I just received a press release regarding Chittenden County State’s Attorney TJ Donovan and his possible run in 2010 for Lt. Governor.

At this point in my life, my focus will be on my work as State’s Attorney and most importantly on my family as my wife and I welcome our first child in the near future.  

See the entire press release after the fold.

As a disclaimer, I must admit that I worked hard for TJ in his run for Chittenden County State’s Attorney in 2006.  As a member of the Chittenden County State’s Attorney’s Task Force, which is a coalition of restorative justice, domestic violence and mental health professionals, I have witnessed first hand Donovan’s willingness to listen and work hard for creative solutions for all stakeholders as we face tough economic times and dwindling resources.

As economies falter, domestic violence and both petty crime and hard crime increase.  Chittenden County has seen some of these changes.  While pandering to voters and claiming to be hard on crime, the Douglas Administration has drastically cut resources for victims of crime, domestic violence, and the state’s attorneys needed to prosecute these crimes.  Donovan is working with all stakeholders to find creative solutions to meeting an increased workload with totally inadequate resources.

In making this choice at a time when there is an open seat, I believe that Donovan shows he is committed first to his family and upcoming role as a new father and second to making sure that the hard work of justice moves forward in Chittenden County and throughout Vermont.

I believe that Donovan is a politician slated for higher office.  Personally, I find it impressive that he is focused on his family and the work still undone as State’s Attorney rather than simply the glory of statewide politics.

November 10, 2009                

THOMAS J. DONOVAN WILL NOT SEEK DEMOCRATIC NOMINATION FOR LIEUTENANT GOVERNOR

Chittenden County State’s Attorney T.J. Donovan announced today that he will not be a candidate for the Office of Lieutenant Governor.  Donovan, 35, of South Burlington, said “As I have traveled across our state over the past few months I have been humbled by the many Vermonters that have enthusiastically encouraged me to run for Lieutenant Governor.  However, after much thought, I have concluded that it is not the right time for me to run.  I care deeply about the future of Vermont and remain committed to serving the public.  At this point in my life, my focus will be on my work as State’s Attorney and most importantly on my family as my wife and I welcome our first child in the near future.”    

Donovan was first elected as Chittenden County State’s Attorney in 2006.

(cross-posted from Beyond VSH blog, here)

Do Not Cut to the Bone

The state should be cutting where the fat truly exists, not to the bone as had been its inclination: i.e., there is no need or justification for many departments or agencies across state government — most particularly within the Vermont Agency of Human Services (VT AHS) — to retain and have so many top and middle management positions that have grown since the current administration came into office: e.g., deputy commissioners.  

As specifically concerns the Vermont Department of Mental Health (VT DMH), one of the positions that should be cut is the Deputy Commissioner position as this would result in cost savings and sparing much more needed positions further down the food chain.

While the DMH commissioner and others within the department may depend on the deputy commissioner quite a bit, it would seem that when one measures priorities about what is truly most important and what gets the taxpayers the most for their dollars as well as provides the most to those the DMH is supposed to serve, this and other such high level positions should be cut instead.

Morgan W. Brown

Montpelier

Quick build a new one.

The Champlain Bridge handled almost 4,000 vehicles a day. It looks now that through the winter and beyond ferry traffic will be the substitute.

According to Stanley Gee, acting commissioner of the New York State Department of Transportation. who said previous estimates put the cost of a replacement bridge at about $50 million

Vermont has a good share of deteriorating bridges. They are given rationed care and rely heavily on regular inspection quickly finding trouble .Anyone know how many state inspectors still have jobs? Trouble with the Richmond St. Bridge was luckily found. Just as luckily ARRA federal funding for repairs was quick in arriving. Your tax dollars at work for you.

Maybe now in light of the news that the Champlain Bridge is beyond repair and must be torn down its time for a  review of the rationed bridge care and bridge inspection process here in Vermont. Let’s inspect the inspection process and see what may be slipping through the cracks.  

Vermont and New York both share ownership but the maintenance is New York’s responsibility

The Albany Times Union reported this week (Vermont and New York newspapers shared the story but a New York paper was responsible for committing some journalism) that a method that could have alerted the inspectors to the concrete abutment condition was not put into use. The cost for the test seemed high apparently.

