Current News

The Senate Tuesday night unanimously passed bipartisan legislation authored by Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) that would restore the ability of consumers to more easily transfer their cell phones to other wireless carriers. Approval of the bill comes just days after the Judiciary Committee unanimously reported it to the full Senate. Leahy and Ranking Member Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) joined together last month to announce a bipartisan agreement on the Unlocking Consumer Choice and Wireless Competition Act, which they first introduced last year after more than 100,000 consumers signed a “We the People” petition calling for a change in cell phone unlocking law.

by Rob Roper Much focus lately, both from our politicians and our media, has been on IBM, the potential sale of its Essex facility and the question of what will happen to its 4000 employees. The Greater Burlington Industrial Corporation (GBIC) has proposed, among other measures, making a $4.5 million cash payment – the entire newly formed Enterprise Investment Fund – to either IBM or the plant’s buyer to keep jobs here in Vermont. Eyebrows also raised when we learned Keurig Green Mountain decided to open its new cold-pod factory in Atlanta, Georgia – home of new partner (and large and growing shareholder) Coca Cola – and not in Vermont despite years of encouragement and investment by the state through the Vermont Employment Growth Incentive Program to expand here.

Another storm is gathering west of Vermont and could hit later today. The NOAA forcast for Tuesday night states: "Showers and thunderstorms likely, mainly before midnight, then showers likely and possibly a thunderstorm after midnight. Some of the storms could produce small hail, gusty winds, and heavy rain. Cloudy, with a low around 60. South wind 3 to 7 mph. Chance of precipitation is 70%. New rainfall amounts between a half and three quarters of an inch possible."

After successfully restoring 73,621 outages during July storms already (July 2 – July 9), Green Mountain Power said it is ready for another round of storms. GMP said in a release that its employees and contractors are fully prepared to respond quickly if thunderstorms building up west of Vermont cause significant damage Tuesday evening.

Burlington has ordered new "smart meters" and will raise rates to make the city's public parking system more efficient and sustainable, which will include raising rates to generate about $500,000 more a year. Mayor Miro Weinberger today announced that the City of Burlington will implement several changes to the downtown parking system to both improve the customer experience and to ensure the City has a sustainable plan for maintaining the parking system and infrastructure in the downtown. For the past year, a public/private partnership comprised of the Department of Public Works (DPW), the Burlington Business Association (BBA), and the Community and Economic Development Office (CEDO) has worked to address longstanding concerns of residents, merchants, and visitors about downtown parking.

Elected officials, economic development representatives, and friends of SunCommon gathered in front of Sharon Academy’s 26-panel array Tuesday to celebrate the launch of SunCommon’s solar program into Orange and Windsor counties. SunCommon originally launched in central Vermont two years ago with a mission: to increase access to solar among everyday Vermonters and dramatically increase the amount of solar installations in the state. Before SunCommon’s launch, there were a total of 1,500 residential solar installations statewide; since then, SunCommon has sold almost 1,000 systems in the six counties in which they currently operate.

A third facility recently joined Sonnax headquarters and distribution centers in Bellows Falls. On July 7, the employee-owned company purchased a former manufacturing space located only a quarter mile from existing Sonnax sites to house the company’s research and development teams.

“I am very excited to have the room to expand”, said Sonnax Senior Vice President of Development Steve Jaussaud. “We continue to grow, and have been getting tight on space. This facility will help us establish a great R&D center suited to our diverse product lines. As an engineering-driven company, this will allow Sonnax to become even better at product development and meeting our customer’s needs.”

A recent golf fundraiser raised six figures for a scholarship fund at Norwich University named in honor of fallen Navy SEAL Brian Bill, a 2001 Norwich graduate killed in a helicopter crash in Afghanistan three years ago. The third annual Brian Bill Memorial Golf Tournament exceeded its $100,000 goal last month, bringing in $135,000 for the Brian R. Bill Scholarship Fund. The scholarship offers financial help to Norwich students who are the sons and daughters of Navy SEALs or have served in the US Armed Forces Special Forces.

The sold-out event included 135 golfers with another 100 people who attended the dinner, which included special guest speaker, author and former Navy SEAL Jason Redman.

Vermont Student Assistance Corp, the state’s nonprofit corporate agency committed to the mission that all Vermonters can pursue education after high school, is advising Vermont students who filed FAFSAs to double-check their application. Updates by the federal government in this year’s online FAFSA, or Free Application for Federal Student Aid, allowed some filers to inaccurately report their income or assets. The errors result when dollars and cents are entered into the income and asset fields rather than whole dollar figures. For example, an income entered of $27,667.12 is converted to $2,766,712 because the online application drops the decimal point. If the error isn’t caught and corrected, students could lose out on Pell grants and other need-based student aid.

VSAC suggests that FAFSA filers review their Student Aid Report to verify their information is accurate. Here is what you need to do:

Vermont’s health care oversight authority, the Green Mountain Care Board, has cleared the way for the Visiting Nurse Association & Hospice of Southwestern Vermont Health Care (SVHC) in Bennington to transfer its operations to the Rutland Area Visiting Nurse Association & Hospice (RAVNAH). The new, larger entity will improve care coordination, expand services across Bennington County, and prepare the area for health care reform. The two organizations will move swiftly to begin combining operations, which will take effect October 1.

by Morgan True vtdigger.org Blue Cross Blue Shield of Vermont and one of its subsidiaries — the Vermont Health Plan — are appealing a decision by state regulators to reduce a rate increase request. The insurance company says the lower rate could hurt the solvency of the Vermont Health Plan. The Green Mountain Care Board went against the advice of the Department of Financial Regulation and its own actuaries this month when it reduced the Vermont Health Plan’s request to increase to its reserve fund from 2 percent to 0.5 percent, filings with the state show. The Vermont Health Plan is a for-profit company owned by Blue Cross that is used primarily by small to mid-sized companies with 50 to 200 employees, according to Kevin Goddard, vice president of external affairs. It has 5,610 policyholders covering 10,743 lives.

Rutland-area businesses may be visited over the next few weeks by representatives from Efficiency Vermont. The energy efficiency utility is conducting research in an effort to update and improve their services for southern Vermont commercial customers. Efficiency Vermont offers technical assistance, rebates, and special financing to all Vermont businesses—thousands of which are already benefiting. Bonnie Hawley, of Hawley’s Florist in downtown Rutland, is saving $1,150 each year, after an initial $800 investment in her store’s lighting. Energy efficient upgrades can have other benefits as well. Says Hawley, “The lighting upgrades I did have greatly enhanced my in-store flower displays.”

The University of Vermont has become affiliated with the Worker Rights Consortium (WRC), joining more than 180 U.S. colleges and universities. Chris McCabe, assistant vice president of marketing and business development, made the announcement. The Worker Rights Consortium is an independent labor rights monitoring organization, conducting investigations of working conditions in factories around the globe.

"UVM has been a member of the Fair Labor Association for a number of years,” McCabe said. “It was a natural progression to add the WRC to our list of affiliate organizations who provide a foundation for workers rights in factories all over the world. I would like to thank our students, staff in the UVM Bookstore and members of the Burlington community for their thoughtful attention to this process. proving once again that the idea of social justice is a core value in the UVM community.”

Source: University Communications, July 14, 2014