Current News

Vermont Business Magazine Today, Burlington Mayor Emma Mulvaney-Stanak held a press conference to announce the appointment of Kelli Perkins, Ed.D, to serve as the next Director of the Office of Racial Equity, Inclusion & Belonging (REIB). Dr. Kelli Perkins has 20 years of professional experience at the intersection of educational administration, DEI, and human resources, most recently serving as the Human Resources and Justice, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (JEDI) Director for Vital Communities, an Upper Valley nonprofit. She earned her Doctor of Education from Northeastern University, as well as a Master of Science in Adult Education from North Carolina Agricultural & Technical State University.    

Vermont Business Magazine Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont) today strongly condemned Nexstar Media Group’s decision to block the broadcast of Jimmy Kimmel Live! on stations it owns, including WVNY in Vermont, following political pressure from former President Donald Trump and FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr. In a letter sent this week to Nexstar CEO Perry Sook, Sanders called the move “absolutely unacceptable” and a “dangerous act of censorship that has no place in a democratic society.” “Let’s be clear,” Sanders wrote. “Being able to publicly criticize or make fun of the President of the United States—whether that person is a Republican, Democrat or Independent—is what makes America a great country and sets us apart from tin pot dictatorships and authoritarian regimes.”

Vermont Business Magazine Great Works Internet (GWI) today announced a legal victory in its ongoing dispute with the East Central Vermont Telecommunications District (ECFiber). On September 23, 2025, the U.S. District Court for the District of Vermont denied ECFiber’s Emergency Motion to Enforce and Modify the Court’s Order of August 11, 2025. ECFiber sought to remove GWI from network operations and immediately hand control over to Vermont ISP Operating Company (VISPO), a newly formed, untested organization with no track record and no public budget. The Court rejected this attempt, affirming that GWI remains the contracted operator of the ECFiber system through December 31, 2025, and that its staffing and operational decisions remain under GWI’s sole authority. 

Vermont Business Magazine State Senator Anne Watson, the balcony solar nonprofit Bright Saver, the Vermont Public Interest Research Group (VPIRG), and Vermont Natural Resources Council (VNRC), have launched a campaign to pass legislation enabling plug-in solar in Vermont. The effort would make Vermont one of the first states in the nation to follow Utah, which earlier this year passed plug-in solar legislation with unanimous bipartisan support. Pennsylvania also announced their plan to introduce plug-in solar legislation last month.

Vermont Business Magazine At its annual celebration last Wednesday, the Vermont Land Trust recognized Camp DREAM and Boneyard Farm for their exceptional contributions to unite land and lives. The Land and Lives Award, given annually to an individual or organization, recognizes qualities of leadership, resourcefulness, and inclusiveness that have made an enduring difference in the well-being of Vermont’s land and people. VLT awarded Mike Foote, Founder and Empowerment Director at The DREAM Program (DREAM), for his years of work to support outdoor recreation opportunities for rural and low-income youth in Vermont and further afield.  

by Mike Donoghue, Vermont News First, Vermont Business Magazine A Newbury man, who claimed he got food poisoning and sustained kidney damage from a contaminated pre-packaged ham and Swiss cheese sandwich purchased at a Shaw’s supermarket has lost his product liability lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Burlington. A federal jury in Burlington rejected the claim by Michael Emerson against the Shaw’s Supermarket in Woodsville, N.H. and Fresh Ideation Food Group LLC, doing business as Fresh Creative Cuisine, which prepared the sandwich at its Baltimore, Maryland facility in January 2023. The 8-member civil jury said on its verdict form last week that Emerson failed to show, by a preponderance of the evidence, that the sandwich was contaminated with listeria at the time of sale, the sandwich was "unreasonably dangerous" at the time of sale or that the listeria contamination caused harm to plaintiff. 

Vermont Business Magazine Saint Michael’s College recently received $120,000 from the Freeman Foundation, aimed at supporting international internship opportunities for students. Since 2019, the College has sent dozens of students to Seoul, South Korea; Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam; and Hong Kong thanks to grants from the Freeman Foundation. This year’s grant is the largest the College has received from the foundation to date. The mission of the Freeman Foundation is “to strengthen the bonds of friendship between this country and those of the Far East,” through an exchange of ideas and cultural experiences, which will help create mutual understanding.  

Vermont State Police On Tuesday afternoon in St Johnsbury, Vermont State Police, along with St. Johnsbury Fire Department, CALEX and Lyndon Rescue, responded to the intersection of Crepeault Hill Rd and Old Bradley Road for a report of a single vehicle crash with injuries.  The preliminary investigation showed that vehicle #1 was traveling west on Old Bradley Rd when the operator failed to stop at the stop sign at the intersection of Crepeault Hill Rd.  The vehicle crossed Crepeault Hill Rd and struck a large tree before coming to rest in a field. Speed is believed to be a factor in the crash.  

Vermont Business Magazine U.S. Senator Peter Welch (D-Vermont), Ranking Member of the Senate Agriculture Subcommittee on Rural Development, Energy, and Credit, led nine of his Senate colleagues in calling on U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Secretary Brooke Rollins to halt any further restructuring efforts until USDA can explain how the proposal would impact the crucial services the Food and Nutrition (FNS) provides, including its administration of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). 

by Lisa C. Bailey, University of Vermont Steadily rising healthcare costs coupled with diminishing access to insurance has Americans asking why—and what can be done about it. In his new book, Pre-Existing Conditions: How Lobbying Makes American Healthcare More Expensive (out today from Oxford University Press), Alex Garlick, Ph.D., offers some answers. Garlick, an assistant professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of Vermont, draws back the curtain on the secretive process of lobbying and how it affects one of the most pressing contemporary policy issues: healthcare inflation. We sat down for a conversation with Garlick about the book, his findings, and their implications. 

Vermont Business Magazine MIB Agents, a leading pediatric osteosarcoma nonprofit based in Barnard, Vermont, is accepting letters of intent (LOI) starting on Wednesday, September 24, for its annual OutSmarting Osteosarcoma research grant program. This program was established in 2017 and is awarded to projects focused on moving research forward for osteosarcoma patients. Osteosarcoma is an aggressive, malignant primary bone cancer affecting an estimated 1,000 people in the U.S. each year, about half of which are children and teens. Over the past nine years, MIB Agents has awarded a total of $2.5 million and supported 32 investigators to fund promising osteosarcoma research. In addition to a $100,000 Hero award, MIB Agents supports early career researchers with a $50,000 Young Investigator Research Hope award.

Vermont Business Magazine U.S. Senator Peter Welch (D-Vermont), a member of the Senate Finance Committee, recently joined Senate Finance Committee Ranking Member Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and 19 of his Senate colleagues in reintroducing the Billionaires Income Tax Act, bicameral legislation to help ensure billionaires pay a fair share in taxes every year just like Americans who work for a living already do. The Billionaires Income Tax would expand on an accounting method already used in the U.S. tax code to ensure billionaires pay a fair share. It would not increase any current-law tax rates.