A local fire chief says
five men who fell through the ice on Lake Champlain are lucky to be alive. Addison Fire Chief Chris Mulliss says
another five or 10 minutes in the water could have meant life or death for the
men who fell through three-inch-thick ice at about 3 PM Sunday. The Chief says two anglers first fell
through the ice about 300 feet off the shore in West Addison, then a nearby
homeowner and two other anglers fell in while trying to rescue the first two. About 50 emergency personnel from
Vermont and New York helped with the rescue. 3 of the people who fell in got out on their own while two
others had to be rescued by the emergency responders. No one was seriously hurt.
The students at
Weybridge Elementary have a new tool when it comes to learning a foreign
language thanks to Middlebury Interactive Languages. Middlebury Interactive is the leading provider of virtual
and in-person world language courses for students in Kindergarten through grade
12. It is a joint venture of the College and the Virginia-based K12 Incorporated,
the nation's largest digital education provider. These courses were developed
by Middlebury College professors based on the college's immersion language
instruction method. The company
just opened a new headquarters here in Middlebury with 22 employees and they plan
to hire more. Yesterday they
announced a $2.6 million initiative with Middlebury College to provide 30
Vermont schools with discounted unlimited access to Middlebury Interactive
web-based language courses in Chinese, French, German, Latin and Spanish.
The Rutland City School
Board will discuss the proposed budget at 6:30 this evening at the Longfellow
Administration Building. The Board
is looking at a pair of proposals. The first, which cuts 11 jobs, would
increase the budget 4.9 percent. The second proposal cuts an additional three
jobs for an additional savings of about $175,000, increasing the budget 4.5
percent. The first proposal
cuts 11 positions ranging from para-educators, volunteer and home-school
coordinators, and a nurse. The second proposal includes those cuts, plus three
classroom teachers. For more
information, call 773-1900 or visit www.rutlandcitypublicschools.com.
14th Annual Face Off
Against Breast Cancer Charity Hockey Tournament is coming up on January 19th
& 20th Proceeds benefit the Cancer Patient Support Program's
patient services and emergency fund and are earmarked for breast cancer patients. This year's tournament brings eleven
women's hockey teams from all over Vermont. In addition to hockey games; the
Face Off Against Breast Cancer also includes several other associated
activities on the weekend. A benefit concert with The Horse Traders will rock
Two Brothers Tavern in Middlebury on the 19th from 9 PM to 1 AM. The band's
cover charge and 10 percent of all sales during the event will be donated to
the Face Off Against Breast Cancer.
Ongoing hospitality and refreshments will be served in the Warming Hut.
Game schedules available at www.faceoffagainstbreastcancer.org.
The Video of last weeks Embezzlement Talk is now available
to view online. If you
missed last Monday’s seminar titled “Embezzlement, Business Ethics &
Professional Responsibility,” MCTV has posted a video of the event on their
website. Specials thanks once again to Holden
Insurance for sponsoring the event. With tax season approaching some free help will
once again be available for low and middle-income residents of Addison
County. RSVP, AARP, and United Way
of Addison County sponsor the service. For more information contact RSVP at
388-7044.
Addison County Transit Resources has announced its
schedule for Martin Luther King Day and Presidents’ Day. On Monday the 21st, all bus
routes will operate on normal schedules and the ACTR office will be open. And on Monday, February 18th all
bus routes will operate on normal schedules. The ACTR office will be open that day as well. For more information, please call
388-1946 or go to www.actr-vt.org.
The Town of Ticonderoga has started its first test
well to find a water source as part of a $13.8 million water system improvement
project. Facing a federal mandate
to either cover its existing water sources or use groundwater, the town of
Ticonderoga has started a comprehensive water system upgrade. Town officials
hope to replace the existing water system, which draws water from Lake George
and Gooseneck Pond, with groundwater drawn from a series of wells. The first step is to find adequate
groundwater for the project. The initial test well is located off Hall Road in
Chilson.
A market study in Ticonderoga says the area has
sufficient sales potential to support a natural-foods co-op. Local officials say that, as a result,
they’re moving ahead on the effort to create a food cooperative for the
Ticonderoga area. The recently
released report by CDS Consulting was conducted in two phases. One was a market study that yielded a
sales-forecast analysis and the other an evaluation of proposed sites in the
downtown. A food co-op in an area like Ticonderoga would take about 600
subscribers to support its operation.
Officials have been talking with SUNY Plattsburgh about having a class
in environmental management go to Ticonderoga to do further research into the
feasibility or alternatives to a co-op food store.
Dick and Leanna DeNeale have donated a conservation
easement to Champlain Area Trails that conserves their 319-acre property on
Route 22 between Essex and Willsboro.
