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(01/21/15 11:29pm)
Ask most Middlebury students for their favorite local restaurant in Middlebury, and you’d likely hear about Sabai Sabai, Flatbread Pizza, or Storm Cafe, to name a few. I’d like to buck that trend, and suggest that the place to eat in Middlebury is the truly underappreciated Noonie’s Deli.
Noonie’s, located behind Marble Works in downtown Middlebury at 137 Maple Street, serves soups, salads, and a variety of delicious signature sandwiches that every Middlebury student should try before they graduate. The sandwiches are under ten dollars, but your taste buds will never know.
Take the Tyrion Lannister, for example. Grilled chicken and bacon serve as the meaty base, which is then set ablaze with jalapeno and banana peppers and spicy buffalo dressing. Melted cheddar cheese and freshly cut avocado extinguish the flames, and a slice of tomato and leaf of lettuce round out the dish. For under eight dollars, it’s truly a remarkable dish.
Not into hot foods? Try the tamer Cape Codder: Turkey, sliced apples, tomato, red onion, lettuce, cheddar cheese and cranberry mayonnaise.
“I’d never had a sandwich before until I’d been to Noonie’s,” Jack Dolan ’15 said. “And then I did. And I’ve never looked back since.”
However, what truly sets these sandwiches apart is their bread. Freshly baked every day, Noonie’s offers rye, honey-wheat, and whole-wheat bread, which is incredibly soft. In fact, the bread is so soft that these multi-layered sandwiches tend to come apart as you gorge upon them – our chief complaint. Still, considering their flavor and cost this seems like a minor inconvenience at most.
The building itself is unremarkable: Noonies usually has had indoor tables available, most of which are in a loft above the sandwich bar. Customers can also take their food outside to a set of picnic benches.
Many of you reading might be thinking at this point, ‘I have been to Noonies a million times. Tell me something I don’t know!’ How about this: Noonie’s delivers. Yup, you heard that right – place your order online at www.nooniesdeli.com or by phone at (802)-388-0014 and sit back and wait for your delicious food to be rushed over.
Need to feed a few friends? Or are you looking to cater a whole party in Atwater? Not to worry – Noonie’s does this too.
“Whether you are catering a corporate meeting, athletic tailgate, social gathering or large conference, Noonie’s can help you every step of the way,” their website boasts, “from ordering to on-time delivery.” Noonie’s is capable of catering to parties of up to 300 people.
It’s this delivery/catering service that really sets Noonie’s apart. Not only is the food delicious, freshly made, and accessible to most Middlebury students, but you won’t even have to venture further than the closest major road to pick it up. This is a game changer, especially for impatient and lazy people like myself.
(01/15/15 1:34am)
On Tuesday, January 13, about 45 people gathered in front of Mead Chapel for a “rejection rally” against the Keystone XL pipeline, joining over 130 rejection rallies nationwide. Encouraged by 350.org and 350 Massachusetts, rallies took place all across the country in the wake of Nebraska’s decision to allow the pipeline to pass through.
The purpose of the ‘rejection’ rallies was to continue to show opposition to the Keystone XL pipeline that would carry tar sands oil from Alberta, Canada to the Gulf Coast in the hope that President Obama will veto Congress’s decision to allow the pipeline.
Middlebury’s rejection rally was lead by a combination of individuals and groups on campus, including Sunday Night Group, Divest Midd, Zane Anthony ’16.5 and Emma Ronai-Durning ’18.
“I helped organize this rally because I think it’s really important that Middlebury be part of a national movement against the Keystone pipeline,” said Michael Shrader ’18. “While this one is not necessarily local, the affects are global and affect us here at Middlebury, so people have a right to know more about it.”
In addition to students, a number of protesters in the crowd were members of local communities and organizations.
“I definitely support the cause here,” said Jennifer Vyhnak, a resident of Bristol and an environmental activist. Vyhnak condemned the “dinosaur fuels” of the past, and stressed the need to usher in a new era of green energy.
“We really need to be supporting the energies of the future, the energies that do as little harm as possible, and allow us to live on this good earth with respect for one another,” she said. “It feels like its time. It’s time for us to grow up.”
In contrast, Phil Hoxie ’17 and the College Republicans held a rally in support of the pipeline and in support of the jobs it would create. The rally was called ‘Students 4 Jobs’ on its Facebook page.
“We want to reassure people who have dissenting views that there are other people who share [them],” Hoxie said, “and that they are worth expressing – especially in an academic context.”
One of the signs that the students opposing the pipeline brandished irked Hoxie.
“I was kind of upset by ‘Middlebury College rejects Keystone XL’ as a blanket statement,” he said. “That’s supposed to cover the whole student body. It doesn’t. [We] are here to remind the students of Middlebury that there is a dissenting opinion, which is very important in any debate. It’s important to have two sides.”
The rejection rally began on Mead Chapel steps with opening remarks by several students. Michael Schrader ’18 stated their purpose of the rally as “urging President Obama to stand up against the interest of foreign oil companies” by vetoing the Keystone XL pipeline.
“Tar sands development spells increased pollution, greenhouse gasses, heavy metals, polluted aquifers, and climate chaos,” Schrader said.
He encouraged people to rally for the good of all Americans.
“Not just Americans,” a voice yelled from the crowd, to cheers and clapping. “All kinds of people!”
“We’ve all been fighting this pipeline for a ridiculous number of years,” Hannah Bristol ’14.5 said in her opening remarks. “We’ve had the largest climate march in history – and then beat that record and had another largest climate march in history,” Bristol added to laughter and more cheers.
“Many of us here have been arrested. I don’t know how we can possibly say any louder that this pipeline is bad news. But the Republicans in Congress don’t seem to get the message,” Bristol said.
Phil Hoxie ’17.5 disagreed, and stated that the pipeline would relieve a strained American economy.
“The green energy market is not a competitive market,” he said when asked about funding green energy instead.
“I want to see incentives for companies to invest in greener technologies – companies like Tesla, by boosting demand for those items, not necessarily through [direct investment].”
Alexander Khan ’17, who was unable to make the event, agreed with Hoxie in a prewritten statement: “The pipeline will provide jobs which in turn with strengthen our economy. Only with the help of a robust economy will the United States be able to solve the problems that the world faces.”
Most importantly, Hoxie stressed that no matter what the United States did, the tar sands were likely to be used regardless.
“Whether the United States builds this pipeline or not, that oil is coming out of the ground and there’s no way for anybody to stop that,” Hoxie said.
The Chinese will buy it up in a second. The Canadians are still waiting for their ideal situation – for the pipeline to go through the United States, for it to be refined in the United States, and be sold through the port of Louisiana to it’s final destination, wherever that may be.”
Participants in the rejection rally certainly did not believe their efforts were in vain; the excitement among the demonstrators was palpable.
Many of them were demonstrating for the first time to such an event.
Max Greenwald ’18 acknowledged that he normally doesn’t show up to rallies like this, because Middlebury is such a “liberal and environmentally conscious school.” However, something caused him to change his mind.
“I saw some people were actually having a counter rally to this,” he noted, referring to the ‘Students 4 Jobs’ rally that had occured minutes before the march began.
“Clearly there is some division on this issue, so I thought I’d show my support. You can’t always expect someone else to do it. When you see crowds on TV supporting something that you care about, you have to be one of those people in the crowd if you expect your movement to gain any momentum.”
As students and townspeople milled about by Mead Chapel sharing stories of their inspiration to attend the rally, and their experiences with past climate activism at events locally and in Washington DC. Ross Conrad, a local beekeeper, attended the rally.
“I feel like I need to apologize for my generation because we have failed to deal with this issue and we’re dumping this on your laps, and that’s not right,” Conrad said. Conrad likes the format of these local rejection rallies, rather than one centralized rally.
“Everything’s going to have to be more localized, more decentralized, if we’re going to be better stewards of this earth, in my view,” Conrad said.
Anthony and Ronai-Durning led the procession down Mead Chapel hill with a banner that read “Middlebury Rejects KXL” with a picture of a pipeline dripping black oil. The crowd consisting of students and members of the Middlebury community followed behind in groups of twos and threes carrying candles and signs. As they walked down to Old Chapel, people chanted “Barack Obama, yes you can! Stop the dirty pipeline plan!” and “Tar sands kill! Pipelines spill!”
In front of Old Chapel, the procession stopped to for a photo with their signs, as did many other rejection rallies. The rejection rallies across the country followed a very similar format, as most were developed from a toolkit provided by 350.org. The picture “will join a national mosaic of these pictures, banners, et cetera to be broadcast to various larger news outlets,” Anthony said.
Following the photo, the procession walked back up Mead Chapel hill chanting and into Proctor. The procession walked into the serving area and through the dining hall. On Proctor Terrace, the group gathered for one last picture and dispersed.
(11/19/14 9:36pm)
Lawmakers will recieve a report this January on marijuana in Vermont: potential market prices, distribution locations and the revenue that full legalization might provide. The study is not intended to advocate for legalization, rather, it will focus on these specific policy areas that must be addressed before legislators proceed further. Beau Kilmer, the co-director of the Drug Policy.
Research Center at the Rand Corporation, met with several Vermont officials to investigate the “Vermont marijuana landscape.”
Kilmer says that establishing an accurate price for marijuana is critical; by setting prices too high, illegal dealers could undercut state spending. To complicate matters further, selling marijuana by weight will create “...incentives for producers to produce more potent pot,” said Kilmer in an interview with Vermont Public Radio. Furthermore, distributing marijuana in state-run facilities would be legally problematic. “Now if you were to kind of go down the state monopoly road that would have the state forcing their employees to violate federal law,” Kilmer explained.
Despite his reservations, and due to new information garnered from a range of surveys, Kilmer said he was “optimistic” about the marijuana market research.
Although RAND studies do not advocate for legalization, they may not have to. Acccording to a recent poll conducted by WCAX News, 49 percent of Vermonters said they would be in favor of marijuana legalization. The split correlated with the respondents ages – nearly 60 percent of those polled between the ages of 18 and 44 said they were in favor of legalization, versus approximately 44 percent below.
This demographic divide in could signal a future legalization push, especially when backed by The Marijuana Policy Project (TMPP), a group based in Washington D.C. that plans to wage a campaign to legalize marijuana by 2017.
Rich Clarke, of the Castleton Polling Institute said that the result was “closer than I thought it was going to be.”
