Snuff's drunk and we're back with snuff's drunk plays seeker to mona we're gonna take the long way all the way back to I guess we'll go back to Pandora castle to see what I remember there being a shitload of treasure that you can get meaning a lot of weapon orbs or at least a couple of the orbs I think oh come on you guys wow my teammates suck do the damn job myself okay so what was I rambling about the last episode the scorpions and and the lead singer from aha something around along those lines aha is one of those bands I I guess you could I could call it a guilty pleasure but if that implies that I feel bad for liking them and I really don't it's a lot of bands like that like bands I should be embarrassed for liking like I really like Duran Duran I think they're great I like to Pesh mode a lot I've seen to Pesh mode live I think Dave Gahan and Martin Gore are great well actually is Martin Gord is all the songwriting but I really like Dave's voice and I like Ma in as the calls himself and his British accent what do you want okay this is Kippo Villages or anything here at all probably not let's get out of here my girlfriend's in the other room playing bloodborne so we're in two different worlds right now I'm playing secret amana from 1993 and she's playing a ps4 game from when did that come back come out last year in 2015 so I don't remember but it's a modern game in other words that's a really satisfying game to play it's really fun but it's really hard it's not just a hack you know on the surface it's like oh hacking slash like dynasty warriors and and like secret amana just run around and fight stuff but it's there's a lot more to it than that you got to be careful about how you approach things you know a little bit of stealth involved in terms of like attacking enemies from the right angle there's a lot of timing that you got to get down correctly it's a solid game I like it yeah we just moved into we're renting a house here in New Mexico there's a new Mexico you know that reminds me one of the movers actually this one of the movers from several moves ago I was just thinking about this the other day I was able to get some movers that like actual real professional movers to help me move a long time ago this is like to move from this is when I was in Minnesota but I remember this one guy was yeah let's go to the castle I think there's some treasure there for us like a reward or something anyway there was this guy who was from Israel born and raised in Israel or born in Israel his family's in Israel but he for whatever reason he ended up in Argentina in South America and started eventually you know grew up there and started his own family there and so he came to the US trying to like make his fortune or whatever you know make money and he sends it back home for his family so he's moving and he's making a good living moving helping people move in all that what the hell anyway I he I remember he we started talking he asked me where you from he's like oh I've lived in Minnesota my whole lot you know he tells me where he's from and all that sort of stuff because I'm curious let's see here okay the kings in his room sucking his thumb I don't know why I said that but a few drinks ha I was right okay cool hey that guy just disappeared that's a cool magic act there yeah kings up and walking around what about green hair over here no need oh that's just great free drinks for me and Pandora all right let's see what we got here anyway the what the shit 50 bucks really anyway the guy asked me where are you from and I said well I've lived in Minnesota my whole life he's like no no no where where are you from where is your family from I was like nobody's ever asked me that before he's like well that's that's just you know I'm from Israel and I was I grew up in Argentina that's a part of who I am oh his spears are that's pretty cool we got here ah there we go the sword orb excellent I forgot about that so anyway yeah he asked me that and it made me realize like it's it sure seems like many many Americans don't really think about that kind of thing they don't think about where they're from and as a really you know when they think about where they're from they think about the state where they're from and that becomes our identity like I'm from Minnesota whereas if you're from another country or if you're from especially in Europe or the Middle East where ever all these countries are just crammed together in such a small space you really develop a sense of you know identity and that sort of thing even in in Italy there's so many small little states and every little village has its own you know they hate all the other villages but I don't hate all the other villages but I've read all that or all that sort of stuff you know like every every little village in Italy has its own deck of cards for example like they know that villages deck of cards is a bunch of bullshit we need our own deck of cards and like so it's like the whole country literally is like a million different decks of cards a million different ways of playing games and that's just one example anyway my point is the it seems like many Americans don't even think about like their heritage or they at least they take it for granted it sure seems like because how often do I think about where they where am I from where do I come from and I'm a total mutt I have a million different word of mind I'm German Danish Spanish English Irish French that's just to name a few I'm a total mutt though it's lots of like travelers and lots of vagrants apparently came together to form me but oh it's interesting though because you know even my girlfriend she heard her dad I was born and raised in Mexico City he doesn't speak English very well she was oh that's right I forgot to mention yeah this whole freaking water pals is now overrun with these crazy-ass fish the hell's going on somebody level up any nice going anyway yeah like now that I live in New Mexico it's not that like the typical American I'm from New Mexico it's like no there's more than that here it's people are from Mexico or they're from central you know whatever country in Central America Honduras whatever same thing if you go to Cuba or Florida you're gonna find Cubans are gonna find you makins that sort of thing oh music's gonna kick it up a notch I love that the that the game does this let's get the freaking disco remix of this the the field yeah these guys are bastards these guys are hard to fight they have a lot of hit points and they're the three-pronged fork things they have are annoying I think we got a boss fight coming up right here yes we do oh not yet we gotta go talk to these dipshits let's go on the left this time oh hello guest are guest are of the Empire yeah you know if we hand it over we'll just kick your ass and get it back that's my policy don't run face your problems all right we got this is this the two-headed dragon it is indeed okay all right let's blitz this guy with some magic a jabberwocky oh yes I've seen many of those in a while down National Geographic 55 that's weak as fuck there we go poison gas we'll steal what I cast you gold star to whoever gets that reference I don't want to turn into H.C. Bailey with 25 different references let's play episode I like H.C. Bailey but that gets a little old sometimes what's my dead oh I'm unconscious everybody's unconscious how many hit points this thing has probably a thousand maybe eight hundred eight fifty it's a lot this may take a while and magic doesn't seem to be doing a whole lot trying to spam this guy I got four left to each so there we go that's how you spam a guy with magic you just keep fucking going like that look at that you can just go right after that another one who he lost one of his heads like his expression there we go look at that I can still spam him even as he's exploding somebody leveled up this pumps for everyone here comes the way to go wait for it that's your reward for beating a two-headed dragon forget the bozorb it's the games recognition of your triumph by saying way to go anyway you save Luca's sorry ass one more time wait is she suck it maintaining her little water palace here I mean can't you like an army hang another whip or that's pretty bad ass look at this Gemma leaves again I mean this is not a coincidence oh he's not walking off yet but we got a hold up the sword to the seed and yeah you gotta fertilize the nevermind I won't go that far oh here we get our grand mission finally what is this part 16 all right so we will turn off the stairs first and foremost priorities and we'll see you next time they'll call us an episode thanks for watching have a great rest of your day


Okay, hi, my name is Dennis. I am architect for my work. I have been using blender for 10 years I will to try about in its use in architectural design a Quick word before my very beginning. I'm really glad to find myself here Obviously any person working with blender applications dreams to appear at the present event as well as to visit blender institution Disfascinating new location in Amsterdam However, I'm still eager to visit their place and a tripod dock That will be righted to came here just to say look what I have done most of the audience here are connected with 3d and Working various industries with their own specific features however, everyone is going to understand all the picture of What I'm planning to say here Despite the fact of blender popularity in the web. I dare say architectural visualization is not widely represented or represented widely enough For a long period of time. I have been oriented only on a couple of sites of Yorick Juan Javre and Blender 3d architects of Fallen Brita That's very useful to watch other people works and that's why it's useful if they are better than your own ones. I believe what architectural Visualization is sufficiently significant part with an old 3d industry and they see no reasons not to exhibit what we have achieved during the recent 10 years Our company is in the project developments and creation of 3d visualization is not our primary focus on the other hand It's important as nowadays. It has become the standard to create visualization for any future object In the case of 3d and object oriented visualizations, which is included into design specifications and estimates It's specific character of ours To compile all the documents it necessary to go through numerous variants and only after to pick up the correct one On average on each of the presented object we normally create something about four variants. I suppose I shall begin While my While reading the report I try to highlight the key points connected to the applications create something like a list of key question He sorry here is my list and the first questions I will ask myself It's the way not to be carried