Current News

Vermont Business Magazine New England state air quality forecasters are predicting elevated concentrations of fine particle air pollution due to wildfires in Quebec and Western Canada. The primary concern is high concentrations of fine particle air pollution that is unhealthy, especially for sensitive groups such as people with respiratory disease, the elderly, or people with compromised health.  Areas that are forecasted to exceed the Federal air quality standard for 24-hour particle pollution level concentrations are: Massachusetts (Central and Western areas), New Hampshire (Carroll, Cheshire, Coos, Grafton, and Sullivan counties), and Vermont. 

Vermont Business Magazine Today, members of the Afghan community in Vermont came together to mark the 3-year anniversary of the collapse of the Afghan Government and the U.S. Government withdrawal from Afghanistan. The Vermont Afghan Alliance, a non-profit providing essential services to the Afghan community hosted the public gathering in Burlington. The Alliance is state and federally funded to serve the growing Afghan community in Vermont, including driving lessons, employment assistance, interpretation services and case management. The Alliance also trains the Afghan community on legal rights and civics and supports immigration proceedings. By design the organization – both the Board and staff – is predominantly Afghan led. 

Vermont Business Magazine The Department of Forests, Parks, and Recreation is holding a public meeting to present plans for an additional camping loop at Lake St. Catherine State Park, located in Poultney, Vermont. The meeting will be held from 5:30 pm to 7:00 pm on August 29, 2024, at Lake St. Catherine State Park in the Nature Center. The plan reviews the opportunity to provide more camping sites at the park to support new recreational activities including a disc golf course and mountain bike trail access. The drafted plan proposes a new camping loop, which provides the opportunity for new services like hookups for waste, electric, and water.

Vermont Business Magazine In an historic moment today, the Biden-Harris Administration announced millions of Medicare enrollees across America will benefit from lower prescription drug costs made possible by the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act. New prices for the first 10 drugs will go into effect for enrollees of Medicare Part D prescription drug coverage beginning January 1, 2026, and will save patients 38-79% off the list price of drugs. Senator Peter Welch (D-Vermont) championed this policy as a member of the House of Representatives, and successfully fought to include policies within the Inflation Reduction Act to end the ban on Medicare negotiating lower drug prices for seniors. 

Lucia McCallum, Community News Service It took only a walk upstream for two engineers to realize one of the bridges on Cabot’s Main Street is dangerously undersized to handle debris swept in by floodwaters. “Fundamentally we’re asking these structures to do things they’re just not intended to deal with,” said one of them, Roy Schiff, a principal water resources engineer at SLR Consulting, a sustainability-focused company with an office in Waterbury. The firm has been hired by Cabot’s Flood Resiliency Task Force to do an in-depth study on the town’s rivers and possible solutions to flooding. Their work, which will begin in late July and continue through October, was made possible by a $70,000 Federal Emergency Management Agency grant awarded to the town this May, said Gary Gulka, chair of the task force. The group plans to hold a public meeting with the consultants in August.

Vermont Business Magazine Average gasoline prices in Vermont are $3.40/g, down 1 cent per gallon from last week. The lowest price in the state is $3.18/g in Springfield. Average gasoline prices in Burlington have fallen 1.1 cents per gallon in the last week, averaging $3.41/g today, according to GasBuddy's survey of 100 stations in Burlington. Prices in Burlington are 9.5 cents per gallon lower than a month ago and stand 43.4 cents per gallon lower than a year ago. According to GasBuddy price reports, the cheapest station in Burlington was priced at $3.29/g yesterday while the most expensive was $3.45/g, a difference of 16.0 cents per gallon. The national average price of gasoline has fallen 3 cents per gallon in the last week, averaging $3.42/g today. The national average is down 7 cents per gallon from a month ago and stands 41 cents per gallon lower than a year ago

Vermont Business Magazine Governor Phil Scott and Agency of Natural Resources (ANR) Secretary Julie Moore today announced the appointment of Charles Martin as the new deputy secretary of the ANR. Martin most recently worked in the Flood Recovery Office at the Agency of Administration, supporting policy development, and as the communications and legislative director for the Department of Liquor and Lottery. Prior to joining state government, Martin worked for Senator Leahy in the Senator’s Vermont and Washington D.C. offices and spent time at the Vermont Chamber of Commerce as their government affairs director. 

Vermont Business Magazine The Attorney General’s Office announced that licensed psychotherapist Robert Martin DuWors, Ph.D., 71, of Cotuit, Massachusetts, was arraigned today on three felony counts of Medicaid Fraud. The charges brought against Dr. DuWors are the result of an investigation conducted by the Attorney General’s Medicaid Fraud and Residential Abuse Unit (MFRAU) which revealed that Dr. DuWors allowed an unlicensed associate to practice psychotherapy on his patients while billing Vermont Medicaid for that time at a licensed clinical full rate. Additionally, Dr. DuWors routinely billed Vermont Medicaid for “impossible time,” whereby Dr. DuWors claimed to have personally provided more than 24 hours of Medicaid service on a single date.

Vermont Business Magazine The Vermont Community Foundation has distributed $455,500 in flood relief grants over the past month to respond to devastating flooding around the state this summer. The latest grants bring the total granted or allocated through the VT Flood Response & Recovery Fund since July of 2023 to $13.7 million. Thanks to generous donations, the most recent grants are helping communities shelter people displaced by floodwaters, clean up debris, and meet basic needs for food and clothing. Grants are also helping farmers plant cover crops in damaged fields, replace equipment, and repair farm roads that were gouged by torrents of water. 

Vermont Business Magazine Nine Vermont-based companies have been recognized on the 2024 Inc. 5000 list of fastest-growing companies in the U.S., as measured by percentage revenue growth between 2020 and 2023. To be eligible for the list, a company must be privately held, for profit and independent; have been founded and generating revenue as of March 31, 2020; have generated a minimum of $100,000 in revenue in 2020; and have generated a minimum of $2 million in revenue in 2023.

Vermont Business Magazine The Vermont Agency of Transportation (AOT) joins law enforcement agencies across the state and nation in urging drivers to make plans and drive sober this Labor Day holiday. From August 16 through September 2, the U.S. Department of Transportation’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) will be working alongside law enforcement across the country for the impaired driving high-visibility enforcement campaign. In Vermont, from 2019 to 2023, 56% of all fatal vehicle crashes involved an impaired driver (impaired includes both drugs and alcohol), and 237 children were involved in crashes with impaired drivers. In 2023, there were 42 fatalities involving an impaired driver.

Vermont State Police Late Wednesday afternoon, Aug. 14, 2024, search and recovery crews recovered a body from the Mad River at Warren Falls believed to be that of missing swimmer Tuan Baldino, 35, of Paramus, New Jersey. The body was taken to the Chief Medical Examiner’s Office in Burlington for an autopsy to determine the cause and manner of death and to confirm identity. This incident does not appear suspicious. Warren Falls and the surrounding river area will remain closed at least through Thursday, Aug. 15. The river remains dangerous and is filled with debris after several logs were removed during the course of the recovery operation. The Vermont State Police cautions the public to expect continued hazardous conditions even after the area re-opens to the public, and to avoid swimming or jumping into the river.