Current News

Related Company: FairPoint CommunicationsFairPoint Communications, Inc (Nasdaq: FRP), a leading provider of advanced communications in northern New England, has expanded broadband to 90 homes and businesses in Brattleboro, Putney and Westminster.
FairPoint’s new fiber-based, high-capacity network offers customers a better, faster way to communicate.
“Our next-generation network allows us to expand broadband service into areas with no high-speed Internet access and provide enhanced services across the state,” said Beth Fastiggi, FairPoint state president for Vermont. “Broadband availability opens the doors to the world for the residents and businesses in Vermont and is fundamental to the state’s future economic growth.”

President Obama signed into law on Tuesday Represenative Peter Welch’s (D-Vermont) bipartisan legislation to provide funding to hospitals serving disproportionately large numbers of seniors in rural communities. This new law will provide financial relief for one year to the five Vermont hospitals currently receiving federal funding through either the Medicare-Dependent Hospitals program or the Low-Volume Hospitals program. Funding for the two programs was set to expire last night at midnight.
"Vermont's rural hospitals have a strong reputation for providing high quality health care to seniors in the communities they serve," Congressman Welch said. "This legislation will make sure our hospitals serving large numbers of seniors are adequately funded.”

Related Company: Citizens BankRBS Citizens Financial Group, Inc, the parent of Citizens Bank and Charter One, has marked the start of National Financial Literacy Month by announcing enhancements to its financial literacy program, Citizens Helping Citizens Manage Money. This program gives consumers and small businesses the confidence and resources they need to budget, save, invest and be fiscally healthy. New components include a competitive application process for nonprofits to apply for funding, a social media initiative to celebrate “Money Mentors,” and an online financial literacy resource center dedicated to encouraging healthy financial habits.

Related Company: Northfield Savings BankNorthfield Savings Bank Board Chair Nancy Pope has announced Thomas Pelletier, President & CEO, will be leaving the Bank in 2015. Pope stated the Board has known for several years of Pelletier’s choice to depart the Bank in 2015 upon reaching the age of 60. Pope expressed the Board’s deep appreciation for Pelletier’s commitment to the Bank. She added NSB is well positioned for a change in leadership and the Board is confident the Bank’s performance will not be disrupted.
Pelletier became President & CEO in 1998. During his tenure, NSB has grown from $352 million to $754 million in assets and expanded its branch network into the Chittenden County market.

Governor Peter Shumlin today signed a new law that will expand renewable energy use in Vermont, support job creation, and help consumers reduce their energy bills. The so-called net metering law signed today allows more homeowners, businesses, farms and communities to install solar or other renewable technologies and meet their energy needs through local generation.
“Since 2011, we have quadrupled the amount of solar energy on the grid, with nearly 54 megawatts installed or pending today,” Shumlin said. “That push to expand renewable energy brings jobs to Vermont, and saves ratepayers money on transmission costs.”

Green Mountain College’s 2014 commencement speaker is the longest-serving member of the U.S. Senate, Vermont Senator Patrick Leahy. A longtime champion of environmental protection, constitutional rights, human rights and Vermont’s agricultural heritage, Leahy will address GMC graduates at the College’s 177th commencement ceremony on Saturday, May 17 at 10 a.m. Leahy will also receive an honorary doctor of laws degree from GMC.
Sen. Patrick Leahy. Photo courtesy of Green Mountain College
A native Vermonter who grew up in the shadow of the State House in Montpelier, Leahy graduated from Saint Michael's College and earned his law degree from Georgetown University Law Center. He served for eight years as State's Attorney in Chittenden County and was selected as one of three outstanding prosecutors in the United States in 1974.

by Tom Brown vtdigger.org CCTA late Monday authorized staff members to hire replacement bus drivers in order to end a two-week strike in Burlington. The company urged striking bus drivers to accept a new management proposal.
SEE RESOLUTION BELOW
The statement said that subject to its approval, CCTA staff was permitted “to secure temporary drivers until the negotiation is resolved.” It was unclear whether or how soon replacement drivers might be deployed.
In a decision released Monday evening, the board of commissioners of the Chittenden County Transportation Authority said: “The Board instructs staff to offer an invitation to the Union to come back to the table in order to restore negotiations and receive a new proposal from CCTA. The Board commits to having a Board member present with management’s team at future mediation sessions.”
Bus drivers unanimously rejected the latest management proposal earlier Monday.

by Morgan True, vtdigger.org Members of the House launched a flurry of amendments Friday aimed at holding the governor accountable for not delivering a proposal to finance the state’s planned universal health care program.
The amendments they tried to attach to a tax bill and the budget bill reflect growing frustration in the Legislature with the Shumlin administration’s decision to hold off on the specifics of health care reform until the next biennium.
Rep. Cynthia Browning, D-Arlington, attempted to include an amendment that would call on the Ways and Means Committee to subpoena the administration’s work on a financing plan for Green Mountain Care, as the program is known.
House Speaker Shap Smith, D-Morrisville, ruled Browning’s amendment was non-germane to the underlying bill. Representatives called for a vote on the speaker’s decision, which was upheld.
Rep. Cynthia Browning, D-Arlington. Photo by John Herrick/VTDigger

by Morgan True, vtdigger.org In this article, VTDigger assesses the impact of the Affordable Care Act in the six New England states. Our analysis is based on spending and enrollment data for federally qualified health plans.
The landmark federal health care law recently marked its fourth anniversary, and online insurance marketplaces were launched six months ago.

by Laura Krantz, vtdigger.org Senators on Friday worried that passing a bill about drugged driving will result in Vermonters being unnecessarily stopped, tested and perhaps charged with DUI-drugs.
Law enforcement officials said the bill, H.501, simply lowers the standard of proof for drugged driving convictions to align it with that for DUI-alcohol.
The House passed the bill earlier this month. Rep. Dave Potter, D-North Clarendon, is the sponsor.
Vermont law has two standards for charging someone with driving under the influence of alcohol. There is a single, higher standard for DUI-drugs.
The DUI-alcohol standard is a .08 or higher blood alcohol concentration (or .02 for driving a school bus), or that a driver is “impaired to the slightest degree,” a standard set by the courts.

To convict a person of drugged driving, however, a prosecutor must prove a person was “incapable of driving safely.”

by Morgan True vtdigger.org An outside review of the rollout of Vermont Health Connect shows that a number of external factors contributed to the exchange’s rocky start, but it also identifies areas in which the state could improve its handling of future large-scale information technology projects.
Gov. Peter Shumlin called for the independent review at the outset of the legislative session and later hired Maine-based consulting firm BerryDunn, which released its report late last week.
The report acknowledges that the federally imposed launch date, changing federal expectations and requirements, Vermont’s failed negotiations with the tech firm Oracle and poor cohesion within the team provided by CGI, the state’s eventual vendor for the project, all hindered its implementation.

by Morgan True vtdigger.org Many lawmakers and the Vermonters they represent have balked at the roughly $2 billion price tag for a universal health care system in Vermont.
Raising that amount of revenue is widely described as necessitating the largest tax increase in state history. The tradeoff would be that Vermonters would no longer pay private premiums for health insurance and access to coverage would be decoupled from employment.
However, several VTDigger readers have pointed out that the focus on the dollar amount of the tax increase is less meaningful if it’s not paired with the dollar amount Vermonters pay in premiums.
Earlier this year, the administration and the Joint Fiscal Office, which counsels the Legislature on financial matters, released a consensus estimate that Vermont would need to raise between $1.8 billion and $2.2 billion in taxes to pay for Green Mountain Care, as the program is known.