In 2013, Peter Shumlin acknoweldged that legalization “is not the top of my agenda,” but that he would be willing to discuss the issue in the future. With Shumlin likely to serve a third term as governor, some wonder if this might translate into a victory for TMPP.
In a hearing last Wednesday, approximately 30 people telecommuted to the Vermont Interactive Technologies headquarters in Williston for a virtual statewide public meeting. Kilmer admitted at the meeting, “Marijuana is not a harmless substance, and there are serious health concerns. There are dependence issues. Marijuana dependence is not the same as heroin dependence as far as the social costs, but this is a real issue that does affect some people.”
Rutland Mayor Christopher Louras was unconvinced that the costs of legalization outweighed the potential benefits. “There’s just an overwhelming sense that we’re not ready to do this,” Louras said.
Retired Vermont Superior Court Judge Ben Joseph agreed. “We’ve made a great deal of progress in this state in curbing drunk driving, but we’re inviting a real catastrophe if we legalize this drug and increase its use,” Joseph said.
Others weighed in with their own personal experiences, like Bennington resident Charlie Murphy, who has used marijuana to treat his anxiety for the past 42 years. “There is such a thing as the responsible use of marijuana,” Murphy said. “I self-regulate.”
Ultimately, the RAND report hopes to parse these viewpoints and provide state legislators with reliable information for future legislation.
(11/06/14 4:05am)
After nearly a year of renovations, Middlebury’s Marquis Theatre re-opened this Wednesday. The theater, originally built as a vaudeville house in 1939, had been closed since August 25 for renovation.
The bigger theater, which will showcase live shows every week, features an expanded stage, a state of the art sound and light system, and dance and seating sections. The new complex also features a Southwestern restaurant, headed by Ben Wells, restaurant entrepreneur and men’s rugby coach at the College and Bill Shafer.
The structural renovations are extensive, from the new southwestern color scheme to the upgraded theater.
“We made the stage bigger, and we took out the first four rows of seats, and flattened the floor,” Wells explained. “We have rows of coffee tables and couches.”
“In the couch area, we can just move the couches to the side, and then we’ve got this great dance floor. Professional surroundsound, professional quality lights and lasers – so we’ll be able to do light shows – so it’s going to be a pretty great place to watch a show.”
Perhaps the biggest change to the venue is the addition of a new southwestern style restaurant managed by Wells.
“I had managed a Southwestern restuarant in Boulder, CO, and loved the food,” Wells said. “When I moved here, it was pretty obvious when the old Mexican restaurant closed that everyone has been clamouring for Mexican style food.”
Wells was happy about the first few days of operation.
“Today is our first lunch,” he explained on Tuesday. “We opened last night for dinner but we didn’t really advertise it, so it was quiet. We’re getting the word out today. So far, we’re getting great feedback on the food.”
The menu, already posted on the theater’s website, offers myriad Mexican finger foods. For example, the ‘nachos libre’ include corn tortilla chips, cheddar & jack, onions, peppers, black beans, and guacamole.
All of the food at the restaurant is under 10 dollars.
“Value is really important to us,” Wells said. “We want people to feel when they come in that not only is the food tasteful, but they’re getting great value. We want it to be affordable for students, we want it to be affordable for families.”
Wells, a father of two, knows how important value is to those living in Vermont.
“It can be pretty expensive to go out to eat, and I just wanted to make it a place that people enjoy coming to and feel like they’re getting great fresh delicious food – and also great value.
The restaurant will also serve beer to those over 21. Patrons can take their food and drinks into the movie theatre, which is either a few steps down a carpeted ramp, or up a flight of stairs.
“We have rows of couches of coffee tables and couches,” Wells explained, “and then we have these great cup holders and trays, so they can hold all your food and a bunch of drinks. [The drinks] also fit in the cup holders of the movie seats and stand up on the coffee tables.”
When asked about hosting student performers from the College, Wells was enthusiastic.
“We’d love to have whoever is interested,” Wells said. “Whoever is interested in performing down here, in doing some sort of concert or performance – or whatever the media may be – we’d love to host stuff like that.”
The Marquis hasn’t reached out to the College recently because its employees have been busy with construction. Railings still need to be sanded and certain outlets installed, but the facility is nonetheless ready for business. Wells expects his patronage to expand as the venue’s popularity rises among the community.
“In our minds, it’s really a community center,” Wells said, “so the more types of events we can host, the better.”
(11/06/14 3:58am)
On Tuesday, Nov. 4, Calvin McEathron ’16 concluded his bid for the two-seat Addison-1 district in the Vermont House of Representatives. When the votes were tallied Tuesday night, Amy Sheldon and incumbent Betty Nuovo took first and second and will represent Middlebury in the legislature. McEathron was close behind Nuovo’s 1,163 votes, with 1,034. At just 20 years old, the Middlebury junior would have been the youngest state representative in the nation.
McEathron grew up on a small farm in East Montpelier, VT, just 15 minutes from the state capital. “I was able to spend some time in the state house in high school,” McEathron recalled in an interview, “which really piqued my interest in politics.”
The impetus for McEathron’s campaign occured during his freshman year at Middlebury College, when he heard that his representative in East Montpelier might step down. Instead, the resignation of Middlebury incumbent Paul Ralston (D) “opened the door for a potential run,” and McEathron seized the opportunity.
In an interview, McEathron explained his stance on economic development, property tax reform, higher education, opiates, health care, and environmental preservation – the cornerstones of his campaign.
“First off, we need to make sure the job market is inviting for young people,” McEathron explained. “Vermont is still super beautiful, there’s no sprawl, there’s small communities and farmland, and it’s very sustainable. But at the same time you don’t see a lot of growth.”
The major reason for Vermont’s economic stagnation, according to McEathron, is the prohibitively high cost of living. “People are now leaving the state, because they can’t afford to live here.”
For a rural state like Vermont, McEathron sees e-commerce, internet connectivity, and cell-phone coverage as potential catalysts for entrepreneurship and economic growth.
“I think that the internet and cell phone coverage in general provide tremendous opportunities,” McEathron explained, “because people don’t necessarily need to start up a new business and get a big brick and mortar building. What they need is internet access and their living room. Middlebury has done a decent job in bringing these people in – telecommuters – but there’s a lot more we can do toward incentivizing entrepreneurs and providing capital to get them off the ground.”
McEathron also suggested consolidating smaller schools into a larger and more flexible school system. The problems that Vermont schools face, he explained, are often logistical.
“There are still towns in Vermont that are graduating five or six kids a year. You can’t have someone taking an AP class and someone else on an entirely different track both being able to succeed. Instead you have both those kids in the same class, where one kid is way over his head and the other is bored.”
Attracting and developing human capital is one concern, but retaining this skilled workforce is another. McEathron explained that families move to Vermont to provide their children with a quality education, only to leave the state after graduation day.
“You can raise your kids in a very safe area, with good public schools,” McEathron admitted, “but at the same time the property taxes are some of the highest in the country here in Addison County, and really across Vermont.”
“You’ve got to provide a quality education,” McEathron emphasized, pausing for a moment before continuing. “But now you have people who are afraid to come here because they think it will cost too much.”
One program that might help, Homeshare Vermont, connects newcomers with cheap housing in exhange for everyday chores like “raking the leaves or mowing the lawn,” McEathron explained. “It’s a really good program, but it’s in a small part of the state. If it were spread throughout [Vermont] I think it could do a lot to lower rent costs, especially for those who are interested in coming here but couldn’t afford to previously.”
Another roadblock is Vermont’s healthcare system, a thorny issue that McEathron discussed frequently with Middlebury residents.
“Right now the system is broken in Vermont,” McEathron said, leaning forward in his chair. “You go to sign up for healthcare and the website is down. We spent a ton of money, we tried to put in our own exchange, as opposed to taking the federal one, which has come at a tremendous cost to us.”
Although McEathron doesn’t fault Governor Shumlin, or even oppose a single-payer system in principle, he is wary blindly supporting any initiative without assessing its costs.
“When we’re looking at single-payer, there is a group of people that are unequivocally for it,” McEathron said. “I think that single-payer could be a good possibility. But, I think it’s really reckless to take that step without knowing the costs.”
The reform is expected to cost around two billion dollars.
“Right now Vermont raises around 2.7 billion dollars in tax revenue. You’re looking at almost doubling your tax burden ... even finding two billion dollars in a small state is really tough. To say, ‘I unequivocally support it,’ I think is a little unfair to Vermonters.”
McEathron also criticized Governor Peter Shumlin for failing to release his financial plan for the reform.
“Governor Shumlin has pushed off and pushed off the release of the plan,” McEathron said. “It’s gotten to the point where he’s playing political games with it.”
Throughout his campaign, which lasted throughout the summer and fall, health care was one issue that McEathron encountered with regularity. On the campaign, McEathron hosted discussions with local residents, appeared on local media, and went from door to door throughout Middlebury.
Close interaction with the electorate quickly taught McEathron to develop a thick skin.
“The Addison Independent controls the political sphere in Middlebury,” McEathron explained, “and pretty much across Addison. People are always going back and forth with letters to the editor, so you have to make sure your side is well represented, and see what other people are saying about you. That’s a thing you don’t see in the rest of the country.”
This constant self-reflection – and self-promotion – can be exhausting.
“There are days that you come back thinking, ‘Everyone hates me,’” McEathron said, sighing. “Then there are days where you come back and think, ‘I’m the perfect candidate!’”
Before his campaign, McEathron worked on an independent study of ‘rural politicking techniques’ with former Vermont Governor Jim Douglas. In addition to political expertise, McEathron quickly recognized the importance of an open mind.
“I think people are looking for, to some extent, just someone to listen,” McEathron explained. “You don’t want to come in with too big of an agenda. ‘This is what I’m going to do, this is what I’m going to do.’ That can turn people off pretty quickly.”
Coping with situations like that can be daunting.
“I still remember the first door that I knocked on,” McEathron recalled, chuckling. “I remember getting to my first door and seeing a big sign on the door that said “No Political Solicitors.” It was the only one I saw all summer, but it was the first door. I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, what do I do!’ I didn’t have a spiel yet, I wasn’t comfortable, and I was so nervous. I think I ended up just putting a business card in and leaving.”
These types of hiccups were the anomalies in an otherwise fantastic learning experience, according to McEathron.
