Current News

Vermont Business Magazine Yesterday, Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT) were joined by thirty-two US Senators in sending a letter asking President Trump to restore full funding to states for the National Guard forces responding to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Vermont Business Magazine The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) today awarded the Vermont Foodbank a $500,000 grant to upgrade its Barre, Vt. facility with new equipment and infrastructure, and increased broadband capability to better manage its satellite locations and collaborate with partners.

Vermont Business Magazine A new study that AdvisorSmith released on the “Best Cities for Dentists” ranked Burlington as the #1 best midsize city for dentists and overall the best city in the US. The study analyzed data from 258 cities and examined dentist’s salaries, the number of jobs, and the cost of living in each city. They categorized the data by city size to find the top 10 best small, midsize, and large cities.

Vermont Business Magazine Health Care and Rehabilitation Services (HCRS), southeastern Vermont’s non-profit community mental health agency, announced today that it exceeded its campaign to obtain 1,000 handmade cloth face masks for staff and clients. As soon as the agency put out a request to the community for homemade masks, offers to provide masks came pouring in.

Vermont Business Magazine The Peck Company Holdings, Inc (NASDAQ: PECK) of South Burlington, a leading commercial solar engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) company and Sunworks, Inc (NASDAQ: SUNW) of Roseville, CA, a provider of solar power solutions for agriculture, commercial and industrial, public works and residential markets, on Monday announced that they have entered into a definitive agreement under which Peck will acquire Sunworks in an all-stock transaction, pursuant to which each share of Sunworks common stock will be exchanged for 0.185171 shares of Peck common stock (subject to certain adjustments). Assuming no adjustments, Sunworks’ stockholders would receive an aggregate of approximately 3,079,207 shares of Peck common stock, representing approximately 36.54% of Peck common stock outstanding after the merger.

Vermont Business Magazine Governor Phil Scott today announced that the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the State of Vermont have finalized an agreement to allow certain state-inspected meat and poultry processors to ship their products across state lines.

Vermont Business Magazine Vermonters are more likely to drink alcohol and binge drink than residents of most other US states. Thanks to a federal National Institute of Health (NIH) grant obtained with the support of the State of Vermont's Department of Vermont Health Access and Department of Health, DynamiCare's digital care program will become accessible to the State's Medicaid population to increase retention and alcohol abstinence. The program's clinical outcomes and cost-effectiveness will be evaluated in a $1.6 million NIH-funded study in partnership with RAND Corporation. Launching in September 2020, the study will recruit 300 Vermont Medicaid members.

Vermont Business Magazine The Southwestern Vermont Health Care (SVHC) Marketing and Communications Department has received two prestigious regional healthcare communications awards from the New England Society for Healthcare Communications for work produced during 2019. SVHC earned a Silver Lamplighter Award for its SVMC Orthopedics Restoring Active Lifestyles Campaign and the distinction of Excellence for the Memorable Moments for Colon Cancer Screening Awareness Campaign.

by John McClaughry The 2020 general election campaigns are now under way, and it’s time for citizens to smoke out where candidates stand on issues that they will face in 2021, if not sooner. I say “smoke out”, because most candidates are notoriously gun shy about telling voters where they stand. That’s in part due to their limited understanding of the actual issues, and their anxiety about having to coherently defend any clear position. But the voters have a right to know. So here are sixteen timely questions, fairly stated, that voters need to try out on candidates seeking their vote. If the candidate can’t handle at least most of these, he or she likely is not well prepared to handle the job they’re seeking.

Vermont Business Magazine Mt Ascutney Hospital and Health Center (MAHHC) has announced that its entire staff of employees at all locations have been named as Employees of the Month for August 2020. The monthly award recognizes employees who have demonstrated sustained service excellence in their respective departments and have displayed compassion, a caring approach, and continuous hard work within their community.

According to Dr. Joseph Perras, Chief Executive Officer and Chief Medical Officer, the staff at all locations earned the award together, a first, thanks to their teamwork and dedication to patient safety throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.

“The arrival of the novel coronavirus was a tremendous stress to our entire organization and to our communities,” he explained. “I am proud to say that all of my colleagues stepped up to the challenge, and they did it together, working side by side with stamina, flexibility and ingenuity.”

Vermont Business Magazine The State of Vermont committed to track clean water efforts in the Lake Carmi watershed and report on investments and results annually as part of the Lake Carmi Crisis Response Plan. The Lake Carmi Clean Water Progress Report details clean water projects and investments from State Fiscal Year (SFY) 2016 to 2019. State and federal watershed investments reduced an estimated 251 kilograms (kg) of phosphorus loading in SFY 2019, which is approximately 41% of the phosphorus reduction required to meet the Lake Carmi Phosphorus Total Maximum Daily Load. Nearly all of the quantifiable phosphorus reductions in the Lake Carmi watershed have been associated with the agricultural sector.

Vermont Business Magazine The Vermont Department of Health is warning of high heat and humidity the next few days including for primary election day on Tuesday. The VDH also reported today that there were three new cases of COVID-19 and a total of 14 since Friday for a statewide total of 1,462. No one is currently hospitalized for the novel coronavirus.