Current News

Vermont Business Magazine The City of Winooski has announced that the Northern Border Regional Commission (NBRC) has awarded the City a $450,000 grant through their Economic & Infrastructure Development Investment program to support the Main Street Revitalization Project. This grant will reduce the project cost to taxpayers in Winooski by approximately $600,000 in debt and interest.

Vermont Buiness Magazine The threat for thunderstorms across central and southern Vermont has Green Mountain Power (GMP) rescheduling today’s EV Test Drive Event in Rutland. The National Weather Service says thunderstorms are possible in Vermont throughout the day, and especially across central and south-central Vermont this afternoon. Forecasters say the storms this afternoon could cause localized flash flooding.

by Rob Roper This past spring the Lake Champlain Chamber of Commerce surveyed 500 young professionals, primarily Burlington area residents between the ages of 22 and 34, and learned that over 40 percent intend to leave Vermont. Now we can put some faces on those statistics. Taylor Dobbs, 29, a prominent reporter who worked for VPR and most recently Seven Days, has decamped with his wife, an educator, for North Carolina. Ben Jickling, 25, a two-term independent Representative from Brookfield, is leaving to take a job with a medical software company in Wisconsin. Both were life-long Vermonters.

Vermont Business Magazine Representatives from Middlebury College, Vanguard Renewables, Vermont Gas, Goodrich Farm, and the State of Vermont gathered on August 20 at the farm in Salisbury, to mark the official groundbreaking for an anaerobic digester. The facility will combine cow manure and food waste to create Renewable Natural Gas (RNG). The project is a milestone toward the college’s goal of using 100 percent renewable energy sources, and Middlebury will be the primary consumer of the RNG produced at the dairy farm. During the event, speakers from each organization discussed the facility, which will be the largest anaerobic digester east of the Mississippi River.

Vermont Business Magazine Senators Patrick Leahy (D-Vermont), Patty Murray (D-Wash) and Gary Peters (D-Mich) on Tuesday requested that the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) conduct a comprehensive review of the Border Patrol’s use of interior immigration checkpoints as part of their border security mission and their compliance with the Fourth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, which protects the right of Americans to be secure in their persons, houses, papers and effects against unreasonable searches and seizures. Two-thirds of Americans live within 100 miles of the Northern, Southern and maritime borders of the United States, and could be stopped and searched within that “border zone.”

Vermont Business Magazine Attorney General TJ Donovan today joined New York, Connecticut, and New York City in a lawsuit filed against the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) new rule that aims to deny green cards and visas to immigrants that use, or have used, government assistance programs.

Vermont Business Magazine Following new limits on how federal Title X funding can be used, Health Commissioner Mark Levine, MD notified the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) that it will stop using those funds provided to Planned Parenthood of Northern New England for family planning services in Vermont. Instead, the Vermont Department of Health will use State funds that have been reserved to ensure these services can continue.

Title X is a federal grant program created in 1970 dedicated to providing comprehensive family planning and related preventive health services to low-income families or uninsured people who might not otherwise have access to these basic health care services. HHS recently issued a Final Rule that prevents Title X funds from being used to provide the full range of family planning and reproductive health care services.

Vermont Business Magazine The who's who of Vermont's ski and snowboarding world will gather at The Lodge at Spruce Peak in Stowe on Saturday, November 2nd for a festive dinner and silent auction to celebrate the Induction of the class of 2019 into the Vermont Ski and Snowboard Hall of Fame. The event, hosted by the Vermont Ski and Snowboard Museum in Stowe, will also honor the recipients of the Paul Robbins Award and First Tracks Award. One of the highlights of the evening will be the showing of short biographical films created for each inductee.

Vermont Business Magazine Planned Parenthood Federation of America on Monday announced that the Trump administration, through what PPFA called an unethical and dangerous gag rule, has forced Planned Parenthood grantees out of Title X, the nation’s decades-old program for affordable birth control and reproductive health care. Planned Parenthood health centers has been a part of the program since it was created, nearly 50 years ago, and have collectively been the largest provider, serving 40 percent of all patients who get care through the Title X program. In Vermont, Planned Parenthood of Northern New England (PPNNE) serves 11,000 people who access affordable birth control, STD testing, cancer screenings, and more through Title X.

Vermont Business Magazine Ledyard Financial Group, Inc (Ticker Symbol: LFGP) today announced that its Board of Directors on July 26, 2019, authorized a stock repurchase plan pursuant to which Ledyard Financial Group may repurchase up to 120,000 shares of its common stock. Ledyard’s Board of Directors and management team are committed to maximizing shareholder value and feel the recent increase in the dividend along with the stock repurchase plan demonstrate their commitment to this goal. Ledyard is based in Hanover, NH, with a branch in Norwich, VT.

Public Assets Institute Private employers added 600 jobs in July. So far this year, the private sector has created 3,000 new jobs, showing growth for the last four straight months. Unemployment held steady at 2.1 percent for the third straight month, and Vermont’s labor force has increased every month this year.