Current News

Vermont Business Magazine In time for National Breastfeeding Month this August, Walmart and Mamava announced plans to install Mamava lactation suites into more than 100 Walmart stores this year, further extending breastfeeding support to associates and customers. Mamava lactation suites, or pods, are freestanding spaces that provide a clean, comfortable and private option to breastfeed or pump. The pods are accessed through the Mamava app, which guides mom to a pod’s location. The app opens the pod and allows mom to customize lighting and airflow, as well as listen to soothing sounds. Not only that, she can leave digital notes of encouragement for other moms. The pods are free to use. Walmart is the first retailer to install Mamava pods in a store setting, offering moms another breastfeeding option.

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, and $919,474 to those in New Hampshire, under the Rural Energy for America Program (REAP). Funds will be used to improve energy efficiency and create renewable-energy systems in the two states.

Vermont Business Magazine Following an extensive investigation, Fanny Allen Inpatient Rehab staff will be returning to their workspace on that campus in a phased re-entry during the weeks of October 5 and October 19. In the meantime, the space will undergo a number of upgrades, and staff will receive additional training. In April and May, 21 Inpatient Rehab staff experienced a number of symptoms, including dizziness and nausea. No patients experienced the symptoms. In the weeks following the incidents, the UVM Medical Center’s Environmental Health and Safety Team worked with an occupational health and safety consultant and the Vermont Department of Health to investigate potential causes.

Vermont Business Magazine Local communities in the Northeast Kingdom and around the world are coming together on Monday, August 31 to remember those who have died or suffered permanent injury due to drug overdose. Observed every year on August 31, International Overdose Awareness Day (IOAD) seeks to create better understanding of overdose, reduce the stigma of drug-related deaths and create change that reduces the harms associated with drug use.

by John McClaughry A year ago the California Public Utilities Commission warned that the state could face an energy shortage on hot summer evenings as early as 2021. Its projection was off by a year. On August 14 from 200 to 250 thousand California residents experienced rolling blackouts. Officialdom and the media have blamed the blackouts on a heat wave: too many people turned up too many air conditioners. But the same heat wave did not cause blackouts in Nevada and Arizona, or in California in equally hot past years. Why in California on August 14?

Vermont Business Magazine The Vermont Department of Health is reporting 9 new cases of COVID-19 today for a statewide total of 1,566. The cases were generally spread out across the state with the most (3) in Windham County. Since Friday, the VDH reported 25 new cases. Currently, there are three people hospitalized and deaths are holding at 58. Also, the VDH is recommending against people getting multiple COVID tests unless otherwise recommended as a contact of someone who is sick or necessitated (frontline workers, college students, etc). They remind people that testing is not prevention and they urge individuals to continue to practice the four guidelines: social distance, wear a mask, wash hands and stay home if sick.

Vermont Business Magazine $8.5 million in CARES Act Coronavirus Relief Funding is now available to a wide variety of agricultural, food, and forestry businesses and organizations through the Vermont COVID-19 Agriculture Assistance Program (VCAAP) Agriculture and Working Lands Assistance Application.

Vermont Business Magazine Vermont Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve (ESGR), locally representing ESGR, a Department of Defense agency, announced that Governor Phil Scott has signed a proclamation declaring August 24-28, 2020 as Vermont Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve Week. This proclamation mirrors the spirit and intent of a Presidential Proclamation signed earlier in the week, giving gratitude to our many employers who have provided exceptional support to our citizen warriors.

Vermont Business Magazine FEMA Administrator Pete Gaynor has approved Vermont for a FEMA grant under the Lost Wages Assistance program. FEMA’s grant funding will allow Vermont to provide $300 per week -- on top of their regular unemployment benefit -- to those unemployed due to COVID-19. FEMA will work with Vermont Governor Phil Scott to implement a system to make this funding available to Vermont residents. Governor Scott proposed last week to use an additional $20 million in pandemic relief funding in order to add another $100 a week to meet the maximum $400 per week in additional benefits.

Vermont Business Magazine On Monday, former Republican lieutenant governor candidate Meg Hansen announced her candidacy to represent Bennington County in the Vermont Senate. She was nominated by the party committee to run for this position in the November 3 general election. There were no Republican candidates on the primary ballot. Hansen finished second in the primary to Scott Milne. For the state Senate race, she will face off against Democrats Dick Sears and Brian Campion.

Vermont Business Magazine USCIS is currently scheduled to furlough 13,355 (or 67%) of its 19,881 employees on August 30, 2020, including over 1,000 in Vermont. If such furloughs are implemented, they will have a devastating impact on the agency’s ability to provide immigration and naturalization services to American businesses and families for many months, if not years, to come.

Vermont Business Magazine Representative Peter Welch on Saturday voted to pass emergency legislation to protect the U.S. Postal Service from political interference ahead of the November election. The bill provides the $25 billion that the bipartisan Postal Service’s Board of Governors requested to address budget shortfalls caused by the coronavirus pandemic and reverses the damaging operational changes instituted by Postmaster General Louis DeJoy.

“The Postal Service is at the heart of rural life for many Vermont communities and will be a pillar of our democracy this November,” said Welch. “When it comes to our democracy, we cannot trust the word of Donald Trump or his handpicked cronies. This legislation will make sure that the Postal Service has the support and the funding it needs to quickly deliver medicines, unemployment checks and ballots all across America.”