Current News

Efficiency Vermont, in partnership with Green Mountain Power (GMP) and cloud software provider Opower, today announced plans to deploy a first-of-its-kind residential peak energy savings pilot program to customers in GMP service territory. The program is designed to empower customers save energy and money during hot summer days when the customers’ demand for and the utility’s cost for energy is particularly high. Reducing summer peak demand helps reduce the need for additional power from the most costly and polluting power plants and eases the burden on Vermont’s electricity system.

Vermont PBS, Vermont’s statewide public television network, will christen the launch of its second HD channel, Vermont PBS Plus, with the broadcast premiere of the epic new film,Freedom & Unity: The Vermont Movie July 19. Several years in the making, The Vermont Movie is a six-part, 8-hour compilation of the work of four dozen Vermont filmmakers. It explores the state’s iconoclastic spirit through a thematic lens, rather than a chronological history. In so doing, it offers an intriguing new approach to telling Vermont’s story.

The film premieres on Vermont PBS Plus over six consecutive nights, Monday, July 14 through Saturday, July 19, at 8 p.m. Each nightly installment will be followed by a short interview segment with several of the filmmakers.

A Champlain College proposal to use advanced networks and gigabit internet connections to enhance public safety and speed up cyber forensic investigations earned the top public safety award at the 2014 US Ignite Application Summit in Silicon Valley. The plan, entitled “Cyber Security as a Service,” would utilize gigabit access available in Burlington Vermont and the resources of the BTV Ignite / U.S. Ignite initiative to effectively expedite digital forensic processes and enhance public safety.

Jonathan Rajewski, assistant professor of Digital Forensics at Champlain College, and director of the Leahy Center for Digital Investigation (LCDI), presented the plan at the three-day conference in Sunnydale, CA, and outlined its potential benefits.

Consistent with other demographic information, the US Census has released a report indicating that Vermont trends below the US average in several key birth metrics. Vermont has been one of the slowest growing states by population in the nation and was the only state to lose population between 2011 and 2012. The Census report describes the fertility patterns of women in the United States, patterns which have changed sig­nificantly over time. The average number of children ever born has dropped from more than three children per woman in 1976 to about two children per woman in 2012. Recent years have also seen drops in adolescent childbearing and increases in non-marital births.

Leaders of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) System Council T-9 and Communications Workers of America (CWA) Local 1400 have scheduled a strike authorization vote for July 11-13 to take place across the FairPoint service area, according to a statement released Tuesday. The two unions represent nearly 2,000 employees of FairPoint Communications across Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont. Their contracts expire on August 2 and union representatives have been in negotiations with management since April 25.

“The doctor will see you now” has a whole new meaning in Bennington. Southwestern Vermont Medical Center is now offering a high-tech telemedicine program that allows patients to be seen by Dartmouth-Hitchcock (D-H) specialists without having to drive two hours to Lebanon, NH. Thanks to a partnership with the D-H Center for Telehealth, several SVMC rheumatology patients are now receiving care via telemedicine, using real-time video for their medical appointments. During the inaugural round of virtual appointments in late June, D-H rheumatologist Daniel Albert, MD, had video consults with more than a dozen SVMC patients.

For patients whose conditions are more complex, Albert makes twice-monthly visits to SVMC to see patients in person.

“I think this hybrid model of me going to Bennington intermittently and doing telemedicine intermittently is absolutely the right model,” says Albert.

by Morgan True vtdigger.org Vermont’s second largest hospital says its rates are likely to grow by 8.4 percent next fiscal year, because payments from government programs that cover health care services aren’t keeping up with inflation.In a letter to the 1,100 employees of Rutland Regional Medical Center, CEO Tom Huebner said the hospital board recently approved a fiscal year 2015 budget, which includes a 2.9 percent increase in spending. “Even with our costs only going up 2.9 percent, our rate – our prices – will have to go up 8.4 percent,” Huebner wrote. “Medicare and Medicaid are only giving us about a 1 percent increase, so we have to make up for this by charging our commercial payers (Blue Cross, MVP, etc.) more.”

by Morgan True vtdigger.org There are thousands of inconsistencies in the information Vermonters provided to enroll in health insurance through the state exchange, according to a federal audit. That could mean hundreds, or even thousands, of Vermonters who received tax credits for their premiums or subsidies to lower their out-of-pocket costs could find they owe money at tax time. A report from the Inspector General of the federal Health and Human Services Department released Tuesday found that the federal and state exchanges failed to properly check applicants’ eligibility for coverage and subsidies. Federal investigators found exchanges were mostly unable to reconcile inconsistencies between the information people provided and government data on income, citizenship and other criteria.

Burlington College has been put on probation for two years because of finances. According to a statement from the college, it was its move from a small property in the Old North End to a sprawling campus along North Avenue which has stretched its finances. In 2011, Burlington College moved from the 16,000-square-foot Colodny building up North Avenue to its current location.

NASA is awarding $11.25 million to 15 colleges and universities across the United States, including the University of Vermont, to conduct basic research and technology development in areas including climate change, nanotechnology, astrophysics, aviation and other areas relevant to the agency's missions. The awards, each valued at $750,000, are made through NASA's Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR).

One proposal was selected from each of the following universities and organizations:

by John McClaughry Three June decisions of the US Supreme Court carry important messages to America, and one in particular is likely to have an impact in Vermont. The decision that attracted the most national attention came in a case (Burwell vs. Hobby Lobby) defining religious freedom. In 1993 Congress passed the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (Vermont Sens. Leahy and Jeffords voted Yes.) It provided that when a government action raised a question of religious liberty, the government must present a “compelling interest”, and that interest must be furthered by the “least restrictive means”.

ObamaCare requires employer health insurance must cover “essential benefits”, or else the employer will be taxed or fined. The Obama administration – not Congress – decided that those benefits must include twenty different varieties of contraception as free “preventive care.”

VBT Bicycling and Walking Vacations has once again been ranked among the World’s Best Tour Operators in Travel + Leisure’s readers’ poll for 2014. This is the fifth consecutive year that the company has received this award, jumping up two spots to the second highest spot in its category. “This award is due to the valued customers who continue to book cycling and walking vacations with VBT and spread the word about our large travel portfolio,” says VBT President, Gregg Marston. “We thank each and every voter for including VBT in their submission, along with the worldwide VBT family who work hard to provide excellent active travel experiences.”