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AccuWeather reports Tuesday afternoon that colder air will invade the storm in the Northeast bringing heavy snow in upstate New York and a change to snow in other parts of the mid-Atlantic and New England Wednesday into Thursday. A surge of warmer air and heavy rain will continue to push northward through New England and into New Brunswick and Nova Scotia into Wednesday.

Meanwhile, the slow movement of the storm will allow cold air to catch up with lingering moisture farther to the southwest in the Northeastern states Wednesdayinto Thursday.

Burlington College has executed a purchase and sale agreement with developer Eric Farrell today at its Board of Trustees meeting by unanimous vote. The deal includes an increase to two acres of public green space and another $150,000 to the school. The purchase and sale agreement mirrors the Memorandum of Understanding with one major difference. Of the 33 acres of property, the College will retain six acres and Farrell will purchase the balance.

Due to the ongoing cash flow needs of the College, the agreement now calls for a non-refundable upfront payment of $150,000 on December 19th, assuming conditions of the agreement are met. This means that $150,000 will be deducted from the sale price of $7,650,000 upon closing, scheduled for January 20, 2015. The Memorandum of Understanding had a sale price of $7,500,000.

The University of Vermont Medical Center (formerly Fletcher Allen Health Care) is again being counted as a top performer among leading academic medical centers in the 2014 University HealthSystem Consortium (UHC) Quality and Accountability Study, nationally recognized as the most important analysis of its kind. UHC is an alliance of nearly all of the academic medical centers in the United States. Excellent results in infection prevention, low rates of complications and readmissions, and overall efficiency of care contributed to the high ranking.

Dr John Brumsted. VBM file photo.

by Morgan True vtdigger.org Members of Vermont’s Health Care Is a Human Right campaign are calling on Gov. Peter Shumlin to “equitably” finance the state’s planned universal health care program. Advocates say the Shumlin administration’s single payer program should be supported by a progressive tax structure that doesn’t shift costs from large businesses to smaller ones and individuals.

“Green Mountain Care should be funded by a mix of income taxes on earned and unearned income, wealth taxes and a graduated payroll tax for businesses with exemptions for the smallest of businesses,” said James Haslam, executive director of the Vermont Workers Center, at a news conference Monday.

TDI New England announced Monday that the company has filed a state permit application seeking approval of its proposed New England Clean Power Link project. The application states that the project, once completed, will provide $136 million in ratepayer relief for Vermonters as part of a total public benefits package of $298 million. Over the 40-year life of the project, TDI estimates the project will create approximately $1.5 billion total economic benefits to the State and its residents.

GMP's Mary Powell received a national award last night. Powell, president and CEO of Vermont's largest electric utility, was just named Power-Gen 2014 Woman of the Year at a ceremony in Florida. Judges selected Powell because of how she has advanced the power generation industry, the positive impact she has made on her community, and her leadership.

By a margin of 46 to 26, Saint Michael’s College adjunct faculty on December 1 voted to unionize through the Service Employees International Union (SEIU). In November, adjunct professors at Burlington and Champlain colleges voted to join the SEIU.

All 101 adjuncts teaching this fall semester at Saint Michael’s were eligible to vote, meaning about three-fourths of those eligible actually voted.

Dean of the College Jeffrey Ayres said that throughout the process to unionize the College promoted a neutral stance and provided information to adjuncts to be sure they had all the details needed for the vote. "The College has encouraged participation in the vote by all eligible adjuncts,” Ayres said. “Adjuncts are an important part of the College in providing an excellent educational experience."

Republican gubernatorial candidate Scott Milne has chosen to continue the race for governor by asking the Legislature to decide the election when it convenes in January. Governor Peter Shumlin received the most votes in the November election, but not a majority. The Vermont Constitution states that in such cases where no candidate receives a majority that a simple majority of the Legislature will decide. Each representative and senator gets one vote. In modern Vermont politics, the runner up in a plurality election has not challenged the outcome of the election in the Legislature. Shumlin received 89,509 votes or 46.53 percent of the vote; Milne received 87,075 votes or 45.27 percent. Milne could have but declined to ask for a recount.

The Northeast Organic Farming Association of Vermont (NOFA Vermont) has been awarded a two-year $90,000 grant from Newman’s Own Foundation, the independent foundation created by the late actor and philanthropist, Paul Newman. The award to NOFA Vermont was made by Newman’s Own Foundation as part of its $10 million commitment over three years to improve fresh food access and nutrition education for underserved communities.

The grant to NOFA Vermont will be used to support our statewide food security programs that increase access to local, fresh and nutritious foods for limited-income Vermonters while supporting viable farms.

A new study released in the Annals of Internal Medicine and led by Brian Sprague, PhD, at the University of Vermont Cancer Center, concludes that supplemental ultrasound screening for women with dense breasts would substantially increase costs with little improvement in overall outcomes. The research provides needed evidence on the benefits and harms of breast cancer screening options for women with dense breasts, and informs the discussion of national legislation that would mandate the disclosure of breast density information to women.

by John McClaughry Governor Shumlin and the legislative leadership have recently discovered that Vermonters are really, really unhappy about ever rising school property taxes. In a commentary published December 3, the governor observed quite correctly, “We all know that rising property taxes to fund education have put an unsustainable burden on Vermonters. Despite a steady decline in school enrollment over the last two decades, property tax payers have not seen a decline in their property taxes; they’ve seen the opposite.”

He didn’t think to mention that education property taxes do not just “rise”, like cream to the top of a milk pail. Somebody has to “rise” them, and the signature on the bills that increased the homestead property tax rate from $.89 to $.98 per $100 of fair market value – and will soon increase it to $1.00 – is and will be Peter Shumlin’s.

Green Mountain Power is preparing for the upcoming storm to ensure timely restoration of power by assembling internal teams and lining up additional outside crews to supplement GMP’s workforce. The storm is predicted to begin in southern Vermont early Tuesday and spread across the state during the day. Wet, heavy snow could cause a significant number of outages by bringing down trees and branches onto the power lines. Crews will be available in all parts of the state to begin to restore outages as they occur.

“This storm has the potential to impact customers in a widespread area across the state, so we are really beefing up the number of people who can respond to outages,” said GMP spokesperson Dorothy Schnure. “In addition to 120 GMP lineworkers, we’ve already lined up at least 120 additional lineworkers and have access to another 160 if we need them.”

GMP is encouraging Vermonters to stay safe and report downed lines.