Current News

Vermont Business Magazine As of December 31, 2025 Social Tinkering, a nonprofit organization based in Rutland County, Vermont, is dissolving. This innovative Human Connection Project, legally established in Spring of 2021 may be closing up shop, but the team behind the organization are nowhere near done working to intentionally grow meaningful connections that help people and communities to thrive. Kate Tibbs, Interim Board President of the organization, says “Each member of our team have always been connectors and always will be. This work we’ve done together has only strengthened our resolve and deepened our understanding of the critical need for meaningful connection in this world and we will carry that wherever we go.”  

Vermont Business Magazine In 2025, local American Red Cross volunteers became a lifeline for nearly 350 Vermonters reeling from disasters. In a powerful display of community, 117 Red Cross volunteers in Vermont logged more than 5,600 hours so far this year responding, alongside partners, to provide safe refuge, hot meals, emotional support and basic health services for families devastated by home fires and other disasters. The Red Cross also distributed nearly $115,000 in financial assistance directly to Vermont households recovering from disasters, including home fires, in 2025.

by Timothy McQuiston, Vermont Business Magazine The Vermont Department of Health reported last week that the number of COVID-19 hospitalizations have edged up. Other indicators like wastewater virus show an increase in COVID-19 and Norovirus in Vermont and nationally, while COVID outbreaks decreased. 

Vermont Business Magazine U.S. Senator Peter Welch (D-Vermont), Ranking Member of the Senate Agriculture Subcommittee on Rural Development, Energy, and Credit, welcomed $20.7 million in federal funding for Vermont to support the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP). Nearly $4 billion in federal funding for communities across the country was unnecessarily delayed by the Trump Administration. LIHEAP is a crucial lifeline that keeps people safe and warm in the winter by helping low-income households and seniors on fixed incomes pay their energy bills. The program also helps reduce energy costs through improved energy efficiency initiatives.  

Vermont Business Magazine The Vermont Veterinary Medical Association (VVMA) is awarding of nearly $30,000 in grants to two Vermont food animal veterinarians: Dr. Emma Cijka of Shoreham and Dr. Eleni Casseri of St. Albans. These grants were made possible through funding by the Vermont Legislature to the Vermont Agency of Agriculture. The program is administered by the Vermont Agency of Agriculture and the Vermont Veterinary Medical Association.

Vermont Business Magazine Today, Treasurer Pieciak announced that nearly $60 million of Vermont Citizen Bonds will be offered for sale on December 4, 2025. Proceeds from the bonds will support capital needs including infrastructure, climate resilience, and housing. In connection with the offering, the State’s credit ratings were also reaffirmed by S&P Global Ratings (AA+), Fitch Ratings (AA+), and Moody’s (Aa1). The ratings underscore Vermont’s strong financial health, ensuring lower borrowing costs to the state. 

Vermont Business Magazine In Vermont, 2 in 5 individuals experienced food insecurity in 2022, and recent national data shows that food insecurity has increased each year since then (Source: Vermont Foodbank). With the costs of goods rising and growing concerns about food security, Vermont Federal Foundation is hosting a charitable raffle aiming to raise $60,000 during the holiday season. Of these funds, $20,000 will be donated directly to The Vermont Foodbank, whose work is vital in ensuring that individuals and families across Vermont have access to nourishing food and essential support throughout the year. The $60,000 total will be divided three ways.

Vermont Business Magazine The Department of Veterans Affairs announced that it permanently housed 51,936 homeless Veterans across the country in fiscal year 2025. That number is 4,011 more Veterans than VA housed last year. The nationwide numbers include 107 Veterans permanently housed by White River Junction VA Healthcare System This is VA’s best national performance since it began tracking the number of individual Veterans permanently housed instead of the total number of permanent housing placements, ensuring a more accurate count of the number of Veterans helped. VA began using this new methodology in 2022, and when applied retroactively to 2019.

Vermont Business Magazine An aging and vacant medical office building on Fisher Road will be torn down later this month, and the land it is on graded and re-seeded as part of long-term planning work at University of Vermont Health – Central Vermont Medical Center. Demolition of Medical Office Building D, 266 Hospital Loop Road, Berlin, will take three or four weeks and involve heavy equipment and utility work, hospitals leaders said. They urged members of the community traveling along Fisher Road to be aware of the work and plan for some traffic impacts. Demolition of the building and removal of materials from the site is expected to begin in early December.

by Lex Osler When my father (Dr. Turner Osler) transitioned from a 20-year career as a University of Vermont trauma surgeon to full-time epidemiological research in 2016, I don't think either of us had any idea where that decision would lead—certainly not to the two of us running a Vermont based company together. Dad's back pain from unaccustomed hours at a desk began an investigation that eventually consumed him. When he started thinking about chairs, prototyping in the basement, and developed what seemed like an obsessive focus on the biomechanics of sitting, I was skeptical. But watching him bring the rigor of medical research to a problem affecting billions of people, I began to think something important might be happening. What started as my father's obsession has become our family mission: QOR360 has now sold 20,000 active chairs across every American state and 52 countries worldwide.

Vermont Business Magazine Vermont health officials are recommending health care providers continue to protect children from hepatitis B, a highly contagious virus that infects the liver, through the current, evidence-based vaccination schedule. The hepatitis B vaccine is widely considered one of the safest and most effective vaccines ever made. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has recommended the vaccine for all infants since 1991, and rates of the disease – which can cause lifelong liver damage when contracted by newborns and infants – have fallen sharply in the U.S. following widespread adoption of the current schedule.

Vermont Business Magazine Nestled in the hills near the Connecticut River in East Corinth, Martin’s Tree Farm has been growing Christmas Trees for nearly two decades. On Monday, the Martin family welcomed Governor Phil Scott and Vermont Agriculture Secretary Anson Tebbetts to their East Corinth property to celebrate the arrival of the 2025 Christmas season. With the help of the Martin’s, the Governor selected two Christmas trees to cut that will decorate the Pavilion Building in Montpelier, which houses the governor’s Office.