Current News

Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) today announced that the US Department of Veterans Affairs will open a new community-based health clinic in Newport this month.
The clinic will provide veterans in the Northeast Kingdom greater access to primary health care without having to travel long distances.
“People who have put their lives on the line for our country deserve the best health care we can provide and that means providing care where they live,” Sanders said. “The Newport clinic should save veterans who live in the Northeast Kingdom a lot of time and trouble traveling to White River Junction to get the care they deserve.”
Sanders is a member of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee. To address health care needs of veterans in rural areas, Sanders urged the VA to open another Community-Based Outpatient Clinic in the Newport area after hearing from Northeast Kingdom veterans.

Online advertised vacancies rose 139,200 in July to 4,293,300, including a strong showing in Vermont of 1,300 jobs, following a very small increase in June, according to The Conference Board Help Wanted OnLine (HWOL) Data Series released today. The gap between the number of unemployed and advertised vacancies (supply/demand rate) stood at 3.52 unemployed for every advertised vacancy in June (the last available unemployment data) but is down from its peak of 4.73 in October 2009.

Sandy Blitz, the Federal Co-Chair of the Northern Border Regional Commission (NBRC), announced that a grant award process has been put in place to begin to accept applications for federal assistance. Chairman Blitz stated that “It is our goal to award approximately $1.3 million in grants by September 30, 2010”.
The NBRC, created by the Congress, to alleviate economic distress, and to save and create job opportunities throughout a thirty-six county region in Maine, New Hampshire, New York, and Vermont, became operational on April 29, 2010 upon Mr. Blitz officially assuming his duties. The Commission has responsibility for fourteen counties in New York; six counties in Vermont; four counties in New Hampshire, and twelve counties in Maine. The NBRC is governed by a Board consisting of the Federal Co-Chair and the Governors of the four states.

Green Mountain Power today asked the Vermont Public Service Board to authorize a 3.1 percent rate adjustment to go into effect on October 1, 2010, as part of its alternative regulation plan. The increase is primarily due to factors that affect all utilities in the region, such as the costs of reliability upgrades to the New England transmission grid.
"Our goal is to provide premier service to our customers while operating effectively to keep rates as low as possible," said Mary Powell, Green Mountain Power President and Chief Executive Officer. "We have successfully controlled operating expenses under our direct control while significantly investing in projects to benefit customers in terms of reliability and generation without compromising our ability to provide services that our customers have come to expect. In fact, GMP operations and maintenance costs have remained about flat in two years while greatly expanding our system capabilities."

Starting this month, Vermont Business Magazine will begin running full interviews online (VIDEO). The first of these is with Bob Young, CEO of Central Vermont Public Service. The occasion for this piece is his recent announcement that he will step down next May.
As Young explains in the interview, there is much to do between now and then and that includes finding his replacement.
Young also talks at length about Vermont Yankee. He says that Entergy will have to make a decision on whether to close the plant as early as this winter, in part because it has a substantial fuel buy to make if the plant is to remain in operation beyond the expiration of its license in 2012.

Captive insurance professionals from throughout the United States and around the world will gather in Burlington, Vermont for the world's largest captive insurance conference, August 10 - 12, 2010 at the Sheraton Hotel and Conference Center and the UVM Davis Center. The event is the 25th Annual Conference hosted by the Vermont Captive Insurance Association.

The City of St. Albans now has a state-designated Growth Center, a move that will help streamline permitting for future development and pave the way for additional benefits to support development in the town.
The Vermont Downtown Development Board approved the city’s Growth Center plan at its meeting on Tuesday, setting the boundaries of the district roughly the same as the city limits.
“Growth Center designation is a very important step for St. Albans,” said Kevin Dorn, Secretary of Commerce and Community Development and chairman of Vermont Downtown Development Board. “While the city might seem pretty well built out, there is in fact a lot of development opportunity on brownfield sites, infill, and underdeveloped sites.”
St. Albans becomes the sixth municipality to obtain growth center and joins Williston, Bennington, Colchester, Montpelier and Hartford.

Senator Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) Friday announced a new $1.4 million US Navy contract with General Electric Aviation for work in Rutland on additional components of the company’s F414-GE-400 engine used in the F/A-18E/F Super Hornet aircraft and the E/A-18G Growler aircraft. The full contract, for work performed in Rutland and at several other GE plants, amounts to $28,202,039 for purchase of six full engines, four engine fan modules, 14 engine high pressure combustion modules, and five combuster modules.
Leahy, a senior member of the Senate Appropriations Committee and of its Defense Subcommittee, which handles the Senate’s work in writing the annual Defense budget bill, last week joined GE Aviation employees here to tour major enhancements of the GE Aviation Rutland facility. The F414-GE-400 is one of many military and commercial engines produced by GE Aviation. The Rutland facility primarily produces jet engine blades and vanes.

Senator Bernie Sanders will host a series of town meetings across southern Vermont this weekend. These public forums will take place in Bennington, West Dover, and Putney on Saturday, July 31 and in Westminster, Springfield and Woodstock on Sunday, August 1. Sanders will also attend a public forum on health care reform in Bellows Falls.
Sanders and local leaders will discuss a variety of issues including the economy, health care, clean energy, and protecting society’s most vulnerable citizens.
These events are free and open to the public. The public will be offered the opportunity to ask questions and make comments.

SATURDAY, JULY 31, 2010
What: Town Meeting and Brunch in Bennington

Who: Senator Bernie Sanders

When: 9 a.m. brunch, 9:30 meeting, Saturday, July 31, 2010

Where: Second Congregational Church, 115 Hillside Street, Bennington

What: Town Meeting in West Dover

Who: Senator Bernie Sanders

Senator Patrick Leahy and the Vermont Congressional Delegation ‘ Leahy (D), Senator Bernie Sanders (I) and Representative Peter Welch (D) -- announced Thursday that the Secretary of the Air Force has selected the Vermont National Guard to be the first Air Guard unit to base the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter. The Air Force announced that Burlington is one of two preferred choices for F-35 operations, along with Hill Air Force Base in northern Utah, and that Luke Air Force Base in Arizona is the top pick for training. Final basing decisions will be made later in the ongoing selection process. Under the current production schedule, the planes could begin arriving in Vermont in the 2018 federal fiscal year.

Vermont Attorney General William H Sorrell and the attorneys general of 11 other states today urged the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to adopt a uniform nutritional label for the front of food packages, to ensure that consumers have access to easily understandable and fully transparent information on how healthy the products actually are. “Consumers should have clear information to make healthy food choices,” said Attorney General Sorrell.
The position of the Attorneys General was set out in comments filed with the FDA in connection with that agency’s proposal to establish a national front-of-package food labeling program. They are consistent with preliminary recommendations from Attorney General Sorrell’s ongoing initiative on obesity in Vermont.

Subaru Rally Team USA unveiled its new 2011 Impreza WRX STI rally cars to journalists in dramatic fashion at the Pala Raceway in Pala, California. The team, including Vermont SportsCar of Colchester, Vermont, provided full speed ride-alongs to journalists during practice for the ESPN Summer X Games 16. Travis Pastrana, Dave Mirra and new teammate, European Rallycross Champion Sverre Isachsen, demonstrated that they were ready for the SuperRally X Game competitions, being held at the Los Angeles Coliseum on Saturday, July 31st.
"The team has worked very hard to get these vehicles ready for the X Games," said Pastrana. "The competition is going to be tough but I am confident that our STIs will be the cars to beat."