Current News

On March 23 at their Annual Meeting, the Vermont Wood Manufacturers Association (VWMA) honored David Bazis of David Bazis Designs with the 2011 VWMA Woodworker of the Year Award and David Spooner of Spooner Specialties with the 2011 Friend of the Industry Award.

Vermont Attorney General William H Sorrell has joined 15 other state attorneys general in charging three of the nationâ s largest book publishers and Apple Inc with colluding to fix the sales prices of electronic books. The Statesâ antitrust case, which was filed in federal court in Austin, TX, cites the defendants for violating the States’antitrust laws and the federal Sherman Antitrust Act. The publishers named in the action are Macmillan, Simon & Schuster, and Penguin.
â When companies collude to fix prices, consumers end up paying more. The evidence in this case demonstrates that these major publishing companies and Apple conspired to raise the prices of electronic books. I am working with my fellow State Attorney Generals to stop this anticompetitive practice and obtain recoveries for the affected consumersâ , said Attorney General Sorrell.

Led by students in the Saint Michael's College Green Up organization and the SMC Office of Sustainability, the college has taken steps to begin to remove bottled water from campus vending machines.
This comes during a full schedule of Earth Week activities on campus with Environmentalist Maude Barlow speaking on the Global Water Crisis on Thursday night at 6 p.m. in McCarthy Arts Center. And at the same time that Saint Michaelâ s has just been named to be in The Princeton Reviewâ s Guide to 322 Green College: 2012 Edition to be issued April 17th.
A resolution to ban the sale and distribution of bottled water on campus was presented to the SMC Student Association, the Faculty Assembly and the Presidentâ s Cabinet in March, and all three groups approved the ban, within certain limits. The limits essentially being that the college needs to provide bottled water to campus visitors in certain situations.

The US Senate today voted 74-22 to take up legislation to modernize the US Postal Service. Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) led a group of more than two dozen senators who pressed to make the bill stronger.
â Todayâ s vote clears the first of many hurdles that we face in our effort to save rural post offices, mail processing plants and the jobs of tens of thousands of postal workers,’Sanders said. â Itâ s a step forward but we have a very long way to go.â

The Dartmouth Board of Trustees appointed Provost Carol L. Folt, PhD, as the interim president of Dartmouth, effective July 1, following the election of President Jim Yong Kim to lead the World Bank. President Kim will remain Dartmouthâ s president until June 30 and continue to lead Dartmouth through the conclusion of the academic year and Commencement.
Board Chair Steve Mandel â 78 said, â The Trustees congratulate President Kim on the tremendous honor of being chosen as president of the World Bank, one of the most critical institutions fighting poverty in the world. We have immense respect for Jim as a leader and human being, and are proud of his contributions at Dartmouth and in the world.â

Champlain College received the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) 2012 Excellence in Academic Libraries Award today. Sponsored by ACRL and YBP Library Services, the national award recognizes the staff of a college, university and community college library for programs that deliver exemplary services and resources to further the educational mission of the institution. Champlain is the 2012 recipient in the college library category.
ACRL President Joyce Ogburn, dean and University Librarian of the University of Utah, and Steve Hynman of YPB Library Services presented the award to Champlain College Library Director Janet Cottrell at the Robert E. and Holly D. Miller Information Commons on the Champlain College campus.

Darn Tough Vermont, American manufacturer of the only premium, performance socks with an unconditional lifetime guarantee, reports that Q1 2012 sales and profitability were the best ever in its, and parent Cabot Hosieryâ s, 34-year history. Q1 topline growth was up 42% versus the corresponding quarter in 2011, a year that saw revenue up 82% over 2010.
â Weâ ve been aggressively expanding our distribution both nationally and internationally, redesigned our packaging, diversified our markets, invested in our infrastructure here at the Vermont mill and made strategic changes to our sales team in 2011,’said Ric Cabot, founder and president of Darn Tough Vermont. â We reinvested heavily in our company in 2011, and the results bear out our strategy. We are on track to close out 2012 with exceptional performance on both the top and bottom lines, facilitating the implementation of a number of important strategies that we have in the works for 2013.â

You know youâ ve had that sudden urge for an afternoon pick-me-up treat, something sweet and refreshing, only to realize that youâ re too busy to step out of the office for a few minutes and satisfy your craving. With Ben & Jerryâ s latest outreach effort, youâ re in luck! With a little social media savvy-ness and a worthwhile cause, you could have Ben & Jerryâ s come straight to you to serve up scoops of peace, love and the companyâ s brand new, refreshing Greek Frozen Yogurt - just in time for an afternoon spring fling.
From April 16through May 11, the Ben & Jerryâ s Scoop Truck will tour Washington DC, stopping at local businesses, non-profits and community events. While giving away scoops, cups and cones is nothing new for the Vermont-based ice cream company, the stops that it will be making ‘and more specifically, how those stops will be determined ‘are different.

The Vermont Agency of Transportation (VTrans) announced the opening of Route 108 through Smugglerâ s Notch this afternoon. Barring a major spring storm event, VTrans plans to keep the route open until sometime this fall when the snow will once again reclaim the notch.

Environmental stewardship is at the core of Woodchuck Hard Cider. As efforts continue to reduce our carbon footprint as a company, we also endeavor to support causes beyond the walls of our Middlebury Cidery.

For the thirdconsecutive year,WoodchuckHard Cider has teamed up with American Forests, and theirGlobal ReLeafprogram. The program plants trees in areas ravaged by wildfire and other natural disasters. Since 1991, they have planted more than 40 million trees in all 50 states and 38 different countries.

How many trees will we plant you ask? Well, that all depends on our loyal and dedicated fan base. For every new â like’we get on Facebook we will plant two trees in their honor. Itâ s our way of supporting the mission of Earth Week, and building a healthier planet.

FiberMark, a world-class producer of specialty fiber-based materials used in decorative coverings for luxury packaging and publishing, performance boards for office products and graphic design and many technical specialty applications, announces a major product launch that promises to bring sweeping innovation to the horticultural tag and gift card industries.

With the recent development and release of two new fiber-based tag and card products --FiberTagand FiberCard -- FiberMark continues to solidify its leadership position by introducing more environmentally sensitiveâ as well as more durableâ card and tag materials for the many products that require them.

With student loan debt reaching a crisis stage nationwide, Representative Peter Welch today announced efforts to block a scheduled doubling of Stafford Student Loan interest rates that could add up to $11,000 in additional repayment costs for some Vermont college students.

Welch is pushing for passage of HR 3826, which would extend the current 3.4 percent interest rate on Federal Direct Stafford Student Loans. If Congress fails to act, the rate will double to 6.8 percent on July 1, 2012, increasing by $11,000 the twenty-year repayment costs for a student borrowing maximum amount.