away with the temptation to jump into a specialized architectural ecosystem And that make people work using one application only Naturally we use wide variety of programs and in case we took several companies as an example We will receive a share list of programs they use Where major part will be played by of today's of course However, we discuss only 3d at the moment and here I've got my own story It's interesting to use some tools Which could be combined with each other alone to create one so on own working process this very process is always creative one and understanding what the fact was you Yourself manage the process of creation you but not any tools or program do this is very important Before picking up instruments one shall understand what to do and how to do this that may be Not be an easy process all the tricky moments are discussed with your working team in the first place It's necessary to assist how I create the result of the work carry out after all Comparing your work with work of hours our run can easily reveal both advantages and disadvantages of the work done You always have to improve your skills as each time we endeavor to do the work better than before information in the net help us to reach That when we find to work for what fascinate us Improving your skills is blender with the help of information from the internet or social networking sites You understand how enormous the community of blender users is This brings back my feelings and emotions what I felt in the time of demo scene Demo scene was an amazing movement where musicians will listen and learn from other musicians digital artists learn from other digital artists Teams creating demo will send respect to other teams working on demo creations That was the time when we used to learn from each other What forms a unique experience of one white-friending community as for me that ingredient is quite essential to form an internal driving force here is also some kind of sense of freedom which also underpins the freedom of choice I've got this very sensation each time I use blender. This is my part answer By 2009 I completely switched over to blender the reasons were following in 2007 I switched to Apple Macintosh and this way I had to refuse nearly everything I used while working on PC after cut 3ds to the max corel draw and etc Everything I had as a result was Photoshop Why? In actual practice the 440 computer I'd ever seen in my life was Power Macintosh 6100 with 60 megagare CPU in the year of 1994 A widespread belief what the majority of digital artists and musician based their studios with Macintosh fascinate me in those days With the time passing I also began to surround myself with synthesizers and tablets and I was Also eager to have Mac in the center of all this it was Modo what lead me to blender And the program blew my mind when I got new feeling of comfort Using Modo I will spend something about an hour and a half to create a picture of 800 by 600 However, everything we create should be printed on a paper format of a free which is 2500 pixel at 150 dpi that is minimum the more the better of course the process was really slow one and I never gave up looking for an Alternative, but I had it in my hands already In those days, I was trying to create a man in 3d and then I arrived to bonds Which model called not provide to me? I began to look for a way to make my model bent and at some forums I read what the easiest way to do that was export model to blender. I Was quite quick to migrate there From demo scene. There is a joke what to switch from impulse taker to the noise is very painful Nevertheless to jump from order to blend rapid to be an easy matter for me I can't remember exactly, but perhaps what happened due to some resembles of cable shortcuts and Work with cable generally my choice was either stipulated by the availability of game engine the point I had always been interested in as far as I'm concerned and interactive you gives full understanding and talk Taking into consideration the terms for Work on an object this way in fact is a bounty blender internal Blender internal render also in the end appeared to be enough straightforward in its use ambient Acclusion gave simple and decent flat shading in contrast to Other renders which in terms of low settings always gave the highest number of artifacts further I'm going to tell more about such settings and constant lack of time and One more thing The top one There is a gk to grab Unbelievable, but now there is absolutely no need to move once mouse up and down and I am at object You intended to move the mouse is always on the needed spot and that fantastic And besides it was completely new thing to me what vertexes and edges may exist apparently not being a part of a phase The thing made possible The prompt creation of frames make section drawing for architects make copies of drawing for some conjunction and etc I discovered what the edges elements are more convenient when splines You won't believe but I often use blender as a program for 2d drawings and edges Here is a very useful and flexible elements precepts I'm not the one and only and that may be one of the reason why Grease pencil got a such a big push and acquired this popularity Once There was a curious case. I receive a call from my client while we working on an individual drilling So he calls and says what He is at construction material vendors and the moment and he needs to know the area of the roof When I just open the blend file select faces of the roof and count the area with the help of an appending It seems to me it has a don't cold measure it Our conversation take about minute When I come to the office and address architects with discretion the questions ask is they normally work with 2d drawings and They have to draw each segment then count areas of each separate segment and in the inquiry out a total result So in a nutshell, that's impossible for them to carry out all the operation in a minute That's such instruments are vital for architects and for designer, of course Here we shall include cut tools or H tools VTX There are a great number of complex question in architecture in fact in fact picture as an object this Discussion picture as an object this object for discussion or a presentation play of course a serious part But inside within the process of design the role is not so vital. I Do not want to dwarf the importance of picture I just want to emphasize what all efforts are I met not at a creation of a picture But a creation of decisions to let future object be ultimately similar to the picture both the creation of pictures in the process of design and The way there are created for promotional purposes is absolutely different realms with absolutely different approaches This difference is not connected to the fact what the former is bad and the latter is good. They there are just different approaches For example working for sales department. We in fact produce a render to cry by me Usually as where we can see happy people walking in the midst of flush surrounded by happy children riding their bikes Eating ice cream somewhere in the background. We can see fireworks and in the middle of all of this is the object we want to sell and On the contrary when we make a render to be included into some design specification and estimates it looks like more object-oriented one however Let's not a focus a trend here that tension is concentrated to ad hoc project These old representation of a project show its key elements show the points were established rules and parameters are followed Each angle in visualization for design documentation attracts one's attention on those decisions which Without the presence of any with all materials will cause numerous questions Yes, it is necessary to understand and show the kind of an object its location whether It is dominant one or a part of a group. It's also vital to porter the city planning situation and the nighttime illumination This information among other documents is included as a process of coordination the city officials and being coordinated can be presented to the banks to obtain credits Obviously, we work hard to create visual Representation as deserving as possible also to let sales department not to do all the job over However the rule it's enough hard to reach this as Creating picture I'm at firsthand at coordination. We exactly we exclude all the relevant information normally used within the frame of advertisement Basically to be honest, we are always short of time for renders It seems to me something what architects are the only people constantly complaining about lack of time for renders In constant to those rest who who are in the 3d industry Although everybody have got a deadline, of course There are lots of multifaceted issues and modeling and rendering here's a technical side of the issue concerning 3d only and There are the most understandable things in the whole process of war all the rest set of solutions What may be tricky enough? I mean take documents with a limited validity period For instance in this case, it's great if one aptly to you immediately after the receipt of them Project development is usually carry out according the documents issued and according to the terms of their validity Construction process never stay static and that's the way the object fits the general structure One can find out at the moment of coordination only never before a hand As well we are in the process of making design other object around us continue their process of construction later and Typically this very moment show us what we shall add and something after completing the coordination moment basically it start to be a final step for this catching process and We believe what here everything is going to be as smooth as possible But in the result almost always you have to customize something at of course within some deadlines That may surprise you but I shifted to cycles just in 2018 When fellows made a sleep denoiser before I'd use blender internal and frankly speaking was enough happy with it I can't remember the times I didn't just to work with blender and we used our renders at low settings as we always need everything quickly It was constant work with artifacts flashes getting at all that and Mistakes picture are always presented at discussion with the board of architects and there are a good number of Professions who will construct everything in pencil on the paper and before you and in case you have nothing to show in return You will lower your head and go and do everything you were said taking into account The fact what you have got something down Something what you haven't been able to show as you have got enough time to render it You are going to come and do everything over all in all Has to be said what using blender internal