Isn't This As Racist As Having A KKK Flag Fly?

Black Lives Matter flag to fly outside public high school amid complaints about ‘white privilege’

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A Black Lives Matter flag will fly in front of a Vermont public high school next month during Black History Month after a student group pressed the school board for the move amid complaints about "white privilege" and "implicit bias." (Image source: YouTube screenshot)

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A Black Lives Matter flag will fly in front of a Vermont public high school next month — Black History Month — after a student group pressed the school board for the move amid complaints about “white privilege” and “implicit bias,” the Burlington Free Press reported.

The board unanimously approved the hoisting of the Black Lives Matter flag outside Montpelier High School during February, the paper said, after members of the student-led Racial Justice Alliance spoke to the board Jan. 17.

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“Vermont has a long history of being at the forefront of civil rights movements,” Montpelier Public Schools said in a statement, the Free Press reported Wednesday. “Our state was the first to abolish slavery in its constitution, and the first to enroll and graduate a black student, who subsequently served in the state legislature. The School Board’s decision to fly a Black Lives Matter flag builds on that legacy.”

What else do the the Racial Justice Alliance students want?

The Racial Justice Alliance students said in statement to the board that the Black Lives Matter flag would be one element of a wider campaign that includes curriculum changes, administrative training, faculty in-service training, a schoolwide assembly and other moves, the paper said.

“And yet, we need to do more to raise our predominantly white community’s collective consciousness to better recognize white privilege and implicit bias,” the Racial Justice Alliance’s statement added, according to Free Press.

The group also noted, the paper said: “We will raise the flag with love in our hearts and courage in our voices. We reject any purported connections to violence or hate that may or may not have occurred under the Black Lives Matter flag. We recognize that all lives do matter, but in the same spirit, not all lives are acknowledged for their equal importance until black lives have been.”

What about those in the community who disagree with flying the Black Lives Matter flag?

The school board said it’s aware some community members might be against the move and welcomes those who disagree into “constructive and peaceful dialogue, in the hopes of deepening our shared understanding of race and privilege in our education system and broader community,” the paper said.

(H/T: The College Fix)

Federal Immigration Law Quickly Becoming A States Right Verses Federal Law Case

DHS: Vermont Capital is Violating Federal Immigration Law

 March 28, 2017  13 Comments

(Michael Bielawski, Watchdog.org) Vermont’s capital is on a list of cities whose policies violate federal immigration law, according to a document released last week by the Department of Homeland Security.

Photo by denisbin (CC)

Montpelier made the list because authorities “will not hold an individual based solely on an ICE detainer,” the DHS document states. The list is important because U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced Monday that he is ready to punish sanctuary cities by denying them $4 billion in federal grants this year alone.

President Donald Trump ordered DHS to release weekly reports listing communities that are violating federal law. Last week’s list includes 118 jurisdictions that thwart federal immigration agents.

Montpelier Mayor John Hollar told Watchdog that his legal advisors say the city is not violating federal immigration policy.

“Our policies in Montpelier are similar to those in other communities throughout Vermont that are consistent with guidance that we’ve received from the [state] attorney general’s office,” Hollar said. “We don’t think there’s any violation of federal law in the policies that we’ve adopted here.”

The DHS listing puts local police in a bind. Aiding and abetting illegal immigrants is a felony according to the U.S. Immigration and Nationality Act. However, many sanctuary communities across the country instruct police not to cooperate with Immigration and Customs Enforcement detainers — federal requests to local jurisdictions to hold undocumented immigrants until ICE agents arrive in person.

Hollar said he is sticking by the advice of his advisors.

“My understanding is that these are civil detainers, and based on my conversation with the attorney general, we believe that we are not able to detain individuals based on charges without probable cause, and that seems to be what the expectation is.

“I’ve got to rely on guidance from both our police chief as well as our [state] attorney general, and my view is that we are entirely consistent with both federal law and also the Constitution,” Hollar said.

Jonathan Hanen, an expert with the Federation for American Immigration Reform, said Montpelier police are faced with a dilemma due to the city’s policy.

“It’s unfair for law enforcement because it’s a no-win situation,” Hanen said. “[In] most oaths that I’ve seen law enforcement take, it’s not just swearing to uphold the local law of this town or that town, they are also upholding the federal law, too. So, they know that they are violating federal law.”

The Obama administration weakened the 287 (g) program that allows local officers to temporarily achieve ICE agent status while enforcing a detainer. However, that program has returned back to its original status under the new Trump administration.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement also reported last week that local authorities in sanctuary communities released more than 200 illegal aliens from prisons in a single week in defiance of detainment orders.

