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Peter D Van Oot is an attorney with the northern New England law firm of Downs Rachlin Martin PLLC specializing in land use, environmental and corporate law, primarily from the firm’s Lebanon office.

Grand Isle County's small economy rests, somewhat precariously, on three legs: tourism, agriculture and residential real estate. The first is faring well, the second is characterized by both high ambitions and an embarrassing scandal, and the third is moribund, at least for now. Conditions in the Champlain Islands in mid-2010 are thus inspiring a mixture of optimism and despondency.

Chittenden County's economic prospects are far from untroubled, but as the recession grinds on in many places around the country, the Burlington area's problems appear mild by comparison. “Chittenden County continues to lead New England in lowest unemployment rates, foreclosures, and the depreciation rate of homes,” Ernest Pomerleau, CEO of Pomerleau Real Estate, pointed out. “Our commercial vacancy rates, although higher than normal, are well below the region's averages,” he added.

If you feel this is something of a “make up” call by the Vermont Public Service Department, you are not alone. But this means more than an NBA ref blowing a call on one end of the court and then giving the other team a beneficial call on the other end.

In my last column, I showed how I use technology to facilitate work when I'm overseas. This one’s about what happened when I returned. It wasn’t pretty. I came home to discover that my former employer had turned off my landline phone, my cell phone, Internet connection, even my cable TV. And he'd done it so effectively that I couldn't just pay ‘n play with any of ‘em.

The Potter family of Waitsfield has built a creative arts economy all by itself. "It's about taking the simple threads of art and trying to work them into the public world," said Sparky Potter, 62, patriarch and founder of the innovative Wood & Wood Sign Systems – Ben & Jerry's Homemade three-dimensional signs are among his creations. Peggy Potter, his wife, is just winding down a 20-year career making and selling the high-end painted wood bowls that have won her national recognition.

Rich Tarrant, one of Vermont’s wealthiest, is no longer a Vermont resident; he now resides in Florida. Tarrant is best known for the amazing success of IDX, a health care information systems company which he sold in 2006 and now called GE Healthcare and still located in South Burlington. In 2006 Tarrant ran for the open US Senate seat vacated by Jim Jeffords. Though Tarrant won the Republican primary, he lost to Bernie Sanders in the general election. There were rumors of a possible interest in one day running for governor of Vermont, those days are now gone.

 Every political analyst in the state devoured the latest Rasmussen poll, trying to determine if there was meaning in the numbers. There was not. The poll matched Republican gubernatorial candidate Brian Dubie against each of the five Democratic hopefuls. He beat them all. But this race for governor will be decided in October. The support that Dubie has today is irrelevant. Right now the Democratic field is too crowded, the message too muddled. Few voters really know much about any of the candidates – or even Dubie for that matter.

The US economy is likely to expand at a 3.0-3.5 percent annual rate this year. Such a recovery is modest compared to the magnitude of the recent recession, but the economy is still constrained by de-leveraging and caution in the banking sector. Large corporations can easily raise money in the bond market, but small firms which depend primarily upon banks continue to find the credit environment to be restrictive. The number of credit cards has fallen by 20 percent since 2008.

While the recession continues to hit hard at the national and state economies, there is a bright spot in Vermont’s job outlook. The state's information technology companies, those producing software, are doing well. Medical technologies along with mobile computing and cell phone growth are pushing software development and expanding the opportunities in this industry. As a result relatively high paying positions are available. The major problem locally is finding enough workers.