Current News

by Mark Crow What if you owed someone a substantial amount of money and were making annual payments each year to pay down the debt. However, every year, year after year, the amount you owe and the annual payments you must make increases – significantly. Now, what if at the same time, you owed someone a separate substantial amount of money but there was no schedule to pay it back. You were making some intermittent, smaller payments when the lender periodically asked for them, but there was no plan in place to pay off the entire debt. And, like the first debt, each year, the amount you owe increases – significantly.

Vermont Business Magazine For the ninth year in a row, Champlain College has secured a spot on The Princeton Review’s list of Top Game Design Schools – this year coming in at number 17. Champlain College has one of the world’s most comprehensive game development programs, with six undergraduate majors representing every aspect of the game development industry—including the developers who design, create, and code the games, and the business professionals and entrepreneurs who launch them into the world.

Vermont Business Magazine Attorney General TJ Donovan today announced that Vermont joined a multistate settlement with Boston Scientific Corporation to resolve allegations of deceptive marketing of its surgical mesh products for women. The settlement requires Boston Scientific to pay $188.6 million to 47 states and the District of Columbia to resolve allegations that it deceptively marketed transvaginal surgical mesh devices to patients. Vermont’s share of the settlement is $1,106,151.

Vermont Business Magazine The Vermont Department of Health is reporting today 89 new cases of COVID-19 and one more death for a total of 220 statewide. The median age of those infected with the novel coronavirus has fallen to 29. Now that older Vermonters have largely been vaccinated and more than a third of adults in the state have received at least one dose, Dr Levine is urging younger residents to stay with the health protocols and get their shot when the time comes in April. “We are still in a really delicate time, where the virus, and its variants, can and will take advantage of us if we let our guard down. It has the potential to set us back in our efforts, hampering us in the race," Dr Levine said.

Vermont Business Magazine Business organizations, representing more than 200,000 workers, have made their position clear with members of the Vermont Senate, that they oppose S10 because adding $50 million in unemployment insurance costs is unaffordable and will delay Vermont’s progress toward economic recovery. Governor Scott has benchmarked July 2021 as a time when we can look toward fully reopening our economy and S10 will push Vermont further away from that benchmark.

Vermont Business Magazine Speaker Jill Krowinski, Representative Tim Briglin, and Representative Laura Sibilia today issued the following statements after the historic vote to invest $150 million to accelerate deployment of broadband internet for Vermonters across the state. On Friday, however, Governor Phil Scott said that the bill is well short of what is needed and he will present a $300 million broadband plan soon.

Vermont Business Magazine Vermont’s revenue results for February 2021 show that General and Education Fund revenues came in above target, while the Transportation Fund came in below target. The state’s General Fund, Transportation Fund, and Education Fund receipts were a combined $32.82 million, or 23.8 percent above monthly consensus expectations.

Vermont Business Magazine The Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine, which has received emergency use authorization from the US Food and Drug Administration, has been administered to more than 1,200 educators and school staff, largely from the Southwest Vermont Supervisory Union (SVSU), at Southwestern Vermont Health Care’s (SVHC) COVID-19 Vaccine Clinics the last two Saturdays. They were the first two of three clinics that will be held to ensure that educators and school staff are vaccinated, according to Vermont’s vaccine rollout plan.

Vermont Business Magazine US Senators Patrick Leahy (D-Vermont), Susan Collins (R-Maine), and Dick Durbin (D-IL) this week introduced legislation to combat straw purchasing and illegal trafficking in firearms in order to keep guns out of the hands of dangerous criminals. The Stop Illegal Trafficking in Firearms Act of 2021 would, for the first time, make it an explicit federal crime to act as a straw purchaser of firearms. The bill would also create penalties for anyone who transfers a firearm with reasonable cause to believe that it will be used in a drug crime, crime of violence, or act of terrorism. These reforms would help keep guns out of the hands of dangerous criminals and reduce safety risks for law enforcement officers confronting criminals and criminal organizations.

Vermont Business Magazine VSECU, a member-owned cooperative and not-for-profit credit union for all Vermonters, is providing a total of $50,000 to five Vermont nonprofits through its member-directed giving program We Care 2. The funds will help these organizations continue to help Vermonters meet their essential needs, with a particular focus this year on food, shelter, heat, and COVID-19 relief efforts. Since the inception of the We Care 2 giving program in 2013, VSECU members have used their votes to direct $261,000 to nonprofit organizations working to improve the quality of life for all Vermonters.

Vermont Business Magazine Southwestern Vermont Council on Aging (SVCOA) today announced its 2020 service results in conjunction with the release of its 2020 annual report.Among the results are: 8,989.75 case management and options counseling hours provided to 1,024 older Vermonters; 5,195 calls processed by the SVCOA HelpLine; 191,073 meals served to 3,311 older Vermonters.

Vermont Business Magazine Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont) and Representatives Ro Khanna, (D-Calif), Lloyd Doggett (D-Texas), Peter Welch (D-Vermont), and Cori Bush (D-MO), along with more than two dozen colleagues, on Tuesday introduced sweeping legislation to drastically reduce the cost of prescription drugs in the United States. The package of bills includes: The Prescription Drug Price Relief Act to peg the price of prescription drugs in the United States to the median price in Canada, the United Kingdom, France, Germany and Japan.