Current News

Vermont Business Magazine Dr Fauci sought to provide confidence that the EPA will deliver a safe vaccine and he explained the multiple layers of checkpoints, including an independent data and safety monitoring board, a safety pledge by the FDA, and the scientific community, that is watching and “are not shy about giving our scientific opinions.”

Vermont Business Magazine At his regular press briefing Tuesday, Governor Phil Scott was joined by Anthony Fauci, MD, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) to discuss Vermont and the nation’s response to the coronavirus pandemic. Scott, who extended the State of Emergency to October 15 on Friday, detailed the state’s progress in suppressing the virus in Vermont. Scott highlighted the value of relying on the available science and public health experts at the Vermont Department of Health and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and credited the vigilance of Vermonters in adhering to health guidance.

Vermont Business Magazine Omega Optical, a leading manufacturer of precision optical filters and coatings, announced today that it has been acquired by Artemis Capital Partners, a Boston-based private equity firm focused exclusively on partnering with differentiated industrial technology companies. Omega will continue to operate as an independent company from its headquarters in Brattleboro. Financial terms were not disclosed. Omega has been recognized as an innovator in precision optical filters and coatings since its founding in 1969 by Dr Robert Johnson. The company's filter products are designed and fabricated to control the passage of light and enable a broad range of mission-critical optical applications including flow cytometry, fluorescence microscopy, spectroscopy, LiDAR, machine vision, and satellite imaging for global OEM customers in the life science, aerospace & defense, instrumentation, semiconductor, environmental and industrial sensor industries.

Vermont Business Magazine The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) has awarded $772,881 in grant funding to farmers, producers and small businesses in Vermont under the Rural Energy for America Program (REAP). Ridge Line Maple Works of Jeffersonville is among this year’s REAP grant recipients and will receive $20,000 to integrate a reverse osmosis system into its sugaring operation. The investment will save the company an estimated $17,000 annually— roughly 83 percent of its energy costs.

Vermont Business Magazine The Office of the United States Attorney for the District of Vermont announced that a federal grand jury returned a 19-Count Fourth Superseding Indictment yesterday charging Krystal Whitcomb, 28, formerly of Waterford, VT, Michael Hayes a.k.a. Moe, 38, formerly of Washington, DC, and John Welch, 34, formerly of Woodsville, NH, with using and carrying a firearm during and in relation to a drug trafficking crime, during which Whitcomb, Hayes and Welch caused the death of Michael Pimental by murder.

Vermont Business Magazine The Office of the United States Attorney for the District of Vermont stated that a federal grand jury returned a Third Superseding Indictment on September 15, 2020, which charged Sean Fiore, 36, of Burlington, Vermont, with murder for hire, conspiracy to kidnap and murder a person overseas, and five child pornography offenses. A second person was charged with Fiore in the Third Superseding Indictment, but the identifying information about that person is currently under seal by order of the court. Fiore will be arraigned on the indictment before US Magistrate Judge John M. Conroy on a date to be scheduled in the future.

Vermont Business Magazine The Board of Directors of Heritage Aviation announced today that Matthew Collins has been promoted to be the company’s Chief Executive Officer, succeeding David Stiller who served as company President from 2014-2020. Collins was previously the director of fixed base operations. Stiller has moved into the role of chair of the board of directors. Collins joined Heritage Aviation in 2008 as a line service technician and was promoted to director of fixed base operations in 2016. In his time with the company, Collins has overseen all aspects of the fixed-base operations including customer service, safety, quality control, and airline operations.

Vermont Business Magazine Simon Perkins, president of the Orvis Company, a luxury clothing retailer with headquarters in Arlington, accepted a gift of appreciation from Tom Dee, president and CEO of Southwestern Vermont Health Care (SVHC) for contributions of more than 750 masks during the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Vermont Business Magazine For the first time since America’s COVID-19 outbreak started, a federal public health agency released county-level testing data. On Sept. 3, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) published a dataset showing COVID-19 test positivity rates broken out by U.S. county. While this dataset has not been highly publicized, it provides key information about the state of COVID-19 testing and outbreak control across the country. The Northeast is now showing the lowest positivity rate as a region; Vermont has the lowest positivity rate of any state in the US.

Vermont Business Magazine Dr Anthony Fauci, the government’s top infectious diseases expert, will speak at Governor Scott's Tuesday COVID-19 press briefing from 11 am to 11:30 am. The governor had teased last Friday that they hoped to have a VIP Tuesday and Twitter immediately speculated it was Dr Fauci. Meanwhile, Vermont had 28 new cases of COVID-19 since last Friday.

Vermont Business Magazine Today Vermont Secretary of State Jim Condos issued a reminder to active, registered Vermont voters that they will be automatically receiving a ballot for the November 3^rd General Election in the mail, sent to the mailing address on file with their voter registration or pending ballot request. Ballots will be mailed to voters starting on Monday, September 21^st. Voters should expect to receive their ballots sometime after the 21^st through early October. Any voter who does not receive their ballot by October 1^st should contact their Town Clerk to get a ballot.

by Paul A Cillo, President, Public Assets Institute To make the system understandable for voters, the state needs to choose one of the two options for a statewide tax paid by residents with rates that can be set in each school district based on spending per pupil. Property and income are the two options. We recommend an income-based tax as the fairest, simplest one.