Current News

RidgeviewTel, a full-service broadband communications company, is helping rural Vermont residents map their broadband needs at the Vermont Dairy Festival in Enosburg Falls this weekend, June 5 through 7. In addition to participating in the popular parade, RidgeviewTel will have a tent in the festival's concessions area equipped with access to http://weneedbroadband.com, a dial-up friendly site where festival-goers from communities under- or unserved by broadband can map their location in a system that compiles their demand for broadband to attract service and even federal stimulus dollars.

Despite receiving funds from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, state fiscal conditions deteriorated for nearly every state during fiscal 2009, according to the National Governors Association (NGA) and the National Association of State Budget Officers (NASBO). The nationwide shortfall is expected to be $200 billion over the next three years.
In the biannual report released today, The Fiscal Survey of States, NGA and NASBO found the economic recession, which began in December 2007, has significantly dampened the outlook for upcoming fiscal years, with more than half of states experiencing negative budget growth in fiscal 2009 and nearly three-quarters recommending fiscal 2010 budgets with negative growth.

The Vermont Legislature returned to work Wednesday before finally adjourning the special session by passing a number of changes notably identified by Governor Douglas as problematic. While not addressing the governor’s concerns over total spending and tax levels, the Legislature did agree to others, in particular with the impending deficit in the Unemployment Insurance Trust Fund and the timing of when the increase in the Capital Gains tax would begin. While these concessions did not prevent the governor from vetoing the state budget, they could have helped the Democratic leadership muster enough votes to override the veto Tuesday.
The state budget companion bill (H 442) included:
1. Postpone Capital Gains change to July 1, 2009The effective date of the capital gains changes were changed from January 1, 2009 to July 1, 2009. This change will be accounted for with a partial income tax rate reduction in 2009 and a full rate reduction in January 2010.

US Representative Peter Welch called on Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki Thursday morning to reconsider the outsourcing of pension claims and inquiry call functions from the White River Junction VA Benefits Office. Recently, the VA has moved to centralize Veterans Benefits Administration functions to out-of-state call centers and processing centers. Rather than receiving timely and personalized service from the White River Junction office, Vermont veterans have found their inquiries and certain claims rerouted to impersonal, centralized facilities.
Welch spoke with Sec. Shinseki about the issue at a meeting of the House Military Veterans Caucus, of which Welch is a member.

Vermont Secretary of State Deb Markowitz, along with Jason Karlawish, MD, Associate Professor of Medicine and Medical Ethics, University of Pennsylvania; and Charles Sabatino, Director of the American Bar Association s Commission on Law and Aging, released the results of a study of Vermont s mobile polling pilot project.
During the 2008 general election, the Vermont Secretary of State s Office joined with the University of Pennsylvania and the American Bar Association to develop a pilot program where trained election workers brought ballots to residential care facilities prior to the election to permit eligible residents to register and vote. Residents who were unable to vote independently were offered assistance from bipartisan pairs of election workers who had been trained to work with elderly voters, and in particular, voters who have cognitive impairment.

What do these products all have in common?

Antibodies for the diagnosis of cardiovascular and infectious diseases,
Microscope imaging systems to help researchers find cures to devastating diseases such as Alzheimer s, Parkinson s and Autism,
Diagnostic test devices for the prevention of heart attack, stroke and the complications of diabetes,
Precision optics to help diagnose cancers and assist genetic research,
Infusion syringe pumps for automated medication delivery.

The Vermont Agency of Transportation (VTrans) on June 10 will begin reconstructing Springfield’s Community Center Bridge, which is located at the intersection of South Street, Clinton Street and Route 11 (Main Street) at the south end of Springfield village. Eastbound traffic, as a result, will be detoured away from the bridge.
Beginning June 10, cars and light trucks eastbound on Route 11 will be detoured from the intersection of Main and Park Streets to the intersection of South and Clinton Streets. The detour will use Park, Mineral and South Streets as a replacement for Route 11 East, but this detour will have a weight restriction of 24,000 pounds.
Westbound traffic on Route11 will continue to use the bridge and Main Street during the reconstruction. A sidewalk will be provided for pedestrians throughout the duration of the project.
The affected streets and changes to them are:

Conair Corporation and Keurig, Incorporated, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Green Mountain Coffee Roasters, Inc. (NASDAQ: GMCR), today announced entering into a licensing and distribution agreement that will enable Conair to develop, market and sell, in the United States and Canada, single-cup coffeemakers under the Cuisinart brand. The launch is currently planned for spring 2010. The products will be co-branded Cuisinart® and Keurig® and will be designed to work with the 200+ varieties of gourmet coffees, teas and hot cocoa packaged in Keurig s patented K-Cup® portion packs.
Cuisinart holds the number one brand position in the coffeemaker category in the department and home specialty channels.

The Montshire Museum of Science in Norwich has received a NASA grant worth $492,704. NASA has selected 13 informal education providers to share $6.9 million in grants through the Competitive Program for Science Museums and Planetariums. The Montshire program is called, The Dynamic Earth: You Have to See It to Believe It! The five-year grant is intended to produce a comprehensive and high-quality Earth Science program at the Montshire Museum that supports state-wide goals for learning in science.
Participating organizations include museums, planetariums, Challenger Centers, aquariums, and other institutions of informal education. Selected projects will partner with NASA's Museum Alliance, an Internet-based, nationwide network of more than 350 science centers, planetariums, museums, aquariums, zoos, observatory visitor centers, NASA visitor centers, nature centers and park visitor centers.

City Market customers helped to donate 530lbs of food to the Chittenden Emergency Food Shelf at the first of three Fill a Truck for Hunger food drives. The Vermont Foodbank was on hand at the Co-op to collect food from 1:00 to 6:00 p.m. on Monday, June 1. A variety of non-perishable food items were collected and donated to the Chittenden Emergency Food Shelf.
While we don t often think of summer as a time of high food insecurity, as children recess for the summer, many families are left scrabbling to fill the void left when school meals are no longer available, said John Sayles, Vermont Foodbank CEO. Hunger knows no season, so programs like Grow an Extra-Row and the City Market Fill a Truck offer much needed assistance for Vermonters in need of food.

FairPoint Communications recently donated $1,250 to Everybody Wins! Vermont. The donation was made to recognize the volunteer efforts of FairPoint employee Beth Fastiggi of Burlington. Beth began volunteering as a Reading Mentor for Everybody Wins! Vermont in 2003 and currently serves as its Board President.
During her six years as a reading mentor, Beth has worked with several children. This year, she has been spending Wednesday morning breakfast with her friend, Teko at J.J. Flynn School in Burlington. As a board member since 2003, Beth has also been closely involved with the growth and success of the organization.

Week Ending May 30, 2009. There were 932 new regular benefit claims for Unemployment Insurance last week, a decrease of 26 from the week before. Altogether 15,020 new and continuing claims were filed, 366 less than a week ago and 7,590 more than a year earlier. The Department also processed 2,688 First Tier claims for benefits under Emergency Unemployment Compensation, 2008 (EUC08), 59 more than a week ago. In addition, there were 661 Second Tier claims for benefits processed under the EUC08 program which is a decrease of 434 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