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Saint Michael's College biologist Dr Mark Lubkowitz and his students join a team of researchers from the University of Missouri, University of Florida, Purdue University and the University Nebraska-Lincoln, on a five-year project to study the genes that control the movement of carbohydrates in corn.
Saint Michael’s and the other four institutions, major research universities, have been awarded a $6.6 million grant from the Plant Genome Research Program at the National Science Foundation for a joint five-year research project that will involve undergraduates at each institution.
Working with 45 Saint Michael’s students over the next five years, Dr. Lubkowitz and his co-investigators across the country will do research that could lead to increased corn yield, more drought resistant plants, larger plants and easier production of biofuels.
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FairPoint employees have donated $1,304.68 to Fletcher Allen’s Big Change Roundup for Kids benefit. This year’s total is a record-breaker for FairPoint, beating out last year’s total by more than $50. The annual event raises funds for Vermont Children's Hospital programs and services at Fletcher Allen Health Care.
About FairPoint
FairPoint Communications, Inc. is a provider of communications services to communities across the country. Today, FairPoint owns and operates local exchange companies in 18 states offering advanced communications with a personal touch, including local and long distance voice, data, Internet, television and broadband services. FairPoint is traded on NASDAQ under the ticker symbol FRP. Learn more at www.fairpoint.com.
Photo: FairPoint employees and ‘Change Marshals’ Melissa Blondin, left, and Michelle Pendris, right, join Dr Lewis First, pediatrician.
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Mascoma Savings Bank recently received its Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) Performance Evaluation from the Office of the Thrift Supervision (OTS). The Bank received an overall rating of ‘Outstanding’, which is the highest rating possible. This rating is awarded to less than 8% of banks nationwide.
The federal Community Reinvestment Act requires banks to meet the credit needs of the communities they serve, including low-to-moderate income households.
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Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) held a hearing Tuesday on the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), the nation’s premier open government law. The nation is celebrating Sunshine Week, an observance of the importance of an open and transparent government.
The Vermont Legislature is going through the process of rewriting its open meeting and open records laws (ACLU explantaion).
‘The right to know is a cornerstone of our democracy,’ said Leahy. ‘Without it, citizens are kept in the dark about key policy decisions that directly affect their lives. Without public access to government information, officials can make decisions in the shadows, sometimes in collusion with special interests, escaping accountability for their actions. In the digital age, FOIA remains an indispensable tool in protecting the people’s right to know.
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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.’
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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:
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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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