Current News

Vermont Business Magazine Today, eBay announced the winners of its annual seller recognition program, theSHINE Awards for Small Business. Denise Martell, of Al's Snowmobile Parts Warehousein Newport, was one of the five winners.The award program highlights the efforts and success of small businesses across the country and recognizes the entrepreneurs who have used eBay to help build successful businesses.

Vermont Business Magazine Milk Money, an equity-based crowd-investing company that connects Vermont entrepreneurs and small businesses with local investors, has announced that one of its small business campaigns—the Burlington Herb Clinic—has reached its campaign investment goal of $20,000 and is fully funded to move forward with the next stage in its development. A group of herbalists founded the clinic as a worker-owned co-op to support clients using herbal medicine for self-care.

Vermont Business Magazine The Champlain Housing Trust announced today that it has purchased the St Joseph School on Allen Street in the Old North End from the St Joseph Co-Cathedral Parish Charitable Trust for $2.15 million. The acquisition was made with plans to transform the building into a multi-purpose community center serving not only the residents of the neighborhood, but the rest of Burlington and greater region.

Vermont Business Magazine Attorney General TJ Donovan is leading a bipartisan coalition of 33 States and Puerto Rico to support the US Department of Justice’s request in United States versus Microsoft that the US Supreme Court decide whether email service providers can shield evidence of a crime from law enforcement by storing data outside the United States.

Vermont Business Magazine Developing a forest management plan, constructing bat houses, updating amenities along the Branliere Forest Trail, a community climate change presentation, printing trail maps, and marking wildlife corridors, are all projects that have recently received financial support thanks to grants from the Association of Vermont Conservation Commissions (AVCC).

As part of the AVCC Tiny Grant Program, grants were awarded to conservation commissions for projects in the following towns: Bethel, Bolton, Burke, Johnson, Putney, and Warren. Groups will receive between $250 and $400 depending on the project. AVCC has offered the Tiny Grant Program for several years, and conservation commissions (or groups working to become conservation commissions) who are members of AVCC are eligible.

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.