FairPoint announces Vermont jobs

Fairpoint Communications held a press conference in Burlington this morning to announce it would bring 150 jobs to that area if the proposed purchase of many of Verizon's assets is approved.

I wasn't able to make the event, so a few minutes ago I dialed up their corporate headquarters in North Carolina to try and find a media representative to speak with. On the first two attempts, I got an error signal and a person telling me, "sorry, voicemail is temporary full."

The phone rang fine, though, moments later on the third try.

-Dan Barlow

I'm back

I took a week off to enjoy the summer heat, a trip that took me into New York City for several days over the weekend and then back to Vermont to forget about news writing before returning to the office today.

Since the Legislature shut down last month, this blog has been kind of dead. So this me publicly stating that I intend to turn it around with more frequent news updates.

Thanks for your patience.

-Dan Barlow

Passport to discord

Gov. James Douglas used a meeting of Canadian premiers and governors of the eastern states Tuesday to urge the federal government to delay a requirement that American and Canadian citizens carry passports to cross the border. Wonder how that sits with that other Republican administration. You know, the one in Washington, D.C.

- L.P.

In the interests of compromise?

Senate President Pro Tem Peter Shumlin said today he would be willing to remove the tax on Vermont Yankee from the energy bill in an attempt to convince Gov. James Douglas to allow it to become law.

"We desperately want to pass this bill. This should put to rest the governor's concerns," Shumlin said.

Shumlin had said that removing the funding source for the proposed efficiency program in the bill would greatly weaken the legislation. But today the Windham County Democrat said he isn't giving up on taxing Yankee's parent company - just waiting until January.

- L.P.