Current News

Vermont Business Magazine FourScienceVT, a museum consortium led by ECHO, Fairbanks, Montshire, and VINS, band together to address the disparity of science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) education of Vermont's communities during the Covid-19 Coronavirus pandemic and beyond.

​Vermont Business Magazine United States Attorney General William Barr has directed Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Eric Dreiband and Christina Nolan, the US Attorney for the District of Vermont, to oversee and coordinate the Department of Justice’s efforts to address this issue during the current pandemic. As the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted the ability of many people to timely pay rent and increased housing insecurity, the Department of Justice has heard reports of housing providers trying to exploit the crisis to sexually harass tenants.

Vermont Business Magazine Norwich University is honored to announce that its own President Richard W Schneider, one of the nation’s longest seated university leaders who will retire on May 31 after serving at the helm for 28 years, will deliver the 2020 Commencement address to graduating seniors on Saturday, September 12, 2020. Due to concerns related to COVID-19, the 2020 ceremony was recently rescheduled from a typical spring ceremony to this fall date. Details of the ceremony will be planned as Norwich monitors the pandemic situation.

Vermont Business Magazine Citizens Bank today announced that 12 small businesses in New Hampshire and Vermont will each receive a $15,000 grant as part of its Small Business Recovery grant program. These direct grants are being issued to Citizens small business customers to help them continue operating and recover from adverse conditions brought on by the pandemic.

Vermont Business Magazine The Vermont Nuclear Decommissioning Citizens Advisory Panel (VT NDCAP) will hold its third meeting of this year on Monday evening, May 4, 2020 from 6 PM to 9 PM. In accordance with changes to Vermont Open Meeting Law in response to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, this meeting will be conducted as a Skype webcast and teleconference.

AccuWeather Global Weather Center Summer in the United States is going to look different in many ways this year given how the coronavirus pandemic has upended life. For many Americans, it’s still unclear if sports will be played and whether large gatherings will be held. Vacation plans remain up in the air for millions. What’s not up in the air is that no matter what Americans end up spending time doing this summer, there will be weather to contend with.

The Northeast and parts of Southern Vermont will see hotter weather than usual this summer, while states out West will once again have to deal with wildfires.

Vermont Business Magazine Bar Harbor Bank & Trust has made donations to two Vermont non-profit organizations to help them deliver their adult education programs remotely during the COVID-19 pandemic. Central Vermont Adult Basic Education (CVABE) and Vermont Adult Learning (VAL) each received $1,500 donations to provide distance learning technology for low-income, adult education students to continue with their educational programs, which include GED and high school diploma.

by Aimee Stephenson, PhD The justification for the economic shutdown and stay-at-home order was to ‘flatten the curve’ in the name of ensuring our hospitals were not overrun by a predicted tidal wave of COVID-19 patients. The purpose of social distancing is to spread out cases, preventing hospitals from being overwhelmed, and in turn, avoiding deaths from COVID due to lack of available medical care.

As the reason for the shutdown was to avoid a particular cause of death (lack of hospital capacity), it would follow that the most relevant metric for deciding whether to re-open the economy is hospital capacity. The key question our leaders should be asking is whether we currently have an issue with hospital capacity? The answer to this question is a resounding ‘no’.

Vermont Business Magazine The Health Department will enhance its contact tracing efforts using SARA Alert technology, a text-based illness monitoring system that will allow us to keep in touch with contacts and help them manage symptoms. The state plans to handle 300-900 cases and contacts per week under the new strategy. The state currently has 53 trained contact tracers who could handle up to 500 contacts per week and is implementing a plan to train additional tracers as needed.

Vermont Business Magazine ACCD has updated the Phased Restart Work Safe Guidance for businesses, including additional details for workplace communal spaces and construction in multi-unit properties. The most recent guidance regarding Work Safe practices can always be found on the sector guidance and FAQs for businesses pages.

by Timothy McQuiston, Vermont Business Magazine Governor Phil Scott and Health Commissioner Mark Levine, MD, said at the governor's press briefing today that the state will increase testing for COVID-19 to include even those showing mild symptoms. Already, the state is testing anyone who is showing typical symptoms of the novel coronavirus, those who might have been exposed, frontline health care workers and those at institutions like nursing homes or correctional facilities where there has been a case. Now, the state is planning to test 1,000 Vermonters a day, seven days a week. The tests, however, will not include the random general public yet.

Vermont Business Magazine Senator Patrick Leahy (D), Senator Bernie Sanders (I), and Representative Peter Welch (D) on Wednesday sent a letter to Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and Small Business Administration (SBA) Administrator Carranza urging them to provide clear and official guidance about the loan forgiveness provisions in the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP).