Current News

by tim

VERMONT BUTTER AND CHEESE COMPANY WINS 5 AWARDS AT WORLD CHEESE COMPETITION

Websterville, VT - October 2, 2008 - Vermont Butter and Cheese Company, wins 5 awards at the World Cheese Awards held in Dublin Ireland. The winners include Vermont Chevre, Vermont Fresh Crottin, Vermont Creamy Goat Cheese, Vermont Quark and our Signature Aged Cheese Bijou.

"The company is honored to receive world-wide recognition" said company co-founder Allison Hooper. "Winning awards for goat cheese across the ocean is a big deal. The competition can be fierce" The company's cheeses also won coveted awards earlier in the summer at the American Cheese Society's Competition in Chicago as well as the "Outstanding Product Line" at the Summer Fancy Food Show in New York.

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A Strategy for Economic Resurgence in the Northern Forest
Plan Released today by the Sustainable Economy Initiative
(September 8, 2008) The Sustainable Economy Initiative (SEI) today released Economic Resurgence in the Northern Forestthe first-ever, 4-state strategy for sustainable economic development in the Northern Forest. The Northern Forest comprises the northern reaches of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont and New York.
A 60-member steering committee, appointed in 2006 by the governors of the four states in collaboration with the Northern Forest Center and the North Country Council (joint project managers), brought wide-ranging expertise to the initiative.

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Grafton Village Cheese Co. wins a world cheese award and named among world's 100 great cheese

Grafton Cheese Wins its Second World Cheese Award and
Two of its Cheeses Named Wine Spectators 100 Great Cheeses in the World

Grafton, Vt. Grafton Village Cheese Company, makers of handcrafted Vermont cheddar, has received international recognition in the past few weeks, including winning a World Cheese Award bronze medal and a nod from Wine Spectator Magazine for having two of its cheddars named among the 100 Great Cheeses in the World.

World Cheese Award

Graftons Maple Smoked Cheddar won a bronze medal at the 2008 World Cheese Awards, the worlds largest international cheese competition. The competition was held in late September at the Royal Dublin Society Simonscourt in Ireland, which was judged by 80 cheese experts from around the world who evaluated more than 2,400 cheeses from the UK, Europe, South Africa, Australia and the U.S.

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South Burlington, Vt. (Oct. 8, 2008) The International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 300 and its Vermont Joint Apprenticeship and Training Committee today announced an initiative that will teach union members to install solar photovoltaic systems. The announcement was made at a mid-morning press conference before a crowd of elected officials, business leaders and IBEW members.

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Vermont's State Health Insurance Assistance Program Ranked First in the Nation
Waterbury, VT-Vermont's State Health Insurance Assistance Program (SHIP), which provides one-on-one counseling and information to educate consumers about Medicare and other health insurance programs, has been awarded the top ranking among the nation's 54 SHIP programs in terms of overall performance in 2008.
Vermont's SHIP received a 2008 Performance Plus Award of $32,628 from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) in recognition of their efforts; $25,235 for a #1 ranking nationwide, and $7,393 for a #1 ranking in their "cluster." There are six clusters nationwide. Other states in Vermont's cluster include: Maine, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, District of Columbia, Delaware, Hawaii, the Virgin Islands and Guam.

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CO-OP MEMBERS VOTE TO SUPPORT EXPANSION OF LANDFILL GENERATING PLANT

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Citizens Financial Group pays customers
for helping the environment

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Vermont Tech Employee Named Vermont's Outstanding Older Worker
RANDOLPH CENTER, Vt - A Vermont Technical College employee has been honored as Vermont's Outstanding Older Worker for 2008. Awarded to a single older employee in each of the 50 states, the Outstanding Older Worker program recognizes the important contributions of America's working seniors while providing numerous positive examples of productive aging.
This year's Vermont recipient, James J. McNichol of Essex Junction, is a Learning Partner at Vermont Technical College who works with IBM, helping the company capture and transfer knowledge to a global internal audience.

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BURLINGTON Champlain College's 2008-09 Leadership American Style lecture series opens Wednesday, Oct. 15 with a talk by historian, biographer and Champlain College professor Willard Sterne Randall

The talk, entitled Champlain Names His Lake, is based on three years of research and travel by Champlain College professors Randall and Dr. Nancy Nahra to track down Samuel de Champlain's hometown in France and the many ports of call he visited during his explorations.

The free, lecture is open to the public. It begins at 7:30 pm in Champlain College Alumni Auditorium.

The lake is so much a part of what we are here in our region, Nahra said. And through it, Samuel de Champlain's history collides with our own.

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Champlain Housing Trust Representatives Accept
World Habitat Award at United Nations Ceremony in Angola
BURLINGTON, VT - Two representatives from the Champlain Housing Trust accepted a World Habitat Award today at UN-HABITAT's global celebration of World Habitat Day in Luanda, Angola. The award, presented by the Building and Social Housing Foundation in conjunction with the UN agency, recognizes the Housing Trust's permanently affordable housing programs as innovative, sustainable and transferable.

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The Kiwanis Club of St. Johnsbury announced today that it has adopting Operation Holiday Cheer to provide a holiday gift to the children of military families in Vermont.

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Danforth Pewter Named Addison County's Business of the Year
Middlebury, Vermont - October 6, 2008 - The Addison County Chamber of Commerce has announced that Danforth Pewter was the recipient of its Business of the Year award which was presented at the Chamber's Annual Meeting last month. Recipients for the Chamber's Citizen of the Year, Community Achievement and President's Awards were also named at the function held in Middlebury's newly renovated Town Hall Theater.