and having just ambient occlusion I was happy to show information of architectural plan honestly speaking That's enough. It was my trick as I was often asked why everything was so clear and understandable I mean that there wasn't too much information in connection with light Shades with real materials were identifiable from picture to picture By the way, I have always been interested in the way of use ambient occlusion Why it has got Why it Has often got a small radius and the result narrow shading in the corners I could I have never seen that and just used it in a little bit another way for me Normally the radius of ambient occlusion was little greater than a half of a longer side as for interior environment. It's Longest wall and for exterior it's highest building Let's needless to say it's not a trick at all and I become even happy using cycles and with the appearance of denoiser in the version 2.79 9 I'm able to use between 20 or 32 samples and It's fantastic as most of the times now render take between 20 and 40 minutes for 3k image and With a new denoiser in the version of 2.81 it's quick as 8k in 30 minutes Mind you, I of course speak about marking torch only One shall get used to the better. It is this is only touch would come to my mind now Well to make a conclusion. I want to address the main idea of my report once more The main idea is what the task the process of project development focuses on form a particular approach to The creation of 3d and creation of final visualization the way we take notice of specific project decisions With the help of visualization in the end of the day makes our unique architecture features put in the other rows To some extent even wow effect rich it here's in a little bit different manner In that respect architects even put their cameras and lamps in different manner in Contrast to other renders In contrast to a render for promotional purposes architects do not typically sleep these ones This also connected to the sense of responsibility, but this is quite a different story and we are all its authors Thank you to all those present for staying until the end


So, good evening everybody. My name is Ted Kenny. I am an assistant attorney general with the division that represents the Agency of Human Services. So that is basically a lot of the services that the state government provides. Department of Mental Health, Department of Health, Departments of Health Access, Aging, Independent Living, DCF, Economic Services. So anyway, that's my job. Before that, I was in private practice. I started my practice in Richmond, Vermont in 1991. You may be able to see when I'm on the screen that it says, Kenny Law Offices behind me. That's because I'm in my home office in Williston, and that's the sign that I had in front of my office in Richmond. So anyway, so the topic tonight is understanding state government, and I will forego any jokes. I couldn't think of any. Basically going on how maybe nobody really knows, nobody does understand the state government. But we're going to do our best. So that's the topic. And what are our goals tonight? Our goals are to gain an understanding of how Vermont state government is organized and learn how to access state government. If we can do that, I think that we've got a pretty good understanding of what the state government is and what it does. So I'm going to start out with a cautionary tale, and these are actually more in the form of cautionary tale questions. The first one is a resident asks a town select board member or city council member, and the person is contacted about increasing the minimum wage or dealing with gun control or universal health care. The second is a voter asks a state legislator or the governor, and I messed up my grammar on this question, so I apologize, to stop the placement of a new building or in your town or city. So the question is, should you ask these people these questions? The answer is no. The reason for that is the way that the Vermont government is divided. Vermont towns and cities have no authority to pass laws. And by the way, when a town or a city passes a law, it's called an ordinance as opposed to a statute, which is what the legislature passes. But they have no authority to pass laws or ordinances that govern things like minimum wage or gun safety or health care coverage. And likewise, the legislature and the governor have no authority over zoning and development issues. So let's get into a little bit about why that is. Vermont is a Dylan's rule state. That comes from a decision from the early 1800s, actually not in Vermont. I think Dylan was a Supreme Court justice in Nebraska. But in any event, this has become kind of a term of art. If you say Dylan's rule, everybody who does this kind of law knows what that is. I'm a member of the select board in the town of Williston. And about a year ago, we had people telling us, you can't do that because this is a Dylan's rule state. And they were right. Vermont cities and towns receive all of their legal authority from the Vermont legislature. They are, they are entirely creatures of the legislature. They are what's known as municipal corporations. And they're not corporations like General Motors or something, but they are in the sense that they are their own government, their own legal entity, they can sue and be sued. They can own land. They can do a lot of things like that, but they can only do those things because they have the legal authority that was granted to them from the Vermont legislature. And cities and towns can only exercise power if that power is granted and express words by the legislature. Necessarily or fairly implied in or incident to the powers expressly granted, meaning it's obvious that it didn't say that they can do this, but the law wouldn't make sense if they couldn't. So obviously they can. And third, those essential to the declared objects and purposes of the town or city. So basically the deal is though, if it's, if it's not in the, the law that creates the law that creates the town or city, then just assume it's the town or city doesn't have that authority. So what are the general powers of cities and towns in the state of Vermont? What they can do. They can enact zoning laws. What kind of activities, what kind of buildings can go on what land, whether you can put a gas station in a residential neighborhood, or whether you can put a farm in the middle of downtown. That the town or city has the ability to create laws that govern that. They can impose a property tax, which for a very long time was the only way that municipalities could gain revenue. They can also nowadays impose a local sales tax if the state legislature approves. And they can provide services like police, fire, ambulance, recreational, and of course they take care of town roads, city roads and bridges. The, the fact that they have to have the legislature. Grant that authority can be a real sticking point. And I'll talk about that in a second. What they cannot do. Towns or cities cannot enact their own. Or change the state's criminal laws. So if, by way of example, if the city. The city of Burlington wanted to. Create a law that said that it is a crime to. Possess a handgun or to do this or that. Or that it's no longer a crime to have small quantities of cocaine. Would they be able to do that? The answer is no. The criminal laws are the exclusive jurisdiction of the state government, not a town or city. They, they also cannot impose an income tax. And again, they can impose a local sales tax, but they can't do it without state permission. When I was in college, I went to a St. Michael's and I was a journalism major. And one of the things that I commonly did was for the radio program that we had that was part of the school, I would cover press conferences. So I would go to Montpelier and I would cover governor, Madeline Cunan's press conferences. And I'd go to Burlington and I would cover mayor. Bernie Sanders's press conference. And I, one of my most vivid recollections was when Bernie was very upset that the legislature was not allowing Burlington to impose a sales tax because back then. No city or town was allowed to do that. But in the case now, now the legislature will grant that power. But back then it never did. And I have a very distinct recollection of being in the mayor's office with all the other media. And Bernie getting more and more angry and saying things like, to our friends in the legislature, where were you when? And that's, he kept it to our friends in the legislature. And it, I. Eventually that did happen, but I don't think Bernie helped himself by being as, as the way that he was. But that, that's been an issue in the state for a long time. Now. Towns and cities are allowed to pass a 1% sales tax on goods and rooms and meals. And that's going to be a substantial amount of money, but they have to share that with the state too. So anyway, but at least, at least it is a revenue source. So all of that begs the question of what do you, what do you do if you have an issue like the ones that I was just talking about where they can do something. So the question, the, the, the answer is you contact your town or city government with issues concerning things like fire or ambulance or police services. And that would be in general, that you think they should have another ambulance or there should be a fire station or an outpost in your neighborhood or there shouldn't be. That would be something you would call the town or city, City, either the executive, which in Burlington would be a mayor or in most towns and cities, there's a city or town manager or your select board member or your city counselor. Now that said, obviously for emergencies on these things, you don't call any of those people. You call 911. You would also contact town or city government officials for things about the property tax or property uses, yours. And others. So by way of example, of example if you wanted to put an addition on a house or you were upset that your neighbor was building an addition on theirs and it looks like they didn't have the right that it just seemed wrong they didn't have the right permits for it or something that would be something you would call the town or city government over you would never call the state on that because they wouldn't care because they don't have any power over these things um parks and recreational services same thing you'd want to contact the town or city on those kinds of things if you think the baseball field you know garbage cans need to be emptied more or there are dogs running around on the soccer field or there should be more swing sets in a in a park those are things that are going to be handled by the town government or city government not the state government um property taxes property tax payments property tax