Call-in Show Tonight on BT's On-Again Off-Again Relationship with Al Jazeera

Seven Days reported last week that municipally owned cable TV provider Burlington Telecom is dumping Al Jazeera's English language channel from its broadcast line-up.

We got one letter supporting BT's decision to drop the Arab news network, and several protesting it.

Tonight, the controversy is the subject of a live call-in show at 5:25 on Channel 17 (BT channel 317). You can show up at the studio at 5 to be part of the discussion.

Blogger and VCAM producer Bill Simmon wrote about BT's announcement on Monday, then posted about it again today. He poses the following questions:

• If you pulled Al Jazeera because of subscriber complaints, and that many subscribers (or more) have asked for it to remain, what is your justification for pulling it, exactly?
• Will you pull other channels out of the line-up because of similar complaints?  Would you pull Fox News if you received enough emails?  If not, what's different about that situation?
• Don't customers have the ability to block unwanted channels themselves (as required by law)?  Why pull an entire channel so nobody in the community can see it?  Why not just instruct customers who don't want the content in how to block it?

Tune in tonight. Looks like you might even be able to catch the program on CCTV's fancy pants new website.

UPDATE: Burlington Telecom's Ricard Donnelly responds to Bill's questions in the comments thread on that post.

The Hottest Thing on Eight Wheels

For those of you who don't know, there's a new sport in town: roller derby. Okay, it's actually an old sport, but it's making a comeback all around the country. A&E television even had a reality show called Rollergirls, if that gives you an idea of its budding popularity.

The 23 women athletes of Green Mountain Derby Dames are busting their asses at practice three times a week, then taking the community by storm, trying to build awareness, recruit skaters and raise funds to make our first bouting season happen in 2009. Most of us are relatively new skaters, but some of us were roller queens in the eighties, ice hockey players or just general all-around amazing athletes — like Star Slayer. Check out this photo of her, snapped by Adam Baisley down on the waterfront.

She freakin' ROCKS. Do you need another reason to love derby?

If you want to support the Green Mountain Derby Dames, consider yourself (and your twenty closest friends) invited to our "fun raiser" on Wednesday, May 28 at Higher Ground. We sold enough tickets to secure the ballroom, so we'll have plenty of room to put on an awesome derby demo for the crowd! You can also see three bands, Bone Cobra, Party Stay and Y69. Plus, we'll have raffles, meet-n-greet with dames and more. Tickets are $15 in advance, and you can get them at the Higher Ground box office, online or by asking one of your friendly local derby dames. Friend us on MySpace!

Skates and laces,
Ms. Candy Corn-ary
(or, as my Seven Days colleagues call me, Allison)

Burlington Bathroom Art

Like a lot of other people, I do some of my best thinking in the toilette. About a month ago, I was in the bathroom at the OP admiring some of the graffiti and I had an idea. I thought it would be fun to take pictures of graffiti in bar bathrooms and post them here. I didn't have a camera with me at the time, and I kinda forgot about the idea for a while.

About a week ago, I was at Esox with some pals having a few cocktails. When I went to the tinkletorium, I came across a particularly lovely work. Luckily, I had my camera this time.

Just now, I looked online to see if I could find anything about this captainmonteryjack fella. Turns out he's a Burlington guy with a blog and he writes some damn fine poetry. The fact that "balancing" is spelled wrong makes me think that he's not the one who put it on the wall, though.

To whoever did put it there, thanks. And you have a really cool "g."

City Council Sonnet #1

Ed. note — Missed the Church Street development debate at last night's City Council meeting in Burlington? Here's Staff Writer Mikes Ives' summary, in sonnet form:

The City Council knows the score on carbon,
An expert told our legislative body,
And yet, she noted, we're awfully slow to take action!
Oh yes, we know, Rep. Bushor said sympathetically.

"Exciting things" are planned, said Ronald Redmond,
The acting czar of Church Street Marketplace.
But Williston is an issue, Redmond warned —
Beware the threat of big-box retail space!

Once Redmond had concluded his power pointing,
The councilors prepared to take a vote:
All those in favor of marketplace triage,
Said Wright, Republican president-appointee,
Say yea; but Why? Ed Adrian proceeded to note;
He'd had enough of the capitalistic barrage.

An Eco-Transit Adventure

At 9:30 this morning, I hopped in a white Mercedes 300D with Charlie Herrick, co-owner of Green Cab VT, a new eco-conscious car service for the Burlington area. The cab company started up a few weeks ago and, according to Herrick, has already provided a few hundred rides to local residents.

"We figure the name and philosophy will catch on pretty quick," he said as we motored, "Hackie"-style, down Main Street on a tank full of biodeisel. "Every day, we get more calls."

Passing the Roxy, Herrick, 36, explained that he purchased the 1993 Benz — with only 79,082 miles — from a "little old lady" in Nebraska who graciously offered coffee and biscuits during the title-transfer ceremony. Another green cab is on the way, Herrick added, to be followed by all sorts of innovative rigs. Two ideas: a Prius with a solar panel on its roof, or electric cars charged on wind- and solar-generated electricity.

