RUTLAND, Vt. (WCAX) – One of Vermont’s local congressional delegates was shooting hoops in southern Vermont Saturday afternoon.
K-12 students dribbled through gyms in Springfield, Bennington and Rutland with Sen. Bernie Sanders.
About 70 kids showed up to Keefe Gymnasium at the Rutland Middle School to shoot hoops with the senator.
Sanders says it’s an effort to get young Vermonters moving and promote an active lifestyle in their futures.
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“We want them to study hard in school, we want good schools, we want them to be healthy and have strong bodies and strong bodies go with strong minds again I worry very much that kids are spending too much time indoors on phones on the internet rather than interacting with their peers you know playing ball and being outside getting healthy,” Sen. Sanders said.
All the kids took home a free basketball from all three events in southern Vermont.
Vermont Supreme Court nominee Michael Drescher, center, speaks before the Senate Judiciary Committee as fellow nominee Christina Nolan, second from left, listens at the Statehouse in Montpelier on Tuesday, Jan. 13. Photo by Glenn Russell/VTDigger
MONTPELIER — Michael Drescher prosecuted cases on behalf of the federal government in Vermont during the first year of President Donald Trump’s administration — which dealt him historic immigration cases like those of Rümeysa Öztürk and Mohsen Mahdawi.
Now, Drescher is a nominee to serve on the Vermont Supreme Court, leading senators this week to interrogate his past.
Gov. Phil Scott appointed Drescher to serve on the state’s top court last week, along with former top Vermont federal prosecutor Christina Nolan. Both candidates led Vermont’s U.S. Attorney’s Office under Trump, with Nolan serving in the role during his first presidential term. To serve as a state Supreme Court justice, both nominees need state Senate confirmation.
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byAlan J. Keays
Drescher prosecuted the cases against Öztürk and Mahdawi, representing the federal government. Öztürk was a Turkish graduate student at Tufts University who was arrested in Massachusetts by plainclothes officers in March after co-writing a student newspaper op-ed critical of Israel’s war in Gaza. She was then whisked to Vermont, where she was held in an immigration office in St. Albans.
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Mahdawi was a Palestinian student activist at Columbia University who vocally opposed Israel’s war in Gaza. He was arrested in Colchester in April during a routine immigration meeting.
Drescher resigned from his role as Vermont’s top federal prosecutor — under the title “First Assistant Attorney” — last week.
“I did that because, in order to be able to speak freely at this hearing, I think I needed to be unencumbered by being employed by the Department of Justice,” Drescher said Tuesday.
Lawmakers in the Senate Judiciary Committee heard from Drescher again on Wednesday, grilling him about his moral compass and views on free speech. Four senators in the committee said they’ve received hundreds of emails about his appointment.
“I still hold concerns about decisions that you made in your role,” Sen. Nader Hashim, D-Windham, the committee’s chair, said. Other senators expressed the same concern.
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What was Drescher’s defense? “I was doing my job even though it was unpopular,” he said.
Drescher reminded senators Tuesday that Trump never formally appointed him to the role. He served as assistant U.S. attorney starting in 2002 and was promoted to the second highest position in the office in September 2023. He became the top federal prosecutor in the state last year, when the then-U.S. attorney for Vermont, who had been appointed by former President Joe Biden, resigned upon Trump’s inauguration.
Though Drescher held the office for about a year in an acting capacity, Trump never appointed him to a permanent U.S. attorney or sought his confirmation by the U.S. Senate. Drescher also did not seek out that appointment, he said.
Drescher said Tuesday that he found out in March his office would be prosecuting Öztürk’s case “out of the blue.” He saw the video of masked agents pulling the student into an unmarked car and described it as “irregular at least.” Drescher said he represented the federal government in the case because he didn’t want anyone else in his office to have to bear the burden.
“I could not in good conscience subject anybody in the office to be in that position. So I concluded that if anybody was going to be fired, it was going to be me,” Drescher said Tuesday, his voice cracking with emotion.
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Drescher said he didn’t resign from his role because he thought his resignation would only prolong Öztürk’s and Mahdawi’s cases. And he would’ve violated his oath of office to not perform his due diligence in prosecuting the two immigration cases.
Drescher’s decision-making in those two cases influenced why Scott chose him.
“The Governor was aware of Michael’s role in both of those prosecutions and believes he showed great leadership by assigning those cases to himself, rather than asking his team to take the cases,” Amanda Wheeler, the governor’s press secretary, said in an email to VTDigger. “As Michael recognized, these assignments would either put the jobs of his career staff in jeopardy or subject them to threats and abuse from members of the public.”