rates things like that uh an appeal if the if you own a house and they they appraise it and say it's worth this much so this is what your property tax is going to be and you think that they they appraised it wrong um those would be things that you would contact your town or city government uh over um other things things like noise complaints um those are almost always in the purview of the town or city uh if it's really bad you know like a criminal type noise then you know you might want to call the police on that but just in general uh that would be something you would contact the the town or city government for um also something that that comes up a lot um but I think people don't understand is is dog and animal complaints um a city council or a select board in vermont actually has the authority the legislature gave it the authority um to decide uh complaints on dogs and animals and and most most ordinances that towns have talk about dog bites or animal attacks um and that that can I've as a select board member in williston and as a lawyer before I was in the attorney general's office in private practice I've actually had to deal with this issue where people came to my select board because a dog attacked a neighbor um and the neighbors were saying either muzzle this dog put it down or make it leave the town um likewise I've represented people in front of uh town governments when they've been attacked by dogs uh and it's almost by the way it's almost always people who it's the second or third time the dog is attacked somebody and there's very irresponsible um well the select board or the city council has the authority to do uh a lot including actually euthanize the animal um uh and I've never seen that but I have seen um uh the law actually allows uh the the town government to ban the the animal from town uh like something you know get out of dodge city you know in the old west or something like that which is I think kind of a throwback um one one thing on this issue if anybody's interested in in uh an issue that probably isn't a burning issue it could be sorry um my phone was on um was the um a lot of town and city ordinances on this issue are written so that the animal attack has to happen on or off of the dog's property um and these days uh that we changed that in williston and I would recommend if anybody has the interest to bring this to other people's attention that they change it in in their town or city as well because uh these days a lot of times you know not many people have picket fences or stockade fencing around their property and uh you know it's pretty easy to walk across somebody else's lawn um you know it's that the town government should have authority over things like that uh and most of them don't but they could if they just change their ordinance but but it's something that this kind of slips through the cracks I experienced this when a an ordinance in hindsburg actually was written in a way where the hindsburg select board couldn't do anything about a really terrible dog attack uh a dog that was owned by extremely irresponsible people anyway just that something else people should know um public schools are run by school districts and school districts are actually their own governments um they are separate from the town or city that they are in so um by way of example the uh in my town the town of williston uh before mergers used to have and i was actually on the williston select the williston school board um the williston school district was its own government it is not under the control of the town uh it it has its own budget it has its own taxing authority and that's true with now the unified school districts that we have including the one that would cover burlington so the city council and the mayor's office um they may have influence and they might be able to do some things around the edges but in terms of school policy that is that is the school board that is its own government and again that's a government that was created by the legislature so you'd contact the school or school board for things like obviously issues with your child or a student um educational property taxes which is actually the bulk of property tax payments in the state of ramon most proper the property taxes that you pay the vast majority of that amount actually is going toward the schools um not not municipal government um municipal government is actually not nearly as expensive because their expenses aren't nearly as big as the schools they don't have the town government doesn't have to pay teachers it doesn't have to heat three buildings it does have to heat some buildings doesn't have to run school buses uh it doesn't have to do special ed uh programming that is never paid for adequately by the feds um it doesn't have to do any of that stuff and the schools do so your property taxes mainly go not not like 90 but most of it goes to the to the school government um also if you wanted to uh complain or or take issue with a school sport you know if you wanted the school to have this sport or not have this sport or there's a mascot there's been a movement in vermont to um get rid of the mascots that are racially insensitive uh those those are things a school board deals with not a city council or a select board um likewise extracurricular activities uh things like that um in the school's equity and inclusion issues that would be something that the school board would deal with not a city government uh and of course curriculum and academic courses would be something that would be handled by the school government not the town or city government before i move on i do want to say something about the county county governments in vermont um county governments in vermont have almost no power at all very different than most of the rest of the country um in most of the rest of the country the county government has a significant role to play in uh what we have is municipal services roads law enforcement um things like that um but in chit and in vermont and like by chit and county any county there are really very few elected officials in county government one is the prosecutor the state's attorney is a county employee uh the other is the sheriff and third is the assistant judges but even even those budgets the state's attorneys and sheriffs are actually run out of a state uh agency the department department of state's attorneys and sheriffs or sheriffs and state's attorneys um so the the county government would be almost nothing uh that has stuff and by the way interestingly enough the biden administration's payments to municipal governments under the american rescue plan there's a there's a snag right now because the federal government doesn't understand that vermont's counties actually don't do anything and they the law is designed to funnel money into municipal governments starting with counties um and so our congressional delegation and other people are trying to fix that to make sure and they will uh but it's it's something that they have to make sure that doesn't get held up because otherwise you know the feds would try to pay money stimulus money to the county government the county government would say that's great but we don't have anything to spend it on we don't own any roads um we don't run the police departments we don't run the fire departments we don't have rec we don't have social programs anyway county governments have a very limited role in vermont uh state governance so that that brings us to vermont state government kind of basic but let's start with the basics um there are three branches of government in vermont uh and pretty much every other state uh there's the legislative branch the executive branch and the judicial branch the legislative branch in vermont as sandy knows having been a member of it is called the general assembly um the general assembly is composed of two houses the house of representatives in the state senate they both have to pass laws and go to the executive branch the executive branch is basically run by the governor um and it has many state agencies and i'll get into those in a slide coming up uh but it's uh the agency that actually executes the law that the legislature puts in and and runs the budget that the legislature approves the third branch the judicial branch is the branch that interprets the laws and when we say interpret it means uh it can not only interpret it but can actually overrule laws if they are unconstitutional because that would mean that the judiciary is interpreting the constitution either the state constitution or the federal constitution in vermont there are two levels of of court there's the vermont supreme court and under that is the vermont superior court the courts changed about 10 or 15 years ago maybe a little bit less than that where there used to be a superior court and district court and on and on and they just made that into one thing as the vermont superior court with different divisions that basically do what the old system did there's the civil division the probate division the criminal division and the family division and i will get into where you bring your case and where you should go if you have a problem that you need to go to court over the legislature in vermont the members of the legislature both state senators and house members are elected to just two year terms also the legislature in vermont is uh part time it meets for about half the year um which i think is a good thing uh because uh it keeps people close to the voters and make sure that we don't have legislators who are more interested in keeping their jobs uh than uh doing the right thing um the state senate is comprised of 30 state senators uh each represents about 20,300 people in the state of vermont they're broken down mainly by county but not completely um the senate districts are named after the counties where most of their district is but they're actually generally different districts than that um in the house there are 150 members of the house and uh so each of those house members represents about 4,100 people by way of example the town of williston has about 10,000 people and we have two uh members in the house members of the house and members of the senate are elected at uh at large in their district and that means that um everybody in williston votes for two members of the house and um the top two vote getters win it's not like the people on the west side of town have one person and the person on the east side of town have another person if you're in a house district or senate district then that is the um uh uh then then you vote for everybody that way okay so what does the legislature do what power does it have the legislature is empowered to make law and that's subject to the governor's power to veto a bill and it would be subject to the