Current News

Charlotte Vermont to Essex New York Ferry Crossing is closed due to record high water. The Grand Isle, Vermont to Cumberland Head, New York Crossing is running as scheduled 24-7. The temporary ferry crossing at Chimney Point, Vermont, to Crown Point, New York, is running as scheduled 24-7.
All Lake Champlain Ferry Customers are encouraged to sign up for our text and e-mail notification system at www.ferries.com.

Vermont Law School Professor Cheryl Hanna, a Constitutional law expert, offers a post-argument analysis of Sorrell v. IMS Health Inc., which was argued before the US Supreme Court on April 26, 2011. Hanna attended the arguments with several students from her Constitutional law class.
A lawyer is only as good as the law that the Legislature hands her, and it was clear after yesterday's US Supreme Court argument in Sorrell v. IMS Health Inc. that Vermont Assistant Attorney General Bridget Asay had a not-so-good law to defend. The state is fortunate to have an assistant attorney general as skilled as Asay. But nothing she could have said or done would likely have saved Vermont's physician data mining law from a near certain death.

Vermont Electric Cooperative (VEC)experienced widespread outages throughout the service territory as thunderstorms dumped heavy rain and lightning Tuesday evening and early Wednesday morning. Approximately 10,000 customers had brief power interruptions, most lasting less than 15 seconds, when lightning struck transmission lines. For about 3,600 customers, outages were longer in duration ranging from thirty minutes to a few hours.
Lightning strikes hit VEC transmission lines, along transmission lines owned by other distribution utilities that feed the VEC system. Nearly all outages were restored by midnight at which time weather conditions became more settled. VEC members from Grand Isle to the Northeast Kingdom were impacted.

Former Vermont Governors Madeleine M. Kunin and James Douglas will participate in a symposium and panel discuss at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, April 27, in Bentley Hall Room 207 at Johnson State College.
The two distinguished political personalities will reflect on their life in public service during a 90-minute panel discussion moderated by JSC senior Matthew Burgess, with questions posed by a four-student panel.
‘There will be an array of questions designed to engage the audience and elicit stories from the past governors about their experiences in public life,’ says Burgess, who is coordinating the event as part of his Senior Seminar in Political Science course. ‘It should be good opportunity to hear some new stories from our former state leaders.’

Governor Peter Shumlin’s appointment of Chuck Ross as secretary of agriculture won praise from Vermont farmers as well as political insiders. Ross, 55, is well known for his work as Senator Patrick Leahy’s state director for the past 16 years. He also served six years in the Vermont Legislature as a representative from Hinesburg, where he has worked as a farmer on his family’s homestead.

Discussion with Chuck Ross, Vermont Agriculture Secretary Part 1

Vermonters overwhelmingly want to conserve wildlife habitat such as deeryards, trout streams, and bear habitat. Cities and towns have made noticeable strides in improving attention to wildlife habitat and natural resource conservation, and nearly every municipality recognizes wildlife habitat as an important local resource, according to a recent report issued by the Vermont Fish and Wildlife Department and the Vermont Natural Resources Council.
The report, Wildlife Considerations in Local Planning ‘ An Evaluation of a Decade of Progress in Vermont, was based on a detailed assessment of all municipal plans and related zoning bylaws and subdivision regulations adopted by Vermont communities.

While most towns recommend the conservation of wildlife habitat in their municipal plans, the report documents a significant lag between plan recommendations and actual implementation of binding standards in local bylaws.

US Secretary Ken Salazar has announced approval of the first-ever Construction and Operation Plan (COP) for a U.S. offshore wind energy project, granting Cape Wind Associates the official go-ahead to begin construction on the over-100-turbine project across 25 square miles of Nantucket Sound. When complete, the project will produce enough electricity to supply hundreds of thousands of American homes.
The American Wind Energy Association (AWEA) congratulates Cape Wind and the Department of the Interior for the progress it has made in developing the American offshore wind industry.

There were 1,653 new regular benefit claims for Unemployment Insurance last week, an increase of 398 from the week before. Altogether 12,253 new and continuing claims were filed, an increase of 303 from a week ago and 1,636 fewer than a year earlier. The Department also processed 2,008 First Tier claims for benefits under Emergency Unemployment Compensation, 2008 (EUC08), 4 fewer than a week ago. In addition, there were 861 Second Tier claims for benefits processed under the EUC08 program, which is an increase of 5 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
Vermont's unemployment rate continued to fall. The March 2011 rate was 5.4 percent. See storyHERE.

by Anne Galloway, www.vtdigger.org April 27, 2011 In a historic vote on Tuesday, the Vermont Legislature created the enabling legislation for a first-in-the-nation universal health care system. The state Senate approved the visionary plan for a single-payer system in a 21-9 vote after four hours of debate. The split was largely along party lines.
Gov. Peter Shumlin, a Democrat, campaigned on a promise to create a single-payer system in Vermont that would contain health care costs and give all of the state’s residents universal access to medical care. On Tuesday, Shumlin made good on the first step toward fulfilling that promise, and just five hours after the Senate vote, he marked the legislative victory in an appearance on MSNBC’s ‘The Rachel Maddow Show.’

Green Mountain College announced today that it will offer a distance-learning master's degree in Sustainable Food Systems (MSFS), which builds on the surging interest in food and agriculture issues in the U.S. and on the success of the College's undergraduate major in sustainable agriculture. The MSFS program has received accreditation from the New England Association of Schools and Colleges and GMC plans to launch its first cohort in January, 2012.
Over thirty undergraduate students already focus their academic work on food systems at the College. Four grants over the past three years totaling over $250,000 have enhanced facilities and supported faculty research capacity at the College's Cerridwen Farm and the adjoining Solar Harvest Center.

The Vermont farmstead cheese and micro dairy supply and equipment company, is expanding and announces the lease of a 2000 square foot facility in Royalton, Vermont. Bob-White Systems North, located on Waterman Road, just off Exit 3 off I-89, is the new location for research, product development, engineering, and manufacturing of the Bob-White Systems Low Impact Pasteurization (LIP) System which will bring gentle milk pasteurization direct to micro dairy farms. The new facility will also be the location for further product innovations for micro dairy farmers and farmstead cheese makers.

Vermont Electric Cooperative’s (VEC) board of directors rejected a 20-year power offer from Entergy to purchase electricity produced at the Entergy Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant at below market prices. Directors voted 9 to 1 to reject the offer at a board meeting on Tuesday afternoon at VEC headquarters in Johnson.
Following an overview of the proposed contract by VEC staff, VEC directors heard presentations from Arnie Gundersen, an independent nuclear engineering and safety expert from Fairewinds Associates, and Michael Colomb, Vermont Yankee site vice president, lwho presented their respective views and answered questions from the board. The meeting was also attended by several VEC members who provided comments during the meeting.