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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsLeahy wanted the F-35 jets in VT. He colluded with the Air Force to get it.
There is a ton of opposition to it. In all fairness, Leahy has been supported by most politicians in the state, including Bernie and Governor Shumlin, though on Friday Bernie did say that:
I take seriously allegations that the scoring process may have been flawed,
This is a fairly long old fashioned piece of investigative journalism of the kind we don't see much of anymore.
As jets seem bound for Vt., questions of political influence arise
The Air Force says it carefully sorted through 83 military bases around the country before deciding where to assign a coveted prize, the first Air National Guard squadron of F-35s, the next fighter jet in Americas arsenal.
In the end, it picked Vermont for the honor, home state of one of the National Guards most powerful political allies in Washington, Democratic Senator Patrick Leahy.
But state pride in the award to the Green Mountain Boys, as the Vermont Air National Guard calls itself, has been clouded by the Air Forces failure to fully take into account the thunderous noise the F-35s would generate in densely populated communities around its base at Burlington International Airport.
That failure and other flaws in its selection process are raising questions about whether the Air Force deliberately sought to reward a key friend in Congress with a squadron of advanced fighter jets for his state, and whether residents near the airfield might fall victim to Washingtons system of political spoils.
Projected sound levels around the airport are so high with the F-35s that local officials predict several thousand nearby homes would fall within a zone designated incompatible for residential use, negatively affecting the lives and property values of as many as 7,000 citizens.
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http://bostonglobe.com/news/nation/2013/04/13/selection-vermont-guard-base-for-jets-was-based-flawed-data-raising-questions-political-influence/pmhiPtI1BPWxwC3yK1adAL/story.html
Recursion
(56,582 posts)Don't see why it shouldn't be Vermont...