Free Republic

Second Amendment activists have shot down gun-control legislation in Montpelier and are drawing a bead on Sen. Patrick Leahy’s anti-weapons-trafficking proposal and other measures in Washington. But Gun Owners of Vermont, the state affiliate of a group described by the New York Times as more militant than the National Rifle Association, hasn’t yet managed to kill Burlington’s bid to ban assault rifles and high-capacity ammunition clips. “Burlington is saying ‘our state government isn’t doing anything, our federal government isn’t doing anything, so we’re going to do something,’” comments State Rep. Linda Waite-Simpson (D-Essex), Vermont’s foremost gun-control advocate. “Burlington’s trying to...

Since the murder of 20 kindergarten students in Newtown, Conn., sparked a nationwide debate over firearms, Gov. Peter Shumlin has been unwavering in his opposition to any new Vermont laws aimed at restricting the rights of gun owners. “I just think you need a 50-state solution,” Shumlin said at a press conference last Thursday. “That’s not something that I feel any ambiguity about.” Could a new piece of information change his mind? At that same press conference, Shumlin was asked whether state and local police should be able to enforce federal gun laws that aren’t codified in Vermont statute. Federal...

MONTPELIER, Vt. - Vermont officials overseeing the state's transition to a single-payer health care system say providing health insurance to undocumented immigrants would not likely cost taxpayers much money. Lawmakers asked the Green Mountain Care Board to examine the costs of coverage for people who are here illegally. But officials say it's difficult to nail down a price tag because there are no firm numbers of how many undocumented people live in Vermont. It's estimated to be between 1,500 and 3,000. "But we did learn, I think, enough kind of useful facts about the demographics of the population and some...

What do you do when you are an assistant professor at a public university and you’ve been caught red-handed retweeting a tweet advocating murder? If you’re University of Rhode Island professor Erik Loomis, you delete your entire Twitter account ... We’re glad he won’t be advocating violence on Twitter any longer. Hopefully, he will use the freed-up time to seek help from a mental health professional. * * * Update: What exactly is Loomis hiding? Before he deleted his Twitter account, we managed to make note of a few of his angrier tweets

If you don’t lock up your guns – or at least keep them unloaded – when you have guests, you could be sued when something goes wrong. One Vermont family is finding out just how horribly wrong things can go: They are being sued for wrongful death in the wake of an accidental shooting between two house guests, which left one of them dead. The suit alleges that the family was negligent, because the weapon involved in the incident was loaded, unsecured and belonged to a family member. Tragic Facts Jeffrey Charbonneau, 24, and his friend Nick Bell, 25, ran...

What started as a “top secret” Obama administration stealth initiative – illegal alien amnesty – has now become publicly and painfully obvious as millions of illegal aliens line-up to receive their “priority deferment.” Per immigration expert Mark Krikorian: What does President Barack Obama call a bill which has repeatedly failed in Congress? A law! The Department of Homeland Security yesterday began accepting applications for the “Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals” (DACA) amnesty program. The move will award renewable two-year grants of legal status, including work cards and Social Security numbers, to illegal aliens claiming to have arrived before their 16th...

Lisa Miller and daughter Isabellea August 15, 2012 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Kenneth L. Miller, a Mennonite pastor who helped a little girl and her mother to flee the United States to escape the girl’s court-imposed lesbian “mother,� has been convicted on the charge of “aiding and abetting a parental kidnapping.� A Vermont jury returned the verdict yesterday after only four hours of deliberation. He is free while awaiting sentencing, which could bring a punishment of up to three years in prison.  Miller’s attorney, Joshua M. Autry, says he is considering an appeal. Following the verdict, lesbian Janet Jenkins filed a civil...

BURLINGTON, Vt. (AP) — A Vermont prosecutor says an Essex homeowner who stabbed to death an intruder found in his home in the middle of the night acted in self-defense and no charges will be filed. On Tuesday, Chittenden County State's Attorney T.J. Donovan released the results of his investigation into the June 1 incident at the home of 40-year-old Shawn Garrett.

