Current News

Vermont Business Magazine Students pursuing a certificate or degree in early childhood education can get paid to increase the number of college courses they take and graduate sooner. A partnership between the Community College of Vermont (CCV) and Southwestern Vermont Medical Center (SVMC) is leveraging funds secured by Vermont’s federal congressional delegation to pay students while they take college classes. Many students pursuing a career in early childhood education, otherwise known as child care, are taking classes while working a full- or part-time job. The new Early Childhood Education (ECE) Residency Program pays students $3,500 if the student reduces their work time and takes more classes.

Vermont Business Magazine The Congressional Progressive Caucus announced its elected leadership for the 118th Congress today, the sixteenth Congress in the history of the CPC. This elected leadership will oversee the largest Progressive Caucus in history which, with the addition of at least 16 freshman, will grow to include 103 members at the start of the 118th Congress. Representative-Elect Becca Balint, VT-AL, was elected to be Vice Chair for New Members.

Vermont Business Magazine Rokeby Museum and PC Construction have announced that they have continued their partnership to complete urgently-needed work to one of the best-documented Underground Railroad sites in the country. PC Construction became a Preservation Sponsor for Rokeby Museum in 2021 and completed several high-priority maintenance projects on the site, which hosts several structures that are over 200 years old. PC Construction’s employee-owners donated time and materials to add handrails, replace deteriorated porches, and replace aging plaster on interior walls. These repairs made the buildings safer and more accessible for visitors.

Vermont Business Magazine Dynapower, a Sensata Technologies company and a global leader in power conversion and energy storage solutions, announced that it has been selected to provide 220 megawatts of IGBT chopper rectifiers to the Advanced Clean Energy Storage hub—powering the production of green hydrogen to accelerate the decarbonization of the Western United States. Located in Delta, Utah, the Advanced Clean Energy Storage hub will be the world's largest renewable energy storage facility. The hub will capture excess wind and solar energy and—with the help of Dynapower's power conversion systems—convert it to green hydrogen using electrolysis and store it in underground salt caverns. The first two caverns at the hub will store up to 300-gigawatt hours of dispatchable clean energy and feed it back to the grid when it's most needed.

Vermont Business Magazine One of Vermont's largest, connected and privately-owned forests outside of the Northeast Kingdom has been protected, thanks to private landowners, Green Ridge Forest LLC, who partnered with the Vermont Land Trust (VLT) and The Conservation Fund (the Fund) to conserve lands along the spine and easterly flank of the Northfield Mountains. Visible from Route 12A and Interstate 89, the Green Ridge Forest spans the towns of Braintree, Granville and Rochester, and three counties: Addison, Orange and Windsor. Some of the highest elevation peaks in Vermont are found here, ranging from 800 to 3,000 feet. There are six significant streams that form headwaters of the Third Branch of the White River, a major tributary of the Connecticut River.

Vermont Business Magazine At its recent 50th Anniversary celebration, the Vermont Institute of Natural Science was honored with a first-of-its-kind recognition. Presented by Dr Margaret “Canopy Meg” Lowman, VINS was given a Platinum Plaque from Mission Green, a new program whose mission it is to save 10 of the world’s most endangered forests by 2030 through the creation of canopy walkways.

Vermont Business Magazine The Vermont Nuclear Decommissioning Citizens Advisory Panel (VT NDCAP) will hold its fifth and final meeting of 2022 on Monday evening, December 12, 2022, from 6:00 PM to 9:00 PM. In addition to receiving updates from NorthStar and Vermont State Agencies regarding recent Vermont Yankee (VY) decommissioning activities, the Panel will consider endorsing recent International Brotherhood of Electrical Worker (IBEW) comments filed in response to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s (NRC’s) proposed rules governing nuclear power plant decommissioning. The Panel will also review and potentially approve its 2022 Annual Report to the Vermont Legislature and Governor. Lastly, elections for 2023 Panel Officers will be conducted.

Vermont Business Magazine As Americans struggle to pay rising energy bills, leading states have instituted energy efficiency policies that cut utility bills—especially for those who need it most—while reducing greenhouse gas emissions, according to the 2022 State Energy Efficiency Scorecard. These policies can serve as models for the dozens of states that have yet to prioritize energy-saving upgrades to reduce costs for disadvantaged households. California comes in first place in the 50-state scorecard (which also includes Washington, DC) from the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy (ACEEE). Rounding out the top 10 are Massachusetts (#2), New York (#3), Vermont (#4), Maine (#5), Washington, DC (#6), Maryland and Rhode Island (tied at #7), Connecticut (#9), and Minnesota (#10).

Vermont Fish & Wildlife Hello, hunters! We're reaching out with a final friendly reminder to complete the hunter effort survey. It's important to fill out the hunter effort and sighting survey after a hunt. This survey asks you to record how many hours you hunted and how many deer, moose, bears, or other wildlife you saw each day out during the season. This helps the department evaluate how hunting pressure and wildlife populations vary around the state.

The Vermont State Police is continuing to investigate a reported shooting that occurred late Tuesday, Dec. 6, 2022, on Church Street in the village of Orleans. As part of the investigation, troopers have obtained surveillance photos showing a suspect in this incident. Anyone who recognizes the suspect in the attached photos or who has any information that might assist investigators in this case is asked to call the Derby Barracks at 802-334-8881 or leave an anonymous tip online at https://vsp.vermont.gov/tipsubmit.