“Overall it’s been incredibly positive and broadened my comfort zone in terms of meeting people, in terms of really listening, and both being able to objectively take in someone else’s opinion and then form my own.”
McEathron was also thankful for all of the Vermonters he met on the trail.
“There’s a lot of neat people in Vermont, and when you run a race like that you get the chance to see the perspectives of so many of them.”
When asked about adjusting back to college life at Middlebury, McEathron smiled.
“I think it will take a little adjusting, to get back into the swing of things. The difference between running a campaign and doing schoolwork is night and day.”
(10/09/14 2:45am)
Comedy icon Jerry Seinfield reportedly receives over 200,000 dollars per graduation speech – a ludicrous sum by most standards. Last Sunday, Mumia Abu-Jamal’s commencement speech at Goddard College of Vermont drew criticism for a different reason: Abu-Jamal is currently serving a life sentence for the murder of a Philadelphia police officer.
In 1982, Abu-Jamal was sentenced to death for fatally shooting twenty-five year old Philadelphia police officer Daniel Faulkner. Faulkner had pulled over William Cook, Abu-Jamal’s brother, for driving the wrong direction on a one way street. Abu-Jamal, who was parked in a nearby parking lot, crossed the street and then shot and killed Faulkner with a .38 caliber revolver. Abu-Jamal was also wounded during the exchange.
After nearly two decades of litigation, Judge William H. Yohn Jr. of the Federal District Court in Philadelphia overturned Abu-Jamal’s death sentence on the grounds that the instructions to the jury were unconstitutional. Although prosecutors declared they would no longer be seeking the death penalty in 2011, Philadelphia District Attorney R. Seth Williams said that Abu-Jamal will likely spend the rest of his life in prison, without the possibility of parole.
Abu-Jamal attended Goddard College briefly in 1970, and earned his degree there in 1996, while still awaiting his execution.
“Goddard reawakened in me my love of learning,” Abu-Jamal explained in the speech. “In my mind, I left death row.”
Prior to his arrest, Abu-Jamal was politically active in both the Black Panther Party and at various broadcasting stations across Philadelphia. At the time of his arrest in 1981, he had become President of the Philadelphia Association of Black Journalists. Since then, Abu-Jamal has penned several books, including “We Want Freedom: A Life in the Black Panther Party,” “Live from Death Row” and “All Things Censored.” The New York Times described Abu-Jamal as “perhaps the world’s best known death-row inmate.”
Goddard College, a six-hundred student school, holds twenty graduation speeches every year – one for each degree program – to allow students to customize their graduation and speaker. Reactions to Goddard’s most recent decision were mixed.
Philadelphia law enforcement condemned the screening of Abu-Jamal’s video and assembled on Tuesday at the site of Faulkner’s murder to commemorate his service. The officers observed 30 minutes of silence as a symbolic effort to offset Abu-Jamal’s video of the same length.
Senator Pat Toomey of Philadelphia (R) denounced the decision.
“I cannot fathom how anyone could think it appropriate to honor a cold-blooded murderer,” the Senator said. “What possible enlightenment can your students obtain from this man?”
Philadelphia Republicans agreed and tweeted. “Allowing a convicted murderer to speak at Commencement is wrong,” followed by the hashtag “rememberthevictim.”
Under the same hashtag, the PA House Republicans called attention to a Revictimization Relief Bill press conference they held. The proposed bill would allow a victim to bring civil action against an offender causing ‘revictimization.’
Maureen Faulkner, Daniel’s widowed wife, expressed her personal outrage over Goddard’s decision.
“Mumia Abu-Jamal will be heard and honored as a victim and a hero by a pack of adolescent sycophants at Goddard College in Vermont. Despite the fact that 33 years ago, he loaded his gun with special high-velocity ammunition designed to kill in the most devastating fashion,” she wrote, “...today, Mumia Abu-Jamal will be lauded as a freedom fighter.”
Despite public backlash, Goddard faculty member H. Sharif Williams defended the decision on the school’s website.
“We have created an incubator for thinkers, artists, healers, activists and writers,” Williams wrote, “who have decided not to allow their brilliance to be diminished nor snuffed out behind the walls of any form of prison—real or metaphoric.”
Goddard Interim President Bob Kennedy also stood by the administration’s decision to allow Abu-Jamal to speak.
In the video, Abu-Jamal makes no reference to the shooting, instead focusing on Gaza, unrest in Ferguson and the war in Iraq. “These are some of the challenges that abide in the world, which it will be your destiny to try and analyze and resolve,” Abu-Jamal said. “As students of Goddard, you know that those challenges are not easy, but they must be faced and addressed.”
At the end of his speech, Abu-Jamal also speaks about the psychological effects of incarceration and how Goddard helped him through it.
“In one of the most [o]ppressive environments on Earth (Death Row), Goddard allowed me to study and research human liberation and anti-colonial struggles on two continents: Africa and Latin/Central America. I thank you for that grand opportunity.”
(10/01/14 11:26pm)
According to a report released by the Vermont Agency of Education, statewide science scores slipped this year. Approximately 44 percent of fourth graders received a ‘proficient’ score on standardized tests as a part of the New England Common Assessment Program (NECAP).
This percentage was down 3 percent from 2013. Eighth graders and eleventh graders scored ‘proficient’ at rates of 25 percent and 30 percent, respectively, both grades decreasing slightly since last year. The same students will test in Math and Reading this fall.
Despite the drops, Vermont Secretary of Education Rebecca Holcombe said, “It’s not the emergency that all those labels would make you think.”
NECAP tests were initially implemented in 2001 as part of the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB). Holcombe attacked the legislation mandating the testing as a “broken policy.” Under NCLB, schools must make Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) on the NECAP tests, or are otherwise deemed ‘underperforming’ and at risk of losing Title I funding. States can also apply for a waiver – which Vermont did not do – allowing them to implement their own federally-approved testing policy.
Ideally, NCLB functions by “identifying and turning around low-performing schools,” and “holding schools, local educational agencies, and States accountable for improving the academic achievement of all students.” As the name would suggest, No Child Left Behind requires that every single student score ‘proficient’ or higher in state NECAP tests. If they do not, their school may be labeled ‘low-performing.’
Critics have attacked this target as unfeasible, and the attendant loss of Title I funding as draconian. On August 6, Holcombe wrote a letter to parents and caregivers stating bluntly, “The Vermont Agency of Education does not agree with this federal policy, nor do we agree that all of our schools are underperforming.”
In the letter, which has received national attention, Holcombe pointed out that Vermont has the highest high-school graduation rate in the nation. She also cited a study which ranked Vermont 7th in the world in eighth grade mathematics and 4th in science, when compared to 47 nations and states that participated. Additionally, Holcombe outlined the changes made to the State Board of Education’s Education Quality Standards, and urged parents to entertain a more qualitative assessment of “21st century transferrable skills.”
Although Secretary Holcombe agrees with the intent behind NCLB, she believes that the legislation set unrealistic expectations. “We’re stuck with a law which ... people knew, even when it was passed, wasn’t achievable,” Holcombe said. “It’s a distraction from state priorities.”
John Bacon, Barre’s school superintendent, agreed with Holcombe. “To label all our schools as failing based on the NECAP scores is pretty bogus,” he said. “When you look at the results state by state, Vermont does very well.”
In 2011, President Obama and Secretary of Education Arne Duncan retooled the NCLB by allowing states to acquire federal waivers permitting them to develop their own test-based system of review. In order to acquire the waiver, states must implement “college- and career-ready standards and assessments that measure student achievement and growth,” a “differentiated accountability system” and “teacher and principal evaluation and support systems to improve instruction.”
In 2012, the State Board of Education voted unanimously to not pursue a waiver. Officials at the time noted that federal funding would be contingent on high test scores under any new plan.
Accompanying the backlash against NCLB is a serious drop in public support for Common Core, a federal initiative which specifies what students should know at the end of each school year, between kindergarten and twelfth grade. Support among teachers plummeted nationally in the past year, according to a report by the Washington Post. About 76 percent supported the standard in 2013, but just 46 percent did in 2014.
Currently, Vermont’s publicly funded schools do not have to test Common Core knowledge, and schools are free to develop curricula of their own. About 4 percent of Vermont schoolchildren attend schools with independent curriculum.
Vermont will be switching to a leaner, computer-based assessment program in Spring 2015 known as the Smarter Balanced Assessment (SBAC). According to the Education Department’s website, “SBAC will be fully aligned with the Common Core State Standards (CCSS), use state of the art computer adaptive testing and accessibility technologies and will provide a continuum of summative, interim and formative tools that can be used for a variety of educational purposes.”
Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine and Connecticut are all current members of the education consortium. The SBAC does not currently support science examination, but according to its website, the consortium hopes to expand testing options in the near future, “particularly in cases where the science assessments are comprised of selected-response items.”
“The Next Generation Science Standards are being developed by a partnership that includes The National Research Council, the National Science Teachers Association, the American Association for the Advancement of Science and Achieve,” the website says.
The SBAC was field-tested in 27 Vermont schools last spring, and received positive reviews from many students. Some reported that taking a test on a computer is less intimidating, and the web-based tools make taking the test easier.
(09/11/14 2:15pm)
The White House recently asked Governor Peter Shumlin if Vermont can harbor immigrants fleeing their homelands in Central America. Vermont is one of several states being considered to host the immigrants – predominantly children from Mexico, Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador.
Governor Shumlin’s office responded that the adminstration was “...willing to investigate locations and logistical requirements...to determine if Vermont would be an appropriate host state for some of the children who have crossed the border and are in custody.”
Currently, around 1,500 undocumented immigrants live in Vermont. Most of them – around 80% – work on dairy farms, shoveling manure or milking cows. The wave of immigrants crossing the border in recent weeks often meet up with family members, like the aforementioned farm hands, already settled in the United States.
The sites Vermont proposed to house the new immigrants vary in size and type, from the Vermont Technical College in Essex Junction to the Ethan Allen Cinema in Burlington. Although all of the proposed locations do not meet the Department of Health and Human Services (HSS) 90,000 square feet minimum, intended to provide adequate living space for the immigrants, it is unclear whether the requirement will change.
Both of Vermont’s Senators, Patrick Leahy (D) and Bernie Sanders (I), have advocated heavily for immigration reform. Although Leahy was far from enthusiastic about all of the amendments on the failed bill, he vowed to support it and said that “legislating is about making tough choices.”
