Current News

Two Vermont companies are leading a surge in national sales of "fair trade" consumer products. Fair trade generally refers to agricultural products from Africa, Asia, the Caribbean and South America that ensures that farmers receive market value for their products and social justice for themselves.

The Vermont Attorney General’s Office has concluded its investigation of a complaint that the Republican Governors Association (“RGA”) and the Friends of Brian Dubie campaign coordinated on campaign expenditures in connection with a video called Vision for Vermont. The Office conveyed its conclusions to the interested parties by letter today.
While the Attorney General’s Office viewed the complaint as a serious matter, it concluded that there is insufficient evidence to warrant an enforcement action against either the RGA or the Dubie Campaign under 17 V.S.A. § 2806 for violation of the $3,000-per-election limit on contributions from political committees to candidates in § 2805(b) as added by 1982 Vt. Acts & Resolves No. 197, §1, and amended by 1988 Vt. Acts & Resolves No. 263, §3.

The Vermont Public Service Board has found that Burlington Telecom is in "wanton" violation of its Certificate of Public Good as related to it borrowing $16.9 million from the City of Burlington and not paying it back, and for its failure to buildout the network by 2008. BT was challenged by the Department of Public Service, which acts on behalf of consumers, and was joined by Comcast. Comcast is BT's principal competitor in the city for high-speed Internet and landline television services. The PSB Order was filed October 8.
BT was found by the PSB to be in violation of four Conditions of its CPG: 2,17,56,60. Condition 2 requires that Burlington Telecom conduct its operations consistent with the CPG. Therefore, if BT is in violation of any condition, it is in violation of Condition 2. Condition 17 refers to its failure to buildout the service to every address by September 2008, which it still has not completed.

Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT) Wednesday announced that Vermont’s Boys and Girls Clubs have been awarded more than $1 million by the US Department of Justice to help fund activities and programs administered by the Clubs.
Leahy announced the award during a tour of the Boys and Girls Club in Rutland. The Rutland Boys and Girls Club is one of six active Clubs in Vermont, and it has been awarded a $200,000 grant from the Justice Department. In March, the Club received a merit award for best overall programming among Boys and Girls Clubs across the country with budgets under $500,000. Since 1997, the Rutland Club has received over $1.5 million in grant funding.

Five of Vermont’s health care associations today released a joint report outlining their health care reform guiding principles and recommendations for policy makers. This release coincides with the most recent update to the Vermont Health Care Commission by Dr. William Hsiao, the Harvard-based economist who is developing three health system design options for consideration by the General Assembly.
The associations identified a number of important themes. These include:
1) State health care reform initiatives need to be fully aligned with the federal Affordable Care Act (ACA).
2) Health care professionals and providers should be full partners with health plans and state government in planning for and implementing new payment methodologies, delivery system reforms and insurance reforms.
3) Payment incentives designed to support a re-defined health care system need to promote quality value and improved access..

For the week of October 9, 2010, there were 840 new regular benefit claims for Unemployment Insurance, an increase of 162 from the week before. Altogether 7,460 new and continuing claims were filed, an increase of 198 from a week ago and 1,872 fewer than a year earlier. The Department also processed 2,841 First Tier claims for benefits under Emergency Unemployment Compensation, 2008 (EUC08), 240 fewer than a week ago. In addition, there were 1,493 Second Tier claims for benefits processed under the EUC08 program, which is a decrease of 17 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 has been ranked fifth among states in energy efficiency efforts. Even as Congress failed to take major action on climate and energy legislation in 2010, states across the United States achieved major new strides in energy efficiency, according to the 2010State Energy Efficiency Scorecard from the nonprofit and independent American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy (ACEEE).
Among the major state advances highlighted in the fourth edition of the ACEEE Scorecard are: a near doubling of state energy efficiency budgets from 2007 spending levels; the adoption or active consideration by over half the states of Energy Efficiency Resource Standards (EERS) that establish long-term, fixed efficiency savings targets; and a one-year doubling of the number of states that have either adopted or have made significant progress toward the adoption of the latest energy-saving building codes for homes and commercial properties. (See details below.)

Recent analysis of Vermont Housing Finance Agency (VHFA) home loan data shows delinquency and foreclosure rates of VHFA mortgages were considerably lower than rates for Vermont and the nation. As of June 30, 2010, VHFA home loans that were delinquent by 90 or more days were just 0.94 percent of all the Agency's outstanding loans. Vermont's rate was more than twice as high: 2.05 percent. The national rate was 4.54 percent.
The number of VHFA loans in the foreclosure process on June 30, 2010, was 1.37 percent of all VHFA loans, compared to Vermont's overall foreclosure rate of 2.71 percent and the national rate of 4.57 percent.
"VHFA's numbers are impressive, but not accidental," according to Executive Director Sarah Carpenter. "VHFA consciously avoids tactics less savory subprime lending institutions employ that helped lead to the country's recent economic collapse.

The following statement is being issued today by Vermont Attorney General William H Sorrell and the Mortgage Foreclosure Multistate Group:
"It has recently come to light that a number of mortgage loan servicers have
submitted affidavits or signed other documents in support of either a
judicial or non-judicial foreclosure that appear to have procedural defects.
In particular, it appears affidavits and other documents have been signed by
persons who did not have personal knowledge of the facts asserted in the
documents. In addition, it appears that many affidavits were signed outside
of the presence of a notary public, contrary to state law. This process of
signing documents without confirming their accuracy has come to be
known as "robo-signing." We believe such a process may constitute a
deceptive act and/or an unfair practice or otherwise violate state laws.

Monday was the start of National School Lunch week and there was something to celebrate at Summit Street School in Essex Junction - a new milk contract that will provide 135 Vermont schools with milk that supports the health of our children, local farms and the environment.
The Agency of Agriculture joined Vermont FEED, the Vermont Food Service Directors association to announce a new contract with Garelick Farms, based in Franklin, MA, that will provide schools with the choices they’ve been looking for, milk that comes from Vermont farms in 8 or 10 ounce recyclable plastic bottles and a chocolate milk formula with no high fructose corn syrup.

The Bennington Area Chamber of Commerce is teaming up with Efficiency Vermont to implement a new program to help small businesses save energy and money, the Business Energy Ambassadors program. Under this program, trained volunteers will conduct on-site ‘business energy visits’ to identify opportunities for helping small businesses save energy (and money!), with a primary focus on lighting, which can also increase the customer appeal of retail and office spaces. The Bennington Area Chamber of Commerce will work with those businesses that can benefit from the limited-time and enhanced financial incentives currently being offered by Efficiency Vermont.

Berkshire Hills Bancorp, Inc (Nasdaq: BHLB), and Rome Bancorp, Inc (Nasdaq: ROME) announced today that they have signed a definitive merger agreement under which Berkshire will acquire Rome and its subsidiary, The Rome Savings Bank, in a transaction valued at approximately $74 million.
Rome's assets totaled $330 million at June 30, 2010, and it operates five banking offices serving Rome, Lee, and New Hartford, New York. The Rome Savings Bank will be merged into Berkshire Bank, the principal operating subsidiary of Berkshire. After the merger is completed, Berkshire Bank will serve customers in Massachusetts, New York, and Vermont through a network of 46 full-service bank branches. Berkshire is expected to have total assets exceeding $3.0 billion and a total market capitalization for its common stock in excess of $300 million upon consummation of the transaction. Pro forma tangible equity to tangible assets is expected to improve to 8.4%.