Current News

Saint Michael’s College Saint Michael’s College in Colchester released the following statement early this afternoon: "It is with great sadness that Saint Michael's College communicates the tragic news of the death of one of its students. Jeremiah Collins, from Bridgewater, Massachusetts, a member of the Class of 2017 and a business major, was found dead early this morning in the Gilbrook Natural Area near the College campus. Winooski police responded and the cause of death is under investigation, but no foul play is suspected. 

"The student’s family has been notified by police and members of the Student Life staff have spoken to them as well. College staff members met with Jerry’s roommates and his immediate faculty.

by Timothy McQuiston Vermont Business Magazine The Vermont state auditor's latest investigation was made public today on how much fraud plagued the Vermont Department for Children and Families. State Auditor Doug Hoffer reported that the DCF substantially investigated alleged beneficiary fraud on two of the programs, but not all, and improper payments were not effectively collected. Only 3SquaresVT disqualified fraudulent recipients for a period of time. The DCF budget in FY 2015 was $101.2 million (the fraud amount was $1.8 million on 1,036 improper payment claims over 40 months).

The auditor also questioned how hard the DCF was trying to collect improper payments. For instance, DCF could work with the Tax Department to garnish income tax refunds.

Vermont Business Magazine Green Mountain Power and SunCommon today announced a partnership that will allow customers to store their solar power for security during a power outage. The first of its kind program in Vermont partners a utility with a solar company to offer home storage that both strengthens the grid and allows homes to power from solar during outages. Through the program, Vermonters can add a SunCommon solar system and the Tesla Powerwall to their homes with no upfront cost and a fixed monthly payment.

Vermont Business Magazine The New Yorker writer Elizabeth Kolbert will deliver a lecture about human-driven extinction. Since life emerged from the ooze, there have been five major extinction events on Earth, huge die-offs of the planet’s diversity of plants and animals. Now the sixth extinction is under way — an event unprecedented since the demise of the dinosaurs, sixty-five-million years ago. But this time the cataclysm is not an asteroid impact. "It’s us,” says New Yorker magazine writer Elizabeth Kolbert. As part of the university’s summer reading program for first-year students, Kolbert will deliver a lecture on Wednesday, Sept 14, exploring the meaning and history of this human-driven extinction — drawing on her Pulitzer Prize-winning book The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History.

Vermont Business Magazine The Vermont Teddy Bear Company announces the launch of its social awareness campaign “Paws for Politics,” which goes live Monday, September 19^th. The campaign helps encourage people to vote in this year’s upcoming elections by offering information on the national Presidential and Vice Presidential candidates as well as essential national voter information and resources.

Vermont Business Magazine Today, Sue Minter for Vermont released its first television advertisement for the 2016 General Election. The ad titled, “Working for Vermont Families” highlights Minter’s proven record of solving problems and helping Vermonters, from rebuilding communities after Tropical Storm Irene to working on President Obama’s Climate Preparedness and Resilience Task Force.

Vermont Business Magazine With less than two months to go before the General Election, Senator Patrick Leahy’s campaign Tuesday announced they are launching two television ads based on Senator Leahy’s work for Vermonters in Washington, DC. Continuing his tradition of positive, issue oriented campaigns, Leahy’s ads focus on his legislative accomplishments in the Senate for the Green Mountain State.  The first ad highlights Leahy’s efforts to secure emergency funding for Vermont’s recovery following Tropical Storm Irene.   The second showcases the Farm to School program Leahy created in 2010 and he is currently working to expand.

Vermont Business Magazine Onyx Renewable Partners LP, a leader in the development and finance of commercial and industrial (C&I) and small scale utility solar projects in North America, today announced it has closed a deal to acquire a portfolio of C&I assets from SunEdison for an undisclosed amount. The portfolio consists of assets in California, Arizona, Massachusetts, and Vermont. Details of the projects in Vermont were not immediately available. SunEdison owns several solar projects in Vermont and a subsidiary owns the wind farm in Sheffield, which presumably was not part of this transaction.

by Michelle Ownes, VPR Vermont Public Radio has received a $1 million commitment from the Jack and Dorothy Byrne Foundation in support of the VPR Next Campaign. The Byrne Foundation gift’s intention is to inspire members of the VPR audience to participate in the Campaign. With this announcement, all gifts to the campaign moving forward will be matched by the foundation, up to a total of $1 million. An on-air fundraiser is scheduled for September 20-24 to encourage fans of VPR to support the campaign and take advantage of this matching opportunity.

Vermont Business Magazine Senate Judiciary Committee Ranking Member Patrick Leahy (D-Vermont) issued the following comment Monday after House Judiciary Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-VA) and Ranking Member John Conyers (D-MI) introduced legislation to reform and reauthorize the EB-5 Regional Center program, which is currently authorized through September. Vermont's EB-5 program is one of those around the country that has been burned by alleged fraud, in this case an alleged $200 million bilking of foreign investors involved with the Jay Peak, Burke Mountain and related projects in the NEK.

by Bill Schubart Whomever we elect to lead us for the next two years, we’ll need to confront two gaping holes in our governance: strategic planning and ethics. Our last few decades ought to have alerted us to the need for both. Lacking these essential guardrails, we fall prey to the egos and legacy whims of our political leaders and are left to choose from their menu of needs rather than our own.

Strategic planning looks through the lens of known facts at real trends affecting Vermont and its people – economic, demographic, social, and environmental. It quantifies current challenges and opportunities, measures them against known trends and data and offers scientific rather than ideological solutions.

Vermont Business Magazine Vermont tops the nation in chicken pox vaccinations, according to newly published results from the 2015 National Immunization Survey for Teens (NIS-Teen), but there is more work to be done to ensure all Vermont teens are protected against cancer-causing human papillomavirus (HPV). The annual telephone survey, conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that Vermont adolescents age 13 to 17 had the highest rate of varicella (chicken pox) immunization in the country. More than 96 percent of teens in Vermont were fully vaccinated, which is significantly higher than the national average (83 percent). Vermont teens also had higher than average vaccination rates for Tdap (tetanus, diphtheria and pertussis), meningococcal disease and HPV.