Burlington Telecomical

I was just checking out what was available on Burlington Telecom for movie rentals. I find it funny that they're getting rid of Al Jazeera, but you can rent movies like High School Reunion Rammin', Creamin' Mamacitas and Eat My Black Meat (pictured).

Building Community in a "Connected Age"

Governor Douglas has pledged to extend broadband and cell phone coverage to the entire state of Vermont by the year 2010.

That's a pretty ambitious goal. Who knows if we'll actually make it.

But let's say we do. What would a "connected" state look like? How will civic and community life change as more and more information goes online — and all Vermonters have the ability to access it quickly and easily?

Those are questions on the table at a day-long symposium on Thursday, May 29 — the official title is "Fulfilling Vermont's e-State Potential: Building Community in a 'Connected Age.'" The event is sponsored by the Snelling Center, and it's happening at Champlain College in Burlington.

Thoreau, the Deconstructionist

In these times of abundance we think ourselves clever or contrarian when we follow the path of least consumption. This is only because the default setting on American society has switched from "save" to "buy." But what is now considered frugal and savvy — mending zippers, selling scrap metal, salvaging building supplies — was once just common sense.

I was reminded of this recently, while reading Thoreau's Walden. In it, he is quite plainspoken about the preparations for his two-year-two-month-and-two-day experiment on the shore of Walden Pond. He borrows a friend's axe, clears a building site and uses the downed logs as the main structure for his dwelling. And then he buys a shanty from a simple married couple, because, in the words of the woman of the house, it has 'good boards overhead, good boards all around and good window.'

This is not the the way a seller usually talks about her house; the pieces being paramount to the whole. And that's because she knew Thoreau intended to deconstruct the shanty and use the pieces for his own cabin. After he pays for it, he says, "I took down this dwelling the same morning, drawing the nails, and removed it to the pond side by small cartloads, spreading the boards on the grass there to bleach and warp back again in the sun." Further on in the book, the shanty materials appear in a somewhat boastful tally of the costs of the cabin, which totaled, "In all,.........$28.12"

Ed. note: For more tales of deconstruction, check out Kirk's story this week about Vermont's recycled building materials business.

Delicious Dinkies!

Yesterday, Cathy walked by Ryan's desk and caught a glimpse of the Dinky Donuts ad that he was working on for the paper. This spurred a chain reaction that resulted in us ordering a sampler dozen and a bag of the Minis. You have to order them a day in advance, but they're delivered. Needless to say, I was more excited than usual to get to the office this morning.

We were all anxiously awaiting the delivery of the Dinkies, which arrived right around 9:40. It took great willpower to keep from diving in until after we took a few photos.

The Reviews

Maple Caramel: "The perfect amount of sweetness. Not too much maple, just a hint. Goes great with coffee. Reminded me of the beignets at Café Du Monde French Market in New Orleans." - Andrew

"Knocked my socks off!" -  Steve

Strawberry Homer: "It was the realest tasting strawberry I've every tasted. Trumps Dunkin Donuts." - Bridget

"I think it's going to kill me, that's what I think. It's like death on a napkin." - Rick

Chocolate Frosted: "Oh, I liked 'em!" - Cathy

"No better breakfast than chocolate." - Bridget

Minis: "More like a beignet... except granulated sugar instead of powdered." - Andrew

Don had the Boston Cream, but is currently unavailable for comment. Methinks he's gone to Donut Heaven...

Vermont: The "Social Capital Capital"?

Last weekend, while I watched soldiers parade through downtown St. Albans during the annual Vermont Maple Festival, I experienced a mushy moment. Militaristic fanfare aside, I thought, this is a really nice, wholesome, inspiring community event. I had just eaten a corn dog and a maple-glazed donut, watched Jim Douglas and Anthony Pollina shimmy down Main Street, and clapped for an elementary-school marching band. It felt so . . . American, but in a mostly good way.

Returning to Church Street that afternoon, I was struck by a funny contrast. Compared with downtown St. Albans, downtown Burlington is more cosmopolitan, and its sidewalk strollers more ethnically diverse. Yet, if Church Street feels like a large city in a good way, it also feels more anonymous — in a bad way.

Indeed, Church Street sometimes affects me in a similar way, albeit to a smaller degree, that New York City does: I'm excited by the diversity of faces passing by, but also disheartened by a lack of neighborliness, a preponderance of chain stores, etcetera.

Last night, I went to hear Harvard prof Robert Putnam address these very issues in a packed lecture hall at the University of Vermont. Putnam is an all-star sociologist who researches "social capital" — a fancy term for "neighborliness." In 2000, he wrote the landmark Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community, which warns that Americans are becoming more and more disconnected from each other. In other words, he worries that our "social capital" is declining.

Free Press = Fruit Loops?

Last week, Burlington's CCTV Channel 17 taped another episode of its Media Literacy Series. This one features Burlington Free Press environmental reporter Candy Page, Seven Days Staff Writer Ken Picard  and Champlain College professor Craig Chevrier. Chevrier teaches a class called "Social Responsibility in Media." His bio on the CCTV website says he serves as Vice President for the activist group Action Coalition for Media Education, although he's not listed as such on the ACME website. (UPDATE: Chevrier is the veep — and the secretary! — of the Vermont chapter of ACME).