supreme court deciding that what they did was unconstitutional but it is a massive power and what i mean by law is the legislature can pass all laws um they can decide what is or is not a crime um they can decide the income tax and sales tax rates in the state the legislature decides the social service spending in the budgets it decides the policies governing how those services are provided um it only the legislature can amend the state constitution which is the ultimate law in the state although federal law always trumps state law uh that was determined a hundred percent with the conclusion of the american civil war where the feds the the union won and states have their rights but not uh they don't ever trump the federal uh uh law by the way that that even applies to federal regulations um so if a regulation is created by the federal government and it's in contradiction to a state statute that the legislature passed the federal regulation wins the feds always won the legislature always has uh also has the power to decide what a town or city can do use for its powers um as i was talking about with the sales tax that was something new um there are other things that uh the legislature will there's a process that the towns and cities go through to amend what they can and cannot do or ask the legislature um it's called a charter change each town or each city's laws that the legislature legislature creates these uh is called a charter and um they specifically say you know the city of berlington is allowed to do this the more fancy and legal than that but that's the idea the town of milton can now impose the sales tax or whatever um the governor can stop the legislature's laws from coming into effect if he vetoes he or she vetoes the uh the law um that would send it back to the legislature but the legislature can have the final say um the governor's veto can be overridden by a two-thirds majority in favor of overriding it but that has to be two-thirds in each house both the senate and the house uh not cumulatively but you count the votes in each uh chamber and if two-thirds override it then that's the way it is i think the most famous example of that in vermont was when governor jim douglas uh vetoed um the gay marriage uh law and it went back to the legislature and the legislature overrode his veto and it became law anyway even though the governor didn't sign it the um executive branch is a big uh a big endeavor um it is run by the governor uh but the governor is not the executive branch the governor is just in charge of the executive branch the executive branch is broken down into a whole bunch of agencies and i put them in this chart because i wanted people to see that um it is pretty inclusive and uh you know covers basically a wide swath of swath of things um so agencies like commerce and community development are trying to um as it says basically bring uh business hopefully socially conscious businesses to the state and foster community development uh at the same time agency transportation uh the biggest thing people usually think of is the interstates uh those are uh kept up and and maintained by the agency of transportation but the agency of transportation also has the department of motor vehicles in it so if you if you had a problem with your license it's the dmv but that's under the agency of transportation and actually i have agency of transportation in there twice sorry about that there's only one um agency of natural resources is in charge of protecting the natural resources of the state um they often will bring uh cases against people who are violating a state law or their own growth permit um by you know discharging you know water where they shouldn't or building where they shouldn't or building on a wet land when they shouldn't do that a lot of that is going to be handled by the agency of natural resources um agency of agriculture food and markets is really just mainly in charge of agricultural endeavors in the state to try to help farms and farms these days as i'm sure you all know aren't just dairy farms there's all different kinds of agriculture out there maple syrup actually would be part of part of that um the agency of education is in charge of obviously educational quality in the state um although uh a lot of that is handled at the local level by the school board agency of digital services is actually just the computer the people who run the computer system for the state um that is its own agency now and the last one is the agency of human services and that that is that is huge um that includes the department of mental health the department of disabilities aging and independent living they're in charge of making sure that people are safe in nursing homes uh they're also in charge of providing public guardian for adults who don't have anybody else to run a disabled adult who would not be able to run their their affairs um they have a lot to do department of corrections um uh is actually part of the agency of human services that was the idea was that uh uh that would make it a better chance for uh it to be rehabilitative um uh i'll leave it to people in their own opinion whether that worked or not um department of health the department of health has been a very busy in last year with uh the pandemic um department of Vermont health access basically runs things like the state equivalent of obama care um and uh things like that so it if you are looking to access health uh healthcare in Vermont it would be the department of health access the last one is the department for children and families um i actually did a seminar for sandy in this program about a year ago i think um outlining what powers the department for children and families have but their their charter is to make sure that people who are children who are in need of care or supervision because they've been either neglected or abused are not neglected or abused their their goal is to keep children in the family um a lot of times they're successful with that and sometimes they're not and obviously there's always going to be a debate whether they didn't do enough or went too far it's a it's a very it's a very difficult uh job the executive branch the executive branch the governor is also elected to a two-year term that's actually a anomaly in the united states most governors are elected to a four-year term um the governor has the power to veto legislation that i went into before if he or she doesn't like the law they can veto it and then it'll then it does not become law unless the legislature overrides by two-thirds vote in each house the executive branch also the governor appoints the agencies agency secretaries and departmental directors these are the people who actually manage the government so that's that's a pretty important thing um and the governor administers the laws and the budget that the legislature passes another thing that actually didn't put on here is that the um the governor actually also um appoints judges that have to be confirmed by the state senate but uh he does have the authority here she has the authority to appoint judges the governor has to pick though from a list that a panel creates and so that um uh that is kind of a limited power and people may remember that um when governor dean was governor uh the that panel forwarded two names to the governor to fill a supreme court justice position and uh they were actually associate justices on the supreme court already and this would one of them would have become chief justice said the governor had governor dean done that but governor dean didn't want either of those be able to become the chief justice so he said no and he sent it back and said come up with a different list of names and i don't know what happened if there was uh conversations on the side or something but that's how um attorney general jeffrey amistoy went on to become the chief justice of the vermont supreme court um and that's how uh uh governor deans administration secretary bill sorrell was appointed to be the attorney general um i think i think governor dean wanted bill sorrell to be uh a supreme court justice and um that didn't work so he had him become attorney general and then bill sorrell was the attorney general for a very long time i think he has the record or something so who do you contact in state government and and the answer is it's it's a big thing so my answer is go to the state government website um i did put down the one major thing in case people need assistance and that's benefit programs are actually run by dcf it's a different section of dcf than the people who are in charge of family services so if you went to dcf.vermont.gov backslash benefits and you could just google benefit programs vermont government and you get there anyway but they they cover things like food assistance which is now called three squares vermont um in the 70s and early 80s it was called food stamps um they help with crisis fuel if people run out of fuel and they don't have the money to pay for more fuel oil or whatever they're using um they can get uh they can get a payment uh if they qualify uh for uh from the state government for that as an emergency um the state actually has an emergency assistance program if people um need money because they are about to have their lights turned off or something like that as well um so again dcf.vermont.gov backslash benefits for that housing assistance is this section of dcf that actually was um uh financing the homeless people that were uh uh sheltered in motels and hotels in vermont while the pandemic was raging and that that was actually part of the housing assistance program um reach up uh which used to be called welfare um that that program is covered in this as well and weatherization if if you have an old house that is uh you know leaking a lot of air and you're losing a lot of heat um this this they have actually programs that will help you pay to weatherize your house so that you can save uh energy and save money and stay warm so um dcf.vermont.gov backslash benefits so last slides uh I have are about the judicial system and the the question is which court do you go to um and I've I've actually seen this as a lawyer I've seen people do do this wrong I've seen people show up in uh Costello courthouse in Burlington when they should have gone to the superior court on main street across from Nectar's um and you know file things in the wrong court so let's go through it the family division um none of this is going to come as a surprise but the family division is where one would go to deal with a divorce uh or parentage parentage is if you're not married but you have a child with somebody um the family division has the jurisdiction and the authority to decide um who's going to have legal and physical custody of that child what visitation