“Vermont has a long history of supporting refugees in need,” said David Carle, a spokesman for Senator Leahy. “Governor Shumlin and his team reflect that history and that ethic, and Senator Leahy applauds the Governor for the state’s willingness to explore ways that Vermont may or may not be able to help.”
Historically, Vermont has been accomodating to refugees fleeing violence in Central America. In 1987, Vermont Refugee Assistance, now the Vermont Immigration and Asylum Advocates (VIAA) was founded to “support refugees fleeing civil wars in Central America.” The VIAA provides legal counsel to immigrants hoping to avoid incarceration or deportation, provides health assistance to survivors of torture, and “logistical and legal support” to refugees hoping to immigrate to Canada.
State Refugee coordinator Denise Lamoureaux stated that most refugees have adapted extrordinarily well to a climate and culture very different from their own. Still, “...all transitions require effort, flexibility and adaptation,” she warned Seven Days Vermont.
Other outreach workers warn that a combination of xenophobia and economic hardship could endanger the traditionally placid relationship between the immigrants and their host communities.
“We’ve been going through a long recession,” said Laurie Stavrand, an outreach worker for the Colchester-based Vermont Refugee Resettlement Program (VRRP) “and everybody has been trying to look out for themselves.”
For residents accustomed to living within hours of the Canadian border, the immigration issue can seem a world away. Yet racial tension in Vermont could actually be compounded by the state’s ethnic homogeniety; 93.7 percent of Vermonters are white, and only 1.7 percent are Hispanic or Latino.
The White House’s request for shelters comes on the heels of intense debate in Washington over immigration reform legislation, which Congress failed to pass before the midterm break. Although the Senate did pass the Border Security, Economic Opportunity, and Immigration Modernization Act (S. 744) in April of 2013, it will likely die in the GOP controlled House.
President Obama has come under heavy fire for failing to secure the southern border, which an estimated 60,000 children have crossed in recent weeks. The head of U.S. Border Patrol has said that Federal agents are inundated with the amount of immigrants, and are unable to fulfill their traditional anti-terrorist and anti-cartel roles.
The President had previously promised to sign reforms into law before the end of the summer, but abandoned the timetable Sunday. Republican leaders claim that Obama is avoiding the volatile subject until after the November elections to avoid endangering Democratic candidates.
After the elections, Obama has warned he will utilize executive action.
“In the absence of action by Congress,” stated President Obama, “I’m going to do what I can do within the legal constraints of my office, because it’s the right thing to do for the country.”
Republican Speaker of the House John Boehner said that “the decision to simply delay this deeply controversial and possibly unconstitutional unilateral action until after the election — instead of abandoning the idea altogether — smacks of raw politics.”
(05/07/14 6:08pm)
On May 5, the Vermont Senate passed a four-year, multi-tier plan to raise the minimum wage in Vermont to $10.50 per hour by 2018. In 2019, annual cost-of-living wage adjustments will resume. The bill is just one example of the flurry of legislative activity due to the Senate’s self-imposed May 10 deadline.
The bill differs from one passed earlier this year by the House, which will bring the minimum wage to $10.10 next January. Governor Shumlin’s plan would have increased the minimum wage to $10.10 by 2017, in three separate stages.
Governor Shumlin has strongly pushed for a minimum wage bill since meeting with President Obama at a conference in March.
“Although we are seeing some economic recovery and turnaround,” he said at Bear Pond Books in Montpelier, “we know that the folks at the bottom are not seeing prosperity.”
An amendment proposed by Sen. Peter Galbraith (D-Windham) that would have required companies with over 50 employees to pay at least 12 dollars an hour was defeated in an 18-10 vote. A second amendment proposed by Sen. Peg Flory (R-Rutland), that would have given employers a 12-week period before paying increased wages, was also defeated.
One national study showed that if adjusted for inflation since 1968, the minimum hourly wage in Vermont would be $10.66. Some studies estimate that the new wage hike will collectively increase the paychecks of around 20,000 Vermonters by 30 million dollars.
Even prior to the bill, Vermont’s $8.73 hourly wage was the highest in the Northeast, and fourth highest in the county.
Yet, some local businesses are concerned that Vermont’s higher rate will make them less competitive. Sen. Jane Kitchel (D-Caledonia) also expressed concern for the profit-margins for small businesses in her district.
To many people living in Caledonia, “shopping locally means going to New Hampshire,” she said in an interview. “Our little stores have come and gone and are operating on a small margin.”
Another concern is that the bill may negatively affect Vermonters currently on welfare programs. Sen. Kevin Mullin (R-Rutland), chair of the Senate Committee on Economic Development, Housing and General Affairs, said the committee will be examining, “ ... what happens with the Earned Income Tax Credit, what happens with state benefits programs, and things like that.”
Mullin also expressed concern that the bill skirts the fundamental problem: Vermont is an unattractive state for complex industries to set up shop.
“To be honest with you, it doesn’t matter if it’s $8 or $13,” he said. “It’s not enough to live on in a costly state like Vermont. We need better jobs.”
Sen. David Zuckerman (P/D-Chittenden), who owns an organic farm, adopted a more nuanced stance. He admits that the bill may hurt his business directly, but his market will expand ifconsumers “had more money in their pockets” to buy his food.
Yet the general response to the bill has been positive. In April, a survey conducted by Sen. Bill Doyle (R-Washington) suggested that 71 percent of Vermonters were in favor of raising the minimum wage, 20 percent were opposed to a hike and 10 percent were unsure.
Some experts estimate that the livable wage in Vermont is $12.48 per hour. Accordingly, in Doyle’s survey just 26 percent of respondents claimed that living in Vermont was “affordable.”
“This bill is an effective step in helping Vermont’s low-income workers support their families,” Rep. Helen Head (D-South Burlington) said. “And it will enable people to put that money back into the state economy by spending at local businesses.”
House Speaker Shap Smith (D-Morrisville) also praised the bill as an important step toward allowing many more Vermonters to meet their most “basic needs.”
“A Vermonter working full time and making the minimum wage cannot afford health care, housing or food without government subsidies,” Smith said.
(04/30/14 5:30pm)
On April 23, the Vermont House approved GMO labeling bill H112 by a margin of 114-30 and Governor Shumlin promised to sign the bill into law. The bill will require genetically modified food products (GMOs) sold in Vermont to be labeled.
“I am proud of Vermont for being the first state in the nation to ensure that Vermonters will know what is in their food,” Shumlin said in a statement.
The bill specifies that any product “partially produced with genetic engineering,” “may be produced with genetic engineering,” or “produced with genetic engineering,” will be considered a GMO, and encompasses all food products in Vermont. The labeling provisions will take effect by July 1, 2016.
Although Connecticut and Maine have passed similar legislation, their implementation is contingent on similar laws passing in other States. Vermont will be the first state to actually implement GMO labeling.
Sixty countries, including all those in the European Union, currently require GMOs to be labeled, and 29 states are considering comparable legislation.
“I am very proud that Vermont is taking the lead in a growing national movement to allow the people of our country to know what is in the food they eat,” Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders said in a press release on Wednesday. Sanders stated that it is “extremely important” that individual states begin labeling initiatives.
Sanders, however, faces an uphill battle. Earlier this year, the Senator pushed for a analogous provision in a federal farm bill, which was eventually defeated. His adversary, the 360-billion dollar packaged food industry, is now lobbying for a bill that would nullify any State legislation mandating GMO labeling.
Roughly 60 to 70 percent of processed foods in the United States contain genetially modified materials. Yet, only half of citizens understood that GMOs are sold in grocery stores, and under a quarter believed they had ever eaten GMOs.
To State Senator Philip Baruth (D-Chittenden), this information gap indicates that the bill is important.
“It is protecting the consumer at the point of consumption from potentially the worst that science has to offer,” Baruth stated.
Justin Prochnow, a Denver-based regulatory attorney, predicts that if enough states pass GMO labeling legislation, the federal government will have to follow suit.
“Once a couple of states pass unqualified GMO labeling laws like the Vermont one – unrestricted – that’s probably going to facilitate it more than anything else,” he said. “...at the end of the day, regardless of whether companies are opposed to it, they don’t want to see different labeling requirements in different states.”
“GMOs aren’t going away,” Prochnow said. “It’s just a question of whether people want to know what’s in there, and it depends on what information you want to believe.”
According to Washington, D.C.-based Grocery Manufacturers Association, unintegrated legislation resulting from a ‘state first’ approach will be ineffective.
“It sets the nation on a costly and misguided path toward a 50-state patchwork of GMO labeling policies that will do nothing to advance the safety of consumers,” the Association said in a statement.
Ruth Saunders, International Dairy Foods Association Vice President of Policy and Legislative Affairs, agreed. “This bill would confuse consumers, raise food prices and do nothing to ensure product safety,” Saunders said.
In the State Senate, both Sen. Peg Flory (R-Rutland) and Sen. Norm McAllister (R-Franklin) voted against the bill. McAllister labeled the bill a ‘scare tactic.’ Sen. McAllister is a dairy farmer, and noted that his industry would suffer disproportionally compared to the alcohol sector, which would not have to label its products. McAllister has not encountered problems with GMOs at his farms.
Flory stated that the bill was not only ineffective, but misleading. “I haven’t received any scientific information that GMOs are bad,” Flory said. “I have received scientific information – as well as from the World Health Organization, AMA (American Medical Association), and various other organizations – stating that there is no indication at all that GMOs are harmful.”
The most common goal of genetic engineering is to increase crop yield. GMOs can have an increased resistance to disease caused by insects or viruses, an increased resistance to herbicides and can grow better in harsher climates. Yet the long-term medical implications for the consumer are largely unknown.
Many supporters of the bill claim that GMOs encourage pesticide use because they can resist the harmful chemicals. Others are concerned that GMOs may adversely affect local ecosystems if they are accidentally released into the wild.
Karen Batra, a spokeswoman for Monsanto, said that GMOs are a crucial technology for supplying the world’s growing population, and to curtail them with discriminatory legislation would be a mistake.
“There have been a number of scientists and experts around the world that say that in order to increase global production of food for a population of basically 9 billion people within the next couple of decades, biotech has to be part of our food system,” Batra said in a statement.
To Batra, genetic engineering is “the most rapidly adopted technology in the history of agriculture.”
The World Health Organization (WHO) states that GMOs should be assessed on a “case by case basis,” because “it is not possible to make general statements on the safety of all GM foods.”
