Current News

Vermont Business Magazine The United States Attorney’s Office, the Vermont Attorney General’s Office, and the Rutland Area NAACP will be co-hosting a Hate-Free Vermont Forum in Bennington on September 28, 2022, from 5:30pm to 7:30pm. “The Forum aims to bring policymakers, stakeholders, and community members together for productive and difficult conversations that will work to reduce animus, discord, and misunderstandings,” said Co-facilitator Etan Nasreddin-Longo. “When we began these conversations in 2019, our goal was to take the pulse of Vermonters’ experience of discrimination. Much has happened since that time, and our hope is to engage and to listen to our historically-disadvantaged communities about what they view as the continuing and new problems in 2022.”

Vermont Business Magazine More than 200 people were vaccinated with updated bivalent boosters for COVID-19 at Southwestern Vermont Health Care’s (SVHC) COVID-19 Resource Center this morning. The clinic exhausted its supply of Moderna and will be offering Pfizer boosters only in the coming days. In addition, a limited number of Pfizer shots available for Thursday’s clinic has caused the health system to reduce clinic hours to 8 – 10 am on Thursday, September 15.

Vermont Business Magazine The Center for Agriculture and Food Systems (CAFS) at Vermont Law and Graduate School and national advocacy organization Farmworker Justice has released a report entitled “Exposed and At Risk: Opportunities to Strengthen Enforcement of Pesticide Regulations for Farmworker Safety,” which analyzes the regulatory structure currently being used to protect farmworkers from the dangers of pesticide use in agriculture. The report uses extensive research, interviews and stories from the field to document an extremely complex system of pesticide enforcement and illustrate how the cooperative agreement between federal and state agencies makes it nearly impossible to ensure implementation of the federal Worker Protection Standard.

Vermont Business Magazine Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont) Tuesday on the floor of the US Senate urged support for Medicare for All following a recent poll showing America's dissatisfaction with what he called our dysfunctional and collapsing health care system. "Mr President, I understand that there is a lot that is going on in this world today. We’re worried about climate change. We’re worried about the terrible war in Ukraine. We’re worried about inflation and the fact that wages are not keeping up with prices. We’re worried about massive income and wealth inequality and the increased concentration of ownership that we see in our country – among many other things. But the American people remain deeply concerned about an issue that by definition touches every single one of us – and that is our collapsing and dysfunctional healthcare system."

Vermont Business Magazine Camp Ta-Kum-Ta, KOOL 105, and the Vermont Lake Monsters have teamed up to present the first annual Ta-Kum-Ta Softball-a-thon at Centennial Field on September 24th. This all-day event includes hours of softball, infinite innings, and free family fun, all to support local families impacted by childhood cancer. This is not your average softball tournament. Participants sign up to play for as many of the endless potential innings as they would like. All skill levels are welcome. Players can sign up as individuals or as a team and get to take advantage of a once in a lifetime opportunity to play at the Lake Monsters’ Centennial Field while supporting a great cause.

Vermont Business Magazine Governor Phil Scott, Agency of Commerce and Community Development Secretary Lindsay Kurrle and Economic Development Commissioner Joan Goldstein today highlighted their recent trade mission to Montreal, Quebec, and discussed the partnerships Vermont has with its closest foreign trade partner. Quebec is the largest foreign trading partner with Vermont, ahead of Taiwan, China and South Korea, and the state is the second largest for Quebec in New England. The delegation was in Quebec last week as part of the Aéro Montréal trade show.

Vermont Business Magazine Hannaford Supermarkets will not sponsor this year’s Vermont Pride Parade and Festival for the first time since 2019. The grocery chain paid $15,000 to sponsor last year’s event, which occurs annually in Burlington every September. As a condition for sponsorship this year, the Pride Center of Vermont asked Hannaford to meet with farmworkers who they said are facing discrimination and abuse in the company’s dairy supply chain. According to Migrant Justice, the company has refused to meet with workers. In appreciation of this act of solidarity, farmworkers have launched a fundraiser to replace the funds that Pride has lost from Hannaford Supermarkets.

Vermont Business Magazine GMP is scrapping fossil fuel for its field fleet by destroying a fossil fuel truck and replacing it with an all-electric truck in a major step toward electrifying its field fleet to cut costs and carbon. On Thursday the state's largest utility will introduce the new vehicle and destroy one with an internal combustion engine at a "Destroy-a-Truck Event" in Pittsford.

Vermont Business Magazine A new program by Garnet Healthcare will allow Vermont employees to receive care — without leaving the workplace. The just-launched Direct Care program will deliver onsite employee health benefits to businesses, with Twincraft Skincare as the first to sign on. Employer-sponsored onsite clinics are a proven model for increasing utilization of primary care and reducing overall healthcare costs. Until now, there hasn't been a model for onsite clinics on a Vermont scale. Garnet's Direct Care program is an innovative approach that brings the doctor to an employers' doorstep, creating direct access to direct care for employees.

Vermont Business Magazine The Vermont Journalism Trust (VJT) filed its opening brief with the Vermont Supreme Court yesterday in its lawsuit challenging the State’s withholding of public records related to oversight of the EB-5 Foreign Immigrant Investor Program – the program that led to the largest financial fraud in Vermont history. VJT operates VTDigger, which requested the records pursuant to Vermont’s Public Records Act. After the trial court ordered the state to turn over certain records to VJT, the suit claims the state refused to say which records it is not providing, in clear violation of the public records statute. VJT is asking the Supreme Court to enforce the Public Records Act’s requirement that, if a public body is going to withhold public records, it must at a minimum disclose what it is withholding, and why.

Vermont Business Magazine Today, Let’s Grow Kids Action Network announced its first-ever slate of endorsed childcare candidates for the general election in Vermont. The 131 candidates endorsed today have demonstrated they are committed to putting Vermont’s economy on a sustainable path by taking action to transform Vermont’s childcare system in 2023. Let’s Grow Kids Action Network is a 501(c)(4) advocacy organization focused on passing laws that fund and sustain a high-quality, affordable childcare system. Topping Let’s Grow Kids Action Network’s list of endorsed candidates are Congressman Peter Welch, the Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate, Becca Balint, the Democratic nominee for U.S. House of Representatives and Governor Phil Scott, the Republican nominee for Governor.