A $10,000 high-tech ultrasonic test of the piers — something the state did not perform — could have provided an early warning of lurking rot and given time to make repairs to stabilize the piers before the bridge became unsafe, according to a national engineering expert on bridge failures.

Pennywise and pound foolish, an old yet useful saying .Better safe than sorry isn’t too bad either.

http://www.timesargus.com/arti…

http://www.timesunion.com/AspS…

Stories about the fictional planet Nibiru and predictions of doomsday in December 2012 have blossomed on the Internet. There are now (June 2009) more than 175 books listed on Amazon.com dealing with the 2012 doomsday. As this hoax spreads, many more disaster scenarios are being suggested. “Ask an Astrobiologist” has received nearly a thousand questions about Nibiru and 2012, with more than 200 answers posted.

(Ask an Astrobiologist, NASA blog)

***sigh, but on the other hand …

The world is much closer to running out of oil than official estimates admit, according to a whistleblower at the International Energy Agency who claims it has been deliberately underplaying a looming shortage for fear of triggering panic buying.

The senior official claims the US has played an influential role in encouraging the watchdog to underplay the rate of decline from existing oil fields while overplaying the chances of finding new reserves.

(Key oil figures were distorted by US pressure, says whistleblower, Guardian, 11/09/09)

Oh yeah … the masses have to be convinced that December 21, 2012 has no forseeable major disasters coming, but where there IS a major and forseeable disaster coming at us like a freight train … why … [stick head in sand after shoving fingers deeply inside ears].

As NASA’s astrobiologist wrote: “I note that my desk calendar ends much sooner, on December 31 2009, but I do not interpret this as a prediction of Armageddon. It is just the beginning of a new year.”

ANR hearing scheduled for  6:00 PM, Dec. 2  at Twinfield Union School in Plainfield.

Before this diary peters out and off the front page, I’d like to suggest that anyone who finds this news disturbing take a couple of minutes to e-mail ANR and tell them so. If AgriMark/Cabot wants to discharge waste over additional lands, why aren’t they simply told to build that sewage treatment plant?  The pertinent ANR address is:   ANR.WWMD.PublicComment@state.vt.us and the permit is BR95-0213  AgriMark/Cabot Waste Water Indirect Discharge

Events like Saturday’s Environmental Action Conference in Randolph provide a much needed “tune-up”‘ to the activist engine, which sometimes begins to falter due to unmet expectation and sheer fatigue.  Perhaps the most important feature of these events is the opportunity they provide for fledgling groups to network and resource for one another.  

It was in this way that I heard some alarming details about the “dairy waste” spraying that Agri Mark/Cabot has been routinely practicing in northeastern Vermont for many years.  Cabot resident, Jill Alexander, attended the Environmental Action Conference as a representative  of Whey To Go, a grassroots group of concerned citizens who are asking ANR to deny Agri Mark/Cabot’s current request to add additional properties to the land over which waste may be dispersed.*** The group contends that the original permit specified whey as the material to be dispersed, and that since whey has been identified as a marketable bi-product of cheese-making, it is no longer the primary material in the sprayings.  Instead of whey, a cocktail of chemicals from production and clean-up predominate in the current mix.  Whey to Go takes the position that this noxious effluent represents a threat to human health and the environment, and that it’s discharge does not comply with the original permit.

(***Please note this is a revision to the original text which read,”…to expand permitted spraying operations from 100,000 gallons per day to 150,000 gallons per day. I have just received the text of the public notice from ANR, which prompted this revision.)

Apparently, there are also three unlined lagoons in Cabot, that were formerly whey ponds but now reportedly hold “polished permeate,”  which I gather is sort of  a generic term that does not actually identify the chemical composition of the liquid but rather the process from which it resulted. Whey to Go says that in the late 80’s, Cabot was granted a land-use permit to build a waste treatment plant in order to handle the material collected in these ponds which had already been identified as problematic to the environment.   The plant was never built and the collection of material in the unlined lagoons and spraying of waste water continues to the present.  Jill reports that there is a high incidence of cancers in the region, and it is believed that among other things, the wastewater contains substances such as benzene, a known carcinogen; and tolulene, a lung irritant.

