Current News
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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.
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Senator Patrick Leahy On Monday I watched the shameful scene a block from the White House as the President of the United States ordered US Park Police, backed by the DC National Guard and following threats throughout the day, to use the US military against peaceful American protesters so he could have his photograph taken in front of St. John’s Church holding a Bible. It was an appalling, almost surreal, abuse of power that showed a flagrant disregard not only for our Constitution, but for those who have devoted their lives to defend it.
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Vermont Business Magazine Governor Scott and Attorney General Donovan came together Thursday to issue statements on Vermont’s peaceful protests.
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by Timothy McQuiston, Vermont Business Magazine As Governor Scott continues to open up the economy, the weekly unemployment insurance claims have continued to subside. Initial and ongoing claims have now decreased every week since the peak in early April. Last week they fell at their lowest levels since that first decline. But they are also at about a post-Christmas layoff spike. Scott is expected to announce Friday when restaurants can resume indoor dining and perhaps when out-of-state visitors will be allowed to return without quarantine, which is intended to help the lodging industry.
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Vermont Business Magazine Wednesday, Governor Phil Scott announced the retirement of the Department for Children and Families’ (DCF) Commissioner Ken Schatz and the appointment of Sean Brown to be the next Commissioner of DCF. Schatz will be retiring on June 26, 2020 and Brown will assume the role on June 29, 2020.
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Vermont Business Magazine and the Vermont Chamber of Commerce announced Thursday Chroma Technology Corp of Bellows Falls as the winner of the prestigious and highly anticipated Deane C Davis Outstanding Business of the Year Award, 2019. A 100 percent employee-owned company, Chroma Technology produces optical filters for the scientific, biomedical, photonics and imaging and detection industries. The filters and mirrors that Chroma manufactures are used in microscopes, DNA sequencers and clinical diagnostic devices, among other applications.
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Vermont Business Magazine Enphase Energy, Inc (NASDAQ:ENPH), a global energy technology company and the world’s leading supplier of solar microinverters, today announced that Same Sun of Vermont has deployed Enphase microinverters on a 56.2 kWDC commercial solar system for WhistlePig Rye Whiskey, a Vermont-based craft whiskey maker. WhistlePig’s distillery is situated on a 500-acre former dairy farm in Shoreham.
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Agency of Commerce & Community Development The Department of Economic Development will host a virtual town hall on Friday, June 5th at 2:00 pm to share updates about the Paycheck Protection Program. Funds are still available for businesses to access. Representatives from the SBA and local banks and credit unions will be available to answer questions.
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Vermont Business Magazine While 100,000 Vermonters have filed for unemployment since the start of the COVID-19 crisis, the state is doing far better than most in new claims filed by the end of May. The coronavirus pandemic has been incredibly destructive to US jobs, forcing nearly 43 million workers into unemployment since March 16. Millions of businesses closed as customers sheltered in place, forcing layoffs borne from a lack of revenue. Even though all states have now started to reopen, the employment situation continues to worsen.
This week, there were nearly 1.9 million new unemployment claims nationwide, compared to 219,000 during the same week last year. However, not all states have experienced the same levels of unemployment due to the pandemic.
Total new claims in Vermont were 1,465, down 87 from the week before but 1,060 more than. Ongoing claims were 47,781, down 4,056 from the week before but 44,376 more than last year.
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Vermont Business Magazine University of Vermont and Champlain College students who are returning to Burlington can get tested for COVID-19 at sites on the UVM campus. The specimen collection is being done in collaboration with the Vermont Department of Health, and with the assistance of trained members of the Vermont National Guard.