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U.S.News & World Report has ranked Vermont Law School’s environmental law program as the best in the nation for an unprecedented third consecutive year. The 2012 Best Grad Schools guidebook appears on www.usnews.com/grad on Tuesday, March 15, and on newsstands on April 5.
‘I’m proud of this continued recognition of the depth and breadth of our environmental curriculum, clinic and institutes,’ said Professor Marc Mihaly, director of the school’s Environmental Law Center (ELC). ‘Our success reflects the dedication of our wonderful faculty and students. Our graduates bring strong skills and environmental direction to their legal and policy positions in government, nonprofits, law firms and corporations.’

Entergy Corporation released the following statement regarding the earthquake and its aftermath in Japan. Entergy, based in New Orleans, owns the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant in Vernon. A nuclear power plant in northern Japan has suffered serious damage to three of its reactors. The Vermont Yankee plant has one 605 megawatt reactor. It supplies about one-third of the state's electricity. Its license expires in 2012. Entergy is in the process of relicensing the plant for 20 more years.
Statement:

Gifford’s Best Kept Secrets’ was the theme of the Randolph hospital’s 105th Annual Meeting of the Corporators held Saturday evening at Gifford. It is also the theme of the medical center’s 2010 year-in-review Annual Report.
The report and meeting described the hospital’s efforts around cancer, surgical and emergency care. Talked about were little known programs like the Gifford Adult Day Program in Bethel and inpatient rehabilitation in Randolph, and the availability of high-tech diagnostic imaging.
‘‘I didn’t know Gifford did that.’‘ It’s a statement hospital staff and leaders hear regularly, hospital Administrator Joseph Woodin told corporators filling Gifford’s Conference Center. ‘So we put it in the Annual Report. I hope you read it and get the word out.’
Also described were the hospital’s 11 consecutive years making its budget and operating margin.
‘Our goal has always been an operating margin of 2.5 to 3 percent,’ said Woodin.

Lambeau Field may be home to the reigning NFL champion Green Bay Packers and their Cheesehead fans, but for three days last week it was home to the champions of cheese. At the United States Championship Cheese Contest, more than 1,600 of the top cheeses and butters from across the United States -- 30,000 pounds of dairy products in all -- were brought to the stadium's Atrium to be judged by a panel of 26 experts. In the end, Cabot Creamery Cooperative's Seriously Sharp Aged Cheddar and 75% Reduced Fat Cheddar were crowned "Best In America" during the largest dairy competition in U.S. history.

Central Vermont Public Service (NYSE: CV) reported today consolidated earnings of $21 million, or $1.66 per diluted share of common stock, for 2010, compared to $20.7 million, or $1.74 per diluted share of common stock, for the same period in 2009. The lower 2010 earnings per diluted share of common stock are due to the completion of its common stock at-the-market program (’ATM’ see below).

CV reported fourth-quarter 2010 consolidated earnings of $5.3 million, or 40 cents per diluted share of common stock, compared to $2.2 million, or 18 cents per share, for the same period in 2009. ANNUAL REPORT

‘We continue to make steady progress,’ Executive Chairman, Bob Young said. ‘Increased demand in the second half, attributable to warmer weather during the summer and some easing of the economic problems of the past couple of years, helped significantly.

Three out-of-state companies that charged local consumers and businesses on their telephone bills for services that many of the affected Vermonters claim they did not agree to buy have entered into settlements with the Vermont Attorney General’s Office. The companies are Durham Technology, LLC, d/b/a MyiProducts IMail, of Indianapolis, Indiana; More Local Reach, Inc., of Boca Raton, Florida; and YPD Corporation of Smyrna, Georgia. Together, the three firms billed over $220,000, all of which must be refunded.
Between 2005 and 2010, MyiProducts charged over 1,300 Vermonters more than $78,000 for a voicemail service. Between 2007 and 2010, More Local Reach and YPD, respectively, charged 214 and 201 Vermont businesses more than $58,000 and $84,000 for services related to online business directories. All of the charges appeared on local telephone bills and were facilitated by a middleman (called an ‘aggregator’), Enhanced Services Billing, Inc (’ESBI’), of San Antonio, Texas.

Champlain College’s Roger H Perry Hall is the winner of the 2011 Architectural Excellence Award presented by the Burlington Business Association.
The Architectural Excellence Award is granted to a project contributing significantly to the physical or architectural quality of Burlington. Champlain College began their $12 million renovation of the historic Roger H Perry Hall in May of 2009. This project not only called for the complete renovation of the building but for some significant additions to the original structure and the land surrounding it. With approval for the project, Champlain went full speed ahead, finishing the restoration completely by late August of 2010, just in time to welcome the incoming students.

by Anne Galloway March 14, 2011 vtdigger.org
Last week, the House passed an Internet sales tax bill that, in theory, would force out-of-state Internet giants like Overstocks.com and Amazon.com to collect sales taxes on the products they sell to Vermonters.
The two-page bill, H.143, passed on third reading Thursday, and on Friday morning the Senate sent the legislation to its Finance Committee. An identical piece of legislation, S.54, introduced by two unlikely comrades in arms ‘ conservative Sen. Richie Westman, R-Cambridge, and ultra-liberal Sen. Tim Ashe, D/P-Burlington, is also in play.
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US Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) today detailed how Vermonters would be hurt by budget cuts recommended by congressional Republicans.
‘The rich are getting richer. The middle class and poor are getting poorer. Meanwhile, we have a $1.5 trillion dollar deficit and a $14 trillion dollar national debt. What is the Republican solution to the deficit crisis? More tax breaks for millionaires and billionaires. Savage cuts in programs that are desperately needed by working families,’ said Sanders, a member of the Senate Budget Committee.
The House-passed budget bill would throw 336 Vermont children off of Head Start and cut or eliminate Pell grants for 13,000 Vermont college students. The average Vermont college student would see their tuition assistance fall by $700.
In addition, some 37,000 Vermonters would lose access to primary health care because of a $1.3 billion cut to community health centers.

Standing alongside Vermonters struggling with rising gas prices, Representative Peter Welch on Monday announced three pieces of legislation to help calm rising prices in the short term and combat energy market speculation in the long term. Gas prices in Vermont are up nearly one dollar since September, hitting $3.74 in parts of the state.
At the Montpelier City Public Works Department, Welch was joined by Cabot Cheese Warehouse and Distribution Manager Louie Quintin, owner of Middlesex Electric Donald Pierce and Montpelier City Manager Bill Fraser, all of whom are trying to absorb rising gas prices into tight budgets. The legislative initiatives would eliminate tax loopholes that encourage energy market speculation, release fuel from the nation’s Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) to calm rising prices and set criminal penalties for those found to be engaging in price gouging.

Vermont Housing affordability improved in 2010 for the fourth consecutive year, according to The Vermont Economy Newsletter’s annual housing affordability analysis.
‘The share of median family income needed to finance the payments on a median priced home in Vermont fell to 14.8% in 2010, the lowest percent of income needed to service a mortgage since 2002,’ said Art Woolf, author of the study. ‘In the 24 years we have been tracking housing affordability, there have been only four years when housing has been more affordable than in 2010.’

The International Center for Captive Insurance Education (ICCIE), based in Burlington, closed the book on 2010 by finishing another year in the black - and by graduating 50 Associates in Captive Insurance (ACIs), bringing the total to date to nearly 200 industry professionals who have completed the captive industry's only designation.