Current News

Vermont Business Magazine Today, Senators Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Ed Markey (D-Mass.), and Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) introduced a 60-percent tax on the windfall wealth increases of billionaires during this pandemic in order to pay for all out-of-pocket medical expenses for every person in America for a year. The Make Billionaires Pay Act would tax the $731 billion in wealth accumulated by 467 billionaires—the richest 0.001% of America—a from March 18th until August 5th, a period in which 5.4 million Americans recently lost their health insurance and 50 million applied for unemployment insurance. The funds from this emergency tax would be used to cover all necessary healthcare expenses of the uninsured and under-insured, including prescription drugs, for one year.

Vermont Business Magazine Quebec-based Énergir welcomes the granting of $70 million in financial assistance to support renewable natural gas (RNG) production in Québec announced by the Minister of Energy and Natural Resources, Jonatan Julien. Of this amount, $45 million will be used to develop eight RNG production projects that Énergir can then distribute through its gas network. A growing proportion of Énergir's customers want to green their energy consumption, and RNG consumption contributes directly to this goal. These eight projects will add value to organic materials from the agricultural, industrial and engineered landfill sectors in several regions of Quebec. Énergir is the leading electricity distributor (Green Mountain Power) and the sole natural gas distributor (Vermont Gas Systems) in Vermont.

Vermont Business Magazine As school districts across the New England region worked around-the-clock to feed their students with either grab-n-go or home delivered meals, local dairy farmers stepped up to support those efforts. New England dairy farmers, along with other generous partners, have provided school meal programs nearly $255 thousand in total grants and equipment to date. Dairy farm families have made possible the purchase of roughly 1,670 cooler bags for schools across the region so far. That equipment continues to aid schools now during summer feeding programs and will support meal efforts for years to come.

Vermont Business Magazine The Norwich University Peace and War Center has been named the John and Mary Frances Patton Peace and War Center in appreciation of a generous gift of $1.7 million to the university from the estate of Maj. General John S Patton, USAF (Ret) and his wife, Professor Mary Frances M Patton, $385,000 of which will go toward creating an endowment for the center. General Patton’s service as an intelligence officer during World War II inspired his and his wife’s interest in promoting the scholarly understanding of peace and war, the Patton estate said.

Vermont Business Magazine U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) announced Thursday that Vermont will receive $3 million from the National Housing Trust Fund (NHTF) to build, preserve and rehabilitate affordable rental housing for extremely low-income families. This is the third year in a row that Vermont will receive a $3 million allocation from the Trust Fund, which Sanders helped create.

Vermont Business Magazine Among the more complicated undertakings for pandemic response, are the efforts by Vermont’s universities and colleges – large and small – to prepare for welcoming back their students and staff. Health Department and other state agencies have been working closely with these secondary education institutions, providing guidance and information to assist in their planning. Also, the Vermont Department of Health today reported five new cases of COVID-19 for a statewide total of 1,436, with one person hospitalized and deaths holding at 57. Vermont has the fewest number of cases in the US.

Vermont Business Magazine The SBA Paycheck Protection Program application deadline is this Saturday, August 8th. All new PPP applications must be submitted to VEDA by 5 pm tomorrow, August 6th in order to be processed on time. The US Small Business Association, with support from the Department of Treasury, has implemented the Paycheck Protection Program, authorizing up to $349 billion in forgivable loans to small businesses to pay their employees during the COVID-19 crisis.

​Vermont Business Magazine The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) is investing $57.8 million to build a new campus for the Winooski School District (WSD). Funds will be used to renovate the existing educational facility infrastructure to modern educational standards and expand to serve one of the fastest-growing student populations in the state of Vermont. Through its Community Facilities Direct Loan & Grant Program, USDA Rural Development will provide and secure funding for the initiative.

by Betsy Bishop, President of the Vermont Chamber of Commerce, and Aly Richards, CEO of Let’s Grow Kids When we look years ahead, how do we picture Vermont? Where are our workplaces centered, where are our homes in relation to our workplaces, and how do we see working parents in our state thriving? Vermont is in a pivotal moment. Amid the economic and emotional pain caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, the world is asking these questions and learning lessons about what community means, the necessity of innovation, and how to best live and work together.

Vermont Research News Bill McKibben, the Vermont writer recently published a piece in the New Yorker, highlighting Vermont’s low COVID-19 death rates and exploring why. McKibben cites state leadership, high levels of social trust, competent health leaders that have been put front and center in the crisis, a fairly healthy population, and an active and engaged media among other factors.

Vermont Business Magazine Green Mountain Power (GMP) crews worked through the night to get the lights back on for more than 36,000 customers after Tropical Storm Isaias slammed Vermont with strong winds and heavy rain late Tuesday. Winds of 50MPH were the biggest problem, tearing down trees and power lines. Most of the damage was concentrated in the southern part of the state, from Bennington to Brattleboro and north along the eastern side of Vermont up through the Upper Valley area north of White River.

Vermont Business Magazine Trace and Kezzler, two leaders in their respective industries, are announcing the launch of their partnership today. The collaboration between Burlington-based Trace, the nation's most advanced hemp and cannabis seed-to-sale tracking solution, and Kezzler, a global leader in supply chain traceability and serialization technology based in Oslo will redefine supply-chain visibility in the hemp and cannabis industries.

Trace leverages the power of Ethereum-based blockchain technology to distribute crucial information while removing the potential for altering accurate information, enhancing public and regulatory trust. Whereas blockchain uses encryption to guarantee the immutability of transactions, Kezzler on the other hand, applies encryption to guarantee uniqueness of product identity and centralized processing allowing for massively scalable performance.