The Rake Vermont

Phil Scott’s Return-to-Office Mandate Lines His Friends’ Pockets with State Funds When Vermont Governor Phil Scott announced in August that, starting December 1, all Vermont State employees would be required to return to the office at least three days a week, it sparked a chain of ...

Scott has framed return to office as an “equity issue” to pit state workers against “everyday Vermonters” as if state employees are not also the latter. All the while Scott acts in accordance with his worldview, and bails out commercial landlords.

Phil Scott’s Return-to-Office Mandate Lines His Friends’ Pockets with State Funds When Vermont Governor Phil Scott announced in August that, starting December 1, all Vermont State employees would be required to return to the office at least three days a week, it sparked a chain of ...

The return to office mandate places the burden of longer commute times and higher costs onto Vermont state employees, and Vermont taxpayers, all while Scott demands more spending cuts, particularly to education.

Phil Scott’s Return-to-Office Mandate Lines His Friends’ Pockets with State Funds When Vermont Governor Phil Scott announced in August that, starting December 1, all Vermont State employees would be required to return to the office at least three days a week, it sparked a chain of ...

The site of the new lease by the state, Pilgrim Park Road, is owned by Wayne Lamberton, a friend of Scott, who once served as VP for Scott’s former business, DuBois Construction. Lamberton and associates are set to make $2.2M over the 5-year lease.

Phil Scott’s Return-to-Office Mandate Lines His Friends’ Pockets with State Funds When Vermont Governor Phil Scott announced in August that, starting December 1, all Vermont State employees would be required to return to the office at least three days a week, it sparked a chain of ...

With Vermont Governor Phil Scott forcing state employees back to in-office work, among the beneficiaries is a personal friend of Scott, set to earn over $400,000 per year in state dollars after a lease deal was struck in Waterbury earlier this month.

Middlebury College’s Alexander Hamilton Forum Regularly Platforms Transphobes, Bigots, and Authoritarians with No Consequences Middlebury’s disinterest and oftentimes hostility towards LGBTQ+ students and faculty is reflected in the ideological makeup of some members of its faculty who hold high-profile academic positions. It...

PART 3: Middlebury College’s Alexander Hamilton Forum Regularly Platforms Transphobes, Bigots, and Authoritarians with No Consequences www.rakevt.org/2025/11/25/m...

The Overdose of Evelyn Mae Sorensen, a Student and Trans Woman, Exposed Middlebury College’s Priorities Evelyn Mae Sorensen, the oldest of three children, came from a single-parent household and worked several jobs to support herself. She enjoyed biking, photography, and mountaineering, and she was acti...

PART 2: The Overdose of Evelyn Mae Sorensen, a Student and Trans Woman, Exposed Middlebury College’s Priorities www.rakevt.org/2025/11/20/t...

Middlebury College Student Lia Smith Battled Transphobia On and Off Campus Before Her Death On October 19, Middlebury College student Lia Smith was reported missing, a week after the town of Middlebury celebrated its fourth annual Pride celebration. Four days later, she was found dead.

PART 1: Middlebury College Student Lia Smith Battled Transphobia On and Off Campus Before Her Death www.rakevt.org/2025/11/18/m...

Middlebury College is Failing its Transgender Students. A Three-Part Series, we take a look at how the elite liberal arts institution’s failure to protect and support LGBTQ+ students, while platforming far-right transphobes and bigots in the aftermath of the death of Lia Smith.

Links in 🧵 below.

Ignite Church Whitewashes Charlie Kirk’s Legacy Four days after the death of white supremacist and Christian nationalist Charlie Kirk, members of Ignite Church in Williston held a vigil for the slain podcaster and Turning Point USA founder. While t...

This Sunday, popular local music venue Higher Ground will be holding a public event sponsored by Williston's Ignite Church, whose pastor, Todd Callahan, platforms right-wing extremism and conspiracy theories in line with his friend: slain far-right podcaster, Charlie Kirk.

As Gaza Starves, Vermont Politicians Visit Israel and Meet Netanyahu In the face of ongoing genocide and starvation raging against Palestinians in Gaza at the hands of the Israeli government, five members of the Vermont House of Representatives attended the "50 States,...

While Gaza faces genocide and famine, five Vermont State lawmakers visited Israel for a trip paid for by the Israeli Foreign Ministry, which featured Benjamin Netanyahu as is keynote speaker.

Read our latest:

Please Shop Your Local Hellhole: Burlington Businesses Complaining About Crime Now Want Shoppers for the Season While they pine for your shopping dollars during peak consumer spending season, it’s clear these business owners still can’t help themselves and wish to continue playing the victim, never acknowledgin...

To catch up, here is part 1, from December 2023, addressing Burlington business owners pushing crime wave narratives and then begging for holiday shopping dollars:

Please Shop Your Local Hellhole, Part 2: As Construction and Changing Habits Reshape Downtown, Burlington Business Owners Continue to Parrot Reactionary Talking Points A year and a half ago, The Rake published “Please Shop Your Local Hellhole,” in which we highlighted local business owners, property owners, and their advocates constantly decrying business loss with ...

