Current News
by tim
To build or not to build… (a new state prison) that is the question
by Bill Schubart Under the leadership of Jim Baker, Interim Commissioner of Corrections (DOC), along with a plurality of Vermonters committed to a more humane and restorative criminal justice system, we’re seeing significant progress toward reform of Vermont’s criminal justice system.
by tim
Vermont Business Magazine In COVID times we’ve all experienced an abrupt shift to relying on web-based tools and services in our day-to-day lives. Now, more than ever, websites and web applications need to be available for everyone, regardless of ability. The importance of accessing critical services like healthcare, banking, and education via the web has increased significantly; the need for digital accessibility has never been more apparent.
by tim
Vermont Business Magazine Senator Bernie Sanders (I), Senator Patrick Leahy (D), and Representative Peter Welch (D) on Tuesday sent a letter to Postmaster General Louis DeJoy demanding the immediate delivery and installation of the new AFCS 200 cancellation machine at the White River Junction mail processing facility, a machine that is critical to the efficient handling of the mail.
by tim
Vermont Business Magazine Health Commissioner Mark Levine, MD, said on Tuesday that the Health Department is currently investigating a small number of cases tied to five schools, but emphasized we still have not discovered any instances of transmission within the school. Dr Levine, along with Governor Scott and Secretary Smith, got his flu shot Tuesday and encouraged Vermonters to do the same. Smith also announced long-awaited new guidance for long-term care facilities and adult day programs.
by tim
Vermont Business Magazine The Vermont Agency of Human Services guidance for restarting visitation to long term care facilities was developed using CMS’s most recent guidance, and should be used by licensed long term care facilities to guide operations and easing of restrictions, based on county positivity rates; essentially re-starting modified visitation and activities unless a facility is in an active outbreak situation or just emerging from an outbreak.
by tim
Vermont Business Magazine r.k. Miles, Inc, a third-generation, family-owned business with locations in Vermont and Massachusetts, was awarded the 2020 UVM Grossman School of Business Multi-Generation Family Business Award on Friday, October 2nd during a virtual ceremony. The University of Vermont’s Grossman School of Business recognizes and celebrates first and later generational family-owned businesses that have demonstrated a commitment to creating sustainable business through leadership and innovation.
by tim
Vermont Business Magazine Norwich University’s John and Mary Frances Patton Peace and War Center has published its second annual Journal of Peace and War Studies (JPWS), a scholarly journal covering a range of topics relating to US-China relations.
by tim
Vermont Business Magazine The Vermont Department of Health reported that there were nine new cases of COVID-19 Monday and 30 since Friday. There are no hospitalizations,and deaths are holding at 58. On Monday, Indigenous Peoples’ Day, we celebrated and honored Indigenous cultures. We acknowledge that we are living and working on the unceded ancestral land (N'Dakinna) of the Abenaki. The Abenaki and other Indigenous peoples in Vermont face systemic and structural racism and manage racialized trauma, which affect the conditions in which people are born, grow, live and work.
by tim
Vermont Business Magazine The Vermont State Police investigation into the apparent homicide/suicide in Barre Town is ongoing and will remain active overnight. Detectives continue to interview witnesses, examine records, and speak with neighbors, family and friends of the deceased, while the Crime Scene Search Team processes the location where the shooting occurred.
State police are able to provide the following preliminary identifications of the people involved: Julie Fandino, 51, a resident of the downstairs apartment at 84 Websterville Rd. in Barre Town where the shooting occurred; and Jeffrey Strock, 58, of Brookfield.
Initial investigation indicates that Strock, while on duty with the Berlin Police Department, drove his department-issued cruiser to the two-unit apartment house and shot Julie Fandino on the back porch, then shot himself.
by tim
Vermont Business Magazine Governor Phil Scott on Monday announced action on a range of bills, passed by the Legislature. He also issued a signing letter in response to S.254, An act relating to union organizing, urging the Legislature to make changes in January to prevent the disclosure of the personal information of public employees without their consent.
by tim
Vermont Business Magazine With more than six months’ experience observing and studying COVID-19 infection, physicians and researchers now have a good understanding of the disease’s symptoms, but lack knowledge about what SARS-CoV-2 (novel coronavirus), the virus that causes COVID-19, is doing inside human cells to make people so sick.
by tim
Vermont Business Magazine The last thing we wanted for Vermont was for it to look like China, where hospitals were overwhelmed. We were looking at the anxious faces of Italian citizens and doctors. And we would soon see in New York City families devastated by losses and not allowed to see their loved ones as they lay dying. Inpatient care was being delivered in hallways; there was a debilitating lack of personal protective equipment; and refrigeration trucks were compensating for overfilled morgues.