Current News

Vermonters overwhelmingly want to conserve wildlife habitat such as deeryards, trout streams, and bear habitat. Cities and towns have made noticeable strides in improving attention to wildlife habitat and natural resource conservation, and nearly every municipality recognizes wildlife habitat as an important local resource, according to a recent report issued by the Vermont Fish and Wildlife Department and the Vermont Natural Resources Council.
The report, Wildlife Considerations in Local Planning ‘ An Evaluation of a Decade of Progress in Vermont, was based on a detailed assessment of all municipal plans and related zoning bylaws and subdivision regulations adopted by Vermont communities.

While most towns recommend the conservation of wildlife habitat in their municipal plans, the report documents a significant lag between plan recommendations and actual implementation of binding standards in local bylaws.

US Secretary Ken Salazar has announced approval of the first-ever Construction and Operation Plan (COP) for a U.S. offshore wind energy project, granting Cape Wind Associates the official go-ahead to begin construction on the over-100-turbine project across 25 square miles of Nantucket Sound. When complete, the project will produce enough electricity to supply hundreds of thousands of American homes.
The American Wind Energy Association (AWEA) congratulates Cape Wind and the Department of the Interior for the progress it has made in developing the American offshore wind industry.

There were 1,653 new regular benefit claims for Unemployment Insurance last week, an increase of 398 from the week before. Altogether 12,253 new and continuing claims were filed, an increase of 303 from a week ago and 1,636 fewer than a year earlier. The Department also processed 2,008 First Tier claims for benefits under Emergency Unemployment Compensation, 2008 (EUC08), 4 fewer than a week ago. In addition, there were 861 Second Tier claims for benefits processed under the EUC08 program, which is an increase of 5 from the week before. The Unemployment Weekly Report can be found at: http://www.vtlmi.info/. Previously released Unemployment Weekly Reports and other UI reports can be found at: http://www.vtlmi.info/lmipub.htm#uc
Vermont's unemployment rate continued to fall. The March 2011 rate was 5.4 percent. See storyHERE.

by Anne Galloway, www.vtdigger.org April 27, 2011 In a historic vote on Tuesday, the Vermont Legislature created the enabling legislation for a first-in-the-nation universal health care system. The state Senate approved the visionary plan for a single-payer system in a 21-9 vote after four hours of debate. The split was largely along party lines.
Gov. Peter Shumlin, a Democrat, campaigned on a promise to create a single-payer system in Vermont that would contain health care costs and give all of the state’s residents universal access to medical care. On Tuesday, Shumlin made good on the first step toward fulfilling that promise, and just five hours after the Senate vote, he marked the legislative victory in an appearance on MSNBC’s ‘The Rachel Maddow Show.’

Green Mountain College announced today that it will offer a distance-learning master's degree in Sustainable Food Systems (MSFS), which builds on the surging interest in food and agriculture issues in the U.S. and on the success of the College's undergraduate major in sustainable agriculture. The MSFS program has received accreditation from the New England Association of Schools and Colleges and GMC plans to launch its first cohort in January, 2012.
Over thirty undergraduate students already focus their academic work on food systems at the College. Four grants over the past three years totaling over $250,000 have enhanced facilities and supported faculty research capacity at the College's Cerridwen Farm and the adjoining Solar Harvest Center.

The Vermont farmstead cheese and micro dairy supply and equipment company, is expanding and announces the lease of a 2000 square foot facility in Royalton, Vermont. Bob-White Systems North, located on Waterman Road, just off Exit 3 off I-89, is the new location for research, product development, engineering, and manufacturing of the Bob-White Systems Low Impact Pasteurization (LIP) System which will bring gentle milk pasteurization direct to micro dairy farms. The new facility will also be the location for further product innovations for micro dairy farmers and farmstead cheese makers.

