Current News

Senator Patrick Leahy (D-Vermont) Wednesday led a coalition of 17 senators and 24 members of the House in support of a proposed regulation by the Food and Drug Administration that will improve the labeling on generic drugs and secure equal treatment for consumers who take generics.

Madrid­-based BKOOL.com has chosen St Johnsbury, Vermont, to set up its first American sales and support office, tapping long time bike industry veteran and Peacham resident Craig Harrison as US brand manager.

Founded in 2009, BKOOL has created an internet-­connected fitness ecosystem, melding multi­player gaming technology, Ant+ advanced wireless data transmission, and extensive fitness research conducted at the University of Granada in Spain. The result is a system that allows for extensive possible applications, from indoor bike races using the BKOOL stationary bike trainer to customized training plans and virtual bike touring anywhere in the world, complete with real world on­course video or Google Earth simulations. Fitness junkies can even use BKOOL outdoors without the trainer, uploading their activities from their smartphones through the BKOOL web portal to track their riding and create simulations of their favorite rides.

Out of concern and respect for passengers, CCTA is advising the public that a potential strike by its drivers’ Union could interrupt service beginning Monday, March 10, 2014, it said in a statement issued Thursday.
Teamsters Local Number 597, the drivers’ Union at CCTA, has indicated to CCTA the potential for a labor action beginning Monday, and public comments by the union’s surrogates suggest it is planning for a strike, despite the fact that negotiations are planned to resume this Saturday.
If CCTA drivers do not report to work on Monday, March 10, no public transportation service provided by CCTA drivers will operate. The services cancelled would include all CCTA local routes, local commuter routes, and LINK Express routes, with the exception of the Montpelier LINK Express trips and 116 Commuter trips operated by non-Union drivers.

B Corp, the premier entity that measures the social and environmental practices of businesses nationwide and internationally, has certified Gardener's Supply of Burlington, Vermont, a leading online and catalog garden products retailer and wholesaler, as a Certified B Corporation.

by John Herrick vtdigger.org Green Mountain Power’s Kingdom Community Wind project got a vote of confidence from Lowell residents on Town Meeting Day. The 65-megawatt wind project in the Northeast Kingdom has been the center of the debate over industrial-scale power generation in the Vermont – criticized by some as damaging to the state’s natural ridgelines and supported by others as a step toward meeting the state’s renewable energy goals.
Voting 110-27 in favor of the project, Lowell voters backed the 21-turbine project for the second time – rejecting a town meeting article critical of the project’s impact on the surrounding environment.
Green Mountain Power, the state’s largest utility, said in a statement the vote represents lasting support for the project.

By a vote of 375-36, the US House of Representatives Wednesday afternoon approved energy efficiency legislation authored by Representative Peter Welch (D-Vermont). The Energy Efficiency Improvement Act, HR 2126, is the first significant bipartisan energy initiative approved by the House in the 113th Congress.
Representative David McKinley (R-WV) is the lead Republican cosponsor of Welch’s bill and a member, with Welch, of the powerful House Committee on Energy and Commerce. The bill is the product of months of negotiations between Welch, McKinley, Majority Leader Eric Cantor, Energy and Commerce Committee Chair Fred Upton and Ranking Democrat Henry Waxman.

by John Herrick vtdigger.org
More than a dozen towns voted to oppose any effort to pump oil from Canadian tar sands across the Northeast Kingdom at town meetings on Tuesday. The Portland-Montreal pipeline carries crude oil from South Portland, Maine, to Montreal. The company, Portland Pipe Line Corp., is considering a reversal of the flow to bring tar sands oil to ports in Maine.
Several towns along the pipeline’s right-of-way passed nonbinding resolutions Tuesday to oppose pumping tar sands through the state, joining 42 towns statewide, according to 350 Vermont, a branch of the grassroots environmental action group 350.org.

As the weather warms up and sap begins to flow from the Maple trees, Donnie Richards, of Meadowbrook Maple Syrup, knows how important it is to collect as much of the sweet stuff as he can to boil into syrup.

“The sugaring season lasts about six weeks, and maximum sap flow often happens within the first two to three hours of a thaw,” Richards said, “any leaks or damage in the vacuum pipeline system we use to deliver the sap to our sugarhouse means less sap is collected.”

The Center for Agriculture and Food Systems (CAFS) at Vermont Law has developed an online research site for use by anyone interested in sustainable food and agriculture, the most recent step in the center’s mission to provide legal and policy support to citizens who care about how food is grown and distributed in the U.S.

The Vermont Institute of Natural Science (VINS) has been awarded a $40,000 grant from the Sarah K de Coizart Article TENTH Perpetual Charitable Trust to support facilities improvements to their Wild Bird Hospital and raptor exhibits.
VINS said in a statement: "On behalf of the staff and tustees, VINS would like to thank the Sarah K de Coizart Article TENTH Perpetual Charitable Trust for their recognition of this important program, now in its 35th year. More information about VINS' avian rehabilitation program and the Wild Bird Hospital can be found on their website, www.vinsweb.org."

Public Meeting in Montpelier on Proposed Amendment to Posting Land Guidelines: The proposed rule follows recent statutory changes and seeks to make posting requirements clearer and more consistent.
Click here to view proposal...
Hunters, landowners, and anyone interested in commenting on the proposed amended rule should attend the public meeting. Attendees will be able to comment on the language for the amendment to the new posting rule and view signs that will be available for landowners' use.

What happens when you ask bus drivers of the largest provider of school transportation in North America to enhance fuel efficiency by 5 percent in a year? First Student drivers respond by saving 3.2 million gallons of fuel, enough to keep approximately 1,700 yellow buses running an entire year, more than enough to serve a city the size of Chicago.

First Student rolled out its DriveSMART initiative as part of the company’s larger efforts to cut down carbon emissions while simultaneously improving safety. “SMART” stands for Safe driving, Managing speeds, Avoiding rapid acceleration and hard braking, Reducing Idling and Talking to maintenance.