Current News

There were 837 new regular benefit claims for Unemployment Insurance in Vermont last week. Claims have fallen and remained flat after a spike around New Year's, where they reached 2,000 claims. By comparison, new claims last summer were running under 500. In this latest report, new claims increased by 4 from the week before and are 19 above last year's total.

TheUS Small Business Administration reminds Private Non-Profit Organizations (PNPs) inVermontthatMarch 15is the deadline to submit Economic Injury Disaster Loan applications. The loans are available from the SBA because of the severe storms and flooding that occurred fromApril 23 through May 9, 2011.
Eligible non-critical PNPs located inAddison,Chittenden,Essex,Franklin,Grand Isle,Lamoille,OrleansandWashingtoncounties inVermontare eligible to apply to the SBA. Examples of eligible non-critical PNP organizations include, but are not limited to food kitchens, homeless shelters, museums, libraries, community centers and colleges.

A group of 27 senators called today for ‘significant improvements’ in a bill to modernize the U.S. Postal Service.
In aletterto a Senate panel that oversees the Postal Service, Senators Bernie Sanders (I-VT), Patrick Leahy and 25 others suggested specific measures to preserve first-class and Saturday mail delivery, stop wholesale closings of rural post offices and mail processing centers, and spare many of the 220,000 jobs that the Postal Service wants to cut.
‘Everyone understands that the Postal Service is in the midst of a serious financial crisis that must be addressed,’ the senators wrote. ‘But we believe that this financial crisis can be solved in a way that does not substantially slow down the delivery of mail and harm ruralAmerica.’

Vermont Senator Patrick Leahy will chair a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing Wednesday, February 15, focused on the lifesaving Bulletproof Vest Partnership Grant Program, which has helped provide law enforcement officers in Vermont with over 3600 vests since 1999.
Leahy has invited Burlington Police Chief Michael Schirling to testify before the panel in Washington, DC. Schirling will testify about the importance of the Bulletproof Vest Partnership Grant Program in helping small jurisdictions like those in Vermont purchase vests. Leahy was one of the lead authors of the grant program, which was enacted in 1998. Since then, he has worked to improve and reauthorize the program. In recent reauthorizations, he secured inclusion of a matching requirement to ensure that in smaller jurisdictions, including certain jurisdictions in Vermont, the federal grant will always amount to 50 percent of the purchase cost.

Green Mountain Power (GMP) and the City of Montpelier are excited to announce the opening of a new public electric vehicle (EV) charging station, located behind City Hall. The public will be able to charge their vehicles at the station at no cost for the first year. This is the third public EV charging station that GMP has made available to the people of Vermont.
"We believe that the City of Montpelier is an ideal place for our newest EV station," said Mary Powell, President and CEO of Green Mountain Power. "Providing this infrastructure across Vermont is a critical step toward the increased use of electric vehicles. This project and others like it are essential to our efforts to make alternative energy vehicles -- and the savings they can provide -- more accessible to Vermonters."

The Vermont Senate today approved S.245, which would provide every Vermont high school student with the opportunity to learn CPR. The Senate must give a second approval to the measure before it moves on to the House Education Committee.

On the evening of one of the company’s most successful celebrity flavors’ 5th birthday, Ben & Jerry’s launched its newest social mission quest with a focus to Get the Dough Out of Politics. ‘This is the new version of the AmeriCone Dream,’ said Ben & Jerry’s CEO, Jostein Solheim. ‘Since it involves corporations, money, and politicians we felt it was only fitting to do so with a new SUPERPACK pint design on Stephen Colbert’s flavor ‘ and on AmeriCone Dream’s fifth anniversary.’

Vermont Interactive Technologies (VIT), formerly known as Vermont Interactive Television, has a new name to reflect its expanding line of videoconferencing services. In addition to its 17 studios located throughout Vermont, VIT now offers mobile (portable) systems and multi-point bridging to bring its videoconferencing services directly to a customer site, desktop or iPad2.
‘Most everyone associates VIT with our 17 videoconferencing studios sprinkled throughout the state of Vermont, but we offer so much more,’ said Tara Lidstone, VIT executive director. ‘We want our new name to reflect our growing value to Vermont and keep our expanded services top of mind for Vermont businesses and organizations looking to connect with the world.’

As the U.S. Senate gears up to debate a transportation funding bill this week, Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) told a press conference in Vermont that the measure would provide $408 million for the state over the next two years.

Sanders was joined at the press conference by Vermont Transportation Secretary Brian Searles. Stressing the importance of a federal aid, Searles said federal funds make up 80 percent of the funding for many road and bridge construction projects in Vermont.

Sanders, a member of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, helped draft the bill now before the full Senate. At the press conference, he talked about the need to repair roads and bridges in Vermont and nationwide.

Surveys are now arriving in mailboxes around the nation to help identify all active farms in the United States. The National Agricultural Classification Survey (NACS), which asks landowners whether or not they are farming and for basic farm information, is one of the most important early steps used to determine who should receive a 2012 Census of Agriculture report form. The Census of Agriculture, conducted every five years by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS), is a complete count of U.S. farms and ranches and the people who operate them.

‘We are asking everyone who receives the NACS to respond even if they are not farming so that we build the most accurate and comprehensive mailing list to account for all of U.S. agriculture in the Census,’ said NASS’s Census and Survey Director, Renee Picanso.

In response to Vermonters’ continued call to clean up Lake Champlain and the rest of the state’s rivers and lakes, the Vermont Department of Environmental Conservation (VTDEC) retooled the former Vermont Center for Clean and Clear in 2011 to form the Ecosystem Restoration Program. The Program released its annual report this week, which describes continued efforts on the part of VTDEC, Agency of Agriculture, Food and Markets, Agency of Transportation, and the Department of Forests, Parks and Recreation to address unregulated nonpoint source water pollution. The 2011 report can be found at this link: http://www.anr.state.vt.us/dec/waterq/erp/docs/erp_2011annualreport.pdf

Representative Peter Welch today unveiled bipartisan legislation to create a nationwide energy efficiency program that will create jobs, save homeowners money and reduce carbon emissions.

The Home Owner Managing Energy Savings (HOMES) Act will provide rebates to homeowners who invest in energy efficiency improvements. Homeowners who demonstrate a 20 percent energy savings will receive a $2,000 rebate. For every 5 percent in additional energy savings, they can receive additonal $1,000 ‘ up to a total of $8,000 or 50 percent of the project’s cost.

‘Vermont has led the nation in energy efficiency.This legislation will bring the Vermont model to the rest of the country to save homeowners money, put contractors back to work and improve the environment,’ Welch said. ‘And, in an era of partisan gridlock, energy efficiency is a practical, common sense idea where lawmakers can find common ground.’