Opinion

DESCRIPTION:

1994, Ramsey Clark wrote in his The Fire This Time – US War Crimes in the Gulf, “The greatest crime since WWII has been US foreign policy,” in Crime in America, 1970, “Crimes are meant to be prosecuted,” and in Challenge to Genocide, 1998 that ‘investments in the illegal and genocidal use of the nation’s Armed Forces, CIA and mass media will be made unprofitable and brought to an end through prosecution under the law’

May 30, 2016
John O’Connor
Town Treasurer/ Finance Director
Town of Brattleboro
230 Main Street
Suite 111
Brattleboro, VT 05301

Dear John,

I was  preparing bills and I just felt compelled to air a pet peeve that I have had for years.

Every year I get a Property Tax Statement that contains four tear off tabs that I am to mail in to the Town with a check for the quarterly payment of my property taxes. 

The issue of inclusion has long been a concern of lesbian and gays. Following the gay riots in 1969 it was gay pride that was the focus of the movement. The Gay Liberation Front was the militant group of activist who helped to establish gay rights.In those days many gay people did not believe in bisexuals and oftentimes, like straight people, they denied there was such a thing. Gay pride was born of and lives in a dichotomous, black and white world where gays and straights are the axis of powers.

The struggle for gay rights extended through the Seventies and Eighties. Subsequently, it was gay people who took it upon themselves to add bisexuals to the initialism to create LGBT, in good part because it helped to buff up their numbers. The success of social movements regularly depend on how many thousands or millions they can put into the streets or add to their mailing lists to demonstrate widespread support.

Forest Square, also known as the Tree Streets, in Brattleboro was once a very desirable part of town to live. The area was given its name due to the ample number of trees, the streets are named after trees, and the streets were planted with large shade trees lining the sidewalks and roads.

The very largest trees in the neighborhood today were likely planted in the 1860s by Brattleboro’s Share Tree Association. There was a concerted effort to plant new trees to provide shade for future residents, since much of the town was being cleared of trees as people cut them for wood.

The shade trees grew up together and became quite large and doing all the things trees do – provide shade, homes for birds, food for squirrels, places to play and climb for children.

U.S. | Racial Justice
Vermont Governor Peter Shumlin & Speaker of the VT House Shap Smith are Racial Profiling!

by Cris Ericson (ru18vote [at] gmail.com) Saturday May 7th, 2016 5:07 PM

Should Vermont Speaker of the House, Shap Smith, be charged with conspiracy with Vermont Governor Peter Shumlin for creating a new form of racial profiling of people charged with a criminal misdemeanor by forcing them to submit to a DNA test because that is just a new form of being Hitler because DNA testing shows whether you are “Cohanim Jewish” J1 haplogroup Y chromosome or Black or Native American Indian, etc.?

Please be sure to include North End Butchers, Windham Wines and Adams Seafood in your shopping plans this spring and summer. With the coming closing of Black Mountain Trading Co., on Putney Road, I would like to urge all to frequent the North End Butchers, Windham Wines, Adams Seafood and other merchants in the little shopping mall on Putney Road just north of Hannafords.

North End Butchers is starting to get fresh vegetables from local growers, they have their usual fine selection of locally grown meat, sandwiches and a nice assortment of prepared foods. They have even been carrying locally grown shitaki mushrooms.

From the early days of one room school houses to the present, town residents and tax payers have been directly involved in their students’ education. Act 46 takes this role away from us.

The Dummerston community has built and paid for its school building and grounds. All decisions pertaining to our school are made annually by Dummerston residents by discussion and Australian ballot.

Implementation of act 46 completely removes the people from direct decision making about their children’s education. Furthermore, our schools will lose their identity as community centers.

Act 46 is being enacted without any information provided to the public, nor does the public have the opportunity to give input or feedback.

DESCRIPTION:
It would seem Sanders fighting for Americans to have free health care and free education would have tempered his words about a Gaddafi who saw to his people receiving for many years what Bernie wants for Americas. Meanwhile, Hillary Clinton and the pro status quo Republican candidates opposing her are perhaps already an anachronism, i.e., persons with practices that belongs to an earlier time.

This year, as I was doing my taxes, I got to wondering what is up with the healthcare “Personal Responsibility Tax” for the uninsured, and whether or not low income people really have to pay it.   This mostly affects the self-employed and people without coverage through their employers, but that’s a few people, so it seemed worth investigating.  As it turned out, finding out how to claim an exemption was most of the battle, and a battle it was with many spreadsheets and worksheets and interactive tax tools to be filled out.  The answer I arrived at was “no” — unless you make more than $53,737 (as a single person), you’re not required to pay the uninsured person’s tax.  This is because you are not required by law to expend more than 8.05% of your income to buy h