The podcast is an hour long, and some of the questions are less than exciting (i.e. "Where do you get the photos that appear in your paper?") But it's worth listening to, if only to hear Chevrier accuse Page and the Free Press of being "Fruit Loops." The exchange happens about halfway through the podcast.

Says Chevrier, "The news is a product, for most news outlets. They need to sell it, and they need to make a profit on it. I equate the mainstream popular press, or the corporate press, to Fruit Loops, or Cheez Whiz. Nabisco or Kraft sell that stuff, they make money on it. Is it nutritious? No. It possibly does more harm to you than it does good..."

He goes on a for another few sentences, then Page interrupts. She sounds pissed.

"So are you saying that the Free Press is Fruit Loops?" she demands. "That my work is Fruit Loops? That it doesn't have any nutritional content?"

Chevrier responds, "I'm saying on the whole, yes, I think the Free Press is the journalistic equivalent of Fruit Loops."

"I cannot disagree more," says Page. "I think that is insulting, it's inaccurate, and it's an attack on the work that I've spent the last 30 years doing." 

Ok, I'm a frequent critic of the Free Press, but I gotta say, Candy Page is no Fruit Loop. In my mind, she epitomizes what's right about the Free Press, not what's wrong with it.

Down in the Hole in America

The New York Times: "The United States has less than 5 percent of the world’s population. But it has almost a quarter of the world's prison population . . . . Americans are locked up for crimes — from writing bad checks to using drugs — that would rarely produce prison sentences in other countries."

The Times reports that the U.S. has the highest number of prisoners per 100,000 population — 751 — in the world. That's compared to Japan, 63; Germany, 88 and England, 151. Even Russia and China stick fewer people in jail cells than the United States. And no one imposes longer prison sentences than American judges.

According to the Times' experts, a number of factors help explain the country's "extraordinary incarceration rate: higher levels of violent crime, harsher sentencing laws, a legacy of racial turmoil, a special fervor in combating illegal drugs, the American temperament, and the lack of a social safety net. Even democracy plays a role, as judges — many of whom are elected, another American anomaly — yield to populist demands for tough justice."

The Times story doesn't dig into two related issues: the conditions in American prisons; and who benefits when the answer to every anti-social act is a jail cell.

Seven Days readers are probably familiar with Paul Wright, an ex-con from Brattleboro who has become a fierce advocate for U.S. prisoners. Wright started up Prison Legal News in 1990, and has documented dozens of cases of prisoner abuse and exploitation. In January, PLN reported (subscription required) that Vermont leads the country in the percentage of prisoners who take anti-psychotic medications.

Check out Ken Picard's fascinating March 2007 profile of Wright here.

Wright and PLN just published a new anthology, called Prison Profiteers: Who Profits from Mass Incarceration, that examines the $185 billion taxpayers spend locking people up in America. The book looks at the private prison companies, investment banks, churches, medical corporations and other industries and individuals that benefit from the prison business.  

Sustainable Woodstock

Maybe this is how it will happen.

In the absence of leadership on energy policy and global warming from our elected leaders, individual communities will turn inward, to their own resources of creativity, camaraderie and intelligence, and begin to right the ship. Town by town, city by city, they will put their shoulders to the wheel and make minuscule but measurable corrections of course.

Something like this is happening in Woodstock, and it is heartening to see. On the night of Earth Day, a new community group called Sustainable Woodstock (the name says it all), organized a celebration, and a sort of coming out party for the group, at the Town Hall Theater. The house was packed with young and old, and everyone was buzzing with curiosity, a rare energy for an otherwise sedate citizenry. I couldn't stay for the whole show (our six-month old daughter was getting a little too vocal), but I liked what I saw.

Moose Leaves Burlington

The Burlington Free Press reports that the moose on the loose earlier today has scampered safely away into South Burlington.

Moose on the Loose!

View Larger Map

This morning we got a call about a moose sighting on Ledge Road in Burlington. Toffee Cowles called to tell us that she had a picture of the lanky beast. Sadly, it's on a disposable camera. And there are 23 pictures left, so she doesn't think she's going to get it developed anytime soon.

Cowles spotted the moose around 8:25 a.m. She says it looked "hungry and scared.""He was loping across the front of my garden," she says. "He was tall! My garden fence is at least 5 feet tall and it came up to his shoulders."

Cowles was able to grab her disposable camera for a photo. "I got a shot of his butt with his head turned to the left," she says. "If it comes out, it'll be a real beauty."

After a few minutes, the moose wandered off. "I heard great crashing and smashing of branches after he headed down the street," reports Cowles. For more on the moose sighting, see the WCAX website.

For Cowles, the experience was a reminder that "not all of the Burlington wildlife is in the bars."

Vote for Front Porch Forum

Everyone's favorite neighborhood email newsletter service is up for an award — Burlington-based Front Porch Forum is one of 20 finalists for a Make It Your Own Award from the Case Foundation. The foundation is trying to encourage people to "come together to create a vision and work toward the common good."

You might have heard tireless FPF founder Michael Wood-Lewis talking about this on VPR the other day. Or you may have come across this video about FPF, produced by the local cable access channels.

