Current News

Vermont Business Magazine The next guest on Medical Matters Weekly is Stephen T. Higgins, PhD, a national leader in addiction research and the director of the Vermont Center on Behavior & Health (VCBH) at the University of Vermont (UVM). The show airs on Facebook Live at 12 p.m. on Wednesday, September 28. The show is produced by Southwestern Vermont Health Care. Dr. Higgins is principal investigator on multiple National Institutes of Health grants on the general topic of behavior and health, including a National Institute of General Medical Sciences’ Center for Biomedical Research Excellence (COBRE) award, a National Institute of Drug Abuse (NIDA)/Food and Drug Administration’s Tobacco Centers of Regulatory Science (TCORS) award, and a NIDA institutional training award. He is the Virginia H. Donaldson Endowed Professor of Translational Science in the departments of psychiatry and psychological science at UVM and serves as vice chair of psychiatry.

Vermont Business Magazine The Vermont Attorney General’s Office and the Orange County State’s Attorney’s Office today announced the conclusions of their independent reviews of the fatal officer-involved shooting incident that occurred on July 19, 2022, in Brattleboro, Vermont. Attorney General Susanne Young and Orange County State’s Attorney Dickson Corbett have declined to prosecute Brattleboro Police Officer Ryder Carbone and Vermont State Police Detective Sergeants Jesse Robson and Samuel Truex for charges related to the fatal shooting of Matthew Davis. Based on the facts and circumstances and consistent with Vermont law, Attorney General Young and State’s Attorney Corbett have independently concluded that the use of force by Officer Carbone and Sergeants Robson and Truex was objectively reasonable and justified.

Vermont Business Magazine Governor Phil Scott today issued the following statement in response to the Canadian government removing all vaccination, ArriveCan, and random COVID-19 testing requirements for border crossings, effective September 30, 2022. “This is another welcomed development along our northern border with Canada. Removing barriers to cross border travel allows our border communities to return to normal social and economic activity, which is an important part of the connection between our two countries."

Vermont Business Magazine The Vermont Community Foundation’s Insight Hub, its research-driven arm focused on providing insight to inform charitable giving, has published a brief on how charitable individuals can use their giving to expand access to homeownership for middle income Vermonters. The Insight Hub offers webinars, events, articles, videos, briefs, and peer-to-peer experiences that help philanthropists understand where their giving can make a difference. Vermont needs additional housing of all types. An important piece of the puzzle is the creation of homeownership opportunities for the missing middle—buyers who don't qualify for income-restricted housing programs but can't afford market-rate homes. Philanthropy can help preserve Vermont's high homeownership rate with strategies that target middle income buyers.

The Vermont Fish and Wildlife Department announced a significant upgrade to its BioFinder planning and conservation mapping tool. New data layers will allow users to display socio-economic variables including per capita poverty, health insurance coverage, and a social vulnerability index alongside the ecological datasets from Vermont Conservation Design that currently populate BioFinder. Meeting the needs of both human and natural communities is an important part of the State of Vermont’s strategy for responding to climate change.

Vermont Agency of Transportation Motorists be advised, beginning tomorrow 9/27 @ 10:00 a.m. there will be Rolling Roadblocks on I-89 SB & NB barrels, in the Waterbury/Bolton area between exits 10 & 11, as well as flaggers to be located on US 2. Delays are not expected to exceed 10 min. If the planned Rolling Roadblock needs to be delayed due to weather the rain date will be Wednesday, September 28th.

Vermont Business Magazine A University of Vermont team focused on health care and research related to autism has received two awards totaling $350,000, through the Eugene Washington PCORI Engagement Awards program. The program is an initiative of the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI). The funds will support outreach with the autism community around Vermont to empower autistic youth, adults and their families as leaders in the research needed to address their current healthcare challenges.

Vermont Agency of Agriculture Food & Markets Is your business a part of the farm and forest economy? Are you in need of funding for a capital project you've been planning? The Working Lands Enterprise Initiative has funding available through their Business Enhancement Grant, formerly known as the Standard Business Grant. The Business Enhancement Grant can fund projects up to $35,000 that focus on market development, research & development, infrastructure, energy, workforce training and development, and more. Projects must have a 100% (one to one) match that can be cash or a combination of cash and in-kind items. Projects must be completed within 12 months.

by Timothy McQuiston, Vermont Business Magazine Just try and find a contractor to install a new kitchen, or to even just fix a crack in your chimney, or a tradesman to do just about anything around the house, and you’ll begin to understand what it’s like to run a general contracting business in Vermont. Labor is tight, supplies are expensive, if they’re even available, costs for fuel and any petroleum product are high, wages are up, and for all those reasons and more, many projects had to be re-bid and thus delayed. But underlying all that is undeniably good news for the industry.