According to the World Health Organization, GMOs should be assessed on a “case by case basis,” because “it is not possible to make general statements on the safety of all GM foods.”
To Michele Simon, Public Health Attorney and President of Eat Drink Politics, this uncertainty is exactly why the bill is so important. “No long-term studies exist on either the safety or benefits of GMO ingredients,” Simon wrote in an article on The Huffington Post. “Indeed, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration does not even require safety studies of genetically engineered foods.”
Ultimately, Simon asserted that the bill reflect a growing push toward greater clarity in the food industry. In the GMO labeling movement, “ ... people are demanding more transparency,” Simon said.
Falko Schilling, a Consumer Protection Advocate at Vermont Public Interest Research Group (VPIRG), agrees with Simon.
“Basically, Vermonters have a right to know what they’re eating,” Schilling said in an interview. “We’re not telling farmers how they can grow their crops. We’re a right to know organization.”
Falko also noted that a majority of Vermonters are behind the bill. According to Falko, VPIRG “knocked on thousands of doors,” and eventually garnered over 30,000 signatures in support of the bill.
Like Sanders, Schilling stressed the importance of the grassroot movement. “Federal legislation would be ideal,” Schilling said, “but it’s just not happening...we’re proud of our state legislature.”
McAllister was also concerned that the bill will be struck down as unconstitutional.
“So we’re gonna spend, between $1.5 to $5 million, and in the end the people who wanted labeling, may not get it,” McAllister said.
McAllister’s concerns are grounded in a similar case from 1994. Legislation mandating labeling for milk treated with artificial growth hormones was struck down as unconstitutional. The legislation violated the First Amendment, because it forced the companies to speak instead of remaining silent.
In response, lawmakers have established a 1.5 million dollar defense fund for the bill. The funds will be raised primarily from appropriations and from settlements awarded to the state, although individuals from all over the world can contribute.
(04/23/14 5:57pm)
One chilly September morning in 2011, Kristin Lundy heard someone ascend her front steps and knock on her door. When she opened it, police Sgt. Mike Fish asked her to gather everyone living in the house. "Your son is dead," he said.
"I ran up the stairs," Lundy later recalled in an interview with the Burlington Free Press. "I just screamed until I went into shock...I thought he was coming out of the woods. I thought we were beginning to understand this opiate thing.” Joshua Lundy, at just 23 years old, had passed away from a heroin overdose.
Sadly, Kristin's horror story is a tired one in Vermont. Statewide treatment for heroin addicts has increased 250 percent since 2000, and the number of deaths from by heroin overdose has doubled in the past year.
In last year's State of the State Address, Governor Shumlin asserted optimistically that Vermont was "... healthy, resilient, and strong. We are blessed to live here," he said, "and we care deeply about our shared future."
In his 2014 State of the State address, Shumlin's tone changed dramatically. "In every corner of our state, heroin and opiate drug addiction threatens us," said Shumlin.
Unfortunately, the stigma attached to heroin addiction makes it much harder for users like Joshua Lundy to get clean. Heroin addicts face intense social pressure to hide their addictions, and candid public discourse about heroin abuse is difficult.
In response, Governor Shumlin sought to reclothe the crisis as a medical emergency in his 2014 State of the State Address. "We must address it as a public health crisis," said Shumlin, "providing treatment and support, rather than simply doling out punishment, claiming victory, and moving onto our next conviction," he said. "Addiction is, at its core, a chronic disease."
Many health care professionals and recovering addicts agreed with Shumlin.
“I think that’s hard for some people that struggled with addiction to move on, if they’re always being labeled an addict forever,” said Gina Tron, a recovering addict and local journalist. “If you’re trying to fix a problem as a person or a state it should be something admirable instead of something to be looked down upon.”
“I imagined a heroin addict as, you know, some super-skinny guy laying on the ground in a back alley of New York City,” Tron said. Her perception began to change in 2002, when she heard about a high school classmate — a “very Vermont girl” — struggling with heroin addiction.
Dr. John Brooklyn, cofounder of the state’s first methadone clinic, refuted the idea of a ‘typical’ heroin user. “We think it’s some gangsta in a hoodie sticking up a convenience store,” Brooklyn said. “Not the person serving your coffee, pumping your gas or taking care of your kids at a daycare center.” In reality, Brooklyn knows recovering addicts at each of these professions.
In an interview with ABC, Dr. Richard Besser even asserted that the term ‘Ex- addict’ is a misnomer, because heroin addiction is a lifelong battle. All of the users Dr. Besser spoke with self-identified as “recovering addicts.”
The intensity of this battle is largely attributed to heroin’s extremely addictive nature. About one in four users becomes dependent after their first injection – an addiction rate higher than that of crack-cocaine or crystal methamphetamine.
Whether snorted, smoked or injected, heroin instills its trademark ‘blissful apathy’ by binding exogenous endorphins to opiod receptors in the user’s brain. After extended use, a heroin addict will no longer endogenously produce endorphins, and an ensuing dependency spiral can be lethal. Since opiod receptors are located in the brain stem — the part of the brain responsible for automatic processes like breathing — respiratory arrest is the leading cause of heroin related deaths.
Despite these dangers, “You’re gonna get hungry,” said recovering addict ‘Jen,’ who asked to remain anonymous during her interview with VICE. “Childbirth was nothing compared to kicking heroin."
Another recovering addict said that heroin addiction consumes all other priorities. “The first thing you think about [is] not feeding your kids,” she stated, “It’s how am I going to get high ... ”
Even heroin users brave enough to overcome the social stigma and seek help may not be able to find it. Over 750 people are relegated to wait lists at methodone clinics and rehabilitation centers across Vermont.
In order to supply this burgeoning market, smugglers have ramped up their efforts across the Northeast.“We’re seeing thousands of bags at a time, multiple raw ounces and grams, levels of heroin that we’ve never seen before” said Lieutenant Matthew Birmingham, the head of the Vermont State Police Narcotics Task Force.
Approximately two million dollars worth of heroin is trafficked through Vermont every week. Yearly, this means heroin smuggling is a 100-million dollar industry.
Even a small package of the drug can cause big problems. Heroin is most often sold in 25-40 milligram bags, or ‘folds,’ which are half the size of a sweetener packet. Just one kilogram of heroin provides nearly 30,000 of these bags.
Heroin’s pervasiveness can partly be attributed to Vermont’s geographic location. Interstate highways from Montreal, New York, Boston and Philadelphia all converge in Vermont, in what some analysts have described as ‘the perfect storm.’
During one sting, Burlington police and DEA agents traced Videsh Raghoonanan through his cellphone. The signal traveled from Burlington down interstates 89, 91 and 95 to Ozone Park, Queens. Less than 24 hours later, Raghoonanan retraced his path and arrived in Burlington before midnight.
New York is one epicenter of Vermont-bound heroin. Another particularly lethal type of heroin, known as “Chi” or “Chi town dope,” comes from Chicago. Authorities are often able to pinpoint the heroin origin because of signature ‘stamps’ on the packaging.
If the heroin comes into the state in its purest form, dealers will often cut it with other substances. “I’ve ripped people off by throwing hot cocoa in an empty bag,” ‘John’ told VICE in one interview. “Scoop a little dirt off the ground and throw that in there, dude.”
To make matters worse, some dealers have begun to cut their heroin with Fentanyl, a deadly synthetic narcotic. The powerful drug — between 50 to 100 times stronger than morphine — has been attributed to dozens of grisly deaths throughout the northeast, including three in Addison County. Some of these users were found with the needle still sticking from their arm.
In October of last year, Vermont state police arrested two New York smugglers in one of the largest busts in state history. When Marcus Davis and Eddie Eason were brought into police custody, Davis admitted to having bought 30,000 dollars worth of heroin in New York City.
If smugglers like Davis succeed, their potential profit margin is nearly impossible to comprehend. One dealer in Colchester buys heroin out of state for 6 dollars, and resells it in northern Vermont for 30, a markup of 500 percent.
Accordingly, the drug has brought organized crime with it. “There are real and legitimate organized gangs and organized criminal groups that are operating drug rings … and establishing themselves in Vermont,” said State Police Lt. Matthew Birmingham, commander of the Vermont Drug Task Force.
Still, a stronger police force is not the only solution, said Lt. Birmingham. “You can’t just keep arresting people coming in as runners,” he said.
Already, 80 percent of Vermont’s inmates are incarcerated for drug related crimes. The state pays more to incarcerate its prisoners than it does on higher education.
Behind the empty syringes, plastic baggies and gun-toting drug dealers lies a darker reality: heroin addiction often starts with legally prescribed painkillers like Oxycodone.
The opiate crisis arguably exploded in 2010, when Purdue Pharma changed the formula of Oxycodone. By making pills harder to crush up and slower to dissolve into the blood, the pharmaceutical company successfully reduced prescription abuse, from 47.4 percent to 30 percent in the past thirty days. Yet in the same period, rates of heroin abuse nearly doubled.
“It’s like Whac-A-Mole,” said Barbara Cimaglio, Vermont’s deputy commissioner or alcohol and drug abuse programs. “We address one thing and then something else crops up.”
“Let’s be honest about this,” said Shumlin in an interview with ABC. “OxyContin and the other opiates that are now prescribed and approved by the FDA, lead folks to opiate addiction.”
Shumlin’s assertion was not just political maneuvering. According to one poll, 4 out 5 new addicts turned to heroin after abusing prescription painkillers.
Even more tellingly, Shumlin’s claim resonates with many current addicts. 32 year-old Andreia Rossi asked: “Why spend 80 dollars on an Oxy 80 when you can get a bag of heroin for 20 bucks?”
“You’re pretty much doing heroin anyway,” said another anonymous user. “It’s much cheaper than doing Oxys.”
In 2012, roughly a million doses of Oxycodone were prescribed in Rutland county alone.
“Not many things make my jaw drop, but this did,” said Clay Gilbert, director of Evergreen Substance Abuse Services. “[It] figures out to 17 pills for every man woman and child in the county.” Per capita, Grand Isle and Bennington had even higher prescription rates.
Furthermore, just like prescription painkillers, heroin can also be snorted and used intravenously. Combine this with its price and availability, and heroin is the ‘logical’ next step.
To parents who have lost their children to heroin, like Kristin Lundy, painkillers are far from logical. In an interview with The Burlington Free Press, Lundy recalled when her 17 year-old Joshua was administered morphine for a severe stomach bug.
