Current News

Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Vermont (BCBSVT) announced today that it will cover the cost to administer the H1N1 vaccine for its members to help ensure that as many people as possible are vaccinated. BCBSVT members will be able to receive the H1N1 shot without paying a copayment, coinsurance, or deductible regardless of the plan benefit design. BCBSVT will pay the allowed administrative cost while the federal government will pay for the vaccine itself as it becomes available this fall. The spread of the H1N1 influenza virus can most effectively be controlled through vaccination, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The CDC has recommended that certain groups of the population receive the 2009 H1N1 vaccine first. Vaccination efforts will initially focus on five target groups including:

The University of Vermont has named Professor H.W. "Bud" Meyers director of the James M. Jeffords Center, a newly established center at UVM for public policy research. The mission of the center is to conduct rigorous, scientifically-based research and evaluation, education, training, and outreach that will support the public's efforts to address complex and challenging issues.
"This is a very exciting time for the University of Vermont," said Domenico Grasso, vice president for research. "As one of the nation's premier small public research universities, the Jeffords Center is a critical component to our future and success, and Bud Meyers, with his experience in public policy research, is an excellent fit."

Many Western Massachusetts and Vermont farmers are eligible to apply for loans from the Strolling of the Heifers Microloan Fund for New England Farmers. The deadline for the current round of applications is November 27, according to Dorothy Suput, director of The Carrot Project, of Somerville, MA. The Microloan Fund is a joint project of Strolling of the Heifers, of Brattleboro, VT, an organization that works to help sustain family farms, and The Carrot Project, which creates small farm financing solutions. Chittenden Bank is the microloan program's bank partner for Western New England.
Loan applications for amounts ranging from $1,000 to $10,000, for terms up to five years, will be accepted from prequalified applicants.

Eastview at Middlebury, a proposed new retirement community in Middlebury, Vermont, received affirmation from the Vermont Supreme Court upholding the Environmental Court’s ruling that their Act 250 land use permit should stand. Eastview at Middlebury (Eastview) plans to build a 101-unit residential retirement community on approximately 40 acres owned by Middlebury College. The project – master planned and designed by Gawron Turgeon Architects in Maine – will be located adjacent to Porter Medical Center and Helen Porter Healthcare & Rehabilitation Center.
"I'm thrilled for Eastview," noted Eastview President Rob Alberts. "We couldn't be working with a better team and this decision takes us a critical step closer to a spring 2010 ground breaking. Our market has persevered with us through a lengthy permit process. It's time to get the shovel in the ground."

More Vermonters can quickly e-mail photos, download music and surf the Internet now that FairPoint Communications has expanded access to high-speed Internet service in southern Vermont. The service was recently expanded to reach 2,000 more customers in the towns of Dummerston, Hartford, Stratton Mountain, West Dover (Timber Creek) and West Windsor.
In 2008, FairPoint increased access to high-speed Internet service from 65 to 76 percent of its Vermont lines exceeding its commitment to the state for 75 percent broadband availability.

By a vote of 76 to 22, the Senate today passed and sent to President Obama legislation to provide $350 million in emergency assistance for hard-pressed dairy farmers. The House last night approved the same $121 billion agriculture spending bill for the 2010 budget year. The bill includes $290 million for direct support to dairy farmers using guidelines to be determined by Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack under an expedited process. Another $60 million would be used to purchase cheese and other dairy products for food banks and nutrition programs, spurring prices for raw dairy products by drawing down supplies of the commodity.
“I am glad the bill was approved. My hope now is that Secretary Vilsack will move as rapidly as possible and get support out to dairy farmers who are in desperate need,” said Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.). Sanders sponsored the amendment in the Senate tacking the dairy funds onto the Department of Agriculture appropriations bill.

The Vermont Student Assistance Corporation (VSAC) has renewed its agreement with TIAA-CREF Tuition Financing, Inc. (TFI) to manage the Vermont Higher Education Investment Plan (VHEIP) — Vermont’s official 529 college savings plan — and is offering several enhancements to benefit Vermont families.
The number of VHEIP investment options has expanded from three to six to provide families a wider range of choices with varying strategies and degrees of risk. Investors may choose options that range from conservative to aggressive, selecting those that best fit their college savings objectives and investment philosophy.
In addition, program management fees have been restructured to help account owners put more of their investments toward their college savings goals. Of particular note, fees have been reduced for the Managed Allocation Option, a popular choice for many families because the underlying investments automatically adjust as the student beneficiary ages.

Congressman Peter Welch and Vermont country store owner Kathy Miller urged the House Committee on Financial Services Thursday to crack down on unfair credit card swipe fees paid by small businesses. At a hearing to debate Welch’s Credit Card Interchange Fees Act (HR 2382), Welch and Miller asked the committee to consider the plight of small retailers forced to pay close to two percent of every purchase in swipe fees to credit card companies and big banks. Miller, who owns the Elmore Store in Elmore, Vermont, said the unfair and abusive practices mean she and her husband Warren often lose money on small purchases.

The US Labor Department has issued a ruling that will result in an additional $1.45 million in back wages for federal contract workers in St Albans and Essex Junction. The ruling affects 237 contract workers employed by CSC at the Vermont Service Center of the US Department of Homeland Security US Citizenship and Immigration Services from November of 2005 to December of 2007. The settlement comes on the heels of last week s labor victory involving more than $1.5 million in back wages to 272 Vermont Service Center workers employed by SI International during the same time period. Altogether, more than 500 workers will receive more than $3 million in back wages as a result of the two settlements.

Lawrence Reed is the founder and for twenty years President of Michigan’s Mackinac Center for Public Policy, long considered the most influential free-market state think tank in the nation. His address October 15, part of the ongoing Sheraton Economic Series, will focus on how the ideas of individual liberty, private property, limited government and competitive free enterprise can be packaged to promote increased economic opportunity and prosperity for Vermonters.
Reed is now President of the Foundation for Economic Education in Irvington-on-Hudson NY. In the past twenty years, he has authored over 1,000 newspaper columns and articles, 200 radio commentaries, dozens of articles in magazines and journals in the U. S. and abroad, as well as five books. His articles have appeared in The Wall Street Journal, Christian Science Monitor, and USA Today, among many others. Reed’s most recent book is Striking the Root: Essays on Liberty.

Tasha Wallis, Executive Director of the Vermont Retail Association (VRA), announced today the second annual VRA Retailer of the Year Award.(ROYs). “The overwhelmingly positive response to last year’s ROYs made it clear that Vermont’s retail industry believed in the value of recognizing outstanding excellence among its members,” said Wallis. “In addition, retailers employ more Vermonters than any other business sector except health care, with more than 40,000 working in retail--16% of the entire work force. That makes it especially appropriate to highlight the ‘best of the best’ each year.”

For the third year in a row, the Sustainable Endowments Institute has ranked the University of Vermont among the top schools nationally for green practices and policies, giving the school an overall grade of A- in its just released College Sustainability Report Card. Also receiving an A-, the highest grade given by the institute, were twenty-six other schools including Harvard University, Middlebury College, Brown University, and the University of New Hampshire.
The institute graded the 300 U.S. and Canadian colleges and universities with the largest endowments (plus 32 others that applied) in nine categories and then awarded an overall grade. Its aim is to show a correlation between an institution’s green practices and its investment decisions.