Current News

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.

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.