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Farmers Encouraged to Review Manure Spreading Rules Going Forward

Vermont Business Magazine Vermont will smell more like Vermont starting today. The state's winter manure spreading ban has ended, April 1, but with another wet March having brought challenging field conditions to many parts of Vermont, the Vermont Agency of Agriculture, Food and Markets (VAAFM) is issuing a spring stewardship reminder to Vermont farmers and Custom Manure Applicators.

The Required Agricultural Practices (RAPs) outline that manure cannot be applied to fields that are frozen or snow-covered, nor to fields that are saturated, likely to runoff, or are conducive to any other off-site movement regardless of nutrient management plan recommendations.

VAAFM has the following additional reminders for farmers this Spring:

Vermont Business Magazine Winooski has one of the lowest homeowners' insurance rates in the nation. The highest rate belongs to ZIP code 33070, home to Islamorada Village of Islands, on Plantation Key in Florida, according to Insurance.com's analysis of average rates for nearly every ZIP code in the country. The highest rate in Vermont was in Beebe Plain (Derby) at $1,282. The other low rates also were in Chittenden County, which tends to have the highest home costs.

ZIP codes in Louise, Texas and Mobile, Alabama, rank second and third, respectively, according to Insurance.com, an independent consumer guide to insurance.

Vermont Business Magazine The School for International Training, based in Brattleboro, has successfully repatriated more than 900 study abroad and graduate students in an exhaustive international mobilization effort launched on March 15 in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The relocation of 914 undergraduate and six graduate students — many of them from remote locations — means that all SIT students in the field who intended to return home have done so. Nine study abroad undergraduate students signed waivers and chose to remain in country.

Vermont Business Magazine Leahy: “We have been working to reform our nation’s surveillance authorities for years, and, as we predicted, this damning initial report makes clear our work is not done. The significant errors that the Inspector General uncovered in his 478 page report in December on the origins of Crossfire Hurricane do not appear to be isolated incidents..."

Vermont Business Magazine Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont), Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) and Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn) led nearly three dozen lawmakers in urging the Trump Administration to ease sanctions against Iran, as the country suffers from a major humanitarian crisis triggered by COVID-19. The letter comes just two weeks after the Trump Administration levied additional sanctions against Iran in the midst of the pandemic, which has to date killed more than 2,600 Iranians.

Vermont Business Magazine The Agency of Commerce and Community Development (ACCD) is directing large “big box” retailers, such as Walmart, Target and Costco, with in-store sales of food, beverage and pharmacy, as well as electronics, toys, clothing, and the like to cease in-person sales of non-essential items in order to reduce the number of people coming into the stores.

Vermont Business Magazine Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont) sent a letter to Postmaster General Megan Brennan detailing troubling news reports of postal employees being urged to continue working while showing symptoms of COVID-19 illness. Postal workers also reported having to work without appropriate personal protective equipment.

by Jack Hoffman, Senior Analyst at Public Assets Institute The $2.2 trillion federal stimulus bill will keep the wolf from the door for millions of people who can’t work and businesses forced to close because of the coronavirus pandemic—at least for a while. Congress rightly recognized its first priority is to see that people with no money coming in have enough to live on.

Vermont Business Magazine The Vermont Department of Health reported this afternoon that there are 37 new cases of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) with one more death. The number of total cases now is 293 with 13 total deaths. There are 21 total patients with COVID-19 currently being treated in Vermont hospitals, while another 52 are hospitalized and are being monitored. While Chittenden County still has by far the most known cases with 152, Addison County is now second with 23 as the counties around Chittenden are showing an increase. Windsor, which is unchanged from the weekend, and Bennington County have 18. There are still no cases reported in Grand Isle or Essex counties.

Vermont Business Magazine The arrival of COVID-19 in Vermont has changed “business as usual” for all Vermonters. The hospitality and personal service industry has been particularly hard hit as Vermonters are told to “stay home.”

Vermont Business Magazine Today Vermont Secretary of State Jim Condos announced the Governor’s signing of a bill, H742 signed into law as Act 91 on March 30, creating fast tracks for out-of-state licensed healthcare and mental health professionals, retired healthcare and mental health professionals, and new graduates to join or return to the Vermont workforce in order to address the COVID-19 State of Emergency.

Vermont Business Magazine The Vermont Housing Finance Agency (VHFA) Board of Commissioners announced yesterday that its annual allocation of federal housing tax credits will support the development of 130 permanently affordable apartments in five communities across the state. Housing tax credits are the single largest source of funding for the development of affordable rental housing in Vermont. The tax credits are expected to yield an estimated $24 million in total upfront equity, which will cover an average of 62% percent of the total development costs for the upcoming projects.