News
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.
Vermonters overwhelmingly want to conserve wildlife habitat such as deeryards, trout streams, and bear habitat.
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.
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.
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.
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 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.
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.
Yankee Magazine’s Travel Guide to New England, on newsstands April 26, has named 39 local establishments in Vermont as ‘Best of New England ‘ Editors’ Choice’ winners for 2011. This designation is awarded by Yankee’s editors and contributors, who name select restaurants, lodgings, and attractions in New England to the exclusive list.
Today, the US Department of Housing and Urban Development awarded $1,430,000.00 to the Vermont Housing and Conservation Board, a grantee of HIV-AIDS housing programs in Vermont. This supportive housing grant will offer critically needed housing and support services to extremely low-income persons living with HIV/AIDs.
Berkshire Hills Bancorp, Inc. (NASDAQ: BHLB) reported a 25% increase in first quarter core earnings to $4.2 million in 2011, compared to $3.3 million in 2010. First quarter core earnings per share also increased by 25% to $0.30 in 2011, compared to $0.24in 2010.
Long heralded as a green alternative to fossil fuel, corn-based ethanol has become a costly distraction that chiefly benefits corporate, political and lobbying interests rather than the American public, the environment, small farmers and rural communities, according to a new report by Vermont Law School’s Institute for Energy and the Environment (IEE) and Food & Water Watch, a Washing