Current News

TD Bank, through the TD Charitable Foundation, recently donated a total of over $27,200 to local organizations in Chittenden County as part of the bank’s commitment to giving back to the community. The following organizations received a donation from the TD Charitable Foundation:
§ Cancer Patient Support Program, Inc., (CPSP) which provides professional support services to cancer patients and family members with the goal of enhancing the quality of life during the diagnosis, treatment and recovery process. CPSP will use the funds from the TD Charitable Foundation in support of free psychological services, nutritional counseling and an emergency fund for cancer patients and their families.

People's United Financial, Inc (Nasdaq: PBCT) today announced net income of $24.9 million, or $0.07 per share, for the fourth quarter of 2009, compared to $26.8 million, or $0.08 per share, for the third quarter of 2009, and $33.7 million, or $0.10 per share, for the fourth quarter of 2008. Fourth quarter 2009 earnings reflect a 3.19 percent net interest margin, unchanged from the third quarter of 2009, despite continued pressure associated with the historically low interest rate environment and the company's asset sensitive balance sheet, and a modest increase in non-interest expenses. For the year ended December 31, 2009, net income totaled $101.2 million, or $0.30 per share, compared to $137.8 million, or $0.42 per share, for 2008. People's is the parent company of Chittenden Bank.

The owner of the Brattleboro Reformer, Bennington Banner and more than 50 daily newspapers across the country, including the Denver Post and San Jose Mercury News will file for bankruptcy protection. Affiliated Media, Inc of Denver has announced that it has obtained the approval of its lenders for a financial restructuring of the company that will sharply reduce its debt, boost its cash flow and allow greater financial flexibility. The plan will be implemented in the near future through a "prepackaged" chapter 11 filing. This is a similar type of filing that FairPoint Communications recently undertook, in which it gives up most of the ownership of the company in exchange for significant debt reduction, but without a change in management.

The Vermont Department of Labor announced today that it has requested a $58 million advance on a line of credit from the US Treasury to pay unemployment benefits through the end of March 2010. Vermont is currently paying out more than $4 million a week in unemployment benefits and expects to deplete its unemployment trust fund in early February. The line of credit will enable the department to continue to pay benefits to Vermont’s unemployed workers.

The city of Montpelier will receive an $8 million grant for a wood-chip-fueled renewable energy project for the Statehouse and 175 other buildings in Vermont’s capital city. The project will install a combined heat and power district energy system fueled with wood chips harvested locally. The city estimates that 35 total net new jobs will directly and indirectly be created within the project’s first year. Senators Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and Patrick Leahy (D-VT) and Congressman Peter Welch (D-VT) announced the grant today.

FairPoint Communications has named Michael C. Reed, a 40-year veteran of the telecommunications industry, as Maine State President. In his new role, Reed will be responsible for regulatory matters, governmental relations, and economic development for FairPoint Communications in the Pine Tree State.
Reed has held a variety of positions that have given him hands-on experience in the industry, starting with his first job as an equipment installation technician with NYNEX. He has a top-to-bottom understanding of the telecommunications industry, combining his operational and technical background with over 20 years of frontline experience in external relations, including regulatory and legislative responsibilities. He most recently served as state government affairs manager for communications service provider TDS Communications, covering Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, New York and Pennsylvania.

KeyCorp (NYSE: KEY) today announced a fourthquarter net loss from continuing operations attributable to Key common shareholders of $258million, or $.30 per common share. These results compare to a net loss from continuingoperations attributable to Key common shareholders of $524 million, or $1.07 per commonshare, for the fourth quarter of 2008.During the fourth quarter, Key continued to increase its loan loss reserves by recording a$756 million provision for loan losses, which exceeded net charge-offs by $48 million. At theend of the quarter, Key’s allowance for loan losses was $2.5 billion, or 4.31% of total loans, upfrom $1.6 billion, or 2.24%, one year ago. The loss for the current quarter is largely the result ofan increase in the provision for loan losses, write-downs of certain commercial real estate relatedinvestments, the provision for losses on lending-related commitments and costs associated withother real estate owned (“OREO”).

