Current News

Attorney General T. J. Donovan and U.S. Attorney Christina E. Nolan announced today that eight men were arrested in mid-May for possession/promotion of child pornography. The arrests were made as a result of Operation Bada Bing. Operation Bada Bing, which was conducted by Vermont’s Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force (VT-ICAC) and Homeland Security Investigations (H S I) involved executing search warrants on several residences during the week of May 13^th based on CyberTips that were received from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. These CyberTips are typically generated by Internet Service Providers or social media platforms whenever they detect suspected child sexual exploitation material on their networks. These CyberTips are in turn sent to local ICAC task forces throughout the country.  

Operation Bada Bing culminated in the arrest of the following individuals:

Vermont Business Magazine Tuition for Vermont undergraduates in the Vermont State Colleges System (VSCS) will only increase by 1% this fall, thanks to a boost in state funding promoted by Governor Scott and advanced by the Legislature.

$2.5 million in new state support for the VSCS will reduce a 3% tuition increase for undergraduate Vermont students that was scheduled to go into effect for the fall semester. 

“We sincerely appreciate the recognition of our important role in Vermont.  We are especially grateful on behalf of our students, for whom college will cost a bit less next year,” said Chancellor Jeb Spaulding.

Company Credits Employee Empowerment with Record Profits

Vermont Business Magazine Woman-owned Nutty Steph’s announced that they have become an employee-owned cooperative as of April 1 of this year. The company says the change has fueled the chocolate and granola company’s profits, a shift that began in the months leading to its becoming a coop.

“The difference is stunning,” said Jaquelyne Rieke, Nutty Steph’s cofounder. “We were breaking even for the last nine years, and as soon as we had four people willing to embrace the employee-ownership path, everyone, including the entire business, perked up. Sales and profits are up, because everyone’s more empowered.”

“I was surprised how easy it is,” added Rieke, “I was speaking with another family-owned business who imagined all of these barriers to becoming employee-owned. But after talking with us, now they’re going down the same path.”

Click on image for interactive map

Vermont Business Magazine Today, Burlington International Airport (BTV) released its Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) regulated and funded Part 150 Noise Exposure Map (NEM). The NEM is a graphical presentation of the specific noise levels (noise contours) around the airport depicted over existing land use. The study, undertaken by The Jones Payne Group and HMMH, depicts noise levels for the current condition, as well as the 2023 forecasted condition. It was completed as part of the ongoing voluntary 14 CFR Part 150 update regulated by the FAA.

The University of Vermont (UVM) Master of Public Administration (MPA) program is pleased to announce a new partnership with the Vermont Department of Human Resources (DHR) to educate current and emerging leaders in state and local government and non-profit organizations through the Vermont Certified Public Managers Program (VCPM). VCPM participants acquire and apply best management practices and theory to their management activities enabling them to better serve Vermonters.

by Timothy McQuiston, Vermont Business Magazine Vermont State Auditor Doug Hoffer on Tuesday released a broadly unfavorable audit that details the City of St Albans’ level of compliance with Vermont Tax Increment Financing (TIF) laws and rules. A TIF district allows a municipality to designate an area for development, incur debt to finance infrastructure improvements, and earmark a portion of new state and municipal property tax revenues from that district to repay the debt. St Albans is disputing the auditors findings. The auditor concludes that St Albans owes the TIF District $524,844 and the State Education Fund $111,886.

These incremental revenues would otherwise pay for public schools and municipal operations. In the case of the City of St. Albans, incremental property tax revenues have been insufficient to pay off the City’s debt, which precipitated some of the City’s non-compliance with Vermont statute. The auditor does not have enforcement powers.

Vermont Business Magazine Like other financial institutions, NorthCountry Federal Credit Union has seen a steady decline in demand for in-person transactions. But instead of closing branches as some competitors have done, it’s building its largest one ever. As online and mobile banking have grown in popularity, accountholders who use the Lyndonville branch are visiting it an average of 1.7 times per month – down nearly 50% from 2005, when the average was 3.2 visits per month. 

Vermont Business Magazine Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont), along with Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), Sens. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), Maggie Hassan (D-N.H.), Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.) introduced two pieces of legislation to help workers around the country form employee-owned businesses. The WORK Act – modeled on the success of the Vermont Employee Ownership Center – would provide more than $45 million in funding to states to establish and expand employee ownership centers, which provide training and technical support for programs promoting employee ownership.

Vermont Business Magazine A new National Park Service (NPS) report shows that 63,886 visitors to national parks in Vermont spent $3.8 million in the state in 2018. That spending resulted in 51 jobs and had a cumulative benefit to the state economy of $4.7 million. Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller National Historical Park in Woodstock is the only national park in Vermont, excepting the area covered by the Appalachian Trail and the North Country National Scenic trail. The Northeast has fewer national parks, which are also vastly smaller than the ones out West.

Vermont Business Magazine The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in coordination with the Vermont Department of Health is beginning an initiative to pro-actively improve compliance with laws that protect children from lead paint poisoning in Vermont. In 2018, 420 Vermont children under age six had an elevated blood lead level.

Vermont Business Magazine Norwich University will receive $269,000 from the TAWANI Foundation for the Student Life Fund, the Annual Fund, the Sullivan Museum and History Center, with the bulk going towards the Norwich University Visions Abroad (NUVA) program. Overall, $214,000 of this gift will support Norwich students’ work in Pommerin, Tanzania through NUVA. Norwich’s Center for Civic Engagement (CCE) will send nine students, one recent graduate and two staff members to Pommerin from May 17 – June 5, 2019, and on future trips back to the site in 2020 and 2021.

Vermont Business Magazine Bennington College has been awarded a grant of $1 million from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to launch a three-year collaborative effort with local partners to address the systemic causes of food insecurity in Bennington County. Food insecurity—the inability to access affordable, nutritious food—affects one in eight Americans, or approximately 40 million people, and is particularly acute in southern Vermont. This collaboration aims to both address the pressing problem of food insecurity in the area and to develop an interdisciplinary and responsive humanities curriculum with students, faculty, and the community, creating a model from which other higher education institutions can learn and build.