Media Note: Hoffer Hires VTDigger Reporter

Citing a desire to increase his office's investigative capacity, State Auditor Doug Hoffer said Monday he's hired VTDigger reporter Andrew Stein to serve as his executive assistant.

"I want more subjects covered," Hoffer said. "I want more product."

Stein, an alumnus of the Addison County Independent, has covered health care and energy for VTDigger since September 2012. He said he plans to leave the online news outlet in a month and join Hoffer's office November 25. 

"I was not actively seeking this position, but when the auditor approached me about the position he was essentially offering me a stethoscope to examine state government," Stein said. "This will give me the opportunity to better understand the issues that I investigate regularly and to investigate them in a much more thorough and meaningful way than I have time to."

This Week's Issue: The State of Tech in Vermont

The Vermont Tech Jam comes to Burlington this Friday and Saturday, and Seven Days is marking the occasion with a package of technology-focused stories in this week's issue. Read about the world-leading companies that call Vermont home, one of iTunes' most popular kids podcasts, and an eerily intelligent robot that lives in Lincoln.

If you're looking for something even newsier, we've got that, too.

• Vermont's government is, generally speaking, not exactly tech-savvy. But the state is taking baby steps towards "open data," a movement to increase transparency and citizen engagement.
• On the subject of government and technology, what can Vermont Health Connect learn from the state's previous IT debacles?
• Are stoic state troopers and irreverent Twitter culture a good fit? It turns out they are, at least for the Vermont State Police.
• A few dozen new units are being added to Burlington's famously tight rental market — and that's raising fears of gentrification in the Old North End.
• In Fair Game: The Shumlin administration spent big bucks on PR for its health exchange rollout, but it didn't get much for the money. Plus, Burlington arts-and-culture magazine Thread walks the line between independent news outlet and Democratic Party propaganda.

Get this week's issue on paper, online or on the app.

Morning Listen: Internal Docs Show Police Misconduct in Rutland

Ruh-roh, Rutland.

Despite the down-and-out city's efforts to shed its unfortunate reputation, which we covered in a 2012 cover story, Rutland just got another black eye: According to internal documents, the Rutland City Police Department has been plagued by officer misconduct, a culture of fear, and favoritism.

Chittenden resident and VPR reporter Nina Keck paints a gloomy picture of the department — but it's not the first time the Rutland cops have made headlines. As former Seven Days news editor Andy Bromage reported in 2011, Rutland police Sgt. David Schauwecker was charged in 2010 with removing pornography seized as evidence for his own use, and then lying to investigators to deflect attention. Another patrolman resigned after allegedly using improper force on a man handcuffed in a holding cell.

Apparently, things haven't changed much. Former police officer Chris Kiefer-Cioffi — who spent 27 years in the department — told Keck the "good ol' boy club is running rampant in that department," and alleges supervisors knew about misconduct and, in some cases, participated in it.  

The troubled department has been under the leadership of Chief Jim Baker since January 2012; Baker stepped in following the controversial ousting of a former chief. Keck reports that while Baker was "shocked" by the state of the department when he took over, not everyone thinks the new chief has done enough to right the listing ship. Keck reports:

As Baker works on repairing the department, allegations of favoritism continue.  Top Rutland City police officials, including Baker, were sued earlier this year by former officer Andrew Todd, who alleges he was forced out of his job because of widespread management problems.

Todd left the police to become a state trooper just as Baker arrived in 2012. According to the lawsuit, Todd, who was the only African American on the force, complained several times to supervisors Geno and Tucker about the alleged unethical and racist behavior of two fellow officers.

According to Keck, city officials stand behind Baker and the changes he's making in the department. But as Keck reports, "whether those changes occur fast enough or restore the public trust remains to be seen."

Morning Read: State Pays D.C. Firm for Vermont Media Intel

Vermont Public Radio's Bob Kinzel is totally a Negative Nancy.

At least, that's the conclusion a Washington, D.C. consulting firm drew in April after the state of Vermont paid the company $18,000 for intel on reporters covering the roll-out of the state's new health care exchange.

The Vermont Press Bureau's Peter Hirschfeld had the details in a shocking Sunday story in the Rutland Herald and Barre-Montpelier Times Argus outlining the lengths to which Gov. Peter Shumlin's administration has gone to manipulate press coverage of the exchange, called Vermont Health Connect.

In Health Exchange Roll-Out, Shumlin Distinguishes Between "Nothing-Burgers" and "Something-Burgers"

Two days after his administration launched a new web-based health insurance marketplace, Gov. Peter Shumlin said Thursday that problems plaguing Vermont Health Connect were a little more "something-burger" than "nothing-burger."

At the same time, Shumlin said his administration was "making great progress" in resolving glitches and accelerating connectivity to the online exchange, through which 100,000 Vermonters are expected to buy health insurance. 

"This is a good news story," the governor said Thursday afternoon at a Statehouse press conference. "This is the biggest technology transformation in health care in the history of America. We are delivering on the promise that was made to help low-income people get access to insurance."

In discussing the system's roll-out, Shumlin found himself revisiting a prime metaphor he cooked up at another press conference two weeks before. At the time, the governor was asked about his administration's recent admission that Vermont Health Connect's online payment processing system would not debut until November 1 — a month later than promised.

