Current News

Vermont Business Magazine The Senate Agriculture Committee Wednesday advanced bipartisan legislation authored by Senator Patrick Leahy (D-Vermont) to double funding for the federal Farm To School grant program as part of a larger package reauthorizing child nutrition programs through 2020. The Improving Child Nutrition Integrity and Access Act includes the Leahy-Cochran Farm To School Act of 2015, which builds on earlier Leahy legislation that chartered the grant program.  Leahy’s chief Republican cosponsor is Senator Thad Cochran (R-Miss.). The Leahy-authored provision increases funding for the Farm To School program from its current level of $5 million to $10 million annually, leveraging local funds investing in community agriculture and nutrition education.

Vermont Business Magazine With an eye toward the revitalization of the greater-Rutland County economy, Rutland Economic Development Corporation has adopted a new mission and vision and signed a partnership agreement with the Castleton University Center for Entrepreneurial Programs. Executive Director Jamie Stewart left REDC in December. The long-serving Stewart previously held a similar position in Addison County. Under the agreement, Lyle Jepson, dean of entrepreneurial programs at Castleton, will lead REDC’s operations under a three-year contract between REDC and the University.

Vermont Business Magazine The Orvis Company, Inc of Manchester has announced the three recipients of its annual Customer Matching Grant program. Targeted to raise more than a third of a million dollars, these grants are the cornerstone of Orvis's annual commitment of 5% of its pre-tax profits to protecting nature.

Orvis has awarded cash grants to the following organizations:

Vermont Business Magazine Outdoor Journal, Vermont PBS’ venerable outdoor program, kicks off its 14^th season on Tuesday, January 26, with stories that take viewers across the length and breadth of the northeast region. As always, hosts Lawrence Pyne and Gina Bullard explore the outdoors with an infectious sense of curiosity as they introduce us to an array of outdoor adventures – from way down under to way up yonder. On tap for the new season: we’ll get a fish-eye view as we snorkel Vermont’s White River in Rochester; and Lawrence hooks into largemouth bass in Berlin Pond and chases world-class brown trout in upstate New York. Gina takes to the skies on a hang gliding adventure over the Connecticut River Valley, goes skeet shooting in Morrisville and goes on a geocaching treasure hunt in central Vermont.

Vermont Business Magazine Yale University is number one and the University of Vermont is number 27 in a national ranking of campus-based natural history museums. Best College Reviews, a ranking service for American colleges and universities, has released a list of the top 30 College Natural History Museums. Statistics and definitions were gathered from The American Alliance of Museums and school websites. The top universities generally were either elite and older schools in the East, small colleges with special collections or state universities out West.

Vermont Business Magazine Darn Tough Vermont, the American manufacturer of the fastest growing collection of performance outdoor and lifestyle socks, proudly announces 2015 annual earnings have increased by 52 percent year-over-year.  Equally significant, Darn Tough has been able to match explosive consumer demand through investments in resources - both people and infrastructure. “Celebrating our successes in 2015 and ensuring the brand is positioned for continued expansion in the new year and beyond is definitely a priority. We’re extremely fortunate to have very strong partners across multiple points of distribution and a passionate, dedicated internal team to support them,” said Ric Cabot, Darn Tough Vermont President and CEO. “Our continued growth has allowed us to invest in our team, our partners, and our community.”

Over the course of 2015, Darn Tough has achieved several major milestones including:

Vermont Business Magazine New York residents pay the most for basic health insurance and Vermont is second, but has the highest monthly premium at $469 a month, compared with New Mexico, which has the lowest monthly premium at $181 a month. New Mexico pays the least for basic health insurance, according to a new study released today by leading personal finance website GOBankingRates.com. The study compared silver plans ― the most popular plan according to the Department of Health and Human Services ― offered through the national or state-level insurance exchanges administered through the Affordable Care Act.

The lowest-cost silver plans for each state were ranked based on the favorability of the following cost factors:

Vermont Business Magazine Champlain College, winner of SC Magazine’s Best Cybersecurity Higher Education Award, today introduced its new online Master of Science in Information Security Operations. It is the first advanced degree designed to elevate the practitioner’s strategic planning abilities in the prevention and response to cybersecurity incidents such as data loss and cybercrime, while increasing technical skills and industry acuity.

“Cyberspace and infrastructure vulnerabilities are constantly evolving and addressing those weaknesses is critical to enterprise-wide security,” said Dr. Mika Nash, Academic Dean, Division of Continuing Professional Studies at Champlain College. “Champlain College’s new online M.S. Information Security Operations degree program prepares our students to face problems with sought-after expertise and enables them to effect change at the operational level.”

Vermont Business Magazine Revision Military, a world leader in protective eyewear solutions based in Essex Junction, has developed and patented a laser dye for a dual-band laser protective lens that blocks 99.9% of green laser energy and over 99% of the most powerful Near-Infrared (NIR) component of commercially available green lasers. Revision’s patented dye is used in the company’s new LazrBloc GF-8 Laser Protective Ballistic Lens. The LazrBloc GF-8 lens is a unique ballistic lens that blocks green laser emissions and the high-risk NIR energy that exists outside the visible spectrum. Importantly, this lens delivers greater visible light transmission and color recognition as compared to other laser lenses on the market, making GF-8 lenses ideal for day or nighttime use.

by Timothy McQuiston Vermont Business Magazine Vermont state tax revenues are running about where economists expected them at this point in the fiscal year, now more than half over, but they announced today that they are downgrading projections for the year as a whole based on both a slight softening of the national economy and on continued uncertainty here in Vermont. They expect revenues to be lower by $4.7 million in fiscal year 2016 and $9.1 million in FY2017, than previously estimated.

Governor Shumlin said, “While this news makes our job a bit more difficult, it is manageable. I look forward to presenting a balanced budget to the Legislature and Vermonters on Thursday.”

That uncertainty has mostly to do with tax changes in the last couple of years, as well as the poor start to the ski season and how both personal and corporate incomes will come in in the fourth quarter of FY 2016.

Vermont Business Magazine Green Mountain Power announced today the year-end operational results for Kingdom Community Wind (KCW) in Lowell. In 2015, the 21-turbine project generated enough electricity to power 26,700 homes for a year. That’s an increase of 7% over the previous year or enough energy to power an additional 1,800 homes. Thanks to the strong power generation at Kingdom Community Wind, five Northeast Kingdom towns will receive more than $201,000 this month from the Good Neighbor Fund payments, up $75,000 from two years ago and up $13,000 from last year. The Good Neighbor Fund is part of GMP’s commitment to give additional value to surrounding communities by sharing with them the benefits of KCW. Payments are made annually and can be used to lower property taxes or support local initiatives as designated by the town.