Current News

Vermont Business Magazine Jenna’s Promise and the North Central Vermont Recovery Center (NCVRC) are pleased to announce the One-Year Anniversary Celebration of the opening of Jenna’s House Community Center on August 27th, 2022. Located at 117 St. Johns Road in Johnson, Jenna’s House has been a growing center point for Lamoille Valley, serving individuals and families recovering from Substance Use Disorders (SUDs) as well as the community at large.

by Peter Sterling, REV Incredibly and finally, the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) has begun the shift to a clean energy America. For the first time ever, the massive resources of the U.S. Government will be mobilized to move our country off of climate change causing fossil fuels and onto renewable energy sources like wind, solar and hydro power. We are finally looking at a future where renewable energy and other pro-climate technologies will benefit from a level of government support comparable to what the fossil fuel and nuclear industries have received for decades. For the first time there will be an energy storage tax credit, a comprehensive EV tax credit, a long term commitment to a solar tax credit for homeowners, and extra incentives for renewable energy businesses that pay prevailing wages and help to build solar equipment in the US.

Vermont Business Magazine The federal government has authorized the Vermont Department for Children and Families (DCF) and Agency of Education (AOE) to provide a temporary food benefit to preK-12 students who would normally receive free or reduced-price meals at school. These benefits, called Pandemic EBT or P-EBT, are provided to students who missed meals at school due to COVID. Benefits are $48.78 each month an eligible student had at least one COVID-related absence February through June 2022. Eligible children will also receive a one-time benefit of $391 for the summer.

Vermont Business Magazine Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont) on Friday will welcome Carole Johnson, Administrator of the Health Resources & Services Administration (HRSA), to Vermont to meet with health care providers and educators. The discussions will cover a range of health care issues in Vermont, including the health care workforce crisis, Vermont’s extensive Federally Qualified Health Center (FQHC) network, and opportunities to support and strengthen primary health care across the state. HRSA, an agency within the US Department of Health and Human Services, oversees federal initiatives to support the primary health care workforce, including the National Health Service Corps and Nurse Corps, and the delivery of primary care to more than 30 million people – including over 180,000 Vermonters – through FQHCs.

Vermont Business Magazine The Brattleboro Museum & Art Center (BMAC) has been awarded a $50,000 grant from The Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) through the “Inspire! Grants for Small Museums” program. The funding will support initiatives to improve digital and in-person accessibility, allowing people with a wide range of abilities and learning styles to take part in meaningful experiences at the museum. A new, fully accessible BMAC website will make it easier to gain information about exhibits and events, and the museum’s online events will include real-time captioning. Visitors to the museum will be able to use assistive listening devices and iPads pre-loaded with videos of ASL translations of exhibit text.

by Al Gobeille and Rick Vincent, UVMHN Recently, we presented the University of Vermont Health Network’s proposed budget for next year to our Vermont regulators, the Green Mountain Care Board (GMCB). Despite years of serious belt tightening, several major forces are driving our need for a significant increase. We took this opportunity to share with the GMCB what’s at stake and explain why our budget proposal is necessary to stabilize our finances and put us on a path to sustainability. Together, the two of us have more than three decades of experience managing and reviewing hospital budgets. From our perspective, this is the most crucial budget we’ve assembled. Actions taken now will clearly impact the future of health care in our communities.

Vermont Business Magazine US Department of Agriculture Deputy Secretary Dr Jewel Bronaugh today announced USDA is investing $121 million in critical infrastructure to combat climate change across rural America. The funding will include grants for 15 energy-efficiency and renewable-energy projects throughout New Hampshire and Vermont. These include the Big Picture Farm in Townshend which received a $18,039 REAP grant and the VT NH Veterinary Clinic in East Dummerston received a $16,378 REAP grant.

Vermont Business Magazine South Burlington students will be riding to school pollution-free this year, thanks to four new electric buses that have joined the school district’s fleet. Innovative vehicle-to-grid (V2G) bus chargers will also allow the buses to provide stored energy to the grid during energy peaks which further reduces carbon emissions and costs for all Green Mountain Power customers across Vermont. To help fund the project, the District received a grant in the amount of $965,000 through the Vermont Department of Environmental Conservation with funding from Vermont's Volkswagen Environmental Mitigation Trust Funds. GMP provided additional incentives toward the buses and V2G chargers based on the amount of carbon emissions the project is expected to reduce - the equivalent of taking 905 gas powered cars off the road.

Vermont Business Magazine Hunters traveling outside Vermont to hunt deer or elk need to keep in mind that a regulation designed to protect Vermont's wild deer from chronic wasting disease remains in effect, according to a reminder from the Vermont Fish and Wildlife Department. Chronic wasting disease (CWD) is a fatal disease of the brain and nervous system in deer and elk. Abnormal prion proteins produce lesions in the brain that cause disorientation and emaciation in conjunction with other abnormal behaviors. This highly contagious disease is always fatal to deer. For the latest information on CWD, check these websites: www.vtfishandwildlife.com and www.cwd-info.org. The potential exists for CWD prion proteins to be introduced to the environment through the bodily fluids of CWD-positive deer, elk or moose and then persist in the environment for extended periods of time

Vermont Business Magazine US Senator Patrick Leahy (D-Vermont) together with US Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont), Congressman Peter Welch (D-Vermont) and Governor Phil Scott, and the Northern Border Regional Commission (NBRC), announced Wednesday that 14 Vermont communities will be receiving a combined $5.8 million from NBRC’s State Economic and Infrastructure Development program. The NBRC supports economic development in Vermont, New Hampshire, New York and Maine.

Vermont Business Magazine On Monday, August 22, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Vermont filed a lawsuit against Teva Pharmaceuticals, the manufacturer of Copaxone, a brand-name drug that alleviates the symptoms of multiple sclerosis (MS). After learning of Teva’s years-long scheme to reap excessive profits from Copaxone, Blue Cross petitioned the court to recover the excessive costs we paid on behalf of our members as a result of Teva’s illegal and anti-competitive conduct. The cost of a yearly course of the drug has skyrocketed from $10,000 in 1997 to nearly $70,000 today. A major component of Teva’s nefarious scheme is offering manufacturer coupons to patients, insulating patients from the out-of-pocket costs for Copaxone. That practice gives patients a false sense of savings and incentivizes using expensive brand-name drugs over lower priced alternatives. But as insurers and employers pay the ever-rising costs for those brand-name drugs, insurance premiums rise.