Current News

Fresh off of two productive events featuring Vermont businesses, Lieutenant Governor Phil Scott is partnering with the Franklin County Regional Chamber of Commerce and other regional organizations to host the “Franklin and Grand Isle County Economy Pitch” on February 16, 2015. During the two-hour session at the St Albans Historical Museum, legislators and the general public from the Franklin County/Grand Isle region will hear representatives of the region’s business community propose steps lawmakers could take which will, in the eyes of businesses, have a positive impact on the State’s economy.

“Vermont’s business community is very good at problem-solving and thinking outside of the box,” Scott said. “In my opinion, no issue on the table right now other than public safety is more important than growing our economy and easing the financial burden on Vermonters, and I’m heartened to see so many lawmakers eager to consider fresh ideas.”

Secretary of State Jim Condos would like to remind all eligible, Vermont voters that early voting is now open for Town Meeting Day. Early voting only applies to those towns that vote by Australian ballot. “Town Meeting Day can be a great opportunity for community members to come together, discuss the issues that are specific to their particular locality, and have important debates before voting. However, many Vermonters have the realities of busy lives to contend with and the flexibility of Early Voting allows these Vermonters to still exercise their constitutional right to vote and, in this way, still participate in local decision making,” stated Secretary Condos.

Condos added, “Many of Vermont’s most important issues are decided on a local level and often the outcome comes down to a very small number of votes. I urge Vermonters to make their voice heard: vote on Town Meeting Day or, for Towns that use Australian ballot, vote early if you so choose.”

Vermont Governor Peter Shumlin announced today that "Big Data" enterprise software provider Faraday closed $750,000 in new funding and has doubled its staff to 13 people. Faraday plans to hire an additional 20 employees in 2015, mostly in Vermont, given increasing demand for its data-driven customer recruiting platform.

“Faraday is the latest in a new breed of Vermont businesses tackling big challenges with technology,” Shumlin said. “It’s no secret anymore that this state offers the talent, capital, and infrastructure to help exciting startups like Faraday succeed on a national scale.”

Faraday’s data management platform (DMP) wraps terabytes of data on 100 million US households in a fun, map-driven interface that helps companies reduce their customer acquisition costs through better targeting.

Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT) Thursday joined a bipartisan coalition of senators in introducing major legislation to lift the Cuba trade embargo. The bill is sponsored by Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) and cosponsored by Leahy and Senators Mike Enzi (R-WY), Debbie Stabenow (D-MI), Jeff Flake (R-AZ), and Dick Durbin (D-IL). Their bill would eliminate the key barriers to Americans doing business in Cuba.

The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced Wednesday that Vermont communities, families and businesses benefited from $125 million in USDA Rural Development (RD) grants, loans and loan guarantees in Federal Fiscal Year 2014.

“These funds helped thousands of Vermonters find affordable homes, find good paying jobs, and access vital community services,” said USDA Rural Development State Director Ted Brady. “As the federal government’s only agency devoted to assisting rural communities, USDA Rural Development is a one stop shop for the people, businesses and communities of rural Vermont. The hardworking men and women of the agency have a singular focus, helping our rural communities thrive.”

The Vermont State Colleges Board of Trustees voted today to hire Dr Elaine Collins as the next president of Johnson State College. Dr Collins is currently Dean and Chief Operating Officer of the College of Education at Grand Valley State University in Allendale, Michigan. Prior to that, Collins served as Vice President of Arts and Sciences at West Shore Community College, and Interim Vice President of Academic Affairs at Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts. A first generation college student, Dr Collins holds a PhD in Education Policy and Leadership.

Dr Elaine Collins, Grand Valley State University Photo.

The University of Vermont Health Network – Central Vermont Medical Center has made a significant investment in safe patient handling and mobility which will also reduce staff injuries and improve how we care for our patients. The program named Moving All Patients Safely, or MAPS, addresses a problem that is prevalent in health care facilities across the country – sicker patients and larger patients. Out-patient services have expanded and patients in hospitals are those who are too sick to go through an out-patient department. Obesity is a problem throughout the United States and is reflected in larger people in our patient population.

by John Herrick vtdigger.org The owners of the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant made their first withdrawal last week from a trust fund reserved for decommissioning the facility. Louisiana-based Entergy removed $12 million from the decommissioning fund February 4 to pay for the first phase of decommissioning planning, which includes evaluating the site, preparing reports and other planning work, company officials said Wednesday.

The state was not notified of the withdrawal in advance and did not have an opportunity to weigh in on whether it was a good use of the money, which is partially owed to Vermont ratepayers, according to a state official.

The Vermont Department of Taxes will resume issuing tax refund checks beginning Thursday, February 12. As a precaution, the department temporarily halted all refunds late last week in order to further investigate a surge in tax refund fraud reported by other states. The increase in refund fraud is not related to any security breach of Vermont government systems but rather the use of identities stolen elsewhere.

Refund fraud has been growing at an alarming rate at the federal and state levels. In 2014, the department detected and stopped more than 800 fraudulent returns saving the state of Vermont more than $1.5 million in potential loss. In response, the department has expanded its fraud detection efforts for the 2015 filing season, working with internal and external partners to add filters to the department’s fraud detection systems.

Among the four major wireless carriers, Verizon won the Overall RootScore award in the state of Vermont and scored the highest in Reliability, Speed, Data, and Call Performance. In addition, Verizon also shared the highest score for Text Performance. Verizon Wireless was the overwhelming network performance leader in the rankings of four national wireless providers in the United States in the third National RootScore® Report, issued today by Seattle-based RootMetrics. The score is for the second half of 2014.

Know your neighbor, save the planet. That’s the key finding of a University of Vermont study that says visits with neighbors lead to more planet-friendly behaviors than spending time with friends or family. The study, published by Environment and Behavior journal, finds that people who socialize with neighbors are more likely to "keep up with the Jones'" on green behaviors, including water and energy conservation, buying organic fruits and vegetables, and driving less.

“These findings suggest that our neighbors play a unique and crucial role in getting people to act on climate change,” says study author Thomas Macias of the University of Vermont. “Surprisingly, green outcomes were higher with neighbors than family relatives or close friends.”

Both sides are claiming something of a victory in a petition filed by environmentalists, led by Vermont Law School, against the state's largest electric utility, Green Mountain Power. The environmentalists claimed in a Federal Trade Commission petition filed last September that GMP was engaging in deceptive marketing practices in regards to renewable energy credits.

In a letter to GMP dated February 5, the FTC gave GMP a mild rebuke about its marketing practices involving RECs. RECs are sold to other entities to meet their renewable energy requirements. The original complaint stated that GMP was both selling RECs and claiming that those same renewable energy sources were used in Vermont.