Current News

Vermont Business Magazine The White House announced that President Trump on Friday signed into law legislation authored by Senator Patrick Leahy (D-Vermont.) that permanently reauthorizes the lifesaving Bulletproof Vest Partnership Grant Program. Under an amendment offered in the Senate Judiciary Committee by the Senate bill’s lead cosponsor, Chairman Lindsey Graham (R-SC), the program now is named for Leahy, recognizing his role in authoring the program.

by Will Wootton When an independent Vermont undergraduate college closes, as Burlington College, Green Mountain College, St Joseph's College, and Southern Vermont College recently have, it is almost by definition – at least in Vermont – the death of a small rural institution of age whose roots were inseparable from those binding its entire community. Each was singular and each represented and always had an alternative to the ever increasing growth and homogenization of American undergraduate education. It’s a good thing they do, so why do they fail?

On the societal scale, simple demographics – the decline in the college age population – is to blame. You can point the finger at today’s students, who follow their friends – their networks - instead of their passions, to the closest university. Or, perhaps most popular, it’s the small college business model itself that has brought on this purging. What made sense before does not today. That’s understandable.

Vermont Business Magazine While a large majority of Vermonters suspect that most of the automated telephone messages – or “robocalls” -- that they receive are attempts at scams, few are taking actions to protect themselves, according to results of a new survey from the AARP Fraud Watch Network. An estimated 48 billion robocalls came into the United States last year. More than half of Vermont adults surveyed by AARP said they receive seven or more robocalls per week.

Leonine Public Affairs The Vermont General Assembly effectively adjourned the 2019 legislative session on the afternoon of Friday, May 24. The qualifier “effectively” refers to the fact that the House adjourned and left the statehouse for the year before the Senate agreed they were all going home.

Vermont Business Magazine ADM Milling Co is recalling all five-pound bags of Baker’s Corner All Purpose Flour packaged for ALDI in select markets because of the potential presence of E.coli, which was discovered during testing of a five-pound bag of Baker’s Corner All Purpose Flour by the Rhode Island Department of Health. Aldi has Vermont stores in Bennington, Brattleboro and Rutland.

Vermont Business Magazine Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Vermont’s Windham County Community Advisory Board (WCCAB) has provided over $5,000 in grants to area schools as part of its ongoing commitment to promote physical activity and improve the overall health of Vermonters. Schools receiving grants are The Academy School, Brattleboro Area Middle School, Central Elementary School, Dummerston School, Green Street School, Oak Grove School and Retreat Farm.

Vermont Business Magazine The first project rankings for the new 2019 Southern Vermont Economy Zone CEDS (Comprehensive Economic Development Strategy) have been announced. A total of 70 projects were submitted to be included in the first ever five-year plan for growing the southern Vermont economy, six of which have been ranked “vital.”

by Robert Zulkoski Any farmer will tell you the importance of “listening to the land.” You don’t grow corn where you should be yielding cotton; you don’t force wheat where chard grows freely. Farmers rely on ingenuity and capitalize on the strengths of their equipment and land, farmhands and neighbors, and knowledge of the market to respond to the ever-changing conditions. Sticking to the same practices during a drought or flood won't yield crop or a profit.

Vermont Business Magazine AM Best has affirmed the Financial Strength Rating of A- (Excellent) and the Long-Term Issuer Credit Rating of “a-” of National Guaranty Insurance Company of Vermont (NGIC) (Burlington, VT). The outlook of these Credit Ratings (ratings) remains stable. The ratings reflect NGIC’s balance sheet strength, which AM Best categorizes as very strong, as well as its strong operating performance, limited business profile and appropriate enterprise risk management.

The ratings support NGIC’s role as a captive insurance company of Waste Management, Inc (WM) [NYSE: WM], a leading company in the waste management industry. The captive benefits from the parental support and robust risk management strategies afforded to it from WM as important factors of the company’s overall financial assurance program. The active risk management has benefited capitalization through loss prevention to generate consistently positive earnings.

Vermont Business Magazine The United States Senate Thursday passed a $19.1 billion bipartisan, bicameral disaster supplemental to provide aid for all American citizens recovering from 2017-2019 disasters by a vote of 85 to 8.  The House first passed an emergency supplemental in January, only for the measure to stall in the Senate due to President Trump’s insistence that it not include “one more dime” of funding for the American citizens of Puerto Rico recovering from two category 5 hurricanes. 

Vermont Business Magazine BioTek Instruments announces a new wide field of view (FOV) camera option for their Cytation 5 Cell Imaging Multi-Mode Reader. The new wide FOV camera captures approximately four times the area compared to Cytation 5’s standard camera, allowing users to capture larger areas of interest with fewer images. The new camera increases the speed of acquisition for larger samples and accelerates statistically significant sampling for cell population analysis.

Vermont Business Magazine Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont) and Representative Barbara Lee (D-CA) on Wednesday introduced the Inclusive Prosperity Act along with Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) and more than a dozen House Democrats.The legislation imposes a tax of a fraction of a percent on the trades of stocks, bonds, and derivatives. This tax on Wall Street speculation, also known as a financial transaction tax, is estimated to generate up to $2.4 trillion in public revenue from wealthy investors over 10 years. An added benefit of the proposed tax is deterring the high-frequency trading that increases the instability of the financial sector and produces no economic value.