If FPF wins, Wood-Lewis gets a $25,000 grant to spend on upgrading his neighbor-to-neighbor service. He's already getting 10 grand for being one of 5000 applicants to crack the top 20.

So who's choosing the winners? You are.

Go to the Case Foundation website and cast your vote for your four favorite projects. The top four vote getters get 25 grand. Do it soon — voting ends April 22. That's next Tuesday.

Click here if you're having trouble with the ballot.

Half the News, Not Fit to Print

Under the category of "Why Your Daily Newspaper is Becoming Useless" comes Tuesday's front-pager in the Free Press, under the headline "Divorce, unwed parents taking toll on taxpayers." The story, from the Associated Press, was about a study that purportedly proves "divorce and out-of-wedlock childbearing costs U.S. taxpayers more than a $112 billion a year."

Two things caught my eye about the piece — its A1 treatment and its brevity. The play seemed to indicate the research is newsworthy. On the other hand, its length (about 160 words)  suggested there is nothing particularly significant about the study beyond the ONE-HUNDRED-AND-TWELVE-BILLION DOLLAR price tag and the desire among its sponsors for more government investment to "bolster marriage."

Turns out neither of those things are exactly what they seem.

The first clue is the story as it was reported and written by AP staff writer David Crary, which was how it appeared in the Freep's online edition. Unlike readers of the paper, you will note that the study was sponsored by four groups, including the Institute for American Values, the Georgia Family Council, an "ally" of the Rev. James Dobson's band of conservative homophobes, Focus on the Family, and the Institute for Marriage and Public Policy, whose president Maggie Gallagher was exposed as a paid hack for the Bush Administration's $300 million marriage initiative.

Astute Vermonters might remember Gallagher and IMPP for their ardent opposition to Vermont's civil-union statute. Gallagher, an affiliate scholar for the study's lead sponsor, the Institute for American Values, has said that the very future of the republic rests on society's willingness to establish "a national definition of marriage" that would prohibit same-sex unions.

My complaint is less about the views of Gallagher and her ilk, which have plenty of detractors, than it is with how the Free Press treated this supposedly "new" research. First of all, it's not new — the IAV and the IMPP are major cogs in the conservative machinery that wants a constitutional ban on gay marriage and civil unions. Second, why were the opposing viewpoints that Crary included in his story left out of the Freep's print version?

I can see the story getting this kind of treatment in a lot of places — Texas and Oklahoma, for example, which are spending millions of taxpayer dollars on "pro-marriage" programs. But, here in Vermont, where residents — some of whom may actually read the Free Press — have fought to create a supportive environment for same-sex couples and their children, a "new study" by the same old ideologues deserved a more thoughful — and skeptical — approach.

Listen to Hackie

Ever wonder what "Hackie" columnist Jernigan Pontiac sounds like? Then listen to this recording, in which he reads one of his recent stories, Elegy for Frenchy.

Former Point DJ and program director Jody Peterson recorded this track in her Montpelier studio.

Winooski Library on Facebook

I'm on the Winooski Library Advisory Board, and I just want everyone to know that the Winooski Memorial Library now has a page on Facebook.

If you're on Facebook, you can join me in being a fan of the Onion City's awesome library, located in the Champlain Mill.

Also, if you live in Winooski and are interested in joining the Library Advisory Board, let me know. We've got a couple openings.

New Kids on the (Climate Change) Block

Folks are getting angry about global warming. Just take a look at this video from September, in which hundreds of attractive Swiss people — wearing matching slippers — laid their bare bums on a glacier to show their government they mean business when it comes to carbon emissions.

("What seems hard, is not," one activist said. "It's slowly shrinking, slowly melting.")

So I wasn't surprised to hear, last week, that kids were jumping into the fray — of climate protest. Earlier this month, a few dozens elementary-age students from the Aurora School in Middlebury held a march to raise awareness about global warming. Some, reports one supportive mother, dressed up as "environmental issue[s] or solution[s]" — for example, a compact-florescent light bulb. Towards the end of the day, about 40 handmade nylon bags were distributed to encourage conscientious shopping.

Here's a snapshot from a speech that was delivered from the steps of a building on the Middlebury College campus, from Gloria Estela González.

Too bad Vermont legislators didn't attend. Back in January, a few of them introduced a bill that would impose a tax on plastic bags. But judging from the state's bill-status page, it will likely die in committee.

Extreme Blunder

Here's one for the "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" blooper reel.

Less than a year ago, the reality TV show's producers chose the Vitale family in Athens, Vermont, as the recipients of a new, custom-built home. The Vitale's son was born with severe birth defects, and their home wasn't handicapped accessible. So the "Extreme Makeover" crew descended on Athens, tore down the family's old house, and built them an energy-efficient, handicapped accessible, 3000 square-foot home.

Too bad they didn't double check their work on the septic system — the Vitales have now abandoned their new house after the town health officer discovered E. coli in the water running off their property. D'oh!

Even worse, the Brattleboro Reformer reports that the Vitale family may be responsible for making the necessary repairs.

The production is tightly scripted and the Vitales had to sign a contract with ABC and with the McKernon Group, the Brandon contractor that led the project.

That contract, which puts strict limits on what Vitale can say about the experience, appears to hold the Vitales liable for any problems that occur away from the general construction, according to Vitale.

