News & Commentary

Vermont law enforcement has taken yet another step down the road of closing off police investigation records. This time, though, law enforcement has taken its fight to within the courts, claiming that information needed by a lawyer in a lawsuit can't be subpoenaed.

Our electronic medical records are supposed to be protected by layers of security, and violators who breach the security are to receive stiff punishments. But a Bennington woman -- after her e-medical records were illegally accessed more than 100 times over a 12-year period -- says privacy policies provide a false sense of security and penalties to deter breaches need to be much stronger.

Reporters at VtDigger.org and other Vermont news outlets have faced a raft of criticism for reporting on Gov. Shumlin's property dealings in the town of East Montpelier. In 47 other states, this wouldn't have happened. That's because financial disclosure -- including reporting of property holdings -- is required of statewide candidates and office-holders.

A Vermont inn will pay a fine of $10,000 and will place $20,000 in a charitable trust as part of a settlement in a lawsuit brought by a lesbian couple who were told the inn wouldn't host their wedding reception because they were gay.

Plates of interest. Hot lists. Geo-fences. Intelligence resource. Never heard of the Vermont Justice Information Sharing System, either? Get to know the acronym, for VJISS is working with local, county, state, and federal police agencies "to deploy a first in the nation statewide License Plate Reader (LPR) data sharing system."

Two years after the arrest of an African-American man in his own home, the ACLU-VT has won Anne Galloway of the investigative online news site VtDigger.org the right to access information for a story on possible racial profiling by the Hartford Police Department.

A Vermont superior court has ruled in favor of a Franklin woman who challenged her town's inclusion of prayer in town meeting proceedings.

For the first time in 10 years, Marilyn Hackett was not subjected to listening to a Christian prayer while attending the Franklin town meeting. On Tuesday, the moderator of the meeting announced that due to the pending litigation against the town, the town's legal counsel had advised no prayer be said this year. The meeting then began as other town meetings in the state begin -- getting down to the town's business.

The Vermont Supreme Court has reversed a trial court decision barring a Windham County man from obtaining routine police records. The decision makes clear that police agencies are not exempt from the state's Access to Public Records Act and that they should follow a general standard of disclosing a record unless harm can be shown.