Current News

Vermont Business Magazine The Department of Health investigation into reports of Legionnaires’ disease in Franklin County identified five confirmed cases, including one death of an individual in their 70’s, but the source of the infections remains unknown. The cases, reported to the Health Department between Aug. 12 and August 29, appear to be clustered in the St Albans area. Although no common source of the infections has been found, officials said the general risk to residents of St Albans and Franklin County is very low, as most healthy people exposed to the bacteria that cause Legionnaires’ disease do not get sick.

Vermont Business Magazine Governor Phil Scott was joined by students and industry leaders at his weekly press conference today to proclaim October as Careers in Construction Month in Vermont, recognizing the many career opportunities within the construction industry. According to Department of Labor data, construction accounts for 5.2 percent of statewide total employment, with more than 15,000 individuals working within the industry. The average annual wage for construction workers in Vermont is $57,635, exceeding the statewide average wage of $56,264. The most recent data also shows that construction account for about 10 percent of the total number of businesses in Vermont, with a total of more than 2,900.

Vermont Business Magazine The national poverty rate was 12.8% in 2021 but was significantly different for the nation’s oldest and youngest populations, according to a new Census Bureau report released today. The child poverty rate (for people under age 18) was 16.9% in 2021, 4.2 percentage points higher than the national rate, while poverty for those ages 65 and over was 10.3%, 2.5 percentage points lower than the national rate. Vermont's overall poverty rate is 10.3%, tied for seventh lowest. The state's child poverty rate was 10.4%, which was third lowest. And the 65 and over poverty rate was 9.1%.

By Steven Berbeco The pandemic has exposed the fault lines in our state’s mental health system of care, with many more of us trying to connect to services for depression, anxiety, and other issues. World Mental Health Day 2022 (October 10) gives us an opportunity to reconnect with each other in our shared efforts to protect and improve mental health resources for ourselves and our neighbors. As I write this, about one in five positions are vacant across Vermont’s state-designated mental health and specialized service agencies, where nearly a thousand Vermonters are waiting for mental health and substance use services, according to Vermont Care Partners.

Vermont Business Magazine The ACLU of Vermont is expressing its support for the family of a Richmond student targeted with transphobic harassment from within and outside of Randolph Union High School. After an inaccurate and misleading local media report about the student was picked up by multiple outlets, including Fox News and the British tabloid Daily Mail, the Orange Southwest Supervisory District’s website was hacked and flooded with transphobic messages, forcing the district to shut down its website and social media accounts.

Vermont Business Magazine The Vermont Attorney General’s Office and the Grand Isle County State’s Attorney’s Office today announced the conclusions of their independent reviews of the officer-involved shooting incident that occurred on June 14, 2022, in Woodstock, Vermont. Attorney General Susanne Young and Grand Isle County State’s Attorney Douglas DiSabito have declined to prosecute Woodstock Police Sergeant Joseph Swanson for charges related to the use of deadly force in a shooting incident involving Jay Wilson. State’s Attorney DiSabito agreed to conduct an independent review of the investigation, as the Windsor County State’s Attorney’s Office recused itself.

Vermont Business Magazine The coronavirus pandemic has dominated health headlines but there is a second health crisis happening. Online insurance broker QuoteWizard analysts have found that there has been a 21% increase in drug related overdose deaths in Vermont over the last year - that’s the 5th highest increase nationwide. New Hampshire had the second-highest rate of increase at 26%. Viriginia's rate fell 31%. October is National Substance Abuse Prevention Month, which helps bring awareness and shed light on a growing health crisis that’s killed over 100,000 Americans.

by Dr Jennifer Scott, Executive Director, Southern Vermont Area Health Education Center (AHEC) October is Health Careers Awareness Month in Vermont, an opportunity to highlight the importance of health careers in our state. Vermont still has one of the highest shortages in the nation of medical professionals per capita, a fact that not only impacts access to care for Vermonters but increases health disparities in our rural and underserved communities.

Vermont Business Magazine The LoveYourBrain Foundation, a Vermont-based nonprofit, has announced its fourth annual fundraiser in partnership with Revel Bikes. Since 2019, Revel has hosted a bike giveaway to raise funds and awareness for LoveYourBrain, and to date, the celebrated bike company has raised nearly $170,000 for the organization. To celebrate its fourth giveaway, Revel is donating two bikes from their collection - a Rail29 Mountain Bike and a Rover Gravel Bike. People are invited to donate to LoveYourBrain, a national organization providing free in-community and online mindfulness-based programs for people affected by traumatic brain injury (TBI), including concussion.

Vermont Business Magazine The next guest on Southwestern Vermont Medical Center’s Medical Matters Weekly is Linda Vahdat, MD, MBA, a leading breast cancer researcher who has developed breast cancer drugs that have saved hundreds of lives. The show airs on Facebook Live at noon on Wednesday, October 5. Dr Vahdat is the section chief of Medical Oncology and the interim section chief of Hematology at Dartmouth Health and a professor of medicine at the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth. She earned her medical degree at Mount Sinai School of Medicine and completed an internal medicine residency at Mount Sinai Hospital, both in New York City. She completed a fellowship in Hematology/Oncology at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York City.

Vermont Association of Hospitals & Health Systems This past week, over 120 health care leaders came together in-person for the first time since COVID-19 to discuss and tackle many of our more difficult health care challenges. It was incredibly nice to be together after such a long time apart. We are enormously proud of our work together over the past several years—making policy, collaborating and problem-solving over Zoom calls. There is really nothing, however, like being together again.

Vermont Business Magazine The Vermont Retail and Grocers Association is presenting Representative Peter Welch with a Hero of Main Street award October 5 at Bailey Road in Montpelier. The Hero of Main Street award was created by the National Retail Federation in 2013 to recognize legislators that have taken key votes and sponsored bills that advance retailer’s priorities. Congressman Welch is a longtime advocate of and champion for Vermont retailers. On September 19th Welch introduced the House companion bill to the bipartisan Credit Card Competition Act of 2022, which will bring competition and choice to the Visa-Mastercard dominated credit card network market.