Vermont Health Connect will off-line tonight while officials
are processing updates to the health insurance website. It’s expected the upgrade will take until
late tomorrow morning. Premium
processing for small business customers is still being tested. Later this week after the upgrade is
complete, bills will be mailed to individual and families who have selected
plans through the website. The bills must be paid by check or money order by
January 7. Credit card payments will not
be accepted until security testing of the payment function has been completed.
Vermont State Police troopers from the New
Haven office are warning chain saw owners to lock up
their saws after a spike of chain saw thefts.
The most recent theft was reported today after a Poulin Pro chain saw
was stolen from a shed in Lincoln . The saw has a 16-inch bar on it and an
estimated value of $175. Troopers say
they have seen a recent spike in chain saw thefts.
A powerball ticket worth $40,000 was sold in Colchester
last week. Vermont
lottery officials say the winning ticket, which was sold at Kevin’s Kwik Stop,
matched four out of the five numbers, plus the powerball. By adding the $1 powerball option, the winner
quadrupled their prize amount of $10,000 to $40,000. The winning numbers were 05-26-44 -45-57 and the Powerball was
29. The jackpot for the drawing was
$70,000,000. Wednesday’s jackpot is
estimated at $81 million.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the state of Vermont
will be holding public meetings as part of an effort to seek public input on a
recently released draft proposal to clean up Lake Champlain . They first meetings are being held today in St.
Albans and Swanton. Meetings in our area are scheduled for
December 10th in Middlebury and Burlington ,
and December 11th in Rutland .
Flu season is approaching its peak months and still a lot of
people have not been inoculated. Health experts say, don't delay, get
vaccinated. Authorities have noticed a
slight uptick in the number of cases, most of which have been diagnosed in the
southern part of the country. Although
there's no sign of a major outbreak at this time, that doesn't mean you
shouldn't get vaccinated. This year, the
CDC is recommending that anyone six months and older get inoculated. Study after study has shown the best way to
fight the flu is to get the shot.
A second round of high-level talks is uderway today for
Governor Peter Shumlin, the owners of Vermont Yankee and other officials. The talks deal with the decommissioning of
the nuclear power plant, which its owners, Entergy, plan on shutting down for
economic reasons. While the state and
Entergy have been at odds for years, state officials say they hope to get an
agreement with the company on the terms of decommissioning. The talks are covering a lot of issues such
as dismantling the plant and removing radioactive components.
