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Vermont Business MagazineA Vermont startup in Quecheeis the recipient of funding to support development of the cannabis industry. Its branding employs Vermont's most famous political name: Redfield Proctor. The investor,Canopyof Boulder, Colorado, is a venture fund and business accelerator for companies developing ancillary products and services for the legal cannabis industry. Eight startups are taking part in the 16-week accelerator program, with businesses including a cloud-based quality management tool for multi-state operators, an integrated agriculture technology hardware service, and an enterprise software platform that helps cannabis businesses manage and mine their online reviews. CanopyBoulder has committed$240,000to this Fall 2017 cohort alone.

by Mike Smith Here’s some advice for Attorney General Jeff Sessions: Please resign. Save yourself the ongoing embarrassment. How much public shaming are you willing to endure from President Donald Trump? After all, even the president himself wants you to resign.

Would you respect or trust a boss — heck, would you work for a boss — who publicly shames you in order to get you to resign? We seek an answer to that question only because Trump’s behavior has forced us to do so.

It has to be assumed that all members of the president’s Cabinet are also pondering that exact question right now. And if they’re smart — and they are — they’re devising an exit strategy. Because chances are — at some point in their future — each of them will suffer the same fate as Sessions and be unceremoniously pushed out.

Vermont Business Magazine In apparent response to President Trump's speech Saturday to law enforcement officials that they should not be "too nice" to suspects in custody, the Vermont Department of Public Safety issued a statement on the use-of-force by law enforcement. Police departments from coast to coast criticized the president's comments.Thomas DAnderson, Commissioner of the Department of Public Safety, and Colonel Matthew TBirmingham, Director of the Vermont State Police, said in the statement issued Sunday:

"All Vermont communities rightfully expect that law enforcement in Vermont will have an uncompromising commitment to principles of professionalism, including responsibility and compassion for all individuals with whom they come into contact. This includes the general public, motorists, and those taken into custody for criminal activity.

Vermont Business MagazineComing off the biggest year ever for USsolar installations, local installer Aegis Renewable Energy, Inc. is proud to be named one of the top solar contractors in the United States bySolar Power Worldmagazine. Aegis Renewable Energy, Inc. achieved a rank of 141 out of the top 500 solar companies nationwide. In addition Aegis Renewable Energy achieved the number 2 rank in the State of Vermont.

Vermont Business Magazine The US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and the National Environmental Health Association recently announced that Vermont's Weatherization Program was one of four programs in the country to be awarded the 2017 HUD Secretary's Award for Healthy Homes. The award recognizes programs that promote healthier housing through research, education and innovative practices.

Vermont received the award this year because of its innovative One Touch Program - the first weatherization program in the country to incorporate healthy home assessments into all state-supported weatherization projects in single-family homes. Weatherization auditors use the One Touch electronic tool to connect families to resources that can improve health outcomes and reduce home energy use (e.g., help to repair peeling lead paint, stop smoking, access health care and more).

Vermont Business Magazine You’ve heard of a barn raising, but how about a bat condo raising? That’s what happened today in Colchester, when Green Mountain Power partnered with Vermont Departments of Fish and Wildlife and Forests, Parks, and Recreation, and ctiizens, to install a new “bat condo” to give endangered little brown bats a safe habitat and help their recovery in Vermont.

The bat condo was designed and created by Joe Gardner, who funded, built, and donated the structure, with assistance from Barry Genzlinger, bat house designer and licensed bat rehabilitator. It looks like a monitor barn set on top of power poles and will provide shelter to thousands of bats, provide a spot for raising young and provide safety from predators.

Vermont Business Magazine The Safari Club International (SCI) Foundation recently awarded the Vermont Fish & Wildlife Department a $50,000 grant in support of an ongoing three-year study the department is conducting on the state's moose herd. The organization awards grants to "projects with strong potential to contribute to the sustainable management of natural resources or the advance of constructive wildlife research." SCI Foundation has supported other moose research in the Northeast, including New Hampshire's initial project.

Vermont's moose herd has faced an outbreak of a parasite known as winter ticks in recent years, challenging moose conservation efforts in the state. The Vermont Fish & Wildlife Department initiated study in January to investigate death rates and causes of mortality of cow and calf moose, and to compare their results to similar moose studies in New Hampshire and Maine.

Vermont Business Magazine BioTek Instruments will be recognized as a 2017 Vermont Business Growth Award winner at a ceremony to be held September 12, 2017, at The Sheraton Hotel & Conference Center, in Burlington, VT. This award is sponsored by Vermont Business Magazine and KeyBank, and is presented to the five Vermont businesses that have experienced the greatest growth over the past five years in various business categories.

BioTek will be recognized as one of the winners in the Technology category for the company’s 28.3% growth over the past five years. This is the sixth time that the company has received this award.

Vermont Business MagazineThe Brattleboro Retreat has appointed Arthur WNichols as the hospital’s new Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer (CFO). “We’re excited to bring in a person of Art’s caliber,” said Louis Josephson, president and chief executive officer. “The Retreat is getting a great leader who I know will play a key role in helping us achieve the financial goals we have set out in our new strategic plan.”

Vermont Business MagazineGreen Mountain Power has partnered with Vermont Departments of Fish and Wildlife and Forests, Parks, and Recreation, and ctiizens, to install a new “bat condo” to give endangered little brown bats a safe habitat and help their recovery in Vermont. The bat condo was designed and created by Joe Gardner, who funded, built, and donated the structure, with assistance from Barry Genzlinger, bat house designer and licensed bat rehabilitator. It looks like a monitor barn set on top of power poles and will provide shelter to thousands of bats, provide a spot for raising young and provide safety from predators.

Vermont Business Magazine Weekly unemployment claims slightly again last week to a typically low summer-time level. Claims had been running higher than usual for the summer, but as of last week are lower than they have been for close to two months. Claims also are lower than they were the same time last year, which had been the usual case for most weeks in 2017 until recently. For the week of July 22, 2017, there were 376 claims, down 69 from the previous week's total and 263 fewer than than they were a year ago.

Altogether 3,922 new and continuing claims were filed, a decrease of 404 from a week ago, and 678 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 (44 percent of the total). Manufacturing saw an increase to 24 percent of the total.

by Randolph T Holhut & Jeff Potter/The Commons, Brattleboro Months of turmoil that led to two weeks of crisis at the New England Center for Circus Arts was resolved last week with a new leadership team and the reinstatement of the nonprofit’s founders, whose firing precipitated a public outcry and a stalemate that brought NECCA’s operations to a standstill. The selection of the new leadership team was one of the key demands of a group of coaches that resigned shortly after the July 10 decision to terminate cofounders Elsie Smith and Serenity Smith Forchion.