News

By a vote of 76 to 22, the Senate today passed and sent to President Obama legislation to provide $350 million in emergency assistance for hard-pressed dairy farmers. The House last night approved the same $121 billion agriculture spending bill for the 2010 budget year.

The Vermont Student Assistance Corporation (VSAC) has renewed its agreement with TIAA-CREF Tuition Financing, Inc. (TFI) to manage the Vermont Higher Education Investment Plan (VHEIP) — Vermont’s official 529 college savings plan — and is offering several enhancements to benefit Vermont families.

Congressman Peter Welch and Vermont country store owner Kathy Miller urged the House Committee on Financial Services Thursday to crack down on unfair credit card swipe fees paid by small businesses.

The US Labor Department has issued a ruling that will result in an additional $1.45 million in back wages for federal contract workers in St Albans and Essex Junction. The ruling affects 237 contract workers employed by CSC at the Vermont Service Center of the US Department of Homeland Security US Citizenship and Immigration Services from November of 2005 to December of 2007.

Lawrence Reed is the founder and for twenty years President of Michigan’s Mackinac Center for Public Policy, long considered the most influential free-market state think tank in the nation.

Tasha Wallis, Executive Director of the Vermont Retail Association (VRA), announced today the second annual VRA Retailer of the Year Award.(ROYs). “The overwhelmingly positive response to last year’s ROYs made it clear that Vermont’s retail industry believed in the value of recognizing outstanding excellence among its members,” said Wallis.

For the third year in a row, the Sustainable Endowments Institute has ranked the University of Vermont among the top schools nationally for green practices and policies, giving the school an overall grade of A- in its just released College Sustainability Report Card.

Attached is the press release and Vermont scorecard from a new health care study being released today by The Commonwealth Fund. It is the second version of their State Scorecard, which ranks states on 38 indicators in the areas of access, prevention/treatment quality, avoidable hospital use and costs, healthy lives, and equity, and Vermont is ranked #1.

3BL Media , the experts in corporate social responsibility (CSR), sustainability and cause marketing communications, today announced that it has begun production and distribution of "theCSRminute," a daily video digest focusing on corporate social responsibility.

Rae Ann Knopf of St Johnsbury was confirmed as Vermont’s Deputy Commissioner of Education by the State Board of Education in a special meeting today. Knopf, who most recently served as the Assistant Director for Student Support and Safe and Healthy Schools, also serves as the department’s American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) coordinator.

Seven more Vermont counties have been awarded economic stimulus funding for energy efficiency and conservation projects through a block grant program created in legislation authored by Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.).

Verizon Wireless is investing in Orleans County, Vermont to stay ahead of rising demand for wireless voice, 3G multimedia and Internet access. Regionally the company has invested more than $2.5 billion into its New England network over the past nine years, including more than $105 million during the first six months of 2009.
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