Emerson Lynn

Saint Albans

Editor at St. Albans Daily Messenger

Featured in: Favicon

samessenger.com Favicon

vermontbiz.com Favicon

addisonindependent.com Favicon

stowetoday.com Favicon

mountaintimes.info Favicon

miltonindependent.com Favicon

essexreporter.com Favicon

colchestersun.com Favicon

ourcommunitynow.com Favicon

newspub.live

Articles

Legislature makes progress, more to do

4 days ago | samessenger.com | Emerson Lynn

If the November election hadn’t decimated the Democratic ranks Vermont’s legislators would have been home in mid-May, they would not be debating a generational change in the state’s educational and most likely would not have passed legislation dealing with the cost of health care, or a major bill to help amp up housing development, particularly in rural Vermont. That’s the power of politics. Gov.
Our 'influencers' are glamorizing smoking... again?

1 week ago | samessenger.com | Emerson Lynn

To some of us, it’s jarring. Non-sensical. To others it’s cool, a sign of power, a push closer to the cliff’s edge. The devil may care. Bring it on. “It” is smoking. Our pop culture “takes up smoking again” according to a New York Times story. Social media influencers, singers, and the stars of movies and TV can be found with cigarettes hanging from their lips. And they are not cast as the forgotten, they are the stars, the ones who, traditionally, are the models to be envied, to be copied.
We have 43.5 months left, will tough guy Trump take on Vt?

1 week ago | samessenger.com | Emerson Lynn

For someone who values a tough, “make my day”, sort of visage President Trump has a telling way of showing it. This past weekend he nationalized 2,000 members of California's national guard to deal with the “violent mobs” and “invasion of illegal criminals” in Los Angeles, protestors who had gathered in opposition to his mass deportations. Yet, on that same weekend, he turned a blind eye to Russia’s Vladimir Putin’s “largest of the war” drone attack against Ukrainian civilian targets.
No one leaves until the gov says so. Good.

2 weeks ago | samessenger.com | Emerson Lynn

Gov. Phil Scott has made it clear he will not allow the Legislature to adjourn without agreeing on legislation that reforms the state’s educational system. If it takes the remainder of the year, he says so be it. Legislators left Montpelier last Friday with instructions from the leadership that a vote would be set for June 16, assuming the conferees have settled their differences. But the conferees -three from the House and three from the Senate - are miles apart.
Shutting off the heat? That's where we are?

2 weeks ago | samessenger.com | Emerson Lynn

One out of every 10 households in Vermont receives help from the federal government to help pay their heating and cooling costs. The $20 million program is called the Low-Income Energy Assistance Program, better known as LIHEAP. For anyone familiar with Vermont’s winters, its continuance is a matter of life and death. As obvious as that is, the Trump administration says the program is unnecessary and is in the process of eliminating it.
Will Legislature meet Vermont's needs?

3 weeks ago | samessenger.com | Emerson Lynn

After five months of the back and forth that defines Vermont’s legislature we’re at the point where we begin to ask whether the results matched the calls for action. For most Vermonters that judgment centers on three issues: the need to reform the state’s educational system, the need to add more housing, and the need to deal with the state’s healthcare crisis.
Do we trust the health care numbers? No.

3 weeks ago | samessenger.com | Emerson Lynn

When the lobbyist for the Vermont Association of Hospitals and Health Systems was asked by a legislator why Vermont has the highest markup on outpatient drugs in the nation she said she didn’t know. She said she was not even sure Vermont’s hospitals were aware of their disproportionate billing practices.
Ed reform bill: Stay until the job is done

4 weeks ago | samessenger.com | Emerson Lynn

“It sounds like regardless of what bill we vote on, we lose. We put the House bill up, we lose. We put the Senate bill up, we lose,” said Sen. Ginny Lyons, D-Chittenden Southeast. The bill she was referring to is the education reform bill, H.454, legislation Gov. Phil Scott says is the session’s most important. The governor has made it clear he will keep legislators in Montpelier until they deliver something he can sign into law. Let’s hope. But Ms. Lyons’ lament is understandable.
Gov needs to step into House-Senate debate on ed

1 month ago | samessenger.com | Emerson Lynn

If the landmark education bill being advanced through the Senate were to become law the Enosburg-Richford school district would get an additional $5.3 million to spend. Nice. Except for this: The taxpayers in that district would see their property tax bills go up 32 percent to pay for it. That’s a problem. No matter what else is included in the legislation. Only a third of the taxpayers in that district have children in school.
Ways and Means puts growth, housing at risk

1 month ago | samessenger.com | Emerson Lynn

It’s happening again. We’re spending time and energy figuring out how NOT to do something that we all say is the most important thing Vermont needs to do. The need is more housing. It’s central to almost everything we agree is necessary to turn the state’s economy around and to make things affordable. Yet, every time we get close to doing something productive, actually building things, we have people who work to second-guess it and make it next to impossible to do.