A More Perfect Union
By the Center for American Progress
January 13, 2021, 9:00 am Getty/Construction Photography/Avalon
Julia Cusick
Introduction and summary
The next decade will prove pivotal to the future of the United States. America will either adopt an ambitious program of national rebuilding and address the serious challenges of the present day, or it will confront continued national stagnation. National rebuilding requires bold, immediate, and interlocking action to subdue a devastating pandemic, recover from the resulting economic collapse, reduce societal inequalities, address climate change, and navigate the shifting tectonic plates of the international system. America’s current predicament demands political courage to pull the country together and take necessary action.
Vermont Attorney General T.J. Donovan has come down on the side of transparency when it comes to releasing names of teenagers involved in fatal or serious crashes or providing names of children that have been abducted or lost.
Donovanâs legal opinion comes three months after Public Safety Commissioner Michael Schirling suspended a longstanding Vermont State Police transparency policy. The document had said names of teens are public record when it comes to motor vehicles crashes, are part of investigations, including for AMBER Alerts abductions, or are missing/overdue youths while hunting, skiing or other cases.
Donovan said Monday, Dec. 7, that nothing had been reduced to writing when his office notified Rosemary Gretkowski, the lawyer for the Public Safety Department, a few weeks ago the outcome of the legal research.