Current News

Green Mountain Coffee Roasters, Inc, (NASDAQ: GMCR), a leader in specialty coffee and coffeemakers, today announced that the Company will be added to the NASDAQ-100 Index, effective at the start of trading on Friday, May 27, 2011. The NASDAQ-100 Index is composed of the 100 largest non-financial stocks on the NASDAQ stock market.

"I speak for all of the employees of GMCR when I say we are pleased to be added to the roster of companies that comprise the NASDAQ-100 Index," said Lawrence J Blanford, GMCR's president and CEO. "We believe this is another acknowledgement of GMCR as an enduring company that has achieved strong growth over three decades and remains guided by the synthesis of financial results, social responsibility and strong commitment to our employees."
About Green Mountain Coffee Roasters, Inc.

Merchants Bank has been recognized by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) as a Money Smart for Young Adults Partner for its leadership in promoting financial education for young people.
‘We are giving young adults the skills they need to succeed in today’s world,’ said Doreen Allen, Community Reinvestment Act officer at Merchants Bank and president of the Northfield branch. ‘The need for financial literacy is greater than ever.’
The Partner program applauds people and organizations who share a commitment to building young adults’ personal financial management skills. It offers a curriculum designed to help teens develop skills to become confident, productive, self-reliant adults who are able to take full advantage of mainstream financial opportunities.
Allen said the program is offered community-wide through schools, scout troops and other youth organizations.

Tennis legend Billie Jean King served up three pieces of advice to grads at Sunday's commencement ceremony: No. 1: Learn how to learn. No. 2: Relationships are everything. No. 3: Be a problem solver.
"Study history," King said, elaborating on her first point. "The more you know about history, the more you know yourself." One of Life magazine’s 100 most important Americans in the 20th century, King changed history when, in 1973, she beat former champion Bobby Riggs in The Battle of the Sexes, sending a strong message for gender equality at a time when, King noted on Sunday, women couldn't get their own credit cards.

In two short weeks, University of Vermont senior Anna Griem, was able to earn 6 units of college credit, land the internship of her dreams, and learn the business basics that would put her on track for her first job post-college. She did it with UVM Continuing & Professional Study’s ‘Business Savvy,’ an intensive course for non-business majors that teaches career-building skills.
Young job seekers face a grim reality. Last April, the unemployment rate for Americans ages 16-24 was 19.5 percent, a record high. One in four college-educated adults work in jobs unrelated to their degrees; that rate increases to 40 percent for those ages 25 and younger. However, there are signs of hope: the National Association of Colleges and Employees reported that employers anticipate hiring 13.5 percent more new college graduates in 2011 than they did in 2010.

by Anne Galloway, www.vtdigger.org May 18, 2011 Thanks to technology, consumers are keenly self-aware. The Internet tracks our purchases, our favorite websites and our ‘friends.’ The web gives us constant updates on the weather, sports events and instant access to the intimate musings of complete strangers via Facebook and Twitter.
What if you could track your electricity use in real time? Would you be more apt to turn off the lights and power down your computer if you knew it would save you a couple of bucks each day? Would information about just how much juice it takes to run the clothes dryer spur consumers to hang their laundry on a drying rack?
Those are the kind of hypothetical questions interdisciplinary energy scientists and utilities are attempting to answer as part of an initiative yet to be implemented known as ‘smart grid’ technology.

When Rick Cochran was working with five employees in his basement in Walden, Vt., his dream was to find a way to provide advanced medical care to underserved areas, and build a company that could deliver it. Today, the Vermont manufacturer of state-of-the-art mobile healthcare and diagnostic units was named 2011 National Small Business Person of the year by Karen Mills, Administrator of the U.S. Small Business Administration. Mills made the announcement during ceremonies at SBA’s celebration of National Small Business Week in Washington, DC.
First runner-up is Deborah Carey, president and founder of the New Glarus Brewing Company, in New Glarus in southwestern Wisconsin. Second runner-up is Leigh Kamstra, owner and chef of Roma’s Ristorante in Spearfish, S.D., north of the Black Hills.

At the I-89 northbound Williston welcome center today, Governor Peter Shumlin addressed the future of the Circumferential Highway project and the EPA’s recent decision to veto the administration’s current plans.
‘The Circ, as originally conceived 30 years ago, will not be built,’ the Governor said at a news conference. ‘Let’s face the reality while also recognizing that significant transportation problems exist in this region that need to be addressed. By bringing together stakeholders in the spirit of collaboration, I believe we will find more cost effective and modern solutions to our current challenges.
‘I have asked the Agency of Transportation and the Chittenden County Metropolitan Planning Organization to take a fresh look at the Circ to see if there is a better way to solve the transportation problems in our four towns that are on the path of the project,’ he added.

US Senator Patrick Leahy announced today that Deputy Assistant Secretary Don Graves, one of the US Department of Treasury’s top policy advisors on small business finance and community development and the executive director of President Obama’s Council on Jobs and Competitiveness, will speak at the Vermont Business and Industry EXPO’s Leahy Business Breakfast Wednesday, May 25 at 8 am.
Leahy invited Graves to Vermont to speak about the Treasury Department’s efforts to create jobs across the country and in Vermont. Leahy noted that as the executive director of the President’s Council on Jobs and Competiveness, Graves will also give Vermont businesses a chance to share their vision for economic prosperity with a top member of President Obama’s job creation team.

Legislation passed by the 2011 session of the Vermont Legislature and signed into law by Governor Peter Shumlin expands Vermont’s captive laws, to include allowing cells within a sponsored cell captive to be formed as incorporated protected cells. The bill was signed into law before a group of industry supporters on May 11.
‘This bill is testimony to our commitment to keep pace with the changing needs of this industry,’ said Governor Peter Shumlin. ‘I commend the Legislature for their hard work and commitment to keeping Vermont ‘the gold standard’ for captive domiciles.’

The Vermont Department of Labor announced today the seasonally adjusted statewide unemployment rate for April 2011 was 5.3 percent. This reflects a decrease of one-tenth of one percentage point to the statewide rate from the previously reported March level of 5.4 percent. Compared to a year ago (April 2010), the statewide unemployment rate has trended down by 1.2 percent.

by Anne Galloway, www.vtdigger.org May 18, 2011 Not long ago the notion of going to Waterbury was shorthand for a journey into the stigmatizing world of mental illness. For decades, the small burg near the posh ski town of Stowe was identified with the sprawling campus of the Vermont State Hospital. At one point, the facility housed about 1,400 psychiatric patients.
In the 1970s, as the deinstitutionalization movement took hold and community mental health services became the mainstay of psychiatric treatment in Vermont, the hospital discharged hundreds of patients. By the early 1980s, about 200 patients resided at the facility.
Eventually, the Victorian era brick buildings with slate roofed-turrets and stately facades were transformed from psychiatric units into office spaces for departments and agencies of state government.

Governor Peter Shumlin today signed into law a bill requiring manufacturers of mercury-containing lamps to establish and finance a recycling program for spent bulbs from residents and small businesses. With today's signing at Nelson Ace Hardware in Barre, Vermont becomes the third state in the country to establish such an extended producer responsibility (EPR) program.
The Governor said the new law is an important environmental measure, key in helping protect Vermont's waterways and natural environment from the problems associated with mercury pollution. Under the new law, recycling costs will be paid by the manufacturer, consistent with other product stewardship legislation enacted in Vermont and around the country.