The Vermont Supreme Court has sided against a constitutional challenge to a 2018 state law banning standard capacity magazines, and now Vermont gun rights advocates may focus on a separate legal challenge — and one Second Amendment advocate says the issue could be headed for the federal courts.
On Thursday, lawmakers from the House Government Operations Committee heard social justice advocates testify on a bill to add two full-time employees for the task of weeding out systemic racism in state government.
Bills up for House committee review this week would encourage home visitation by school workers, allow candidates to spend campaign money on personal expenses, let a judge order police to take away firearms, study a “Truth and Reconciliation Commission” for Vermont, and promote BIPOC home ownership.
This isn’t the first time a Black Lives Matter flag has flown in Hinesburg. CVU had raised the flag on its grounds three times before this, at the suggestion of the Racial Alliance Committee. This is the first time it has been raised at town hall.
According to a new report, Vermont just experienced the largest birth declines from 2014 to 2019. But the Green Mountain State isn’t alone: it is joined by Wyoming and Alaska.
Through Feb. 19, Vermont lawmakers have claimed $218,144 in the $75 per diem permitted for at-home expenses. Legislators are entitled to travel and meals expenses, in addition to their $742/week in-session pay. However, the need for travel and eating outside of the home has greatly diminished since last spring.
H.283, providing the right to refuse any unwanted test, treatment or vaccine, was introduced Thursday into the Vermont House. It would specifically prevent employers and state government from requiring vaccination in exchange for jobs, travel, childcare and other benefits.
Among the initiatives that Burlington residents will be voting on this Town Meeting Day include two climate-themed goals: letting the city regulate residential and thermal energy systems, and doing so with “climate justice” in mind.
A bill to create a study group “for the purpose of modernizing Vermont’s prostitution laws” was introduced Wednesday into the Vermont House. It alleges state law prohibiting prostitution is steeped in racism.
At a joint hearing of the House Judiciary and Government Operations committees last Thursday, lawmakers heard Vermont’s public safety commissioner say current policing policies are sufficient to diffuse potential hostile situations between law enforcement officers and the public.
Gov. Phil Scott has continued Vermont’s state of emergency status for another month even as a new survey shows nearly a third of the state’s businesses lost more than half of their income last year due to harsh restrictions on economic activity.
A bill declaring a fetus a legal person during the third trimester has been introduced into the Vermont House of Representatives. Vermont is only one of 12 states to reject fetal personhood for the purpose of homicide, feticide, or as a victim of other crimes.