Current News

Vermont Business Magazine iSun, Inc (NASDAQ: ISUN), a leading solar energy and clean mobility infrastructure company with 50 years of construction experience for solar, electrical and data services, today announced that it has made a $1.5 million strategic investment in Gemini Electric Mobility Co and a $1 million investment in Nad Grid Corp.

Vermont Business Magazine US Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont) held a virtual town meeting Monday evening to discuss how students have experienced the social, emotional, and mental health challenges caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Nearly 500 Vermont students joined Sanders for the town meeting, which was held via video.

Vermont Business Magazine Vermont Creamery, the mission-driven makers of consciously crafted dairy, has released its 2020 Mission Report, sharing key stories and metrics from the past year that highlight their commitment to sustainable business and systemic change. The Certified B Corporation and heritage crafters of the #1 selling goat cheese in America celebrated their 36th year in business by delivering on a promise to create an increasingly positive impact while achieving conscious business growth nationwide.

Vermont Business Magazine The Vermont Department of Health has confirmed that genomic sequencing of COVID-19 specimens has now identified two of the variants of concern circulating in the U.S. In addition to results earlier this month of the B.1.1.7 variant that originated in the UK, recent lab results now show the B.1.429 strain, first identified in California, is also in Vermont. The VDH is also reporting today 139 new total cases, which is an increase from recent days. However deaths are holding at 217 statewide. Total Vermonters who have received at least one dose of vaccine now exceed 160,000.

Vermont Business Magazine The Gap: A Shortage of Affordable Homes, a new report released today, March 18, 2021, by the National Low Income Housing Coalition (NLIHC), finds a national shortage of nearly seven million affordable and available rental homes for extremely low-income (ELI) renter households, those with incomes at or below the poverty level or 30 percent of their Area Median Income (AMI). Nationally, there are just 37 affordable and available rental homes for every 100 ELI renter households, and 70 percent of the poorest renter households are severely cost burdened, spending more than half of their income on housing expenses, with little left over for other basic necessities.

No state or metropolitan area in the nation has an adequate supply of affordable and available rental homes for the lowest-income families.

Vermont Research News Rural areas are especially prone to both Opioid Use Disorder (OUD) and intimate partner violence (IPV). New research examines these issues through interviews with 33 rural Vermont women experiencing both IPV and opioid use. Findings grouped into several categories, including; geographic isolation and transportation difficulties, inaccessibility of existing substance use treatment and domestic violence services and social isolation and stigma in rural areas.

by Shawn Shouldice & Richard Wobby On behalf of NFIB and AGC/VT members in Vermont, we are writing to express our opposition to S10, legislation that WAS intended to hold harmless small businesses from the historic event – pandemic unemployment in the magnitude of $1 billion. NFIB went on record in the Senate Economic Development committee on February 2, 2021, supporting legislation as introduced because it provided relief of charges from March 15 to December 31, 2020. Going into this historic pandemic the Vermont Unemployment Trust Fund was over-financed, so providing small businesses protection from a COST SHOCK certainly would have been appreciated.

Vermont Business Magazine On Thursday, March 18, Google released their Economic Impact Report, sharing that more than 45,000 businesses, publishers, and nonprofits in Vermont used Google products to increase their online presence and connect with the people and communities they serve -- generating $1.62 billion in economic activity in 2020.

Vermont Business Magazine With more people working from home during the pandemic and restrictions on in-person gatherings, keeping workers connected, positive and healthy can feel challenging. Vermont employers piloted innovative programs during the past year, from virtual group walks and mental health webinars to delivering healthy snacks to workers’ homes. On April 8, to shine light on these efforts and encourage more employers to try the best practices, 71 Vermont employers will receive honors at a virtual Governor’s Award for Excellence in Worksite Wellness ceremony.

Vermont Business Magazine Podcast producer Josh Crane and musician Myra Flynn will join VPR’s newsroom as engagement producers later this month, the station has announced. They will support the creation and community of Brave Little State, VPR’s award-winning, people-powered journalism project, as well as help incubate new engagement reporting efforts across the VPR newsroom.

EB-5 Regional Center Program will expire in June absent bipartisan integrity reforms

Vermont Business Magazine Today, Senator Patrick Leahy (D-Vermont), a senior member and former chairman of the Judiciary Committee, and Senator Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), Ranking Member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, introduced the EB-5 Reform and Integrity Act of 2021 to address fraud and national security vulnerabilities in the EB-5 investor visa Regional Center Program, which has been exploited and abused for years.

by Secretary of State Jim Condos COVID-19 has strained so many of our institutions over the last year. As our Vermont government agencies work to support our state through this crisis, we must always work to maintain the public’s right to know. Fortunately, in Vermont we have made great strides. Confidence in our public institutions is needed now more than ever. The misinformation and disinformation surrounding the 2020 Election has only served to further erode faith in government and our civic processes.