Seven Days did some in-depth reporting on the situation last year, highlighting ANR’s failure to adequately monitor the spraying operation and providing a little background on the phantom waste treatment plant that never got built:

The current fight over Agri-Mark’s Act 250 permit is not the first time that Cabot’s waste-disposal processes have come under the microscope. In 1986, when the creamery was undergoing a major expansion, the state told the company it must build a sewage treatment plant by 1991, since many of the fields it uses for land application are in the headwaters of the Lamoille, Connecticut and Winooski rivers.

The creamery even received a federal grant from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to build the plant in Cabot. But, for various reasons, the plant was never built and the funds were diverted to other uses. A few years later, the legislature changed the legal definition of dairy waste so it no longer qualified as “sewage,” eliminating the need for the treatment plant.

Whey to Go is holding a public informational meeting at 6:00 PM on November 16, at Cabot Commons, 36 Glinka Rd. in Cabot, and they really hope people from all over the affected region will make a point of being there.  Contact Jill Alexander: 4reiki@fairpoint.net with any questions.

The ANR public hearing concerning AgriMark’s request to expand the volume of spraying will take place on December 2 at 6:00 PM at the Twinfield Union School, 106 Nasmith Rd. in Plainfield.  It is vitally important to have a strong public showing at the hearing in order to send a clear message to ANR that clean-up of the Cabot operation is a public priority.

Chances are pretty good that if you don’t live in one of the towns that have been exposed to the spraying, you do live near one of the affected streams, brooks and rivers.  I am adding a long list of the affected communities and waterways at the end of this posting.  Have a look and try to be at the ANR Hearing if you can’t make it to the November 16 pre-meeting:

Affected Towns: Plainfield, Glover, Marshfield, St. Johnsbury, Lyndon, Sheffield, Barton, Craftsbury, Cabot, Hardwick, Peacham, Walden, Danville, East Montpelier, Greensboro, Albany, Wolcott, Calais, Barnet, Wheelock, Barton, Brookfield, Stannard, Irasburg, Morristown

Jill has just sent me some additional information that I thought I would share with you:

…there are three ways Agri-Mark disposes of waste:

1.  The non-sewage dairy wastewater is sprayed onto fields via trucks.

2.  This same non-sewage dairy wastewater is trucked to farmer’s manure pits and pumped into them so the farmers can spread it “wily nilly” without restrictions at all.

3.  The so called polished permeate is pumped from the Agri-Mark main building to three unlined lagoons where it is stored.  They claim this stuff is “pure water” but aren’t allowed to put it into the river directly.  (Does that tell you that it isn’t “pure water” or what!)  Then it is pumped UPHILL for about a quarter of a mile.  This stuff is Not ALLOWED to be land applied anywhere else except on my old family farmstead and a small field below it.  There are huge sprayers, we counted around 20 but I never wanted to go near enough to physically count them, that solely spray this junk onto the same areas from something like May-Nov. 1 EVERY DAY in hopes that it will “evaporate” and become airborne.  Naturally since I live due East of these sprayers, I am bound to get some residues.  The remained of the “permeate” water runs downhill and makes it’s path wherever water does with the Winooski river nearby.  At a District 5 environmental commission site visit, I insisted that we visit the fields, lagoons.  Pecolar (AGri-Mark) insisted that there were no sprayers in the beautiful old hayfields on our old farm.  I rather forced them to stop and walked the entire commission and citizens out into my old field  (which Agri-Mark had purposely turned the sprayers off that day probably in fear that this might happen,) and showed them that there were INDEED many, many sprayers located there and discovered even more of them on a steep slope on a field below that one. (I would estimate at least 20 sprayers)   I also pointed out areas where cinderblocks were placed to slow down the flow of these waters and apparent erosion clear to me and Jessica Miller to be the result of water flow that had been taken place.  I also noted that our beautiful hayfield had turned to moss.  Agri-Mark announced that they were going to have it planted to winter rye but had been letting my neighbor grow pumpkins commercially there for the past couple of years.  The upper part of that same field has been seen to also receive “non-sewage dairy waste” sprayings as well.  No pumpkins were planted this year at all so apparently things didn’t grow that well there as my neighbor reported across the street.  On that same site visit, District 5 Environmental, Agri-Mark, party status members present, I asked Agri-Mark’s Pecolar why the backhoes were down making repairs on these lagoons several times if they were so secure.  He at first denied this and then when I reported that I SAW them there several times he offered up that the Muskrats had made holes in the sides of the embankment causing the ponds to “leak” on many occasions.

