News You Should View, Local Hijinks Edition

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This post is a bit later than usual* because it’s taken me a while to get my feet back under me after an exhausting but rewarding trip last week. I attended a conference organized by the Institute for Nonprofit News, one of several organizations dedicated to fostering a new wave of nonprofit journalism.

*I’m only including items published on or before Sunday, June 8 in hopes of returning to my usual schedule with the next installment.

It was intense, and I’m still processing what I learned. But my single biggest takeaway is that there’s an amazing amount of talent, energy and dedication in this relatively brand-new field. People all over the country are creating nonprofit news outlets at local, state, regional, and national levels, and coming up with novel strategies for achieving sustainability. (There are also a lot of organizations and foundations eager to promote and invest in this new, nonprofit model of journalism.) It’s not easy and success is not assured, but I was blown away by the quality of the people involved in this effort. Made me more optimistic about the project.

INN’s membership includes about 500 organizations. More than 400 people gathered in Minneapolis for three days of panel discussions, workshops, and one-on-one meetings with experts. I was there as a board member of the Hardwick Gazette, and I was determined to bring back as much information and as many ideas as possible. That meant taking full advantage of everything I could fit in. Let’s put it this way: I’d never been to Minneapolis before, and I still feel like I haven’t. Almost all my time was spent within a couple blocks of the conference hotel.

Coincidentally enough, this week’s edition of NYSV is heavy on content from Vermont’s own local outlets, many of which are now nonprofit. Some of the stories are about the local repercussions of state policy debates, while others are about the vagaries of small-town politics. These are services that only a grassroots outlet can perform, and Vermont is lucky to have as many small “papers” as we do.

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So This Is What Mega-Corporate Cosplay Looks Like

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So, this landed in my mailbox last week.

It’s an extremely transparent attempt by the world’s biggest corporation to try to make itself seem all Vermonty: Cozy, human-scaled, not at all the most voracious shark in the ocean. Problem is, the flannel shirt still has a sales tag on the collar and the jeans and work boots are unsullied by exposure to dirt, mud, or physical labor.

I have to assume this is a PR blitz related to the ongoing controversy in Essex, where Amazon wants to build a 107,000-square-foot distribution facility in an industrial park, a proposal that has outraged many area residents. Now, I live nowhere near Essex, so I don’t know why Amazon is trying to convince me that its purpose in life is enabling human-scale entrepreneurship. Probably the difference between a mass mailing to Essex and a mailing to the entire state of Vermont is mere pocket change for Jeff Bezos. (I’m imagining him cackling softly and caressing a snow-white cat while approving this piece of corporate greenwashing.)

Do I have to critique this thing? Well, I guess I do. I am the one writing about it, after all.

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Oh No! The Scrappy Little Dyke Said a Bad Word!

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I really wish that U.S. Rep. Becca Balint had said something short, sweet, and sacrilegious when VTDigger called to ask her about her recent deployment of the word “ass” in a public setting. I really wish she hadn’t taken the politic route and apologized.

Honestly, I don’t know why Digger even pursued this story. Well, that’s not true. I do know. It’s low-hanging fruit. But sometimes you need to leave that apple on the tree. Seriously, we’re talking about an organization that, so I’ve been told, hasn’t bothered to report on Lt. Gov. John Rodgers being a right royal asshat to his small-town neighbors, threatening to close access to a public road and take his town to court if they don’t accede to his wishes, because Digger doesn’t have the capacity.

And yet they had the capacity to publish a story on this ridiculous, trumped-up “controversy.” Ugh.

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In Lieu of News You Should View

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My usual Sunday roundup of noteworthy journalism is taking the week off, as I prepare to head out of town for most of this week. I’m attending INN Days, a conference for nonprofit news organizations organized by the Institute for Nonprofit News. This is a still very new but immensely consequential field; it’s really the best option we have for a vibrant journalistic future.

I serve on the board of the Northeast Kingdom Public Journalism, the nonprofit operator of The Hardwick Gazette. The “paper” (now a digital weekly) is very successful in terms of journalism, but struggling to achieve financial sustainability.

Not unlike just about every other nonprofit journalism organization besides public radio and television. Well, the broadcasters have their own struggles, but for nonprofit “print” reporting on paper or digital, the challenges are very much existential. We still don’t know if this model actually works.

So I’m traveling to Minneapolis in search of ideas, answers, and connections. No pressure, though.

