Voices in the week’s news – June 27, 2008

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This week came an announcement of layoffs at IBM, the continued impact of rising fuel prices, and Rutland’s ongoing effort to clean up after a flood. Senator Patrick Leahy came out against a compromise wiretapping bill, the Vermont attorney general said a state hemp bill is legal, First Lady Laura Bush visited the state, the ECHO Science Center released a few dozen threatened turtles into the wild, and members of the Civilian Conservation Corps looked back at their work 75 years ago.

These are some of the voices in this week’s news:

 

Attorney General says hemp bill is constitutional

(Rep. David Zuckerman) "Hemp seed can be used either for food or you can press it into vegetable oil which can be used in vegetable oil type vehicles but also the fiber itself could be burned in our wood chip plants our school plants for energy."

 

Rutland continues to clean up after floods

(Rutland Mayor Louras) "A couple of buildings had water coming in from the outside flowing into the store, water coming up through the drains in the basement and water coming down from the second floor where the water pressure from the storm sewers overflowed second floor plumbing as well."

 

Interview: Lasting impact of the CCC

(Director of State Parks Craig Whipple) "These were kids, some of them were 15 years old, largely taken out of the cities and sent up here to the woods to do conservation projects. They did forest resources protection, they did fire fighting, they did drainage work, they built dams, they built campgrounds – a phenomenal amount of work."

 

Laura Bush visits Vermont

(First Lady Bush) "I got to see these young people who are committed to the parks by working to improve the network of pathways and trails and carriage roads here … Students who are engaged in service learning activities like these … are more likely to do well in school and to have strong social skills."

 

ECHO to release 32 tiny turtles

(Steve Parren, Department of Fish and Wildlife.) "If you’re a baby turtle, you got the odds against you. In some years, I’ve lost 80 percent of the eggs to predation. So by shifting that survivorship, I’m hopefully pushing up that 2 percent to maybe 5, maybe even 10 percent. They’ve got several years of being vulnerable as prey for something else. But that’s sort of how the system works.”

 

Utilities discourage switching to electric heat

(Steve Costello, CVPS) We think there are a lot of options that people can look at and really should do their homework before they resort to electric heat. We also want to encourage people to take advantage of things that are out there that could be significant help to them.

 

I.B.M. cuts 180 jobs

(Jeff Couture, IBM spokesman) "Long term we see continued opportunity for our business. It’s more of a statement about our addressing current business needs than really the long term potential for IBM in Vermont."

 

Leahy to vote against wiretap bill

(Senator Patrick Leahy) "Who was it in the White House who sat down and said we know this is breaking the law we know we don’t have the rights to do this we know we can’t spy on Americans this way but we’re going to do it anyway and that’s what I want to find out."

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