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City Market, Onion River Co-op donated the proceeds from its 12th annual Holiday Tree sale to the Committee on Temporary Shelter (COTS). City Market staff presented the check totaling $8,500 to COTS Director of Development Kim Borsavage. The annual tree sale to benefit COTS has been held at the Co-op for the past 12 years, bringing the total donation to over $52,000.

Governor Douglas this afternoon gave his final State of the State address before the Vermont Legislature. His budget address will come next week. But most of this speech dealt with the budget and the economy. Certainly the centerpiece of this speech concerned public education reform.

The State of Vermont licensed 39 new captive insurance companies in 2009 as it approaches the 900-license milestone, according to data released by the Vermont Department of Banking, Insurance, Securities and Health Care Administration (BISHCA). Despite challenging economic conditions, Vermont licensed its 6th highest tally of captives in its 29-year history.

This past June a television production team came to Vermont to scout out locations, food producers and chefs for a series of Vermont-based episodes of celebrity Chef Emeril Lagasse's Emeril Green fresh, whole foods cooking show airing on Planet Green, a division of Discovery Communications.

The Two Rivers-Ottauquechee Regional Commission (TRORC) was recently awarded a $235,000 economic development grant from the US Department of Commerce, Economic Development Administration (EDA) to support the region’s businesses in minimizing economic dislocations resulting in natural or man-made disasters.

Governor Jim Douglas will deliver his final State of the State message to a joint session of the General Assembly today (Thursday) at 2 pm at the State House. The governor will focus on ways to strengthen the Vermont economy to help employers create jobs. He will also propose reforms needed to curb property tax increases.

According to information supplied by Vermont Yankee, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission recently completed a security inspection at the plant involving a review of selected procedures and records, observed activities, and interviewed personnel and identified one finding which they describe as a non-cited violation of very low security significance.

During a tour Wednesday of the firm s newly expanded manufacturing facility in Essex, Senator Patrick Leahy and Revision Eyewear CEO Jonathan Blanshay Wednesday announced $2.4 million in additional funding has been made available for the U.S. Army to supply soldiers with state-of-the-art protective goggles.

The Commission on the Design and Funding of Retirement and Retiree Health Benefit Plans for State Employees and Teachers has released their final recommendations to the Governor and the General Assembly. The report notes that required state pension contributions will increase from $73.5 million this year to $105.1 million in fiscal year 2011.

A record 83,342 or 1 in 8 Vermonters currently rely on 3SquaresVT (formerly Food Stamps) to buy their monthly food and participation continues to rise. 3SquaresVT is designed to be a nutrition supplement for limited-income Vermonters; yet as the economic recession lingers and jobs remain scarce, more Vermonters count the benefits as their only source of support.

A $4.8 million economic stimulus grant awarded today to the Central Vermont Community Action Council will train about 2,400 Vermonters under a green jobs program authored by US Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT). The Vermont grant – one of 25 announced by the U.S. Department of Labor – was among the largest awarded under the $100 million Energy Training Partnership program.

Reconstruction of an historic hydro-electric facility that has produced renewable energy for 81 years has been completed. Central Vermont Public Service has finished extensive improvements to the company s Arnold Falls hydroelectric project, located on Mill Street along the Passumpsic River in St Johnsbury.