TexasTowelie
TexasTowelie's JournalClimate Crisis Spawns a Push to Ban Logging in the Green Mountain National Forest
Karen Bixler made her way down a steep logging road deep in the Green Mountains last week, a bright rainbow on her floppy hat and a dark scowl on her face. The Bethel resident had spent the previous hour listening to U.S. Forest Service staffers explain why they had allowed loggers to clear-cut a nearby 10-acre swath of forest two years ago.
Removing nearly all the trees from designated areas creates patches of new forest that quickly regenerate into vital wildlife habitat, the experts told Bixler and about 30 others who toured the site in the town of Chittenden. Forester James Donahey and his colleagues explained that "early successional" forests provide tender new growth favored by moose and deer, fruiting bushes that feed bears, and refuge for birds and wildlife to raise their young.
Bixler wasn't buying it.
"I think it's bullshit," she said as she steadied herself with a hiking pole to navigate the rutted dirt road that led away from the logging site. Forests need to be left alone to recover from the beating they've taken at the hands of man, not logged more intensively — no matter how that's dressed up and justified, Bixler said.
But more logging is exactly what the Green Mountain National Forest is facing over the next decade. Stands that haven't been cut in the better part of a century are reaching maturity — from an economic perspective, anyway.
Read more: https://www.sevendaysvt.com/vermont/climate-crisis-spawns-a-push-to-ban-logging-in-the-green-mountain-national-forest/Content?oid=33631956
During Vermont visit, US agriculture secretary announces dairy relief, discusses pollution progress
U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack announced a dairy assistance program during a visit to Vermont on Thursday and heard about farmers’ work to reduce pollution in Lake Champlain.
At a roundtable event with U.S. Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., at the ECHO Leahy Center for Lake Champlain, Vilsack unveiled details of the Pandemic Market Volatility Assistance Program, which he said would distribute $350 million to farmers across the country.
The program is expected to cover 80% of the revenue difference per month between July and December of 2020. The pay rate, Vilsack said, will vary by region.
When the Covid-19 pandemic prompted restaurants and schools to close, the demand for dairy dwindled across the country. Nationally, stories circulated of farmers dumping their milk, and erratic weather patterns across Vermont contributed to their struggles.
Read more: https://vtdigger.org/2021/08/19/during-vermont-visit-us-agriculture-secretary-announces-dairy-relief-discusses-pollution-progress/
Former New Hampshire State Senator Appealing Domestic Violence Conviction
A former New Hampshire state senator has filed a notice of appeal with the state supreme court on his convictions of domestic violence, criminal mischief and simple assault charges.
Jeff Woodburn (D), of Whitefield, was convicted in May and sentenced in July to 60 days in jail. He had pleaded not guilty.
Woodburn was accused of slapping, punching, and biting a woman.
His lawyer argued that the woman conspired with a mutual friend to develop a list of incidents Woodburn allegedly committed in a plot to scare him.
In his notice, Woodburn asks whether the judge was wrong or violated his constitutional rights when the court failed to give the jury a self-defense instruction, among other questions.
https://www.nhpr.org/politics
(no more at link)
Ex-Iowa Democratic leader takes new job in New Hampshire
Troy Price, who resigned as chairman of the Iowa Democratic Party after a disastrous leadoff caucus in 2020, is taking a new job in the fellow first-in-the-nation state New Hampshire.
Price will become executive director of the New Hampshire Democratic Party on Monday as it gears up for the 2022 elections and 2024 primary, officials said Friday.
Price resigned in February 2020 after a meltdown in tabulating results from the lead-off presidential caucuses led to a dayslong delay in reporting the results, inconsistences in the numbers and no clear winner.
The embarrassing episode also threatened Iowa’s cherished status as the first caucus of the presidential nomination season. But there was no mention of that in the press release announcing his hiring in New Hampshire, which typically holds the first primary. There, he received unanimous support from both a selection committee and the party’s executive committee, officials said.
Read more: https://www.concordmonitor.com/Ex-Iowa-Democratic-leader-takes-new-job-in-New-Hampshire-41960380
Demonstrators arrested at state budget protests will go to trial for trespass
Five demonstrators arrested for protesting the state budget in June rallied with supporters Friday outside Concord District Court, where the activists had a court date for criminal trespass charges.
The five protesters – Asma Elhuni of Concord, N.H.; Alison Brokenshire of White River Junction, Vt.; Dana Hackett of Laconia, N.H.; James Graham of Lyme, N.H.; and Joy Robertson of Keene, N.H. – were joined by about two dozen people outside the courthouse during the morning hearing.
On June 24, New Hampshire State Police arrested the activists for refusing to leave the state Capitol after it closed at 5 p.m.
“We were unable to resolve the charges today,” attorney Andru Volinsky said at the rally. Volinsky, who is also a Rights and Democracy board member and a former Executive Councilor, said that protesters arrested on these types of charges can usually avoid a trial and that continuing the court proceedings was a waste of state funds.
Read more: https://www.concordmonitor.com/Budget-protestors-arrested-will-go-to-trial-42066220
What will the new census data mean for the state's two congressional districts?
When the U.S. Census Bureau released raw data for New Hampshire’s once-in-a-decade count, the numbers revealed a slowly diversifying state, whose population is growing in the Seacoast area but shrinking in the north and west.
But the numbers also set the stage for a redistricting effort, one that could affect the state’s congressional representation.
