Current News

by Morgan True vtdigger.org The House Judiciary Committee passed a greatly revised version of a Senate bill late Monday that is meant to streamline the judicial review process for involuntary treatment and medication of psychiatric patients. The bill, S287, is focused on a small number of patients who the state determines should be treated for mental illness — and in some cases medicated — against their will. Vermont had 52 involuntarily committed patients at four psychiatric facilities in January. There are more awaiting beds in emergency departments across the state.

Only 14 of those had symptoms severe enough for clinicians to petition the court for them to be medicated against their will, according to figures from the Department of Mental Health.

by Anne Galloway vtdigger.org Senator Dick Sears, D-Bennington, will travel to Washington, DC, on Tuesday to moderate a discussion on the impact of heroin and opiate addiction on the criminal justice system. The discussion about addiction treatment, alternatives to incarceration and recidivism rates is part of a forum sponsored by the Council of State Governments Justice Center, according to a press release from the senator and the council. Vermont has seen an increase in use of heroin and opiates in recent years, according to state data.

“Coming from a state like Vermont, there are unique challenges that rural communities face when it comes to these issues,” Sears said in a statement.

Sears, who is chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said the state’s experiences and successes with addiction has been “well-documented.”

by Kate Robinson vtdigger.org The US Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division has stepped up enforcement of fair labor laws affecting agricultural operations. In the past two years, several farms have faced heavy fines for “inadvertent violations.” Vermont farmers face penalties for wage and hour violations most often when they diversify and employ domestic or foreign “seasonal” workers in handling or producing value-added products or sell products from other suppliers. Anything, in fact, that the law regards as “non-agricultural” labor.

Historically, the government has been “more intent on whether [foreign workers] are legal or not,” according to Roger Albee, the former secretary of the Vermont Agency of Agriculture under Gov. Jim Douglas. Now regulators appear to be more focused on fair wages, and Albee says that shift may signal a change in government policy.

by John Herrick vtdigger.org The House on Tuesday gave approval to a bill designed to prepare for the implementation of a universal recycling overhaul set to phase in this summer under Act 148. The House passed S208 by a voice vote on a second reading. The House will hold a final vote before it goes to the Senate for approval. The Agency of Natural Resources will set up a working group this summer and report to lawmakers next year on the state’s solid waste infrastructure needs, costs of the programs and a plan on how to dispose of architectural waste – drywall, metal, asphalt shingles, clean wood and treated or painted wood, as defined under the bill.

Related Stories

Vermont Business Magazine Green Mountain Power announced Monday that under a revenue sharing agreement stemming from the sale of Vermont Yankee in 2002, GMP will receive as much as $17.8 million. That money will be directed to GMP customers in the form of lower rates. Entergy reported last week in its first quarter 2014 financial report that Vermont Yankee contributed more than $100 million to Entergy's $400 million of pre-tax profits in its wholesale business. Entergy stated that higher demand because of the cold weather and rising natural gas prices in the Northeast made its nuclear fleet more profitable, especially VY which was not burdened with utility contracts and could simply sell to the open market at market prices. Entergy will shut down VY by the end of this year.

Dartmouth will serve as a Lead Academic Participating Site in the National Cancer Institute’s (NCI) new National Clinical Trials Network (NCTN). The NCTN will improve the speed and efficiency of conducting cancer clinical trials, using select groups of investigators and distributing resources in a more effective way across fewer groups.

“Everyone—patients, providers, and family members—wants to see faster access to new treatments for cancer,” said Konstantin H. Dragnev, MD, principal investigator for the Dartmouth-Hitchcock Norris Cotton Cancer Center site. “This new framework will cut the startup time for a clinical trial by 75 percent in some cases. It removes obstacles we used to face for reporting and oversight, so we can now offer therapeutic advances to patients sooner.”

by Laura Krantz vtdigger.org It could soon be illegal to sell or possess powdered alcohol in Vermont after the Senate on Tuesday approved an amendment calling for more information about the new product. Federal regulators this month gave and then rescinded approval of Palcohol, which is mixed with water to create an alcoholic beverage. Palcohol also carries a warning against snorting the product, USA Today reported. The Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau, part of the Treasury Department, said its vote was in error.

Worried about the potential abuse of powdered alcohol in Vermont, Sen. Kevin Mullin, R-Rutland, proposed an amendment to study the substance and make sale and possession illegal until officials know more.

“This is a product that could be used very unwisely,” Mullin said.

by Morgan True, vtdigger.org A New Hampshire-based company with plans to build five urgent care centers in Vermont is encountering resistance from hospitals in the communities in which they hope to locate.

ClearChoiceMD of New London, N.H., intends to open facilities in Rutland, Burlington, Brattleboro, St. Albans and Barre.

The centers would provide an alternative for people with non-life-threatening injuries or illnesses, such as fevers, infections or fractures, who can’t get in to see their primary care doctor and don’t want to seek care in an emergency room, according to owner Marcus Hampers, an emergency medicine doctor at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center.

by Anne Galloway vtdigger.org The Vermont Senate gave preliminary approval to a nearly $5.5 billion state budget Monday afternoon. The chamber will have one more chance to amend the so-called Big Bill before H885 is hashed out in a conference committee of House and Senate members.

Dartmouth researchers have found that the anxiety experienced with a false-positive mammogram is temporary and does not negatively impact a woman’s overall well-being. Their findings are reported in “Consequences of False-Positive Screening Mammograms,” which was published online in the April 21, 2014 JAMA Internal Medicine

by John McClaughry Is Vermont on the road to becoming a prosperous state with a strong economy and plentiful job openings? Or will its economy - despite some recent positive indicators - face a continuing struggle under the weight of too much high-cost government, only selectively alleviated by politically designed subsidy programs?

In a March 27 news release Governor Peter Shumlin highlighted the good news. The Opportunity Index, calculated by a broad group of civic organizations, ranked Vermont Number 1 in the nation. Its calculation included unemployment rate, poverty percentage, median income, housing costs, low crime rate, and high school graduation rates. Vermont’s commendably high rates of group membership and volunteerism made the point that we have an active and concerned citizenry. Vermonters can rightly be proud of this.

Governor Peter Shumlin and Vermont Division of Emergency Management and Homeland Security Director Joe Flynn have asked the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to add three additional counties to their request for a damage assessment following flooding from April 15-18. The assessment is to determine if counties in the state qualify for federal Public Assistance disaster funds to help repair public infrastructure damaged in the floods.

Additional damage reports from Franklin, Orleans, and Washington counties suggest those counties may also qualify for a disaster declaration. The Governor and Director previously requested a damage assessment for Caledonia, Essex, Lamoille, and Orange counties. State estimates place total damage at over the $1 million minimum required to qualify the state for assistance.