Not sure what to make of it, so I’ll let you figure this one out, from today’s vtbuzz:

Pollina, the Progressive who ran for governor in 2008 as an independent, continues to ponder his political future, but he said he’s in no hurry to decide. He’s weighing lots of options from running for state Senate to joining the four, soon-to-be five Democrats in a free-for-all primary to pick a gubernatorial nominee.

The danger in starting a more local-level campaign early is that you might end up making a lot of noise to no effect. If one says “I’m running,” one wants voters to care, and it can look pretty bad if no one does. This is the risk Philip Baruth was taking in getting started with his State Senate campaign so early in the cycle.

Whether its because he had a good sense of the changing electoral calendar (at least in Chittenden County) or whether he simply made the calendar follow him, Philip has clearly pulled it off, and has probably changed that elections calendar forever in the county, if not (yet) the state. He’s already raised well into five figures and has reliably turned out volunteers to campaign events – all of which is to say he clearly called it right and, as a result, has a serious leg up on his competition already. Here’s the promo video from his campaign’s official kick-off recently:

If the GOP’s Right Wing Goes After the Party’s Lone Asian-American Congressman — a Vietnamese Immigrant Who Represents a Predominantly African-American (and Democratic) District — Over His Vote in Favor of Democrats’ Health-Care Reform Bill, It Will Risk Further Solidifying the GOP’s Image as a Lily-White, Xenophobic Party That Is Hostile Toward Blacks, Latinos, Asians and Native Americans

Standing up for his constituents: Representative Anh “Joseph” Cao (R-Louisiana), pictured here with his wife, Hieu “Kate” Hoang and their children, Sophia (left) and Betsy at their New Orleans home shortly after his history-making election last November as the first Vietnamese-American member of Congress, was the sole House Republican to vote in favor of the Democrats’ health-care reform bill. Cao’s vote has deeply angered right-wing activists both inside and outside the GOP, but in an interview with CNN, Cao — whose district is predominantly African-American and overwhelmingly Democratic — said, “I have always said that I would put aside partisan wrangling to do the business of the people. My vote tonight was based on my priority of doing what is best for my constituents.” (Photo courtesy VietCatholic News)

(Posted 5:00 a.m. EST Monday, November 9, 2009)

Updated 1:20 a.m. EST Tuesday, November 10, 2009)

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A ‘SKEETER BITES REPORT EDITORIAL

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Addressing thousands of right-wing “Teabagger” activists who staged a protest on Capitol Hill Saturday against the health-care reform bill, House Minority Leader (R-Ohio) branded the measure — which was headed toward a House floor vote on Saturday night — “the greatest threat to freedom that I have seen” and House Minority Whip Eric Cantor (R-Virginia) confidently predicted that “not one Republican will vote for this bill.”

Cantor, as it turned out hours later, was a tad overconfident.

When the final tally was compiled — 220 votes in favor and 215 votes against — 219 of those “aye” votes were cast by Democrats. The 220th “aye” came from a Republican.

And not your typical Republican who represents a safe, conservative GOP district, either. The House Republican leadership had apparently forgotten that freshman Representative Anh “Joseph” Cao (R-Louisiana) represents an overwhelmingly Democratic district. Not only that, but Cao is the GOP’s only Asian-American member of Congress.

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A BLIZZARD OF RACIST INVECTIVES AGAINST CAO ON WHITE-SUPREMACIST WEB SITE — CLICK HERE

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It was just a year ago when Cao (pronounced “gow”), made history by becoming the first Vietnamese-American elected to Congress. In the process, he defeated an African-American incumbent in a predominantly African-American district: nine-term Democrat William Jefferson, who was under federal indictment in a corruption and bribery scandal. Cao edged out Jefferson, 49.6 percent to 46.8 percent (Jefferson was subsequently convicted).

