Current News
by tim
Vermont Business Magazine The Vermont Chamber of Commerce has hired Hazel Brewster as the organization’s Director of Public Relations. Hazel will lead the Vermont Chamber’s communication and event efforts, working closely with President Betsy Bishop, who has championed the voice of businesses for over a decade. Born and raised in Morrisville, Hazel is a graduate of the University of Vermont, and earned her master’s degree in Public Policy and Global Affairs from the University of British Columbia. Most recently, she served as Chief of Staff for Lieutenant Governor Molly Gray.
by tim
Vermont Business Magazine As the world enters the third year of the coronavirus pandemic, with Omicron surging and cases skyrocketing, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) Wednesday, with more than 50 of his Democratic colleagues in the Senate and House, reintroduced lifesaving legislation to manufacture and distribute highly-protective N95 masks to every person in America. Under Sanders’ Masks for All Act, every person in the U.S. would receive a free package of three N95 respirator masks.
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Vermont Business Magazine As hospitals across the United States face increasing COVID-19 cases among patients and staff due to the omicron variant, the number of UVM Medical Center employees restricted from work due to COVID-19 – after testing positive, experiencing symptoms, or having an exposure at home, at work or in the community – is currently at 422 and is expected to continue climbing. At the same time, other employees have needed to stay home to care for children or loved ones, and patient volumes continue to be high.
by tim
by Timothy McQuiston, Vermont Business Magazine The Vermont Department of Health (VDH) has completed its reporting of delayed test results due to a technical glitch over the weekend. The VDH reset case counts with the new record high set last Friday, January 7, of 2,975 cases of COVID-19. For Tuesday, January 11, they are 813. While the fatality rate has slowed, there were still three deaths reported today for a statewide total of 490. Hospitalizations January 12 were 85 (down six); the record of 101 was set January 10, 2022. ICU stays, which also had been elevated, were 27. The one-day record there was set December 7, 2021, (31). Hospitalizations and ICU visits have not surged even as cases have more than tripled the last couple of weeks.
by tim
Vermont Business Magazine The Vermont Department of Corrections is announcing two symptomatic incarcerated individuals tested positive for COVID and are in isolation at the Northeast Correctional Complex (NECC) in St Johnsbury. The individuals resided in the same building as the three prior positives whose test results were received Monday. The building, which has two open units, is now being treated as a quarantine unit. The facility remains on full lockdown. As of Wednesday afternoon, 14 incarcerated individuals are considered positive across five Vermont facilities.
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Vermont Business Magazine As of 2:45 pm, all 350,000 tests available through the first phase of today’s “Say Yes” rapid test pilot program for COVID-19 have been ordered. The partnership with National Institutes of Health (NIH) and Amazon allowed Vermonters to order 350,000 free rapid tests, which will be delivered to homes over the next one to two weeks.
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Vermont Business Magazine Earlier today, The University of Vermont Medical Center began transferring its inpatient rehabilitation unit from its temporary main campus location, back to its location on the Fanny Allen campus in Colchester. In addition to previous upgrades, the Hospital Services team worked throughout 2021 with outside experts to assess, renovate and optimize the space’s complex system of filtration, ventilation, air conditioning and heating units, which was outdated and did not allow for optimal airflow in spaces where staff had reported symptoms such as dizziness and nausea.
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Vermont Business Magazine Reports of scams to the Attorney General’s Consumer Assistance Program (CAP) totaled 5,154 in 2021, up just slightly from the previous year’s 5,021 reports. Two variations of the Computer Tech Support scam and the Online Listing scam claimed the number one, three, and seven spots respectively on CAP’s list of top ten scams in 2021, covering nearly a quarter of the total reports filed by Vermonters. Businesses were also targeted by internet-based scams in 2021. The Business Imposter Email Scam, where scammers represent themselves as business personnel to extort funds, had 62 reports filed—a figure that did not make the top ten but notably jumped nearly 50% from the previous year.
by katie
Vermont Business Magazine Retired NFL quarterback Drew Brees says he always has been a positive person, so much so that his New Orleans Saints teammates used to call him "annoyingly optimistic." Perhaps that's why the 2010 Super Bowl champion turned broadcaster and businessman sees adversity as a way for leaders to build their inner strength and mental toughness rather than as something to fear.
"You are going to have all types of adversity, you're going to have all types of moments and circumstances where all of a sudden it feels like you're off course (and) going in a direction that you and your team did not expect," Brees said. "And yet you have to be the calm hand that steers the ship."
by tim
Vermont Business Magazine Vermont Lieutenant Governor Molly Gray today unveiled portraits of the three former Vermont women lieutenant governors: Consuelo N Bailey (1955-1957), Madeleine M Kunin (1979-1983), and Barbara W Snelling (1993-1997) in the Senate Chamber of the Vermont State House.
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Stonyfield Co-Founder Gary Hirshberg Announces New Northeast Organic Family Farm
Vermont Business Magazine Last fall, 89 organic family farms across Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont and eastern New York received the sudden news that Horizon, a brand owned by Danone North America, was terminating their purchase contracts, effective in early 2023. Subsequently Maple Hill Creamery announced the cancellation of contracts for an additional 46 farms. This news put these farms, many of whom have been in business for generations, at serious risk of closure unless they find alternate outlets. Today, Gary Hirshberg, Stonyfield Co-Founder and former long-time CEO, is announcing the launch of the Northeast Organic Family Farm Partnership, a first-of-its kind partnership, created to solve the crisis of disappearing family farms.
by tim
Vermont Business Magazine Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont) Tuesday issued the following statement after the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) proposed a rule that would cover Aduhelm, the outrageously expensive Alzheimer’s treatment, and similar drugs in development only for people enrolled in qualifying clinical trials: “Biogen’s outrageous original price for Aduhelm, $56,000 per year, is the poster child for how dysfunctional our drug pricing system has become and it is the perfect example of why Medicare should be negotiating drug prices with the pharmaceutical industry. If the administration takes no action, Medicare recipients will continue to see their biggest premium increase in history, all because of Biogen’s greed. That cannot be allowed to happen."