is going to look like um family division also will deal with child support whether it was a divorce or whether it was parentage family division will also deal with abuse prevention but I want to be clear about that it is abuse prevention for things that happen either within a family spouses uh or people who are um had a dating relationship uh brothers and sisters um a sexual relationship or lived lived in the same uh residence uh then then the family division has power over abuse prevention cases it does not have power over jurisdiction for abuse prevention cases for uh bad things that are happening that are not related to a family so by way of example if you are working somewhere and some customer with a mental health issue that you're not married to or related to starts stalking you or threatening you um you would not go to the family division to get an abuse prevention order you would go to civil division I'll cover that in a minute but that that's an important distinction because people can get that wrong um and there are forms online uh to fill out or if you can't do that then there are forms at the courthouse that you can just go to um the family division also deals with some mental health cases um involuntary commitment involuntary medication um things like that um those are usually brought by the state government uh but you can bring those as a private citizen as well um obviously with the right kind of evidence and the right kind of expert witnesses and things like that probate division probate division deals with uh will's trust and estates so uh you know when you pass on if you have will it would go to the probate division and the probate division makes sure uh through making it through reports that it receives from the people running the estate that what happened in the will uh what was written in the will is what happened in the estate will's are kind of like computer programs um they you you have to obey them and you know whatever the instruction is that's what you have to do um they'll also deal with guardianships for disabled adults and guardianships for for children I should have put that in um because you can get a guardianship in uh for a child in that and there are actually contested guardianships over children and I've been in contested guardianships for disabled adults where more than one person comes forward to try to become the guardian for somebody who is developmentally disabled um uh but that's uh that's where you would go is probate division for that um probate division also deals with name changes if uh you wanted to change your name either first or last name uh it's the probate court that has the legal authority to say okay this is now your legal name and whatever it is um it does have some child related uh uh cases actually did cover guardianships up there a second ago but um there is such a thing as a private termination of parental rights um it's rare as hen's teeth uh but the probate division does have uh that authority and um I've I've seen those cases they're just not very often usually a termination of parental rights case would be because there's an abuse or neglect case uh in uh the regular family division is that second finishing it up the civil division in burlington that would be as I said the superior court across from nectars um that uh that deals with personal injury cases if you've been injured in a car accident and uh you can't get the case settled that would be where you would bring your case or probably your lawyer would bring your cases in civil division um and then just general things breach of contract somebody agrees to paint your house for three thousand dollars or five thousand whatever it is and they don't um you would sue them in civil division as I indicated before non-family abuse prevention cases so uh stalking um uh threats of sexual violence uh from people who are not in a relationship uh would be handled in civil division as well um boundary disputes um if somebody thinks they own this parcel of land but somebody else says no the boundary is six feet over and whatever uh I've had those cases uh I came up with this phrase I think uh that uh boundary disputes are the child custody of real estate law um they they are usually fought out tooth and nail uh with surveyors and uh looking through ancient records and stuff and oftentimes it's over stuff that isn't worth fighting over but I don't know if it's instinctive but people seem to fight over where a boundary is more than otherwise I'd recommend don't unless it's super important real estate disputes uh such as uh if somebody owns property you or not um that's again rare but I have seen those cases I've been involved in them before um and business disputes things like a corporation um uh if uh and usually in Vermont there's small corporations with like three shareholders who own it who want to store together or something like that uh if there's a dispute between the owners the shareholders then that would go to the civil division for for resolution um last one is criminal division I just wrote the word don't and the reason I did that is because the the only time you go to criminal division as a citizen is usually almost always you've been accused of a crime the only other thing would be if you're called in as a witness um I've been a lawyer since 1991 I was actually the president of the Vermont Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers and I did a lot of criminal defense um I can't tell you the number of times I heard people say either well they said they're going to drop the charges or can we press charges um that you hear that on tv a lot but it's it's a bad phrase because nobody presses charges nobody drops charges criminal charges are brought by the state of Vermont the government of the state of Vermont is the only entity that can bring a criminal charge or dismiss a criminal charge and that even includes if and it doesn't usually happen don't get me wrong but if the victim does not want the charge prosecuted it's not up to the victim the victim doesn't have a veto uh to say you know what I don't want it prosecuted so don't do it um if there is other evidence um of the crime then the prosecutor is very likely going to go forward anyway unless you know there are other human and humane reasons which are taken into account it's not a it's not a terribly it can be a terribly vicious system in Vermont but it oftentimes is not um the only other thing on this is uh I used to get people saying well you know I'm I'm I'm going to the police because I'm gonna have him charged with harassment or for that matter I'm gonna sue somebody for harassment um I'll say it this way there's almost no such thing um you can bring somebody to court for uh um if they're stalking you or they're threatening you for real um not not just if you feel threatened and you're you're kind of weird that you shouldn't feel threatened but somehow you do then that's not going to work but that would be the civil division um likewise there are things that you can sue somebody for for intentional infliction of emotional distress that would be kind of a harassment thing um all very hard to win those cases extremely hard um even negligent infliction of emotional distress is an extremely hard case to win um but in terms of criminal law there there are things like disorderly conduct uh there is a criminal stalking charge but again that would be the state's attorney but um the fact that somebody is being uh unpleasant and rude and obnoxious and uh whatever um it's it's not a crime uh in the united states unless it crosses this pretty significant line um you know somebody threatening you and yelling at you and raising a fist sure that that sounds like it could actually be an attempted simple assault um but somebody standing on a street corner and uh loudly proclaiming their political view or telling you that you did something wrong uh in a business dealing with them and getting aggressive and angry i i don't mean physically aggressive um but emotionally aggressive it's just not a crime so criminal division don't um so uh that that is the uh conclusion of my my power point um so uh sandy i'll go over to you on this do you uh uh do you have uh questions do we open it up um yes you can uh open it up and i do have a question and a comment thank you by the way very much that was very uh educational for me i do have a question about uh the jurisdiction of local governments and i also want to say that in the probate court i believe you you um maybe forgot one of the main functions is adoptions oh my goodness that's right and a lot of there are a lot of adoptions that of course that do take place in the state of vermont so yeah you know that's where you go sandy the terrible thing about that is uh my my two daughters are adopted yeah probate court for that so um yes i uh i have i have the paperwork still so yeah you're absolutely right should have covered that um because mainly because it's more and more important i believe especially with many new americans coming into the the state that yes you know anyway so thank you though okay i was involved in a case a number of years ago where the city passed an ordinance that said that the police had the authority on church street to go on to church street and if they found that there was a nuisance being committed on church street by a person that they could tell that person to get off church street and essentially exile that person without a hearing without any further ado really and so essentially there being exile which is a form of punishment in my mind um without any kind of a hearing without any due process and that was a that was an ordinance so how come the city okay so based on that there are a number of us who went to court to the supreme court and argued that it was unconstitutional and the court decided that well it could be unconstitutional but sandy baird and jared carter don't have any authority because they have no standing to sit yeah but yeah i'll come the city could pass you said i think that the city can't pass ordinances only the state which is basically isn't it wasn't that law they can the city can't pass a criminal law well make an ordinance into a crime um it could be and again is i think the supreme court would have said you know that depending on the effect of it that could be basically a de facto criminal yeah law um but it sounds like they never got to that point the counter to that i don't and i don't know the answer to your question but i i can't move it out right away because i'm standing well yeah um yeah and that that sounds bad um and it sounds like it was bad in that circumstance standing uh though do remember that's that's why uh texas wasn't allowed to sue all the other states that voted for joe biden right they didn't have standing