Current News

by John McClaughry In the wake of horrendous mass shootings in El Paso and Dayton, leading political figures are once again demanding sweeping measures of gun control. Former VP Joe Biden, the front runner in the Democratic Presidential pack of twenty, said on CNN that he favored a ban on “military style rifles” He acknowledged that there’s no legal way of confiscating such rifles from private owners, but “we can, in fact, make a major effort to take them off the street and out of the possession of people,” suggesting a voluntary buyback program.

Vermont Business Magazine Ronald McDonald House Charities of Burlington needs your help by voting for them to receive a $25,000 grant from State Farm® to help improve their community. Starting August 14 at 12:01am ET, U.S. residents
who are 18 and older with a valid email address can vote for their favorite cause.
 

Vermont Business Magazine Union Bank announced Monday the opening of its newest full service branch located at 31 Market Street, Finney Crossing, Williston. The newly constructed branch location features a 9,300 square foot building that houses both the new bank branch and mortgage loan center which has relocated from Kimball Avenue in South Burlington to the second floor of this new facility. There is an additional 1,500 square foot space currently available for rent.

Vermont Business Magazine Jeffersonville food entrepreneur Lea Ann Macrery has never lacked for drive. Now, thanks to financing from the Vermont Community Loan Fund, her new business, My Favorite Things Food Truck, is ready to hit the road. Lea Ann grew up in Pretoria, South Africa’s bustling administrative capital. With a South African mother and American father, she was granted dual citizenship at birth. When a year of college didn’t feel like the right fit, she set out at age 18 for New York City’s culinary lights.

Vermont Business Magazine Governor Phil Scott today announced the appointments of Michael Schirling as commissioner of Public Safety, and Lindsay Kurrle as secretary of the Agency of Commerce & Community Development. Both have served in Scott’s cabinet throughout his time in office. Schirling, currently serving as secretary of ACCD, will fill the vacancy left by Thomas D Anderson, who resigned in July. Kurrle will move from the Department of Labor to take the leadership role at ACCD.

Michael Schirling, left, with Governor Scott in 2017.

Vermont Business Magazine 500 Vermonters from over 140 different towns gathered at Vermont Technical College today to hear from 60 different presenters and to continue a statewide conversation about how we can nurture great leaders in our local communities. Vermont Council on Rural Development’s 2^nd Annual Vermont Community Leadership Summit features skills workshops, case studies of success, and facilitated conversations about recruiting and supporting great leaders. As part of the day’s events, VCRD presented its Lifetime Achievement Award and Community Leadership Award.

Vermont Business Magazine While guests visiting Okemo Mountain Resort are mountain biking, golfing, hiking, swimming and exploring the resort’s Adventure Zone, Okemo’s mountain operations team is hard at work preparing for the 2019/2020 ski and snowboard season.

Vermont Business Magazine The Board of Directors of Pure Water for the World, Inc joined PWW founders, staff members, volunteers, donors, supporters, and partners at the ECHO Leahy Center for Lake Champlain in Burlington, to celebrate the organization’s 20^th year of bringing life-changing safe water and sanitation solutions to children and families living in underserved communities across Central America and Haiti. Senator Patrick Leahy and his wife, Marcelle, long-time friends of PWW, also joined in the celebration.

Bob Mohr, PWW Board President, started the evening by welcoming guests and thanking all of the supporters who have helped the organization reach this milestone. “Without you, there is no 20 years of changing lives. This is a celebration of you and Pure Water for the World.”

Vermont Business Magazine For a record sixth time, the State of Vermont has been named Domicile of the Year by Captive Review, a leading London-based trade publication. The award ceremony was held on the eve of the Vermont Captive Insurance Association (VCIA) Annual Conference, North America’s largest captive insurance event. The award is given to the top captive insurance domicile in the world that has “outperformed their competitors and demonstrated the highest levels of excellence in the captive insurance industry.”

by Deb Billado, Chair of VTGOP Yes, you have read that right. And yes, I am still the Chairwoman of the Vermont GOP Committee and no, those are not my words or belief. They belong to the mob of hate-crazed, fear-driven people who have become deranged because he upset their dreams (our nightmare) of electing crooked Hillary Clinton. Who could have imagined the anger, violence and insanity, acted out by many left-wing hatemongers calling even for his assassination because their candidate lost? Space will not allow me to list all the hateful things said and done to this President and his family. We can only speculate on each individual’s reasons for this intense reaction, but you can be sure there are many who are concerned that this principled man can’t be bought.

Vermont Business Magazine was honored with three national journalism awards earlier this summer. The Alliance of Area Business Publishers (AABP) presented a total of 116 Editorial Excellence awards to newspaper and magazine business periodicals in June during its three-day annual Summer Conference in Atlanta. These are the highest journalism awards available to regional business publications.