Statehouse Headliners: New bills address guns, smoking age, background checks for homeschoolers and more
A slew of bills being introduced in the General Assembly aim to address guns, home school teachers, relief-from-abuse orders, smoking and more.
New York immigration group spending $1 million to get lawmakers to allow driver’s licenses for illegals
“If Gov. [Andrew] Cuomo is looking to protect immigrants from Donald Trump and his administration, as he says, this is the No. 1 policy we can adopt to do that,” Choi said, according to the NY Daily News.
Trump: Democrats ‘will soon be known as the party of crime’ because of border issue
“Polls are now showing that people are beginning to understand the Humanitarian Crisis and Crime at the Border,” he wrote on Twitter. “Numbers are going up fast, over 50%. Democrats will soon be known as the Party of Crime.”
Statehouse Headliners: Act 250 report says developers must pay carbon offsets, town plans must conform, state super-agency to have climate oversight
The final Act 250 revision report requires developers to buy “carbon offsets,” limits forest fragmentation, boosts bike paths and public transportation, restricts development near “land trust” property, and requires local plan conformity.
Roper: One state school district? It depends
If the objective is to eliminate a lot of the mid-level bureaucracy at the supervisory union level while — and this is key — devolving decision-making power back to local principals and local volunteer school boards, this would be great.
Bernie Sanders in talks with Ocasio-Cortez’s media team in potential 2020 step
Independent Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont is reportedly looking to recruit the media production company used by New York Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez as speculation regarding Sanders’ second run for the presidency heats up.
Trump flag flying again weeks after left-wing vandals set ablaze in middle of night
A local man’s Trump flag is flying high again nearly two months after vandals torched a similar one in an act of political hate while the family slept.
McClaughry: The coming report on expanding Act 250
It’s transparently clear that the driving theme of the commission’s recommendations will be state regulation of as much land-related activity as can be swept under Act 250, to assure that our march to become the Perfect Little Climate Conscious State continues unabated.
What that top Bernie Sanders adviser is accused of doing
Robert Becker, who helped lead Sanders’s campaign in Michigan, New York, California and Iowa as a deputy national field director, has been accused of grabbing a female campaign staffer by her wrists and grabbing her head while kissing and putting his tongue in her mouth.
Customers are paying nearly 100% of Seattle’s new soda tax
Seattle soda drinkers are paying nearly every penny of a tax on sugary drinks that the City Council put in place in January 2018, according to a new study.
Statehouse Headliners: Guv’s inaugural praises role of churches, raises concern about Act 250, childcare reform
Gov. Phil Scott’s inaugural speech on Thursday put in a good word for churches and housing, but his discussion of childcare, broadband and Act 250 solutions raises concerns.
Roper: Pro-carbon tax SunCommon has more representation in Vermont House than any district
“Two employees of SunCommon, the VPIRG for-profit spin-off that feeds on renewable energy subsidies, plus the wife of the company’s president now serve in the Vermont House.”