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Does Phil Baruth Survive This? (Updated With Additional Bullshit)

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A couple of notes before we begin. First, the person most responsible for our education-reform brinkmanship is Gov. Phil Scott, who has insisted on creating a crisis atmosphere when what we really have is a situation that requires a carefully considered response. I don’t want this narrowly-conceived blogpost to divert attention from that fact.

Second, I like Phil Baruth, the Senate President Pro Tem. I really do.

However… I’ve been Observing Vermont Politics for 12-plus years, and I have never seen a blunder by a legislative leader as consequential as Baruth’s handling of education reform. We have yet to see how this issue will be resolved, but the question here is: Will this mark the end of his Senate leadership?

The thing that might save him, seriously, is the lack of alternatives in this most junior-ish of senior chambers. Well, that and Senate Democrats’ distaste for intra-caucus defenestrations. But it says here that while Baruth might remain Pro Tem for the rest of the biennium, I wonder if he’ll be leading the Senate beyond that.

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Won’t You Be My Neighbor?

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We appear to have a combustible situation in the tiny Northeast Kingdom town of Glover, whose population includes our current lieutenant governor.

At issue is the dirt-track road seen above on Google Street View. It’s called Rodgers Road, and Lt. Gov. John Rodgers wants to claim part of it as his very own private property. He would allow recreational access, but block any motorized vehicle traffic. Rodgers is not the only resident of the road, and others would be inconvenienced (to put it mildly) if they could no longer use it. He has reportedly bullied the town road crew, and is threatening to take his hometown to court if he doesn’t get his way.

Nice guy, huh? Kinda sheds new light on his stated intent to work with all parties in the Legislature. C’mon, the guy can’t even get along with his own selectboard.

This situation was reported by WCAX-TV way back on May 8, which shows you how much attention I pay to local TV news. I am rather stunned at the lack of follow-up by other media outlets. It’s clearly a story of public interest and WCAX’s report was backed by emails between Rodgers and town officials. It was worthy of coverage by VTDigger or Vermont Public or Seven Days, the latter of which devoted significant space in January to a profile piece identifying Rodgers as a potential future governor*. You’d have to ask these outlets why they’ve chosen to ignore this story. It’s maybe the kind of thing we ought to know about a potential future governor, no?

*That story quoted Rodgers as saying “We need to hush the noise from the left and the right and govern from the middle for the benefit of all Vermonters.” Again, he can’t even get along with his own damn selectboard.

There has been follow-up, by WCAX, the local daily, and at least one national news operation. Let’s catch up, shall we?

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Jenney Samuelson Comes to the Table in a Spirit of Bipartisanshi — Wait, What’s That in Her Hand?

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Phil Scott has been a denizen of the Statehouse for almost a quarter century. He was first elected to the state Senate in 2000, taking office in January 2001. He was a senator for 10 years, and served as vice chair of one committee and chair of another*. He then served three terms as lieutenant governor, whose duties include presiding over the Senate. Then he became governor, where he’s been ever since.

*His Wikipedia bio mentions, as the signature achievement of his time as chair of the Senate Institutions Committee, that he “redesigned the Vermont Statehouse cafeteria to increase efficiency.” Really? Is that the biggest thing he accomplished as a committee chair? Huh.

So it’s safe to say that if anyone knows how the Statehouse works, it’s Phil Scott. He has seen and done it all. He knows how stuff gets done, and how stuff doesn’t get done.

Which makes it all the more curious, or downright stinky if you prefer, that one of his top officials tried to blow up a legislative debate at the last possible minute. It was a thouroughly counterproductive tactic, unless the goal was to deliver a killshot to the bill in question.

The top official is one Jenney Samuelson, Secretary of the Agency of Human Services. On Friday, May 17 she delivered a memo seemingly aimed at derailing H.91, which would create a replacement to the oft-maligned General Assistance Emergency Housing program, a.k.a. the motel voucher system. For those just tuning in, that’s the system Scott and Samuelson have been criticizing nonstop for years without ever proposing an alternative of their own. This year, the House’s patience finally came to an end. It put forward a plan of its own in the form of H.91.

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News You Should View: Pre-Summer Slump

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Not gonna lie, it’s a bit of a thin crop from our ever-diminishing media fields. Maybe it was the runup to the first big holiday weekend of the season? Maybe it was the amount of MSM attention lavished — rightly — on the education reform debate in Montpelier? Whatever the reason, I had less than usual to choose from. Still, there’s definitely stuff worth consuming. Also, apologies for posting this a bit late; I was out of town for nine days, and I’m still in catch-up mode.