WINOOSKI, Vt. - "I know they don't leave their door open like that late at night," Christine Cusson. Cusson watched as police swarmed her neighbors' home early Tuesday morning. She lives on River Street in Winooski with her young son. But a violent home invasion has her second guessing their safety. "It's pretty hard," she said. "It's scary." Police say at 1 a.m. Tuesday the tenants in an apartment heard a banging at the door. The male resident told police the woman standing outside was a stranger. She was looking for another man who occasionally stayed with the Winooski couple....

Jury finds Va. Tech negligent in '07 shootings By STEVE SZKOTAK, Associated Press – 1 minute ago CHRISTIANSBURG, Va. (AP) — A jury has found Virginia Tech negligent for delaying a campus warning of the first shootings in a 2007 campus massacre that left 33 dead. Jurors returned the verdict Wednesday in a wrongful death civil suit brought by the parents of two students who were killed on April 16, 2007, in the most deadly mass shooting in modern U.S. history. Jurors deliberated for 3 ½ hours before awarding $4 million to each family, and the state immediately filed a...

Several Democratic senators are calling on the Obama administration to allow Syrians who are already in the United States to stay, at least temporarily, out of concern it would be "too dangerous" for them to return home. The senators want President Obama to invoke what's known as "temporary protected status" for thousands of Syrians in the U.S. The designation typically is given to foreign nationals whose home countries are beset by war or natural disaster and who could face harm should they return. The senators argued that Syrians in the U.S. are in just that kind of predicament, as Syrian...

MONTPELIER, Vt. - The two Mexican farmworkers were nervous. Seated in a pickup truck whose driver had been stopped for speeding on a Vermont highway, they didn't know what to expect from the state trooper. They'd heard of other farmworkers being detained or deported in the largely white state, whose $560 million dairy industry relies on Mexican farmhands like them. But one of the men also had been in a similar stop in New York and didn't get bothered.

Bernie Sanders, Vermont’s independent senator and the only avowed socialist in the U.S. Senate, announced Thursday afternoon that he has officially proposed a constitutional amendment overturning the Supreme Court’s controversial Citizens United decision from 2010. (Sanders is also an occasional contributor to In These Times.) That ruling gutted a portion of the McCain-Feingold campaign finance law, passed in 2002, which forbid electoral advertising by corporations, nonprofits and unions. Reactions to the decision mostly split along partisan lines, with Republicans calling it a blow for the First Amendment and Democrats predicting it would allow corporate influence to undermine the democratic process....

http://www.vt.edu/

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — Tajh Boyd threw three touchdown passes and ran for another as No. 21 Clemson routed No. 5 Virginia Tech 38-10 Saturday night to win its first Atlantic Coast Conference championship in 20 years.

MIDDLESEX, Vt. (AP) — The Vermont Human Rights Commission says the two farmworkers stopped in September by a state police trooper who turned out to be illegal immigrants may have been victims of racial discrimination.

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. (AP) - All week long, the chatter about Virginia being on the rise left out an important fact in the mind of Virginia Tech's players: They were still the best in the commonwealth until proven otherwise. The No. 6 Hokies showed they were tops Saturday night, blanking the No. 24 Cavaliers 38-0, their first shutout loss at home in 172 games - since a 55-0 defeat to Clemson on Sept. 8, 1984.

When Patricia Billings fired a handgun at an intruder reportedly breaking through her bedroom window in Rutland Town last week, the legal ramifications were probably the furthest thing from her mind. “No one thinks of self-defense law when they’re in a dangerous incident,” said Michele Martinez Campbell, an associate professor at Vermont Law School. “When you’re in harm’s way, you do what you have to do.” In Billings’ case, police say the 49-year-old fired three rounds from a handgun at a man trying to enter her home on Tuesday. The intruder fled the property on Quarterline Road leaving behind no...

BURLINGTON, VT (WPTZ/CNN) - Vermont's governor has released a new immigration policy for state police, which is being dubbed the "look the other way" policy. Gov. Peter Shumlin says state troopers should not try to arrest people just for being in the U.S. illegally. Back in September, a state trooper made a routine traffic stop and asked one of the passengers his immigration status. He suspected that person of being an illegal immigrant and called Customs and Borders Patrol, who arrested the man. The arrest sparked protests from the migrant worker community, who says the trooper should never have asked...

