Current News

US Representative Peter Welch has announced the appointment of a new communications director and a new legislative director.
Welch promoted Scott Coriell, who has worked as a staff assistant and press assistant in his Washington office, to the position of communications director. Also promoted was Jake Oster, who previously served as scheduler and legislative assistant, to the position of legislative director.
A Killington native and a graduate of Middlebury College, Coriell previously served as program coordinator for World Camp Inc., a non-profit organization that provides HIV/AIDS outreach services to communities in Malawi. Coriell also interned for Representative Rush Holt (D-NJ) and managed the web site of his family’s Killington-based business, Peak Performance Ski Shop. His brother, David, was Governor Jim Douglas' last press secretary.

In recognition of National Consumer Protection Week and in response to ongoing Vermont consumer complaints, Attorney General William H Sorrell warns consumers to be wary of frauds and scams that use wire transfer services, debt consolidators, and threatening collection calls all intended to take money from Vermonters.
Fraud
"Through a variety of means - posing as family or friends in distress, classified ads, bogus lottery and sweepstakes prize notices, and phony job offers - scammers use creative ways to get consumers to send them money by wire ransfer. We all need to know, and to make sure our loved ones know, that wire transfers are a key tool for scammers to get your hard-earned money. Vermonters should consider suspicious and possibly fraudulent, any unanticipated requests for funds by wire transfer."
How can you tell if it's fraud?

by Anne Galloway vtdigger.org March 8, 2011 The Vermont Department of Labor issued a stop-work order in January to Starr’s United, a trucking company in North Troy. The business is under investigation for an alleged failure to hold a workers’ compensation insurance policy on its 20 employees, according to Labor Department officials. An injury claim from an employee triggered the probe.
State Senator Bobby Starr, D-Essex-Orleans, is president of the company and has served as director of the Vermont Truck and Bus Association. When he was reached by phone last Friday, he said, ‘I really don’t know what you’re talking about ‘ I don’t know anything about it.’
Starr said he is ‘gone most of the winter’ and his son, Eric, who is the general manager, is ‘dealing with that.’
Stephen Monahan, director of the Workers’ Compensation & Safety Division, said the stop-work order was issued on Jan. 21 and remains in effect.
Dig Deeper

Governor Shumlin recently appointed three members to the State Board of Education. Sean-Marie Oller of Bennington was appointed for a six-year term. William Mathis of Goshen was appointed to complete four years of a vacated term. Stephan Morse of Newfane was reappointed to the Board for six years after completing a previously vacated term.

A Middlesex woman with an extensive background in marketing and brand management will be the new chief marketing officer for the State of Vermont.
Kathy Murphy, currently the director of marketing for the Vermont Ski Areas Association, will join the state Agency of Commerce and Community Development this month as the new chief marketing officer. Murphy will assist various state agencies with marketing campaigns and oversee the process of updating the Vermont Brand.
‘Kathy brings 25 years of marketing experience and a comprehensive understanding of the Vermont Brand,’ said Agency of Commerce of Community Development Secretary Lawrence Miller. ‘As the public and private sector work together to explore new ways to market Vermont, Kathy will provide valuable insight, guidance and leadership.’

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.