Current News

Vermont Business Magazine State Health and Agriculture officials want Vermonters to steer clear of a common weed often seen along Vermont roadsides. The so-called “poison parsnip” packs a punch that can leave you with the equivalent of a second-degree burn. Formally known as wild parsnip, these plants grow along roadsides and unmaintained areas throughout Vermont, with flowers that look like a yellow version of Queen Anne’s lace.

The plant produces a sap that contains chemicals called psoralens that react to sunlight. Skin that comes in contact with the sap becomes hyper-sensitive to ultraviolet light, and can result in redness, burns similar to a second-degree sunburn, painful rashes and raised blisters. Reactions to the sap and sunlight usually begin 24 to 48 hours after contact.

Vermont Business Magazine Vermont People's United Financial, Inc (NASDAQ: PBCT), the holding company for People's United Bank, NA, announced today an agreement to acquire First Connecticut Bancorp, Inc (NASDAQ: FBNK), of Farmington CT, the holding company for Farmington Bank, in a 100 percent stock transaction valued at approximately $544 million. Completion of the transaction is subject to customary closing conditions, including receipt of regulatory approvals and the approval of First Connecticut Bancorp, Inc. shareholders.

by Burlington Mayor Miro Weinberger I am writing to update you on the City’s work to combat the opioid crisis that has made drug overdoses the leading cause of death for Americans under 50 years of age. A year and a half ago, the City of Burlington launched CommunityStat, a collaboration of dozens of State, law enforcement, and non-profit agencies to address the terrible toll of this crisis. That effort has inspired new, life-saving initiatives that I am hopeful will help us finally turn the tide of this crisis.

by Adam Greshin, Commissioner of Finance & Management Governor Scott believes we can make our education system the very best in the country, if we have the courage to rethink the current system, which is diverting valuable budget dollars away from kids and increasing the tax burden at an unsustainable rate. The K-12 system was built to educate more than 100,000 kids. Today, we’re educating about 76,000. For 20 years, we’ve been serving, on average, three fewer students every day. Our student-to-staff ratio has decreased from about seven kids for every one adult to four to one. And, property tax rates have increased almost every year.

Vermont Business Magazine Many patients who would benefit from supervised exercise therapy offered at cardiac rehabilitation programs, like the one at Southwestern Vermont Medical Center (SVMC), don’t know that Medicare covers the expense. Care was extended for stable yet chronic heart failure (CHF) patients in 2014 and for peripheral artery disease (PAD) patients last year.

“Exercise can be tremendously powerful for patients with these conditions,” said Scott Rogge, cardiologist with SVMC Cardiology. “And cardiac rehab, in particular, has been shown to reduce mortality. We’d like to encourage more patients to attend Cardiac Rehabilitation to reduce their cardiovascular risk factors and improve their quality of life.”

by John McClaughry What society owes to the poor has been a recurring question in this country since colonial times. The modern (post 1935) consensus has fostered the creation of an ever-growing panoply of government programs promising to lift, push, or draw people out of poverty and into an existence sufficiently life-sustaining and dignified to assuage the public conscience.

Peter Cove is a veteran of fifty years of struggle to alleviate or diminish poverty. His 2017 book “Poor No More: Rethinking Dependency and the War on Poverty” is an eye opening account of anti-poverty programs over those years, and how most of them went sadly wrong.

Vermont Business Magazine The members of Vermont Federation of Nurses and Health Professionals are holding a Nurses’ Town Hall this Friday at Burlington High School to discuss contract negotiations and the prospect of a strike should management and the union fail to reach a deal. Last week, UVMMC nurses voted 94 percent to authorize a strike if necessary, with 72 percent of union members taking part in the vote. The union and management have four bargaining sessions remaining before the current contract ends on July 9th.

“Nobody wants a strike at UVM Medical Center,” said Deb Snell, union Vice President and ICU nurse. “However, nurses are making it clear that current conditions at the hospital - namely, chronic understaffing and staff turnover - are unbearable for our patients and our profession. Our members cannot accept a contract that fails to improve staffing by providing fair compensation to nurses and support staff.”

Vermont Business Magazine The Snelling Center for Government has announced the Early Childhood Leadership Institute Class of 2018. The Class of 2018 is comprised of 25 associates from across the state who represent a wide variety of organizations connected to early childhood and family work.

Vermont Business Magazine Tick season is in full swing in Vermont, bringing with it tick-borne illness, such as Lyme and West Nile, diseases which are on the rise across the United States according to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC). Dr. Lou DiNicola, a pediatrician and medical director of primary care at Gifford Health Care, offers Vermonters tips for tick prevention and removal, identification of symptoms of tick-borne illness, and advice on when to call your health-care provider.

Vermont Business Magazine Central Vermont Home Health & Hospice in Barre has welcomed two new board members, Eric Quintin of Barre and Paulette Thabault of South Burlington at its Annual Meeting in April.

by Jim Condos Secretary of State With barely two weeks remaining before the start of fiscal year 2019, and in good faith to the over 625,000 Vermonters I represent, I feel the need to speak up and bring to your attention some of the very real impacts a government shutdown, caused by the current budget impasse, would have on the government services my agency provides – critical services which Vermonters rely on and deserve.

Failure is not an option. The co-equal branches of the Administration and the Legislature must come to an agreement on a responsible, sound budget by July 1^st. There have been numerous opportunities for compromise.

When a budget passes with almost unanimous tri-partisan support, a continuing fight feels very much like partisan positioning to score political points at the expense of Vermont businesses and families.

by Representative Patricia A McCoy (R-Poultney/Ira) Regardless of how the political debate over whether to raise property tax rates ends, the Education Fund is going to spend nearly $1.7 billion dollars next year on 76,000 students in pre-kindergarten through 12^th grade. That is about $22,000 per student – the most in the nation and nearly twice the national average. Meanwhile, we have about 27,000 fewer students in our schools than we did 20 years ago and enrollment continues to decrease by about 1,000 students each year. On average, there are about 4 students for every adult in our schools, down from 7 students for every adult in 1997.

Vermont’s economy, generously described as average by national standards, and its taxpayers struggle to support this level of education spending and this growing inefficiency.