A suspicious piece of mail has forced an evacuation at the Innovation
Building Burlington . Burlington
police say the package was discovered in the mailroom at the IRS . No word on why the piece of mail is being
deemed suspicious. Police, fire and HAZZMAT
crews are conducting an investigation.
The Vermont Lottery has unveiled a new tri-state game called
Gimmie 5! A press release says the first
drawing held on Wednesday, May 15. The
game will cost $1 to play with a top prize of $100,000. Players will be able to purchase Gimme 5
tickets starting Sunday, May 12, at their favorite lottery agent or at one of
the hundred WinStation's located throughout Vermont .
Gun opponents in Vermont
say they'll be back for next year's legislative session and they'll be
stronger. No gun laws were passed this
session, but it wasn't for a lack of trying.
The group called "Gun Sense Vermont "
met at the Statehouse Wednesday, saying it's collected three-thousand
signatures from people who want tougher laws.
Governor Peter Shumlin, who says the issue should be dealt with by the
feds and not the state, says he'll meet with the group later this month.
More New Yorkers are taking to the web and filing their
taxes online. According to the tax
department, e-filing was at an all time high this year. At the end of April, nearly 90 percent of
taxpayers e-filed their personal returns.
That's nearly 8 million by this year's deadline, a 200,000 increase more
than last year!
Health organizations across the state are praising the Senate
Finance Committee for passing an 80 cent tax increase on tobacco. According to the American Cancer Society,
nearly 20 percent of high school seniors smoke.
Experts say raising the tax is an effective way to prevent kids from
smoking. They say it also motivates
others to quit.
The Vermont House of Representatives passed the nation’s
strongest bill against chemical flame retardants (S.81, vote:141-0). The bill,
if passed by the Senate, will ban the use of these chemicals in children’s
products and home furniture. Flame
retardant chemicals targeted in this bill, migrate out of these products into
air and dust, and from there enter our bodies.
The bill now heads back to the Senate, were it is expected to pass with
the House-passed amendments.
The Vermont
attorney general’s office says it has settled complaints that a Los
Angeles company sent mailings to Vermont
companies that appeared to be bills. The
state says Trademark Monitoring Services, Inc., mailed solicitations to Vermont
businesses that misrepresented that the businesses owed it money for
trademark-related services. Attorney
General William Sorrell says billing people for things they didn’t agree to buy
is a violation of state law. Under the
settlement, the company must comply with Vermont
and federal law and pay full refunds and $10,000 to the state of Vermont
in penalties and costs.