“He lit up like a Christmas tree,” she said. “He said it was the best feeling he ever felt and that he wished he could do it forever.”
Lundy attended the sentencing for Kevin Harris, the smuggler who allegedly sold her son the deadly heroin, five years later. Harris was born in a jail, and both of his parents died before he turned 11.
“I’m sorry you didn’t have a good childhood,” read Lundy’s statement to Harris. “We have something in common. We have both suffered great loss due to drugs and addiction. My hope for you is that someday you will experience the love I felt for Josh, and that he felt for his daughter.”
Local Westland native and rehab worker Michelle Flynn was concerned for her own children. “It scares me for people’s well being that it’s this available,” she said in an interview. “I have two young kids – 18 and 20 year old boys – who have not found [heroin], which I am grateful for. But it scares me for that generation. Your generation.”
“I know what addiction life is like,” she recalled, “and I wouldn’t wish that on my worst enemy. It’s not an easy change to give up on what used to be mind altering. What used to be your escape.”
Paramedics and EMTs on the front lines witness this loss firsthand. When the heart and lungs have stopped, a quick response is critical. Permanent brain damage can occur after 4 minutes without oxygen, and death just 5 minutes later. And even by medical standards, heroin overdoses can be messy. EMT Lisa Northup recalled when one semiconscious patient began to vomit onto her on January 9.
“I kept talking to him,” said Northup, “telling him he was going to be alright. I mean, that’s just what we do.” The patient was lucky. Just hours later, Middlebury Regional EMS arrived too late for another heroin victim. For him, “Everything we could do we had done,” recalled Paramedic Kevin Sullivan. “Unfortunately, he had been down too long at that point.”
Consequently, one wonder-drug has helped pull many patients back from the brink of death, including the Salisbury patient that Northup revived. Naloxone hydrochloride — whose trade name is Narcan — is an µ-opioid antagonist that kicks heroin off opiate receptors in the brain.
The drug is administered intravenously by paramedics, or nasally through a device known as an atomizer. The effects of the drug, which untrained civilians can administer, are almost immediate.
Mike Leyden, Deputy Director of Emergency Medical Services at the Department of Health, said the atomizers are an ‘infallible’ safety net. “[They’re] a good reliable safe route,” he said. Still, since heroin in the patient’s system can outlast the Naloxone’s effects, administration should always be accompanied by a 911 call.
In 2013, Vermont Legislature passed Act 75, which aims to provide a “comprehensive approach to combating opioid addiction and methamphetamine abuse in Vermont ... ” As a result of the legislation, the Vermont Department of Health began developing a statewide pilot program to distribute Narcan, which is now available at many health clinics.
“They’re just going to hand it out to folks,” said Chris Bell, director of emergency medical services at the Vermont Department of Health.
“It is a relief for any family member to know there is something they can do immediately if that horrible occasion might occur,” said Nancy Bessett, who lost her husband to heroin last November. “I will always feel guilty because I wasn’t there. If I had been there. If I had Narcan. Maybe I could have revived him.”
For legislators and medical professionals, preventing overdoses is only part of the battle. Establishing programs to rehabilitate heroin users may prove to be an even larger hurdle.
One such positive initiative is Chittenden County’s Rapid Intervention Community Court (RICC). The program is designed to allow addicts to avoid further prosecution if they accept medical treatment shortly after their arrest. Governor Shumlin has called the program a ‘humane’ option for heroin addicts.
After attending just 90 days of counseling, drug treatment and life skills training, RICC attendees can get their charges dropped. At its best, the ‘pre-charge’ initiative helps recovering addicts avoid a criminal record and take back control of their lives.
Heroin users tried in conventional courts often reoffend shortly after their trials. RICC reduces recidivism by focusing on repeat offenders with no violent record and a clear indication of addiction.
“What we’re trying to do is break the cycle,” said Chittenden County State’s Attorney T.J. Donovan. “We can do the same thing that’s not working, or we can do something different.”
The program is effective: only 7.4 percent of recovering addicts that completed the program reoffended. Of those who did not, 25 percent reoffended.
Despite their success, the novel programs are imperfect. Not everyone who applies is accepted, and rapid intervention is harder to implement in rural areas where applicants cannot easily commute.
Emmet Helrich, a manager at the RICC, said the program strikes at the underlying trigger of criminal activity: the user’s health. “Forget about the court case,” Helrich said. “Get healthy.”
Anonymous recovering addict and Burlington mother ‘Jessica’ appreciated the second chance.
“I just needed somebody, one person, to give me a chance and have a little bit of hope,” she said.
Inspired by the success of RICC, Addison, Lamoille, Rutland and Franklin counties have begun to implement similar programs. Governor Shumlin advocated investing $760,000 to expand and strengthen the programs.
Like Shumlin, Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick labeled opiate addiction a public health emergency. “We have an epidemic of opiate abuse in Massachusetts, so we will treat it like the public health crisis it is,” Patrick said in a statement.
Because of the interstate nature of the crisis, officers from across the Northeast convened to discuss cooperation. On March 28, roughly 90 officials from Vermont, Massachusetts, New York, as well as members of the US Drug Enforcement Administration and Department of Homeland Security met at the Sheriff’s office in Washington County, NY.
The discussion largely focused on two heroin pipelines, Routes 149 and 4, which pass through Washington County into Vermont.
“This will also help us exchange information and tie all the pieces together,” said Washington County Sheriff Jeff Murphy.
Officials determined routes of travel, trends in drug distribution, and began to formalize a cooperation agreement.
Still, Shumlin recognized that solving the heroin crisis in Vermont will take more than just good police work. “We’ve got to stop thinking we can solve this with law enforcement alone,” said Shumlin in an interview with ABC.
Imprisoning a heroin dealer in Vermont is incredibly expensive – around $1,120 a week – or ten times the weekly cost to treat an addict at a state-funded center.
“Today, our state government spends more to imprison Vermonters than we do to support our colleges and universities,” noted Shumlin in his State of the State address.
To many officials, this is an untenable path. Rutland beautification project Rutland Blooms has responded to the influx of heroin with a resilient positivity. The beautification project plants flower gardens around Rutland. It was established by Green Mountain Power and Rutland officials to “highlight the community’s incredible spirit and beauty.”
Yet, Rutland Blooms is more than just flowers. According to their website, the organization consists of over 50 local groups all intent on “supporting and increasing the sense of community that will be necessary to solve the issues the city faces.”
Rutland Mayor Chris Louras has helped spearhead the effort. “This is one more step in efforts to improve the economic and social climate of the community,” Louras said. “Its impact will be visible and symbolic. The outpouring of interest, even before today’s announcement as GMP quietly began planning, has been extraordinary.”
This sense of community is important, especially to those who have lost loved ones to the drug. Skip Gates, whose son Will was studying at UVM when he overdosed, now works to spread awareness of the devastation heroin can cause.
“I never knew anything in human experience could be this hard,” Skip said. “I never knew any human being could feel this much pain. It has redefined the rest of my life.”
In his 2014 State of the State address, Governor Shumlin explained that Skip “speaks for all grieving families.” At the end of the speech, Shumlin called the state to arms: “All of us, together, will drive toward our goal of recovery by working with one another creatively, relentlessly, and without division. We can do this. I have tremendous hope for Vermont, and for our efforts to overcome this challenge and keep the Vermont that we cherish for generations to come."
Graphics by OLIVIA ALLEN
(04/16/14 4:09pm)
On Wednesday, April 9, Vermont Senate Government Operations Committee considered new legislation that would regulate taser use across Vermont.
Bill H.225, already passed by the house, would implement statewide training standards for all law enforcement officials armed with electronic control devices (ECDs).
According to the proposed bill, “The Criminal Justice Training Council shall ensure that a law enforcement officer receives appropriate and sufficient training before becoming authorized to carry or use an electronic control device.”
The weapons induce involuntary muscle contractions, enabling the an officer to safely apprehend the suspect. Concomitantly, the shock can disrupt basic neurological functions, causing seizures, heart attacks and even death. Despite this risk, ECDs are often praised as a safe alternative to traditional firearms.
Jim Masland (D-Thetford) proposed the bill. Masland witnessed ECD’s lethality last summer, when his neighbor was killed by a taser.
Macadam Mason, a 39 year-old man with a history of mental illness, threatened to commit suicide. Officers arrived quickly at Mason’s Thetford home, but he refused to comply and moved toward one officer with ‘clenched fists.’ Moments later, the officer fired a taser that disrupted Mason’s heart and ended his life.
Masland attributes the accident to inadequate training and improper protocol. Communicating with mentally ill citizens is a particularly delicate skill that requires special training.
“It’s clear that what we really need is for all officers to have the same training, having to deal with individuals having a mental health crisis,” Masland said.
Accordingly, one of the bill’s newer provisions requires that any officer hoping to carry a taser undergo Act 80 training. This training focuses on de-escalation and non-violent intervention.
If the bill passes, by the end of June, 2017, “every State, local, county, and municipal law enforcement agency” must ensure its officers complete training outlined in 2004 Acts and Resolves.
The bill directly references the challenges that Masland describes: "The use of electronic control devices shall include recognition of the heightened risk that misuse can result from situations in which subjects have cognitive disabilities or are in emotional crises that interfere with the ability to understand consequences of action."
The training will be overseen by The Criminal Justice Training Council (CJTC).
According to their website, CJTC aims to “ ... enhance public safety and promote law enforcement excellence by establishing policies, certification standards, training, and resources that embrace best practices in criminal justice.”
Critics of the bill have cited its rigidity as a weakness. Instead of codified taser protocol, the bills' opponents stress the importance of an officer’s personal discretion.
“[The bill] leaves no room for the officer to make a judgement,” said representative Donna Sweany (D-Windsor).
Representative Joanna Cole (D-Burlington) was worried that the bill was too broad and stripped of essential provisions.
“I wanted to see something much stronger,” she stated.
Other opponents are concerned that the bill will propagate the myth that tasers are safe, and will tacitly condone irresponsible taser use.
“I think the bill makes the situation worse,” said Defense Attorney Robert Appel, the former head of the Vermont Human Rights Commission. “They’re codifying a poor public policy ...”
Appel described the bill as giving officers the “green light” whenever they anticipate violence. “I would rather see them do nothing than pass this language,” he said.
