Current News

The University of Vermont raised nearly $8 million in scholarship support from alumni and other private donors last year, and Thursday night was the moment for grateful students to say “thanks.”

Among the scholarship recipients attending was Kane Tobin, a junior enrolled in the School of Business Administration. Tobin is a 28-year-old U.S. Army veteran who served two deployments in Afghanistan as a helicopter crew chief and door gunner immediately following high school in Hyannis, Mass. College is a personal dream he wanted to pursue after fulfilling what he felt was a debt to his country, he said.

“Scholarship support speaks volumes about the university and the importance that the university places on supporting its student body,” Tobin said.

by Laura Krantz vtdigger.org Lawmakers on Thursday resurrected a push to study whether legalizing and taxing marijuana would make money for the state. Some lawmakers were upset last month when House Speaker Shap Smith quashed an amendment calling for the study when members tried to attach it to the miscellaneous tax bill.

by Hilary Niles vtdigger.org Lawmakers are reviewing at least six approaches to increasing the state’s minimum wage, five weeks after Governor Peter Shumlin embraced President Barack Obama’s plan to move to $10.10 per hour by 2017.

The state minimum wage is $8.73 per hour, compared to the federal rate of $7.25 per hour. Vermont nudges up the minimum hourly wage each year in proportion to changes in the Consumer Price Index.

Sen. Kevin Mullin, R-Rutland, unveiled his own strategy Thursday morning. The chair of the Senate Committee on Economic Development, Housing and General Affairs wants to gradually bump it up to $10.47 per hour by 2018, in roughly 45-cent increments. After that, the wage would continue to increase with the cost of living.

Vermont State Police One lane of I-89 in Highgate has been re-opened. Today at approximately 12:12 pm, the Vermont State Police received a 911 call regarding a plane crash on Interstate 89 in the northbound lane, near mile marker 125, north of exit 21 in the town of Highgate. Initial reports indicated the single passenger plane was fully engulfed in flames and someone parachuted out prior to crashing.

According to WCAX-TV: "Northbound traffic on I-89 was stopped at Exit 21 in Swanton all the way to the Canadian border for nearly an hour before one lane reopened. The second lane remained closed until about 3 p.m. as crews work to remove the burned-out wreckage of the single-passenger plane from the highway."

1:22 pm: Emergency responders remain on scene of today's aircraft crash near mile marker 125, just north of Exit 21, Interstate 89.

by Anne Galloway vtdigger.org Moody’s Investors Service, an investment assessment services company, downgraded Vermont Law School’s $10.3 million in 2011 revenue bonds this week. Moody’s lowered its rating for the school’s bonds from Baa2 to Ba1 this week.

The downgrade drops Vermont Law School by two rating categories. (See chart at end of article.)

TD Bank holds the bonds, which were issued by the Vermont Educational and Health Buildings Finance Agency.

The campus of Vermont Law School in South Royalton. Photo by Roger Crowley/for VTDigger

Vermont Business Magazine Xanterra Parks & Resorts has agreed to acquire international walking tour operator CW Adventures, expanding further the company’s fast-growing portfolio of active travel offerings. The transaction is expected to be completed in May 2014.

Formerly known as Country Walkers and based in Waterbury, Vermont, 35-year-old CW Adventures provides more than 130 active, immersive travel vacations on five continents. Trips include guided and self-guided walking and biking adventures, safaris, family adventures and private vacations.

Vermont Business Magazine Vermont’s unemployment rate is now second lowest in the nation, behind only North Dakota (2.6 percent). Driven by an increase in jobs and a steep decline in the number of unemployed, Vermont's unemployment rate fell again in March to 3.4 percent, a level not seen since well before the national economy collapsed in 2008. This is the lowest Vermont seasonally adjusted unemployment rate since June 2005. The March rate represents a decrease of three-tenths of a percent from the February rate of 3.7 percent. The comparative national average was 6.7 percent, which was unchanged from February (the US rate has not been as low as 3.4 percent since May 1969). March 2014 data represents the sixth consecutive reported monthly decrease to the statewide unemployment rate in Vermont.

by John Herrick vtdigger.org Global technology giant IBM has joined the opposition to a Vermont proposal to regulate chemicals in children’s products that the state’s health department considers harmful.

Big Blue was part of a chorus of major industries against the plan, a list that includes the Toy Industry Association, the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers, Burton Snowboards, Keurig Green Mountain and Wal-Mart.

“If you’re going to be considering potentially taking away somebody’s livelihood, we need to be sure there’s an actual harm, an actual exposure and a risk from those products,” Janet Doyle, a representative for IBM, told the Vermont Fish and Wildlife Committee.

Attorney General General Ashley Martin of St Albans, Vermont, was convicted on April 17, 2014, in Vermont District Court for Windsor County, of five misdemeanor counts of False Pretenses. The convictions stemmed from Martin having forged signatures on timesheets she submitted for respite care not actually provided to a vulnerable adult enrolled in Vermont’s Developmental Disability Services program.

Martin was sentenced to one to three years in jail, all suspended, and placed on three years of probation subject to standard conditions and special conditions, including 60 hours of community service and a prohibition that she not work as a home-based care provider or employer-of-record under a Medicaid waiver program. Martin was also ordered to pay $11,000 in restitution to the Vermont Medicaid program.

The case was investigated and prosecuted by the Medicaid Fraud and Residential Abuse Unit within the Vermont Attorney General’s Office.

Vermont Business Magazine The Vermont Attorney General and 12 other state attorneys general sent a letter today to the leaders of the U.S. House of Representatives Subcommittee on Environment and the Economy objecting to a provision in proposed legislation amending the federal Toxic Substances Control Act of 1976 (TSCA) that would strip states of the power to protect their citizens and the environment from dangerous chemicals.

The proposed legislation, entitled the “Chemicals in Commerce Act,” includes language that would eliminate the authority that states now have to reduce the risks posed by toxic chemicals. Currently, both federal and state governments regulate such chemicals, and Vermont has already done so with respect to mercury, lead, phthalates, bisphenol A, the gasoline additive MTBE, and various classes of flame retardants.

by Walter Judge, Jr Vermont Attorney General William Sorrell has won a major victory in his groundbreaking effort to use state law to crack down on “patent trolls.” In State of Vermont v. MPHJ, LLC, the Vermont federal court has rejected the preliminary bid of MPHJ, an alleged “patent troll,” to avoid facing possible liability under Vermont consumer protection law. Vermont’s federal judge William Sessions granted the State’s motion to remand the lawsuit back to Vermont state court for further handling, and refused to consider MPHJ’s motion to dismiss the case altogether. That is, the Court agreed with Vermont’s Attorney General that the State’s case against MPHJ does not require a resolution of federal patent issues and therefore belongs in Vermont’s state court, not federal court.

Vermont Business Magazine Governor Peter Shumlin today signed new legislation passed in the State Legislature updating Vermont’s captive law, amending the reciprocal insurer section and creating a new “dormant” status for captives. The dormant status establishes an efficient mechanism for a captive that has ceased insurance operations to cost-effectively retain its license should it elect to resume operations in the future. The law takes effect immediately.