Tag Archives: WCAX

News You Should View: Return of the O.G.

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OK, having delivered some extra-credit rants about the successes and missteps of Vermont news media, it’s time to get back to basics. Here’s my weekly roundup of content worth your attention.

Well, someone cares about ethics. I don’t know how this is a scoop, but congrats to WCAX-TV’s Calvin Cutler for reporting the latest in Vermont’s lack of commitment to ethics in government. (And brickbats to the rest of our media for ignoring a pretty important development.) The dismaying news is that the state Ethics Commission has paused on giving advice to local governments because, shocker, it doesn’t have the resources to handle the task. See, the Legislature expanded the Commission’s remit to include advising municipalities. Not enforcing, good God no, why would we need that? But at the same time, the Legislature (as always) failed to provide adequate funding for the expanded responsibilities. So when the Commission experienced “a big spike” in local-government ethics complaints and requests for guidance, it simply couldn’t handle the workload. Great!

Trump’s impact on Vermonters, part eleventy-billion. From The St. Albans Messenger, a story about how cuts in federal food aid are likely to resonate in Franklin County. The news is bad, of course. But what made me sit up and take notice are the striking statistics on food insecurity in the county. As the Messenger’s Aidan Schonbrun reports, 11.6% of Franklin County households were on food assistance as of 2023 — and that figure is above 30% in Richford, the county’s most food-insecure town. Does that not strike you as disconcertingly high? It really drives home the potential impact of federal cuts. Well, that and the failure of our economy to provide decent incomes for working folk.

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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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Scott to Homeless: Talk to the Hand

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Alleged “nice guy” Gov. Phil Scott has done more than his share of garbagey things. The constant belittling of the Legislature, the persistent passive-aggressiveness, the blame-shifting and refusal to take responsibility for anything that happens, the stubborn adherence to policies that don’t work even as problems continue to worsen, just off the top of my head. But I don’t know if anything tops — bottoms? — what his administration did on Wednesday about the state’s deliberate mass unsheltering of vulnerable Vermonters.

What it did — well, what it actually did was nothing whatsoever. What it hinted that it was planning to do, in off-the-record leaks to Vermont’s two biggest TV news operations, is set up “at least two shelters for families, with a projected completion date of Nov. 1″ according to WPTZ, which reported that the shelters would accommodate “11 families, including 21 children.” (WCAX reported that “three new shelters for homeless families” were in the works.)

This is just despicable on a number of levels. First, it’s so inadequate that it’s practically an insult. Hundreds of households, totaling at least 1,500 vulnerable people, have been unsheltered since mid-September, and the state’s plan is to provide for about 30 of them?

Second, WCAX reported that state officials are “aware of”… “at least 21” children left unsheltered. That’s bullshit. There are far more children than that who’ve been affected by new limits on the GA housing program. And they know it. (They admitted it this morning. See below.)

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Howard Dean?

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Well, well. I did not have a “Howard Dean for Governor” trial balloon on my Bingo card, but here we are. WCAX-TV’s Calvin Cutler got the scoop:

Multiple sources inside the Democratic Party tell Channel 3 News that Dean is “seriously considering” running in the 2024 election, two decades after he left office the first time.

Contacted out of state where he is visiting family, Dean did not confirm or deny the report, saying in a text message: “I’ll make a statement at the appropriate time when I’m in Vermont.”

This was apparently a topic of much conversation at last night’s kickoff event for Treasurer Mike Pieciak’s re-election bid.

My first thoughts went to almost exactly this time two years ago, when Gov. Phil Scott looked like a shoo-in for re-election and former lieutenant governor Doug Racine made it known (and I got that scoop) that he was pondering a bid. Racine told me “it depends on the level of support” he could count on from the Vermont Democratic Party and its donors. Nothing much came of it.

I thought the same thing about this sudden Dean talk, that it was a way for a pastured workhorse to get back in the discussion and make some news but not much more. However, I have been told by a reliable source that nominating petitions for Dean are being circulated. That, in itself, is a step closer to actuality than Racine ever got.

