Current News

Vermont Business Magazine Senators Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) and Patrick Leahy (D-Vermont) released the following statement Wednesday in support of the Violence Against Women Reauthorization Act that was reintroduced in the House of Representatives: “Reauthorizing VAWA is long overdue since the law expired in 2018. The bipartisan bill introduced in the House mirrors legislation we introduced in the last Congress. Unfortunately, that bill was blocked in the Senate last Congress and didn’t even receive a vote in committee"

Vermont Business Magazine If the thought of launching your new business during the pandemic has stopped you in your tracks, new data has revealed that success could be around the corner should you pursue your startup. And while Vermont has the lowest rate in the nation for startups, it also has the overall lowest failure rate. Vermont and Alaska have the lowest startup rates (6% and 7.1%), with an average number of 16.8 new businesses created per week in Vermont and 18.9 in Alaska. However, Vermont, alongside Iowa, is where a business has the highest chance of surviving its first five years.

Vermont Business Magazine V/T Commercial Real Estate Sales & Leasing, based in Burlington, has announced recent transactions.

Vermont Business Magazine State officials announced at Tuesday’s press conference that people age 16 and older with certain high-risk health conditions will be able to make vaccination appointments starting Thursday, March 11. This group was initially slated to become eligible on March 15, but the timeline was moved up due to the state’s supply of vaccine and ability to accommodate large numbers of appointments. Also, among loosening of guidelines, those who are vaccinated can gather in small groups inside together without social distancing or mask wearing. The VDH also reported today that there were three more deaths for a statewide total of 211.

Vermont Business Magazine Today, Mayor Miro Weinberger announced that the City has made significant progress on a slate of five housing policy reforms that the Administration presented to the City Council for action in October 2019, following the Mayor’s two well-attended Housing Summits earlier that year. These five policies were all designed to make housing in Burlington more available and affordable. Currently, three of the five proposals have been approved.

Vermont Business Magazine Representative Peter Welch (D-Vermont) Tuesday introduced legislation to connect every household in America with high-speed broadband service capable of supporting remote schooling, online businesses and remote work, telehealth appointments, and entertainment streaming. The most recent Federal Communications Commission Broadband Deployment Report indicates that 18 million people lack access to broadband service.

The Vermont Department of Public Service estimates that nearly 70,000 Vermont households lack access to broadband with at least 25 megabits per second download and 3 megabits per second upload speeds. Most experts agree that the FCC report understates the lack of broadband access across the country.

Vermont Business Magazine The University of Vermont is one of over 200 campuses in 37 states and the District of Columbia that has been designated as a “Voter Friendly Campus” for 2021-2022. The designation is part of an initiative led by the national nonpartisan organizations Fair Elections Center’s Campus Vote Project (CVP) and Student Affairs Administrators in Higher Education (NASPA), which held participating institutions accountable for planning and implementing practices that encourage their students to register and vote in 2020 elections and in the coming years.

The mission of the “Voter Friendly Campus” designation is to bolster efforts that help students overcome barriers to participating in the political process. UVM was evaluated based on a campus plan for registering, educating, facilitating voter engagement efforts and ensuring students turned out to vote in 2020—all in the face of the upheaval caused by a global pandemic.

Vermont Business Magazine The Southwestern Vermont Health Care (SVHC) Foundation has appointed several local community members to lead its Annual Fund as co-vice chairs. They include Nancy Kimball of Manchester Center; Keith Michl, MD, of Dorset; Leslie Morgenthal of Pownal; and Marv Neuman of West Dover. Michael McKenna of Bennington was chosen to chair the fund last November.

Vermont Business Magazine The Federal Emergency Management Agency has obligated $1.6 million to the Vermont Department of Public Safety to help reimburse eligible expenses the state has incurred as a result of its response to COVID-19. The grant funds, authorized under a major disaster declaration approved by the president on March 29, 2020, for the entire state will help reimburse the state projected eligible costs associated with the purchase of 80 ventilators.

Moosejaw Outdoor Accelerator SheFly from Vermont and started by former Middlebury College students, has officially won a seat in Moosejaw’s Outdoor Acceleration program, thanks to popular vote. SheFly Apparel is a layerable line of outdoor pants for when women have to "go" outdoors. The diverse trio of female founders lent their real-life experiences as recreationalists to build a brand that focuses on gender, racial and size inclusivity.

Moosejaw Outdoor Accelerator said in a statement that, "We've been blown away by the response to this year's Moosejaw Outdoor Accelerator. We received over a hundred applications from amazing startups. Once we chose ten finalists, almost 10,000 customers and outdoor enthusiasts voted to choose their favorite startups to participate in the Accelerator. A heart-felt thank you for all who applied and participated in voting!"

Vermont Business Magazine GlobalFoundries (GF), the global leader in specialty semiconductor manufacturing, and Bosch will partner to develop and manufacture next-generation automotive radar technology. The chip manufacturing will be undertaken in Germany and the testing will then be conducted in Essex Junction, Vermont. Bosch chose GF as its partner to develop a mmWave automotive radar system-on-chip (SoC) for Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) applications, manufactured using GF's 22FDX RF solution. ADAS applications help drivers stay safe by keeping a vehicle in the correct lane, warning of collisions, initiating emergency braking, assisting with parking, and more.