Current News

Vermont Business Magazine Vermont has one of the highest opioid use disorder rates in the nation, but also has seen one of the steepest declines in opioid-based prescriptions. A new study from the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association found that the number of prescriptions for opioid-based medications among its commercially insured members in Massachusetts plummeted 51 percent between 2013 and 2017 -- the biggest drop in the nation. The results come in the wake of a groundbreaking prescription safety program launched by Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts in 2012, before the opioid epidemic was widely recognized as a crisis.

by John McClaughry In his Virginia Statute of Religious Freedom (1785), Thomas Jefferson famously declared that “to compel a man to furnish contribution of money for the propagation of opinion which he disbelieves and abhors is sinful and tyrannical.” In that spirit, the US Supreme Court last month struck down “agency fees” taken by public sector unions from non-members’ paychecks. “The First Amendment,” Justice Alito wrote in the Janus v. AFSCME case, “does not permit the government to compel a person to pay for another party’s speech just because the government thinks that the speech furthers the interests of the person who does not want to pay.”

Vermont Business Magazine Fundraising efforts for this year’s LACiNg Up For Cancer walk, an event that benefits Lamoille Area Cancer Network (LACN), is at $187,029 with more expected to trickle in over the next several weeks. Kathy Demars, Event Chair, expressed her appreciation to the many teams, businesses and individuals who supported this year’s walk stating, “We live in a very generous community, a community that understands the importance of helping others."

Vermont Business Magazine The Center for Women and Enterprise (CWE) and the Commonwealth of Massachusetts Supplier Diversity Office (SDO) have partnered to streamline the SDO certification process for women-owned businesses. This agreement applies to companies certified as Women’s Business Enterprises (WBE) by the Women's Business Enterprise National Council (WBENC) in the region covered by the Center for Women & Enterprise, which includes: Massachusetts, Maine, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Vermont and the northern CT counties of Litchfield, Hartford, Tolland, and Windham.

Currently, 275 MA-based WBE companies are WBENC certified out of 425 total WBENC certified businesses in the region.

Vermont Business Magazine As part of Vermont’s statewide public health initiative 3-4-50, Mt Ascutney Hospital and Health Center (MAHHC) is teaming up with local schools to cultivate an early interest in healthy behaviors among children and their families. MAHHC representatives are making a series of visits to area schools to encourage healthy choices, most recently at Hartland Elementary School in Hartland, Vermont.

Vermont Business Magazine A talk about women’s heart health by Dartmouth-Hitchcock’s Dr Bina Ahmed, an interventional cardiologist, drew 120 people to the Taconic Hotel on Wednesday evening. During the talk, Dr Ahmed revealed differences in heart disease in men and women, including the ways it is commonly treated. She revealed three heart diagnoses that occur mostly or only in women.

Vermont Business Magazine Vermont's congressioinal delegation issued the following statements on President Trump’s press conference with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Helsinki today.

Vermont Business Magazine More than 250 Vermont schools have applied for funding to make security upgrades to their facilities. The state will award $4 million in grants by this fall to help schools strengthen security, using guidance from a statewide safety assessment conducted earlier this year. Governor Phil Scott ordered the assessments after an alleged school shooting plot was uncovered and averted in Fair Haven in February.

Vermont Business Magazine Vermont Secretary of State Jim Condos was sworn in today as the President of the National Association of Secretaries of State (NASS), at their summer conference in Philadelphia. NASS is the nation's oldest, non-partisan professional organization for state officials. Condos will serve the one year-term ending July 2019.

As a member of NASS, Secretary Condos has been very active in promoting voter participation and election cybersecurity. He has testified before the U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence and the U.S. Senate Rules & Administration Committee on behalf of NASS to discuss what the states are doing to protect elections from cyber threats and attacks. Secretary Condos previously served on the NASS Executive Board as President-elect and Treasurer.

by Timothy McQuiston Vermont Business Magazine In a dramatic restructuring that will allow employee-owned Chroma Technology Corp in Bellows Falls to take advantage of rapidly expanding international markets, the company announced today that former IBM-GlobalFoundries leader Janette Bombardier has accepted the newly created position of Chief Engineering Officer.

Chroma CEO Paul Millman said Bombardier is a dynamic leader and manufacturing expert and licensed professional engineer. Bombardier said she is looking forward to helping to drive Chroma's worldwide growth while leading the company's engineering and technical functions. At IBM/GlobalFoundries, Bombardier was not only the company's senior site location executive; she also had a wide breadth of technical, management, leadership and continuous improvement positions.

Vermont Business Magazine Green Mountain Power is excited to announce that customers ranked GMP second highest for mid-sized utilities in the East Region in J.D. Power’s 2018 electric utility residential customer satisfaction study. GMP has achieved a high-ranking three years in a row, demonstrating a strong record of continued excellence. GMP’s results have risen every year over the past six years, showing a 20-percent increase in customer satisfaction.

Vermont Business Magazine Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont) will host a live streamed town hall tonight in Washington at 7 pm to address the enormous disparity between the wealth of corporate executives and the wages and treatment of the companies’ workers. Sanders will be joined by workers from Amazon, Disney, McDonald’s, American Airlines and Walmart, and he has invited the CEO of each company to attend.