Current News

The gross domestic product of the United States ‘ that oft-cited measure of economic health ‘ has been ticking upward for the last two years. But what would you see if you could see a graph of gross domestic happiness?
A team of scientists from the University of Vermont have made such a graph ‘ and the trend is down.
Reporting in the Dec. 7 issue of the journal PLoS ONE, the team writes, ‘After a gradual upward trend that ran from January to April, 2009, the overall time series has shown a gradual downward trend, accelerating somewhat over the first half of 2011.’
‘It appears that happiness is going down,’ said Peter Dodds, an applied mathematician at UVM and the lead author on the new study.
Twitteronomics
How does he know this? From Twitter. For three years, he and his colleagues gathered more than 46 billion words written in Twitter tweets by 63 million Twitter users around the globe.

Vermont Attorney General William H. Sorrell announced today that his office has recently mailed letters to 27 Burlington landlords requesting that they demonstrate compliance with the Vermont lead in housing law at their properties. The landlords have been given 90 days to respond to his office.
‘This most recent mailing continues the efforts of my office around the state to reach out to landlords in order to bring more rental properties into compliance with the law,’ said Attorney General Sorrell. ‘Rental properties need to be safe. Through these letters, we are asking landlords to work with us in making that goal a reality.’
Approximately 80% of Vermont’s rental housing units were built prior to 1978, when lead based paint was banned. Two out of every three lead poisoned children live in pre-1978 rental housing.

The Vermont Department of Banking, Insurance, Securities & Health Care Administration (BISHCA) today announced that Bio-Medical Applications of New Hampshire has withdrawn its application to purchase Fletcher Allen Health Care’s outpatient dialysis clinics. Bio-Medical Applications, a for-profit company, is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Fresenius Medical Care Holdings, Inc., itself a wholly-owned subsidiary of a German corporation.
The withdrawal of the application for a Certificate of Need approving the sale follows the release by BISHCA of a proposed Statement of Decision denying approval on the grounds that the sale would result in lower quality services at higher cost without any improvement in access to care.

The Vermont Economic Development Authority (VEDA) has approved $5.6 million in business and agricultural financing, helping to leverage enough private investment to support economic development projects totaling $13.4 million.
‘VEDA is pleased to help support the expansion and start-up plans of these businesses and farms,’ said Jo Bradley, VEDA’s Chief Executive Officer. ‘These small business, technology and agricultural investments will help stimulate economic activity and create jobs in Vermont.’
Projects approved for VEDA financing include:

The Vermont Manufacturing Extension Center (VMEC) has announced the election of Brenan S. Riehl to its Advisory Board. Brenan (Ben) Riehl is the President and CEO of GW Plastics headquartered in Bethel, VT. GW Plastics is a highly respected global manufacturer of very close tolerance plastic components and assemblies for Fortune 500 companies in the medical device market and the automotive safety market. The company employs about 800 people, with 300 in Vermont.

US Senators Olympia J Snowe (R-ME), Jack Reed (D-RI) and Bernie Sanders (I-VT) ‘ longtime champions of the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program ‘ have called on Senate leadership to make the restoration of home heating aid funding a priority when Congress returns to session in January.
The Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2012 voted on this morning includes $3.5 billion in funding for LIHEAP in 2012. While this is an increase from the cut in President Obama’s Fiscal Year 2012 budget of $2.57 billion, it is still a dramatic reduction from last year’s $4.7 billion.
The senators previously introduced the ‘LIHEAP Protection Act’ to restore the funding for 2012 to the $4.7 billion level. Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) is a cosponsor of the bill.

The Republican leadership in the US House early Sunday walked away from a deal on extending a payroll tax cut as part of a larger spending package that was also tied to the controversial oil pipeline from Canada to Texas. The US Senate on Saturday approved a bill 89-10 with bipartisan support that includes fast-tracking the controversial KeystoneXL tar sands oil pipeline to an extension of the payroll tax cut. Vermont Senators Patrick Leahy and Bernie Sanders, as well as Representative Peter Welch, have long opposed the Keystone project and have strongly supported the payroll tax cut extension, but object to "holding Americans' tax rates hostage," as Leahy called it, to the tar sands project and to House leaders' insistence on linking them in this bill.

Physics World announced its top 10 breakthroughs for 2011 today. Coming in at number 10 is Saint Michael's College Professor John O’Meara, with his colleagues Michele Fumagalli and Xavier Prochaska of the University of California, Santa Cruz, for their discovery of clouds of pristine gas from the very early universe’a triumph of Big Bang cosmology.
The team was lauded by Physics World for being ‘the first to catch sight of clouds of gas that are pure relics of the Big Bang. Unlike other clouds in the distant universe ‘ which appear to contain elements created by stars ‘ these clouds contain just the hydrogen, helium and lithium created by the Big Bang. As well as confirming predictions of the Big Bang theory, the clouds provide a unique insight into the materials from which the first stars and galaxies were born.’

People’s United Community Foundation, the philanthropic arm of People’s United Bank, announced today that it has awarded $2,335,300 to nonprofit organizations throughout its footprint, with $225,336 going to Vermont nonprofits, during the 2011 fiscal year.

A total of 278 grants were awarded throughout the communities that People’s United Community Foundation serves in Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Maine, Vermont and Westchester County, New York. The grants were distributed to programs and services within the Foundation’s areas of focus, with 43 percent allocated to community development, 40 percent to youth development, and 17 percent towards affordable housing initiatives.

Since inception in 2007, People’s United Community Foundation has awarded $10,220,700, for a total of 863 grants to nonprofit organizations that serve individuals, families, and businesses within the communities where People’s United Bank operates.

Will Wiquist, executive director of the 10,000-member Green Mountain Club, today expressed disappointment that the final Comprehensive Energy Plan continues to include a provision which could open the door to wind development on lands owned and conserved by the public.
While the rewritten clause highlights small-scale projects which are already permitted under the existing policy, it does not keep the door closed to major wind development on state lands. The plan recommends that the Agency of Natural Resources ‘consider revising and clarifying’ its 2004 moratorium on large-scale wind development on ANR-land.

The vital personal income tax, up over 5 percent, rebounded last month to once again push Vermont tax receipts ahead of targets, if only modestly. Another positive sign for the economy is that all consumption taxes - sales, meals and rooms, gasoline, vehicle purchase - showed growth, even if only slightly in some cases.
Today, Secretary of Administration Jeb Spaulding released the November 2011 General Fund (GF) revenue results. November is the fifth month of fiscal year (FY) 2012. General Fund revenues totaled $78.60 million for November 2011, and were +$2.19 million or +2.87% above the $76.41 million consensus revenue forecast for the month. Year to date, General Fund revenues were $472.64 million, and +$12.13 million or +2.63% above the target of $460.51 million for FY 2012. Cumulatively, General Fund receipts through November 31, 2011 now exceed the prior fiscal year (FY 2011) to date receipts as of November 31, 2010 by +5.61%.

There were 1,020 new regular benefit claims for Unemployment Insurance last week, as claims remain at a high level post Tropical Storm Irene. However, new claims decreased of 230 from the week before. Last summer's historically low claims came to an abrupt end with the storm. The numbers then dropped signifcantly in the following weeks after the storm, but in the last several weeks there has been mostly an increase in the number of new claims. Despite a recent drop in new claims, the latest numbers are nearly double the initial claims observed in July and August.