Cao is one of only five Asian-American members of the House. The other four, all Democrats, are Representatives Doris Matsui of California, the widow of the late Representative Robert Matsui, who died in 2005; Judy Chu of California, who won a special election in June to succeed Hilda Solis, who resigned in February to become labor secretary in the Obama administration; Mazie Hirono of Hawaii, a former lieutenant governor; and David Wu of Oregon.

Matsui and Hirono are Japanese; Chu and Wu are Chinese.

JOSEPH CAO: AN AMERICAN SUCCESS STORY

Indeed, the rise of Joseph Cao is a truly American success story. Born Quang Ánh Cao in Saigon (now Ho Chi Minh City) in 1967, he fled South Vietnam as an eight-year-old with his family to the United States when Saigon fell to the Communist North Vietnamese and Viet Cong in 1975, settling in Houston.

His father, My Quang Cao, was a lieutenant in the South Vietnamese Army and was captured by the North Vietnamese when the Vietnam War ended. The elder Cao, who suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder and diabetes, would join the rest of the family in Houston following his release from a communist “re-education camp” in 1982.

Cao earned a bachelor’s degree in physics at Baylor University in Waco, his master’s degree in philosophy from Fordham University and, in 2000, his J.D. (Juris Doctorate) from Loyola University School of Law in New Orleans. While in law school, he also taught undergraduate courses in philosophy at Loyola.

CAO: MY CONSTITUENTS HAD TO COME BEFORE MY PARTY

The Republican leadership should have known that there was no way that Cao could vote against the health-care reform bill and expect to get re-elected. Countless numbers of his constituents in Orleans and Jefferson parishes — including the hurricane-ravaged Lower Ninth Ward of New Orleans — were losing their health-care coverage because they could no longer afford their “exploding costs,” Cao said in a statement posted on his Web site.

“Twenty percent of the people in my district are uninsured and we have tremendous health care issues in the district, and I believe this is good for the people of my district,” Cao told Capitol Hill reporters minutes after the vote late Saturday night. “Louisianans need real options for primary care, for mental health care, and for expanded health care for seniors and children.”

In an interview Sunday with CNN, Cao said that he had to put the interests of his constituents ahead of the interests of his party.

Indeed, GOP leaders had known for months that Cao was likely to vote in favor of the bill. In an interview during the summer with The Times-Picayune of New Orleans, Cao acknowledged that voting against the measure would have been politically suicidal for him.

In February, Cao voted against President Obama’s economic stimulus package — a vote that outraged so many of his constituents back home that it put his chances for re-election in 2010 in serious jeopardy. Having been burned once, Cao has since then broken from his party on several occasions. With the health-care reform bill, Cao knew he could not afford to alienate his constituents again.

CAO AGREED TO VOTE ‘YES’ ONLY AFTER ANTI-ABORTION AMENDMENT APPROVED

But Cao had a problem. As a devout Roman Catholic who at one time had studied to become a priest, he could not bring himself to vote “yes” on the measure unless it included a provision sponsored by Representative Bart Stupak (D-Michigan) that bans federal funding for abortions in the government-financed “public option” that would create a new government insurance plan.

Torn between his commitment to his constituents and his devotion to his faith, Cao made it clear to Obama, who had actively lobbied for his support of the measure, that without the anti-abortion language, he would be compelled to vote “no” — and if that meant sacrificing his political career, then so be it. He was prepared to consign himself to being a one-term congressman, if he had to.

In the end, Cao didn’t have to make that choice.

“When that was worked out … I called the White House and said I could possibly support the bill,” said Cao, referring to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s decision to allow a vote on the Stupak Amendment, which passed 290-194. Liberal House Democrats who were staunch supporters of abortion rights swallowed hard and reluctantly accepted the amendment in the interest of getting the overall bill passed.

