TexasTowelie
TexasTowelie's JournalCollege of St. Joseph faces potential closure
RUTLAND -- The College of St. Joseph board of trustees is considering closing the school.
“The CSJ trustees are considering a number of options,” Board President Arthur Kenlan said Thursday evening. “Like Castleton and other schools, our enrollment is always a challenge and is a challenge now. … It’s been pretty tough for several years.”
Those options are scheduled to be considered at a meeting at 2:30 p.m. Monday. CSJ President Larry Jensen invited the entire college community to that meeting in an email sent out late Thursday afternoon.
He said the meeting would be “most likely” held in Room 105 of St. Joseph Hall.
Read more: http://www.rutlandherald.com/articles/college-of-st-joseph-faces-potential-closure/
Black Lives Matter flags to fly in Brattleboro Middle School
BRATTLEBORO, Vt. One community will be raising the Black Lives Matter flag this week to coincide with the town's Diversity Day.
The flag will be raised at Brattleboro Middle School, High School and the career center on Friday morning.
The idea came from a group of Brattleboro Middle School students. They brought up the idea to their principal, Keith Lyman.
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To our knowledge, Brattleboro will be the first middle school in Vermont and the country to fly the Black Lives Matter Flag.
Diversity Day has been celebrated in Brattleboro since 2009. This year's theme is solidarity.
Read more: http://www.wcax.com/content/news/Black-Lives-Matter-flag-to-fly-in-Brattleboro-481179641.html
Senate OKs $5.86 billion budget
The Senate gave preliminary approval on Friday to a $5.86 billion budget proposal that would prioritize spending on the state’s mental health system, restore funding to programs that serve vulnerable Vermonters and make investments in workforce development.
Facing no debate on floor, the budget received unanimous support and is expected to pass on a second vote next week.
In the Senate’s budget bill, spending would increase slightly from last year’s $5.8 billion budget, but match the level in Gov. Phil Scott’s proposal which lands just under $5.86 billion, according to the Joint Fiscal Office.
The Scott administration laid out its proposal in January.
General fund spending in the Senate’s bill is higher than Scott’s by about $8 million, and $2 million higher than it would be under the House’s budget proposal, which passed in March.
Read more: https://vtdigger.org/2018/04/27/senate-oks-5-86-billion-budget/
Democratic groundbreaker former Gov. Phil Hoff dies
Philip Hoff was the Democratic candidate for Vermont governor in 1962 when he called his father in Massachusetts with an invitation to dinner on election night.
“I don’t know,” Hoff would remember his father saying. “Are you going to win?”
“Dad, they’ve never elected a Democrat by popular vote in the history of the state,” the candidate replied. “I can’t promise you that. But I think I’ve got a shot.”
Americans today know Vermont as the home of Bernie Sanders and Ben & Jerry’s. But back before the Interstate and the internet, the state was the only one in the nation to have supported the top of every Republican ticket — Richard Nixon included — since the Grand Old Party’s founding in 1854.
Read more: https://vtdigger.org/2018/04/27/democratic-groundbreaker-former-gov-phil-hoff-dies-93/
LePage vetoes bill to launch Maine's recreational marijuana marketplace
Gov. Paul LePage on Friday vetoed a bill to launch Maine’s adult-use marijuana market.
LePage, a staunch opponent of marijuana, said he doesn’t want Maine to operate two different marijuana programs – medical and adult-use – with two different tax rates and two different sets of rules, and raised concerns about the impact of marijuana impairment on traffic crashes. He also said he cannot “in good conscience” support a law that violates federal law because marijuana remains classified as a Schedule 1 drug.
In his veto letter, LePage once again criticized lawmakers for creating different regulatory structures and tax rates for medical marijuana and recreational marijuana. He also said that other states that have legalized recreational marijuana “have seen staggering increases in motor vehicle fatalities resulting from marijuana impairment.” He did not offer data to support this assertion.
“After one of the worst years in recent memory for crashes, fatalities and pedestrian fatalities, we should take every step to ensure safety on Maine roads instead of making them more hazardous,” LePage wrote. “No branch of government has a monopoly on a good idea; if Maine is going to legalize and regulate marijuana, it will require our joint efforts to get this important issue right.”
