Current News

Vermont Business Magazine Consolidated Communications (NASDAQ: CNSL), a leading broadband and business communications provider, today announced it has expanded its MPLS offering to the company’s Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine service area, providing more connectivity options for businesses with multiple sites while cost-effectively enhancing network performance.

Vermont Business Magazine The Rock Point and Arms Forest Coalition have announced the goal of permanently protecting critical shoreline forests and improving public access to a 163-acre forest block in the heart of Burlington to be protected and forever open to the public. This urban wilderness stretches from Lake Champlain to North Avenue and provides the scenic backdrop for the Burlington Waterfront’s spectacular sunsets and provides a welcoming sanctuary for reflection and recreation in the heart of Burlington.

The Coalition is $50,000 short of their goal to raise $818,000. The Episcopal Church in Vermont is also making an investment of over $1.9 million in upgrading its facilities and trails, purchasing a 35-tracker solar array, and providing for future stewardship though its separate Partnership Campaign for Rock Point.

Vermont Business Magazine The prevalence of Lyme disease is increasing in the United States, spiking significantly between 2016 and 2017, and has spread to all 50 United States and the District of Columbia, according to a new study released today by Quest Diagnostics (NYSE: DGX). Based on more than six million de-identified laboratory test results conducted over the past seven years, the Quest Diagnostics study also found that outside of the northeastern U.S. which is historically associated with Lyme disease, California and Florida saw the largest absolute increases in positive test results. California found 483 infected patients in 2017, a 194.5 percent increase over 2015 levels. Floridafound 501 infected patients in 2017, a 77 percent increase over 2015 levels.

Vermont Business Magazine With food insecurity a pressing problem for many people in Windsor county, Rachel’s Kitchen free breakfast program at the United Methodist Church in Windsor provided an important source of nutritious breakfast for local people until a lack of funding and volunteers forced it to close its doors in late May 2018. Recognizing the importance of the program to health and wellness for those it serves, Mt Ascutney Hospital and Health Center (MAHHC) has joined with a group of committed local organizations to quickly re-establish this vital community resource. While the Kitchen re-opened on June 18 following a two-week shutdown, the group is working to keep it open on a sustainable basis.

Vermont Business Magazine What's up with downhill mountain biking? In just the last few weeks ski resorts around the state have been making news. On July 21, Suicide Six opened its new Elemental bike park, jumping into the downhill mountain bike scene and joining Mount Snow, Killington, Okemo, Sugarbush and Burke in offering lift-served mountain biking. On July 28-29, the Vermont Mountain Biking Festival returned to the trails at Ascutney. Then, on August 1, Killington plays host to one of the biggest mountain bike events in the country: the Fox US Open, attracting an estimated crowd of 5,000 to watch mountain bikers ride down the same slopes that Mikaela Shiffrin and other FIS ski racers competed on at the World Cup last November.

Meanwhile, around the state mountain bike clubs are working together to connect their networks and there's a plan afoot to create a new Velomont Trail that would run from Killington all the way to Stowe.

by John McClaughry “Overcharged: Why Americans Pay Too Much for Health Care” is a fast-paced 435-page trip through the underbelly of the health care industry, the policies that shape it, and their often undesirable and overly costly results. Its basic point is that “The health care sector will become more efficient and pro-consumer when and only when it is subjected to the same competitive forces that apply to the rest of the economy…To make American health care better and cheaper, customers should use their own money to purchase medical treatments directly, the same way they buy everything else.”

This may not strike readers as obvious, but law professors Charles Silver (Texas) and David A. Hyman (Georgetown) have accumulated a ton of evidence in support of that proposition.

​Vermont Business Magazine The Brattleboro community and its local businesses will mark World Breastfeeding Week from August 1 to 7, with activities and awareness events around town that celebrate “Breastfeeding: The Foundation of Life.”

Vermont Business Magazine Northern Vermont University Sophomore Madison Knoop has been selected to participate in the inaugural Giffords Courage Fellowship. Madison will join 27 other students from across the country in the year long program. Following the mass shooting in Parkland, youth across the nation led a renewed push for gun safety laws. To help empower the continued efforts of young advocates, Giffords launched the inaugural Courage Fellowship. Over the course of the program students will receive resources and opportunities to help them continue their efforts to improve gun safety laws where they live.

Giffords is a nonprofit organization dedicated to saving lives from gun violence. Led by former Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords and her husband, Navy combat veteran and retired NASA Astronaut Captain Mark Kelly, Giffords inspires the courage of people from all walks of life to make America safer.

Vermont Business Magazine Unless otherwise noted, all Green Mountain Care Board meetings are held in the Pavilion Auditorium at 109 State Street, Montpelier, VT.

by Timothy McQuiston, Vermont Business Magazine The Vermont Climate Action report was presented to Governor Phil Scott on Tuesday, July 31. It sets forth many goals on how to both reduce greenhouse gas emissions and deal with the consequences of climate change. It also contains discouraging news about the rise of GHG emissions in Vermont, which will make achieving ambitious goals even more challenging and perhaps unlikely.

Vermont Business Magazine Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions estimates in Vermont continued to rise for calendar year 2015, increasing from 9.45 million metric tons CO2 equivalent (MMTCO2e) in 2014 to 9.99 MMTCO2e in 2015. This increase puts Vermont approximately 16% above the 1990 baseline value of 8.59 MMTCO2e and adds to the difficulty of reaching the statewide goal of 50% below 1990 emissions levels by 2028.

Vermont Business Magazine Governor Phil Scott today announced that President Donald Trump has signed a major disaster declaration for Chittenden, Grand Isle, Lamoille, Orange and Orleans counties. Those counties suffered substantial damage during severe storms on May 4 & 5 of this year. A Preliminary Damage Assessment (PDA) by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) identified almost $1.3 million in public infrastructure damage statewide from the May 4-5 storms, exceeding the $1 million minimum Vermont must show to be considered for a disaster declaration.

Chittenden, Grand Isle, Lamoille, Orange and Orleans counties each exceeded the $3.68 per capita threshold needed to qualify communities and public utilities in those counties for assistance. A preponderance of the damage involved washouts, debris removal and power restoration.