"The contract is designed to protect them," [Louis] Vitale said. "When they were finished, we had to take the house. No questions asked."

And fixing the mess won't be cheap.

Vitale said he has been talking with representatives from the McKernon Group. And while they have agreed to help with engineering for a new septic system and leach field if that is needed, the Vitales are going to have to come up with the estimated $10,000 to $30,000 it will likely cost to install a new system.

"It's terrible. We don't have $30,000 to fix it," he said. "We can't use our septic system and I sure as hell can't afford to put in a new leach field."

Vitale, who works at a 7-Eleven in Bondville, said his only option is to mortgage the new property and sink a couple thousand dollars into the field near his house.

Maybe they'll do another episode on the leach field.

I Scream, You Scream

Spring might have seemed like an illusion at times this past weekend. But some acts of nature don't lie. Wherever he went, he's back.

JULIUS LEVINE CILLO, R.I.P.

Hey, all animal lovers, and anyone who's ever lost a beloved pet: Thought I'd share (with permission) this moving and beautifully written eulogy by Seven Days columnist Judith Levine to her kitty, Julius.

Condolences from all of us, Judith and Paul.

Julius Levine Cillo, Most Excellent Cat, Dies at 16

Anyone who met him knew that Julius was an extraordinary cat: sweet, intelligent, articulate, patient, funny, and of course, soft and orange. He was a cosmopolitan fellow, equally at home chasing critters in the fields of Vermont as he was batting a jingle ball up and down our Brooklyn apartment.

We met him in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where he walked in off the street and adopted our friends the Whiteheads. He was crazy, leaping onto their screen door and hanging there stretched out like a hide on the side of a barn.

But as soon as he got to Vermont, he calmed right down and got to work managing the mouse herd, inside and out. His tactics were brilliant. In the house, he would bring his prey to the bathtub — a little Coliseum where the lion had the clear advantage over the tiny, trapped Christian — to complete the deed. Even when he was elderly and stiff, he caught a mouse in the kitchen and dragged it upstairs to our bedside — still attached to the mousetrap. Assisted mousing!

Enough Already

We get a fair amount of letters here at Seven Days world headquarters. Most of them are pretty thoughtful responses to our stories and reviews and, for better or worse, they largely reflect Vermont's distinctly liberal ethos, especially when it comes to the environment.

In other words, it's pretty rare when we hear from someone like Angela L. Emerson of Essex Junction, who is living proof — she can correct me, if I'm wrong, but I don't think I am — that there is at least one global-warming denier living in the Green Mountain State.

"I have just been notified," Ms. Emerson states, breathlessly, in an April 4 email to Seven Days, "that the Essex High School Science Department has been showing the highly controversial movie 'The Inconvenient Truth.'"

After informing us that the movie was "made by a politician who has no scientific background what so ever" (sic), and whose motivation is mere "money and power," she directs our attention to "The Great Swindle," a British documentary that focuses on the scientists and "commentators" who don't believe that human-produced CO2 is the primary cause of climate change.

"These are the minds of science that we should be listening to," she says, "not some politician."

I understand there are people who don't like Al Gore, and I understand that not every person worried about climate change found "The Inconvenient Truth" to be flawless or, for that matter, worthy of an Oscar. But I've never understood people, like Ms. Emerson, who scream "propaganda," then attempt to set the rest of us straight by doling out manipulative and easily discredited pap of their own.

Nutraloaf... Yum!

Last week we learned that Vermont prison inmates don't like Nutraloaf. Apparently, when inmates "misuse" their food and utensils, prison officials feed them Nutraloaf. Now some of them are suing to stop that practice.

But is Nutraloaf really so bad? Naturally, all of us here were wondering. So reporter Mike Ives visited the Northwest State Correctional Facility to try some. And lucky us, he brought a batch back to the office, so we all got a taste! Here's Allison Davis and Brooke Dooley, helping themselves.

My verdict — not too bad, but the aftertaste is kinda unpleasant. Here's Mike's story on prison food from this week's Seven Days.

Green Mountain Derby Dames

Green Mountain Derby Dames from Howlermano on Vimeo.

Well hello there, Blurt readers.

Yesterday afternoon, I posted a new video featuring The Green Mountain Derby Dames over on my own little slice of cyberspace, Solid State, and I thought I'd share it with you folks, too.

A little bit of background:

The video was filmed by Jeff Holwett from Howlerman Productions. Mr. Howlett is better known among music fans as the front man for local hardcore outfit 5 Seconds Expired, who rock. Hard. The music for this particular vid was provided by Boston punk band The Faithfull, who rock pretty hard themselves.

The Derby Dames are . . . well, you'll see. But they rock too. Just as hard, if not harder, than the previously mentioned bands, in fact. If any of you folks happen to run into them, please let them know I said so, because I believe they have it out for me . . .

Without further adieu, The Green Mountain Derby Dames!

Commenters Bash Cops on Addy Indy Site

The Addison Independent recently put a controversial poll on its website, asking if readers think the police are doing enough to find missing Middlebury student Nicholas Garza.

