Current News

Vermont Business Magazine Dartmouth-Hitchcock Health system (D-H) moves into the future today, as Joanne M Conroy, MD, begins her tenure as CEO and President of New Hampshire’s only academic health system.

Vermont Business MagazineGreen Mountain Power is warning customers about a bill payment phone scam that threatens customers with disconnectionwithin 15 minutesif they do not pay immediately. In a new wave of calls today, customers received calls claiming to be from GMP and giving the customer a fake toll-free number to call, which is answered by a recording claiming to be Green Mountain Power.

These calls are not from GMP and customers should hang up if they receive any call with these demands, and call GMP at888-835-4672if they have any payment questions.

Vermont Business Magazine The Vermont National Guard will have increased flying operations throughout the Vermont, New Hampshire and Vermont to accomplish their annual training requirements from August 7-10. The expected flying times on these days are from 8 am- 5 pm.

Vermont Business MagazineECFiber released its 2018 construction plans today, identifying Braintree, Brookfield, Granville, Hancock, Rochester, and Stockbridge as the six towns whose homes and businesses will get access to a fiber-optic based internet connection in 2018. ECFiber will also build some mileage in Woodstock to initiate service there and to improve connectivity between West Windsor, Reading, and the rest of its network.

Vermont Business MagazineSeeking to expand the applications of computational, social and data science, Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company (MassMutual) announced today that it is providing the University of Vermont (UVM) $500,000 to fund an innovative pilot program within the university’s Vermont Complex Systems Center. It will create a new doctoral fellowship, support faculty research and hire a visual data artist-in-residence.

Vermont Business Magazine Joined by Governor Phil Scott, the Rutland Young Professionals announced the 3^rd Annual Young Professionals Summit of Vermont today. The Summit will be held in downtown Rutland at the Paramount Theater on Saturday, September 9^th and will welcome young professionals from across the state.

Vermont Business Magazine Weekly unemployment claims fell again last week to a low summer-time level. Claims had been running higher than usual earlier in the summer, but have fallen steadily during July. Claims also are lower than they were the same time last year, which had been the usual case for most weeks in 2017. For the week of July 29, 2017, there were 320 claims, down 56 from the previous week's total and 42 fewer than than they were a year ago.

Altogether 3,853 new and continuing claims were filed, a decrease of 69 from a week ago, and 571 fewer than a year ago.

Claims during the summer usually hold at a relatively low level because of vacation hiring, until the next transition when school resumes in September.

As expected, by industry, Services reported the most claims (52 percent of the total). Manufacturing fell to 17 percent of the total after a brief spike the previous week.

byBill SchubartI’m losing my war against field mice. This time they chewed through the power cord to the freezer. So, with the freezer thawing, it’s time for a family cookout.I’m pulling chunks of hoarfrost-covered packages out and sorting them on the garage floor. The 3, 4, 5-year old labels are illegible. Let’s see, this looks like liver – but lamb, venison, beef, or pork? These round things must be organs. That’s a chicken, or is it the wild turkey our lawn-mower guy gave us?

My worldly wife spent some of her youth in France where people eat much more of an animal than we finicky Americans do, like tripe, trotters, head cheese, veal kidneys, pork cheeks, sweetbreads, and the like. So, when we buy whole animals from neighboring farms she does the butcher’s cut chart. Most people get some 120 pounds of pork from the average Vermont pig. Not us. We get closer to 150 lbs. The unmentionables all add up.

Vermont Business MagazineThe Department of Public Service today announced $547,500 in grant awards tointernet service providers to boost broadband internet speeds in seven rural Vermont communities. The Department awarded $72,500 to ECFiber to bring fiber optic cable service to 31 homes and businesses in the towns of Randolph, Royalton and Stockbridge. Consolidated Communications, Inc. received $175,000 to expand broadband to 162 homes and businesses in Reading, Woodstock and Whitingham. Comcast received a grant of $300,000 to bring much needed high-speed cable broadband service to 114 homes and businesses in the town of Cavendish.

by Mike SmithDuring the last gubernatorial election, and then again just recently during the debate over teachers’ health insurance, Vermont Democrats underestimated the potency of GovernorPhil Scott’s affordability message.

by Joyce Marcel Vermont Business Magazine “My passion is to solve climate change with the electric grid,” says Christine Hallquist, the visionary head of the Vermont Electric Cooperative, Inc and — in another in a long line of Vermont firsts — the first CEO in America to transition openly from male (David) to female (Christine). One year, he was the moderator at the Hyde Park Town Meeting; the next year she was.

Vermont Business MagazineThe Burlington Electric Department today is warning customers about an ongoing bill payment phone scam targeting primarily Burlington restaurants and encouraging them to sign up for scam alert notifications from the Attorney General’s Office. In a new wave of calls today, Burlington Electric customers have been receiving calls threatening disconnection if payment is not made immediately.

These calls are not from Burlington Electric, and customers should hang up if they receive a call with such demands. If customers have any questions about their account status, they should call Burlington Electric at802.865.7300to let us know.