The easement also provides for a hiking and skiing trail that will
showcase the forest and be part of a trail that CATS envisions linking
Willsboro to Essex. The property is in an area called the Essex Highlands,
which is the first ridge people see when traveling to New York on the Essex
ferry on Lake Champlain. For more information on the nonprofit conservation
organization, call 962-2287 or visit www.champlainareatrails.com.
Gun laws in the state of New York are undergoing a
change to make them tougher.
Lawmakers have passed a measure in the Senate, making New York the first
state to take legislative action in the aftermath of the shooting in Newtown,
Connecticut. Assembly Speaker
Sheldon Silver says the school shooting in Newtown helped galvanize public
opinion in favor of increased gun control. The measure now heads to the state Assembly, where Silver
says he's confident it will become law.
Corporate income tax receipts kept Vermont revenues
on track in December, while other taxes ranging from those on personal income
to motor fuels performed short of their targets. That's the word from Administration Secretary Jeb Spaulding,
who says overall general fund revenues are running nearly 2% short of their
target for the first six months of the current fiscal year. The personal income tax continued to
lag in December, coming in at about $57 million, or nearly 4% less than what
had been expected when state revenue targets were set in July. But corporate income taxes came in at
$22.5 million, about 73% ahead of what had been expected for the month. Both the sales and use and rooms and
meals taxes lagged their targets in December.
Several mayors in Vermont are banding together to
speak out about reducing gun violence.
John Hollar of Montpelier, Chris Louras of Rutland and Miro Weinberger
of Burlington are asking for more action from Washington to reduce gun
violence. The mayors are joining a
bipartisan coalition of more than 800 mayors and more than a million grassroots
supporters calling for background checks for all gun buyers. The effort is called "Mayors
Against Illegal Guns." The
national campaign is seeking criminal background checks on all gun sales,
including private sales and sales at gun shows. They're also seeking to renew a
national ban on the sale of assault-style rifles and high-capacity magazines,
and to make gun-trafficking a federal crime.
The University of Vermont is resuming classes with
its new ban on the sale of bottled water on the Burlington campus. UVM has converted campus water
fountains to bottle filling stations.
UVM officials said the school is the first public university to ban the
sale of bottled water while 22 private campuses have made the move.
Yesterday Rutland City officials discussed what
makes a property vacant. The
discussion was part of the Charter and Ordinance Committee’s look at the
proposed vacant property ordinance. The ordinance, drafted by the Rutland
Redevelopment Authority’s blighted property steering committee, would require
owners of vacant properties to register them with the city and pay a $500
registration fee, with a renewal required every six months. While some Aldermen said the definition
of “vacant” would need to be very clear, others expressed broader concerns.
Gov. Peter Shumlin's administration is asking for a
bit more time to report on its ideas for paying for an ambitious overhaul of
the state's health care system. A
law passed in 2011 set today as the day the administration was to give lawmakers
answers to the often-asked question of how the Green Mountain Care single-payer
health plan will be paid for. Administration
officials say they now want until January 24th, when Shumlin is scheduled to
deliver his annual budget address to lawmakers, to outline the plan's possible
financing.
More than 600 drivers are being notified by the
state they've been written up for fake traffic tickets by a former Vermont
State Police sergeant who is now going to prison. Investigators determined that over several years, James Deeghan
wrote hundreds of fraudulent traffic tickets, which were never issued, in order
to make it appear he was working. Deeghan
pleaded guilty to charges related to padding his time sheets, and will serve
two years after getting paid for 200-thousand dollars he didn't earn. The state is also working to pay back
roughly 80-thousand dollars to the town of Jericho as Deeghan claimed to be
patrolling town streets as contracted, and never did.
It's going to be a bit loud in the skies over parts
of Vermont this week and next week.
The Vermont Air National Guard and Massachusetts Air National Guard will
be doing some night flying and training tonight through Thursday, and next
week, Tuesday through Friday. A
Guard spokesman says all of the F-16 fighter jets will be back on the ground by
9 PM. About a dozen cities and
town, including Burlington, Bennington, Rutland and Dorset will be included in
the training regions.
For the seventh time in its history, the Norwich
University Regimental Band is invited to perform in a presidential
inauguration. The band will be
marching January 21st in the 57th Presidential Inauguration, and the second for
President Barack Obama. Each state will be represented, and out of the total of
28-hundred which applied, Norwich, was chosen to represent
Vermont. The Norwich University
Regimental Band is the oldest collegiate band in the country, first founded in 1823.
Governor Andrew Cuomo says he goes to "great
lengths" to avoid speculation that he will run for the White House in
2016. Cuomo tells MSNBC "presidential speculation comes
with the job in some ways, but it is not helpful, and it can be
hurtful." The governor says
he believes he remains popular with both Democratic and Republican voters in
New York State because they believe he is working only for them and not worried
about his political future. Cuomo
says he is focused on being "the best governor I can be.”