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The Press Coverage of the Temporary Shelters Is Somehow Even Worse than I Thought

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The Gods of Time were very kind to Gov. Phil Scott when they arranged for March 15 to fall on a Friday this year. The 15th was the expiration date for the Adverse Weather Conditions emergency housing program, and that’s when the governor, in all his infinite wisdom and alleged niceness, deliberately unsheltered nearly 500 vulnerable Vermonters.

And partly because it happened on a Friday, the press coverage was scant and woefully incomplete. Almost to the point of moral bankruptcy.

It was bad enough that the coverage of Scott’s decision was slanted pretty strongly in his direction. But the lack of attention to the details of his slapped-together temporary shelter “system” may well let him off the hook entirely for an administrative failure of the worst kind

Friday afternoon is the beginning of the long, dark, largely journalism-free weekend. Staffing is minimal at best. Our biggest outlets (VTDigger, Seven Days, Vermont Public) may have a designated reporter who’s on call to cover big breaking news, and the bar is pretty high for that. The TV stations have smaller staffs but still maintain a weekend presence because they’ve got airtime to fill. But don’t expect their A-Team, such as it is. Any coverage from Friday afternoon to Monday will mainly focus on fires, crashes and crime.

With the background set, what did we get for shelter coverage from Friday evening, when the shelters opened, until now? Damn near next to nothing.

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Hey, Let’s Take an Early Check on the Republican Ticket and… Oh.

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The Vermont Republican Party has a long record of losing statewide races except when the name “Phil Scott” is on the ballot. Scott is still undefeated for the entirety of his political career going all the way back to 2000, when he rode the anti-civil union wave* into the state Senate. Otherwise, it’s been solid goose eggs for the VTGOP in statewide contests since the Jim Douglas era, if memory serves.

*Seems unbelievable now, but the Republicans nearly swept Washington County’s three Senate seats that year. The late Bill Doyle** finished first, Scott second, and Republican J. Paul Giuliani almost ousted two-term incumbent Democrat Ann Cummings. But we were all much older then, we’re younger than that now.

**Correction: “The late Bill Doyle” is still with us at age 97. My apologies.

Otherwise, the top of the Republican ticket has featured tons of fringey no-hopers with a sprinkling of old-fashioned conservatives. Lately it’s been more of the former, as the far right has seized control of the VTGOP apparatus. And it’s looking like 2024 will be no exception. Not only do we have the soundly defeated Gerald Malloy making another bid for the U.S. Senate, but the even more soundly defeated Gregory Thayer has staked his claim to another bid for lieutenant governor. (The Vegas wise guys have set the over/under on joint campaign appearances featuring Thayer and Scott at… zero.)

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Let’s Pump the Brakes on This Talk of “Chaos”

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We seem to be approaching yellow journalism territory in press coverage of crime in Burlington. Exhibit A is a headline from the usually reliable Seven Days positing a “Chaotic Night of Crime” in the Queen City.

“Chaotic Night of Crime”? Two men fatally shot in a house in the Old North End. A man robbed of drugs and shot in the foot. A pathetic arson attempt at police headquarters. Three incidents.

It was a bad night. But it was not a “Chaotic Night of Crime.”

In that article, Police Chief (and veteran of the New York Police Department) Jon Murad asserts that he couldn’t “remember a night like this” during his time in the Bronx and Manhattan North.

I’m sorry, that’s not credible. Burlington has problems, but it ain’t the Bronx. Exaggerating the state of things is not helping. It’s just pouring fuel on the fire, if you’ll pardon the analogy.

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From the Dept. of Utterly Predictable: Small Towns Dealing with Rise in Homelessness (UPDATED)

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This space, April 11, regarding the Legislature’s intent to end the motel voucher program:

Much of the impact will fall on municipalities. You’d think the Vermont League of Cities and Towns might declare an interest in preventing their members from taking it in the shorts. You’d think the mayors would be tramping to the Statehouse to beg the state to bear the responsibility instead of fobbing it off.

