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For Immediate Release
June, 19 2015, 10:00am EDT
Contact:
Ryan Gillard, Rising Tide Vermont 802-359-3520
Pipeline Protestor Arrested, Released, Charged With One Misdemeanor
BURLINGTON, Vt.
Johanna Anderson, who had locked herself to a piece of Vermont Gas' fracked gas pipeline in Essex Thursday morning, was charged with one count of unlawful trespass in Chittenden County court. She was released from police custody late Thursday afternoon.
Despite earlier reports from police and several news outlets, Anderson was not charged with a felony.
"I took action today because communities from Alberta to Monkton deserve a healthy and safe environment, and this pipeline is a direct assault on those communities," Anderson said upon her release. "The concerns of ratepayers, impacted landowners and the public have been ignored for almost three years, so we're forced to take direct action to stop this illegitimate project."
Anderson plans to participate in Monday evening's vigil outside of the Public Service Board technical hearings for phase 1 of the fracked gas pipeline.
Rising Tide is a grassroots network of groups and individuals who take direct action to confront the roots causes of climate change and promote local, community-based solutions to the climate crisis. Rising Tide was formed in the Netherlands in 2000 to bring a more radical voice to the COP6 (UN Conference of the Parties) climate talks that attempted (unsuccessfully, largely due to the efforts of the US delegation) to salvage what of substance was left of the Kyoto Protocol. Employing popular education and direct action to address the root causes of climate change with a focus on climate justice, Rising Tide now spans three continents.
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DOGE Employees May Have Improperly Accessed Social Security Data With Aim to 'Overturn Election Results'
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The US Department of Justice acknowledged last week that two members of the Department of Government Efficiency may have improperly accessed Social Security data at the request of an unidentified organization whose goal is challenging US election results.
In a court filing dated January 16, the DOJ revealed that the unidentified organization last March reached out to two DOGE employees, who were working at the Social Security Administration (SSA), and requested that they "analyze state voter rolls that the advocacy group had acquired."
"The advocacy group’s stated aim was to find evidence of voter fraud and to overturn election results in certain states," the DOJ wrote. "In connection with these communications, one of the DOGE team members signed a 'Voter Data Agreement,' in his capacity as an SSA employee, with the advocacy group."
The filing said that SSA has "not yet seen evidence that SSA data were shared with the advocacy group," but that it had reviewed emails indicating that "DOGE team members could have been asked to assist the advocacy group by accessing SSA data to match to the voter rolls."
The DOJ also revealed that the SSA in December 2025 made referrals of the two DOGE employees to the US Office of Special Counsel for possible violations of the Hatch Act, which bars federal government employees from using their positions for political purposes.
Politico, which first reported on the DOJ filing, noted that the disclosure "came as part of a list of 'corrections' to testimony by top SSA officials during last year’s legal battles over DOGE’s access to Social Security data," and also included revelations that "DOGE team members shared data on unapproved 'third-party' servers and may have accessed private information that had been ruled off-limits by a court at the time."
The admission that DOGE employees shared data on a third-party server bolsters an explosive whistleblower complaint filed in August from former SSA chief data officer Charles Borges, who alleged that DOGE officials have been responsible for “serious data security lapses” that “risk the security of over 300 million Americans’ Social Security data.”
At the heart of Borges’ complaint was an effort by DOGE employees to make “a live copy of the country’s Social Security information in a cloud environment” that “apparently lacks any security oversight from SSA or tracking to determine who is accessing or has accessed the copy of this data.”
Should hackers gain access to this copy of Social Security data, the Borges complaint warned, it could result in identity theft on an unprecedented scale and lead to the loss of crucial food and healthcare benefits for millions of Americans. In a worst-case scenario, the complaint said, the government may also have to give every American a new Social Security number “at great cost.”
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'Now Is Your Time of Need': Bernie Sanders, Mayor Mamdani Join Striking Nurses in NYC
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In comments to CBS News New York, the hospital chains have scoffed at the NYSNA's demands for a 25% pay increase, especially in the wake of massive healthcare funding cuts from President Donald Trump's One Big Beautiful Bill Act last year.
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NYSNA, meanwhile, has said management "is threatening to discontinue or radically cut nurses’ health benefits" and has done nothing to combat severe understaffing.
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On Tuesday, Sanders (I-Vt.) emphasized that the hospitals' sudden frugality has been of little concern when it comes to compensating hospital executives.
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Negotiations remain at a total standstill after breaking down last week. While the hospitals claim the union refused to budge on unreasonable demands, Jonathan Hunter, a negotiator for Mount Sinai nurses, told Spectrum News NY1, "They basically stonewalled us, presented us with nothing, and we left with nothing."
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The Trump administration continues to insist it is only arresting violent criminals who are eligible for deportation—despite records showing that nearly three-quarters of people booked into detention by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement in recent months had no criminal convictions.
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In a video that was posted on social media, Thao's neighbors were heard blowing whistles and yelling at the agents as they led him outside, wrapped in a blanket and wearing nothing but shorts and sandals in 14°F temperatures.
Yesterday, ICE raided a home on St. Paul’s East Side. Their target was ChongLy Scott Thao, an elderly Hmong American man.
He’s a U.S. citizen with no criminal record.
Armed ICE agents broke down the door without presenting a valid warrant, entered with guns drawn, and… pic.twitter.com/hxECEkcIqK
— Dede Watson (@Dede_Watson) January 20, 2026
Thao reported that the agents drove him around for nearly an hour before telling him to get out of the car in "the middle of nowhere" and demanded his ID—which they had prevented him from getting at his house.
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The agents ultimately determined what Thao and his family had been telling them all along—that he was a US citizen with no criminal record—and drove him back home, leaving without apologizing for his wrongful detention or the damage they did to his front door.
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