But for some lawmakers, Drescher’s former position is a hard pill to swallow.
“It doesn’t sit well with me,” said Sen. Tanya Vyhovsky, P/D-Chittenden Central, in an interview.
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The civil cases filed on behalf of Öztürk and Mahdawi respectively disputed the legality of their detention. In Öztürk’s case, Drescher repeatedly argued against her release from detention.
To Vyhovsky, that shows that Drescher wasn’t just filling shoes, rather he was in practice enforcing federal immigration actions.
Hashim, in an interview, shared the same concerns as Vyhovsky. The way Drescher handled Öztürk’s case gave him concerns about Drescher’s legal discretion, he said.
The national political climate only increases the need for the committee to do its due diligence when considering the appointments, Vyhovsky said. And she wants to make sure that state Supreme Court justices are committed to protecting people’s rights, she said.
Other senators expressed similar concerns in the Wednesday committee meeting.
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“I’ve never seen a crisis point in America like we’re facing,” said Senate President Pro Tempore Phil Baruth, D/P-Chittenden Central. While Trump’s immigration agenda sweeps the country, Congress has “neutered itself” and left too much up to the judiciary, Baruth said.
Drescher told senators he understood those concerns. But he asserted that the legal cases wouldn’t have been able to move forward without competent legal counsel on each side.
He argued that in his former role, he was a counterbalance necessary to have a functioning legal system. And he held the executive branch to a high standard, he said.
Drescher said that while he understands why he’s being associated with Trump’s policies and attitudes, lawyers are not usually judged based on the character of those they represent.
Sen. Robert Norris, R-Franklin, asked Drescher if he would have done anything differently.
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“I don’t think so. I don’t think so,” Drescher replied.
MONTPELIER — As medical dispensaries dwindle but retailers receive medical use endorsements, a data point sticks out.
“The number of medical patients continues to grow,” Olga Fitch, executive director of the Cannabis Control Board, said at the Dec. 17 board meeting.
About 3,043 patients were registered for the program at the time of the meeting, according to a slide show presentation. More than 40 patients were added to the count since the November board meeting, Fitch said.
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Looking at data starting in 2011, Fitch said the medical program peaked around 2018 with 5,300 patients. She noted November 2023 is the last time, before now, that the state recorded more than 3,000 patients.
Vermont now has 20 retailers with medical use endorsements. They’re in Bennington, Brattleboro, Manchester Center, Middlebury, Montpelier, Rutland, St. Johnsbury, South Hero, Bethel, Brandon, Burlington, Essex, Essex Junction, Johnson, White River Junction, Winooski and Woodstock. Five of them received the endorsement in December.
A law passed this year by the Vermont Legislature established the program, which allows approved retailers the opportunity to sell higher potency products and offer curbside, delivery and drive-thru services to patients. Registered medical cannabis patients in Vermont are also exempt from paying the state’s cannabis excise tax and the standard sales tax.
Retail establishments with the medical use endorsement are gearing up for the new initiative.
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The first Enhanced Budtender Education course was held during the first week of December, a CCB newsletter stated, “paving the way for medical cannabis sales at medical-use-endorsed retailers.”
The CCB thanked “the budtenders and licensees who took the time to register, attend, and successfully complete the multi-hour course.”
“We are excited to roll out better access for patients and caregivers in the Medical Cannabis Program,” the CCB said.
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At least one employee at an endorsed retailer is required to go through enhanced budtender training, which is offered through a contract with Cannify. To qualify, retailers must be in good standing for six months, with a clean compliance record and up-to-date tax payments.
Volunteers from across the region gathered at the Canadian Club in Barre to pack 30,000 meals for families facing food insecurity, according to a community announcement.
The Jan. 10 event, organized by Vermont Lions Clubs, brought together club members and volunteers to assemble meals for local food shelves and community partners, according to the announcement.
The project has been running in Vermont for nine years, starting with 10,000 meals in 2017.
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Carol Greene, organizer for Vermont Lions, said the project reflects a longstanding commitment to hunger relief from the organization.
Volunteers worked in assembly-line fashion, scooping, weighing, sealing and boxing meals. Teams cheered each other on and paused to recognize milestones.
The event included volunteers from Maine, New Hampshire and Connecticut, who came to learn how to bring the meal-pack program to their own communities.
“This is what Lions do best: serve together and multiply impact,” according to the announcement.
This story was created by reporter Beth McDermott, bmcdermott1@usatodayco.com, with the assistance of Artificial Intelligence (AI). Journalists were involved in every step of the information gathering, review, editing and publishing process. Learn more at cm.usatoday.com/ethical-conduct.
