of 19 on account of pre-existing medical conditions.

If you thought the last 15 years were bad, you’re gonna love the next fifteen, lemme tells ya.

A decision announced today by the U.S. Supreme Court opens the floodgates of corporate dollars and influence on our foundering democracy.  If yesterday you were among those of us ordinary citizens who were already concerned that U.S. corporations held undue influence on national policy, today you should be in orbit with alarm!



Here’s the story as it appears in the Christian Science Monitor.

We have to end privately-financed national campaigns before it is too late to save our democracy.   Are you listening Senators Sanders and Leahy?  Congressman Welch?  

Along with the Free Press’s report that a long-rumored Secretary of State candidacy for former Chittenden Senator Jim Condos is about to become a reality, GMD has learned that Rep. Steve Howard of Rutland is about to have two challengers in the Democratic Primary for Lieutenant Governor.

Former Vermont CARES Chief Tim Palmer, who has been discussing a run for a while, is having a kick-off party January 30 in Burlington’s New North End, hosted by Michael Gilman, Amy Livingston, and Jane Van Buren.

And word is that this Monday, Representative Chris Bray (D-Bridport, New Haven, Weybridge) will also announce that he is a candidate for Lite Guv. He’s been active in “farm-to-plate” programs, which will play well in rural areas.

Vermont Democrats should be able to look forward to a couple more substantive primaries.