Read more: https://www.pressherald.com/2018/04/27/lepage-vetoes-marijuana-bill-2/
Former Trump And LePage Aide Who Resigned Sues Ex-Wife
A former speech writer for President Donald Trump who resigned after his former wife said he abused her has filed a lawsuit against his ex-wife claiming defamation.
David Sorensen, also a former senior aide to Republican Gov. Paul LePage, is seeking $4 million in damages from Jessica Corbett. The Portland Press Herald reports Corbett accused Sorensen of domestic abuse earlier this year, which Sorensen vehemently denied.
In the lawsuit, Sorensen alleges Corbett never said she was abused until Corbett spoke with The Washington Post in February 2018.
Corbett said she is "prepared to defend the truth in court."
http://mainepublic.org/post/former-trump-and-lepage-aide-who-resigned-sues-ex-wife (shirt article)
Booze gets 2 UT-Arlington fraternities suspended, another is under investigation
Arlington -- A University of Texas at Arlington fraternity is under investigation for providing alcohol to minors and two other frats were suspended earlier this semester for the same reason.
UTA spokeswoman Sana Syed said the fraternity is being investigated "for an unregistered event that includes the allegation of alcohol to minors."
Phi Delta Theta General Headquarters in Oxford, Ohio issued a statement saying it is "aware of the investigation ... for risk management violations."
"Since learning of the investigation, Phi Delta Theta has been working in conjunction with university officials and local alumni to conduct an investigation. Phi Delta Theta will hold the chapter and members accountable for any violations of fraternity and university risk management policies," the statement said.
Read more here: http://www.star-telegram.com/news/local/community/arlington/article209983224.html
Ex-Wynn Resorts CEO files defamation lawsuit against former employee - WSJ
(Reuters) - Steve Wynn, who resigned in February as chief executive of Wynn Resorts Ltd (WYNN.O) following allegations of sexual misconduct, has filed a defamation lawsuit against a former employee of the casino company, the Wall Street Journal reported on Saturday.
The lawsuit, filed last week in Nevada state court, charges that Jorgen Nielsen, a former artistic director at the Wynn Las Vegas salon, made “false and defamatory” statements to the Wall Street Journal and ABC News, according to the report.
Reuters was not able to reach Nielsen for comment.
The Wall Street Journal reported that Nielsen said he was unaware of the lawsuit and had declined to further comment.
Read more: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-steve-wynn-lawsuit/ex-wynn-resorts-ceo-files-defamation-lawsuit-against-former-employee-wsj-idUSKBN1I0012
New York judge halts Xerox, Fujifilm deal
April 28 (UPI) -- A New York State Supreme Court judge has placed a temporary hold on Xerox Corp.'s planned merger with Fujifilm.
The American global photocopying company had planned to merge with the Japanese photography company in a January deal worth more than $6 billion. Under the deal, Fujifilm would own 50.1 percent of the merged company and Xerox's Chief Executive Officer Jeff Jacobson would lead the merged company. Xerox shareholders would receive a $2.5 million cash dividend, or about $9.80 per share.
However, a judge's order late Friday night temporarily blocks that deal until final ruling in the case.
Billionaires Carl Icahn and Darwin Deason, among Xerox's biggest investors, have worked together to fight the deal, the WSJ reported, with Deason filing the suit to block the deal in February.
Read more: https://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2018/04/28/NY-judge-halts-Xerox-Fujifilm-deal/5471524943734/?utm_source=fp&utm_campaign=ts_tn_us&utm_medium=3
HUD shuts down the Underground, popular gay Buffalo hangout since 1974
The Underground Niteclub, a beloved haunt for members of Buffalo's gay community for much of the past 40 years, will close Sunday after the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development denied the property owner's application to renew the bar's lease.
The decision not to renew the bar's lease followed multiple noise complaints from tenants of the Touraine Apartments at 274 Delaware Ave., a HUD official said. The bar has operated as the Underground or Buffalo Underground on the ground floor of the federally subsidized apartment building since the early 1990s.
Before that, it operated as a gay bar under the name of the Hibachi Room in the 1970s and Me and My Arrow in the early 1980s.
The complex is owned by Rockland County-based Multifamily Management, which receives subsidies from HUD for the building's 104 rental units. HUD has subsidized the building since 1982.
Read more: http://buffalonews.com/2018/04/27/hud-shuts-down-the-underground-popular-gay-buffalo-hangout-since-1974/
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