to do that either um i understood the argument yeah and in fact we did not bring up the argument that that the ordinance itself was passed without real authority we brought up the argument that it was unconstitutional because it did not afford due process to the people who are going to get booted off so maybe we just brought up the argument it could be but anyway maybe um i um it's that yeah uh you know that's the law that happens in law yeah and the other thing is is when you're talking about taxes on a local level that that means in effect right that a local that in the state of her mind is not a home rule state right correct that is that true but do some states have home rule in their municipalities yeah um they do i i don't i wouldn't swear to this but i'm pretty sure that actually new york has a version of that because um new york city can pass uh different gun control measures that make it a criminal offense really a new york city has an income tax um but i suppose i suppose vermont towns and cities could have an income tax if uh uh if the legislature gave them i know they could if the legislature gave them that authority then they could do that too um but yeah there are home rule states i think it's i think it's fewer um you know the the interesting way that i view it is um that uh and and i used to say this in court when i was talking about uh search and seizure cases where the search warrant did or did not do something um that the the federal government is a supposed to be anyway a government of limited power now those limits are pretty far out there but it is a government of limited power meaning that if it's not if the if the federal government if it's not said in the constitution then it can't do that and it can't do whatever now again that that is interpreted pretty pretty far and wide but that is the concept state state governments are uh the um the sovereigns meaning like the royalty literally um in system meaning that a state government can basically do whatever it wants because it just has inherent power like a king would but it's limited by its own laws and its own constitution um so and and don't get me wrong i'm not saying well the uh state there's no state law saying police can't go uh seize cups of coffee from people well yeah there is the police are that would be theft that's a crime they're not allowed to do that um but but the idea is that a state government can do uh whatever it wants as long as it's not unconstitutional and long as it doesn't violate um rights um which again can be even things that are not written in the constitution substantive due process there rights to privacy are things that are there is no constitutional amendment like free speech that says you have a right to privacy but it does exist um it's it's it's a substantive due process uh right um but uh towns and cities uh are you know they are completely creatures of the state right so they they can only do what they're allowed to do unless it's a home rule state and then my understanding and not a lawyer in any of these states i wouldn't i wouldn't bet my license on it but uh a lot of those home rule states i think the idea is the town or city can also kind of act like a state government and do if it's not if it's not illegal then it can do it i guess i have one final question if it's a if the town um or a city is the creature of the state could the state uh dissolve a town yes wow good um and um uh you know i mean it it's created towns um you know it it's i i actually found this out uh and i'm kind of ashamed i'm a i'm a native remonder of uh other than when i lived out a state for four years to go to law school i've i've lived here since i was born in 1965 and i didn't i didn't know this but um i finally found out why burlington international airport is actually run by the city of burlington and basically owned by the city of burlington but it's in south burlington the answer is that south burlington was part of the city of burlington when the airport was created oh really when was that you know not even sure but it was uh it was later it was after they invented airplanes and that uh and actually it was that was one of the things is south burlington was allowed to go and create its own municipality its own corporate uh municipal corporation of the i believe it was probably a town at first um but um uh but the deal was that burlington got to keep its airport and by the way that actually is historically where the south burlington school mascot was the rebels because they were seceding from burlington so uh that that was the thing but i think that was actually even as late as the 1940s um likewise uh wanouski used to be part of the town of colchester um and i in the in the early 1990s when i would do a title search in in wanouski um there were times when you would have to you have to search a title back 40 plus 40 years plus uh to make sure that somebody has good title and there were um titles where you could get back to like 35 years in the city of wanouski and then the next reference in in the deed in the old dusty book that you pulled off the shelf was a reference to a land record volume and page number in the colchester land records so you'd have to drive over to colchester and they know they were they were used to this you tell them and they're yeah okay those books are over here and you'd look and sure enough but um yeah so i mean that towns towns and cities divide off from each other so i think the implication would be that the legislature could could dissolve a city um i you know i again i i can't imagine that it actually would just on a whim or to you know punish punish the residents of a town or something like that i mean that in that case by the way that's where the gores come in remember buell yeah what what is agor agor is an unincorporated um municipal area meaning it does not have a government and the governor appoints somebody to the administrator of buell's gore um of gore the one that i'm thinking of is buell's gore which i think is near huntington um and uh that administrator actually acts in many large part as a um uh as the town government um in the cunin administration before he was on the supreme court uh governor cunin as uh as a joke and it was actually funny it sounds like it might be insulting but it wasn't taken that way at the time um uh made um john dually her administration secretary the uh leader of buell's gore whatever the title is for that and um he had all kinds of funny quotes that he you know wrote out to his territory and surveyed his property and all this other stuff he was a medieval feudal guy or something and again it it played well at the time it probably doesn't sound good historically but um but agor agor is administered by um the the state government i i believe thank you thanks sure any other questions here any other questions i guess what i do okay go ahead hey anybody else but me or somebody else oh i thought i heard somebody now how do i do this yeah well you know it could be worse sandy i had um when i was running for re-election for the willis and select board once um we're on your channel 17 debate and uh i would have preferred that nobody called in with a question but what happened is somebody called in and said yeah um if the willis and select if the willis and budget were the uss enterprise and star trek what would captain kirk do there's no good answer for that right i guess i do have one other question okay so um i've been very concerned this covid year because town halls are closed city halls are closed we have no access to the city government right now at all i guess somebody doing a title search might be able to make an appointment but in effect public meetings have been halted um and i'm wondering if and also the legislature was did not meet the most serious thing to me that happened in the course though was that town meetings did not happen yeah and that there's now mail-in ballots which defeats the whole purpose of town meeting and i'm wondering is that some kind of a constitutional violation will town meetings return to public meetings face-to-face meetings or do you have any opinion of or should i i would have a legal answer for you i do um you know that i would say that the town meeting has been uh more and more difficult to pull off as towns have grown um williston has a town meeting we you know there's about 10 000 citizens in williston who are residents um which is interesting because during the day there are over 20 000 people in williston um but uh our town meeting it does exist but the the things that are actually voted on from the floor are very very limited the budget is not the budget is australian battle battle the next day and they spend that way for a very long time um so i you know i don't know what the future holds i do think it's either braddleboro or one of the bees i think it's braddleboro but it might be bennington um has uh experimented with representative town meeting and what that means is that you um they they section the town off and certain numbers of people uh volunteer to you know be voted on basically elected to be their neighborhood's voice at town meeting um and that you know that that's an interesting combination between representative democracy and pure democracy i think that there actually is a way where people can just go anyway uh and and just if they want to go they can go i grew up uh the one of the earliest recollections i have was the very last town meeting in richmond i grew up in richmond um that was actually at the old round church yeah i i have a very distinct recollection of that it must have i must have been three or four or five years old um and you know after that it finally went up to uh camelson middle school um and you know after i got out of law school i was on the board of civil authority so i would help run the town meeting and it really uh town meetings are really good i mean i remember a couple there were a couple issues in town meeting in richmond that i was really worried that the emotion of the issue would carry the day they they involved funding of the ambulance um and it didn't um the people people talked about it and they stated their opinions and then there was a vote and um you know in my opinion the thing that was more common sense than that was less emotional actually carried the day so um i i you know voters voters at town meeting can generally be trusted there there are times when it could be hijacked by a bunch of people who show up who live in the town but then again they live in the town they're voters exactly um yeah but i i don't know what the future holds for that it's it's uh something that should be addressed okay well thank you very much i wonder if there are any other questions it's not yeah actually there are no in the um actually there are