Current News

Vermont Business Magazine The Department of Financial Regulation recently clarified that Vermont insurers are prohibited from making coverage determinations for medically necessary gender-affirming care based solely on age. In 2007, Vermont passed legislation that prohibited discrimination based on gender identity. In 2013, DFR issued Bulletin 174, stating the law applies to the coverage of medically necessary gender-affirming care, including gender-affirming surgery. Last week, the department further revised Bulletin 174.

Vermont Business Magazine Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont), Representative Pramila Jayapal (D-WA), and Representative Ilhan Omar (D-MN) unveiled landmark legislation today to eliminate tuition and fees at all public four-year colleges and universities, as well as make community colleges, trade schools, and apprenticeship programs tuition- and fee-free for all. The three lawmakers’ proposal also eliminates all $1.6 trillion in student debt for 45 million Americans.

by Rob Roper Activists and politicians around Vermont are preening with pride about having passed the nation’s broadest ban on plastic bags and plastic products, with a promise (in the form of a study committee) of more to come. As citizens of an ostensibly free society founded upon the principle of limited government, this is not something we should be pleased about. This bag ban is a truly authoritarian/totalitarian policy.

Vermont Business Magazine FirstLight, a leading provider of fiber-optic data, Internet, data center, cloud and voice services to enterprise and carrier customers in Vermont and throughout the Northeast, announced today the latest addition to its comprehensive portfolio of fiber-based services: Veeam-Powered Disaster Recovery as a Service (DRaaS).

Vermont Business Magazine Edward Larson of Montpelier has been named interim president of the Central Vermont Chamber of Commerce and will begin work at the Chamber on July 1. The appointment was announced today by Board Chair Joseph L Choquette III, president of Mark III Public Affairs LLC. Larson will take over for current President and CEO William D. Moore, who will be leaving the position in mid-July for another job. 

“We are very fortunate to have somebody available with Ed’s experience in association management, knowledge of the area, and existing relationships to carry on the important work of the Chamber while we search for a new president,” Choquette said. “Ed has been on the board for many years and served ably as our treasurer, so he knows the organization well. The Chamber is in good hands.”

by Joyce Marcel, Vermont Business Magazine If you were going to design the perfect secretary of agriculture for a rural state like Vermont, you might look for someone with deep roots in the state, maybe going back to the 1860s. You might look for a person who has actually milked cows for a living. You would also want someone with good communication skills. You would then look no further than Anson Tebbetts, as two governors have done.

Vermont Business Magazine Brattleboro Development Credit Corporation (BDCC) has successfully secured a US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Brownfields grant. Funds will be used for a 39-acre site that has been in active use as a paper mill since the 1960s. The $500,000 grant will allow BDCC to conduct planned Phase II assessment and cleanup of hazardous substances at the former Neenah Paper plant in Brattleboro. 

Vermont Business Magazine Vermont Research News this week spotlights Vermont history. Though the celebration had mostly died out in Vermont by 1900, Antiques and Horribles Parades were the standard way to celebrate the 4th of July in 19th century New England. From the mid-1800s to the early-1900s, Lake Memphremagog saw tremendous growth in both industry and tourism on both ends of the lake. The border town of Newport was home to grand hotels such as the Memphremagog House. The Vergennes Opera House was built in 1897, one of several grand opera houses built in the state during that era to lure tourists with cultural opportunities. From the early 1960s through 1979, residents in the towns of Troy and Jay lived uneasily with a mysterious neighbor: Space Research Corporation.

Vermont Business Magazine The Department of Public Service seeks to establish a contract with a company that can provide a Feasibility Study of Electric Companies Offering Broadband Service in Vermont. RFP responses are due by 4 pm on July 1, 2019. The contract arising from this RFP will be for a period of 12-months with an option to renew for one additional 12-month period. The state anticipates the start date will be on or around August 1, 2019, with a report ready for the Legislature by January 2020. 

Vermont Business Magazine The Office of the United States Attorney for the District of Vermont stated that five individuals have been sentenced by Chief United States District Judge Geoffrey W Crawford for their roles in a prolonged conspiracy to distribute heroin and cocaine base in Vermont.

Vermont Business Magazine The United States Attorney for the District of Vermont announced that Debra Bluto, 64, of St Albans Bay, was sentenced today in United States District Court in Burlington following her guilty plea to a charge that she defrauded the Social Security Administration. Chief US District Judge Geoffrey Crawford sentenced Bluto to two years of probation and ordered her to pay restitution totaling $48,000.

On October 24, a federal grand jury in Rutland returned a four-count indictment charging Bluto with stealing government funds and making false statements to the Social Security Administration.

Vermont Business Magazine The Office of the United States Attorney for the District of Vermont announced Friday that Scott Brochu, 47, of Essex, was charged yesterday by Indictment with unlawfully transporting child pornography, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 2252(a)(1), and possessing child pornography, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 2252(a)(4)(B). Brochu was arrested this morning near his residence in Essex, Vermont, and will appear this afternoon in federal court in Burlington. Brochu’s arrest was a result of an operation conducted by Vermont’s Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force (VT-ICAC) and Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) during the week of May 13, 2019.

WCAX reported that Brochu is a major with the Vermont National Guard, where he's served for over 25 years.