(Not surprisingly, the abortion-rights advocacy group NARAL Pro-Choice America denounced the Stupak amendment. Its president, Nancy Keenan, branded the amendment “an outrageous blow to women’s freedom and privacy” and vowed “to fight to remove this provision as the process goes to the Senate.”)

RIGHT-WING HARD-LINERS ATTACK CAO AS ‘TRAITOR,’ VOW TO OUST HIM

Cao’s success in including the anti-abortion amendment in the bill was not enough, however, to satisfy hard-line right-wing “Teabagger” activists, who almost immediately branded him a “traitor” to the conservative cause.

Reader comments posted to conservative Web sites, including that of The American Spectator magazine, where columnist Quin Hillyer wrote a spirited defense of Cao, were riddled with ugly racist invectives, such as one posted by “TruePatriot” that read:

“THE GUY NEEDS TO GO BACK TO LAOS. WE NEED REAL GOD-LOVING CRISTIAN AMERICANS TO RUN THIS COUNTRY, NOT SOME GOOK!”

And this insulting remark by “Spicy Joker” that read:

“The American Sphincter [sic] has lower standards for Cao because it wants to keep a token minority in the Repubic [sic] coalition. If Cao were any other RINO [Republican in mane only] – Lincoln Chafed [sic], Olympia Snowjob [sic], John McPain [sic], Kay Bailout [sic] Hutchison – The American Sphincter [sic] would denounce him as a RINO.”

STEELE WARNS REPUBLICANS WHO STRAY FROM PARTY ORTHODOXY: ‘WE’LL COME AFTER YOU’

GOP national chairman Michael Steele issued a blunt warning last week to any Republican who votes in favor of the Democrats’ health-care reform bill: “You do not want to put yourself in a position where you’re crossing that line on conservative principles, fiscal principles, because we’ll come after you.”

Cao fired back with a thinly-veiled warning of his own that while Steele has the right “to come after those members who do not conform to party lines,” he warned that the GOP would risk losing his district to the Democrats if he went after him. “I would hope that he [Steele] would work with us in order to adjust to the needs of the district and to hold a seat that the Republican Party would need,” Cao told CNN.

The GOP leadership would be making a HUGE mistake in going after Cao for standing up for his constituents instead of standing with his party. As the only Asian-American Republican in all of Congress who represents a predominantly African-American — and overwhelmingly Democratic — district, the GOP can ill-afford to drive Cao out of their ranks, as they did to Dede Scozzafava in upstate New York.

Their standing among black voters is already at rock bottom. They’ve lost the support of Latinos as a result of years of virulent anti-Latino rhetoric coming from the mouths of the party’s more hard-line right-wing firebarands on the immigration issue.

Going after Cao will only further solidify the party’s image as a lily-white, xenophobic party that is hostile toward blacks, Latinos, Asians and Native Americans — especially after Cao’s election was hailed by Republicans only a year ago as an example of the GOP’s “Big Tent.”

It’s looking increasingly like the Republican “Big Tent’ has been torn to shreds and the party is becoming an exclusive club for conservative whites only.

By the way, did anyone notice that the crowd at the “Teabagger” rally on Capitol Hill Saturday was made up almost exclusively of middle-aged-and-older white people — the vast majority of them male? Steele said that the GOP wants to “partner as much as possible” with the “Teabaggers.”

Perhaps Chairman Steele should be thankful that his first name isn’t Thomas, for as far as I’m concerned, he’s become as tragic a figure as the protagonist in Harriet Beecher Stowe’s famed pre-Civil War anti-slavery novel — whose title, for the sake of propriety, shall remain unmentioned.

Sincerely,

Skeeter Sanders

Editor & Publisher

The ‘Skeeter Bites Report

Copyright 2009, Skeeter Sanders. All rights reserved.

Update: Yay for the Valley News! They don’t post their articles online, but they did cover the event and the issues discussed in their Sunday edition. Also yay for Shay Totten, who just took some time to process the event. Journalism lives after all.

Looking at the newspapers today, I see a semi-comprehensible piece on property taxes by Louis Porter in the Argus/Herald. Over at the Free Press, more on the story about cruelty at the Grand Isle slaughterhouse (hmm… sounds a little oxymoronic when I put it that way). From the look of the papers, I guess there was no political news from yesterday.

