Current News

Vermont Business Magazine The Attorney General’s Office announced that Michael Holden, 36, formerly of Lyndonville and currently living in Newport, Vermont, was sentenced yesterday in Vermont Superior Court, Bennington Criminal Division, after pleading guilty to two felony counts of Possession of Child Sexual Abuse Materials - Second Offense. The Court, Judge Jennifer Barrett presiding, sentenced Holden to one to ten years in prison for both counts in addition to the sentence he is currently serving for his previous offenses, and required him to register as a sex offender for life. 

VT LEAP The Vermont Housing Conservation Board is offering enrollment into the Viability Program for Specialized Business Support. If you are a farm or forest business seeking an advisor for the short- or long-term plan, this program is for you. This applies to all consulting foresters, farms of all sizes, loggers, maple producers, sawmills, and craftspeople!  For those who have attended the Spring LEAP Workshops for Maple sugaring, or if you are in the maple tapping business or own a sugarbush, the UVM Extension Business Team would like to offer you some useful information about Forest Business and Maple Business programming!

Vermont Business Magazine New adult hunters and families looking for mentorship and a community to learn with are invited to the department’s annual "Learn to Hunt" series. There will be two free weekend workshops, one on deer hunting, and one on waterfowl hunting. Volunteer instructors and F&W staff will guide you through a day of learning techniques for harvesting, processing and cooking your game. Workshops begin August 16 and run through October 17.

by Camryn Woods, Community News Service Vermont’s single landfill in Coventry receives hundreds of thousands of pounds of waste every year. Most of that amount is municipal waste — regular household and business trash like a Snicker’s wrapper or an old rocking chair. In 2023 alone, a report by the Vermont Department of Environmental Conservation showed Vermonters generated 540,000 tons of municipal solid waste. That’s equivalent to the weight of 1.5 Empire State Buildings. Vermont’s solid waste plan has a goal to prevent 50% of the state’s waste stream from entering the landfill by reducing, recycling, repairing and composting. The closest the state came to meeting that number was in 2024, when 41% was diverted, according to Josh Kelly, solid waste program manager of the Waste Management and Prevention Division at DEC. 

Vermont Business Magazine The Vermont Agency of Transportation’s State Highway Safety Office joins law enforcement agencies across the state and nation in urging drivers to Drive Sober. From August 15 through September 1, the U.S. Department of Transportation’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) will be working alongside Vermont law enforcement for the Drive Sober or Get Pulled Over high-visibility enforcement campaign. The goal is to deter impaired driving and prevent the tragedies seen during previous Labor Day weekends from happening again. 

Vermont Business Magazine Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont), Ranking Member of the Senate Subcommittee on Social Security, Pensions, and Family Policy, today announced he would introduce the Keep Billionaires Out of Social Security Act. The legislation — unveiled ahead of the 90th anniversary of President Franklin D. Roosevelt signing the Social Security Act into law — reverses the disastrous cuts the Trump administration has made to the Social Security Administration (SSA), prevent Social Security field offices from shutting down, make it easier for seniors and people with disabilities to apply for the benefits they have earned over the phone and provide the resources the SSA needs to approve earned benefits quickly.

Vermont Business Magazine U.S. Senator Peter Welch (D-Vermont), a member of the Senate Finance Committee, today released new data highlighting the impact of President Trump’s economic policies and Republicans’ so-called One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA) on hardworking Vermont families. The new report reveals that the Trump Administration’s disastrous economic policies will leave 99.5% of Vermont families worse off by an average of $2,120 per year. The Republican bill will also hike health care costs, close rural hospitals, raise energy bill prices, and deny vital nutrition assistance—all to pay for tax cuts for the wealthy. Senator Welch voted in strong opposition against the legislation.   

Vermont Business Magazine Rep. Becca Balint (D-VT-AL) and Rep. Deborah Ross (D-NC-02), and members of the House Judiciary Committee, introduced the Land of the Free Act. This legislation would repeal Section 237(a)(4)(C) of the Immigration and Nationality Act, which grants the Secretary of State the power to deport visa-holders and legal permanent residents whose presence in the United States would have “potentially serious adverse foreign policy consequences for the United States.” Since taking office in January, President Trump and his administration have tried to use this power to deport visa-holders and legal permanent residents who are exercising their constitutionally protected right to free speech. Up until this administration, it was used sparingly, only 15 times in 35 years.

Vermont Business Magazine The Community Health Centers (CHC) and the members of Community Health United (CHU), AFT Vermont jointly announce that they have ratified a new union contract. This new agreement builds upon the existing contract with licensed and unlicensed staff. It will: Raise the minimum start rate to $21/hour in August of 2025; Make improvements to training procedures, safety protections, and career growth opportunities; Made compensation adjustments for Nurses, Mental Health Clinicians, and Medical Providers to ensure market competitiveness.

Vermont Business Magazine Earlier this week, Campaign for Vermont Prosperity (CFV) sent a letter to the Act 73 Task Force, identifying some of the pitfalls of Act 46 (the previous consolidation effort) and offering research-backed suggestions on how to avoid making the similar mistakes. Since 2010 Vermont has consolidated from 271 school districts down to the current 119. Act 73 contemplates further consolidation down to 10-20 regional school boards. At the same time, spending has accelerated to the point that Vermont now spends 79% more than the national average and outcomes have been declining since this latest consolidation effort. 

by Vermont Secretary of State Sarah Copeland Hanzas As the Chief Elections Officer of the State of Vermont, I am proud of the work my office does to keep Vermont elections free, fair, accessible, and accurate. Vermonters may have heard of recent outreach from the federal government to states asking for voter information, including state voter lists. The policy of my office is very clear: Our office has no plans to share Vermont voter data with the federal government. The reasons for this are twofold. First, Vermont law specifically prohibits sharing of this data, and second, the U.S. Constitution gives states the authority to conduct elections, not federal agencies.

Vermont Business Magazine The Vermont Captive Insurance Association (VCIA), the largest captive insurance trade association in the world, has appointed Ian Davis as its next president following a national search. Davis was appointed at the VCIA annual conference in Burlington. He succeeds Kevin Mead. A respected leader with diverse experience across public and private sectors, Davis brings more than a decade of expertise advancing industry advocacy, stakeholder engagement, and strategic growth in the captive insurance sector.