Current News

Vermont Business Magazine The Vermont Department of Health today is reporting 162 new cases of COVID-19 and two more deaths for a statewide total of 227. They also are reporting more than 205,000 Vermonters have received at least one dose of vaccine, or nearly 40 percent of Vermont adults. They're reminding the public that parents or primary caregivers who are caring for children with certain high-risk conditions can now make appointments for vaccination. And any adult in the BIPOC community regardless of age can sign up starting Thursday.

Vermont Business Magazine Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont) on Thursday will meet with directors of Vermont’s federally qualified health centers to discuss the $33.37 million in emergency funding that is coming to the state’s 11 health centers as a result of the American Rescue Plan. Serving 155,000 people, the state of Vermont has the highest per capita participation in the nation in the federally qualified health center program. Today, nearly one-in-three Vermonters rely on community health centers because they know they will get high quality health care, dental care, mental health counseling and affordable prescription drugs at the 11 health centers and 66 sites throughout the state.

Vermont Business Magazine United Way of Northwest Vermont—an organization dedicated to improving lives in Chittenden, Franklin and Grand Isle counties—announces its plans to distribute $1.7 million in community funding in 2021, raised through a combination of United Way’s annual community campaign, federal grants and United Way’s COVID-19 response and recovery funds. The new funding distribution begins in June.

Vermont Business Magazine Norwich University’s graduating future officers will hear remarks from a fellow alumnus at this spring’s joint services commissioning ceremony. Major General Gary Keefe ’86, US Air Force Reserve and Massachusetts National Guard adjutant general, returns to the Norwich campus to speak to ROTC commissioning officers during a formal ceremony at 3 pm May 1.

Vermont Research News Almost three-quarters (73%) of land in Maine, Massachusetts, New York and Vermont is forested. Of this forested land, 82% is privately owned. Most of the decisions regarding the future of these forests are in the hands of private family forest landowners. In the period between the late Pleistocene era and the early Holocene era (around 12,500 years ago) the Younger Dryas cooling event occurred, resulting in very cold winter conditions and increased seasonality. A recent poll conducted by Lincoln Park Strategies found that 68 percent of voters want to keep vote-by-mail options, even when the pandemic is over.

Vermont Business Magazine Vermont law enforcement and public health leaders today joined together to urge Vermonters to call 9-1-1 if an overdose occurs to save people’s lives. Vermont’s Good Samaritan Law provides protections from criminal liability for those who call for help from the scene of an overdose. A recent report from the Vermont Department of Health (VDH) found that, based on preliminary data, opioid-related deaths increased by 38 percent in Vermont in 2020, from 114 deaths in 2019 to 157 in 2020. According to VDH, fentanyl—which was involved in 88 percent of opioid-related deaths in 2020—continues to be the primary driver of opioid-related deaths in Vermont.

Vermont Business Magazine Vermont Department of Corrections is reporting all negative results in both staff and the incarcerated population at Northern State Correctional Facility (NSCF) in Newport during COVID testing conducted Monday, March 29. This is the first time all tests have returned negative since the outbreak began in late February. There are currently two positive incarcerated cases and three positive staff cases at the facility. A total of 177 prior positive individuals have been medically cleared to leave isolation, which means they are no longer considered COVID-positive or exhibiting symptoms of the virus.

Vermont Business Magazine Watertown NY-based United Neighbors Federal Credit Union’s Board of Directors voted to move forward with a merger with SeaComm Federal Credit Union, based in Massena, NY, with an office in South Burlington. The United Neighbor’s members approved the merger at a special meeting held on March 30, 2021. The $4.5 million in assets credit union has one location on Coffeen Street in the City and serves all of Jefferson County, NY. SeaComm with $720 million in assets, 50,000 members and eight retail branch locations, serves St Lawrence, Franklin, Essex and Clinton Counties, NY, and Grand Isle, Franklin and Chittenden Counties in Vermont.

Vermont Business Magazine Marathon Health, ranked the Number One provider of worksite health services two years running by KLAS research, today announces the appointments of Jeff Wells MD, Michael Van Atter, Mandy Berman and Matt Weissert to new senior leadership positions on the company’s executive team. These industry veterans will help drive Marathon Health’s ongoing growth and expansion efforts by delivering on the company’s core mission of improving the healthcare experience, producing health plan savings for employers and providing superior health outcomes for patients.

Vermont Business Magazine The state is opening up vaccinations this week to two more groups. The first change is that parents or primary caregivers who are caring for children with certain high-risk conditions will be eligible for vaccination starting tomorrow (Wednesday, March 31). The second change is for Vermonters who are Black, Indigenous and people of color. Beginning Thursday (April 1), ALL members of the Vermont BIPOC community 16 years of age and older – as well as their family members – will now be eligible for vaccination.

Vermont Business Magazine Norwich University Applied Research Institutes (NUARI) has been awarded a three-year $2.9 million contract from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Science and Technology Directorate (S&T) to expand the Distributed Environment for Critical Infrastructure Decision-Making Exercises (DECIDE) cyber training platform. DECIDE was initially developed in tandem with and transitioned to the financial services sector; this new effort will build similar simulation-based scenarios and exercises specific to the transportation sector.

Vermont Business Magazine The University of Vermont’s Larner College of Medicine was recognized for its strength in educating future physicians in primary care and rural care in the 2022 U.S. News and World Report Best Graduate Schools rankings, released today. The Larner College of Medicine was ranked 24th for medical education in primary care – up from 43rd in the 2021 Best Graduate Schools rankings – and tied at this rank with Dartmouth’s Geisel School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania’s Perelman School of Medicine, and University of Hawaii-Manoa Burns School of Medicine.