Well, unless you count the very first meeting of the Democratic candidates for Governor in a public forum in Randolph. You know, no biggie.

God, mother & country, this is freaking ridiculous. It’s not like they didn’t know it was happening. The Argus/Herald had a piece about the keynote speaker from the very conference that the candidate forum was headlining, apparently deciding that the Middlebury Professor’s comments were the only newsworthy parts of a conference that featured Secretary of State Deb Markowitz, Senate President Pro Tem Peter Shumlin, former Senator Matt Dunne, Senate Appropriations Chair Susan Bartlett, and a proxy for Senator and former Lt. Governor Doug Racine essentially kicking off the full Democratic Party Primary for Governor.

But I’m sure they were all just there for the keynote too.

Yup, guardians of our right to know jack squat in action. There are already plenty of factors driving down sales that are out of newspapers’ control without them needing to shoot themselves in the foot with vapid coverage decisions like this.

So where to turn if you want coverage of the biggest political news of the weekend? Where else – the internet – and no, I’m not talking about amateurs on blogs, I’m talking about the fledging online journalism site vtdigger.org. From professional journalist Anne Galloway:

Five Democratic candidates for governor answered questions about conservation, the Current Use program and renewable energy as part of a gubernatorial candidates’ forum at the Environmental Action conference at Vermont Technical College in Randolph on Nov. 7, 2009.

Good for Galloway. She doesn’t do any full on reporting here, but she notes the event and provides videos of each candidate addressing the potential primary voters.

As for the newspapers, it’s editorial decisions like this that make their complaints and concerns about the decline of newspapers against the rise of online news sound like whining.

Now watch, because it may get worse, as I suspect this is the prelude to one of those electoral seasons where Dems could cure freaking cancer and not get press coverage while Republican Candidate Dubie will get front page adulation every time he blows his nose…

(cross-posted from Beyond VSH blog, here)

Dear Governor Jim Douglas, State of Vermont:

An Open Letter re: Reverse VSH Canteen Closure Decision

Sent to: Secretary Hofmann, Vermont Agency of Human Service (VT AHS); and,

Commissioner Michael Hartman, Vermont Department of Mental Health (VT DMH)

cc: State Representative Michael Obuchowski, Chair, Joint Fiscal Committee;

State Senator Ann Cummings, Vice Chair, Joint Fiscal Committee

While the Vermont State Hospital (VSH) remains open, I have come down on the side of opposing the closure of the VSH canteen out of respect for each and every one of those currently as well as formerly incarcerated at VSH who it is reported have indicated the canteen is needed for the time being as their one small bright light at the end of the tunnel, even if only a glimmer of hope is provided by such.

That said, I am also among those who have long been working to have VSH closed down as well as at the same time working to have put into place a very different system of providing for the actual needs of those either currently or previously incarcerated there as well as those who could be in the future and, will not shy away from continuing to do so at all.

These needs include real, safe, decent and affordable housing, income, training, employment, transportation and other such supports and services that allow one to live independently where and how they may choose to reside.

This of course runs contrary to what has basically been the sole focus of the commissioner and his supporters to chiefly replace the role of VSH and merely move what is done there in the form of institutionalization in one fashion or another to other places elsewhere, while mostly providing poor lip service to providing truly community-based opportunities and real inclusion for people whom too many within our society would rather keep out of sight out of mind, unless the plan is to allow them to rot on the street or in jails and prisons, etc., which already happens often enough already.

The fact is that dumping people without their being offered basic housing as well as independent living opportunities and supports or services they can freely choose from when they are without such is no solution either. Not everyone has the means to provide for and support themselves after being released from such incarceration, particularly right away or so easily.

The current administration in office and the commissioner of mental health along with their supporters have mixed up priorities and, as such, have been headed in the wrong direction for quite some time.

Even though closing VSH and, not merely moving its functions elsewhere, is highly desirable and sorely needed in order to move ahead with what will be required, the closure of the canteen while the current facility remains open is not, certainly not by those who are incarcerated there, nor by those of us who stand in solidarity with them either.

Morgan W. Brown

Montpelier