Current News

Weekly unemployment insurance claims fell for the fourth consecutive week, showing nearly 5,000 fewer regular benefit claims compared to last year at this time. For the week of May 15, 2010, there were 850 new regular benefit claims for Unemployment Insurance, a decrease of 33 from the week before. This is the third consecutive week that there was a steep drop in new claims. Altogether 11,579 new and continuing claims were filed, a decrease of 922 from a week ago and 4,758 fewer than a year earlier. The Department also processed 3,773 First Tier claims for benefits under Emergency Unemployment Compensation, 2008 (EUC08), 112 fewer than a week ago. In addition, there were 2,522 Second Tier claims for benefits processed under the EUC08 program, which is a decrease of 93 from the week before. The Unemployment Weekly Report can be found at: http://www.vtlmi.info/.

It’s the smiling face of Walt Disney that dominates the stock certificate recently turned over to the Unclaimed Property Division of the Vermont State Treasurer’s Office. The certificate is for 147 shares of stock in the Walt Disney Company. The Treasurer’s Office hopes to locate the Vermonter who is the rightful owner of this financial property. If they do, the person will be smiling right along with Walt. The stock is valued at around $5,000.

The Vermont Public Service Board has approved new wind-power contracts for Vermont s two largest utilities. The PSB approved contracts between the utilities and Granite Reliable Wind, a 99-megawatt project in Coos County, New Hampshire. The project will include 33 three-megawatt wind towers. CVPS will purchase 30.3 percent of the output and GMP will purchase 25 percent of the output of the Granite Reliable Wind project for 20 years starting April 1, 2012. The project is expected to fulfill about 4 percent of each utility s annual energy needs.
We believe these contracts will provide an excellent blend of environmental benefits and relatively low-cost renewable energy, CVPS President Bob Young and GMP President Mary Powell said in a joint statement today. These contracts are in keeping with our historic commitment to green energy, and they extend our portfolios of renewables.

The board of directors of the Burlington law firm of Paul Frank + Collins P.C. are pleased to announce their unanimous election of S. Crocker Bennett, II to serve as firm President and CEO, effective June 7, 2010. Mr. Bennett will also serve as chairman of the firm’s Executive Management Committee where he has served as Senior Vice-President since 2002.
Mr. Bennett’s 32-year law practice focuses on the defense of physicians, hospitals and other health care providers in malpractice cases. He has attained Martindale-Hubbell’s highest rating (AV) and, in 1999, was honored with Fellowship in the American College of Trial Lawyers.
Mr. Bennett has been listed in Best Lawyers in America for 15 years.

As of today, Vermont Yankee reports that the refueling and maintenance outage is in Day 24 and work activities continue to noticeably wind down. Work at the cooling towers involving the third (and final) phase of the cooling tower upgrades continue, and the safety-related section of the west tower is complete. Also complete is the replacement of service water piping to “A” Emergency Diesel Generator and the routine cleaning of the intake bays.
VY completed leak testing of tubes in the main condenser through the use of specialized “dimple” plugs, designed to identify even the smallest of leaks. The source of power for the outage was transferred to the main transformer. This allowed the next phase of work on the new Vernon Substation to commence.

When Lyndon State College was accepted as one of five New England schools to participate in the Nellie Mae Education Foundation’s Project Compass initiative three years ago, the focus was on increasing the college retention and graduation rates of first-in-family, modest-income students (FFMI). In the midst of these efforts, project leaders discovered that there is very little information about the specific needs of and best practices in serving rural students—a surprising discovery, given that one fifth of the nation’s public school students are enrolled in rural school districts. The college also realized that there are many more students capable of pursuing a post-secondary education than those who do and that the College could best serve these students by coordinating with local PK-12 education providers to create a regional PK-16 network.

Vermont Secretary of Administration Neale F Lunderville released the April 2010 General Fund Revenues today. April is the 10th month of fiscal year (FY) 2010. General Fund revenues totaled $134.84 million for April 2010, were +$9.52 million or +7.60% above the $125.31 million consensus revenue forecast for the month. These results pushed the year to date General Fund revenues of $883.28 million ahead of the year to date target by +$7.50 million, or +0.86%.
The monthly targets reflect the revised Fiscal Year 2010 Consensus Revenue Forecast approved by the Emergency Board at their January 13, 2010 meeting. Statutorily, the State is required to revise the Consensus Revenue Forecast two times per year, in January and July; the Emergency Board may schedule interim revisions if deemed necessary.

Governor Jim Douglas today announced that the state has approved an emergency request for funds to help rebuild the historic Anchor Seafood Restaurant in Wilmington that was destroyed in a fire earlier this year at a ceremony at the site of the South Main Street structure. The Governor presented town officials with a check for $196,429 that will be used to help rebuild the restaurant in a 19th-century style that will blend in with the village’s Historic District.
“This is an important structure in Wilmington, both from a commercial and an historic standpoint,” Governor Douglas said. “The Anchor restaurant was an important employer and draw for tourists and residents alike, as well as providing rental housing in its upper floor.”
An historic preservation consultant will oversee the projected $818,000 reconstruction of the Greek Revival-style building, especially its façade, to ensure it fits in with the surrounding historic structures.

The Vermont Energy Partnership (VTEP) today released its latest issue brief, “Renewable Energy Sources in Vermont: A Status Report.” Authored by VTEP Communications Director Guy Page, the issue brief details Vermont’s current renewable power capacity and projects likely development in the near future. It also provides analysis about the benefits and challenges of renewable power and demand-side management in meeting Vermont’s 21st century energy needs.
Key finding of the document include:
· At present, instate renewable capacity totals an estimated 84 megawatts. It is reasonable to project that in the next five years an additional 95 megawatts of instate and regional renewable electricity sources may come online.
· Efficiency efforts have reduced the rate of growth of electrical consumption but have not significantly reduced net consumption from year to year; nor is reduced consumption likely to occur without major, as yet untried measures.

With a recent report from Law360 indicating that women make up on average just 19 percent of partners in law firms, Dinse/Knapp/McAndrew continues to exceed the national average with 42% female partnership in the firm. When compared to the firms included in the Best 50 Law Firms for Women, Dinse has significantly better female participation and a higher percentage of women lawyers, associates, equity partners, management/executive committee members, compensation committee members, and partners than any of these firms.

Average retail gasoline prices in Vermont have fallen 5.6 cents per gallon in the past week, averaging $2.88/g yesterday. This compares with the national average that has fallen 3.5 cents per gallon in the last week to $2.87/g, according to gasoline price website VermontGasPrices.com.
Including the change in gas prices in Vermont during the past week, prices yesterday were 59.3 cents per gallon higher than the same day one year ago and are 1.1 cents per gallon higher than a month ago. The national average has increased 0.4 cents per gallon during the last month and stands 58.4 cents per gallon higher than this day a year ago.
Source: VermontGasPrices.com. 5.17.2010

Green Mountain Power has received a Certificate of Public Good from the state of Vermont to build a nearly 1,000-panel solar array on property it owns in Berlin, Vermont. The project will generate 200 kilowatts of electricity, and is the largest permitted solar project in Vermont, GMP officials said.
"This project is an important part of our overall energy and climate strategy to increase the amount of renewable energy generation in our state," said Mary Powell, president and chief executive officer of Green Mountain Power. "Using renewables benefits our customers by supplying them with low-carbon emission, low-cost and highly reliable energy sources."
As part of this strategy, Green Mountain Power will soon file for approval of its Kingdom Community Wind project which will generate up to 63 megawatts of renewable wind power in Lowell, Vermont.