According to an aggregate of town-by-town population counts, New Hampshire’s two congressional districts both grew over the past years. But the 1st Congressional District grew more than the 2nd District.
The 1st District, which encompasses the southeast corner of the state and ranges from Manchester and Exeter to Conway, added 39,504 people. The 2nd District, which includes all of Coos County and the western half of the state, added just 21,552.
Read more: https://newhampshirebulletin.com/2021/08/19/what-will-the-new-census-data-mean-for-the-states-two-congressional-districts/
Folow-up: Mills rejects expedited clemency request from first Mainer in prison to enter PhD program
In a decision that likely squashes the chances that the first Mainer in the state prison system to enter into a PhD program will be able to attend classes in-person, Gov. Janet Mills declined this week to grant a request for clemency by Brandon Brown, instead saying that Brown should submit his request to the state Pardon Board.
As Beacon previously reported, Brown — who has been in the prison system in Maine for over a decade and has earned master’s degree, bachelor’s degree and associate’s degree on the inside — previously submitted a petition through the board last year only to have his clemency request ultimately denied by Mills without any public explanation.
This time around, Brown, who was sentenced in 2010 to 17 years in prison for a shooting that left a man partially paralyzed, made an expedited appeal directly to Mills in a letter submitted in July.
Brown’s effort has received support from a wide range of people, including the victim of his crime, a state lawmaker, professors at George Mason University and many others. Supporters have argued that approving the request would facilitate Brown’s studies at George Mason — where he has completed one year of a PhD program in restorative justice — by allowing him to attend classes in-person and would provide hope to those in the prison system looking to pursue education and other rehabilitative programming.
Read more: https://mainebeacon.com/mills-rejects-expedited-clemency-request-from-first-mainer-in-prison-to-enter-phd-program/
Earlier thread:
'I'm asking for a chance': First Mainer in prison to enter PhD program again files for clemency
https://www.democraticunderground.com/10554188
Belfast drops Crosby Center as voting venue after controversial summer event
BELFAST, Maine — Less than a month after the Crosby Center in Belfast hosted the controversial “Arise USA! Resurrection Tour,” the city dropped the center as one of its municipal voting locations.
Belfast City councilors decided at Tuesday night’s regular meeting to move the downtown voting venue from the Crosby Center to a Main Street building owned by the Tarratine Tribe No. 13. At the meeting, councilors did not mention the July 27 event, which was organized by conspiracy theorist Robert David Steele and described by some as a union of COVID-19 denialism and far-right extremism. Nevertheless, it was a factor in the decision, according to Councilor Neal Harkness.
After the event, city officials heard from a number of residents who said they would no longer feel comfortable about voting at the Crosby Center, which is privately owned, he said Thursday.
“We did get a fair number of complaints from people who felt … that they had a partisan political rally at a polling place, and people were uncomfortable about that,” Harkness said. “And also regarding the virus. People wanted to make sure that this would be a safe place [to vote].”
Read more: https://bangordailynews.com/2021/08/20/news/midcoast/belfast-drops-crosby-center-as-voting-venue-after-controversial-summer-event/
Anti-Defamation League calls on Maine lawmaker to apologize after comparing Mills to Nazi doctor
The New England chapter of the Anti-Defamation League is calling on Republican state Rep. Heidi Sampson to apologize for comparing Democratic Gov. Janet Mills and her sister to German doctors who performed experiments on Jews during the Holocaust.
Sampson appeared at a State House protest this week prompted by the governor’s recent announcement requiring health care workers in Maine to get vaccinated for COVID-19 by Oct. 1.
Mills said the requirement is aimed at protecting the health of patients, noting that health care workers are already required to receive a battery of vaccinations for mumps, measles, chickenpox and other transmissible diseases.
But Sampson likened the COVID vaccine requirement to experiments performed by Nazi doctors on Jews during the Holocaust and likened the governor to Josef Mengele, the so-called Angel of Death, or Joseph Goebbels, an acolyte of Adolf Hitler.
Read more: https://bangordailynews.com/2021/08/20/politics/anti-defamation-league-calls-on-maine-lawmaker-to-apologize-after-comparing-mills-to-nazi-doctor/
Maine lawmaker who reportedly lost wife to COVID attends anti-mandate rally
Rep. Chris Johansen, a Monticello Republican who reportedly contracted COVID-19 in mid-July and lost his wife to the virus, attended an anti-mandate rally in Augusta on Tuesday.
Johansen, who had been outspoken against pandemic restrictions and mask mandates, joined a rally against Maine’s new vaccine mandate for health care workers where Rep. Heidi Sampson, R-Alfred, compared Democratic Gov. Janet Mills and her sister to Nazi doctors who performed experiments on Jews during the Holocaust, The Daily Beast reported on Friday.
Neither Johansen, nor his late wife Cindy Johansen, had received a coronavirus vaccine, according to Facebook posts made in mid-July.
Cindy Johansen made a number of Facebook posts in alluding to COVID-19, and on July 16 she posted that she was “feeling like I’m going to pass out” and that her “legs were like rubber.” She later shared on July 21 that it was “horrible to be alone.”
Chris Johansen posted to his Facebook page on Aug. 7 that “It was all bad news today. Cindy has suffered several major set backs.”
Read more: https://bangordailynews.com/2021/08/20/news/aroostook/maine-lawmaker-who-reportedly-lost-wife-to-covid-attends-anti-mandate-rally/
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