Current News
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by Anne Galloway vtdigger.org Thirty-four municipalities out of 246 towns rejected school budgets on Town Meeting Day, according to the Vermont School Boards Association. Two hundred nine passed budgets, 12 have not reported results and 19 towns will hold budget votes in the next several weeks.
Typically, about a dozen or so school budgets go down each year. The last time so many budgets were defeated in Vermont was in 2003, just before the Vermont Legislature passed Act 68, a funding reform law that eliminated the spending pool from so-called “gold towns,” the state’s wealthiest communities.
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Champlain College in Burlington, Vermont, has received a record number of applications for the Fall of 2014 - 5,571, up nearly 10 percent over last year, and about 1,000 more applications than in 2012.
The good news comes as admissions counselors at Champlain College are working to review the regular decision applications whose deadline was Feb. 1. The numbers of Early Decision I and II applications, due in mid-November and mid-January are also up over 2013 figures. All acceptances offered under Champlain's early decision program are considered binding, meaning students who apply are making Champlain their first choice. So far, nearly a third of the expected Class of 2018, some 187 early-decision students, plan to attend Champlain in the fall.
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Green Mountain Coffee Roasters, Inc (NASDAQ: GMCR), a leader in specialty coffee and coffee makers with its Keurig brewing technology, today announced it will Webcast the formal proceedings of its 2014 Annual Meeting of Stockholders to be held Thursday, March 6, 2014, at 10 am ET.
The meeting will be webcast live and archived via a link from the events portion of the Investor Relations section of the Company's website: http://investor.gmcr.com/events.cfm.
About Green Mountain Coffee Roasters, Inc.
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Blake Hill Preserves, in Grafton, Vermont, continues to break records. Hot on the heels of an incredible win of three Good Food Awards in San Francisco, Blake Hill Preserves sets a precedent as the first-ever US producer to win gold at the 9th World’s Original Marmalade Awards held at Dalemain Mansion in England. The Orange, Lime & Ginger and Orange & Ten Year Single Malt Whisky Marmalades received Gold and the Grapefruit & Lemon Marmalade received Silver. The Awards judges held a blind taste test of over 2,000 entries to identify the world’s best marmalades and Blake Hill is one of the top medal scorers.
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Blessed with abundant snowfall and a strong base due to Vermont’s 80 percent snowmaking capacity, Vermont ski and snowboard resorts enjoyed a record breaking February holiday period, according to Ski Vermont. The weekend kicked off on Friday, February 14, with a Valentine’s Day storm dropping up to two feet of snow over the Green Mountains and continued for nearly 2 weeks through Presidents’ Day and staggering Northeast school vacation periods. Vermont resorts reported both strong ticket sales and lodging numbers for the entire holiday period and are seeing a continued positive effect with late season lodging reservations.
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by Hilary Niles vtdigger.org
Three recently published national reports offer three different takes on the federal EB-5 Immigrant Investor program: glowing, constructive and critical. The EB-5 program offers green cards to immigrants and their immediate family members who create American jobs by investing in US business. In rural areas like Vermont, or places with high unemployment, the investments cost $500,000 each. Elsewhere the cost is $1 million per investment.
Bill Stenger stands before the under-construction Stateside Hotel at Jay Peak in September. File photo by Hilary Niles/VTDigger
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The towns of Cornwall and Shoreham voted against Vermont Gas Systems’ pipeline extension Monday in a nonbinding town meeting ballot – marking definitive local opposition to the second phase of the company’s proposed southern expansion though Addison County, town officials say.
Residents of Cornwall voted 126-16 and Shoreham voted 66-38 against the pipeline. The second phase of the company’s pipeline extension would connect gas lines in Middlebury to the International Paper mill in Ticonderoga, N.Y., passing through the two Vermont towns and under Lake Champlain. The 26-mile extension is estimated to cost $70 million.
The vote will not alter the company’s plans, Vermont Gas’ spokesman Steve Wark said Tuesday.
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As the Vermont Legislature ponders a bill to require paid sick leaves to all employees, a new analysis by the Institute for Women's Policy Research (IWPR) finds that access to paid sick days is unequally distributed across the US population, with substantial differences by race/ethnicity, occupation, earnings, and employment status.
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Comcast Corporation Executive Vice President David L Cohen has announced the company will continue Internet Essentials indefinitely — beyond its initial three-year commitment. Internet Essentials is Comcast’s acclaimed national broadband adoption program for low-income families. The company also announced more than $1 million in grants to dozens of non-profit organizations across the country to create Internet Essentials Learning Zones. The grants are part of a multi-faceted Gold Medal Recognition Program for communities that have done the most to help close the digital divide. In addition to the grants, Internet Essentials-eligible families in the Gold Medal-recognized communities who are not currently customers can receive six months of complimentary Internet service if they apply and are approved for the program by March 18th, 2014. (See below for the list of communities.)
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by John Herrick vtdigger.org
Lawmakers are considering a bill that would make downtown development easier and urban sprawl more difficult. The bill, H.823, is designed to encourage growth in downtown centers by exempting certain development from Act 250 review, the state’s land use and development permitting process.
Rep. Tony Klein, D-East Montpelier, who chairs the Natural Resources and Energy Committee, says some developers are driven outside city limits where it is faster and cheaper to move projects forward.
The Shumlin administration supports a statutory mechanism that would foster the vitality of tight-knit downtowns and discourage strip development. To that end, state officials proposed a provision that would ease the Act 250 permitting process for developers seeking to build in the state’s designated downtowns and growth centers.
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by Hilary Niles vtdigger.org
A draft environmental assessment for proposed development at the Newport State Airport was released in February. The Agency of Transportation will hold a public hearing on March 20 about the development and environmental impact mitigation plans.
Newport State Airport. File photo by Hilary Niles/VTDigger
In addition to the light plane manufacturing facility and possible flight school slated for the airport, key developments include:
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FairPoint Communications, Inc (Nasdaq: FRP), the largest telecommunications provider in Vermont, announced Tuesday its financial results for the fourth quarter and full year ended December 31, 2013. Revenue was down from the third quarter and for the year-to-date. The annual loss decreased in 2013 and fourth quarter 2013 showed a positive $6.1 million, compared to losses in both the third quarter and in the fourth quarter of 2012. Trading was modestly heavy during the day before the report was released with a small gain. Shares opened at $13.74 and were up $0.30 or 2.19 percent for the day. The 52-week range is $6.77 - $14.16. Trading was light after-hours.