Does Big Cannabis Have a Stranglehold on Vermont's Budding Industry? sevendaysvt.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from sevendaysvt.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Rep. Kimberly Jessup (D-Middlesex)
As of this week the legislature still aims to finish their work by May 22 although it remains to be seen how the negotiations between Governor Phil Scott and Democratic leaders in the House and Senate will play out. Secretary of Administration Susanne Young sent a letter to the House Appropriations Committee this week outlining the governor’s position on the Senate version of H.439. The memo indicates the governor cannot support the bill unless significant reallocations of American Recuse Plan Act (ARPA) funds are made.
The governor’s position is that ARPA funding was used in the Senate version of the budget for programmatic and ongoing appropriations that in his opinion should be funded with General Fund dollars. The letter from Secretary Young outlines the specific changes the governor is requesting relating to economic recovery, climate change, clean water funding, housing, broadband deployment and other sections of the budget.
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MONTPELIER â The Vermont Senate on Wednesday gave preliminary approval to its version of a bill barring the so-called âpanic defenseâ from being used by defendants accused of assaulting LBGTQ persons.
The bill, H. 128, bars defendants from justifying the use of force against a person due to knowledge or perception of that personâs sexual orientation or gender. It also bans evidence of a nonviolent romantic or sexual advance by a crime victim towards the defendant being used to mitigate the severity of such an offense.
The Senate version of the bill, which passed 29-0 â Senate President Pro Tem Becca Balint was presiding and did not vote â makes one significant addition to the House version by extending the prohibition to the sentencing phase of a trial. The House version of H. 128 was silent on sentencing.
Column | During a Discussion of Bias Against LGBT Victims, a Senator Invokes a Racist Trope sevendaysvt.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from sevendaysvt.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
The rift has been evident for decades. Former Republican governor
Jim Douglas traces the split all the way back to the fight between the conservative Proctor wing of the party and the moderate Gibson-Aiken faction, in the days when Vermont Democrats were so scarce that GOP politics were just about the only politics around. In the 1946 primary, moderate
Ernest W. Gibson Jr. beat incumbent Republican governor
Mortimer Proctor in a hard-fought race then went on to beat the Democrat with 80 percent of the vote. Vermont Republicans have had a successful history, especially since the rise of a strong Democratic opposition in the 1960s, of papering over these divisions, which perhaps gives evidence they could do so again.