Current News

Vermont Business Magazine On Saturday night, UVM Medical Center’s main campus operating rooms experienced flooding when a water pipe burst. The hospital said many staff who worked throughout the night and on Sunday to protect equipment in their 22 operating rooms and set the stage for repairs. Two operating rooms functioned throughout the day Sunday, which provided the ability to handle emergencies. Central Vermont Medical Center (Berlin) and Porter Medical Center (Middlebury), which are partner hospitals, are also providing support as appropriate. Staff has cleared eight additional ORs to reopen, bringing the total number of operating rooms in service at the main campus in Burlington back to 10.

Vermont Research News The current legislative debate about using dogs to hunt coyotes illustrates the differing core values that individuals bring to wildlife protection, researchers believe. A survey of Vermonter’s wildlife values, finds 25% fall into the traditionalist camp, 34% mutualist; 29% pluralist and 12% distanced. Read the report and the definitions here. And listen to a recent conversation on VPR to hear state wildlife biologists discuss these values and their relationship to the conversation about hunting coyotes.

by Elizabeth Bridgewater, Executive Director of Windham & Windsor Housing Trust; Connie Snow, interim Executive Director of Downstreet Housing & Community Development; and Michael Monte, CEO of Champlain Housing Trust A tremendous amount of attention is being paid to Vermont’s housing challenges, which many call a crisis. We don’t disagree. Thankfully, our elected officials are prioritizing housing and have invested significantly in the past two years to address the inequities in access to housing and shelter, and more is being discussed in the committee rooms at the State House.

Vermont Business Magazine Employees of Centerpoint School/Northeast Family Institute Vermont in Winooski are seeking to unionize for better pay and working conditions so they can be better equipped to serve Vermont’s highest-need students, according to a filing late Friday with the National Labor Relations Board. The filing came after 90 percent of the school’s workforce signaled a desire to unionize, and after the school’s educators had asked Centerpoint School/Northeast Family Institute Vermont to voluntarily recognize their union, the Centerpoint Education Association, according to the Vermont NEA.

Senator Patrick Leahy Today, the Senate Judiciary Committee will undertake one of its most consequential duties: to consider and vote whether to advance a nominee to the United States Supreme Court. Before us is a nominee, Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, who embodies the highest ideals of our judiciary and the legal profession. During the confirmation proceedings, she put on a master class about what it means to be an independent, fair-minded Justice. Her grace, intellect, temperament and wit are exactly what Americans want — and deserve — on our nation’s highest court. I will proudly and confidently vote aye to advance her historic nomination to the Senate Floor.

Vermont Business Magazine Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont) last Thursday joined Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.), and Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), along with Reps. Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.), Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), and House Majority Whip James E. Clyburn (D-S.C.) in sending a letter to President Biden urging the administration to act now to extend the pause on federally-held student loan payments until at least the end of the year and to cancel student debt. If the pause on student loan payments is not extended, borrowers will have to begin repaying their student loans on May 1.

Vermont Business Magazine M&T Bank Corporation (NYSE: MTB) announced Saturday the successful completion of M&T's acquisition of People's United Financial, Inc. (NASDAQ: PBCT) valued at $8.3 billion. The combined company employs more than 22,000 people and has a network of over 1,000 branches and 2,200 ATMs that span 12 states from Maine to Virginia and Washington, DC. People's has branches across Vermont and is the former Chittenden Bank. People's United common stock no longer trades on the NASDAQ after Friday, April 1, 2022.

Vermont State Police Troopers from the Royalton Barracks responded on Saturday to Suicide Six ski area in Pomfret for a snowmobile crash. During a snowmobile race event at Suicide Six one of the riders was traveling down the mountain when they left the course area and crashed into a tree. The operator sustained fatal injuries. Vermont State Police were assisted by Woodstock Rescue, Pomfret Fire, and DHART on scene. Following notification of next of kin, the Vermont State Police is identifying the victim in this incident as James C. Darrow Jr (56), of Monreau, New York.

Vermont Agency of Agriculture Food & Markets UVM Extension Agricultural Business engages with farm, forest and maple enterprises using planning and educational resources to promote a strong agricultural economy. Below are some programs offered by their experienced teams that deliver one-on-one, small group and online learning opportunities that enhance decision-making and viability for Vermont producers

Vermont Research News Although only small parts of a tree canopy can be seen in road puddles, and only small parts of the river are visible through gaps in the wooden slats of a covered bridge, the mind constructs a full image based on the concept of primate vision -- which a researcher applied to Vermont rural landscapes in a recent article. Amodal completion (“seeing” a whole shape when parts of it are covered by something else), anorthoscopic perception (visions that do not directly follow from what is sensed) and spatiotemporal integration (visual persistence; to see something even after it has disappeared) are described through a Vermont lens.

Vermont Business Magazine Champlain College Online (CCO) and edtech company InSpace Proximity, Inc. have announced a partnership to launch InSpace to provide students studying online at CCO with an innovative new approach to asynchronous online learning that increases virtual engagement and support for students, staff, and educators. The two organizations are working together to set a new standard for asynchronous online learning — pushing it to a new level.

Vermont Business Magazine Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont), Chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, announced Friday that the committee will hold a hearing Tuesday, April 5, at 11 am titled “Corporate Profits are Soaring as Prices Rise: Are Corporate Greed and Profiteering Fueling Inflation?” Tuesday’s hearing comes as working families across the country are increasingly bearing the brunt of growing economic pain and inequality. Across every major industry, prices continue to rise – this includes a 38 percent increase in the price of gasoline, a 44 percent increase in the price of heating oil, a 41 percent increase in the price of a used car, a 24 percent in the price of rental cars, and a 17 percent increase in the price of furniture.