Winooski Police Chief Steve McQueen recognizes the difficulty in applying a blanket solution to a complex dilemma. "Trying to come up with a piece of legislation that says 'you will do A, B, and C under A, B, and C set of circumstances,'" stated McQueen, "is extremely difficult to do, and I would discourage you from doing it."
The current bill allows an officer to use a taser whenever a suspect actively resists arrest — a relatively opaque definition. “Active resistance includes something as simple as pulling your arms across your chest,” noted Allen Gilbert, the executive director of the Vermont chapter of the ACLU. “This is a very low threshold.”
Furthermore, the proliferation of such high-tech weaponry has financial repercussions. In a study released by the ACLU, the state has paid approximately 269,000 dollars in seven different settlements since 2004.
“Tasers are powerful weapons that should only be deployed in unusual circumstances,” Gilbert told the Senate committee on Wednesday.
Governor Shumlin noted that although ECDs are dangerous, they are relatively safe if used correctly.
“Anything can kill someone,” he stated in a June press conference. “It depends how you use it. The point is, Tasers are less likely to kill you than a bullet, which is why we use them.”
(03/19/14 4:12pm)
Roughly 140 employees at IBM's Essex Junction plant lost their jobs this month, the most recent bout of layoffs in the company's billion-dollar restructuring. The company currently employs over 430,000 people worldwide, but some analysts expect that number to shrink by roughly 13,000.
Many of these employees work under IBM's Systems & Technology Group, which some analysts expect to shrink by 25 percent.
IBM isn’t just reducing its workforce; selling its manufacturing assets, like the Essex plant, is an integral part of “Project Apollo.” The company sold its low-end server division to Lenovo earlier this year, and hopes to sell another chip plant in East Fishkill, NY.
Chief Executive Officer Ginni Rometty says the company, which has endured seven consecutive quarters of declining revenue, needs to invest in 'priority areas' such as cloud computing, analytics and cognitive computing.
"IBM continues to rebalance its workforce to meet the changing requirements of its clients," stated Rometty in a press release.
The layoffs are roughly one-third the size of those last summer, when 419 workers were laid off. Vermont Labor Commissioner Annie Noonan said that the labor department hopes to institute a 'response team' to assist those who lost their jobs.
After last year’s cuts, Noonan's department petitioned the US Department of Labor to include the ex-workers in the Trade Adjustment Assistance program. The request was initially approved for those at the Williston campus, but was extended this week to the workers at Essex Junction.
The recovery program provides up to 130 weeks of job training and unemployment benefits, and focuses on reintegrating workers older than 50 back into the workforce.
"With the steady increase in the economy," Noonan stated, "we are quite hopeful that we can assist the laid-off workers find jobs with other Vermont companies."
Currently, Vermont employers must inform the state about substantial layoffs just 24 hours before they take effect. In order to mitigate financial fallout and petition for federal aid, The Shumlin administration hopes to pass a law extending this period to 90 days.
David Sunderland, chairman of the Vermont Republican Party, criticized the administration for not addressing this issue sooner. Sunderland believes that statewide layoffs are indicative of a larger problem in Vermont.
Just last week, automotive company Plasan Carbon Composites announced that it would close its Bennington facility. Even if both layoffs reflected evolving business models, Sunderland believes that Vermont must do more to incentivize higher paying industries to stay here. "It is clear the economic troubles in Vermont are deepening,” Sunderland stated in an interview.
Although he was relieved that the layoffs were smaller than last year, Lt. Governor Phil Scott was also wary of waiting "another second" to address the economy. "The fact of the matter is more than 100 Vermonters are losing their well-paying jobs," stated Scott in a press release. "The trend of job losses over the last two years is concerning."
(03/13/14 1:09am)
Chittenden County Transportation Authority (CCTA), and the Teamsters Local No. 597 reached a settlement last Sunday, narrowly avoiding a strike that would have shut down Vermont’s largest bus service. The nineteen-hour-long negotiation session occurred in the CCTA headquarters and was mediated by the Federal Mediation & Conciliation Service.
The union cited wages, part time drivers and burdensome ‘split-shifts’ as critical issues that CCTA needs to resolve. Teamsters Local No. 597 agreed not to strike until it has reviewed CCTA’s most recent offer.
CCTA buses buses serve approximately 9,500 residents across the state, including local schools and many LINK bus routes. Over 2,000 students of Burlington Public Schools, or roughly 60 percent of those enrolled, rely on CCTA buses.
On March 5, voters rejected 35 school budgets, the largest defeat for education in Vermont in over a decade. The agreement came on the heels of this defeat, relieving many districts already facing budgetary dilemmas.
The agreement allowed Burlington Public Schools, whose budget was defeated just two days before the negotiations, to avert a weekly expense of roughly $10,000. The district had considered shuttling students to school on Green Mountain buses.
“I’ll have to find maybe a carpool, or maybe bike, I guess,” reflected student Natalie Kenney of Burlington High School before agreement was reached. “But I usually have a lot of stuff with me so that’s kind of a difficult route to take.”
With the buses back in service, Natalie and her classmates won’t have to find that new route.
In March of 2013, the Union voted 53 to 4 to reject CCTA’s contract offer, and negotiations throughout the summer produced no results. Talks finally collapsed when contract negotiations broke down in September of last year.
New CCTA drivers earn approximately $42,000, and veteran drivers can earn upwards of $70,000, including overtime and benefits. Although this is the second-highest rate of compensation in northern New England, both parties expect wages to increase in an acceptable settlement.
According to Union members, ‘split-shifts,’ or morning and evening shifts divided by a break, result in driver fatigue and unsafe riding conditions. More drivers are necessary to accommodate the increased number of commuters during these times, but hiring part-time drivers could reduce full-time positions. Bill Watterson, CEO of CCTA, says the drivers are compensated appropriately for these shifts.
“To increase the number of full-time Union jobs, CCTA has agreed to a Union proposal to change the maximum span of a split shift to 13.5 hours,” states the CCTA website.
Onboard cameras are another contentious issue, which drivers cite as proof of the CCTA’s mistrust.
“We drive these buses every day, with cameras pointed in our faces,” said driver Mike Walker at a rally last Thursday. “All responsibility rests with the drivers and all authority rests within the management. You delegate authority, never responsibility.”
Before the meeting, CCTA General Manager Bill Watterson stated, “Our focus is on sitting down together with the driver’s union and reaching an agreement, and having another 3 year contract.”
CCTA officials remains optimistic that the union will soon accept their offer.
(03/13/14 1:04am)
This Sunday, the streets of downtown Middlebury overflowed with hungry patrons at Middlebury’s sixth annual Chilifest. The booths, run by professional chefs and amateurs alike, dished out over 50 kinds of chili for the annual event.
For just five dollars, attendees enjoyed a variety of chilis, which were organized into six categories: Beef, pork, chicken, game, ‘kitchen-sink’ and veggie. Colored balloons marked each category, and allowed attendees to navigate the dense crowds and vote for their favorite types.
The chilis ran the flavor gamut, from the cider-inspired chili of Woodchuck to the maple beef ‘sweet and spicy’ chili of Morgan’s Tavern. Many booths opted for a multi-step approach, layering their chili with cheese, sour cream, and cilantro. Fritos, cornbread and chips complemented the chilis at many booths.
Freezing winds forced some attendees to seek shelter wherever they could find it, from local shops to the empty lobby of Middlebury National Bank. Although temperatures dipped below freezing, organizers were happy with attendance; the final tally could exceed the 5,000 that attended last year’s event.
Most booths were managed by restaurants, but others, like Cycle Wise or Brandon Music, joined in the festivities as well.
Despite the spirited atmosphere of the event, the competition is fierce. The winner of the $1000 grand prize, Middlebury Men’s Cross Country, began perfecting their unique apple and habanero chili weeks before the event.
Tourterelle Restaurant and Inn took second for the second year in a row, and the dark horse of the event, Vermont Shade and Blind, took third with their pulled pork chili. For full results, visit the festival’s Facebook page.
Patrons submit tokens to their favorite chilis, which are tallied at the end of the event.
“The chips were actually weighed this year,” reported Denise Chan ‘16, a volunteer at the event. “Counting them took way too long in the past.”
Denise was relegated to the popular Greg’s Meat Market. She reflected positively on her busy experience as a way to reach out to the local community.
“It was nice because I’m usually just trapped in the ‘Midd college bubble,’” she remarked. Her favorite? The classic Middlebury Snow Bowl chili.
When they weren’t chowing down, attendees could enjoy live music from local band “The Grift,” watch street performers, or even have their faces painted. The largely volunteer-run event has been ranked as one of the top 10 winter events by the Vermont Chamber of Commerce for the past four years, and organizers hope to replicate this year’s success again in 2015.
(02/19/14 6:54pm)
Sue Lahai and Tracy Raymond have been cutting hair side by side at Bud’s Barbershop for over 18 years.
The shop was opened in 1971 by Bud, according to Raymond.
“He worked up right until ninety, so whatever clientele he had left we grabbed. This has been here for over sixty years. So everybody knows us.”
One customer, a regular at the shop, joked with them during his haircut.
Bud’s Barbershop is “the only place in town to get a good old fashioned haircut,” he asserted. “Just a buzzer to your head, that’s all you need.”
The prices per cut are the lowest in town, at an even twelve dollars. The shop is currently open from 7:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. on weekdays, and 7:30 a.m. to 11:00 p.m. on Saturdays.
Before the barbershop, Lahai and Raymond did work at a salon, but they “both left for various reasons,” explained Sue. “[Tracy] was allergic to the color and stuff, and my back couldn’t do the shampoos anymore, so we both did this. This doesn’t require shampoo or color or anything.”
Sue reminded me that in addition to their decades of experience, both attended barber schools. “It’s not like we came out of high school knowing what to do,” she said.
The shop sees a mix of local residents, and during the school year, Middlebury College students and faculty.
“We get a lot of summer school kids too,” said Tracy. “We also get Bread Loaf, and the town fills in when you guys aren’t here.”
“Middlebury College, I have to admit, supports us pretty well,” said Lahai. “When you guys are gone we definitely know.”
Because of local construction, the shop will be demolished at the end of the month. Bud’s new location, 28 Court Street, is just a short walk away.
“They’re putting tunnels in,” Tracy said. “The traintracks need to be lower so they can get the taller trains through.”
