Current News

Attorney General William Sorrell has joined with other state attorneys general to express continued support of national health care reform. The group includes the attorney generals of the states of Vermont, California, New York, Connecticut, Iowa, Maryland, Delaware, and Hawaii. This group of eight attorneys general also joined together in signing an amicus brief, co-authored by Vermont, filed in the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit on January 21, 2011, regarding the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act.
The joint statement from the attorneys general follows:

Seventh Generation today announced that its Board of Directors has named John Replogle to serve as the company's Chief Executive Officer and President.
Replogle, 45, has served since January 2006 as President and Chief Executive Officer of Burt's Bees, the leading Earth-friendly, natural personal care products company. Replogle previously spent three years at Unilever as General Manager, Skin Care, North America. Prior to joining Unilever, Replogle served eight years with Diageo as President of Guinness Bass Import Company, Managing Director of Guinness Great Britain and had several roles in Marketing, Sales and Strategy with Diageo. Replogle started his career as a Case Leader with the Boston Consulting Group.

Chris Cole of South Burlington, the General Manager for the Chittenden County Transportation Authority (CCTA), will direct a newly-formed division within the Agency that addresses all modes of transportation -- integrating the needs of automobiles, trucks, passenger and freight railroads, and public transit.
Cole, who has lead CCTA since 2001, and the Green Mountain Transit Agency since 2003, has been instrumental in growing Vermont’s largest public transit agency into a dynamic organization that serves a five county region in Northwestern and central Vermont. Under his leadership, CCTA has been hailed for increasing ridership by 63% since 2001, creating Vermont’s first inter-regional commuter buses connecting Burlington with Middlebury, Montpelier and St. Albans, and reducing the number of small transit agencies throughout the region into a single unified agency.

The Vermont Department of Health received laboratory data late last week from Entergy Vermont Yankee that indicates samples from groundwater monitoring well GZ-23S tested positive for low levels of tritium. Vermont Yankee’s lower limit of detection (LLD) for tritium is in the range of 670 to 700 picocuries per liter (pCi/L). The test results for the samples collected from GZ-23S during the week of January 24 were 714 and 721 pCi/L.

On February 9-10, one thousand building design and construction professionals will gather in Burlington, VT, to learn about the latest technical innovations and energy-efficient practices at the region’s premier building conference ‘ Efficiency Vermont’s Better Buildings by Design 2011.
This year’s conference will feature internationally recognized architect Bill Reed, a proponent and leading practitioner in the area of integrative and regenerative design. In his keynote address on February 9 at 8:30a.m., he will address the topic of ‘Integrative and Regenerative Design: Redefining the Practice of Sustainability.’

There were 818 new regular benefit claims for Unemployment Insurance last week, a decrease of 61 from the week before, as the data has smoothed since its volatility in January and has been under 1,000 claims the last four weeks. Altogether 12,486 new and continuing claims were filed, a decrease of 192 from a week ago and 2,340 fewer than a year earlier. The Department also processed 2,143 First Tier claims for benefits under Emergency Unemployment Compensation, 2008 (EUC08), 57 fewer than a week ago. In addition, there were 929 Second Tier claims for benefits processed under the EUC08 program, which is an increase of 21 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 high school students ranked 12th in the nation in advanced placement (AP) course testing. Vermont seniors posted a strong showing on the 2010 College Board Advanced Placement exams in several metrics, including fastest growth in number of students achieving college-level proficiency, the College Board announced today.
The AP program offers high school students college-level courses in a variety of subject areas. In all, 2,126 Vermont students who graduated in 2010 participated in the AP program and took the exams. More students succeeded on the exam (1,460) than participated in AP 10 years ago (1,176).

Based on testing last fall, educational achievement in Vermont continues to show small but continued growth in reading, but little progress in math for grades 3-8 over time and a drop of one percent since 2009. Meanhwile, grade 11 progress indicates that writing and math have improved, while reading has remained flat over the last three years. Seventy percent of 11th graders achieved proficiency in reading and less than 40 percent of 11th graders achieved proficiency in math; writing scores were at 50 percent proficiency. Female students did much better in reading for all grades, while male and female students were on par in math. Economically disadvantaged students continued to make progress in both reading (up to 58 percent proficient) and math (up to 49 percent proficient) for grades 3-8.

US Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) has voiced his support for a proposal that Governor Peter Shumlin presented to Vermont lawmakers Tuesday to move the state toward a single-payer health care system.
‘I applaud the governor for presenting his health care proposal to the Legislature and I look forward to working with him. With 50 million Americans uninsured and the cost of health care soaring, Vermont can be a model for the nation as we move toward a Medicare-for-all, single-payer health care system,’ Sanders said.
Sanders introduced legislation on January 25 to help the state use a new national health care law to enact a single-payer system. Senator Patrick Leahy is a cosponsor of the Senate bill, and Representative Peter Welch introduced companion legislation in the House.

As an integral part of his economic development program, Gov. Peter Shumlin said today that he plans to present special awards to Vermont businesses that have an effective Workplace Safety program.
A commitment to workplace safety not only protects employees, but allows the business community to reap the benefits of reduced costs. Typically companies that maintain a safe workplace experience lower costs for workers’ compensation and medical issues, increased productivity and employee morale, and the ability to market their business more successfully in the global market.
‘Vermont businesses that provide safe workplaces for their employees should be recognized for their successful safety policies,’ said Gov. Shumlin.

CoreLogic (NYSE: CLGX), a leading provider of information, analytics and business services, today released its December Home Price Index (HPI) which shows that home prices in the US declined for the fifth month in a row. Vermont was one of just seven states and the District of Columbia to see average home prices increase, albeit by less than one percent. According to the CoreLogic HPI, national home prices, including distressed sales, declined by 5.46 percent in December 2010 compared to December 2009 and declined by 4.39 percent* in November 2010 compared to November 2009. Excluding distressed sales, year-over-year prices declined by 2.31 percent in December 2010 compared to December 2009 and declined by 2.81* percent in November 2010 compared to November 2009. Distressed sales include short sales and real estate owned (REO) transactions.

A barn collapse in Chester on Monday night is the latest in a string of such structure failures that have occurred around Vermont over the past few days. Today’s extra snowpack is adding to the concern over snow loads on roofs around Vermont.
The Vermont Agency of Agriculture, Department of Public Safety divisions of Emergency Management and Fire Safety, and Vermont Health Department are once again urging homeowners to diligently monitor their roofs and clear off snow if it can be done so safely. If there is a concern for personal safety while clearing a roof, a professional contractor should be called in to inspect the roof, or to clear the roof of snow.
‘Farms have lost livestock to the barn collapses,’ Deputy Agriculture Secretary Diane Bothfeld said. ‘There has been no loss of human life, but there are often farm workers in the barn throughout the day and there is a real safety concern for them if a roof collapses while they are working.’