Shumlin Says State Policy Is To "Look The Other Way" POSTED: 8:27 am EDT September 16, 2011 UPDATED: 11:00 am EDT September 16, 2011 Gov. Peter Shumlin clarified his position Thursday after ordering an immediate investigation into State Police handling of a routine traffic stop on I-89 earlier in the week, one that sparked protest and the detention of two migrant farm workers from Mexico. Read more: http://www.wptz.com/video/29203802/detail.html#ixzz1Y8HQrAAS

ST. JOHNSBURY, Vt. (AP) — The federal government is planning to return 130 antique guns seized from a St. Johnsbury gun dealer who once owned firearm that was later used in a Boston killing.

“Well, at this point I have not,” Sanders said. “But I am now giving thought to doing it. You know, I think you know the names out there as well as I do. And I think the American people have got to be engaged. It’s not just me or anybody else here in Washington. There are a lot of smart honest progressive people who I think can be good presidents.”Sanders said such a challenge was necessary since in his estimation, the president had begun to take his position as the party leader for granted. And I think one of the...

I got a request for $ in the mail ,but want to know from people who live there if he's a real conservative or just another Scott Brown establishment RINO before I send a check. His solicitiation claims he's a "tea party republican", but lately they all do. I'm in MN and never lived in Maine nor do I follow Maine politics. (I did like The D'Amboise Dukes when Ted Nugent played with them.)

The U.S. Justice Department says that marijuana dispensaries and licensed growers in states with medical marijuana laws could face prosecution for violating federal drug and money-laundering laws... Deputy Attorney General James Cole said a 2009 memo by then-Deputy Attorney General David Ogden did not give states cover from prosecution. Starting in February, 10 U.S. attorney's offices have asserted they have the authority to prosecute medical marijuana dispensaries and licensed growers in states with medical marijuana laws. Prosecutors, the states complained, are not even willing to declare that state employees who implement such laws are immune from prosecution.

WASHINGTON (Dow Jones)--The Supreme Court on Thursday struck down a Vermont law that barred the sale of doctors' prescription data to drug companies, ruling the law interfered with the pharmaceutical industry's First Amendment right to market its products. Data companies such as IMS Health Inc. gather information from pharmacies on which medicines doctors are prescribing and how often. Drug makers buy the data, using it to refine their marketing pitches and measure which salespeople are the most effective. A 2007 Vermont law effectively banned the practice in the state. It said data-mining companies can't sell the prescription information for marketing...

MANCHESTER, N.H. — Minnesota Congresswoman Michele Bachmann’s suggestion Saturday that the Revolutionary War began in Concord, N.H., rather than Lexington and Concord, Mass., marks the third time in recent months that the potential GOP presidential hopeful has committed a puzzling gaffe about history and current affairs. Making her first trek to New Hampshire as a 2012 prospect, Bachmann told a GOP crowd in Manchester: “You’re the state where the shot was heard around the world at Lexington and Concord.” The Revolutionary War began, not in New Hampshire’s capital, but in the famous two towns more than 50 miles away in...

A soldier from the Northeast Kingdom is recovering after being shot in Afghanistan. Twenty-seven year-old Patrick McElroy was hit by friendly fire on Friday according to his parents. He was shot once in the leg and once in the abdomen. The East Barnet native is being treated at a military hospital in Germany and is expected to be transferred to Walter Reed Medical Center in Washington D.C. later this week. His parents say a full recovery is expected. McElroy has a wife and two young children.

Tuesday 24 August 2010 Alaska - Primary Arizona - Primary Florida - Primary Oklahoma - Runoff (US House CD 2-R, CD 5-R, Ins Comm-R) Vermont - Primary

MONTPELIER, Vt. (AP) -- Score one for David. Goliath decided it just wasn't worth the fight. The federal government has decided to close a tiny U.S.-Canada border station rather than push ahead with a controversial plan to expand it by seizing a dairy farmer's land, officials announced Thursday.

Welcome to the SILLY SEASON, called MID-TERM ELECTION DAY POLITICS. Even Senator Bernnie Sanders, I/VT gets face time in this video.

Republican Len Britton has a real winner with his first short video spot. Britton focuses on voter disgust with Washington’s record spending and debt. Len Britton is running against far left liberal Patrick Leahy. This ad really nails voter disgust with the out of touch Washington progressive socialists. United States Senate candidate Len Britton kicks off his campaign ad season with the witty and entertaining short video Get A Paper Route, Billy. Filmed in rural Vermont, the minute and thirty second spot highlights the national debt crisis with down home Yankee humor.