Tracy thinks the move is a good choice. “[The new building] has handicap accessibility, and parking, and it’s still close to the college. We have a lot of older customers that need that ramp. That’s difficult to find in town.”
Still, Tracy believes the experience of cutting hair will be different. Sue agreed: “Yeah it definitely is. We’ve worked like twelve inches apart for eighteen years, and now we’re going to be like, three feet apart. It’s gonna seem very strange.”
(02/19/14 6:28pm)
The Lobby, chef Michael Mahe’s most recent restaurant, opened for business on Feb. 15 on Bakery Lane. The French chef said that he’d been interested in Middlebury “for ten years, but finally got it.” The building formerly housed the restaurant Jackson’s on the River.
The Lobby serves a variety of dishes, including five different burgers, several salads, vegetarian and vegan options, and entrees such as scallops in lobster sauce and grilled chicken with french fries. The Lobby opens for dinner starting at 5 pm, and will begin serving lunch on Feb. 24.
The restaurant’s vintage decorations and lighting give it a fun atmosphere, said owner Michael Mahe.
“It’s different from the other restaurants, so I think that it’ll add to the town,” he said. The lounge includes 1920’s furniture, a dark hardwood bar and a projector that displays retro food pictures that would make Instagram users jealous.
Above the bar stands a plaque which features a quote from early twentieth century comedian W.C. Fields: “Once during prohibition I was forced to live on nothing but food and water.” That particular decoration is one of Mahe’s favorites.
In addition to the bar, the lounge area offers a space for patrons to relax or enjoy appetizers. The unique multi-leveled upstairs offers patrons a view of the river outside, and downstairs is a “lounge-bar-hangout zone,” said Mahe.
“They’re all unique, my restaurants, but this is just the route we decided to take here,” Mahe said of the refined yet playful ambiance. “Our motto here is let’s have some fun.”
Mahe is not new to the food service industry in Vermont. He currently owns several other eateries around the state, including Black Sheep Bistro in Vergennes, The Bobcat Café and Brewery in Bristol and The Bearded Frog in Shelburne Village.
The Lobby’s gourmet food is cheaper than some local restaurants’, like American Flatbread or the Storm Cafe. “I think what the Bobcat has shown me is if you create a local place that is affordable, accessible and casual enough, people will show up in droves,” Mahe said.
Prices for the burgers range from 11 dollars for a traditional burger to 17 dollars for the more expensive lamb burger.
“I would say it’s under market as far as what we’re charging” said Mahe.
To make a reservation, call (802)-989-7463, or visit www.lobbyrestaurantvt.com.
(02/13/14 3:58am)
Coca-Cola announced last Wednesday that it will buy a 10 percent stake in Green Mountain Coffee Roasters (G.M.C.R.), an investment of approximately 1.25 billion dollars. In return, Green Mountain will produce the company’s single serve beverages.
G.M.C.R. stock skyrocketed nearly 25 percent after the announcement, closing at $114.85. The company plans to use the investment for product development and to buy back shares.
Green Mountain Coffee began in 1981 as a little cafe in Waitsfield, Vermont. In 2005, McDonalds began selling the coffee in the Northeast, and in 2006, G.M.C.R. aquired Keurig Incorporated.
The Keurig, a home-brew single serve coffee machine, has staved off competition from myriad imitators, most markedly Starbucks’ model, the Verismo. Green Mountain Coffee plans to release the Keurig Cold in 2015. The machine will utilize Keurig’s pod-based technology to produce carbonated sodas and waters, sports drinks, juices, and even teas.
Since the Keurig system currently accounts for over 90 percent of G.M.C.R.’s revenue, the company plans to change its name to Keurig Green Mountain Incorporated.
Brian Kelly, chief executive of the company, said that Coca-Cola’s global market makes for “the perfect combination” with G.M.C.R.’s technology and household expertise. “The cold beverage business has built brands that are global,” Kelly said, and he believes that it can do so with Keurig.
Coca-Cola hopes to use its new partnership with G.M.C.R. to expand its already significant market share and ensure the continued prevalence of Coca-Cola products in American homes.
Green Mountain Coffee could encounter competition from SodaStream, a company that advertised in Super Bowl XLVIII in a bid to reach a broad North American audience. By early Thursday stock had dropped just 2 percent; experts believe that Pepsi may back the Israeli company in response.
The deal is unwelcome news for David Einhorn, whose hedge fund, Greenlight Capital, has accused G.M.C.R. of misleading shareholders. Einhorn first raised concerns about the company’s accounting practices in 2011, and shares dropped a whopping 80 percent in the months after the accusations.
G.M.C.R.’s deal with Coca-Cola took financial experts by surprise. Coke has traditionally relied on restaurants and bottlers to deliver their product. However, “Coca-Cola sat down at the home beverage table,” said Scott Van Winkle, a Boston analyst with Canaccord Genuity, “and went all in on their first hand.”
(02/13/14 12:08am)
After just a few minutes aboard the white maintenance truck, Clinton Snyder, the landscape supervisor at the College, noticed that I had forgotten gloves. Buzz, as he is fondly known, kindly offered me his own, and explained that the success of campus snow removal depends on the entire crew.
“The campus is divided into North, Central and Athletics,” he informed me, “and all of the entrances around every building have to be clean.”
After snowstorms like Wednesday’s, a variety of departments work together to clean up campus.
“It’s not just the landscaping crew,” Snyder said. “It’s the custodials, the carpentry, electrical, Plumbing, HPAC – we all come in as a team.”
The various crews are each assigned to sections of the campus.
“Say you got crew eight,” he said, “They’ll take care of Bihall, the Mods, Ridgeline woods, the Bunker house, Adirondack view [...] they know what section to go through.”
Workers also carry radios to contact each other and Snyder, who may reassign them to “problem areas.” Like an officer driving a Jeep through the battlefield, Snyder continually lauded his “men” for their expertise and hard work.
“There are a few guys who have been here fifteen plus years,” he informed me reverently.
“[Roger Bagley] can run that backhoe like you can move your hand,” he said as we drove by the massive machine. “He could pick up a glass on the ground without breaking it.”
Although machines like Bagley’s account for some of the work, many areas can only be cleared by shoveling. If all ten crews are working, Snyder figured they can clear the campus in three or four hours.
Not all of the shoveling is straightforward, either. The top of Bihall is cleared without snowblowers because ventilators could draw fumes from the machines into the building. “It’s big and it’s windy,” he said of the roof. “So you’ll throw over a shovel, and you gotta duck because sometimes it comes right back at you.”
Since the campus has roughly 200 buildings, 13 miles of sidewalk, and spans across 300 acres, certain buildings take precedence. Public Safety, both dining halls, residences and areas of heavy student-traffic all are prioritized.
As Snyder drove by the Feb. orientation in Axxin, he gestured towards the building. “Right now the freshman are coming in with their parents for the luncheon,” he said, “so we want to make sure that whole area is clean.”
Many bleary-eyed students began their spring semesters with an early meal in Ross or Proctor. However, in order to keep the dining halls open after the storm, maintenance began their work long before 8 a.m.
“We’ll come in at three in the morning. [...] We do most of the plowing in the morning,” Snyder hollered above the din of the truck’s engine. “Right now we’re just trying to stay on top of it. I’ll have all of the shovelers come in at six.”
Although the job is taxing, Snyder laughed when asked if clearing the sidewalks so students can walk to spin class has made him bitter over the years.
“I’m not bitter,” he chuckled. “I’m just amazed at what we do. I want other people to realize that we work hard here.”
(01/23/14 3:01am)
Regardless of their opposition, residents of Ferdinand, VT, may witness construction on a 20-turbine wind farm atop the local Seneca Mountain. In a non-binding vote on Jan. 13, 171 property owners voted against the project, owned by Seneca Mountain Wind, compared to 107 property owners in support.
Project manager John Soininen was disappointed in the outcome of the vote, but remained unphased.
“For now we recognize that there are local concerns,” he stated, “and in the end we hope that there is a viable project that can achieve local support and bring myriad benefits of wind energy to Ferdinand.”
According to the company website, the project will provide 60 MW of, “clean domestic energy to tens of thousands of homes.” Eoilian Renewable Energy, the parent energy company of Seneca Mountain Wind, is currently advancing four other projects in New Hampshire, Maine and Pennsylvania.
Residents opposing the project argue that it will ruin the sublime beauty of the landscape.
“If you’re trying to endear yourself with people, if the project is at all going to move forward, this is certainly not the way to do it,” said Pam Aborio, a local resident. Aborio is a member of “Save our Senecas”, a group that intends to “preserve in perpetuity the Seneca Mountains and surrounding area ecosystems in their wild and scenic state,” according to their website.
Seneca Mountain Wind has asserted that investment in renewable energy could enhance Vermont’s national reputation, thereby boosting tourism. In 2012, roughly three thousand residents of Massachussetts, New Hampshire, Connecticut, Rhode Island and New York sent letters of support to Governor Schumlin in a response to his energy reforms. The letters were based on a template designed by the Vermont Sierra Club, and stated that “I am a supporter of clean energy, and a potential Vermont tourist. Vermont has an incredible opportunity to be a leader in renewable energy. It would be fitting for the Green Mountain State to also be known as the Green Energy State.”
Seneca Wind Project Manager John Soininen expressed further concerns that local opponents fail to comprehend the enormity of a statewide energy overhaul.
“There’s the mandate to get to 90 percent renewables by 2050,” he stated in an interview with the Burlington Free Press, “but there isn’t any serious planning to that end.”
Daniel Ouimette, the decade-long owner of the proposed site, remained optimistic that the wind project would continue.
“There are going to be some wind towers on this mountain one of these days,” he said. “I am not going to give this up.”
Ouimette’s cooperation with the company has spawned heated criticism from some local residents. Aborio stated that,
“Once he decided to make this a commercial venture, once this is a now an industrial project, he no longer is a good-old-boy neighbor.”
Despite the company’s desire for a “recreational resource for hunters and snowmobilers,” Ouimette recently closed 16 miles of snowmoblie trails and posted no-trespassing signs around his property.
“I say I don’t want anybody on my property that’s an opponent of mine riding across my property with their snow machine and finding fault with what I do,” Ouimette argued. He claims to have suffered harassment since the project was first proposed, and set up the signs in response to vandalism.
Ultimately, the Vermont Public Service Board will decide whether or not to approve the project.