Current News
by tim
Vermont's unemployment rate for November fell three-tenths of a point to 5.3 percent, as both the labor force and total employment grew over both the October levels and over November 2010. This is the lowest rate since April, before the first of two floods hit the state. It's also the fewest number of unemployed since November 2008, just as the national recession was beginning.
Vermont Labor Force Statistics
Seasonally Adjusted
Change to
November 2011 from
November
2011
October
2011
November
2010
October
2011
November
2010
Total Labor Force
363,200
362,800
360,800
400
2,400
Employment
344,100
342,400
339,800
1,700
4,300
by tim
IBM announced today it has awarded $525,540 in grants, ranging from $500 to $10,000, to more than 100 Vermont not-for-profit organizations and schools throughout the state. The grants were awarded as part of IBM’s celebration of its 100th anniversary in 2011, and made to organizations where IBM employees are volunteers. The grants fund organizations throughout the state supporting the arts, education, disaster and emergency response, the environment, health and youth services, and libraries.
These grants bring the approximate value of IBM’s corporate and employee community support in Vermont to $2.7 million for 2011. This includes Centennial Celebration of Service grants and other corporate grants, employee pledges to the company’s annual Employee Charitable Contribution Campaign, and the value of more than 45,000 hours of recorded employee volunteer service.
by tim
The Board of Directors of the Champlain Valley Exposition, Inc. today named Tim Shea of Williston as the organization’s new Executive Director. Shea will assume his new position in February 2012.
In making the announcement, Matthew Stevens, President of the CVE Board, noted that Shea will have the benefit of working with longtime General Manager David Grimm for approximately eight months. Grimm announced in March 2011 that he would step down as General Manager following the Champlain Valley Fair in September 2012, concluding a 23-year career at CVE.
by intern
The holidays are here along with the busiest shopping days of the year. In all the excitement of buying and receiving gifts this holiday season, don’t forget to properly dispose of your old items. Amongst this year’s top gifts are likely to be TVs, laptops, computers, and computer assessories, along with all the other latest electonic toys and devices. When disposing of electronics, remember that electronics don’t belong in your trash. Instead, use one of more than 90 drop off locations in the state that participate in the Vermont E-Cycles Program.
by tim
Five Vermont schools are among the recipients of donations made by a regional auto dealership. Berlin City Auto Group, a family of dealerships founded in 1980 in New England, and its Drive for Education foundation, a forward-thinking program created by the employees of Berlin City Auto Group, announce the award recipients in its Drive for Education program. Donating $60,000 to 18 K-12 schools spanning across New England, Berlin City Auto Group has met its annual goal of awarding more than $100,000 to local schools. Beginning today, recipient schools will be honored with a check presentation at a Berlin City Auto Group dealership in Maine, Vermont or New Hampshire, Dec. 19-21.
‘We believe in giving back to the community and helping our local schools succeed in education.’
by tim
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.
by tim
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.
by tim
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.
by tim
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:
by tim
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.
by tim
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.
by tim
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.