The poll has generated 727 votes, and two pages of reader comments, many of them critical of the Middlebury PD. Apparently, the cops asked the Indy to take down the poll, and editor/publisher Angelo Lynn refused.

This is from Lynn's comment on the poll:

The criticism of the Middlebury Police Department is no reason to take the issue off the site. Rather, the police department and its supporters should view this discourse as a measure of public concern, frustration and anxiety about Nick Garza’s disappearance. By understanding the frustration and anxiety, they can better respond to that aspect of the operation.

The Hard Way to Get a Moose Permit?

Serve in Iraq or Afghanistan.

A press release from anti-war Rep. Peter Welch:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

April 4, 2008

CONTACT:  

Andrew Savage

Welch lauds Vt. law establishing moose permit program for Iraq and Afghanistan veterans

“I commend the Vermont legislature and Governor for their bipartisan work to see this idea through, from a cafeteria in Iraq to a convenience store in Plainfield.”

Plainfield, VT – Rep. Peter Welch joined Members of the Vermont General Assembly, Governor Jim Douglas, and Waneta Mayhew, mother of Spc. Clinton Holt, for a bill signing ceremony in Plainfield today.

While in Iraq in January, Welch had a meal with a group of Vermont soldiers. When asked by Welch what they needed, Spc. Holt, an avid outdoorsman from Plainfield, responded that he hoped for a moose permit this year.

Welch conveyed the wishes of Spc. Holt to members of the Vermont General Assembly, which lead to the passage of H.788, an act establishing a moose permit program for veterans of operations in Afghanistan and Iraq.  The law sets aside five of Vermont’s 1,000 moose permits for veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

“There are very simple things those of us in Vermont enjoy each day that our soldiers serving us in Iraq and Afghanistan go without. A chance at a moose permit sounds small, but this law serves as recognition of what is being sacrificed by our soldiers,” said Welch.  “I commend the Vermont legislature and Governor for their bipartisan work to see this idea through, from a cafeteria in Iraq to a convenience store in Plainfield.”

Photo: Sgt. Joseph E. Nelson, St. Albans; Sgt. Melinda Heck, Winooski; Rep. Peter Welch; LTC Will Osburn, Helotes, TX (Vermont Law School graduate); SSG Byron Braswell, Sharon; and SPC Clinton Holt, Plainfield. 

End Women's Suffrage?

Here's a disturbing viral video from UVM TV — last year, reporter Matt Lewis asked female students what they think about the dramatic increase in women's suffrage since 1920. Can you guess what they said?

And yes, we're talking about the right to vote... but of course Lewis didn't explain that to them.

I find this video somewhat meanspirited and sexist — but also funny. A few of the women knew it was a trick question, but the ones who didn't sound soooooo clueless. One actually looked at the camera and said, "I believe women's suffrage is unfortunate and should stop."

Groan.

Thanks, Dan G., for sending us the link.

Seven Days Hires Shay Totten As New Political Columnist

Stop the presses!

Veteran Vermont journalist Shay Totten will be taking over as our new political columnist. We sent out a press release earlier today.

SEVEN DAYS HIRES SHAY TOTTEN AS
NEW POLITICAL COLUMNIST

Vermont’s only alternative weekly, Seven Days has a new political columnist: Shay Totten of Burlington will take over the beat previously covered by Peter Freyne, who retired his popular “Inside Track” column two weeks ago.

MS Poster Girl

I got an unexpected phone call the other day — yet another one of my acquaintances was just diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. I was diagnosed with MS in 2002, and actually wrote a first-person story about it in 2005.

Since then, three local thirty- and forty-something women I know have contacted me to let me know that they, too, have been diagnosed with MS. That seems like a lot to me, although I know we're basically the target MS demographic.

I bring this all up because I've been thinking about it the last few days — but also because I just read Sarah Tuff's story from this week's Seven Days about Dr. Bernie Siegel. He's speaking on Friday at the Sheraton. His talk, "The Art of Healing," is sponsored by the Vermont Cancer Center, but I found his interview relevant to my own experience as an MS patient. This, for example:

Bernie Siegel: Thirty years ago, if I said, “A sense of humor will help you live longer,” [the response would be], “Where’d you read that? Did you do any research?” Now, there have been studies . . . 

SD: Getting a procedure or treatment can be terrifying, isolating. How can someone find a sense of humor in situations like that?
BS: Well, I call it being childlike. It’s not offensive humor. A woman was in total panic over her operation, and I spent so much time trying to calm her down, but nothing was working. So we wheeled her into the operating room, and she said, “Thank God all these wonderful people are going to take care of me.” I said, “I’ve worked with these people for years; they’re not wonderful.” She then busted out laughing and we became family.

When you laugh, you can’t be afraid. It just changes your chemistry.

I've definitely found that to be true. My partner, Ann-Elise, and I have lots of little jokes that make us laugh when I have to inject my MS medication (Rebif) three nights a week. We keep the shots in the fridge, and we often joke that we're like the kids in the old Sunny Delight commercials. "OJ, purple stuff... Hey, Rebif! All right!"

It's really funny to us, but maybe you have to be there.

Incidentally, at the end of that interview, Bernie Siegel says his wife has MS.

