Current News

Secretary of State Jim Condos reminds Vermonters that in the General Election of 2010, Vermont voters overwhelmingly approved a Constitutional Amendment to allow seventeen year olds who will turn eighteen on or before the day of the November General Election to participate in the Presidential Primary and the August Primary for the year that the voter will be eighteen by the General Election.
Three young women, Ellie Beckett, Courtney Mattison and Katie Levasseur, proposed the change. They worked hard to encourage the legislature to pass the amendment that eventually was approved by 80 percent of the voters.
‘Any person who turns 18 on or before November 6, 2012 can register to vote, cast a Presidential Primary ballot on March 6, 2012 (but not a town meeting ballot), and cast a ballot at the August 2012 Primary,’ stated Secretary Condos.

State Auditor Thomas M Salmon, CPA, CFE, released today a situation report indicating that since 2000 approximately $415,000 has been reported missing from 16 supervisory unions or school districts. The report is the result of an investigation triggered by an incident of wire transfer fraud at the Washington South Supervisory Union last fall.
The event prompted the auditor to question the fraud reporting requirements and the financial controls in the state’s education system. In December, Salmon sent each superintendent and business manager a letter requesting information on any and all thefts, embezzlements and/or fraud that had taken place in the past 11 years.
The results were as follows:
â ¢ 16 entities had experienced an incident of theft, embezzlement, or wire fraud.
â ¢ 25 total incidents were reported.
â ¢ 4 entities had more than one such incident.
â ¢ 8 entities had incidents involving more than $10,000, of these:

SymQuest Group, the region’s leading provider of network and document technology solutions and services, has announced that MSPmentor has ranked SymQuest 19th in this year’s Top 100 Report, a global ranking of the world’s top Managed Service Providers (MSPs). MSPmentor is the ultimate guide to the world’s best managed services providers.
From the MSPmentor online: ‘19. SymQuest Group Inc., South Burlington, Vermont, United States: One of the few MSPs on our list to focus intensely on document management and MPS (managed print services). Those have been healthy focus areas for SymQuest, which lifted its recurring revenues 21 percent in 2011.’
MSPmentor ranked companies on a variety of metrics including annual recurring revenue, total number of devices managed, revenue generated per employee, percentage of growth rate and dollar growth rate, as well as other factors.

Dr Joseph Bertolino will be the 15th president of Lyndon State College. Vermont State Colleges Board Chairman Gary Moore made the announcement February 19.
Moore stated, "I am pleased that JoeBertolinowill be the next president of Lyndon State College. He is a very enthusiastic individual who impressed the faculty, staff, and students during his two-day campus visit. I am sure his enthusiasm will prove to be contagious and look forward to great things happening atLSCduring histenure."
A 13-member Search Committee made up ofLSCfaculty, staff, students,VSCTrustees and members of the Lyndon community at-large began a national search in October 2011. Four semi-finalists visited the campus in late January for two days of meetings and interviews. The search committee recommended the two finalists who returned toLSCon February 15 for interviews with theVSCBoard of Trustees.

The Vermont Republican State Committee met in Montpelier this past Saturday and unanimously elected Jack Lindley as the new VT GOP Chair.
"It will take all of our energy and a lot of hard work, but this can and will be a great year for Vermont Republicans," Lindley said. "We are going to engage our neighbors and talk about the issues, and we will lead the way towards greater growth, opportunity and prosperity for all Vermonters."
"Growing our economy and creating new and better jobs for Vermonters is our only hope to save our beautiful state and preserve our quality of life," Lindley continued. "We need to push back against single-party rule in Montpelier, and we need to bring common sense back to the State House."

AT&Tinvested more than$50 millionin itsVermontwireless and wireline networks from 2009 through 2011 with a focus on improving the company's mobile broadband coverage and overall performance of its networks.
During 2011, AT&T made more than 250 wireless network upgrades in four key categories inVermont. These enhancements include:

Activating five new cell sites or towers to improve network coverage.
Deploying faster fiber-optic connections to more than 50 cell sites. Combined with HSPA+ technology, these deployments enable 4G speeds**.
Adding capacity or an extra layer of frequency to cell sites ‘ like adding lanes to a highway ‘ with the addition of nearly 120 of these layers, or "carriers".
Upgrading nearly 80 cell sites to provide fastmobile broadbandspeeds.

Collaboration, clear policies and consumer outreach are fueling the successful implementation of Central Vermont Public Services’ smart grid plan, according to results of the first case study in Vermont Law School’s national smart grid research project.
CVPS, Vermont’s largest investor owned utility, this month begins a year-long process of installing smart meters for its customers. According to VLS’s case study results:
· Collaboration is arguably the most important lesson that the CVPS study provides. It has made developing and implementing CVPS SmartPower and other utilities’ smart grid investments more efficient, cost-effective and technically sound.
· Since 2007, Vermont’s Legislature and Public Service Board have been looking to develop smart grid infrastructure and dynamic rate options, which balances flexibility for investments in a rapidly developing field of technology with measures to ensure those investments are prudent.

Attorney General William H Sorrell has filed an appeal of the federal district court’s recent decision in favor of Entergy Nuclear Vermont Yankee. The district court, in its January 19 ruling, invalidated two Vermont statutes that gave the Legislature a say on the ability of Vermont Yankee to continue operations when its current state license expires on March 21, 2012.
Attorney General Sorrell announced today that the State has appealed all aspects of the judgment entered by the district court.

(Host) Vermont Business Magazine editor and commentator Tim McQuiston suggests that the best source of funding for the repair and maintenance of our roads and bridges may in fact be found at the neighborhood gas pump.
McQuiston: The Gas Tax

Friday, 02/17/12 5:55pm
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Repro is the new owner of Hard Copy, a Burlington area provider of copies, manuals, posters business cards and many other printed products.
Hard Copy’s personnel and assets will be relocated from its present location at 30 Main Street, Burlington, to Repro’s location at 450 Weaver Street, Winooski. Repro states that this acquisition will enable it to offer all of our customers more capabilities and services.

Vermont will receive more than $5.75 million in federal grants from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), U.S. Senator Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) announced Friday. The grants will help Vermont develop prevention and preparedness programs to respond to and recover from acts of terrorism and other catastrophic events.
‘As a rural, border state, prevention and preparedness plans are a must in Vermont,’ said Leahy. ‘I tragically saw firsthand this summer how devastating natural disasters can be in rural areas in Vermont. These grants will both help us ensure our first responders are prepared to respond to incidents threatening national security and help our state prepare for future natural disasters.’
Vermont will receive grant awards from two DHS programs:

Vermont’s congressional delegation ‘ Senator Patrick Leahy and Senator Bernie Sanders and Representative Peter Welch ‘ has introduced legislation to extend a vital safety net that helps dairy farmers ride out downturns in milk prices. Without action, dairy farmers could face a severe drop in support from the MILC safety net by September 1st.
The MILC Continuation Act of 2012 would extend for one year the Milk Income Loss Contract (MILC) program at current support levels, which helps dairy farmers when the price of milk falls below $16.94 per hundredweight. Once triggered, farmers receive 45 percent of the difference between that price and the current price of milk, which also takes into account feed costs as a factor in triggering program payments.