Well, the mayors did not, in fact, tramp to the Statehouse, nor did the very influential VLCT bring its considerable muscle to bear. Cue the consequences.

WCAX: “Smaller Vt. Towns Now Coping with Unhoused Population.” Comment from St. Johnsbury Town Manager Chad Whitehead: “This is happening across the entire state. I have talked with numerous town managers, and many population centers have been having this issue.”

The Journal Opinion: “For the second time this month, community members asked the Bradford Selectboard for help in addressing escalating homelessness in town.”

UPDATE. WCAX just ran a piece about downtown Burlington merchants “experiencing some challenges with foot traffic,” according to Colin Hilliard of the Burlington Business Association. One merchant reported “an increased population” of the unhoused on Church Street because of changes in the voucher program.

Yep, those merchants and their organizations should have been in there fighting for shelter, but they weren’t.

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Anything for the Unhoused? Anything at All?

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The news is full of stories about the aftermath of the great flood. Our political leaders are fully engaged on the issues of flood relief. We hear about the plight of homeowners, renters, small businesses, and the various public and private efforts to help them in time of need. But there’s one group we hear little to nothing about.

It’s the people who had no home or shelter when the rains came on July 10.

The attitude among our leaders appears to be that after all, the unhoused had nothing before the flood, so did they really lose anything?

That may strike you as an unfair characterization, but it’s kind of baked into the disaster relief system. People and businesses get help based on tangible, reportable property losses. No property, no losses, right?

This includes the 750 or so households we sentenced to homelessness on June 1 when Gov. Phil Scott and Legislature tightened eligibility standards for the motel voucher program. The state made no particular effort to track those people after their forced exit. No one seems to know where they are or what their living conditions are like.

WCAX-TV just ran a story entitled “Where are evicted hotel-motel program recipients staying?” Unfortunately, it made no real effort to answer its own question. There were estimates from Burlington about the increase in the unhoused population since June 1, but nothing beyond the city limits.

And now we’ve added God knows how many more to their number. I’m sure God knows, but I don’t see any effort by our earthly leaders to track the newly unhoused. Have there been any efforts to expand shelters that were at or near capacity before the first drop of rain fell? Has anything been done for them besides handing out tents?

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Big Ol’ Cop Whines Like a Baby

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Oh noes, Northfield Police Chief John Helfant has a bad case of the hurt fee-fees. Helfant, who has somehow kept his job despite being labeled as an unreliable witness by the Washington County State’s Attorney, claims he’s a victim of retaliation for his bigoted comments about transgender athletes.

Let’s back up a minute. Helfant felt it necessary to wade into the controversy triggered by a disgrace-to-journalism report by WCAX-TV, since taken down and banished to purgatory, about the situation with the Randolph High School girls’ volleyball team. WCAX’s original report, for which it has failed to apologize and devoutly wishes would go away forever, featured one interview with an athlete who, at the bidding of her mother, went public with a complaint about a transgender team member. By all other accounts, she made up some shit about being harassed by the trans girl.

Helfant, who previously made a fuss about a Black Lives Matter flag at the high school, wrote a letter to school officials complaining about the equal accommodation offered to the trans girl and accusing the district of abetting criminal activity. Just to be sure it went public, he offered it up for publication by the Vermont Daily Chronicle. In it, Helfant repeatedly referred to trans girls as “biological males” or even as “male students” and called for them to be segregated in locker rooms and bathrooms. He wrote that the district might be criminal accessories to voyeurism for allowing the trans girl — oh, pardon me, “male student” — to use the gender-appropriate locker room.

The district has temporarily removed him as a volunteer coach for the girls’ soccer team, citing unfinished paperwork related to the customary background check for school coaches. You know, because there have been so many instances of youth coaches sexually abusing their charges, background checks seem like a good idea, no exceptions, even if you’re a police chief. Or, say, a Catholic priest.

Maybe it’s retaliation, I don’t know. But if I were running the district, Helfant would be kicked to the curb for good.

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