Current News
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Vermont Business Magazine Award-winning Vermont documentary filmmaker and theater producer Bess O’Brien will deliver the commencement address at 11 a.m. May 19 at Northern Vermont University-Lyndon.
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Vermont Business Magazine Governor Phil Scott and members of his Cabinet will be in Grand Isle County on Monday, March 25 for their Capitol for a Day initiative. This is the thirteenth county the group has toured, visiting Rutland, Caledonia, Windsor, Franklin, Bennington, Addison, Chittenden, Orleans, Windham, Lamoille, Essex and Orange counties over the last several months.
Capitol for a Day gives local constituents, municipal governments and other partners the opportunity to connect directly with State leadership and staff. The Administration will visit each of the state’s 14 counties as part of this initiative.
Follow along on social media using the #VTCapitol4aDay hashtag.
WHEN: Monday, March 25
8:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.
(Details below)
WHERE: Various locations throughout Grand Isle County.
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Vermont Business Magazine Peace Corps announced today that Saint Michael’s College ranked No.15 among small-size schools on the agency’s list of top volunteer-producing colleges and universities in 2019. Ten Saint Michael’s alumni currently are volunteering in countries around the world. Saint Michael’s returns to the list of top volunteer-producing colleges after a brief absence. In 2016, Saint Michael’s ranked No. 11 among small schools. Since the Peace Corps’ founding in 1961, almost 200 alumni have served abroad as volunteers. Vermont ranks No. 2 among states with the highest number of Peace Corps volunteers per capita, with 43 volunteers currently serving worldwide.
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Vermont Business Magazine Peace Corps has announced that the University of Vermont ranked No. 6 among medium-size schools on the agency’s list of top volunteer-producing colleges and universities in 2019. There are 31 UVM alumni currently volunteering in countries around the world. Since the Peace Corps’ founding in 1961, more than 900 alumni from UVM have served abroad as volunteers.
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Public Assets Institute At 2.4 percent, Vermont’s February unemployment rate was tied with three other states for the lowest in the country. The rate was also the lowest on record for Vermont since at least 1976, when the Bureau of Labor Statistics began tracking unemployment. Joblessness has been steadily declining since mid-2009, when it reached 6.9 percent. And not only are fewer Vermonters unemployed, the total number of Vermonters working has also been ticking upward for three months.
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Vermont Business Magazine After a one-week decline weekly unemployment claims rose again last week, but are lower than they were at this time last year. For the week of March 16, 2019, there were 641 claims, 211 more than they were the previous week, but 97 fewer than they were a year ago.
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Vermont Business Magazine One month after reaching a historic low, Vermont's unemployment rate fell again to a record low 2.4 percent in February, according to the Vermont Department of Labor report released Friday morning. The February rate reflects a decrease of one-tenth of one percentage point from the revised January rate. The current estimate of 8,436 unemployed Vermonters is the lowest total since April 1988. While the number of employed has increased, the year-over-year data reveals a decrease in the labor force and a steep decline in the number of people unemployed. Vermont is now tied with Iowa, New Hampshire and North Dakota for the lowest rate in the nation.
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Vermont Business Magazine Vermont Works Management Company, LLC, an independent alternative investment firm whose mission prioritizes both social impact and competitive financial return for Vermonters, has closed an investment with Cloudfarm, Inc., dba Seedsheet, a successful manufacturer of pre-fab gardening systems and technologies out of Middlebury. Proceeds of the financing will be used to fund several new senior management positions for the team and to automate and expand the company’s manufacturing capacity. Seedsheet expects to create more than 10 new jobs in Middlebury over the next 12 months with this investment.
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Vermont Business Magazine Vermont’s Killington Resort, the largest ski and snowboard resort in Eastern North America announced Thursday it will unveil a reimagined K-1 base lodge, which will open with an expanded footprint during the 2020-21 season; a new 4-person, fixed grip chairlift that will debut during the 2019-20 season and replace the existing North Ridge Triple chairlift; and significant upgrades to Killington and sister resort Pico Mountain’s snowmaking systems, which means guests will experience a better, more consistent and more reliable snow surface, all with a lower impact on the environment. All upgrades are pending permit approval.
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by Bill Schubart It’s time to close the Women’s Prison in South Burlington. As the legislature and the Dept. of Corrections consider how to repatriate the Vermont prisoners housed in Mississippi, several legislators see the larger picture. We don’t need new prisons. We need to address the causes of crime such as poverty, abuse, and addiction and develop more cost-effective alternatives to incarceration, like treatment, training, and restorative justice.
There’s mounting support for closing the Chittenden Regional Correctional Facility (CRCF) this year and transitioning the few women who need supervision to the existing system with extra protections as necessary.
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Vermont Business Magazine College of St Joseph president Dr Jennifer L Scott announced today in a letter to the college community that a potential institutional partner has backed out, thus forcing the college to close its doors "given our current accreditation deadline and critical financial condition." The Rutland college is the third in southwestern Vermont to announce its closing this year. Students have been offered a teach-out arrangement with nearby Castleton University. Green Mountain College in Poultney announced it was closing in January and Southern Vermont College in Bennington announced in early March that it also would close.
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Vermont Business Magazine The Chittenden Superior Court has denied Purdue Pharma’s motion to dismiss the State’s case against it. The judge ruled that the State may bring all its claims against Purdue Pharma arising from allegations that it “aggressively and misleadingly marketed opioids such as Oxycontin in Vermont, leading to massive addiction and the resulting societal costs.” Attorney General TJ Donovan said, “This decision is an important step toward holding Purdue responsible for its contribution to the creation of the opioid crisis.”
The Court’s decision can be found here.
The State’s lawsuit is based on Purdue Pharma’s behavior surrounding marketing of OxyContin and other long-acting opioid products for the treatment of chronic pain, including: