Current News

VermontBiz Many Vermonters with Medicare Advantage Plans received cancellation notices effective at the end of 2025. Affected beneficiaries should carefully review and save their cancellation letter, which provides information on how and when to timely enroll in a new plan.

Vermont’s five Area Agencies on Aging (AAAs) administer the State Health Insurance Assistance Program (“SHIP”), offering free, unbiased, and confidential health insurance counseling, including assistance with Medicare Plan changes, for individuals, their families, and caregivers during annual open enrollment.

VermontBiz Treasurer Pieciak recently led a coalition of state fiscal officers challenging the continued inclusion of Trump Media & Technology Group (TMTG) in the influential Russell 3000 Index. The joint letter calls for stronger safeguards to protect market integrity and ensure the index reflects sound financial fundamentals. 

Financial leaders cited TMTG's dramatic stock decline – losing more than half its value since index inclusion and nearly three-quarters from its peak – along with negligible revenues, extreme volatility, and governance concerns as evidence that the company undermines the index's credibility. 

VermontBiz The Bennington Battle Monument’s elevator is officially back in operation. Visitors can now purchase tickets that will take them 200 feet up to the observation deck to enjoy commanding sights of fall foliage. From the tallest man-made building in Vermont, sights span the town of Bennington and beyond into Massachusetts, New York, the Adirondacks, and the Green Mountains.

The Bennington Battle Monument commemorates a pivotal victory for American forces on the New England front of the American Revolution. On August 16, 1777, Vermont’s Green Mountain Boys, the New Hampshire Militia, and volunteers from Massachusetts defeated British troops charged with capturing provisions stored at the Bennington military supply depot. This is the site where the monument stands today.

VermontBiz The Vermont Department of Public Safety and the State Police Advisory Commission today are releasing the latest semiannual detailed summary of internal investigations involving members of the Vermont State Police.

The release of these synopses provides greater transparency, public awareness, and oversight to the activities of the Vermont State Police, while balancing requirements regarding internal investigations and the need to have internal investigations completed before public dissemination.

A report attached to this statement contains synopses of the four investigations that came before SPAC from July 1, 2024, through Dec. 31, 2024. Two of the investigations arose as the result of a concern raised internally by members of the Vermont State Police, and the other two were in accordance with routine procedure.

VermontBiz Today, The University of Vermont Libraries’ Silver Special Collections Library, celebrated a newly acquired and exciting collection now available to researchers – the Vermont Public Interest Research Group’s (VPIRG) historic archives. Stewardship of the collection preserves insights into VPIRG’s legacy of civic engagement and support of the democratic process in Vermont. The new collection was celebrated with remarks and a sneak peek on Wednesday October 1, at the Special Collections Library.

“It is so fitting that the UVM Special Collections Library will serve as keepers of the history and memories of this important Vermont advocacy group started by UVM students over 50 years ago,” said Bridget Burke, Director of Special Collections, “UVM began archiving VPIRG records in 1997. This addition of more than fifty boxes makes decades of VPIRG’s history of accessible advocacy available in the Libraries. We look forward to UVM and Vermont community members working with this collection and delving into the history of civic engagement in Vermont.”

VermontBiz RunVermont announced October 1, 2025, that registration is officially open for its two largest annual running events: the M&T Bank Vermont City Marathon & Relay and Half Marathon Unplugged presented by Switchback Brewing Co., along with the Memorial Day Weekend Youth Events (M&T Bank Vermont City Two Mile and Mini Marathon). These events draw thousands of runners and spectators to Burlington, VT, and the surrounding area each spring, celebrating community, fitness, and Vermont’s vibrant running culture for participants of all ages.

by Timothy McQuiston, Vermont Business Magazine Average gasoline prices in Vermont are $3.17 per gallon, unchanged from last week, up 5 cents/g from last month and down 3 cents/g from last year. Prices were lowest in Bennington ($3.01/g) and Addison ($3.07/g) counties and highest in Essex ($3.26/g), Franklin ($3.26/g) and Grand Isle ($3.27/g), according to AAA. The national average price of gasoline is unchanged in the last week, averaging $3.16/g today.

Vermont Business Magazine With the fall ahead, shoreland residents are getting ready to close their lakeside camps for the season. The Vermont Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) is urging residents to either remove their docks from the water or, if ice damage is not a concern, to let them freeze in place. DEC also recommends forgoing aeration devices that are designed to prevent ice buildup around your dock to help protect Vermont lakes and public safety. If you are planning to install an aeration device like a bubbler, ice eater, or de-icer near your dock, you will need to apply for a Lake Encroachment Permit. Bubblers and other aerators attach to docks and circulate air in the water. They are intended to reduce ice, aquatic plants, or sediment.

Vermont Business Magazine The Northern Forest Canoe Trail (NFCT) and the Lamoille River Paddlers Trail will host a river cleanup on Saturday, Oct. 4. Volunteers are invited to join as both organizations continue efforts to remove trash and debris from the Lamoille River, much of which was deposited following severe flooding from the last several years. The Oct. 4 work will focus on the Jefferson/Johnson corridor. The cleanup will begin at 9 a.m. and continue until 1 p.m. The put-in is located off Vermont Route 15, near the Foote Drive access to the Lamoille Valley Rail Trail; the takeout is located about 4 miles downstream near Cambridge Junction. This stretch of the Lamoille is manageable for all paddling skill levels. 

Vermont Business Magazine Union Mutual announced it has raised over $147,000 in support of the Kelly Brush Foundation. The achievement was part of the Company’s participation in the 20th Annual Kelly Brush Ride, held in Middlebury, Vermont on September 6th, 2025. Union Mutual employees, their families, friends, and agency partners joined hundreds of riders for the event, with all funds raised directly through charitable donations made in support of the Team Union Mutual riders. 

Vermont Business Magazine The Vermont Fish and Wildlife Department is reminding hunters of a regulation designed to help keep Vermont deer healthy by banning the use of any deer lure containing deer urine or other deer bodily fluids. The infectious agent of Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD), a fatal disease of deer, is a mutant protein or “prion” that can be passed in urine.  Prions can bind to soils and remain infectious for many years.  Nearly all urine-based lures are produced in captive deer facilities, where CWD is most likely to occur.  There is no accepted way to test live animals, and infected animals can spread CWD for years before showing any symptoms. No amount of testing or special certification program can eliminate the risk of spreading CWD through urine lures. 

Vermont Business Magazine The Vermont Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) Wednesday announced a major environmental restoration project involving the use of an aluminum compound to control phosphorus pollution and decrease toxic cyanobacteria (blue-green algae) blooms on Lake Carmi. The project started the week of September 22, 2025. Lake Carmi is the fourth largest natural lake that is entirely within Vermont. In 2018, it was designated the state’s only Lake in Crisis due to the long-term presence of toxic algal blooms. These blooms are caused by excess phosphorus, which runs off into the lake from a range of sources (such as shoreland development, agriculture, streambank and road erosion, and wastewater).