Media Note: WCAX Probes Welch's "Role" in IRS Scandal

Is Congressman Peter Welch (D-Vt.) to blame for sicking the Internal Revenue Service dogs on conservative political groups and launching a national scandal?

That's the impression one might have gotten from watching a WCAX report Wednesday night examining a letter Welch sent the IRS in March 2012.

Introducing the story, WCAX anchor Kristin Kelly promises serious drama, saying Welch "is now feeling some heat" from a scandal that's rocked the Obama administration and already claimed the jobs of at least two top IRS officials.

Senior political reporter Kristin Carlson takes it from there.

"The fallout hitting the White House has also reached Congressman Peter Welch," she reports. "Some conservative critics charge he encouraged the IRS to do what so many are angry about now."

Exhibit A?

"In a press release last year announcing he sent letters to the IRS and president," Carlson says, "Welch encouraged the IRS to, quote, 'investigate whether nonprofit 501(c)(4) organizations affiliated with Super PACs — such as Crossroads GPS, the Karl Rove-backed group... are in violation.'"

Wait a second. Welch specifically called on the IRS to investigate Crossroads GPS? 

Well, no. Not exactly.

Media Note: Sneyd Leaving VPR for National Life

Six years after joining Vermont Public Radio, news director Ross Sneyd is leaving the station next Friday to take a communications gig at the Montpelier-based National Life Group.

Though he says he "did not do it lightly and gave it a lot of thought," the veteran Vermont journalist says it's time to try something new. He says he's particularly looking forward to cutting down his daily commute from Plainfield to VPR's Colchester studio and spending more time running the bed-and-breakfast he owns with his partner.

"VPR, I think, has established itself as the leading news organization in Vermont — or certainly one of the leading news organizations," he says. "I'm really proud of what VPR does and what it will continue to do. I will continue to be a listener and a member and wish them all the best luck."

A longtime fixture in the Vermont journalism scene, Sneyd moved to the state in 1987 to take a job with the Burlington Free Press. He spent 18 years reporting for the Associated Press — the final 16 of them in its Montpelier bureau — before joining VPR in 2007. 

This Week's Issue: Why Vermont Domestic Abusers Keep Their Guns; Next Steps for Livable Wage in Burlington

In this week's Home & Garden issue of Seven Days...

• Federal law says domestic abusers are prohibited from possessing firearms, but Vermont has few safeguards to keep guns out of the wrong hands.
• Vermont and other maple-producing states are in the midst of a "liquid gold rush" — but is big maple a bubble in danger of bursting?
• No one checked on Burlington's livable wage ordinance for 12 years. What's next?
• It's commencement season, which means a few lucky folks will have honorary degrees bestowed upon them by Vermont colleges.
• In Fair Game, Paul Heintz breaks down yesterday's grand bargain on taxes and the state budget between Gov. Peter Shumlin and legislative leaders.
• Lastly, "Stuck in Vermont" features a character that might be familiar to lawmakers, lobbyists, reporters and anyone else who makes the Burlington-Montpelier commute: Buddy Longworth, the most interesting bus driver on the road.

The Week Ahead: May 6-12, 2013

It's the last week of the legislative session in Montpelier — or so they say!

Here's what else is happening in Vermont news and politics this week. Got a newsworthy event for next week's calendar? Email by Friday to submit.

Monday, May 6

• The House gavels in at 1 p.m. On the lengthy calendar: third reading for the immigrant driver's-license bill.
• The House and Senate set to work resolving differnences in their versions of the tax and budget bills. Conference committees begin at 2 p.m. (budget bill) and 5:30 p.m. (tax bill) and are scheduled to continue all week.
• The Legislature might be in crunch mode, but Gov. Peter Shumlin is apparently leaving the arm-twisting to his staff today. The gov's schedule: 9 a.m. in Johnson for a ceremonial lease signing, 10 a.m. in Morrisville for a library centennial, and noon in Montpelier for a state employees recognition luncheon at the Elks Club. 
• Live at 5:25 p.m., State Auditor Doug Hoffer will be on Channel 17. Watch live.
• At 7 p.m., the Burlington City Council meets at city hall, where they'll vote on the appointment of Bob Rusten as Mayor Miro Weinberger's pick for chief administrative officer.

 Rest of the week after the break...

St. Mike's Grad Shares a Pulitzer Prize for Journalism

A St. Michael's College graduate is a member of a New York Times team that on Monday was awarded a Pulitzer Prize for explanatory reporting.

Jonah Kessel, who graduated from St. Mike's in 2005 and from Champlain Valley Union High School in 1999, won recognition for his work as a videographer in a series of Times stories about the business practices of Apple and other computer firms. Entitled "The iEconomy," the series included stories on how cheaper factories in China were chosen over U.S. manufacturers to produce the iPhone. Kessel, 32, made two videos about those factories in China, where he works for the Times and other news organizations.

Interviewed on Tuesday by phone at his parents' home in Shelburne, where he is staying before returning to China in a few days, Kessel called the experience of sharing in journalism's highest honor "a bit surreal." He added that it was "an honor I was not expecting."

But Traci Griffith, chair of the St. Michael's Media Studies, Journalism & Digital Arts Department, said "it's not surprising" that Kessel's work has been recognized by Columbia University's Pulitzer committee. Griffith recalled Kessel's senior seminar project, which took the form a co-produced website on the loss of the Abenaki language in Vermont.

"Jonah is gifted," she said. "He was the sort of student who never had to be pushed to experiment or to move beyond where he was comfortable."

