Current News

The inaugural Do Good Fest hosted by National Life Group over the weekend raised nearly $11,000 for Branches of Hope, the Cancer Patient Fund at Central Vermont Medical Center’s National Life Cancer Treatment Center. Roughly 1,500 people attended the daylong music festival on the grounds of National Life Group, which was co-sponsored by The Point FM.

For the 4th year in a row, US News & World Report has designated Burlington-based Fletcher Allen as a “Best Regional Hospital” after a thorough review of quality indicators and a national survey of specialists. The US News rankings, now in their 25th year, recognize hospitals that excel in treating the most challenging patients. Only 14 percent of the 5,000 hospitals analyzed earned Best Regional status. As part of the Fletcher Allen Health Care ranking, three specialties were selected as “High Performing”- Orthopedics, Gynecology and Urology - meaning the care provided is at or near the same level as that provided at top centers in the US. For example in Orthopedics, there have been no infections in primary knee replacements in the past 3 ½ years (1,481 procedures).

The Vermont Attorney General’s Office has filed suit against Dollar Tree Stores, Inc, a national discount chain based in Chesapeake, VA, for violating a 2010 settlement with the State to stop selling jewelry. The settlement, contained in an Assurance of Discontinuance under the Vermont Consumer Protection Act, resolved claims that Dollar Tree sold products containing high amounts of toxic lead and cadmium in violation of Vermont law, and was intended to protect Vermont’s children from exposure to those and other toxic substances.

Vermont Business Magazine Pier 1 Imports opened its first corporate-owned store in Vermont with much fanfare in South Burlington. The store, which officially opened on Tuesday, completes Pier 1 Imports’ retail presence in each of the 50 states across the country. Customers were lined up waiting to get in as an A-list of local dignitaries opened the two-store shop next to the also brand new Trader Joe's off Dorset Street. The event included the presentation of a donation of $2,500 from Pier 1 to representatives of Burlington-based nonprofit Women Helping Battered Women.

Vermont Business Magazine Demographic, social and economic changes combined with major policy developments have affected the lives of lower-income children in both positive and negative ways since 1990, according to the Annie E Casey Foundation’s 25th edition of its annual KIDS COUNT Data Book. For 2014, the three highest-ranked states for child well-being were Massachusetts, Vermont and Iowa; the three lowest-ranked were Nevada, New Mexico and Mississippi.

by Morgan True vtdigger.org An administration report on ways to improve and reorganize the Department for Children and Families has been pushed back. In May Governor Peter Shumlin ordered the Agency of Human Services to develop a plan to reorganize DCF, following the deaths of two toddlers involved with the department. Doug Racine, the secretary of the agency, was required to release a report by Aug. 1, but that deadline has been pushed back to October to allow input from advocates and stakeholders.

The governor’s Council on Pathways from Poverty asked for the delay, according to Christopher Curtis, an attorney with Vermont Legal Aid and a co-chair of the council.

Researchers at Dartmouth-Hitchcock and the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth College are playing a key role in a multi-center $22.5 million, four-year effort to develop next-generation technologies to restore memory function in individuals who suffer from memory loss. The project, which is in support of President Obama’s BRAIN (Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies) initiative, will combine research on the basic mechanisms of memory function with the development of systems designed to electrically stimulate discrete regions of the brain.

The project, which is led by Michael Jacob Kahana, Professor of Psychology at the University of Pennsylvania, is part of the “Restoring Active Memory” program sponsored by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or DARPA.

Dr. Steve Arthur, the recently retired Director of the Office of Oral Health for the State of Vermont, recalls a visit to his 92 year old mother in an out-of-state assisted-living facility and being very concerned at what he found missing in her care there.

“It’s true that I’m probably more alert to oral health care needs than most, but I noticed how little, if any, attention was given to my mother’s dental hygiene needs,” he said. “My mother has dementia which makes it difficult for anyone to provide oral health, but I believe her dental care was already being overlooked. It wasn’t a priority for the staff there and her oral health care needs were being neglected.”

by Timothy McQuiston Vermont Business Magazine At meetings across Northern New England last week, union members in Maine and Vermont voted to authorize union leaders to call a strike at FairPoint Communications, union representatives have said. Members in New Hampshire are expected to complete their voting process by Thursday, according to a union leader. Representatives of the Communications Workers of America (CWA) Local 1400 and International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) Locals 2320, 2326, and 2327 have been in negotiations with company management since late April and have yet to reach an agreement. The contracts of approximately 1,700 union employees in Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont expire on August 2. There are about 450 Vermont workers in the bargaining unit.

The Vermont Attorney General’s Office has filed suit against Living Essentials, LLC and Innovation Ventures, LLC, the makers, marketers and sellers of 5-hour ENERGY®. The Complaint alleges that the companies repeatedly violated the Vermont Consumer Protection Act by making deceptive promotional claims about their product. For example, while 5-hour ENERGY® says its proprietary blend of nutrients and caffeine provides benefits like energy, focus and alertness, the only ingredient in 5-hour ENERGY® that has any effect is its concentrated shot of caffeine.

Vermont Business Magazine Vermont gained construction jobs between May and June and also over the last 12 months, according to a new report. The state ranked 14th for job gains for the month and 18th over the last 12 months, according to the Associated General Contractors of America. For the US, more states have gained than lost, but the recovery from the Great Recession remains choppy. Construction firms added jobs in 38 states and the District of Columbia over the past 12 months, but they reduced headcount in 27 states between May and June, according to an analysis today of Labor Department data by the AGC of America. Vermont added 100 jobs in June (a 0.7 percent gain), while the state added 600 since June 2013 (4.3 percent) for total construction employment of 14,400.

By a vote of 347-57, the House of Representatives Tuesday evening passed the Travel Promotion, Enhancement, and Modernization Act of 2014 (HR4450) which reauthorizes the successful Brand USA tourism promotion program for five additional years. The bill was authored by Congressman Peter Welch (D-Vermont). The bill passed with an overwhelming bipartisan vote in the face of strong opposition from the Club for Growth. Cosponsored by Representative Gus Bilirakis (R-FL), the bill was unanimously approved by the House Energy and Commerce Committee last week. Welch and Bilirakis are members of the committee. Brand USA is a voluntary public-private partnership that attracts international visitors to Vermont and the rest of the country through a global marketing campaign. The program is funded at no cost to the taxpayer through private sector contributions matched by fees collected from international visitors through the Visa Waiver Program.