Vermont Electric Cooperative’s (VEC) board of directors rejected a 20-year power offer from Entergy to purchase electricity produced at the Entergy Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant at below market prices. Directors voted 9 to 1 to reject the offer at a board meeting on Tuesday afternoon at VEC headquarters in Johnson.
Following an overview of the proposed contract by VEC staff, VEC directors heard presentations from Arnie Gundersen, an independent nuclear engineering and safety expert from Fairewinds Associates, and Michael Colomb, Vermont Yankee site vice president, lwho presented their respective views and answered questions from the board. The meeting was also attended by several VEC members who provided comments during the meeting.

Yankee Magazine’s Travel Guide to New England, on newsstands April 26, has named 39 local establishments in Vermont as ‘Best of New England ‘ Editors’ Choice’ winners for 2011. This designation is awarded by Yankee’s editors and contributors, who name select restaurants, lodgings, and attractions in New England to the exclusive list. This special issue also names 20 ‘Top Events’ in Vermont, for a total of 120 events across New England. For 35 years, Yankee’s Travel Guide has been the most widely distributed and best-selling guide to the six-state region, providing readers with a comprehensive vacation-planning tool and daily reference.

Today, the US Department of Housing and Urban Development awarded $1,430,000.00 to the Vermont Housing and Conservation Board, a grantee of HIV-AIDS housing programs in Vermont. This supportive housing grant will offer critically needed housing and support services to extremely low-income persons living with HIV/AIDs. During each of the next three years, this HUD funding will help provide permanent supportive housing so they can manage their illnesses while receiving critically needed support services.
The funding announced today is offered through HUD’s Housing Opportunities for Persons with AIDS Program (HOPWA) and will renew HUD’s support of these previously funded projects in Vermont (see project description below).

Berkshire Hills Bancorp, Inc. (NASDAQ: BHLB) reported a 25% increase in first quarter core earnings to $4.2 million in 2011, compared to $3.3 million in 2010. First quarter core earnings per share also increased by 25% to $0.30 in 2011, compared to $0.24in 2010. Core earnings growth continued to reflect the benefit of positive operating leverage, primarily resulting from 7% revenue growth.
First quarter GAAP net income was $2.8 million in 2011 ($0.20 per share), compared to $3.3 million in 2010 ($0.24 per share). GAAP net income reflected $1.4 million in after-tax non-core merger related expenses. Berkshire completed the acquisition of Rome Bancorp, Inc. on April 1, 2011 and is planning to complete the acquisition of Legacy Bancorp, Inc. in the third quarter of 2011.
FIRST QUARTER FINANCIAL HIGHLIGHTS (revenue and expense comparisons are to the prior year first quarter, unless otherwise noted)

Long heralded as a green alternative to fossil fuel, corn-based ethanol has become a costly distraction that chiefly benefits corporate, political and lobbying interests rather than the American public, the environment, small farmers and rural communities, according to a new report by Vermont Law School’s Institute for Energy and the Environment (IEE) and Food & Water Watch, a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit.
Titled ‘Crystal Eth: America’s Crippling Addiction to Taxpayer-financed Ethanol,’ the report concludes that corn-based ethanol is unlikely to significantly reduce America’s dependence on imported oil, has a negligible ability to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, contributes to environmental degradation in coastal waters and has been an economic boon for agribusiness giants managed in absentia rather than small and medium-size, locally owned farms, farm cooperatives and ethanol refineries.

by Anne Galloway, www.vtdigger.org April 26, 2011 The spirit of order and compromise was upon them. The Vermont Senate passed the universal health care reform bill in a 21-8, largely along party lines on Monday, after just five hours in the Green Room. (Kevin Mullin, R-Rutland, voted aye; Bobby Starr, D-North Troy, voted nay. The senators will take up the bill for third reading on Tuesday.)
The Dems evinced no intra-party dissension on the controversial legislation on second reading. Most of the naysayers, this time, were of the GOP persuasion. And except for an unanticipated, hour-long oratory from freshman Sen. Joe Benning, R-Caledonia, (reminiscent of declamations from his Republican colleague in the House, Rep. Duncan Kilmartin, R-Newport) the Senate floor work seemed to go off without a hitch.