Current News

Senator Patrick Leahy There have been a number of headline-grabbing days during the first 18 months of the Trump administration. Yesterday will likely rank among the most extraordinary. And among the most troubling. The President of the United States was effectively identified by his longtime lawyer and confidant as an unindicted co-conspirator in their efforts to commit criminal campaign finance violations. If true, then-candidate Trump arranged payments to two women he had affairs with in violation of federal law in order to keep those affairs hidden from the American people at a most critical time, days before the election.

Vermont Business Magazine The Board of Directors of the Vermont Electric Cooperative (VEC) announced today that Rebecca Towne will be joining the co-op as chief executive officer. Towne has almost 18 years of utility experience in Vermont, serving 14 years in various roles at Green Mountain Power and the last 3 ½ years as vice president of organizational strategy at Vermont Gas Systems.

Towne, who currently lives in Essex, will start at Johnson-based VEC on October 8. She takes over from Christine Hallquist, who stepped down in February to run for governor. She will be the Democratic candidate against Republican Governor Phil Scott in November.

Rebecca Towne. VEC photo.

by Jack Hoffman, Public Assets Institute It should be clear by now that Washington is committed to a lopsided economy that keeps concentrating money in the hands of fewer and fewer people. But in some state capitals, including Montpelier, elected officials are beginning to recognize that smarter tax policies are aimed at helping working families.

Senator Patrick Leahy We are now less than two weeks away from Judge Kavanaugh’s confirmation hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee. Two weeks away and the Committee has received only six percent of his total White House records according to the National Archives. And not a single one of the records we have received has been provided by the National Archives. That is because the Archives will not complete its review of the limited-number of records requested by Chairman Grassley until October — a month after the Majority Leader intends to hold a final vote on Judge Kavanaugh.

Vermont Business Magazine Burlington Electric Department has been selected as a finalist for the prestigious 2018 CHARGE Award for the ‘Green’ category. The CHARGE Awards are given to the world’s best energy brands, and the winners will be announced at the 2018 CHARGE Energy Branding Conference in Iceland in September.

With rapid changes in the energy sector, the energy brands that thrive in the future will be the ones that can quickly and effectively adapt, and that convey their approach through exceptional branding. The annual CHARGE Energy Branding conference, to be held September 24-25, has announced the finalists for this year‘s CHARGE Awards. The five categories are Established, Challenger, Green, Transmission, and Product & Innovation.

Vermont Business Magazine The Senate Committee on Committees has appointed Kellie B Campbell of Georgia to serve on the Vermont Commission on Women. Campbell is an Associate Director in Information Technology (IT) for Saint Michael’s College, and directs hybrid and online programs for the Accelerated Summer College.

Vermont Business Magazine Horsepower Technologies Inc, a Massachusetts-based healthcare and technology company dedicated to combating equine lameness, has contracted Mack Molding to manufacture its groundbreaking product, FastTrack, the first rehabilitative orthotic device for horses. Last month, Horsepower commercially launched FastTrack, which is designed to significantly reduce both rehabilitation time and incidence of re-injury following tendon and ligament trauma.

Vermont Business Magazine Today Vermont Secretary of State Jim Condos announced the official results of the Vermont Primary Elections held on Tuesday, August 14. Vote totals and winners for all statewide offices were certified today by Secretary Condos and a designee from each of Vermont’s three major parties. Vote totals and winners for County office, State Senate, and State Representative were canvassed at the town and county level.

Official election results for the August 14^th Primary Election can be viewed online at the Secretary of State’s website.

Vermont Business Magazine Mike Winters of Juice for the People shared with City Market last week that he is closing down operations as of August 24. These operations include the popular juice bar at City Market’s South End store, farmers’ market stands, a booth at the UVM Medical Center and leased farmland at the Intervale Center. Back in 2015, when City Market was contemplating how to offer fresh juice to its customers and Members, it embarked on a partnership with Winters. This partnership resulted in a Juice Pop-Up in City Market’s busy Downtown store’s parking lot during the summers of 2015, 2016 and 2017. The Pop-Up success with City Market customers eventually led the Co-op to invite Winters to lease space in the South End store when it opened last November.

Vermont Business Magazine Tim Burke, Director of Brokerage Services for White + Burke Real Estate Investment Advisors, Inc in Burlington, has announced the sale of 28 Vernon Street, a 50,000 square foot, Class A office building in downtown Brattleboro on behalf of Marlboro College. The building was formerly occupied by the college’s graduate school prior to its conversion to a multi-tenant office building. The sale price was $3.0 million.

"We are pleased to be selling this valuable facility to someone local," said Marlboro College President Kevin Quigley. "Although the building served us well for nearly 20 years, it is time for us to focus resources on our educational mission rather than being landlords. This comes at a vital time, as the college works to build on its academic program and revitalize enrollment in response to current market pressures."

Vermont State Police Wednesday evening at about 7 p.m., search crews recovered a body from Lake Champlain in Vermont near the Rouses Point Bridge. The body, preliminarily identified as that of Andrew Lynch, 42, of St Albans, will be transported to the Chief Medical Examiner's Office in Burlington for an autopsy to determine cause and manner of death. Emergency crews including the Vermont State Police had been searching for the missing man in Lake Champlain near the Rouses Point Bridge between Alburgh and New York state since Tuesday. He was seen going into the water in the vicinity of the bridge.

Agencies assisting the Vermont State Police in the search include the Grand Isle County Sheriff’s Department and the U.S. Border Patrol, which has provided a helicopter.

***Update 12:45 p.m. Wednesday, Aug. 22, 2018***

Vermont Business Magazine The University of Vermont Medical Center, along with the UVM Health Network’s other affiliated Vermont hospitals, will present their fiscal year 2019 budgets to the Green Mountain Care Board on Wednesday, August 22, in Burlington at Contois Auditorium at City Hall 9 am. Leaders from the UVM Medical Center, Central Vermont Medical Center and Porter Medical Center will outline patient, employee and community priorities. The combined Network budget represents a 2.5 percent increase in year-over-year net patient revenue, below the 3.2 percent guideline issued by the GMCB.

In addition, to address the affordability of health insurance, the UVM Medical Center proposes a commercial rate growth of 4 percent. Both Central Vermont Medical Center and Porter Medical Center are proposing 2.8 percent increases.