Just like the good old days. We’ll start with the comprehensive coverage given to the education reform issue. It was front and center in the Statehouse, and our major outlets delivered solid, blow-by-blow reporting. If you followed my personal Big Three (VTDigger, Vermont Public, Seven Days), you got a very good sense of what was going on. It was like we were suddenly transported back to the year 2010, when multiple outlets competed for the big stories.

My only complaint: As a whole, the coverage didn’t much question the fundamental assumption of the debate: that the rising cost of public education is the result of shrinking student population and Balkanized governance. Not addressed, or not enough anyway: the fact that Our Betters are failing to address the real cost drivers in the system: (1) the skyrocketing cost of health insurance, (2) the slow-motion crisis sparked by the state withdrawing its traditional support for school infrastructure almost 20 years ago, and (3) social services for schoolchildren being paid for by schools instead of the Agency of Human Services. Our Betters aren’t trying to solve the problems with the cost of public education; they’re just shifting the burden onto the schools.

A new podcast from the Democratic mainstream. Former state senator Andy Julow and Chittenden County Democratic Committee chair Joanna Grossman have teamed up on a podcast whose title they may come to regret: “There’s No ‘A’ in Creemee.” Cutesy, kind of an inside joke, doesn’t roll off the tongue. But hey, whoever thought “Amazon” was a good name for an online bookstore? Well, Jeff Bezos did.

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It’ll End in Tears, and Vetoes

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Well, that blew up in Senate leadership’s face, thoroughly and decisively.

As reported by Vermont Public’s Lola Duffort, the senior chamber’s version of H.454, the education reform bill, has been indefinitely sidelined due to an embarrassing lack of support. Specifically, support among the Democratic majority. President Pro Term (With Egg On Face) Phil Baruth:

“I made a promise to people in the caucus that I wouldn’t bring a bill that had a little bit of Democratic support and a lot of Republican support, and currently that’s the only way that H.454 would make it through the process.” 

Pardon me if I fail to completely suppress a gleeful chuckle. Baruth and his colleagues put together a Senate Education Committee with three Democrats and three Republicans, including a Democratic chair with deep ties to the state’s approved independent schools, and they barfed out a bill that — surprise, surprise! — was too conservative to pass muster with the majority.

I’ve never led a legislative caucus, majority or otherwise, but this strikes me as a pretty clear case of leadership malpractice: Failing to keep tabs on one’s own caucus regarding the biggest issue of the year, leading to an embarrassing last-minute retreat. And Baruth seems to have no firm backup plan. He talked of possibly proceeding with the more public school-friendly House version of H.454 with maybe some amendments. But he also suggested that the Legislature could just go ahead and adjourn, as if to put him out of his misery.

Which maybe it will. But there’s Gov. Phil Scott threatening to call the Legislature right back into session until they manage to produce an education reform plan. Which he would probably then veto; he isn’t all that hot on the Senate version, and would certainly dislike a House-Senate compromise bill even more.

The way this whole thing has been mismanaged sets up a dynamic that sees the Democrats doing what they all too often do: Giving away some of their bargaining power for no good reason.

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News You Should View: Worth a Thousand Words Edition

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I’m starting this post with a tip o’the hat to Glenn Russell, ace photographer for VTDigger. His thankless task is to get good images out of the Statehouse, that notorious den of tiny rooms and bad lighting. Seriously, it’s a terrible place to be a photographer. But Glenn got one hell of a shot for Digger’s story about the state Senate’s unfortunate education reform bill passing a key committee. For those in the know, the image was a masterful piece of reporting. It showed Gov. Phil Scott’s right-hand man Jason Maulucci talking to Senate Education Committee chair Seth Bongartz on a bench in the hallway. Not that I’m saying Democrat-in-name Bongartz colluded with the Republican administration on a bill that seems to lean decidedly to the right, but Russell’s image definitely paints that picture. Fair or unfair, I loved it.

Not that our next entry doesn’t deserve top billing. Journalist David Goodman devoted his latest edition of the “Vermont Conversation” podcast to an interview with freed detainee Mohsen Mahdawi. Apparently, Mahdawi consented to the interview only if Goodman conducted it during a walk in the woods near Mahdawi’s home in the Upper Valley. You come away from the hour with a clear picture of this alleged threat to national security as a devout Buddhist whose activism is purely nonviolent. Also with a clear picture of a real Vermonter — a person with a deep love for, and profound connection to, the Vermont landscape. Beautiful piece of work, not to be missed.

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