Current News
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by Jack Hoffman Public Assets Institute Cost containment is the watchword around public education this legislative session, with a focus on “high spenders.” The assumption seems to be that reining in high-spending school districts will free up lots of money for low-spending districts and also lower property taxes for everyone. No one has defined “high spender” or “low spender,” although for some legislators the terms appear relative to their own towns’ spending. But one way to analyze education spending is to see where the majority of pupils fall and then look at who lies above and below.
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Vermont Business Magazine US Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont) announced today that he will hold three senior town meetings throughout Vermont on Saturday, April 14, to discuss issues facing older Vermonters. The meetings will be held in Montpelier, Newport and St Albans. The series of town meetings will include a discussion on Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, as well as the high cost of prescription drugs, affordable housing, transportation and healthy food.
RSVPs are required. Please call Sanders’ office at 800-339-9834 to RSVP.
Saturday, April 14
Montpelier
What: Senior Town Meeting, with free breakfast
When: 9:30 a.m.
Where: Montpelier High School; 5 High School Drive; Montpelier
Newport
What: Senior Town Meeting, with free lunch
When: 12:30 p.m.
by tim
Vermont Business Magazine In the United States, the proportion of parents without health insurance has dropped 39 percent in just six years, according to the Annie E Casey Foundation's Kids Count Data Center. Today, only 11 percent of parents lack health coverage. At the state level, the rate of uninsured parents fell without exception. West Virginia reported the greatest change — a drop of 14 percent — leaving just 5 percent of parents uninsured in 2016. Maine, Massachusetts and Wisconsin reported the smallest drop — a dip of 1 percent. But those states already have high rates of coverage. Massachusetts is first with only 2 percent of parents not covered by health insurance. Vermont was tied for second with Hawaii at 3 percent not covered. Texas is by far the highest at 23 percent.
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'Cognitive' Technology Could Vastly Speed Inspection Process for Urban Development
Vermont Business Magazine Digging a hole in most major cities – for new construction or infrastructure repair – is no minor undertaking. With a dozen or more separate utilities required to inspect the ground under the dig site for a welter of obstructions like water, sewer and gas pipes, electric lines and electric generators – some so old they don’t appear on city maps – the permitting process can take 18 months or more.
Transformational new technology being developed jointly by the University of Vermont and the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga could reduce the inspection process to an afternoon’s work.
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Vermont Business Magazine After nearly 50 years in the HVAC industry, Wil Buskey, ARC Mechanical Contractors’ owner, officially retired December 31, 2017. From the time he was honorably discharged from the US Navy where he learned about HVAC/R and electrical systems, Wil worked in the heating, ventilation, air conditioning, and refrigeration business in some capacity.
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Vermont Business Magazine The US Environmental Protection Agency’s New England office, along with the US Department of Energy are honoring 12 ENERGY STAR partners for their outstanding contributions to public health and the environment. These enterprises will be named ENERGY STAR Partners of the Year for demonstrating national leadership in cost-saving energy efficient solutions. The 12 New England businesses and organizations are among a total of 163 Partner of the Year awards that will be presented in Washington, DC, on April 20.
“The 2018 ENERGY STAR Partners of the Year have demonstrated real leadership, showing how American families and businesses can make smart business and environmental decisions,” said EPA New England Administrator Alexandra Dapolito Dunn. “Energy Star has become a trusted resource for American citizens and business leaders.”
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by John Boutin Vermont Business Magazine The 2018 Best of Business Awards (BOB Awards) winners have been announced by Vermont Business Magazine. This awards program celebrates the best Vermont companies in more than 100 business-to-business categories. VBM readers chose the winners! Starting on January 1, 2018 and closing on March 1st, VBM surveyed its magazine and digital subscribers. We asked our readers – the business leaders of Vermont – who they trust to provide their services in over 100 different categories.
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Vermont Business Magazine Sometimes the need to change is inevitable. Other times it is forced by nature. But in this case, Mad River Distillers is choosing to rename its award-winning Malvados apple brandy to both avoid a wicked legal dust up and use the opportunity to enlist the public's help. The Warren, Vermont distillery was served with a cease-and-desist notice by the French spirits marketing board, who were unimpressed with the small company's translation skills.
“Malvados means 'wicked' in both Spanish and Portuguese,” quipped Mad River founder John Egan. “But we are lovers of brandy, not fighters. To be honest, we never thought we'd become big enough to show up on their radar.”
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Vermont Business Magazine An army of GMP line crews, tree crews and external crews are making repairs after strong winds overnight caused damage worse than forecasted bringing down trees and lines and causing outages statewide. GMP crews were ready and we had already brought in additional crews in advance of the storm placed around the state. They’ve been working through the night to get the lights back on.
At one point 24,000 customers were without power. Crews have restored power to 23,000 so far. The calls keep coming in and there are about 14,000 without power now.
The damage is across a large portion of the state. Winds were as high as 63 mph in Mendon and reached 112 mph on top of Mount Mansfield. Some of the regions with the most outages are Royalton, Springfield, Montpelier and Brattleboro.
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Vermont Business Magazine The University of Vermont will award honorary degrees at the May ceremony to John E Abele, Frank A Bolden, J Brooks Buxton, and Karen Nystrom Meyer. The 2018 commencement speaker, celebrated humanities scholar Alexander Nemerov, received a Doctor of Letters, honoris causa during 2017 commencement ceremonies.
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Vermont Business Magazine Agilent Technologies Inc. (NYSE: A) and BioTek Instruments, Inc. today announced a new, integrated solution that combines cellular metabolic analysis and imaging technologies. The optimized solution integrates the Agilent Seahorse XFe96/XFe24 Analyzers with the BioTek Cytation 1 Cell Imaging Multi-Mode Reader. This solution creates a standardized approach for comparing XF data sets, improving assay workflow, embedding images into WAVE software, and applying normalization values to Seahorse XF measurements.
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Vermont Business MagazineThe State of Vermont has issued a Do Not Drink order to tenants of the Rutland Airport Business Park after per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) were found in the business park’s water system. PFAS are a family of chemicals associated with firefighting foam and other manufacturing processes. PFOS and PFOA are two chemicals that belong to this family. All business park tenants have been offered bottled water and the state is working with the water system operator and consultants to swiftly design and install a treatment system that will remove the contaminants from the water system.
Rutland Airport Business Park. REDC photo.