Current News
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Agency of Commerce and Community Development Governor Phil Scott announced Friday the reopening of indoor dining and an easing of travel restrictions. Effective June 8, 2020, interstate travel to and from New England and New York counties with 400 or fewer active COVID-19 cases per million is permitted without quarantine requirements. Effective June 15, 2020, travelers may complete quarantine requirements in their home state before entering Vermont.
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Vermont Business Magazine The University of Vermont Medical Center has opened a new adult primary care facility in Essex that provides access to more services at one location, allows for expanded use of telehealth, improves patient privacy and comfort, and facilitates coordination of care within the UVM Health Network.
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Vermont Business Magazine Casella Waste Systems and Goodwill won the 2020 NHBSR Partnership for Innovation Award on Wednesday at the New Hampshire Businesses for Social Responsibility’s annual spring conference. The business/nonprofit partnership lets people in New England act more sustainably while also helping people who have significant barriers to employment get and keep great jobs.
“This partnership is an extension of our company’s 40-year history of building community and environmental sustainability,” said John Casella, chairman and CEO of Casella Waste Systems. “Working with Goodwill to give people facing challenges a ‘second chance’ is an important part of our focus on finding, training, and growing talented employees from all walks of life.”
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Vermont Business Magazine The Vermont Department of Health reported today that to date, 34 Winooski residents have tested positive for COVID-19 in a recent outbreak. An outbreak means a number of cases in a community are connected to each other in one way or another. The outbreak was within a network of more than one family and that half of the positive tests were adults and the other half children. He said the cases were not related to a school or nursing home or business or the recent protests or any other mass gathering. Otherwise since Thursday, there has been only one new case statewide, there is no one hospitalized and deaths are holding at 55.
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by Timothy McQuiston, Vermont Business Magazine Draft legislation developed in the House would initially cut in half the emergency aid to businesses proposed by the Scott Administration. Of the $310 million Governor Scott had proposed, $150 million was to be rushed to the most vulnerable businesses, like restaurants and retail, and the rest targeted for other businesses. The legislative proposal basically would cut that in half initially with $50 million going to restaurants and retail and another $20 targeted for general business to expedite the process. The whole package would be passed by the end of June when the Legislature will go into recess. The governor said at today's press briefing he does not have a problem with that schedule as long as the money is distributed quickly and the whole $400 million package is enacted by the end of the month.
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Vermont Business Magazine Today, Mayor Miro Weinberger and Chief Jennifer Morrison released a draft, new Use of Force Policy and urged its swift adoption. The Administration will work closely with the Police Commission to adopt a new use of force policy as quickly as it can. The draft policy includes all of the recommendations made by the Burlington Special Committee to Review Policing Policies which met from August, 2019 through February, 2020. The Burlington Police Department's current use of force policy lags behind its training and practices, and the new draft policy is more consistent with the values of the Burlington community, is clearer for officers to follow, and incorporates many of the best practices of American policing – including all eight of the #8CantWait reforms on police use of force that are part of President Obama’s Mayors Pledge.
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Vermont Business Magazine Governor Phil Scott today announced he has appointed Michael Harrington as commissioner of the Vermont Department of Labor. Harrington was appointed by Governor Scott as deputy commissioner of Labor in January 2017 and has served as interim commissioner since September 2019.
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Vermont Business Magazine Effective Monday, June 8, Vermonters may travel outside of Vermont to counties across New England and New York that have a similar active COVID-19 caseload to Vermont and return without quarantining if they do so in a personal vehicle. This encompasses 55 counties mostly in the North Country of New York State and New England. Similarly, residents of other states who live in counties across New England and New York that have a similar active COVID-19 caseload to Vermont may enter the state for leisure travel without quarantining. Multi-room lodging operations may book 50 percent of rooms for non-residential lodging or have a total of 25 guests and staff on the property - whichever is greater. Also on Monday, Indoor dining and pubs may resume but operations are limited to 25 percent of approved occupancy or 10 total customers and staff combined, whichever is greater. This is all for table service only. The bar area at restaurants and pubs will remain closed and standing is not allowed.
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Vermont Business Magazine This week, Burlington Mayor Miro Weinberger and Tyeastia Green, the City’s Director of Racial Equity, Inclusion, & Belonging, announced an eight-point plan to protect black, indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC) communities and ensure a racially just recovery from the coronavirus.
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Vermont Business Magazine The Vermont Leadership Institute (VLI) at the Snelling Center for Government has announced the creation of a new Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) Scholarship Fund for individuals from underrepresented and marginalized groups. The fund aims to help remove financial barriers to participation in VLI’s leadership program.
“We recognize that current racial tensions have been created and compounded by a long history of systemic exclusion and oppression,” said VLI Director Jody Fried. “Equal opportunity requires equity, and the Vermont Leadership Institute is committed to making deliberate efforts to reach the traditionally underserved, ignored, and systemically disenfranchised members of our Vermont communities. We must have diverse voices at the table if we are going to create the intimate dialogue, long-lasting trust and deep understanding required to make complex systemic change.”
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Vermont Business Magazine Attorney General TJ Donovan on Thursday sent a letter to Senator Tim Ashe, President Pro Tempore, and Representative Mitzi Johnson, Speaker of the House, urging the Legislature to pass legislation to improve training of law enforcement and to study a change in the standard applied to police use-of-force incidents. In the letter, Attorney General Donovan points to two bills, H.808 and H.464, which, if passed, will increase transparency and trust in law enforcement while aiming to limit the number of use-of-force incidents.
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Vermont Business Magazine The Vermont Department of Health today reported the largest single-day jump in new cases since April 9, with 36 new cases, nearly all associated with a cluster in Winooski, for a total of 1,026. VDH is now calling the Winooski cases an "outbreak." However, there still remains none hospitalized statewide and the number of deaths remains at 55. The Health Department today reported 34 positive cases of COVID-19 that are thought to be associated with the outbreak in Winooski.