Current News
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Vermont State Police On December 28, 2019, the Vermont State Police were notified of a skiing accident at the Killington Ski Resort. The lone victim, Jason Vitale, was transported to the Rutland Regional Medical Center where he was pronounced dead.
Vitale was traveling at a high rate of speed on an intermediate trail, when he lost control and collided with a tree. Vitale was not wearing a helmet at the time of the collision. Vitale was quickly moved off the mountain by members of the Killington Ski Patrol, however went into cardiac arrest while being transported to the hospital where he later died as a result from his injuries.
CASE#: 19B405829
TROOPER: Det. Sgt. Jams Wright
STATION: Shaftsbury
CONTACT#: 802-442-5421
DATE/TIME: December 28, 2019 at approximately 1500 hours
LOCATION: Killington Ski Resort
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Vermont Business Magazine Green Mountain Power (GMP) is tracking multiple forecasts as teams plan to respond as quickly and safely as possible to outages from a large winter storm forecasted for the Northeast region Sunday night through Monday into Tuesday. Meteorologists say freezing rain, wind and wet snow are all possible throughout Vermont, with the southern part of the state - Rutland, Bennington, Windsor and Windham counties - expected to see the most ice accumulation and possible damage from this storm.
by Brandon
Vermont Business Magazine The Vermont Agency of Agriculture, Food and Markets (VAAFM) welcomes applications from Vermont businesses seeking to vend at the Vermont Building at the Eastern States Exposition (Big E) located in West Springfield, Massachusetts from September 18 – October 4, 2020. Help grow your Vermont business and the state economy with this special opportunity at the Vermont building to reach a larger market.
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Vermont Business Magazine A Vermont based Web Development and Digital Marketing firm is celebrating its 20th year of business on January 1, 2020. Eternity has launched over 800 websites throughout the years and will be recognizing its 20 years of success by releasing an all-new website of their own. In addition, they have decided to donate a website to a non-profit of their choosing and acknowledge the many non-profits they have had the pleasure of working with.
The new website for Eternity will represent the growth that the company has endured, by displaying a unique and innovative design, along with an extensive portfolio that represents both non-profits and businesses.
The chosen non-profit for Eternity’s donation will be announced across social media channels at the end of January. Eternity is excited about this donation because a lot of success can come from a well-designed and developed website.
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Public Assets Institute State of Working Vermont 2019, published in a readable chart-book format with brief explanatory text, takes a close look at a number of indicators to see how Vermonters and their families were faring economically at the end of 2018—the latest year for which most data are available—and how conditions have changed, for better or worse, in recent years. It also points out that Vermont’s level of public investment has been flat for a quarter of a century and that our failure to make timely public investments is creating serious consequences for Vermonters.
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Vermont Business Magazine Weekly unemployment rise last week after falling the week before, which itself had followed two weeks of very high numbers. After a long period of very low numbers, claims have been higher over the last two months and now have entered the holiday period, which typically brings with it wild swings in claims, as retailers hire and then lay off seasonal workers.
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Vermont Business Magazine That is the crucial message behind the Second Annual Vermont Tourism Day, slated for January 15, 2020, at the State House in Montpelier. The event will highlight the importance of tourism to Vermont and advocate for increased tourism funding to encourage more out-of-state tourists to visit. Tourism contributes more than $2.5B in spending to the Vermont economy each year. The most recent Vermont Tourism Benchmark Study showed that the industry supports more than 32,000 jobs – roughly 10 percent of the state’s total workforce – and generates upward of $391 million in tax revenue, saving the average household $1,450 in taxes annually.
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by Ethan Tapper We humans have a very strange idea of what a well-tended woodlot should look like. To many people the epitome of good forest management is the image of towering overstory trees over a bare forest floor, their sightline is dotted with massive, evenly-spaced identical trunks.
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by Timothy McQuiston, Vermont Business Magazine In 1976 a skiing prodigy from Southern Vermont not only achieved international fame, but within a few years would forever alter the future of snow sports. This fellow used a little known type of ski to win the first ever American Olympic medal in his sport – a feat not again achieved for 42 years. Within a half-dozen years he would again change the entire industry by popularizing a new way of Nordic skiing.
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Economic Policy Institute At the start of the new year, minimum wages will go up in 22 states, lifting pay for 6.8 million workers across the country. In Vermont, the automatic inflation adjustment of 19 cents to $10.96 will affect 16,200, who will see an average increase of $240, or a total of nearly $4 million. Across the US, workers affected by the increases will earn an extra $8.2 billion over the course of 2020 as a result of the changes. The increases range from a $0.10 inflation adjustment in Florida to $1.50 per hour raises in New Mexico and Washington. Affected workers who work year-round will see their annual pay go up between $150 and $1,700, on average, depending on the size of the minimum wage increase in their state.
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by Erin Fernandez, Executive Director, Vermont Adaptive It's a bit overwhelming to reach this amazing milestone - raising more than $90,000 during #GivingTuesday. This incredible effort shows that people do pay attention to the season of giving and what it really means. The monies raised allows us to reach more people with our adaptive programs, regardless of their ability to pay, fund and keep current our fleet of expensive adaptive equipment, and continue to broaden our programming options with not just traditional outdoor sports and recreation, but also with our wellness and environmental programming.
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Vermont Business Magazine Online shopping is projected to break records this holiday season. A new study shows nearly 40 percent of consumers have been victims of package theft, and holiday shoppers in Vermont are the No. 50 most at-risk, or second lowest, with Massachusetts lowest and the District of Columbia highest at more than triple the Vermont rate. The state had 1,108.30 larceny thefts per 100,000 residents during the holiday shopping period, according to Security.org. Online shopping from November 1 to December 31 is projected to increase to $136 billion, a 13 percent jump from 2018. Driven by Amazon, the package delivery industry is expected to reach $107 billion. This has created a new avenue for criminals and a new term: “Porch Pirate.”