Current News

Vermont Business Magazine The House Monday evening released a $1.4 trillion bipartisan, bicameral agreement to fund the federal government through fiscal year 2020. Vice Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vermont) said the deal rejects "the devastating and short sighted cuts proposed by President Trump, and making historic investments in the American people and working families."

Vermont Business Magazine Governor Phil Scott and the Vermont Department of Labor today announced the recipients of $350,000 in 2020 Vermont Internship Program grant funding. These grants help connect Vermont employers with student-interns from regional technical centers and post-secondary educational institutions.

Vermont Business Magazine Statement from Mayor Miro Weinberger regarding Deputy Chief Jan Wright: Soon after today’s press conference at the Police Department, Deputy Chief Jan Wright shared with Mayor Weinberger that she had occasionally operated a Facebook account under the name “Lori Spicer” through which she made comments about and engaged citizens in discussion of Police Department policy and practice. In response, Mayor Weinberger released the following statement: I have now named Deputy Chief Jon Murad as Acting Chief. Murad has confirmed explicitly to the City Attorney Eileen Blackwood and HR Director Deanna Paluba that he has never engaged in anonymous social media posting...

Vermont Business Magazine After eight years of operating out of a mobile MRI unit, Northeastern Vermont Regional Hospital (NVRH) in St Johnsbury held an official open house and ribbon cutting for its new MRI Suite on Friday, December 6, 2019. The new MRI addition is a significant upgrade for the hospital’s Diagnostic Imaging wing. The increased space and new layout improves workflow as well as efficiency for staff. The new space and equipment will also allow for future growth of MRI services.

by John McClaughry Thanks in part to fifty years of unflagging advocacy by Bernie Sanders, “socialism” has become a frequent  topic of partisan debate. Like its counterpart “capitalism,” socialism has meant several quite different things both to its partisans and its opponents. That can make it difficult to make out just what the debate is about.

Historically, the meaning of socialism was spelled out in detail by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels starting in 1848. Their scientific theory of history held that at some crucial point in history the oppressed working class would arise and expropriate all significant means of production from their owners – capitalists who had expropriated the labor value of the workers – and bestow it all upon the new socialist State. The State would banish, or execute, the former owners, abolish private property, and manage the economy and society in the name of “the people.”

Vermont Business Magazine In recent days, the Vermont media have published detailed stories describing profoundly disturbing reports of sexual misconduct, assault, and abuse at Vermont’s correctional facility for women, the Chittenden Regional Correctional Facility (CRCF). The Vermont Commission on Women has been a long-standing advocate for ensuring that Vermont women in prison are provided equal rights and opportunities and that their health, safety, education, and overall welfare are safeguarded. We recognize that many of the conditions described in the media have been known and acknowledged for many years, without being remediated.

Vermont Business Magazine Mt Ascutney Hospital and Health Center (MAHHC) has announced the appointment of Amy Visser-Lynch, MSN, RN as Chief Nursing Officer (CNO). Visser-Lynch had served as interim CNO at MAHHC since early 2019. Visser-Lynch joined MAHHC in 2015 as Director of Staff Education. Since then, she has served as Interim Emergency Department Manager, as well as the Interim Director of Outpatient Clinical Practice. She has been a clinical nurse educator at Vermont Technical College and Grace Cottage Hospital.

Vermont Business Magazine The State of Vermont today launched an incentive program for the purchase or lease of new plug-in electric vehicles (PEVs), which include all-electric vehicles and plug in hybrid electric vehicles, with a total of $1.1 million in funding to help Vermonters go electric. The incentives are available to individuals with an annual household income of $92,000 or less applying for a new PEV with a base price of $40,000 or less. More than 20 PEV models are eligible with $1,500 incentives for plug-in hybrid electric vehicles and $2,500 incentives for all-electric vehicles. Larger incentives of $4,000 for plug-in hybrid electric vehicles and $5,000 for all-electric vehicles are available for individuals whose households qualify for Vermont’s Weatherization Program. The statewide incentive may be used in combination with additional PEV incentives offered by the state’s electric utilities and federal tax credits for greater savings.

Vermont Business Magazine Governor Phil Scott today announced that 69 public, private and independent schools across Vermont have been awarded funds to make safety improvements to school infrastructure. The $1.4 million school safety grant program will allow the schools to complete a total of 150 projects to better secure facilities.

Vermont Business Magazine Burlington Police Chief Brandon del Pozo resigned today. This follows revelations that he had set up a fake Twitter account last summer and then lied about it to a Seven Days reporter. Seven Days broke the story last week. Burlington Mayor Miro Weinberger, who hired the chief in 2015, issued a lengthy statement on Friday explaining why he had not fired del Pozo when the chief first came to him to admit that he had set up the account and then lied about it.

Vermont Business Magazine To most people, last summer’s breach of Capital One, which exposed the financial records of nearly 106 million of the San Francisco-based bank’s customers, was more of the same: the latest in a numbing string of hacks that seem to threaten personal security more every year. But in an important way, it was different – and more alarming – than past hacks, like the Equifax breach of 2017.

Vermont Business Magazine In fall 2019, overall postsecondary enrollments decreased 1.3 percent or more than 231,000 students from the previous fall to 17.9 million students, according to the Fall 2019 Current Term Enrollment Estimates report by the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center. For the first time in the decade, the nation's fall unduplicated enrollments fell below 18 million students and declined by more than 2 million students. Vermont ranked fifth in percentage drop with 4.4 percent decline in enrollment.