Current News

Vermont Business Magazine After more than two years of all of us dealing with this global pandemic, VermontBiz, is proud to announce the 2022 Best of Business Awards (BOB Awards) winners. This awards program celebrates the best Vermont companies in more than 100 business-to-business categories. All of these businesses have been affected by the pandemic in one form or another and like us at VB we are looking forward to the day when business and life in general can get back to some form of normalcy. We do see a light at the end of that tunnel. Vermont businesses are very resilient and deserve to be recognized for their commitment to Vermont consumers.

​Vermont Business Magazine Attorney General TJ Donovan today filed a civil lawsuit against Missouri-based company, Karabell Industries, and its owner, Eli Karabell, for making repeated illegal telemarketing calls and harassing state legislators to pay him exorbitant sums of money. The lawsuit was filed in Washington Superior Court after numerous state legislators complained of receiving late-night phone calls from the Defendants who claimed to offer “government consulting services.” The Defendants then emailed state legislators proposing contracts and demanding payments of $18,500 per hour or even $48 billion. The Attorney General’s lawsuit alleges that the Defendants—who have ignored requests to stop—violated Vermont’s Consumer Protection Act and Telephone Solicitation Act.

Vermont Business Magazine On Thursday, the Ethan Allen Institute released the 2022 legislative midsession “Roll Call Profiles.” The profiles include legislators’ votes cast in January and February of this legislative session. The profiles demonstrate how Vermont lawmakers voted on bills to lengthen firearm background checks, impose a rental housing registration fee, broaden the definition of illegal speech, amend the state constitution (Proposal 5), and more. Each profile contains a brief overview of the issue at stake and links to more in-depth information such as original records, supporting documents, recorded floor debates, and analysis. Importantly, the profiles show each legislator’s voting history from 2013 to the present.

Vermont Business Magazine Brattleboro-based G.S. Precision, Inc, a leading manufacturer of complex, high-precision components and specialty hardware used primarily in aerospace engines and defense systems, announced today that it acquired SMC Aerospace, a provider of highly engineered tubes and machined components for the aerospace and defense industries. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed. GSP is a portfolio company of AE Industrial Partners, a U.S.-based private equity firm specializing in aerospace, defense & government services, space, power & utility services, and specialty industrial markets. SMC is based in Laconia, NH.

Vermont Business Magazine The US Department of Justice has filed notice that it intends to join a whistleblower lawsuit filed by Phillips & Cohen LLP against Modernizing Medicine and a co-founder alleging serious violations of the False Claims Act involving the company's electronic health records (EHR) software and illegal kickbacks to physicians. The lawsuit was unsealed in United States District Court for the District of Vermont in Burlington on March 24, 2022.

Vermont Business Magazine With working families across the country increasingly bearing the brunt of growing economic pain and inequality – amidst the conflict in Ukraine, the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, and spiking prices of critical necessities – Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont) on Friday introduced legislation in the Senate that would impose a 95 percent windfall tax on the excess profits of major companies. A temporary emergency measure, Sanders’ Ending Corporate Greed Act could raise an estimated $400 billion in one year from 30 of the largest corporations alone and would apply only in 2022, 2023, and 2024.

http://www.vermontbiz.comby Timothy McQuiston, Vermont Business Magazine Today, the Vermont Department of Labor reported that the February 2022 unemployment rate fell one-tenth to 2.9 percent. As with the national numbers, all three major metrics improved, as the labor force and employment increased and the jobless number decreased. The US weekly jobless claims fell to a 53-year low. Vermont's weekly claims are at their lowest point so far this year. The overall US unemployment rate in February was 3.8 percent, which was a decrease of two-tenths of one percentage point from the revised January estimate. Vermont has the 11th lowest unemployment rate in the nation.

Vermont Business Magazine Norwich University’s School of Business will hold the inaugural Amazon Web Services Business Challenge for teams of Norwich students, who will compete and present their work to a panel of judges featuring representatives from Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Volkswagen (VW) on March 31.

Vermont Business Magazine Capstone Community Action launches GreenSavingSmart, a new service connecting financial coaching with energy savings for low- and moderate-income Vermonters to ensure that a cleaner, greener Vermont is something everyone can be a part of. Vermonters face multiple barriers to accessing and affording heating, transportation and home energy improvements. Understanding the complexity of programs, eligibility criteria, and incentives can be an overwhelming experience. GreenSavingSmart provides a pathway to access rebates, incentives, and services available – in order to realize cost savings and carbon reduction.

Vermont Business Magazine Village Garage, a new distillery in Bennington making craft spirits from Vermont corn and rye, proudly announces the opening of Servicenter at Village Garage Distillery, a restaurant and tasting room infused with spirit and highlighting local purveyors. With the kitchen helmed by Chef Jonathan Studley, whose roots in the hospitality industry span 40 years, Servicenter features a full menu including small plates, salads/bowls, bar snacks, “hand helds,” mains, sweets, and a kids menu. The bar and tasting room experience is led by Alexander von Pfieffer, formerly the manager of some of New York City’s top craft cocktail bars. Opening hours are Thursday to Saturday (5-9pm) and Sunday (12-5 pm).

Vermont Business Magazine Comcast has announced that it has expanded its smart, fast and reliable fiber-rich network to make its full suite of services available to more than 1,000 homes and businesses in 11 underserved communities in Vermont, enabling the rollout of its Xfinity and Comcast Business services, including residential broadband speeds up to 3 gigabits per second (Gbps) and business speeds up to 100 Gbps. The service expansions Comcast completed since January 2021 include new addresses in Addison, Bennington, Franklin, Lamoille and Orleans counties, and builds upon the more than 1,200 Vermont homes and businesses Comcast extended its network to in 2020.

Vermont Business Magazine KSV, a Certified B Corporation and women-owned business, has received international recognition as a three-time-winner in this year’s 2021 Muse Awards for its 2021 pro bono campaign for the American Forest Foundation (AFF). The winning campaign was one of over 5,000 entries from all over the world in both the MUSE Creative Awards and the MUSE Design Awards, a competition that has demonstrated itself to be one of the leading programs in honoring excellent individuals in the creative and design fields.