Current News

by John Herrick vtdigger.org Vermont’s plan to improve Lake Champlain’s water quality does not go far enough to comply with federal regulations, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. The EPA released phosphorus pollution reduction targets for Lake Champlain at a meeting in Middlebury on Monday. It also ran a model of the phosphorus reduction plan Vermont submitted in May to determine whether it would meet federal standards.

Stephen Perkins, director of ecosystem protection for the EPA’s Boston office, pointed to an up-sloping trend line showing the amount of phosphorus in several segments of Lake Champlain.

Vermont's congressional delegation on Wednesday released a statement in order to let every Vermont dairy farmer know as quickly as possible that the deadline for taking advantage of a new dairy safety net program is December 5, just around the corner.

Mach7 Technologies, global provider of enterprise image management systems and services based in South Burlington, Vermont, has announced that one of the largest, radiologist owned, freestanding imaging practices in the country, Wake Radiology, has partnered with Mach7 to deploy Enterprise-wide Vendor Neutral Archive. “We are expanding our partnership with Mach7 because we value the flexibility this comprehensive solution offers,” stated Brian Appleby, clinical systems manager, Wake Radiology. “We initially approached this project in June 2013 with a focus on solving key image communication and workflow challenges we faced with our existing PACS implementation.

Keurig Green Mountain, Inc. (Keurig) (NASDAQ: GMCR), a leader in specialty coffee, coffee makers, teas and other beverages with its innovative brewing technology, today announced its business results for the 13 weeks and 52 weeks ended September 27, 2014. Shares slowly fell during the day, starting out at $157.21 and closing at $153.95. They slipped a bit more in after-hours trading. Shares have been trading near the 52-week high ($60.65 - $158.87).

"2014 was an exciting year that saw Keurig Green Mountain successfully execute against aggressive strategic goals and meet or exceed all of our financial targets," said Brian Kelley, Keurig's President and CEO. "The fourth quarter was a strong end to the year, with 17% Keurig beverage system revenue growth highlighted by strong portion pack growth across our brand portfolio."

Keurig Green Mountain, Inc, (NASDAQ: GMCR) today announced that Frances G Rathke will be leaving the Company in 2015 after 11 years of service. As part of the succession plan, the Company has engaged an executive search firm. To facilitate a successful transition, Rathke will continue to serve as Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer until a replacement is appointed, at which time, Rathke will serve in the new role of Strategic Advisor to the CEO reporting to Brian Kelley. She will stay in this latter role no later than September 26, 2015.

NASA has selected 11 university-led proposals for the study of innovative, early stage technologies that address high priority needs of America's space program. The University of Vermont is one of the grant awardees.

The selected proposals address unique, disruptive, or transformational technologies, including: advanced thermal protection materials modeling, computational materials, in situ utilization of asteroid materials, mobile robotic surface probe concepts for planetary exploration, and kinetic penetrators for icy planetary moons. Selection criteria required technology research that will provide dramatic improvements over existing capabilities for future science and human exploration missions.

Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) commented Thursday on news that the Department of Justice has recovered a record-breaking $24 billion in settlements and judgments under the False Claims Act and similar laws in 2014. Much of these penalties were paid by financial institutions, including Citibank and JPMorgan, for their roles in the mortgage and financial crisis that began in 2008. Senator Leahy is the author of the Fraud Enforcement Recovery Act, a law that strengthens tools and increase resources available to federal prosecutors to find, prosecute and jail those who commit financial fraud, which was signed into law in 2009.

Last Congress, the Judiciary Committee also overwhelmingly supported the bipartisan Fighting Fraud to Protect Taxpayers Act, a bill coauthored by Senator Leahy and Senator Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) that would responsibly reinvest a small portion of money collected from fraud cases back into fraud enforcement at no expense to taxpayers.

The Thanksgiving holiday marks the beginning of a busy season for motorists traveling through our great State. In an effort to encourage safe travel, for every trip, the Vermont Governor’s Highway Safety Program will be sponsoring a Holiday Click It or Ticket campaign. Motorists in Vermont can expect to see an increased number of law enforcement officers on the roadways enforcing the occupant protection laws. The Highway Safety office manages federal funds allocated for vehicle occupant protection enforcement. This year’s campaign will begin on Wednesday November 26th and continue through Sunday November 30.

Sugarbush Resort will open for the 2014/2015 winter season this Saturday, November 22. Skiing and riding will be available from 9 am – 4 pm. Available terrain is still to be determined, but the resort has announced that no downloading on chairlifts will be necessary.

Early season snowfall combined with Sugarbush’s new snowmaking improvements will allow the resort to open with top-to-bottom skiing and riding. The resort recently invested $1.8 million in snowmaking equipment including 351 new Snow Logic, HKD, and Ratnik snowguns. Sugarbush also invested over $1 million in mechanical and electrical upgrades to their lifts, over and above annual improvements.

In the fiscal year that ended June 30, 2014, Middlebury saw its endowment post a return on its investments of 16.5 percent. The annualized return over the past 10 years is 9.3 percent. Middlebury’s one-year return exceeds the preliminary 2014 median investment return for all college and university endowments of 15.8 percent. Thanks in part to the strong performance, the value of the endowment stood at $1.08 billion on July 1 — up $113 million from a year earlier. The value of the endowment is determined by investment gains and losses plus new gifts, minus the annual payout to help fund the operations of the institution.

RELATED: Duke's Laurie L Patton to become Middlebury’s 17th president

Vermont Information Technology Leaders (VITL) has released a Request for Proposals (RFP) to qualified contractors for research and writing services related to grant management. The areas of opportunities that the grant services will identify include health information exchange, clinical data warehousing and analytics, and health information technology. Proposals may be submitted for either one or both services, as the decision for each will be made independently.

“VITL is a growing and independent nonprofit that operates Vermont’s health information exchange, and assists health care providers with adoption and use of health information technology,” stated VITL President and CEO John K. Evans. “In order to fund continual development of this technology, we are seeking grants from private organizations, research institutes, and state and federal sources.”

by Hilary Niles vtdigger.org The Vermont Veterans’ Home remains underutilized and overstaffed, lawmakers learned last Wednesday. The facility is licensed for 171 patients, staffed to handle 150, but averages only 125 to 135 patients, state officials told the Legislature’s Joint Fiscal Committee. The Civil War-era estate in Bennington has served Vermont veterans for 130 years, and it was originally funded through a $10,000 state appropriation. The Vermont Veterans’ Home was financially self-sufficient until a few years ago when the state filled a gap in the facility’s operational funds. The state gave the home $2 million in support from the General Fund in each of the last fiscal years, according to Veterans’ Home administrator Melissa Jackson.