Current News

Fitch Ratings assigns an 'AA' rating to the following 2011 Vermont Municipal Bond Bank bonds, issued under the 1988 General Resolution:
--$9,500,000 (federally taxable qualified school construction bonds) 2011 series 1.
The bonds are expected to sell via negotiation on March 9, 2011. Bond proceeds will be loaned to two local school districts for capital improvements.
In addition, Fitch affirms $516,930,000 in outstanding general resolution bonds at 'AA'.
The Rating Outlook is Stable.
RATING RATIONALE:
--The program's pledged reserves and loan repayments, excluding federal subsidies, allow the bonds to withstand borrower defaults of up to 17.22% for four years without causing an interruption in bond payments. This is consistent with Fitch's criteria for assigning an 'AA' rating given the loan pool's borrowers' credit quality, size and diversification.

Maponics (www.maponics.com), a leading provider of location-based data, today announced its groundbreaking Subdivision Boundaries product with plans for vast U.S. coverage by mapping more than 500,000 by year-end. The real estate industry has long recognized that the immediate area surrounding properties significantly impacts quality of life and home values. In suburban settings, the smallest defined area around properties is typically the subdivision’which can include everything from a few homes within a gated community to a development with hundreds of properties.
High-quality subdivision boundaries support a host of real estate services aimed at both consumers and real estate professionals that improve:

search and display
interactive mapping
trend and analytics reporting
automated valuation models

BioTek Instruments reports record growth for the fiscal year ending December 31, 2010, citing sales growth increases of 19% domestically and 16% internationally for their laboratory component business. In contrast, the scientific equipment market segment in 2010 reportedly grew around 6%.
During the same period, BioTek opened a satellite office in Switzerland and launched a number of new microplate technologies, including:
* ELx50â ¢ Microplate Strip Washer - A compact 3-in-1 washing powerhouse that accommodates standard ELISAs, biomagnetic bead separation and polystyrene vacuum filtration in 96- and 384-well strips and plates.
* Synergyâ ¢ 2 Alpha Microplate Reader - This multi-mode microplate reader provides high-performance Alpha detection at a reasonable price.

Central Vermont Public Service reported this monrinng that an army of CVPS line crews, assisted by 17 other Vermont crews and 23 crews from Connecticut, New Hampshire and New York, are in full force in Windsor and Bennington counties today. About 1,545 customer outages of the more than 12,000 affected after Monday’s snow and ice storm are left to restore.
Most customers should have their power back on by late tonight, but complete restoration could carry into Wednesday, especially in the hard-hit areas around Springfield.
‘We’re flooding Bennington and Windsor counties with crews today,’ said CVPS spokeswoman Christine Rivers. ‘There are still hundreds of tree limbs, lines and damaged equipment to repair in those areas, so the going will be slow today, but we expect to make great progress.’

Fashion, firearms and three-dimensional works in paper are among the new exhibits opening at Shelburne Museum this season.
The museum opens on May 15 with five new exhibits including: rare Vermont-made firearms, a fanciful display of dozens of three-dimensional paper art works and a spectacular selection of quilts from a renowned quilter and collector. The exhibits run through October 30.
On June 18 the exhibition In Fashion opens featuring bespoke high style clothing and accessories from the museum’s collection along side designs from leading contemporary designers Karl Lagerfeld, Oscar de la Renta, Balenciaga, Carolina Herrera, Emanuel Ungaro, Christian Siriano and others.

In September 2010, The Vermont Businesses for Social Responsibility (VBSR) teamed with Local First Vermont to publish a coupon book for the Chittenden, Addison and Washington counties area. The book offers approximately $2,300 in coupon savings, and a business directory of locally owned, independent businesses.
‘Most Vermonters know the importance of buying local. This book just helps them to do that,’ said of VBSR. Both consumers and business owners alike reacted so positively to the book that VBSR is in planning for the second edition.
Local First Vermont is a group of business owners and citizens who believe in the importance of supporting locally owned independent businesses and has been a leading voice in Vermont’s ‘Buy Local’ movement. They joined forces with VBSR in 2009.

The federal government, 35 states, organizations representing over 100,000 doctors, consumer groups and privacy experts have supported Vermont’s appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court to uphold the state’s Prescription Confidentiality Law. Last week, Attorney General William Sorrell filed a brief arguing that Vermont’s law, which restricts the use of doctors’ prescription information for marketing purposes, is constitutional. Data mining companies, including IMS Health and PhRMA, a trade organization for the pharmaceutical industry, claim the law violates their First Amendment rights. The case, Sorrell v. IMS Health Inc., No. 10-779, will be argued before the Supreme Court on April 26, 2011.

Mount Snow has announced that it has accepted a bid to replace the Summit Local triple chair lift with a new Leitner Poma high-speed detachable six-passenger bubble chairlift. The ‘six pack’ chairlift will be the first of its kind on the East coast and demonstrates Mount Snow’s commitment to providing the best experience possible for their guests.
‘Our goal at Mount Snow is to provide the best possible product for our guests. We are continuously making upgrades to our infrastructure to ensure a quality experience for our guests. We feel that installing this state-of-the-art chairlift in order to increase our high speed capacity out of the main base area is in line with this commitment,’ said Jesse Boyd, VP of Operations for Peak Resorts.

by Anne Galloway,March 3, 2011 vtdigger.org
Governor Peter Shumlin asked President Barack Obama to give the Nuclear Regulatory Commission the authority to require Entergy Corp. to fully decommission Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Plant instead of allowing the company to store all of the radioactive waste from the facility on the site. Shumlin told reporters on Wednesday that he made his case to the president during the National Governors Association meeting last weekend. Obama supports a new generation of nuclear power plants.

Champlain College is one of the nation’s best institutions for undergraduate education, according to The Princeton Review, the widely-known education services company. The Princeton Review has chosen the college for inclusion in the forthcoming edition of its popular annual ‘best colleges’ guidebook, "The Best 376 Colleges: 2012 Edition" (Random House / Princeton Review Books) which will be available in bookstores in early August.
Also, the New York Times in a BLOG is reporting that the Princeton Review and GamePro Media, the publisher of GamePro magazine, which it called a video-gamers’ bible, "have joined forces to handicap what they consider the ‘Top 10’ undergraduate and graduate programs in video game design."

Green Mountain Power and Efficiency Vermont are partnering on an unprecedented effort to help every town in GMP service territory change over to more energy efficient Light Emitting Diode (LED) street lights.
"Last year Green Mountain Power became one of only a handful of utilities in the country to offer an LED-specific rate to customers for outdoor lighting. This year we are taking it a step further by proposing to lower the rate and offer financial assistance to towns to change to LED lights," said Mary Powell, president and chief executive officer of Green Mountain Power.
With the support of Efficiency Vermont, Green Mountain Power expects to replace thousands of mercury vapor and high pressure sodium street lights with new energy-efficient LED street lights in towns throughout its service territory.

On March 9, 2011 Rock Art Brewery will be releasing a limited edition beer to raise money for Pete’s Greens in Craftsbury, Vermont. In January a fire erupted and destroyed years of hard work, innovation, and purpose. This handcrafted beer created by brew master Matt Nadeau will be sold throughout the state to restaurants and retailers, raising proceeds and awareness.
‘Matt and I strongly believe in eating local foods, we admire what Pete is doing, and also every person involved in the VT Fresh Network,’ said Renee Nadeau of Rock Art Brewery. The devastating fire reduced the main barn, washhouse, and root cellar to ashes. As fundraising efforts continue, the Barn Raising Brown Ale was created to remind Vermonters that this farm still needs our help. When was the last time you bought a beer and helped rebuild a barn?