Kessel's father, Herb Kessel, works as an economics professor at St. Michael's.

Griffith noted that it's the first time a St. Michael's alumnus has been awarded a Pulitzer.

Kessel said that while the Times sponsors his visa for China, he is not a fulltime employee of the newspaper, which won three other Pulitzers on Monday. The Times did offer him its congratulations in an internal communication, Kessel added.

Amid National Feminist Debate, VPT Airs New Kunin Documentary

Anne-Marie Slaughter and Sheryl Sandberg might be hogging the limelight when it comes to the national debate over women in the workplace, but in little ol' Vermont, it's a veteran stateswoman who has taken up the banner for better access to childcare, paid parental leave and flexible work schedules — all factors that former governor Madeleine Kunin believes would encourage women's leadership and participation in the workforce.

That advocacy is on display in the new documentary Madeleine Kunin: Political Pioneer, which debuts tonight on Vermont Public Television at 9 p.m. and is also available to stream online. The hourlong documentary is charts the private and political life of Vermont's first woman governor. If you've been following the national debate about women in the workplace — or if you're just eager to see some particularly rad, 1970s- and '80s-era Statehouse archival footage — it's worth a watch. (Keep your eyes peeled for former governor Jim Douglas' particularly rad, plaid suit coat: fantastic.) 

Watch Madeleine May Kunin: Political Pioneer on PBS. See more from Vermont Public Television Documentaries.

 

Writer, producer and director Catherine Hughes worked as a journalist for WCAX in the 1980s during Kunin's three terms as governor. "Even I, who had paid some attention to her career, was still amazed when I really sat down and looked at everything she's done," says Hughes.

This Week's Issue: Warnings from the ACLU's Allen Gilbert; Senate Dems' Secret Meetings

In this week's issue of Seven Days...

• On the cover: Vermont ACLU director Allen Gilbert is sounding the alarm about government intrusion. Is anyone listening?
• A small elementary school near the Canadian border bucks the achievement gap trend. What can other districts learn from the success of Montgomery's impoverished students?
• Rolling Stone reporter Matt Taibbi has issued several scathing reports on the perilous state of the financial industry. He's in Burlington for a town meeting event on too-big-to-fail banks with Sen. Bernie Sanders on Friday night.
• A bill in the House would offer Vermont student athletes greater protections from the effects of head injuries.
• Gun control efforts are dead at the state level, but Burlington isn't backing down from its push to ban assault rifles and high-capacity ammunition clips. Mayor Miro Weinberger even appeared in a PSA with other pro-gun control mayors.
• In Fair Game: Senate Democrats are regularly meeting outside the Statehouse in secret. Innocent strategy sessions, or violations of Vermont's open-meeting law?

Read these stories and more in print, online or on the Seven Days app.

The Week Ahead: April 8-14, 2013

Here's what's happening in Vermont news and politics this week. Got a newsworthy event for next week's calendar? Email by Friday to submit.

Monday, April 8

• Burlington City Council. Shannon v. Paul. Round two. The gloves come off 5:30 p.m. at City Hall Auditorium.
• After that, at 7 p.m., a newly appointed panel tries to succeed where the Burlington City Council failed by avoiding a lawsuit and completing a mandatory redistricting of the city's seven wards. At Burlington High School. Channel 17 will carry both meetings live.
• At 7:30 p.m., VTDigger.org presents a talk by Dan Gillmor, columnist for the Guardian, a former Vermont Press Bureau reporter and an expert on new media. Alumni Auditorium at Champlain College. 

Rest of the week after the break...

Media Note: In Interview with WCAX, Michelle Obama Calls Herself a "Single Mother"

A slip of the tongue by First Lady Michelle Obama in an interview with a Vermont television reporter has gone viral among the gaffe-giddy Washington, D.C., politerati.

In an on-camera discussion at the White House with WCAX-TV's Bridget Barry Caswell, Obama described herself as "a busy, single mother," before quickly correcting herself to note that she's, um, married to this guy who's kind of a big deal.

Caswell was one of several Vermont reporters who traveled to Washington Thursday to cover a delegation of Milton Elementary School students selected to help Obama plant the White House Garden. Caswell scored a sit-down interview with the first lady and quizzed her on her initiatives to encourage healthy eating and exercise.

Obama's verbal stumble came when Caswell asked her how busy families can make the time to adopt healthier eating practices.

"Believe me, as a busy single mother— or, I shouldn't say single," Obama corrected herself. "As a busy mother— sometimes when you've got a husband who's president, it can feel a little single, but he's there."

See the clip below — or watch Caswell's full interview over at WCAX.

 

Media Note: Times Argus Sells Headquarters to Barre Mayor

Nine months after putting its headquarters up for sale, the Barre-Montpelier Times Argus has found a buyer — and you'll never guess who it is.

Actually, you will: Barre Mayor Thom Lauzon. 

As the T-A itself reported Thursday, Lauzon's real estate company, Metro, has signed a purchase and sale agreement for the 23,000-square-foot building with Times Argus owner R. John Mitchell.

In addition to serving as mayor, Lauzon is one of the largest landowners in Barre. He declined to tell Seven Days Thursday how much he paid for the North Main Street property, but said it was less than the $895,000 listing price.

Is it a little awkward for a key political player in the T-A's hometown to cut a six-figure check to its publisher?

"No, not at all," Lauzon says. "Listen, I don't expect special treatment from anyone and I don't need special treatment from anyone."