Please Shop Your Local Hellhole, Part 2: As Construction and Changing Habits Reshape Downtown, Burlington Business Owners Continue to Parrot Reactionary Talking Points

Taken Without Cause: Vermont’s Role in ICE Detentions It was not a random stop. It was an abduction.

"Don’t comfort yourself with the lie that this doesn’t concern you. If detentions continue, if deportations accelerate, if Vermont becomes a place where immigrants must vanish for survival, your world will change, too."

Taken Without Cause: Vermont’s Role in ICE Detentions It was not a random stop. It was an abduction.

Taken Without Cause: Vermont’s Role in ICE Detentions. Our latest op-ed on the abduction of Ignacio “Nacho” De La Cruz and his stepdaughter, Heidi Pérez, by border patrol agents in Vermont.

Sandy Baird’s Transphobia and Alliance with Far Right Bigots For many in Burlington’s LGBTQ+ and progressive communities, Baird’s reputation is not just one of solidarity, but of betrayal.

Baird’s transphobia was not only political. It was personal. Her rhetoric often mirrored internal conflict, especially in her complex relationship with her own gender identity and that of her trans sister.

Sandy Baird’s Transphobia and Alliance with Far Right Bigots For many in Burlington’s LGBTQ+ and progressive communities, Baird’s reputation is not just one of solidarity, but of betrayal.

Transphobia in our movements cannot be dismissed as a difference of opinion...While liberal politicians may treat trans rights as negotiable, those fighting for justice must refuse to treat trans lives as expendable.

Sandy Baird’s Transphobia and Alliance with Far Right Bigots For many in Burlington’s LGBTQ+ and progressive communities, Baird’s reputation is not just one of solidarity, but of betrayal.

The late Sandy Baird, a Vermont lawyer, professor and activist, was given plenty of adulation upon her passing. But for many in Burlington’s LGBTQ+ and progressive communities, Baird’s reputation is not just one of solidarity, but of betrayal as she aligned with transphobic, right-wing bigots.

Baseball’s Predatory Loan Firms Give Us a New Lake Monster What wasn’t covered in the Lake Monsters' championship win is the team’s new ownership group, which is headed by the founder of a venture capital and private equity firm that exploits professional bas...

With news of lawsuits involving firms like Big League Advance targeting Major League Baseball players making headlines, it’s a good time to re-read our 2021 piece on Burlington, Vermont’s local baseball team and its owner who is involved in the exploitive practice. www.rakevt.org/2021/09/08/b...

Keep Amazon Out Of Vermont Amazon representatives told WCAX that their presence in Vermont will help get packages to your door faster, "think of the young families trying to get diapers". It is hard to believe that anything abo...

Op-Ed from May:

Two Vermont communities are potential sites for an Amazon “Last Mile” facility. With the company’s record of anti-union efforts, dangerous conditions for workers at facilities, and contracts with ICE, CBP and police depts., it presents a litany of concerns for Vermonters.

Burlington Police Department Budgeted vs. Actual Expenditures FY19-FY25 with year-over-year difference.

Even in years when the department's approved budget decreased, the budget total remained above the previous year's expenditures.

Far from defunding, Burlington has never failed to give its police more money than it had spent.

Burlington Police Department Budget vs. Actual Expenditures FY19-FY25 chart

With one exception, Burlington Police Department expenditures have consistently been well under what has been budgeted for it. From FY2019 through FY2024, we can see that the department left a total of $4.2 million on the table in unspent funds.

The Burlington Police Dept. Defunded Itself Officers, from the beat cops to the top brass, have managed to undermine their own institution in ways that no protest at the height of the George Floyd uprisings could have done.

From December: The Burlington Police Dept. Defunded Itself

Lawsuit: Vermont DCF Took a Newborn from Mother, Moments After Birth Vermont’s Department of Children and Families violated the rights of a Vermont woman by surveilling her, interfering with her medical care, and taking her newborn from her before the woman was even ab...

The complaint holds that there has been a longstanding “practice of DCF surveilling and punishing pregnant Vermonters based on unsubstantiated claims that extend beyond its jurisdiction,” interfering with pregnant Vermonters in concert with medical centers and other providers.

Termination of both parent's rights, 2000-2016: States with Highest Rates

Vermont’s high rates of parental rights terminations suggest a broad pattern of systemic issues within the state’s family policing agencies.

One of the most egregious examples is the subject of a lawsuit filed earlier this year:

Lawsuit: Vermont DCF Took a Newborn from Mother, Moments After Birth Vermont’s Department of Children and Families violated the rights of a Vermont woman by surveilling her, interfering with her medical care, and taking her newborn from her before the woman was even ab...

Vermont’s DCF violated the rights of a woman by surveilling her, interfering with her medical care, and taking her newborn from her before the woman was even able to hold her child — with DCF keeping the child for nine months — according to the lawsuit. www.rakevt.org/2025/06/09/l...