News

The Senate voted late this afternoon for a 14-week extension of unemployment insurance benefits. The extension would help about 1,800 Vermonters whose benefits were to have run out by the end of this year.
“Winter is coming and in Vermont and around the country we simply cannot leave families in the lurch without any source of income,” said Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT).

The Vermont Chamber of Commerce is pleased to announce its 2010 Board of Directors and Executive Committee. Mark Saba, Owner of the Formula Ford Auto Group was elected as the Board Chair. Saba replaces Rick Milliken, Vice President and General Manager of the Doubletree Burlington Hotel.

Former State Senator Matt Dunne of Hartland announced Tuesday that he will be a Democratic candidate for Governor of Vermont. He is emphasizing his business credentials in what promises to be a heavily contested primary.

There were 1,138 new regular benefit claims for Unemployment Insurance last week, a decrease of 86 from the week before, as filings fell for the first time since mid-September. The September Vermont unemployment rate was 6.7 percent, down one-tenth from August. However, economists believe that it will rise to over 7 percent by the end of this year.

There is an unfamiliar sound in the Mount Snow Valley, it’s the sound of silence. With Peak Resorts investing $9 million in state of the art fan guns, gone are the days of loud air-water equipment, in is the quiet hum of progress. Mount Snow’s veteran team of snowmakers hit the slopes Tuesday night putting North America’s finest fleet of snow making machines to work.

Level 3 Communications, Inc has announced that it has increased the capacity of its communications network in Vermont and has expanded the number of businesses that can take advantage of the company’s far-reaching fiber-optic backbone. Additionally, the company has named Tracy Guy-Davis as Level 3’s general manager for New England.

As Vermont families struggle to make ends meet, health care often is neglected due to inadequate health insurance or no insurance at all. In response to this health care crisis, the Vermont State Employees Credit Union (VSECU) recently donated $10,000 to the Vermont Coalition of Clinics for the Uninsured to give more Vermonters access to quality health care.

General Dynamics Armament and Technical Products has been awarded a $17 million contract to produce gun systems for the Phalanx Block 1B Close-In Weapon System (CIWS) and the Centurion Land-Based Phalanx Weapon System by Raytheon Missile Systems (NYSE: RTN) of Louisville, KY. General Dynamics Armament and Technical Products is a business unit of General Dynamics (NYSE: GD).

TPI, the largest sourcing data and advisory firm in the world and a unit of Information Services Group, Inc. (ISG) (Nasdaq: III, IIIIU, IIIIW), an industry-leading information-based services company, today announced it has been selected to advise the State of Vermont on using IT more efficiently and cost-effectively.

Bruegger's Bakery-Cafe, based in Burlington, Vermont, is teaming up with the Marine Toys for Tots Foundation to meet the dramatic increase in requests for toys this holiday season and to brighten the lives of less fortunate children across the US.

Citizens Bank, the Burlington Free Press, Vermont Lake Monsters, Campus Kitchen and City Market partnered for the fourth year in a Kids CAN Help food drive to help raise awareness about hunger in Vermont and the year-round struggle for many families in our communities.

The first year of the recession hit hard in Vermont's private sector, especially in construction and manufacturing. About 6 percent of private sector jobs have disappeared since the recession started nearly two years ago. But the losses have also spread to the public sector in 2009, as state government made cuts to reduce state spending.