Current News

Governor Douglas today announced the appointment of David H Tucker as Commissioner of the Department of Information and Innovation and Chief Information Officer for the State of Vermont. Tucker has, for the last four years, served as Deputy Commissioner of the Department. Tucker replaces Tom Murray who recently resigned to take the position of Executive Director of the Vermont Telecommunications Authority.
“David’s experiences at DII and in state government broadly make him specially qualified to act as the State’s CIO during this critical time,” said Governor Douglas. “David’s leadership skills are essential as we look to IT for ways to deliver government services more effectively and affordably.”
“I want to thank Governor Douglas for this new opportunity to serve Vermont,” said Tucker. “I’m looking forward to continuing the good work that DII is doing to make state government more efficient.”

Central Vermont Public Service reported consolidated earnings of $18.6 million, or $1.57 per diluted share of common stock, for the first nine months of 2009, compared to $16.4 million, or $1.55 per diluted share of common stock, for the same period last year. CV reported third-quarter 2009 consolidated earnings of $6.2 million, or 52 cents per diluted share of common stock, compared to $6.5 million, or 61 cents per diluted share of common stock, for the same period last year.
Details
-- Year-to-date earnings of $18.6 million, or $1.57 per diluted share, 2 cents higher than last year - $4.3 million decrease in operating revenue - $6.4 million decrease in purchased power expense - $4.8 million increase in Other operating expenses - $1.0 million increase in equity in earnings of affiliates - $2.4 million increase in other income, net

The southern Vermont based weekly newspaper The Messenger will be renamed The Green Mountain Outlook following the threat of a lawsuit from Pennsylvanian publishing company the Sample Media Group.
The Messenger was the successor of the weekly paper Message For The Week, which folded when its owner, the Twin Sate Valley Media Network/Eagle Times, went bankrupt in July. Recently, the defunct Eagle Times was purchased the Sample Media Group, which subsequently made plans to return the Message For The Week to publication. The Sample Media Group requested through a Pittsburgh-based lawyer that the Messenger desist from using their name or face legal action.

The Southwestern Vermont Health Care Board of Trustees has named Thomas A Dee as the new Chief Executive Officer for the health system, which includes Southwestern Vermont Medical Center in Bennington. The board made the announcement in a series of meetings Wednesday with doctors and employees. Dee, who most recently was president and CEO of Benedictine Hospital in Kingston, NY, is expected to begin work on December 1.
“The board had a number of highly-qualified candidates for this position,” explained Dr. Michael Brady, the board’s vice-chair and head of the CEO search committee. Brady said that the search committee considered more than 300 candidates and eventually narrowed the list to six who were interviewed.

US Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) introduced legislation that would make the Treasury Department identify and break up financial institutions that are “too big to fail.”
“If an institution is too big to fail, it is too big to exist,” Sanders said. “We should break them up so they are no longer in a position to bring down the entire economy. We should end the concentration of ownership that has resulted in just four huge financial institutions holding half the mortgages in America, controlling two-thirds of the credit cards, and amassing 40 percent of all deposits.”

As part of Borders Group's ongoing strategy to right-size its Waldenbooks Specialty Retail segment and emerge with a smaller, more profitable mall chain in fiscal 2010, the retailer will close approximately 200 mall stores in January, leaving approximately 130 mall-based locations open. A list of mall stores expected to close is included below. The list is not final and is subject to change pending finalization of agreements over the coming weeks. The announcement regarding the mall business does not include Borders superstores or the company's seasonal mall kiosk business, which includes over 500 Day by Day Calendar Company units, among other mall-based retail concepts. Included in the closings are two in Vermont, the Waldenbooks stores in the Berlin Mall and in the Diamond Run Mall in Rutland.

In a milestone victory resulting from years of work by the US organic community to address known fraud in the organic marketplace, the National Organic Standards Board (NOSB) has voted 12 to 1 for the USDA National Organic Program (NOP) to enforce the law for organic personal care just like they do for organic food. This would mean shampoos and other body care products that claim to be organic, but are not certified, would be forced to drop the organic claims made on their products or improve formations to meet organic standards. Meanwhile, the group is urging consumers to buy "honest" organic brands, including Vermont Soap from Middlebury.

The second quarter of 2009 has more states recording positive growth, according to e-forecasting.com. It was just last quarter where NO states had positive growth, and back to 2008Q4 only one state had recorded positive growth: Washington DC with 0.3% growth. In the second quarter of 2009, we see that 25 states recorded positive growth. North Dakota beat out all other states in terms of GDP growth in the second quarter. With a 6.1% growth rate over the previous quarter, it is double the growth of the runner-up: Mississippi. Rounding out the top five are: Vermont, Montana and Washington, DC.
Even with this positive news, the national average growth in the second quarter was –0.7%. That being said, 32 states managed to improve over the previous quarter. On the bottom, West Virginia experienced heavy declines, shrinking 9.5% compared with the first quarter.

Green Mountain Children’s Museum (GMCM) announced today that it is withdrawing from the Moran redevelopment project on Burlington's waterfront.
“We are disappointed to have to make this decision. GMCM continues to support the Moran project and firmly believes it will be a tremendous asset to the entire region,” commented Mia Graham Beer, GMCM Board Chair. “Together, the City and GMCM have worked diligently to develop a financial scenario that would make GMCM’s continued participation in the Moran feasible. The City has done a good job of holding down project costs, however, the economic climate has changed since the project began and there are many variables beyond either party’s control. As a start-up non-profit, it is especially vital that we acknowledge those changes. We have therefore decided to seek an alternate location.”

The Vermont Chamber of Commerce recently returned from a very successful 12-day Trade Mission to the Far East with Governor Jim Douglas, officials from the Agency of Commerce and Community Development, and Vermont business executives. The Vermont Chamber, which helped organize the trip met with top leaders and investors in Shanghai, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Hangzhou to entice them to invest in Vermont companies.
“Vermont businesses interested in foreign investment will benefit greatly from the EB-5 program. It will serve as a critical tool in helping Vermont businesses recover from the difficult economic times we are in,” said Betsy Bishop, President of the Vermont Chamber of Commerce. “This Trade Mission has provided valuable networking opportunities for some of our member businesses looking for foreign investment dollars to help grow their businesses.”

The Vermont Agency of Transportation this morning closed Route 108 through Smugglers Notch. VTrans does not know yet if the road is closed for the winter. It will assess the roadway if/when the weather warms up to see if it can be reopened and inform the public at that time. Motorists at this time should assume the Notch Road will be closed at least through Friday and likely through the weekend.
Source: John Zicconi, Vermont Agency of Transportation

Businesses looking to land lucrative contracts with state and federal governments can get a free lesson next week without ever leaving their offices. The Vermont Chamber of Commerce and Vermont Procurement Technical Assistance Center (PTAC) – a part of the state Department of Economic, Housing and Community Development – are teaming up to present a free webinar on Thursday, November 12 from 11 to 11:30 a.m. to teach businesses the ins and outs of government contracting.
“Many businesses just assume there isn’t any way for them to sell their products or services to state and federal agencies,” said Bill Masterson, director of the Vermont Procurement Technical Assistance Center, part of the Vermont Department of Economic, Housing and Community Development.