April Fool's Day Prank

Check it out — "Wood Lot" at Vermont Scrap Wood wrote an eerily observant April Fool's Day post poking fun at the Vermont blogosphere, including me and 7D:

I've been as confused as anyone with all the changes to the 7Days website and blogs recently but it all became clear in a press conference this morning when spokesperson, Rathy Cresmer, announced that 7Days had completed the acquisition of both Green Mountain Daily and Vermont Tiger. Rathy said, "My readers know that I have been AWOL much of the past year as I have been attending important media conferences around the country. I learned that this new media business is all about page views and building advertising networks through owning and operating a variety of online properties."

Wow. Obviously this person has been paying attention to my sadly neglected little blog. Cool!

Read the rest. For those of us who keep up with the Vermont blogosphere, it's pretty funny. Nice work, Woody.

Twinfield Students Heart Small Scale Hydro

A group of ninth-graders at Twinfield Union School in Plainfield wants to fight global warming by building a small hydro-electric plant on school grounds. Kids these days.

The "Twinfield Hydro Team" explains their project in an op-ed in today's Times Argus:

We're proposing to divert a small amount of water through an 18-inch pipe before it's returned to the river. Depending on how much water we're able to use, we could generate enough power to cut Twinfield's $60,000 energy bill half or eliminate it entirely. We could reduce our school's carbon footprint, help our school budget and still maintain proper flows in the river to protect fish throughout the year.

Pretty cool, right? But they wrote the op-ed because they're having a hard time getting through the Agency of Natural Resource's permitting process. Bummer.

I stumbled upon this story while I was looking for Vermont videos on YouTube. I found this one, from James O'Hanlon at Moonlight Video. Last summer, middle school student (now high school student) Emyln Crocker spoke with 89-year-old former state legislator Alvin Warner about a small hydro-electric plant on his land in Lowell. Warner built it in the 1970s, as an alternative to the nuclear power generated by Vermont Yankee.

The best part about this video, other than all of the lush green foliage, is Warner's accent. This dude is no hippy.

Best of luck, you wild, rebellious teenagers!

Christ has Risen

This kind of "news" is a guilty pleasure for me.

Blogged with the Flock Browser

Nutraloaf: Cruel and Unusual Punishment?

When prisoners in Vermont poop on their plates and throw it at prison guards, the guards fight back by feeding them nutraloaf. But a group of prisoners is suing the state to stop that practice, because nutraloaf is gross.

From the AP on Sunday:

On Monday, the Vermont Supreme Court will hear arguments in a class action suit brought by inmates who say [nutraloaf is] not food but punishment and that anyone subjected to it should get a formal disciplinary process first.

Prison officials see nutraloaf as a tool for behavior modification.

"It's commonplace in other states as a way of providing nutrition in a mechanism that dissuades inmates from throwing feces, urine, trays and silverware," said Vermont Corrections Commissioner Rob Hofmann.

****

Seth Lipschutz, an attorney with Vermont's Prisoner's Rights office, says the state has a legitimate interest in changing the behavior of inmates who misbehave.

But he says a diet of nutraloaf is punishment, plain and simple. To call it anything else is "playing with words to get what they want. It's wrong and it's sad," Lipschutz said.

Ok, I agree that it's weird that the state is using food as punishment, but is nutraloaf really that bad?

Vermont Media on Peter Freyne's Departure

If you saw Seven Days yesterday, you know that longtime political columnist Peter Freyne is retiring the Inside Track. As I said yesterday, we're all sad to see him go.

And so, apparently, is Senator Patrick Leahy. Dan Barlow of the Vermont Press Bureau interviewed Leahy for a lengthy story about Freyne that appeared today in the Times Argus.

U.S. Sen. Patrick Leahy said Wednesday that Freyne's retirement is a "big loss" for Vermont. The columnist has an institutional memory of Vermont politics and was always unafraid to "look behind the façade" or ask probing questions to find out "what is really going on," the Democratic senator said.

"I went to his blog every day," Leahy said. "He is the type of writer who clearly knows hypocrisy. But he also knows the difference between healthy skepticism and cynicism."

Leahy also delivered some friendly barbs at Freyne, joking that he was happy that he was born blind in one eye so that he didn't have to see the columnist in his biker shorts in the summer. Later he joked that Freyne's hair loss during his cancer battle was "because he wanted to look more like me."

"Seriously, Peter was very courageous in how he wrote about his cancer as he was fighting it," Leahy said. "It takes guts to do that."

The Burlington Free Press ran a little story, too, in the Living section. They didn't interview anybody, or link to our website. The item doesn't have a byline.

There is one little hyperlink in their story, though. Look closely — the word "health" is highlighted. The story mentions Freyne's battle with cancer, so I figured that the health link would take me to a blog post or an article about Freyne's health. But no, no. It's an inline text ad for some "Chinese weight loss secret."

This is exactly the kind of media criticism Freyne would write about in his column. I will really, really miss him.

UPDATE: looks like the Free Press has removed that embedded inline ad in the Freyne story.

iBrattleboro Cleared in Libel Suit — Duh

Remember the iBrattleboro libel lawsuit? The one that some people suggested might wind up before the U.S. Supreme Court? 

The judge handling the case just dismissed iBrattleboro from the suit.

