Current News

Bill Orleans, president of PP&D Brochure Distribution is proud to announce he is now assuming the operations of Kingdom Brochure Distribution in the St. Johnsbury, Newport and Jay regions of Vermont.
Raymond Menard has owned and operated Kingdom Brochure Distribution for ten years. It was founded in 1994. They have over forty locations in the Northeast Kingdom, including Fairbanks Museum, The Eastside Restaurant, Jay Country Store, Newport City Motel, Maple Grove Farms, St. Johnsbury’s Comfort Inn, and The Great Vermont Corn Maze.
‘I’ve admired the Kingdom Brochure displays for years. Raymond has done a really great job promoting Northeast Kingdom businesses. I look forward to working in the community and continuing his efforts’ says Orleans.

Judy Tartaglia, CVMC president and CEO is pleased to announce that Waterbury Medical Associates will return to their facility at 130 South Main Street in Waterbury on Monday, January 23.
The temporary office on CVMC’s Berlin campus and the satellite office in the Thatcher Brook Inn will both be closed as of Monday, January 23.
‘We want to thank all of our patients who were so understanding and flexible with us during the aftermath of the flood’ noted Dr. Cove, Waterbury Medical Associates medical director. ‘We also want to thank everyone who was involved in cleaning up and restoring our practice building, the parking lot and grounds.’
Waterbury Medical Associates will be open regular hours, Monday to Thursday8:00 am - 8:00 pm, Friday: 8:00 am - 5:00 pm and Saturday: 8:00 am - 12 noon
(by appointment only). The phone number remains 802-244-7874.

Valentine’s Fundraiser to Benefit Vermont Family Network
Vermont Family Network (VFN) is partnering with several area restaurants to raise money for children with special needs. A portion of the proceeds from the fundraiser which takes place February 1 through February 14 will be donated directly to Vermont Family Network. Throughout the 14 day fundraiser, the following restaurants will be donating proceeds from specified dessert sales to the non-profit organization.
□ The Windjammer: Donating $2 for each piece of Carrot Cake sold
□ Leunig's: Donating 10% of any dessert item sold
□ Shanty on the Shore: Donating $2 of each piece of Shanty's Key Lime Pie sold
□ The Dutch Mill: Donating $2 of each piece of Strawberry Shortcake or Bread Pudding sold

Vermont Governor Peter Shumlin presented his FY 2013 budget to the Legislature today that he says will bridge a $51 million budget gap without the use of broad based taxes. State government managed to do the same last year with a much greater budget deficit looming. Some of the shortfall will be made up by consolidating state offices, thus making them more efficient. Commerce, Transportation and Natural Resources into the National Life building in Montpelier; moving Education into a single facility in Barre and consolidating Human Services into a new or significantly refurbished building in Waterbury.
Shumlin is also proposing that the Education Fund be increased $6 million to $282 million, as well as $8 million more for the University of Vermont and the State College system as part of his focus on the importance of education to the economy. To this end he proposes making the commissioner of education a secretary.

Liquid Measurement Systems (LMS) will participate as a member of Sikorsky Aircraft Corporation’s S-97RAIDERhelicopter supplier team that is building a next-generation helicopter for evaluation by the US military. LMS’ advanced, proven fuel measurement technologies will bring industry-leading reliability and accuracy to theRAIDERaircraft.
LMS is among more than 35 other supplier companies nationwide announced as preferred suppliers by Sikorsky on January 12, during the Association of the United States Army (AUSA) Aviation symposium at National Harbor, MD, near Washington, DC.

