Current News

Vermont Business Magazine Governor Phil Scott and the Agency of Commerce and Community Development (ACCD) today in St Albans announced over $4 million in funding supporting a record number of rehabilitation and revitalization projects throughout Vermont’s designated downtown and village centers. These 49 project awards will help generate over $95 million in building improvements and public infrastructure around the state.

Vermont Business Magazine GE a world leader in providing aircraft engines, systems and avionics, with a location in Rutland, Vermont, announces that its GE Manufacturing Technician Apprenticeship Programs graduated 41 apprentices in toolmaking, electrical maintenance, and mechanical maintenance on August 26, 2022. The graduation took place at the Killington Grand Resort Hotel. Patricia Moulton, executive director of Vermont State Colleges System’s workforce development division, was the keynote speaker.

Vermont Business Magazine Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vermont) Tuesday announced that $1 billion in new funding for the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) was included in the Continuing Resolution. Leahy was the leading advocate for securing new funding for the popular program in the continuing resolution, which is estimated to deliver $5.7 million in support for Vermonters.

Vermont Business Magazine Suicides in Vermont are at a 25-year high, and state health officials have issued a call to action for Vermonters to be partners in bending this curve. To help make this happen, the Vermont Department of Health and Department of Mental Health have launched “Facing Suicide VT,” a statewide prevention effort funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Facing Suicide VT provides access to suicide prevention education, support, and advocacy resources. This initiative features a comprehensive website, FacingSuicideVT.com. The site provides information and resources about how to get help for people struggling or in crisis.

Vermont Business Magazine Green Mountain Power (GMP) is adding grid-connected energy storage in six communities, to further accelerate its work to cut carbon and costs for customers, while strengthening the greater grid. GMP is working with battery companies and local developers to build cost-competitive energy storage projects in Vermont and purchase battery power to put back on the grid to save customers money. The storage projects selected will nearly double the current peak energy savings for GMP customers, and batteries will be in Georgia, Springfield, Bethel, Middlebury, Bristol, and Barre. The new projects are adding 25 MW of energy storage and will be online in the next two years, joining GMP’s existing fleet of more than 30 MW of residential and large-scale storage throughout Vermont.

Vermont Business Magazine Vermont State Treasurer Beth Pearce signed a letter with 12 state treasurers and the New York City Comptroller, in response to recent legislation aiming to curb consideration of environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors in investing. Several states in our country have started blacklisting financial firms that don’t agree with their political views. West Virginia, Idaho, Oklahoma, Texas, and Florida have created new policies and laws that restrict who they will do business with, reducing competition and restricting access to many high-quality managers. This strategy has real costs that ultimately impact their taxpayers.

Vermont Business Magazine The sixth annual Vermont Legal Community Fighting Hunger Food Drive raised $13,854 for the Vermont Foodbank and collected over 650 items that were donated to local food shelves or meal sites. This two-week fundraiser, held each year in September during Hunger Action Month, is organized by the Attorney General’s Office, the Vermont Bar Association, and the Vermont Paralegal Organization in partnership with the Vermont Foodbank. In the six-year history of the food drive, Vermont’s legal community has raised more than $63,000 and collected over 11,000 food items.

Vermont Business Magazine The VNA & Hospice of the Southwest Region (VNAHSR) is offering flu shots by appointment only beginning Thursday, September 29. While the flu shot only protects against influenza and not COVID-19, health experts are encouraging individuals to get vaccinated against the flu to mitigate the risk of flu illness, hospitalization, and death.

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.