Current News

Vermont Business Magazine On Monday, State Innovation Exchange’s Reproductive Freedom Leadership Council — a network of state legislators working to advance reproductive health, rights, and justice — organized an amicus brief in support of legal abortion rights in an upcoming Supreme Court case likely to decide the future of reproductive freedom in the United States. With 12 percent of the country’s state legislators signing on, the brief represents the strongest mobilization of state legislators to date in support of abortion access. In total, 897 state legislators across the country, including 11 Vermont state legislators.

Vermont Business Magazine Today HumanCo, based in Austin, TX, announced it has raised $35 million in bridge round funding and acquired Brattleboro, Vermont-based Against the Grain Gourmet. Against the Grain produces gluten-free and grain-free baked goods. Joining existing Series A investors such as Vista Equity Partners co-founder Brian Sheth and Scarlett Johansson, this new round includes highly strategic and like-minded celebrity investors.

Vermont Business Magazine Senator Patrick Leahy (D-Vermont), Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont), and Representative Peter Welch (D-Vermont) Wednesday led a bicameral group of Northeastern lawmakers in urging Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack to close organic loopholes, strengthen enforcement, and use every tool available to support small- and mid-sized organic dairy farmers. The letter follows news that Horizon Organic, a subsidiary of multinational food conglomerate Danone, plans to terminate contracts with 89 farmers in Vermont, Maine, New Hampshire, and New York.

Vermont Business Magazine Vermont Attorney General TJ Donovan is calling on the US Department of Labor to reconsider its legal interpretation denying Vermonters a $25/week boost in their unemployment benefits. During the last legislative session, Vermont lawmakers passed a $25 weekly increase to unemployed Vermonters. Delivering those benefits hit a snag when the US Department of Labor determined the payments were impermissible based on an interpretation of the law made by staff at the Vermont Department of Labor.

by C.B. Hall, Vermont Business Magazine A pending deal for the merger of much of New England rail network under one owner has elicited criticism from Amtrak, Burlington-based Vermont Rail System and the Vermont Agency of Transportation. Under the proposal, which the federal Surface Transportation Board must still approve, CSX, one of the nation's biggest railroads, would acquire Pan Am Railways (PAR), which owns, wholly or in part, railroads in New York, Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Maine, as well as a few miles in Vermont's southwest corner.

by Jack Hoffman, Public Assets Institute The Washington Post recently tackled the question a lot of people have been talking about. The headline read: “Why America has 8.4 million unemployed when there are 10 million job openings.” What was refreshing about the Post story was that it didn’t offer the usual explanation about the mismatch between jobs and job skills, which seems to lay the blame for worker shortages on the workers.

Vermont Business Magazine Champlain College announces the addition of Lisa Ventriss as Interim Dean of its Robert P. Stiller School of Business. Ventriss retired after 19 years as President and Chief Executive Officer of the Vermont Business Roundtable earlier this year. During her tenure, she championed the creation of the Vermont Talent Pipeline Management, which seeks to align critical industry needs with the state’s education and training providers. Ventriss came out of retirement to assume her position as Champlain’s Interim Dean at the start of this academic year.

Vermont Business Magazine Chemotherapy is a highly effective cancer treatment, but it frequently comes with a side effect that significantly affects patients’ quality of life. Between half and three quarters of all chemotherapy patients — more than half a million Americans annually — suffer a condition called chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy, or CIPN, at the end of their treatment. Many experience severe pain, sensory loss and balance issues. Care is often inadequate, especially in rural areas, where few providers have expertise in treating CIPN symptoms.

Vermont Business Magazine Norwich University has earned its six-year accreditation from the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET) for three bachelor of science programs in the David Crawford School of Engineering: civil engineering, electrical and computer engineering and mechanical engineering. The approval follows a yearlong self-study and outside review process, which was completed in 2021.

Vermont Business Magazine On Thursday, September 23rd at 5:30pm, the Southwestern Vermont Chamber of Commerce will dedicate the Chamber Memorial Park and invite the community to join. The Park, built through a donation in 2019 by Art and Kathy Whitman, replaced a dilapidated Welcome Kiosk and overgrown garden in front and on the side of the Chamber of Commerce at 100 Veterans Memorial Drive in Bennington, Vermont.

Vermont Business Magazine Vermont Department of Corrections (Vermont DOC) is reporting one COVID-positive staff member at Northern State Correctional Facility (NSCF) in Newport. This case was found in the fourth round of facility-wide outbreak testing conducted September 16; all other results were negative. Contact tracing showed no risk to other staff or the incarcerated population, and the facility is now in standard modified operations.

Vermont Business Magazine The Vermont Department of Health today reported 129 new cases of COVID-19 (90 Monday). While many regions of the country and world experienced a sharp increase and sharp decline of Delta variant cases in a 7-9 week window, Vermont is now into its 10th week and has shown a slower ascent and still no plateau in new cases. The VDH also reported today three more deaths, which now stand at 301 statewide. There are 48 people hospitalized (up two from yesterday) and 19 in the ICU (up five).