The Vermont Department of Corrections has announced that it will move ahead with plans to pursue two sites for a new women’s prison in Essex, estimated to cost the state $70 million to complete and take 10 years to build.
Author: Matt Moore
Matt Moore is a writer from Vermont. He is on the editorial collective of The Rake Vermont.
Palestinian liberation groups picketed the Vermont Democratic Party Convention Saturday morning at the Lake Champlain Hilton in Burlington. As President Joe Biden seeks a second term while continuing to support and fund Israel’s occupation and genocide in Gaza, activists in Vermont are demanding that delegates withhold support for the president at the national convention in August.
Around 100 labor union members, organizers, and activists gathered at Burlington’s Battery Park to celebrate May Day, also known as International Workers Day, marking the occasion by highlighting labor victories in the state among its union workers in the past year and committing to continue the labor struggle at home and abroad.
More than one hundred University of Vermont students took to the university’s central campus on Sunday to form a Palestine solidarity encampment, joining many other campuses nationwide and across the world to force higher education institutions to divest from weapons manufacturers and Israeli investments directly involved in the occupation of historic Palestine and the ongoing genocide in Gaza.
While these tenants face a life-altering crisis, the conflict at 300 Main Street is just one skirmish in a much larger battle over the future of housing in Vermont: how much housing is built, where it’s located, and who gets to enjoy it.
In a 7-5 vote, Democratic city councilors united to block the measure, preventing Burlingtonians from registering their opinion on the issue.
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 acknowledging the role they’ve played in creating a narrative of an unsafe downtown Burlington, one that trades in crime wave fearmongering and a disdain for vulnerable populations in the city.
As Israel continues its ongoing siege and bombing of Palestinians in Gaza, and the death toll passes a grim 10,000, Vermont U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders continues to refuse to call for a ceasefire. To many inspired by Sanders’ 2016 and 2020 presidential bids, it has been a legacy-tarnishing moment for someone who stood as the key figurehead of a growing left movement in the United States.
Over 1,000 gathered and marched from Battery Park through downtown Burlington on Saturday afternoon to support human rights for Palestinians and oppose Israeli apartheid as the ongoing bombing, siege, and invasion of Gaza — and escalating violence against Palestinians in the West Bank — continues.
Halloween-themed signs and chants accompanied yesterday’s rally in support of unionizing graduate student workers at the University of Vermont. Despite the rain, more than one hundred grad students and allies attended the event.
It’s common to think of these professions as solely within major media markets and hubs like Los Angeles and New York, but SAG-AFTRA members can also be found across New England. We spoke via email with two Vermont-based members, Marci Diamond and J.T. Turner, about their work, the strike, and how Vermonters can get involved.
A new documentary made by a local filmmaker has ambitious aims. Bookended with words from Assata Shakur and Angela Davis, “Abolition & Revolution” attempts to ground the present political crises with their roots in history, not just to better understand our present context but to learn how to change it.
Last Thursday, in the halls of the Waterman Building on the campus of the University of Vermont, dozens of staffers across various departments — from biology to residential life — lined the hallways outside the executive offices of the school, laptops open, diligently at work. This “work-in” was held to object to UVM’s proposed implementation of new time-tracking software on roughly 700 staff.
Perhaps unlike the rest of the state, the Queen City features several commissions with an unclear mission to the broader public. Within the walls of these meeting rooms sit power and direct access to many city officials, something The Rake will examine.
When Ali Amani received his lease renewal agreement last month, he was shocked. Amani, who manages Little Morocco Cafe in the Old North End, read that his monthly rent would increase from $1,875 to $5,000 as of July 31, 2023.
Our timeline of 26 different incidents of violence, incompetence, or malfeasance since 2019 should show why activists have good reason to conclude that the mayor, council, and various police chiefs can never hold police accountable.
This past weekend at Burlington’s Flynn Theater, the annual Black Experience celebrated Vermont’s Black communities with activists, musicians, and dancers. Billed as “Vermont’s flagship Black History Month” event, Saturday’s activities concluded with an on-stage conversation with Angela Davis.
City Councilor Joan Shannon has hired former Burlington GOP Chair Kolby LaMarche as her campaign manager for her re-election campaign.
After the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights recently opened an investigation alleging incidents of antisemitism at the University of Vermont, students and
The $90 million project, popularly known as “Cop City,” is set to be the largest police training facility in the country, replete with firing ranges, helipad, explosives facilities and an entire mock city for advanced training.