Up in northern Vermont, Franklin, Vermont, there is a red brick house which is located in a rural back road area, in which, heavy traffic would be considered having three cars an hour passing on by. That rural bucolic setting of farm houses, silos, and sugar maples has become the focus of a very bitter dispute between Homeland Security who do believe that it needs to secure that border to protect the nation against terrorists who could bring in lethal weapons and an American farm family that need the land to feed their dairy cows hay.

HARRISONBURG, VA. -- The bottle caps, broken glass and empty plastic cups littering a neighborhood near James Madison University's campus suggested that the events of Saturday afternoon were nothing more than a kegger gone bad. But those who witnessed the party-turned-riot recalled chaos so out of character for this Shenandoah Valley town that by Monday afternoon, it still had the power to amaze. "When you are setting off tear gas and people still aren't leaving, you know it's bad," recalled Lt. Kurt Boshart of the Harrisonburg Police Department. "It was really bad." Each semester, James Madison students organize a huge...

In the recent annals of senatorial vote-buying, there have been the Cornhusker Kickback and the Louisiana Purchase. Now make way for the Bismarck Earmark. Sen. Kent Conrad, North Dakota Democrat, seems to be demanding a sop for the Bank of North Dakota to guarantee his support for President Obama's proposed federal takeover of the entire student-loan industry, known as the Student Aid and Fiscal Responsibility Act. The senator is willing to impose this awful idea on the rest of the country so long as North Dakota's own program is spared. Sen. Patrick J. Leahy, Vermont Democrat, is seeking additional exemptions,...

Dec 22: Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) says insurance and drug lobbyists won the health care debate and that Congress will need to revisit the plan, as it is not sustainable. Video MSNBC/Sanders InterviewClick on Bernie Sanders

I am a representative in student government at the University of Texas at Austin. I'm also uniquely positioned to discuss the issue of firearms and classrooms as an alumnus of Virginia Tech. I was there in 2007 when the shooting happened, and I lost the girl I love. In no way was that tragedy the fault of those licensed to carry concealed handguns. With that said, our tragedy has been used by proponents of a "guns everywhere" policy to push a political agenda. I cannot speak to the decision of CSU's Associated Students or their reasons for voting the way...

Recently Jim Robinson posted two threads declaring Free Republic’s determination to see Conservatives elected and ousting Rino's from government. Jim and a great many Freepers believe that we need to take back control. But the RNC is not hearing us. Activism is called for NOW. 2010 is nearing and we need Conservative candidates to run. The time is ripe and people are ready for another 1994 type election. But we need to make the RNC hear us loud and clear. This is the Rino Free America Project. Get involved. Make them listen. Write a letter and MAIL it. Republican...

Morgan Harrington was seen hitchhiking for a ride on the Copeley Road Bridge on the night of her disappearance, according to a police brief released Nov. 13. “After the 9:30 (p.m.) timeframe, we can’t seem to establish any other sightings of her,” said Corinne Geller, spokeswoman for the Virginia State Police. It was also released in the brief that she was wearing a Swarovski Crystal necklace on that night. Harrington might have received a ride or approached someone to borrow a cell phone, Geller said. “She was wearing it that night,” Geller said. “She dropped her purse and her cell...

Lessons learned from the horrific Virginia Tech shootings in 2007 are credited with averting an even bigger massacre at Fort Hood, Texas, Thursday afternoon when police officer Kimberly Munley confronted the gunman without waiting for backup and took him down with four shots. Reviews in the aftermath of the shootings at Virginia Tech, where 32 died, found that first responders' decision to be careful and wait for backup probably cost lives as that gunman moved unchecked from classroom to classroom as law enforcement massed outside. Those findings had found their way to Fort Hood's Special Reaction Team, which had practiced...

American heavy metal band Metallica has stumped up 50,000 dollars in reward money for a fan who disappeared at one of their concerts, a campaign website said Monday. Police have been searching for blond-haired, blue-eyed Virginia Tech student Morgan Harrington, 20, since she went missing from a Metallica concert in Charlottesville, Virginia on the evening of Saturday, October 17.... "The Band Metallica is also adding an additional 50,000 dollars to the reward bringing it to 150,000 dollars for Morgan's safe return or information leading to the arrest and conviction of the person or persons responsible for Morgan's disappearance," it said....

