Current News

Vermont Business Magazine UVM Health Network Porter Medical Center Board Chair Maureen McLaughlin announced today that Porter’s President, Dr Fred Kniffin, will step down from his leadership role of the Middlebury hospital next spring. The search for a new leader of Porter will begin shortly, the hospital said in a statement. Kniffin was named interim president in June 2016 and elevated to CEO later that year. In 2017, Porter joined UVMHN.

Vermont Business Magazine Extremely low weekly unemployment claims fell again last week. For the week of August 11, 2018, there were 263 claims, 56 fewer than than they were the previous week, and 103 fewer than they were a year ago. Altogether 3,404 new and continuing claims were filed, a decrease of 98 from a week ago, and 391 fewer than a year ago. For most weeks of 2017 and 2018 claims have been below the year before. Vermont is currently in a historically low period of unemployment.

by Timothy McQuiston, Vermont Business Magazine Vermont lost workers in July and the labor force was also down for the first time in several months. The number of unemployed was up slightly, indicating that all three broad indicators were negative. Nonfarm employment, both adjusted and not adjusted for July, is below the level of 2017 and 2016. Still, the unemployment rate for July 2018 held at 2.8 percent, where it's been for several months. The Labor Force is the denominator in these equations, so if it's down, it can make the rate look relatively better than the actual employment numbers might suggest. The Vermont Department of Labor released the data today.

Vermont Business Magazine The Vermont Procurement Technical Assistance Center (VT PTAC) invites Vermont businesses to join them and Aysis, Inc. for a free, full-day, hands-on workshop on Wednesday, August 22, 2018, in Williston, VT to help Vermont businesses understand Wide Area Workflow (WAWF), a secure, Web-based system for electronic invoicing, payment receipt, and acceptance.

Vermont Business Magazine Allstate Agency Owners are coming together to support the Vermont Foodbank by holding a donation drive in their agencies from now until Sept. 15. Agency owners are calling on residents to support local families and youth as they begin the new school year by donating items for the Foodbank’s BackPack Program, an initiative that distributes kid-friendly, nonperishable, vitamin-fortified food to students in need.

“When I learned that one in four Vermont residents struggle with hunger, I knew that my team and I had to do something,” said Michael Coburn, Allstate agency owner in Williston. “Giving back is core to who we are, which is why we’re proud to support the Vermont Foodbank and their efforts to alleviate hunger in our communities.”

Vermont Business Magazine Senators Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), Patrick Leahy (D-VT) and Dick Durbin (D-IL) Thursday asked Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) to join a request for Judge Kavanaugh’s Staff Secretary records and to publicly release the documents now. Feinstein is the Judiciary Committee’s Ranking Member, and Leahy and Durbin are also senior members of the committee. The senators emphasize the fact that documents that are currently “committee confidential” contain information indicating that Kavanaugh misled the Senate during his 2006 nomination hearing.

They write, “We firmly believe that Judge Kavanaugh’s nomination cannot be considered unless these documents are available, including to the public and the Senate as a whole.”

Vermont Business Magazine The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has awarded $263,581 to the State of Vermont to improve air quality. Funding was provided to the Vermont Department of Environmental Conservation to support air monitoring to measure the particulate matter in the air by collecting high quality data to demonstrate that the area is within the federal air quality standards for particulate matter, also known as PM 2.5.

“Elevated levels of fine particulate matter in the air can pose health concerns for the people of Vermont,” said EPA New England Regional Administrator Alexandra Dunn. “In partnership with the state, these funds are used for monitoring across the state, which helps us find out if we are meeting standards and what we can do to help us all breathe more easily.”

Vermont Business Magazine Governor Phil Scott today announced the appointment of 19 Vermonters to serve on his Community Violence Prevention Task Force. The Governor created the Task Force in Executive Order 03-18 as part of the Administration’s broader efforts to ensure Vermont continues to be one of the safest states in the country.

“This Task Force will undertake important and difficult work to examine how we can work together to reduce violence in our society, keep kids safe in our schools and help all feel more secure in our communities,” said Scott. “Our goal must be to find real solutions – steps that will make our schools and communities safer by addressing the underlying factors that lead to violence.”

Vermont Business Magazine In a survey of state taxes, national personal financial adviser SmartAsset modeled income, property and estate tax payments for wealthy households to find the states where "it costs the most to be rich," and Vermont ranks in the number two spot. The rankings largely tracked the Blue State (Democratic) versus Red State (Republican) politics. It generally also followed wealthier per capita states versus poorer states on a per capita basis, with a few outliers. Vermont, for instance, is above average for income but high for taxes; Colorado is also above average in income, but lower in taxes; while Red States Nebraska and Kansas are below average in income and relatively high on the SmartAsset list.

Vermont Business Magazine Following an investigation by the US Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division (WHD), The Fairbank Group LLC will implement extensive corrective measures to resolve violations of the child labor requirements of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) and ensure future compliance at its three recreational resorts. The company has also paid a $21,582 penalty.

Vermont Business Magazine A.M. Best brought its ^A.M.BestTV to the DoubleTree in South Burlington last week to film episodes at the annual Vermont Captive Insurance Association (VCIA) conference. This is the largest such conference in the world and Vermont is the largest captive insurance domicile in the US and second largest globally. In the reinsurance episode, a panel of captive insurance and reinsurance experts said captives, which are typically smaller insurance organizations, look to reinsurers as much for capital as for business expertise.

Vermont Business Magazine Less than 12 hours after launching the “Garlic Fest 2018 Official Event – Sept 1-2” on Facebook, the Bennington Area Chamber reports that the event had 2,100 interested people and over 190 shares. The event is now at 12,000 interested on Facebook and just shy of 1,000 shares with little under two weeks to go until the event. This only proves that the beloved “Garlicfest” of Southern Vermont still has the interest and demand that has pushed it forward over the past 23 years.

This year the Garlicfest team, a committee of the Bennington Area Chamber of Commerce, with Lindy Lynch returning to the helm for her 10^th year, will introduce some new additions to the festival.