Wiretapping attorneys, political fundraising and hospital rates were only some of the stories that caught our attention this week. A college campus dealt with two assaults, California turned its eye to Vermont’s car emissions trial and some home owners felt the pinch of adjusted mortgage rates.
Commission says hospital rates too high
(Public Oversight Commission Chairman Greg Peters) "Just make it the same rate increase for all hospitals – you’re all going to get the same rate increase. Learn to live with it within your budgeting process."
Castleton holds forum on sexual assaults
(Castleton State student Michaela Stewart) "The first one they didn’t give a description – but the second one they said it’s an intoxicated college male with brown hair – which is like half the campus, so every time you walk by somebody, you say, is that it?"
Senate rejects detainee challenge plan
(Senator Patrick Leahy) "What it’s going to show the rest of the world is not the best face of America – in many ways it’s similar to what we did in World War Two – legislated out of fear and locked up Japanese Americans."
Vermont Edition – Child Poverty
(Carlen Finn, Child Poverty Council) "This poverty is not about personal failings. It really isn’t. It’s about economic and social conditions that we can change. And I believe it’s solvable."
Vermont’s auto emissions ruling could have impact in other states
(Director of UCLA’s Environmental Law Center, Stephen Hecht) "It appears to be extremely thorough and well-reasoned and I think that the air resources board and the attorney general’s office here are seeing the case as really being quite potentially influential on the case here in terms of steering the judge in the California case in a particular direction."
Catamount Health plan ready for rollout
(Donna Sutton Fay) "it works differently than most state health programs. Anyone with any income can buy Catamount."
Jim Douglas says Democratic leaders are out of mainstream
(Middlebury College political scientist Eric Davis) "My sense is that Jim Douglas has been running for re-election against the Legislature almost from the day he was sworn in January."
Credit crisis starting to emerge in Vermont
(Caryl Stewart, CEO of Opportunities Credit Union) "It’s not a slam dunk. We’re not promising: Bring your mortgage in and we’ll fix it. Bring your mortgage in and we will help you really understand what you’ve gotten yourself into."