News

Dealer.com, the global leader of online marketing solutions for the automotive industry, today announced it received two Automobile Standard of Excellence 2009 WebAwards from the Web Marketing Association.

Senator Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) said Saturday that the dairy crisis may make it easier to detect competition barriers that undermine prices paid to dairy farmers. Leahy, who chairs the U.S. Senate s Judiciary Committee, brought a field hearing to St. Albans to examine competition and consolidation in the Northeast dairy market.

Nokian Tyres, Inc. has announced that its subsidiary, University Wholesalers, has purchased Maine Wholesale Tire, a Portland, Maine based tire distributor. The new entity will operate under the University Wholesalers name.

Governor Douglas today announced that the State of Vermont will be contributing $750,000 in grant funds to a major redevelopment project in Springfield. The grant, made available through the Vermont Community Development Program, will help repair sections of the former Fellows Gear Shaper/PVDC facility in downtown Springfield.

The House Commerce and Economic Development Committee, joined by members of the Senate Economic Development and Finance Committees, will hold a FairPoint Communications briefing and update on Thursday, September 24.

Vermont State Auditor Tom Salmon issued a report today that says the state can do more to set goals for programs and to track actual results.

FairPoint Communications on Thursday met its deadline to tell the Vermont Public Service Board why its Certificate of Public Good in Vermont should not be revoked. Since cutting over service from the Verizon network to its own last February, FairPoint has been deluged by complaints from customers and regulators over its performance, especially in regards to customer service.

Led by a surge in both insurance premium and corporate income tax receipts, which offset a slump in personal income taxes, Vermont’s August revenue figures saw the state's General Fund stay slightly above the forecasted total, while the Transportation and Education funds continued their trend of being slightly below targets for the month.

Katy Lesser and Healthy Living, were honored by the Vermont Grocers' Association with the VGA Retailer of the Year award during the association s annual convention at the Sheraton Burlington. The award was presented in recognition of their involvement with the community, food industry, store operations and customer service.

The Vermont Department of Labor announced today that the seasonally adjusted unemployment rate for August 2009 was 6.8 percent, unchanged from the revised July rate and up 2.1 points from a year ago. The rate remained unchanged from July as a result of very little change in the number of unemployed and a decline in the total labor force.

Vermont Lieutenant Governor Brian Dubie was in Alaska this week to visit remote Alaskan villages where Vermont-made Northwind 100 wind turbines have begun to replace diesel-powered electric generators with clean, renewable and more affordable wind energy. Dubie toured the sites with Alaska Lt.

The Vermont Grocers' Association has elected Darcy Nutter of Price Chopper Supermarkets as its new Chair. Darcy is a zone manager for the family owned chain with responsibility for their southern Vermont stores as well as their New Hampshire markets and some of their New York locations.