Current News

(Feb 19, 2002) WILLISTON, VT -- Lightship Telecom, an integrated business communications provider to Vermont and New England, today announced a private equity investment of an additional $12.7 million by JPMorgan Partners and Megunticook Management. This new funding represents an initial investment from Megunticook Management and continued support from JPMorgan Partners (formerly JPMorgan Capital Partners) in the Bedford, NH-based company. This investment fully funds Lightship to profitability.

Occupational Health + Rehabilitation Inc (OH+R) is pleased to announce
that Dr. Jay Brown has joined our clinical team in Vermont as the full
time Medical Director. Dr. Brown is Board Certified in Occupational
Medicine and has over 20 years experience in Occupational Medicine, Urgent
Care and Family Practice. He designed a prototype industrial toxicology
database and was formerly the Medical Director of the Bloomington Hospital
Center for Occupational Health and Plant Physician for DaimlerChrysler.

Dr. Brown has affiliations with the International Commission on
Occupational Medicine and the American College of Occupational and
Environmental Medicine. He has been published in the OEM Report,
Occupational and Environmental Infectious Disease: a Practical Guide, and
The Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine.

The governor came through on a promise, the state came up with $13 million for the construction, and federal grants provided $2.85 million for training and equipment.
More than 400 people gathered January 14 in Springfield for the dedication of the Howard Dean Education Center. Along with the guest of honor were such dignitaries as Senator James Jeffords, who secured the federal funding; Bob Flint of the Springfield Chamber of Commerce; Pat Moulton of the Springfield Regional Development; new Education Commissioner Ray McNulty; Interim UVM President Edwin Colodny; and State Colleges Chancellor Robert Clarke.

With an expected drop in General Fund revenues of $50 million for the current fiscal year, and reduced expectations for next, Governor Dean laid out an austere state budget during his budget address to the Legislature January 22. In fact, it was so severe in cuts to education and Medicaid, that both Democrats and Republicans immediately were rejecting the plan.
Dean proposed an entire state budget of $2.1 billion. He proposed freezing state aid for K-12 education at the current $5,448 per student, instead of the budgeted $5,566. If enacted, that would cost Burlington about $600,000. Medicaid cuts for doctor services, prescription drugs, and, among other things, dental care would affect 15,000 people and save the state $27 million.
The Transportation Agency would lose $15.75 million, which could be offset by $10 million Dean proposes to raise by increasing motor vehicle fees.

Ending years of often bitter litigation, 14 Vermont utilities and the state’s independent power producers on January 29 filed a proposed settlement that would save Vermont consumers between $11 million and $45 million, according to a statement released by the utilities and the Vermont IPPs. The Public Service Board would have to approve the agreement.
The settlement would initially reduce power costs for the 14 utilities by $11 million to $15 million, or 5 to 8 percent annually, over the next 10 years. The parties also agreed to work together to seek legislative approval for securitization of remaining IPP costs, which would save an additional $20 million to $30 million for ratepayers.

The University of Vermont has chosen the most academically oriented of its finalists to become the school’s 25th president.
Daniel Fogel, the executive vice chancellor of Louisiana State University, was named on January 28 to head a state university that has had trouble not only with funding, but with admissions and, most glaringly, with leadership. Since Lattie Coor ruled the campus from 1976 to 1989, the head office has been in flux if not in turmoil.
Coor went to Arizona State University and was succeeded by George Davis. Davis suffered through the takeover of his office by students and a tent city on the green protesting the lack of diversity on campus. He quit after serving less than a year.

Sanders to run for re-election
By Timothy McQuiston
Bernie Sanders has announced that he will run for re-election to a fifth term in Congress, rather than run for the open governor’s seat.
Sanders said at a press conference on November 6 that though he indeed would want to be governor, the pressing needs in Washington, especially after the September 11 terrorist attacks, led him to seek re-election to “a job I love.”
Sanders has run for governor three times, the last in 1986 when he was still mayor of Burlington.
“It’s just not something I can undertake at this time,” Sanders said, thus ending speculation that he might run for the state’s top post. The congressman said he made the final decision the previous weekend.