Current News

The Northeast Organic Farming Association of Vermont (NOFA-VT) Winter Conference has long been a key educational and inspirational gathering for Vermont’s farmers. The 30th annual conference, taking place February 10-12, 2012 at the University of Vermont in Burlington will be no exception ‘ with extra emphasis on the inspiration.
After a particularly challenging year, Vermont’s growers are looking forward to the opportunity to exchange ideas, learn new techniques, and create connections. The NOFA-VT Winter Conference brings together farmers, educators, researchers, and more to build knowledge and tackle hard questions ‘ like how to create a vibrant and resilient food system in the face of climate change and a struggling economy.

People’s United Bank recently awarded the American Precision Museum $2,000, which will fund, in part, the museum’s new exhibit, Arming the Union: Gunmakers in Windsor, Vermont. This exhibit along with a second one, Full Duty: The Civil War Collection of Howard Coffin, will mark the 150th anniversary of the Civil War.

The TD Charitable Foundation has awarded a grant for academic programming to the Brattleboro Retreat, the nonprofit psychiatric hospital announced this week. The $13,500 grant will underwrite the Inspired to Shine program, a theater-based academic program for children and youth enrolled in the Meadows EducationalCenter, a K-12 Vermont approved school located on the Brattleboro Retreat campus.
‘We are honored to receive support from TD Bank, through the TD Charitable Foundation, for this innovative program,’ said Brattleboro Retreat’s President and CEO, Robert Simpson. ‘Inspired to Shine combines substantive academic material with the exceptional clinical care that is the trademark of the Brattleboro Retreat.’

"If it bleeds, it leads," goes the cynical saying with television and newspaper editors. In other words, most news is bad news and the worst news gets the big story on the front page.
So one might expect the New York Times to contain, on average, more negative and unhappy types of words ‘ like "war," " funeral," "cancer," "murder" ‘ than positive, happy ones ‘ like "love," "peace" and "hero."
Or take Twitter. A popular image of what people tweet about may contain a lot of complaints about bad days, worse coffee, busted relationships and lousy sitcoms. Again, it might be reasonable to guess that a giant bag containing all the words from the world’s tweets ‘ on average ‘ would be more negative and unhappy than positive and happy.
But new research shows just the opposite.
"English, it turns out, is strongly biased toward being positive," said Peter Dodds, an applied mathematician at the University of Vermont.

Seeking to turn Vermont's raw agricultural output into value-added products, several Vermont lawmakers and advocates announced the introduction of the Vermont Working Lands Enterprise Investment bill on Wednesday morning in the Vermont State House.If passed into law it would set up a program funded by the state's General Fund that would distribute $3 million in the first year, eventually reaching $15 million a year.The program would seek to expand production of higher-end manufactured products, such as specialty cheese, furniture and cider, from the raw materials, like milk, hardwoods and the flagging apple industry. The raw materials, especially forestry products, often leave the state to be processed elsewhere.

Casella Waste Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ: CWST), based in Rutland, VT, a regional solid waste, recycling and resource management services company, announced today that it intends to convert the interest rate period on, and remarket, $21.4 million aggregate principal amount of Finance Authority of Maine Solid Waste Disposal Revenue Bonds (Casella Waste Systems, Inc. Project) Series 2005 (the "Bonds"). The Bonds were originally issued on December 28, 2005 and have a final maturity of January 1, 2025.

Revision Military, based in Essex Junction, VT, the world leader in protective soldier solutions, introduces the Sawfly Photochromic Eyewear System. Featuring Revision’s rapid light-changing technology, first introduced in its Hellfly Ballistic Sunglasses, the ballistic photochromic Sawfly lens automatically darkens to a sunglass tint when exposed to sunlight and returns to its clear state in the absence of UV rays, providing a tactical edge in rapidly changing environments.

Vermont Mutual Insurance Group recently celebrated the opening of their new claims office located on Industrial Lane in Berlin. More than 50 claims professionals are currently working in this office and the company plans to add additional staff at this facility. Vermont Mutual Insurance Group was incorporated in 1828 and their corporate headquarters are located on State Street in Montpelier. Through their three companies, Vermont Mutual, Granite Mutual and Northern Security, the Group provides property and casualty insurance in all the New England states and New York. The Group currently employs 215 and markets their policies through the Independent Agency system.

Governor Peter Shumlin is scheduled, on Friday, May 4 2012 to recognize Vermont businesses that have made a major commitment to providing safe work places for their employees. The Governor’s Award for Outstanding Workplace Safety will be presented at the annual Workplace Safety Conference at the Double Tree Conference Center in South Burlington. Typically such companies have lower costs of doing business and increased production benefiting both the company and its workers.
The criteria for consideration involves an experience modification (MOD Rate) of less than .90, no workplace fatalities or catastrophic injuries for the past three years, an active Safety Committee that includes both management and workers, and a written safety and health policy. Companies that meet the criteria are encouraged to nominate themselves. Nominees will also be asked how safety has improved their businesses, how they assess their safety program and how they track improvements.

With the most terrain open in the east and a winter snowstorm hitting the Green Mountains this week, Vermont ski areas have prime trail conditions that are expanding every day to welcome all of our skiing and riding faithful for Safety Awareness Week.
The annual National Safety Awareness Week is January 14 ‘ 22 with a variety of events, programs and activities at Vermont ski resorts. Learning Your Responsibility Code, helmet use and terrain park safety are important focuses of the week. More information on National Safety Awareness Week is found at: www.nsaa.org/nsaa/safety/.

Green Mountain Coffee Roasters, Inc. (NASDAQ: GMCR), a leader in specialty coffee and coffee makers, today announced that the Company plans to announce financial results for its fiscal 2012 first quarter in a press release to be issued following the close of the financial markets on Wednesday, February 1, 2012. These results are widely anticipated as GMCR stock fell from over $100 per share to under $50 late last year under a barrage of investor opposition to its business practices and a class action suit, and because of what Wall Street felt was disappointing 2011 financial results. The stock closed January 10, 2011, at $47.99 after a high of $115.98 on September 20, 2011.

The Vermont Department of Taxes (VDT) has fully identified all three parties that accessed personal tax data inadvertently displayed from Property Transfer Tax Returns on a vendor portion of its website on January 9th. The immediate investigation of the incident led to the following findings:

Three parties accessed the data. All three parties have been identified and contacted.
All three parties have confirmed that the data was not disseminated to other parties, and they have destroyed the data.
Two of three parties could not open or see the data file, as it was corrupted.