Such communities risk losing federal funding, such as money from Administration of Justice grants, Hanen said.

“The counties will often get that money and then they will spend it on something else. Once that’s taken away, oftentimes it’s kind of a domino effect,” he said.

Sanctuary cities face another threat for lawless activities: the U.S. attorney general can sue.

“It is not acceptable for jurisdictions to refuse to cooperate with federal law enforcement by releasing criminal aliens back into our communities when our law required them to be deported,” Sessions said last week.

Hollar says he’s not sure what the plan is to remedy this situation with DHS. “We haven’t had any opportunity to talk yet about what the strategy is going to be in response to this, but we think it’s unfounded and that there’s no basis for it,” he said.

Hanen says whatever cities decide, the stakes are high. “It’s really about the front line between the sovereignty of the states and the sovereignty of the federal government,” he said.

Original Source

The Effect Of Taxes Exemplified By Small Business Closures

Government Turns Vermont Business Owners’ American Dream Into Nightmare

May 8, 2014 by Watchdog.org 

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This article, written by reporter Bruce Parker, was originally published by Watchdog on May 8.

When Dave and Eileen McKnelly bought the Newbury Village Store in picturesque Newbury, Vt., the former New Hampshire couple thought they had made it.

Photo courtesy of the Newbury Village Store

“We came here to fulfill our dream, the American Dream, to raise and provide for our three children, be part of a community and make a positive impact,” Dave McKnelly told Vermont Watchdog.

But the owners of the 175-year-old country store say Vermont’s business environment may now force them to close the store for good, turning their lifelong dream into a nightmare.

“With the taxes we’ve been encountering this year, one of the serious options my wife and I looked at is Dec. 31 we’re going to close the store,” McKnelly said.

McKnelly said policies by Governor Peter Shumlin’s administration have forced costs to escalate far beyond what his business can manage.

“It’s not just the minimum wage increase — it’s the increased payroll tax, increased Medicaid, increased workers’ comp fees and increased unemployment fees,” McKnelly said.

Not only would a mandatory wage hike force McKnelly to pay an additional $100 or more per week to minimum-wage employees, it would require him to give raises to higher-wage workers as well — labor costs he said he can’t afford.

“For me to be able to raise my revenues to a point where I can offset the minimum wage increase is daunting,” McKnelly said.

In addition to labor-related costs, the Newbury resident said a single-payer health plan tax hike looms for his store.

“With Shumlin’s new budget proposal, one of the line items he’s proposed is to help pay for the single-payer medical program. So it means my payroll tax is going to increase 12 percent per employee to pay for that — and my employees are going to pay between 5 and 6 percent.”

Situated on the Vermont-New Hampshire border just 35 miles from Dartmouth College, Newbury Village Store serves customers with backgrounds ranging from farming and academia to logging and professional services.

Despite the store’s broad appeal, McKnelly said new taxes are forcing Vermonters to cross the border to buy goods.

“We live in a border town with New Hampshire, which doesn’t have a sales tax. They have a minimal cigarette tax and beer tax — so they’re my major competition,” he said.

New Hampshire’s 0-percent sales tax is a threat to Vermont businesses.

Not only does Vermont have a 6 percent sales tax for most items, tobacco and alcohol get taxed at extremely high rates — and customers notice.

According to McKnelly, cigarettes that cost $8.64 in Vermont cost $5.65 across the river in New Hampshire. The price difference explains why the Newbury Village Store sells $1,500 of tobacco products a week while competitors across the border sell $25,000.

“I’ve often joked that if I could shut this place down, pick it up, and move it across the river to New Hampshire, I could literally look at the entrance to my backyard and I’d be doing great,” he said.

Some businesses are moving to New Hampshire.

“Trout River Brewing Company is looking to close down in Vermont and go to Lebanon, New Hampshire, because of the tax base,” McKnelly said. “Other companies are shutting down and moving across the border as well.”

Although McKnelly gave his testimony at the statehouse this year, lawmakers didn’t seem to be listening.

“Governor Shumlin thinks the state of Vermont is doing phenomenal. My comment to him was if you continue to impose taxes on small and medium-sized businesses, we’ll be forced to close down or go across the border.”

The problem with Montpelier, McKnelly said, is that lawmakers don’t notice when small businesses close shop or lay off employees — yet closings and layoffs quickly add up.

“If you take all of the little retail stores in the state of Vermont, and you look at all the people they employ and the taxes we pay, if they all decided to close down their stores, the state would go belly up in about a week. We employ a majority of the people in the state of Vermont.”