Current News

Vermont Business Magazine The St Albans Festival of Trees has evolved from a simple Gala evening with a cocktail party, dance and an auction of donated trees to raise money for charity, to a full Festival, boasting a packed week of holiday activities and entertainment, ushering in the season with merry style. The Festival continues to add events to their roster, dictated by the community, the weather, and even a Pandemic.

Vermont Business Magazine Davis & Hodgdon Associates, CPAs, with offices in Williston and Rutland, is unveiling new names for itself and its entities. Recognizing that its client roster and service offerings have experienced substantial growth since its inception in 1990, the firm recently embarked on a rebranding initiative that encompassed name changes. Wanting to update its moniker to mark its evolution, and renowned for being entrepreneurs who happen to be CPAs, the firm and its entities looked to the future and their home state for inspiration.

Vermont Business Magazine The Vermont Department of Liquor and Lottery, Division of Liquor Control, launched a shop local campaign to promote the benefits to Vermont when Vermonters and visitors buy their distilled spirits at an 802Spirits Vermont Liquor Store. There are 78 802Spirits Liquor Stores across the state. Vermont is one of 17 states that controls the distribution of distilled spirits. The Division of Liquor Control contracts with independently owned and operated businesses to sell distilled spirits.

Vermont Business Magazine OneCare Vermont is Vermont’s local, 501(c)(3) accountable care organization (ACO) that partners with health care providers to transform the state’s healthcare system. OneCare maintains a governance board that includes managers from throughout the state that represent the full continuum of care and consumers. The board recently endorsed and approved changes to the membership roster in alignment with the recent governance change announcement. John Brumsted, MD will step down as chair of OneCare board of managers in January 2022.

by Timothy McQuiston, Vermont Business Magazine The Vermont Department of Health is reporting 517 COVID-19 cases, which was up from Wednesday's 245. The daily record was 591 cases reported last Thursday. The 16 worst days have all come since mid-September, following from the Delta variant surge that began in July. Reported cases have tended to ramp up later in the week as people get tested and results come back.

Vermont Business Magazine The Vermont Agency of Agriculture, Food and Markets (VAAFM) received confirmation from the National Veterinary Services Laboratory last week that a cow in Pittsford is infected with epizootic hemorrhagic disease (EHD). The Vermont State Veterinarian collected samples from the cow as part of a Foreign Animal Disease investigation that was initiated upon notification by the accredited herd veterinarian of concerning clinical signs in the sick cow. This case constitutes the first confirmed positive EHD infection in a cow in Vermont. Earlier this week, the Agency received a report from an accredited veterinarian that a second cow in a separate herd in Pittsford has also tested positive for EHD.

Public Assets Institute Right now, Vermont municipalities have an opportunity to make investments that will move their communities forward with federal pandemic relief funds. You may be asking: How is my community using these funds? How can I participate in the process? The American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) allocated over $200 million to Vermont cities, towns, and villages. This is nearly 40 percent of the amount collected in local taxes in 2020.

Vermont Business Magazine Recognizing that high and rising costs of prescription drugs present barriers to care and difficult choices for too many people in Vermont and Northern New York, The University of Vermont Health Network has launched a program to provide low- and middle-income patients with prescription medications at no cost.

Vermont Business Magazine Attorney General TJ Donovan today announced he is leading a nationwide investigation along with seven attorneys general into Meta Platforms, Inc, formerly known as Facebook, for providing and promoting its social media platform – Instagram – to children and young adults despite knowing that such use is associated with physical and mental health harms. The bipartisan coalition of attorneys general from across the country is examining whether the company violated state consumer protection laws and put the public at risk.

Vermont Business Magazine Yesterday, the Attorney General’s Office filed a motion with the Criminal Division of the Bennington County Superior Court requesting that the Court revoke Max Misch’s right to bail. In its motion, the Attorney General’s Office requests that bail be revoked based on the totality of Mr. Misch’s conduct across numerous pending cases, which the State believes “constitutes an aggregate threat to the integrity of the judicial system.”

Vermont Business Magazine The Department of Justice today announced more than $139 million in grant funding through the department’s Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS Office) COPS Hiring Program (CHP). The awards provide direct funding to 183 law enforcement agencies across the nation, allowing those agencies to hire 1,066 additional full-time law enforcement professionals. In the District of Vermont, two awards were granted totaling $248,257.00.

Vermont Business Magazine Vermont’s smallest citizens will provide insight into brain development during the first few years of life and help determine what factors influence a young person’s life trajectory. Researchers at the University of Vermont recently received a $5.5 million, five-year grant to participate in the Phase II portion of the HEALthy Brain and Child Development (HBCD) Study, an initiative focused on gathering data on brain development from birth through early childhood. UVM is one of only a handful of universities to have received both awards.