Background on the case here, here and here.

Freyne's Last Track

Seven Days political columnist Peter Freyne is retiring Inside Track as of today. Vermont political junkies know it's the end of an era.

Seven Days will definitely miss Pedro's take on the state of our state. And so, apparently, will all these people who are commenting on the blog post where he announced the news. If you want to wish him well, that's the place to do it.

Welcome to Blurt

Welcome to Blurt, the Seven Days staff blog. Everyone at Seven Days can contribute, so you never know what you'll find here. We aim to deliver an interesting mix of news, videos, political analysis, art and media criticism, and links to cool stuff we find on the web.

If you've got something you think we should blurt, email us!

Bloggers, Journalists and Sourcing

Here's a little Vermont blogger inside baseball news for you.

Last Friday, VPR aired a report raising questions about the political motives behind the crackdown on Intervale Compost. I heard it while I was on my way to pick my son up from daycare.

One thing about the story immediately jumped out at me — the meaty part was a conversation during which Agency of Natural Resources secretary George Crombie allegedly said he had Intervale Compost "in a noose."

People who have been following the story may recall that John Odum posted that item on Green Mountain Daily. But though VPR obviously used Odum's intel, it didn't cite GMD. Reporter John Dillon told listeners that the conversation appeared "on a web blog."

I was surprised and disappointed that VPR declined to name GMD. Bloggers who raise important issues deserve to be credited, especially when others use their reporting as a jumping off point for a story.

I wrote to VPR this weekend to complain about the omission, and John Dillon wrote back: "We had intended to name the blog and will make that addition in the web version of the story."

I just checked, and they have, in fact, inserted GMD in the online version.

I think the GMD-related bit of the story is worth sharing here, too. It's a good example of how journalists and bloggers can work together to advance the public understanding of an important issue. From the transcript of the VPR report:

On the Green Mountain Daily blog it was stated recently that Agency of Natural Resources Secretary George Crombie told the Intervale that he had the center in a -- quote -- “noose.” For some at the meeting, the meaning was clear: Crombie was going to tighten the regulatory vise on the compost center. 

Intervale Director Kit Perkins was there.  

 

(Perkins) ``It was upsetting. But I certainly didn’t get it out publicly. This is not my initiative here. But I will tell the truth and say yes that was said at the meeting.’’  

 

(Dillon) Crombie has said publicly that the Intervale is the wrong place for a composting operation.  

 

But Crombie said he did not use the word noose to describe his agency’s hold on the Intervale.  

 

(Crombie) ``No. No. I would not do that.’’  

 

(Dillon) Perkins said she said heard Crombie say it. She said she was hoping to work with the state on resolving the environmental and archaeological concerns.

As someone who's following this story closely, I was grateful for the opportunity to hear both Perkins and Crombie respond.

Alas, for some reason, the VPR website doesn't actually link to GMD's blog post. And it doesn't name Odum as the source of the tip. So there's still room for improvement.

What's He Been Smoking?

Responsible TV-news viewers — a shrinking subset that, I suspect, includes the Blurt audience — probably missed Bill O'Reilly's Talking Points Memory the other night, when Fox's chief crackpot went off on Vermont, again.

As a newcomer to the Green Mountain State, I might have been interested in an informed dissection of Vermont's perceived shortcomings. So far, my reaction to the state of affairs here has been: What's not to like? A preponderance of dope smokers -- which O'Reilly cites as an an example of "secular progressive" evil -- certainly isn't going to make me believe that "Vermont has become the most troubled state in the union."

C'mon, Bill, just four months ago, the United Health Foundation, a non-profit health advocacy group rated each state on 20 key measures of wellness, such as rates of obesity, infant mortality, cancer deaths and high school graduation — and found Vermont to be the healthiest state in the country.

Pointing out the error of O'Reilly's ways is a full-time job, one in which I or anyone else here at Seven Days has the time or stomach for. Fortunately, you can keep up with the non-stop hilarity at one of my favorite blogs, Crooks & Liars. The folks at Media Matters for America do a fine job of tracking the antics of Bill and all your favorite right-wing nutjobs, too.

St. Michael's Day

St. Mike's administrators are totally loving us this week.

For this week's "Campus Question," St. Mike's student Jon Taylor asked some of his fellow purple knights a) Why'd St. Michael get to be a saint? And b) if he had a St. Patrick's-style day, how would we celebrate it?

I won't give away their answers, but let's just say that not many of them know the answer to a), and there's a lot of drinking involved in b).

Spitzer Update

Well, it's official. While previously seen with politicos like Howard Dean, Patrick Leahy and Madeline Kunin, The House of LeMay denies any connection with NY Governor Eliot Spitzer.

Bucket-o-Awesomeness

Does everyone else love The Pennycluse as much as I do?

I recently started to trade everything Burlington in favor of everything Winooski, but this morning brought me back downtown for a brunch with friends. And I have to say that there is one thing the Onion City is missing that I find only at my old favorite breakfast haunt.

That is, the Bucket-O-Spuds.

Potatoes, onions, sour cream, salsa, and cheese? For breakfast? Talk about a guilty pleasure.

And talk about YUM.

Perfect ice storm comfort food, that's for sure.