Vermont Governor Peter Shumlin presented the Irene Recovery Report January 8 and launched the Community Recovery Partnership.
Shumlin said the Community Recovery Partnership will target affected towns and regions with facilitated local and regional conversations and cross-agency state support, as well as supporting collaboration in long-term planning and implementation of recovery efforts.
‘We know that all recovery is local and the best role for the State is to support the towns. The first step is to talk with communities about both their current needs and their future plans, in order to better gauge the additional assistance they will need going forward,’ the governor said. ‘We need to harness the incredible community energy of the past two months and direct it toward rebuilding Vermont into a stronger, smarter and safer state.’

by Alan Panebaker vtdigger.orgIf an unprecedented merger between the state’s two largest utilities goes through, the state’s electric transmission utility is bound to see big changes.
Just how big those changes are is up to the Vermont Public Service Board ‘ a quasi-judicial entity that must approve the marriage between Green Mountain Power and Central Vermont Public Service.
At the Statehouse Wednesday, the major players had their say in the proposed merger and what happens with the Vermont Electric Power Company (VELCO) ‘ the utility that operates the more than 700 miles of electric transmission lines in the state. Elizabeth Miller, commissioner of the Department of Public Service, Sen. Vince Illuzzi, R/D-Essex-Orleans, who has questioned the impact of the merger on VELCO, and Kerrick Johnson, an executive with VELCO, testified before the House Commerce and Community Development Committee.

The Northeast Organic Farming Association of Vermont (NOFA-VT) Winter Conference has long been a key educational and inspirational gathering for Vermont’s farmers. The 30th annual conference, taking place February 10-12, 2012 at the University of Vermont in Burlington will be no exception ‘ with extra emphasis on the inspiration.
After a particularly challenging year, Vermont’s growers are looking forward to the opportunity to exchange ideas, learn new techniques, and create connections. The NOFA-VT Winter Conference brings together farmers, educators, researchers, and more to build knowledge and tackle hard questions ‘ like how to create a vibrant and resilient food system in the face of climate change and a struggling economy.

People’s United Bank recently awarded the American Precision Museum $2,000, which will fund, in part, the museum’s new exhibit, Arming the Union: Gunmakers in Windsor, Vermont. This exhibit along with a second one, Full Duty: The Civil War Collection of Howard Coffin, will mark the 150th anniversary of the Civil War.

The TD Charitable Foundation has awarded a grant for academic programming to the Brattleboro Retreat, the nonprofit psychiatric hospital announced this week. The $13,500 grant will underwrite the Inspired to Shine program, a theater-based academic program for children and youth enrolled in the Meadows EducationalCenter, a K-12 Vermont approved school located on the Brattleboro Retreat campus.
‘We are honored to receive support from TD Bank, through the TD Charitable Foundation, for this innovative program,’ said Brattleboro Retreat’s President and CEO, Robert Simpson. ‘Inspired to Shine combines substantive academic material with the exceptional clinical care that is the trademark of the Brattleboro Retreat.’

"If it bleeds, it leads," goes the cynical saying with television and newspaper editors. In other words, most news is bad news and the worst news gets the big story on the front page.
So one might expect the New York Times to contain, on average, more negative and unhappy types of words ‘ like "war," " funeral," "cancer," "murder" ‘ than positive, happy ones ‘ like "love," "peace" and "hero."
Or take Twitter. A popular image of what people tweet about may contain a lot of complaints about bad days, worse coffee, busted relationships and lousy sitcoms. Again, it might be reasonable to guess that a giant bag containing all the words from the world’s tweets ‘ on average ‘ would be more negative and unhappy than positive and happy.
But new research shows just the opposite.
"English, it turns out, is strongly biased toward being positive," said Peter Dodds, an applied mathematician at the University of Vermont.

Seeking to turn Vermont's raw agricultural output into value-added products, several Vermont lawmakers and advocates announced the introduction of the Vermont Working Lands Enterprise Investment bill on Wednesday morning in the Vermont State House.If passed into law it would set up a program funded by the state's General Fund that would distribute $3 million in the first year, eventually reaching $15 million a year.The program would seek to expand production of higher-end manufactured products, such as specialty cheese, furniture and cider, from the raw materials, like milk, hardwoods and the flagging apple industry. The raw materials, especially forestry products, often leave the state to be processed elsewhere.