Current News

Vermont Business MagazineComcast and Mobius have openedthe voting process for the 2018 Vermont Mentor of the Year Award. Voters can read the full nominations for each candidate, and submit their choice for one of the 10 finalists by clicking the link below. Public voting is open through Thursday, January 4, 2018, and will narrow the field down to three finalists. The final award winner will be determined by a selection committee of local mentoring supporters, and Comcast will present the award to the winning mentor at Mobius’ annual Mentoring Celebration at the Statehouse later in the month.

Vermont Business MagazineFollowing last week’s decision by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) gutting the 2015 Open Internet Order, which prohibits content restrictions, website fees and the creation of internet ‘fast’ and ‘slow’ lanes by internet providers, Vermont Secretary of State Jim Condos released a statement condemning the decision, calling it a devastating blow to open information access and free speech.

Vermont Business Magazine Vermont Attorney General TJ Donovan and 14 other attorneys general filed a lawsuit December 5 accusing the Environmental Protection Agency of violating the Clean Air Act by delaying air quality standards for ground-level ozone pollution. Ground-level ozone causes asthma and other respiratory problems. The EPA determined a new standard, adopted in 2015, would have public health benefits worth an estimated $2.9 billion to $5.9 billion.

The Clean Air Act requires the EPA to designate areas around the country that do and do not meet the new standard within two years of its adoption. Areas that do not meet the standard face strict limitations on industrial and commercial facilities that are sources of compounds that lead to the creation of ground-level ozone.

by Mike Smith Republicans deserve what they got in Alabama last week when voters rejected their candidate for the US Senate, Roy Moore. This Senate seat should have been a slam dunk for Republicans. In Alabama they hadn’t lost a Senate race to a Democrat in over two decades. In fact, they had a candidate in Luther Strange who likely would have won the general election easily, but Moore defeated Strange in the primary.

Republicans decided to run a flawed candidate against Democrat Doug Jones even before sexual misconduct accusations surfaced.

Moore was removed from the state’s Supreme Court for defying judicial orders not once, but twice. He also said Muslims should not be allowed to serve in elective office and that homosexuality should be illegal. He even raised the notion that African-American families were better off under slavery.

Vermont Business MagazineWeekly unemployment claims as expected fell dramatically last week as holiday hiring picked up. Volatility is typical this time of year. Claims also remain lower than at the same time last year, as they have been for most weeks in 2017. Holiday hiring will see a reverse after Christmas, when claims typically spike again. For the week of December 9, 2017, there were 586 claims, 293 fewer than than they were last week and 80 fewer than they were a year ago.Altogether 4,161 new and continuing claims were filed, a decrease of 766 from a week ago, and 940 fewer than a year ago.

Vermont Business Magazine If the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) Health Center Program is not funded by Congress, 24 Federally Qualified Health Centers in Vermont and New Hampshire, providing primary care to over 260,000 residents, will lose 70 percent of their funding beginning in January. The Health Centers have halted planned service expansions, including much-needed treatment programs for substance use disorders. Hiring freezes have been implemented, staff morale is low, and patients are wondering if their health center will still be there in the future.

In response, the governors and congressional delegations from Vermont and New Hampshire have made an extraordinary effort to avoid the impending loss of jobs and access to health care in both states by writing joint letters to Congress urging reauthorization of funding for at least five years for the Community Health Center program.

by ANR Secretary Julie Moore There’s been a lot of conversation lately around how to fund long-term clean water efforts in Vermont. Having personally worked on waterway clean-up in Vermont for 15 years, I am deeply aware of the long-term nature of the challenges we’re facing. We are a small state with a big task ahead of us and while this work is not insurmountable, finding solutions that have broad-based support won’t always be easy. There is one piece of this puzzle that just makes sense: TDI’s New England Clean Power Link project.

by Timothy McQuiston Vermont Business Magazine Burlington's Yankee Medical, Inc, a longtime local supplier of equipment such as wheelchairs, hospital beds and prosthetic limbs, has become part of the University of Vermont Health Network. The Network's affiliated hospitals include The University of Vermont Medical Center. UVMHN said in a statement that the partnership will make the transitions from hospital to home as smooth and beneficial to patients as possible. UVMHN paid $1 million for Yankee Medical, which will continue to operate under its own name under president Scott Wells. The medical device supplier employs 22.

UVM Medical Center photo.

Vermont Business MagazineIn a letter to Governor Phil Scott and Agency of Human Services Secretary Al Gobeille, Rights & Democracy is calling for Vermont to extend the ACA enrollment period beyond Friday's deadline. Of the 12 state-based exchanges, Vermont and Idaho are the only two in the United States that has not extended the deadline. Below is a copy of the letter sent to this afternoon by Jessica Early, RN, the Health Care Justice Organizer for Rights & Democracy.

Vermont Business Magazine At a meeting in Barre on December 8, the Vermont Housing & Conservation Board committed $4,749,000 to create 38 new affordable homes in Manchester, Montpelier and Essex, to make accessibility improvements to 60 homes statewide, to conserve 595 acres of farmland in Addison, Rutland, and Franklin counties, and to add 118 conserved acres to a high elevation natural area at Mt Equinox in Manchester.

Vermont Business Magazine Senator Patrick Leahy (D-Vermont) hails action this week by the Canadian Parliament to pass new customs preclearance language into law that will make possible improved rail and air travel between Vermont – and other points in the United States -- and Canada. For an Amtrak rail crossing, Vermont officials have previously told VBM that logistics would still have to be worked out in setting up a station in Montreal to handle customs, among other prerequisites.

Vermont Business MagazineVermont’s two US senators – Senator Patrick Leahy (D) and Senator Bernie Sanders (I) – have joined Senator Edward J Markey (D-Mass), a member of the Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee, and 13 other senators on Thursday in announcing their plan to introduce a Congressional Review Act (CRA) resolution that would undo Thursday’s action by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and restore the 2015 net neutrality rules.

The FCC Thursday afternoon approved an item that guts the 2015 Open Internet Order, which the DC Circuit Court upheld in 2016. The Open Internet Order prohibited internet service providers from setting up internet fast and slow lanes and ensured they could not block or slow down internet traffic.