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Shortly after noon on Thursday, August 2, Vermont farmer Roger Pion, 34, rode his parents’ 20,000 pound tractor into Newport, Vermont, on his way to the Orleans County Sheriff’s Department’s new building, where he rolled back and forth over seven of the sheriff department’s cruisers (two unmarked) and a van, before moseying on down the road with no one in pursuit. There was no one in pursuit for two reasons: first the personnel in the sheriff’s department couldn’t hear what was going on in thei

The State of Vermont is once again defending its police in court against charges of taser abuse, but this time the taser use was fatal for a disoriented, unarmed artist suffering the after-effects of an epileptic seizure. A civil suit filed in Orange County Superior Court by Theresa V. Davidonis of Thetford, Vermont, the surviving life partner of MacAdam Mason, alleges that the Vermont State Police committed the civil equivalent of negligent homicide when a state trooper tasered Mason and he di

Credit: 7dblogs.com Like the line attributed to Groucho Marx, several Vermont officials are denying reports of police violence at a protest by telling the public in effect: “Who are you going to believe, me or your lying eyes?” Yet all reports and videos show that police violence started after (not before) the road had been cleared and busses of dignitaries had been let through. Video and still photographs show a consistent pattern of passive resistance by about 25 protesters blocking a drivew

Photo: James Harris The battle raging between proponents of gay marriage and those in opposition to it have missed the mark entirely. This is not to dismiss the concerns of either side, but rather to illustrate that both are missing the forest for the trees. The issue being discussed should not be one of determining whose views win out and which politicians get to decide, but why politicians are given such power in the first place. While countless Americans stormed into Chic-fil-A restaurants

A Senate cybersecurity bill failed to pass today as the result of a Republican filibuster, falling just eight votes shy of the 60 needed to advance to a final vote. As IVN has reported, the cybersecurity bill is a major priority for the Obama administration, prompting a recent Wall Street Journal editorial by the President himself. "Despite the President’s repeated calls for Congress to act on this legislation, and despite pleas from numerous senior national security officials from this Admini

Credit: dylankelley.blogspot.com New England governors and friends were on their way to a dinner party prior to a conference in Burlington, VT and found the way blocked by pedestrians and protesters. So they did what was only natural and called in the police, with police violence the predictable result. Late Sunday afternoon, on July 29, four tour buses, carrying a reported 200 or so attendees at the conference of American governors and Canadian premiers were headed from their hotel to a fancy

Credit: world350.org If you’re an oil company trying to get dirty tar sands oil from central Canada to a tanker port on the Maine Coast, why not just reverse the flow of a 71-year old pipeline that already carries crude oil from South Portland, Maine, to Montreal, passing through Vermont, New Hampshire, and Quebec, on the way? One reason would be the Canadian court decision last February that denied permission for pipeline owners to build a pumping station in an agricultural zone in Dunham, Qu

Credit: occupyboston.org Harvard Law Professor Lawrence Lessig knows about the money that flows through the election cycle. Just this Tuesday, Lessig testified before Congress at a hearing regarding the Citizens United decision. The hearing examined the effects of the decision and possible responses, like the Disclose Act and Fair Elections Now Act. What's important is that Lessig authored a 17 page testimony backed by daunting statistics in campaign finance. Professor Lessig is careful not st

Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont Credit: madmikesamerica.com Economic inequality has been steadily growing in the United States over the last three decades. Since 1980, the real after-tax income of the top 1% of earners has increased by 277%, while that of the bottom 20% of earners has increased by just 18%, and that of the middle 60% by 38%, according to the Congressional Budget Office. Among developed countries worldwide, the United States has one of the largest gaps between rich and poor. The

Much like the social media experiment put forth by @Sweden, Vermont has joined the ranks as the first state in America to create a Twitter handle to be managed directly by the citizens of the state. Called @ThisisVT, the Twitter account was created by the Vermont Department of Tourism and Marketing in an attempt to attract visitors to the state by providing first hand testimonials from the residents themselves. Each week, a new resident will have control over the Twitter account, to tweet as he