Current News
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by Morgan True vtdigger.org
Vermont Republicans are questioning the Shumlin administration’s decision to hire a special lobbyist to push its health care reform agenda. In an email blast on Wednesday, the GOP attacked the man tapped for the job.
Former House Majority Whip Floyd Nease has reemerged at the Statehouse, and it was reported last week that he’s back to marshal support among his former colleagues for single-payer health care.
Republicans are curious why Shumlin needs additional help to sell a Democratic super-majority on his plans to transition the state to a single-payer health care system, according to a statement released Tuesday.
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Vermont Business Magazine Susan L Donegan, commissioner of the Vermont Department of Financial Regulation, announced today that the state has received more than $270,000 as the result of a settlement reached last week into the conduct of a Rutland area securities broker. The investigation determined that George “Rip” Lincoln IV of Shrewsbury had made overly risky recommendations to many clients and then manipulated their financial records to mislead his supervisors.
Between 2008 and 2012, Lincoln led his supervisors to believe that some speculative investments were appropriate for his clients even though he was aware of his clients’ need for more conservative investments and/or limited investable assets. As a result, many Vermonters’ portfolios contained unsuitable investments.
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Louise McCarren, a Charlotte resident with extensive experience in public service and private business, has been elected by the board as the chair of Campaign for Vermont (CFV).
“I’m very excited to have someone of Louise’s talent and experience to lead CFV as we continue to grow,” said Bruce Lisman, co-founder of CFV, Vermont’s largest grassroots public advocacy organization. “I am confident that Louise and the entire Board will successfully lead CFV to achieve significant progress that will surely benefit Vermonters for years to come.”
McCarren has held numerous leadership positions throughout her career, including chair of the Vermont Public Service Board, commissioner of the Vermont Department of Public Service, Vermont state president for Verizon, and, most recently, CEO of the Western Electricity Coordinating Council.
Leahy leads Senate/House coalition in support of proposed rule to protect consumers of generic drugs
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.”
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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.