The flu shot is in high demand. So much so, many
pharmacies are out of the vaccine.
Kinney Drugs in South Burlington is one of them. They've seen a huge
spike in people looking to get the shot, and have to order more every day but
it takes up to two days for it to come in. One Kinney Drugs Pharmacy went from giving ten shots a week,
to 30 in one day. Even though it's
not quite as convenient as swinging by the drug store, hospitals in our area
say they have plenty of the vaccine available, so you can also make an
appointment with your doctor to get immunized.
The future of the Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power
Plant in Vernon, Vt. moved to a New York City courtroom. That's where, before three members of
the U.S. Second Circuit Court of Appeals, attorneys representing the State of
Vermont and the plant's owner Entergy faced off. Each side had 15 minutes to present its side that could
determine if a state can shut down a nuclear power plant. Legal experts call it an unprecedented
case. "It was a great
argument. You had two really excellent attorneys," says Cheryl Hanna,
Vermont Law School professor. Hanna
was in court for the Vermont Yankee hearing. She says Entergy again made a good argument that Vermont's
push to close Yankee was all about safety, which is the role of the federal
government. She says the state did
better this time and made a strong argument that mistakes had been made during
the last trial. "I think one
if not two members of the three member bench were at least willing to be
skeptical of what happened at the lower court. That doesn't mean that Entergy
will lose but I think that the state did a very good of having the court take
the appeal seriously," says Hanna.
Hanna says the case is now up to the three judges, two were appointed by
President Barack Obama and the third by former President George W. Bush. "I don't expect there to be a
ruling anytime soon," says Hanna.
Hanna says that ruling could take a year and the losing side could
appeal to the full Second Circuit Court.
And there's always the possibility of an appeal to the U.S. Supreme
Court. The case traces back to
2006 when the legislature passed Act 260, which required Yankee to get the okay
from lawmakers to keep operating past its scheduled shutdown. That okay never came. In April 2011, Entergy sued the state
in federal court to keep the plant running. In January 2012, after a trial in Brattleboro, Judge
J. Garvan Murtha ruled in favor of Entergy. That decision was appealed to the
Second Circuit and arguments were heard Monday. Vermont Attorney General Bill Sorrell was in court, though
the state hired and was represented by an outside attorney. "You can't predict with certainty
what the court is going to do but we made the arguments we wanted to make and
we made them in the way we wanted to make them. And we've got ground for
cautious optimism but it's out of our hands now. But we've done our best and
we'll wait with everyone else for the decision," says Sorrell. Sorrell estimates that Vermont has
spent about $600,000 on the case.
Entergy has spent more than four million dollars. The loser of the case could be
responsible for both sides attorney's fees. Entergy representatives also said their attorneys did a good
job. "The arguments made by
Kathleen Sullivan, who is our attorney representing Entergy in this hearing,
were very effectively made. It is our belief that Judge Murtha decided
correctly that Vermont had over stepped its bounds," says Jim Steets,
Entergy Communications Director. Entergy
says it's committed to safely running the plant, which has about 600 workers.
Former Vermont state trooper James Deeghan walked
into a Burlington courtroom nearly five months after he pleaded not guilty to
padding his time sheets. Monday he
confessed to the crime. "I
put hours on my time sheet that I did not work," said Deeghan. Enough time to rack up an extra
$200,000 dollars. A crime Deeghan
says he committed because of greed.
"There was a time where I felt I was under a tremendous amount of
financial pressure," said Deeghan.
Deeghan also told the judge he wanted move on with his life and asked
others to forgive him. "I
want to apologize to the state police, my co-workers who I cared for very much
and the state of Vermont," said Deeghan. In addition to padding his time sheet Deeghan also admitted
to two new charges. Misdemeanors
that police say come from him writing a lot of fake tickets. "Over 900 over a 10 year
period," said Vermont State Police Colonel Tom L'Esperance. Deeghan will have to use his pension to
pay back the stolen money. And
after serving more than 20 years as a trooper, Deeghan will spend two years
where he helped send many others. "It's
not a good day for the state police but it's a step in the right direction,
that's exactly what should have happened," said L'Esperance. A punishment that prosecutors hope will
send a message to any state employee who thinks about following in Deeghan's
footsteps. "You're going to go to jail,
we're going to take your pension and your life will be ruined," said
Chittenden County State's Attorney TJ Donovan. In addition to restitution and jail time, Deeghan must
complete 500 hours of community service.
Defense attorneys say the family wants to move on and that means moving
out of Vermont.