Media Note: Seven Days Hires Jeff Good as News Editor

Seven Days has hired Valley News editor Jeff Good to lead its news team, the Burlington-based media company announced late Thursday. 

Good, who won a Pulitzer Prize in editorial writing, will serve as Seven Days' co-editor in charge of news content. He replaces former news editor Andy Bromage, who left the paper in July to return to his native Connecticut.

Born in Missouri and raised all over the Midwest, Good first moved to Vermont to attend St. Michael's College — and despite a few detours over the years, he says he hasn't been able to quit the state.

Good started his journalism career as an intern at the Vermont Vanguard Press and worked as a writer and editor for Ralph Nader in Washington, D.C. He went on to spend 12 years at Florida's St. Petersburg Times, where he won the 1995 Pulitzer for a series on state probate courts. He returned to Vermont in 1996 to serve as the Burlington Free Press' capital bureau chief. Good left the Freeps in 1999 to teach journalism and serve as college historian at his alma mater. In 2000 he joined the Lebanon, N.H.-based Valley News and worked his way up from capital bureau chief to news editor, managing editor and editor.

This Week's Issue: Untangling Vermont's Health Care Exchange; Union Busting Allegations at SMC

Happy Wednesday, people. Here are the news and politics stories you'll find in the latest edition of Seven Days:

• Vermont's new health care exchange goes live in less than two weeks! In this week's cover story, Ken Picard follows five households and professional "navigators" to untangle how it will work for average Vermonters.
• St. Michael's College fired two longtime custodians, and the campus isn't happy about it. Was it a case of union busting?
• A Vermont-born political strategist is playing a major role in one of the biggest races of the year in Virginia. Some observers think he may feature in the next presidential campaign.
• In looking to revitalize its downtown, is St. Albans turning its back on a piece of history?
• And in this week's Fair Game: After an ineffective 2013 session, Vermont's gun control advocates aren't going away — now they're even hiring a high-powered lobbying firm. Plus, why are F-35s okay for Vermont if missiles aren't?

If those links aren't your style, read these stories in print or on the Seven Days app.

Cover illustration by Michael Tonn

Morning Read: Rutland Herald Puts Headquarters Up for Sale

"The Rutland Herald is not for sale," the Rutland Herald's Gordon Dritschilo reported in Wednesday's paper. It's just the damn boss starting rumors again:

Publisher R. John Mitchell said Tuesday he may have inadvertently started rumors to that effect while discussing plans to sell the building. The building is for sale, listed by Coldwell Banker Watson Realty for $995,000. 

The news comes a month after the Mitchell family sold the Barre headquarters of its other paper, the Barre-Montpelier Times Argus, and moved its operations to a new downtown rental. The Gannett-owned Burlington Free Press has also put most of its College Street facility up for sale; that property is listed as "under agreement" on the Freeps' broker's website.

The Herald has called the building home since the mid-1930s. Mitchell tells Dritschilo the paper will remain in downtown Rutland.

Read the full Herald story about the Herald here.

The Scoreboard: This Week's Winners and Losers

Paul Heintz is on vacation, so this week's scores have been tallied by Seven Days digital media manager Tyler Machado. (CONFIDENTIAL TO HEINTZ: You picked a hell of a week to take off, dude!)

So who won and lost the week in Vermont news and politics?

Stoners, Catamounts and Lake Monsters, oh my!

Here's the Scoreboard for the week of Friday, Aug. 30: 

WINNERS:

Almost Everyone — Entergy's announcement that it will shut down Vermont Yankee in 2014 was good news for everyone — except, of course, the folks who work there. Entergy saves some loot. Vermont ratepayers won't notice the difference since local utilities weren't buying its power anyway. Environmentalists will close the book on decades of activism. And nearly every political entity in Vermont (and elsewhere!) scored an easy layup — even if cheap natural gas was the final death blow for the state's sole nuclear power plant.

Pot smokers — Attorney General Eric Holder says the Justice Department won't challenge state laws legalizing marijuana. That should ease the minds of Vermont's marijuana reform opponents, including House Speaker Shap Smith. Runner-up winner: Sen. Patrick Leahy, who may have forced Holder's hand on the issue.

More winners, and losers, after the jump...

Reports Shed New Light on the Death of Michael Hastings

Michael Hastings, the acclaimed journalist who considered Vermont his "spiritual home" after spending parts of his life here, died in a fiery, early-morning car wreck in Los Angeles in June. The strange circumstances surrounding the crash and Hastings' history of reporting articles unfriendly to the powers-that-be prompted a flurry of theories suggesting that the incident was an assassination.

Now an autopsy report and an exhaustive newspaper feature have revealed new details about Hastings and the crash that killed him.

On Tuesday the Los Angeles coroner's office released its official report about the Hastings crash, declaring it an accident and noting that drugs were found in his system, but, in the coroner's view, they did not play a role in the crash. Via the Los Angeles Times: 

Coroner's officials said Hastings had traces of amphetamine in his system, consistent with possible intake of methamphetamine many hours before death,  as well as marijuana. Neither were considered a factor in the crash, according to toxicology reports. 

The cause of death was massive blunt force trauma consistent with a high-speed crash. He likely died within seconds, the report said.