Current News

Vermont Business Magazine Over 100 attendees gathered together on Thursday, June 22^nd for Windham & Windsor Housing Trust’s Annual Meeting and 35^th anniversary celebration. Residents, Shared Equity homeowners, supporters, staff, funders and friends mingled at the block party-themed event held on the site of the organization’s very first redevelopment at 50, 58, 64 Canal Street in downtown Brattleboro. 

Vermont Business Magazine The U.S Department of Agriculture’s National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) estimated 172 thousand acres of corn planted for all purposes in New England for 2023, down 1% from last year’s acreage of 173 thousand acres. Vermont's production is unchanged and it leads all states in corn and hay production.

by Aubrey Weaver, Community News Service Deepfakes — fake images and videos made with machine-learning technology that can realistically depict people’s faces  — have made headlines in recent years for tricking people and even the news in a lot of relatively harmless ways, such as a viral image of Pope Francis sporting a Rihanna-esque puffer coat. But lawmakers and advocates say photo-generative software represents a serious escalation of “image-based sexual abuse”: the practice of blackmailing or extorting an individual by threatening to leak nude or sexual images of them. 

Northeastern Vermont Development Association Governor Scott signed the HOME Act into law on June 5th. This legislation marks a strong compromise between housing and environmental advocates who worked with the Administration to find a path forward for housing policy reform. The HOME Act modernizes local zoning and land use regulations by allowing higher density development in areas with sewer and water service, creating more housing opportunities and affordable homes. Key provisions of S.100 include: Affordable & Inclusive Housing Expansion; Land Use Regulations; and Municipal Zoning Reforms.

Vermont Business Magazine NuHarbor Security, trusted managed security provider in Colchester, has announced the winner of its recent Natural Language Processing (NLP) hackathon. ”The Polyglot Project” was created to spur interest and innovation in the challenges posed by the differing outputs and alerts created by cybersecurity tools. It presented a specific set of criteria for the creation of an AI/ML-based approach to creating an evolving and dynamic common ontology for cybersecurity information. The winner of the competition, which had over 800 early applicants, was Chirag Hegde, a developer and student. 

by Joyce Marcel Popular, some say inspirational — and very tall — Thomas A Dee got into the field of hospital administration when academia barely recognized it as a profession. By the time he was 26, he was running two small hospitals in upstate New York. Now at 67 and the height of his career, he runs the tiny juggernaut that is Southwestern Vermont Health Care (SVHC) and is currently getting it ready to merge with Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center.

Vermont Agency of Transportation This weekly report is a list of planned construction activities that will have traffic impacts on state highways throughout Vermont for the week of July 3. Most crews will not be working on Monday and Tuesday for the holiday. Please remember to drive safely in all work zones. Lives depend on it.  

Vermont Business Magazine Beginning on July 1, 2023 changes to Vermont Adoption Law will allow adopted Vermonters greater access to their adoption information.   Starting July 1, 2023, any adult adopted person who was: Born in Vermont will get unrestricted access to a certified copy of their original birth certificate. It does not matter where or when the adoption took place. They may get this from the Vermont Department of Health’s Vital Records Office;  Adopted in a Vermont court may get identifying information about a former parent, unless the parent filed a request for nondisclosure before July 1, 2023. They may get this from the Vermont Adoption Registry.  

Vermont Business Magazine Residents throughout Central Vermont are encouraged to attend the upcoming Youth Opportunity Regional Forum on July 12 from 5:30-7 p.m. at Kellogg-Hubbard Library in Montpelier for people of all ages and backgrounds to come together to discuss how we can improve opportunities for youth in our communities. Free pizza and desserts will be served. The “Vermont Youth Opportunity Initiative” emerged through The Vermont Proposition Initiative which was coordinated by the Vermont Council on Rural Development in 2021 through input from thousands of Vermonters. 

Vermont Business Magazine Painter Terry Ekasala of West Burke has been selected as the second recipient of The Vermont Prize, an annual award aimed at celebrating and supporting the best visual art being made in Vermont today. A collaborative initiative of the Brattleboro Museum & Art Center (BMAC), Burlington City Arts (BCA), The Current, and the Hall Art Foundation, The Vermont Prize is juried by one representative from each of the four partner organizations and one special guest juror.

Vermont Business Magazine Since 1997, the VHCB AmeriCorps Program has been serving Vermont communities, cultivating leaders and inspiring collaborative solutions to expand housing opportunities and steward our natural resources. Serving on the front lines of community-based organizations, VHCB AmeriCorps members energize, engage, and empower Vermonters to address unmet needs at a local level, collectively creating positive change statewide. On Wednesday, June 28th, nearly 50 VHCB staff and AmeriCorps members engaged in a variety of community service projects in celebration of the program’s 25th anniversary.

Vermont Business Magazine Ms Lee Fan Club, of South Burlington High School, has been named 2023’s Beats for Good winner by popular vote and will open for Plain White T’s at Do Good Fest on July 15. Beats for Good is a battle of the bands competition open to any current Vermont high school student and their classmates. This contest is open to musical acts of all sizes and genres, acoustic or electric. Once the video submission period closes, a panel of local music professionals and educators review the submissions and choose their favorites. This year’s top 10 choices were voted on by the public, with over 4,000 votes cast. As the grand prize winner, Ms Lee Fan Club will open Do Good Fest, has the opportunity to meet the local and national musicians, and receives a $5,000 donation to their school’s music program.