questions in the chat um so let me let me read them off uh there too um regarding allegations of criminal activity by a state official does the attorney general defend the state official or does the attorney general prosecute the state official or does the attorney general have to conflict of interest um actually there's there's a statute that the legislature passed uh directly on point on that um the answer is that the uh well it depends it is a state official could be prosecuted by a state's attorney it would depend on what the crime is um like a you know uh actually we had a um auditor of accounts uh about eight years ago who got a dui and he was prosecuted by the washington county state's attorney um other things like that that would be more in the purview of the attorney general's office probably not necessarily a conflict of interest it would depend on the facts but there's actually a statute that the legislature passed that said that um if you are if you are a state government employee and you are accused of a crime that involves your state job then um you are actually defended by the public defender's office um and uh yeah so uh but there could be a conflict of interest uh if you know depend on the facts um but there is there is a um statute that uh addresses most of most of that scenario so um next question towns can put advisory questions on ballots even though they cannot become law what power do these vote uh do those votes have um that that's basically yeah the the towns can put advisory things and um uh on town meeting day and um they basically are exactly that they are advisory to the legislature um but they're no um no legal authority so i've seen that where the town um actually the wording in a town meeting in richmond when i was in college uh said that the town the town instructs our members of the legislature to whatever it was and um there was a huge debate over the word instruct because the town can't really instruct the town the state representatives to do anything because they are independently elected by the voters um your your uh power over people in the legislature is at the ballot box and short of that not much else uh but the but you know again it would be pretty if if a town meeting voted to um you know advise uh a representative or state senator that the town's position on something is x y z um you know that that would certainly have sway over the uh state senator or representative it may not may not carry the day um because again they are elected on their own uh in their own right um but the the answer about what power has no power no actual power um persuasive but not powerful great okay yes well thank you very much jen i hope to see you soon me too you know um i uh i've been coming into burlington more and more so uh there's a chance of it right anyway but don't get booted up church street yeah i'll do my best uh i um i i generally don't cause any kind of ruckus uh and um i'm pretty boring so i think my chances are good we certainly don't think so so thank you very much all right see you have a good night everybody you too thank you all right bye bye


What is HTML? Simply put, the letters H-T-M-L stand for Hypertext Markup Language. And in this course, we're going to teach you the very basics of HTML, so that you know how it works and also so that you can use it. Now what you see here is a basic HTML document. And as you can see, there's some unidentified code if you're not familiar with HTML. So what those symbols mean and how they work, this will be explained in this series. But don't worry, HTML is a very simple language to learn. And throughout this course, we're going to show you just how you can start putting it to use. To understand how HTML works, think of the Internet as the globe. This massive space where people and information are in constant motion. And we could think of web pages like virtual buildings situated on that globe. This is where HTML comes in. We use steel and concrete to give structure to those buildings. Well, to give structure to our websites, we use HTML. So this is why sometimes HTML is considered a structural language. HTML is not a programming language, but as we mentioned it, it gives structure. Now just as we might attach to that structure an electrical or a plumbing system in the case of a building, we'll attach complex web services like Google or Facebook. These incredible and very complex services have as their foundation HTML. This is why HTML is considered by many to be the backbone of the Internet. Why is it important that we know or that you learn HTML? Well, the world as we know it is and has been undergoing a technological revolution in which nearly every aspect of our life, whether it's our education, our employment, activities have all been moved to the Internet or uploaded or connected to the Internet. A quick Google search and you will find literally tens of thousands of jobs for people who know HTML. So if you want to remain employable at your current job, which more than likely will at one point or another migrate in some form to an online job, or if you want to find a new job. Now think back to our virtual buildings. We know that in the real world we use nuts and bolts to piece together these steel structures. But in the world of code, we use tags to piece together web pages, our virtual buildings. So in our next video, we're going to talk to you about how HTML tags work. The fastest way to learn HTML is to practice it. So the best place to practice your HTML is burntolearn.com forward slash HTML. Here you'll be able to watch each video in this series, as well as practice the code that we're teaching as you watch. So please visit us at burntolearn.com forward slash HTML.


Would you rather have BB-8 as your sidekick or a pork? BB-8. BB-8. There's no real work that I'm gonna have to do. The pork can grow into a vicious thing. Can they? No one's seeing them fully sized. That's not them fully sized. Sure, they turn into something else. BB-8.  Everyone keeps asking me about pork. I'm like, they're birds. They're just birds.  But BB-8's got a little life. He's so useful. He's great. I think as a sidekick, I could be the funnier one if it was the pork. Although actually it's sort of quite cute, isn't it? So it would draw attention away. BB-8 tends to steal the scene. Oh, it's a difficult one. I'm gonna go for BB-8. You have to stick with your homie. The thing with the pork though is that you'd have lunch. You know, you'd have a portable lunch there. He's me. You gotta be hungry. He has such culinary opinions about pork. But I'm gonna have to go to BB-8 because it's my homie. BB-8 actually saves lives and does a remarkable job. He's the new R2-D2. Because by the way, people don't realize R2-D2 saves more people than any other character.  But porks, I'm telling you, they're adorable. And I love animals. So since I already have a great relationship with R2-D2, I think I'd have to pick the porks. Definitely BB-8. Porks would annoy me intensely. I know. You're not a pork fan.  Yeah. And I'd have a soundtrack of the noise that they make playing in the background while I eat them. Grrr! You're like, hmmm. Grrr! Yeah, yeah. Grrr! Please! Grrr! Would you rather fight 50 duck-sized snokes or one snokes-sized duck? One snokes-sized duck. At least it is just a bit. Well, it's got a very bad wing-to-body ratio, hasn't it? So I don't think the duck could do that much damage to me other than sit on me and try and incubate me like an egg. I think if I could resist that, I'd be okay. One snokes-sized duck. 50, because 50 little snokes would still be terrifying. But the other one is just a big duck. Yeah, exactly. And you could probably just modify it with some bread. One snokes-sized duck. You want a massive duck? Yeah. I don't want to fight a large duck like that. Really? I don't want to fight snoke any size. Little ones? No. Step on them. Scares me. Okay. One snokes-sized duck. Definitely for sure. There's 50 of those. Yeah, nah, I couldn't handle it. One snokes-sized duck.  So one big one, I'd like to think I could escape his beak, but that's a tough, it's a close call. I'll fight the big duck, please. One snokes-sized duck, because duck-sized snokes still have the force. Would you rather be BFF with Ray or Kylo Ren? Kylo Ren. Why? I don't know, man. Kylo's cool. He's such a cool character. Would he be a good mate? Yeah, I think so. I think if you're loyal, you'd be all right. It'd be hard to break conversation, though. I feel like you'd be in a room silent almost until you kind of break past the awkwardness. Ray, a little more light-hearted. I think I'd be a bit scared to be Kylo's friend. Yeah, or maybe he would use the guidance and you could be like, bro, stop making bad decisions and maybe he'd listen. Kylo doesn't seem like the best buddy to have around, you know? Yeah, tormented. Tormented, yeah. She'll try to always hold the light. But he might need a BFF. That might be what he's missing. Well, he's not getting one here. Well, Kylo was my nephew. And I feel so badly that I failed him as an uncle.  But so I feel like I need to make amends with him just out of sheer familial guilt I'd have to pick. I like to call him Kylo, Ren. It drives the fans nuts. They go, no, it's Kylo. I'm like, I'm pretty sure it's Kylo. Ray, girl's night. Ray, because she seems like a good person and you want good people to be your friends. Exactly. Here you go.  Oh, I can't choose my boys.  All three. Yeah, just a friend date. Come on. I'm gonna go with Finn. Poe Darren.  What do you think Finn would take you on a date? Um, Olive Garden, maybe? Yeah, I was gonna say Chili's. Or the macaroni girl, if it was feeling a little bit fancy. Poe. How come? He's going next week. I don't need to think about Uber and all that kind of stuff. I just need to get ready to get to Uber. You know what's bad? I ship them actually. So I feel like, and that's just a personal thing. I think they're both great. I'd go on a date with both of them. But not, like, I wouldn't like two 10 of them or anything. I'd, like, make sure that we all knew we were, like, seeing other people. This is going down the hall. Would you rather wear to the Oscars? Captain Phasma's armor or Princess Leia's slave outfit? Definitely Phasma's armor. I'm not sure how my nipples are gonna take to the cold brisk air that's coming through London right now. So I'm gonna stick with the armor, at least be wore. Ah, the armor. How come? Purely because I think the slave outfit will get really cold. And I think there'd be a lot of ogling. Oobling, is that the word? Phasma just looks really cool. So I feel like you'd be on the best dress list. I think people would be like, what? But I'd be like, I'm having the best time. And also like to chill in that outfit and just be like, people would be funny.