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. (AP) — Police searched Tuesday for a Virginia Tech student who hasn't been seen since she was separated from her friends at a Metallica concert Saturday. Morgan Dana Harrington, 20, was last seen near the John Paul Jones Arena in Charlottesville. Her parents said they talk to her every day and her disappearance is very out of character.

Lynchburg, VA - Supporters of the Second Amendment gathered Friday afternoon at the Liberty University (web) School of Law for a gun rights symposium. The discussion of current legal cases turned into a cry for help from students at Virginia Tech. Some Virginia Tech students even skipped class to do it. Alyson Boyce with VT Students for Concealed Carry President said, "Two and a half years ago, if you would have asked me anything about gun rights, I would not have been able to tell you a thing. Now, Boyce is the president of the Hokie Chapter of Students for...

I wonder why the same poeple opposing voter ID are the same favoring IRV ? why are "progressives" often on this bandwagon?

The funeral services for two Virginia Tech sophomores who apparently were shot to death last week in the Caldwell Fields section of the Jefferson National Forest are scheduled for today in Lynchburg. As of Sunday evening, the Montgomery County Sheriff's Office still was seeking leads for the shooting, which they believe occurred either Wednesday night or Thursday morning. Services for David Lee Metzler, 19, of Lynchburg and Heidi Lynn Childs, 18, of Forest will be held at Heritage Baptist Church, which both students attended. Metzler's service will be at 1 p.m., while Childs' will be at 3 p.m. Each service...

Missing mental health records of Virginia Tech gunman Seung-Hui Cho have been discovered in the home of the university clinic's former director, according to a memo obtained by The Associated Press on Wednesday. The memo said the records were removed from the Cook Counseling Center on the Virginia Tech campus more than a year before the shootings. http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090722/ap_on_re_us/us_virginia_tech_shooting

A participant of a summer camp on Tech's campus has been confirmed by Schiffert Health Center to have a case of H1N1 influenza, according to an e-mail to on-campus students from Housing and Dining Services. The H1N1 influenza virus, also known as swine flu, recently hit pandemic status in early June, indicating widespread global activity, as defined by the World Health Organization. According to the Center for Disease Control website, the pandemic status only reflects the spread of the virus to over 70 countries and not its severity. Housing's e-mail, sent by Associate Director for Occupancy Management Kenneth Belcher, clarified...

Wednesday, July 1 BRATTLEBORO -- The jury began deliberations Tuesday in the second-degree murder trial of David Boglioli. After closing statements by Deputy State's Attorney David Gartenstein and defense attorney Matthew Harnett, the jury must decide whether to find Boglioli guilty of second-degree murder in the shooting death of his neighbor, George Riccitelli, or if he was defending himself from being beaten with an ax handle. If convicted of second-degree murder, Boglioli will face a sentence of 20 years to life in prison. Prior to the closing statements, Harnett called Scott Kriger, a toxicology expert, to the stand. Kriger testified...

BURLINGTON, Vt. – Like plenty of other high school students, a group of about a dozen Vermont teenagers trundled into a youth center one day every week this spring to participate in an after-school program. But their program was different; it focused on gender. The nine-week program, partially funded by the Burlington School District, was held at Vermont's Queer Youth Center and called "Gendertopia." Gay, lesbian and straight students discussed a wide range of topics, from the characters in the book and movie "Twilight," to taking photos around the city that show the different ways gender is portrayed in popular...

BLACKSBURG -- They were: The apple of a parent's eye. A collector of friends. Brilliant. Warm. They dreamed. Volunteered. Had smiles that made others smile. They were 32 people who Virginia Tech paused yesterday to remember and to honor, on the second anniversary of the worst mass shooting in U.S. history. Under a cloudless sky, 3,000 gathered: families, friends, faculty -- the community of Virginia Tech -- to reflect on those who died.

RADFORD, Va. (AP) -- Radford University officials have put the campus on lockdown and asked students to seek shelter as police search for a man suspected of shooting someone near the campus. Radford Police Chief Don Goodman says the shooting happened around 9 p.m. Thursday. The victim hasn't been identified.