Current News

Vermont Business Magazine and the Vermont Chamber of Commerce select the three finalists for the Deane C Davis Outstanding Business of the Year Award: Dealer.com, High Mowing Organic Seeds and PC Construction.

One of these impressive finalists will be named the Deane C. Davis Outstanding Vermont Business of the Year on Wednesday, May 21 in an awards presentation ceremony that kicks off the 30th annual Vermont Chamber Business & Industry EXPO. Governor Peter Shumlin will announce the award winner at 10 am in the foyer of the Sheraton Burlington Conference Center.

Vermont Supreme Court Justice Beth Robinson, widely regarded for her work on LGBT civil rights, will deliver the 39th Commencement address at Vermont Law School on Saturday, May 17, President and Dean Marc Mihaly announced today. In addition to honoring Robinson, VLS will confer honorary degrees upon U.S. Rep. Peter Welch, NextGen Climate founder Tom Steyer, former VLS Dean Geoffrey Shields, and artist and writer Genie Shields.

Over fifty Vermont schools serving high numbers of low-income students are eligible to use the new federal [or USDA’s] Community Eligibility Provision (CEP) to provide school meals to all students free of charge—and without collecting applications—starting next school year. Statewide, 1 in 5 children live in families struggling to put enough nutritious food on their tables. In these schools eligible to use CEP, the number of food insecure children is closer to 3 in 5.

“The federal school meal programs are some of the best tools we have for reducing childhood hunger,” states Hunger Free Vermont’s Executive Director Marissa Parisi. “To provide access to school meals for every child who needs them and improve the health of all Vermont’s children, we must make school meals universal statewide, and community eligibility is a great start.”

Jane Lindholm will deliver the address at Lyndon State College’s 102nd commencement ceremonies on Sunday, May 18, 2014. Lindholm, host of the award-winning Vermont Public Radio program Vermont Edition, has been recognized with regional and national awards for interviewing and use of sound. She was named one of Vermont’s “Rising Stars” by Vermont Business Magazine in 2013 and won a 2014 regional Edward R Murrow Award for “State of Mind,” an audio documentary piece on Vermont’s mental health care system.

The Community College of Vermont will hold its 47th commencement ceremonies at Norwich University’s Shapiro Field House at 2:00 p.m. on June 7, 2014. For the second year in a row, CCV will be graduating a record-high number of students. Six hundred and seventy-eight graduates will receive Associate of Arts, Associate of Science and Associate of Applied Science degrees.

Five hundred and eighty-seven Vermonters representing all 14 Vermont counties will be graduating along with students from nine other states and 15 countries worldwide. The youngest graduate is 17, the oldest, 67.

Governor Peter Shumlin, who will congratulate the 2014 graduates, will Join CCV President Joyce Judy in leading the processional of students. Also attending the ceremony will be Vermont State College's Chancellor Tim Donovan and members of the VSC Board of Trustees.

by John Herrick vtdigger.org The Vermont Air National Guard on Friday released what they say is a “roadmap” to mitigate the environmental impacts of the F-35 fighter jet when it arrives in Burlington in 2020. “The plan is an initial roadmap,” said Vermont Air National Guard Colonel TJ Jackman at a news conference Friday. “The plan is a living document and will likely be updated several times before the F-35s arrive here in 2020.”

by Anne Galloway vtdigger.org Several hundred Vermonters descended on the Statehouse steps on Thursday for the Vermont Workers Center’s annual May Day event.

The center, and a coalition of unions and advocacy groups for poor and disabled Vermonters, had a lot to celebrate.

Migrant Justice, a group that advocates for migrant dairy workers from Mexico and central America, marked the passage of a new law that requires all law enforcement agencies in Vermont to adopt bias-free policing policies.

Demonstrators rallied at the Statehouse on Thursday for May Day. Photo by John Herrick/VTDigger

by Laura Krantz vtdigger.org The House Friday concurred with a Senate bill that bans the sale and possession of powdered alcohol.

The ban on powdered alcohol, sold under the brand name Palcohol, is a last-minute addition to a broader alcohol bill, S.299, passed by the Senate earlier this week.

Rep. Tom Stevens, D-Waterbury, explained the powdered alcohol amendment as well as a new amendment about lottery ticket sales. The ban would be in effect until January 2015. By then the state should produce a report on risks associated with powdered alcohol, the bill says.

Powdered alcohol can be snorted, Stevens told House legislators.

“Just the concept of snorting powdered alcohol itself is really nothing that we want to move forward on,” Stevens said.

Verizon Wireless recently expanded fourth generation (4G) Long Term Evolution (LTE) network coverage in Wilmington, Vermont. 4G LTE empowers Verizon Wireless customers with compatible devices to surf the Web, post status updates and photos, and download files wirelessly at speeds up to 10 times faster than customers on 3G networks.

Governor Peter Shumlin was joined today by US Senator Bernie Sanders and state Transportation officials to announce the launch of “Fast Fix 14,” the largest pavement treatment program in the state’s history to repair a record 145 miles of Vermont state highways, in addition to the 230 miles of federally funded paving in the annual Capital Program.

This comes on the heels of a brutal winter maintenance season in which the Vermont Agency of Transportation (VTrans) responded to nearly 100 storm events. The Agency of Transportation expends on average $20.6 million on winter maintenance and uses 87,500 tons of salt on state highways. This past winter, maintenance expenditures were approximately $28.5 million and VTrans used 131,700 tons of salt, setting new records for expenditures and salt usage.

The US Department of Agriculture has awarded the Center for Agriculture and Food Systems (CAFS) at Vermont Law School and the Northeast Organic Farming Association of Vermont (NOFA-VT) a $500,000 grant to strengthen farmers’ market organizations through legal education.

by Laura Krantz vtdigger.org The Vermont House Thursday night revived an attempt to ban the use of handheld cell phones while driving, attaching it to a broad transportation bill legislators passed just after 8 p.m. The move is an attempt by House lawmakers to revive another bill on the same subject stalled in the Senate. Several days ago the bill appeared all but dead.

Rep. Bill Johnson, R/D-Canaan, introduced the cell phone amendment Thursday night. He entertained his tired colleagues with a series of cell-phone related jokes.

The cell phone bill originally got strong reception in the Senate, Johnson said.