Speaker Smith and Senate President Pro Tem Peter Shumlin, today called on the Vermont Department of Health to conduct onsite independent tests of the water at the Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Plant. Since the original discovery of tritium was found two weeks ago, the concentrations of the radioactive material have increased from 17,000 to 22,300 picocuries per liter in the first test well. News broke yesterday that levels of tritium were also discovered in a second test well. However, today a source has informed the legislative leaders that Entergy Louisiana believes that this test was a false positive and that the second well contains no tritium. In addition, the leaders were informed that a trench at the site has been tested and found to have tritium at 1 to 2 million picocuries per liter – 100 times the level deemed acceptable by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. The tests are being conducted by a contractor who is hired and paid by Entergy Louisiana. “Since Vermonters hav

Union Bankshares,Inc (Nasdaq:UNB) today announced Net Income for the fourth quarter of 2009 was $1.28 million or $0.29 per share compared to $1.34 million or $0.30 per share for 2008. Net income for the year ended December 31, 2009 was $5.23 million or $1.17 per share compared to $5.11 million or $1.14 per share for the same period in 2008. Results for 2009 reflect a year to year increase in net interest income of $379 thousand or 2.2% and in net income of $143 thousand or 2.8%. The refinancing of loans by customers and the sale of the majority of those qualified residential loans into the secondary market to mitigate interest rate risk drove the increase in noninterest income of $1.2 million or 27.5%. The increase in FDIC insurance costs from $87 thousand to $684 thousand from 2008 to 2009 was a major factor in noninterest expenses rising to$16.4 million for 2009 from $15.4 million in 2008, or a 9.24% increase.

Earth Turbines, Inc, Vermont's only manufacturer of small scale grid-connected wind and solar tracking systems, announces a corporate name change to AllEarth Renewables, Inc.
"Our company is dedicated to developing new wind and solar technologies," says David Blittersdorf, CEO and president of AllEarth Renewables. "We want to be sure that our corporate name reflects this larger focus for the future." Since founding Earth Turbines in 2005, Blittersdorf has lead a team of engineers dedicated to designing rugged and reliable grid-connected renewable energy systems that help homeowners and businesses realize the dream of generating electricity with local, renewable energy. Much of what was learned while testing and refining the Earth Turbine 2500 informed the development of the AllSun Tracker dual-axis solar system, which was introduced in May of 2009.

Vermont Business Roundtable chair, Bill Stritzler, Managing Director of Smugglers’ Notch Resort, has announced the election of three Vermont CEOs to three-year terms on the Board of Directors. The new directors assumed their roles during the Roundtable’s Annual Membership meeting on January 14, 2010. The new directors include: Leon Berthiaume, General Manager, St. Albans Cooperative Creamery, Inc. (St. Albans); Dave Finney, President, Champlain College (Burlington); and Rob Simpson, President and CEO, Brattleboro Retreat (Brattleboro).

Weekly unemployment claims fell for the third two consecutive weeks, reversing a trend indicated at the end of 2009. This also follows an end-of-the-year spike in new claims. Initial claims are still higher than last summer, but are now tracking lower than a year ago, both in initial claims and overall claims for unemployment benefits. For the week of January 16, 2010, there were 1,266 new regular benefit claims for Unemployment Insurance last week, a decrease of 163 from the week before. Altogether 15,052 new and continuing claims were filed, a decrease of 733 from a week ago and 1,358 fewer than a year earlier. The Department also processed 5,006 First Tier claims for benefits under Emergency Unemployment Compensation, 2008 (EUC08), 64 more than a week ago. In addition, there were 3,168 Second Tier claims for benefits processed under the EUC08 program, which is an increase of 137 from the week before.