Current News

Vermont Business Magazine United for Medical Research (UMR) today released the 2025 update of its annual analysis of the economic impact of research funding from the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The analysis shows that the $36.94 billion awarded to researchers in the 50 U.S. states and the District of Columbia in FY2024 supported 407,782 jobs and $94.58 billion in new economic activity nationwide – or $2.56 for every $1 invested. Of interest, the $55 million in NIH funding awarded to researchers in Vermont in FY2024 supported 540 jobs and generated $125 million in new economic activity.

Vermont Center for Emerging Technologies Season 9 of the Female Founders Speaker Series continues on Monday, March 24th from 5:30-7pm at Hotel Vermont. This panel will feature three incredible Olympians! The theme of the night is the "Olympian mindset" and how these women applied this mindset to their entrepreneurial journey after the Games.

Vermont Business Magazine Healthy Living, Vermont and New York's trusted source for healthy food and community connection, has donated more than $13,000 to a local food bank. Through its Round Up for Food Insecurity program, Healthy Living provides the opportunity for shoppers to round up grocery tabs at the register to the next dollar amount. The most recent donation, collected throughout 2024, will serve the South Burlington Food Shelf, located just doors down from the flagship store on Dorset Street. The Food Shelf welcomes in city residents to choose food items up to twice monthly.  

Vermont Business Magazine Last Friday, Campaign for Vermont Prosperity (CFV) released a detailed policy proposal for addressing the state's education spending crisis. Interim CFV Executive Director, Ben Kinsley, noted that he had sent an email to legislators announcing the proposal and telling them that "in the current system there are roughly 2 districts for every SU - they are not being leveraged properly for their potential to achieve scale." CFV proposes to consolidate Vermont’s 52 Supervisory Unions (SUs) around the 17 Career and Technical Education Regions. Since many services are already provided by the SU, this should gain some efficiencies of scale while still retaining community control of schools.

Vermont Business Magazine U.S. Senator Peter Welch (D-Vermont) on Tuesday joined fired federal employees and allies on Capitol Hill to stand up against Elon Musk’s so-called “Department of Government Efficiency” (DOGE) and demand that the Trump Administration immediately rehire federal workers illegally terminated from their jobs. Senator Welch spoke with federal employees who lost their jobs as a result of DOGE’s illegal mass-firing spree and vowed to fight back against President Trump’s lawless rampage. 

Vermont Business Magazine The Vermont Department of Health has confirmed a case of measles in a school-aged child in Lamoille County. The child became sick after returning with their family from traveling internationally in recent days. The risk to the public is believed to be low, as the child has been isolated from most community settings while they have been contagious. Investigation is ongoing. This is the first case of measles in Vermont in 2025, following two cases in 2024 and two cases in the decade prior, one in 2011 and one in 2018. This case is not related to the three ongoing domestic outbreaks of measles in the United States or to the current measles outbreak in Québec. 

by Vermont Auditor of Accounts Doug Hoffer The State Auditor’s Office is the watchdog of State government performance, providing independent, objective analysis from outside the Executive, Legislative, and Judicial branches. Each year we complete audits that make recommendations to State agencies to help them improve public services and save taxpayer money. Here are brief summaries of what we found when we performed our follow-up work on audits completed in 2023 and 2021. The titles show the name of the agency we audited, whether it is the initial or final follow-up report (i.e., performed 1 year or 3 years after the audit), and the number of recommendations implemented by the agency vs. the number of recommendations given in the audit report.

Vermont Business Magazine Vermont’s Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (VT-BEAD) Program is now accepting proposals from Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to implement Vermont’s $239 million, federally funded program to deploy broadband internet service throughout the state. The VT-BEAD Full Proposal portal will close at 11:55pm on April 16, 2025. Only those ISPs that submitted a VT-BEAD Pre-proposal are eligible to submit Full Proposal. 

Vermont Business Magazine As millions of seniors and people with disabilities struggle to afford dentures, hearing aids and eyeglasses, Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont), Ranking Member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee, and Rep. Lloyd Doggett (D-Texas), Ranking Member of the House Ways and Means Health Subcommittee, today introduced bicameral legislation to expand access to dental, hearing and vision care for the 68 million American seniors on Medicare. Around 4:30 p.m. ET, Sanders will ask for unanimous consent on the Senate floor to pass his legislation, forcing anyone who opposes expanding Medicare to include essential dental, hearing and vision coverage to rise in opposition. Sanders' remarks will be livestreamed on his social media here.

Vermont Business Magazine Treasurer Mike Pieciak and local legislators will host two town halls on Saturday, March 15 to discuss Vermont’s response to federal policy changes under the Trump administration. The first town hall will take place at 9:30 AM at Brattleboro Area Middle School, followed by the second at 2:30 PM at the South Burlington Library Auditorium. The events are hosted by Treasurer Pieciak’s Task Force on the Federal Transition and will provide an opportunity for Vermonters to share their concerns and ideas for action.

Vermont Business Magazine Today Comcast announced that across Vermont, Xfinity Internet customers woke up to 50% to 100% faster upload speeds, as well as faster download speeds, all at no additional cost. Xfinity Internet tiers, and the NOW branded prepaid products, will benefit from 50 to 100 percent faster upload speeds than before, helping customers upload large files in a flash when working from home or posting videos to social media in seconds. Download speeds will also increase for most Internet tiers.

by Ed Fox, VTRGA Vermont has an opportunity this legislative session to pass comprehensive data privacy legislation which strikes a responsible balance between protecting consumer data and ensuring businesses and nonprofits can continue to thrive. The introduction of a common-sense data privacy bill by Senator Thomas Chittenden, with bipartisan cosponsors including both the Senate Majority and Senate Minority Leaders, represents a thoughtful, regionally compatible approach—one that safeguards personal information while fostering economic stability.