Current News

Vermont Business Magazine Legal Services Vermont and Vermont Legal Aid want to meet with you. The nonprofit law firms want to know more about the civil legal problems facing low-income and vulnerable Vermonters. They are holding seven meetings around the state to hear from Vermonters, their community partners and supporters. “We want to hear from as wide a cross section of Vermonters as possible. Everyone is encouraged to participate in this process,” said Sam Abel-Palmer, executive director of Legal Services Vermont.

Vermont Business Magazine Our state's rural communities are critical to its identity, but will the next generation of Vermonters be able to live, work and thrive here? This fall, Vermont PBS and VPR are collaborating to present This Land: The Changing Story of Rural Vermont. The project explores the realities and rewards of living in rural Vermont through a statewide poll, news and analysis, a storytelling event and other special programming. “Vermont PBS is proud to team up with our friends at VPR to combine our professional expertise to give voice to the daily experience of rural Vermonters,” says Holly Groschner, president and CEO of Vermont PBS. “Throughout the fall we will use the full power of our combined public media to explore the story of contemporary rural life and to spark conversation with you. Together we seek to explain the issues faced by rural communities and highlight grassroots solutions that show promise for the future.”​

This week, the Burlington office of Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) hosted farmers, environmental advocates, and community members across Vermont to share recommendations with his staff on how agriculture can help mitigate climate change and adapt to its effects.

“Farmers in Vermont and around the country know that the debate about the reality of climate change is over,” said Sanders.  “They want—and deserve—to be part of the solution in addressing this global threat. We need to hear from them and get their ideas on how to move forward.”

Discussion with the Senator’s staff focused on ways to position farmers to address climate change while improving the financial stability of their farms. Farmers highlighted the importance of rewarding measurable improvements to land, pollution and greenhouse gas emissions as well as providing financial incentives for farmers to develop sustainable farming practices.

City Market is excited to share that in September, they surpassed $1 Million in donations through the Rally for Change program since it launched in October, 2014. Rally for Change allows members and customers to “round up” to the nearest dollar when they check-out at City Market. At the end of each month, 50% of those funds get donated to Feeding Chittenden (previously Chittenden Emergency Food Shelf), 40% to an organization that aligns with their Global Ends, and 10% to a local non-profit. 77 individual non-profit partners have benefited from these funds over the past five years helping to support the growth of community gardens, increase access to healthy food, preserve farmland, and so much more.

Leaders of the House and Senate Appropriations Committees and Subcommittees on Homeland Security on Thursday wrote to the Trump administration urging “increased discipline and transparency” related to any exception to the automatic apportionment of funds for enforcement and removal operations (ERO) at U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

In a letter to Acting Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Director Russell Vought and Acting Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Director Kevin McAleenan, the lawmakers noted that while the Constitution grants Congress the power of the purse, “For the past three years, exception apportionments have been used to increase funding for enforcement and removal operations above the level commensurate with the prior year appropriation, with little apparent justification or transparency.”

OneCare Vermont (OneCare) is one of eight organizations chosen to participate in Advancing Integrated Models, a multi-site demonstration promoting innovative, person-centered strategies to improve care for adults and children with complex health and social needs. Made possible with support from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and led by CHCS, AIM will assist health system and provider organizations in designing and piloting new approaches to integrate care for people with complex needs with a focus on improving health outcomes and fostering health equity.

US Route 2 at the temporary drawbridge is open to two lanes of traffic. Please expect intermittent stops and releases of traffic by flaggers to allow for construction vehicles to enter the work zone. The contractor is working 7AM to 6PM, Monday through Thursday, and 7AM to 1PM on Friday.

The temporary bridge has a speed limit of 25mph. There are tight curves approaching the temporary bridge, and trucks are advised to reduce speed to 15mph. Bicycles should use caution while crossing the bridge

Vermont Business Magazine The Vermont Technology Alliance is welcoming the public to vote to select the winners of the 2019 Vermont Tech Jam Awards.  Each year the Vermont Technology Alliance, a business association representing Vermont’s tech business sector, presents the Tech Jam Awards to draw attention to some of the state’s leading tech businesses and entrepreneurs.

Public nominations have been submitted and a team of judges have selected the finalists. Now it is up to the public to select who will win the 2019 “Jammies”

Public voting on Tech Jam Award finalists is open through October 14, 2019 and can be cast at: https://www.vermonttechnologyalliance.org/surveys/?id=TJA_voting_2019

Here are the award categories and finalists, listed alphabetically:

Tech Business of the Year Award

Vermont Business Magazine Governor Phil Scott today announced Mike Smith as the next secretary of the Agency Human Services.

“I’m pleased to appoint Mike to this post. He has served in many different leadership roles across state government and the non-profit and private sectors,” Governor Scott said. “As was the case with his predecessor, Al Gobeille, Mike has a wide and varied background and has been a dynamic and effective leader. I feel fortunate to attract Vermonters with such skill and integrity into state government.  Their leadership ability is an incredibly important and critical part of the work we are doing to strengthen the economy, make Vermont more affordable and protect the most vulnerable.”

Vermont Business Magazine On October 11th, representatives from the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization’s (UNESCO) Man and Biosphere Program (MAB) and the U.S. National Park Service will gather at the University of Vermont for the Champlain-Adirondack Biosphere Reserve’s (CABR) Annual Meeting.  The meeting will focus on how to improve human interaction with protected landscapes in order to maintain social, economic and ecological integrity.

Cheryl Sullivan was in the woods one warm October day, flicking yet another tick from her leg, “which felt like the tenth of the day,” she says.

Lyme-disease bearing deer ticks like the ones climbing on Sullivan, a Ph.D. student in UVM’s Entomology Research Lab, were certainly causing problems for humans, she remembers thinking. But a different species – the winter tick – was an even worse scourge for one of the northern woods most iconic species, the moose, for whom the parasite was an existential threat. A 2018 study published in the Canadian Journal of Zoology found that winter ticks, also known as moose ticks, were the primary cause of an unprecedented 70 percent death rate among moose calves in northern New England over a three-year period.

“I was thinking about the work that we did at the lab, and it's like, gosh, I wonder if granular fungus would work on moose ticks,” she says, referring to the insect-killing fungi in granular formulation her colleagues had used to effectively control pests like the pear thrips, which attacks maple trees.

Following the autopsy performed by the Chief Medical Examiner’s Office on Wednesday, the Vermont State Police is able to positively identify the victim found deceased Tuesday in Salisbury as Nicholas Louras, 34, of Rutland. The cause of death is gunshot wounds, and the manner of death is homicide.

Louras is a cousin of Christopher G. Louras, 33, of Rutland, who died after exchanging gunfire with Rutland City and Rutland Town police officers Tuesday morning in downtown Rutland. The cause of death for Christopher Louras is gunshot wounds, and the manner of death is homicide.