Current News

Vermont Business Magazine The Vermont Attorney General’s Office has concluded that an email solicitation by Bernie Sanders’ campaign in May of this year that stated Sanders’ support for several state and local candidates around the country, including Vermont state senate candidate Chris Pearson, and encouraged recipients to donate to these candidates, did not violate Vermont’s campaign finance laws.

Vermont Business Magazine With a major turnover in political leadership in Montpelier this January,  the Montpelier-based Public Assets Institute issued a policy paper today called "A Framework for Progress: Investing in Vermont’s people, infrastructure, and good government." The specifics include eliminating school property taxes for all primary residences and basing all residents’ school taxes on income, publicly-fund health care, institute a carbon pollution tax and re-work the transportation fund to pay for infrastructure, increase "rainy day" funds equal to at least 15 percent of the budget (currently capped at 5 percent), eliminate business tax breaks, and add two years of college to public education.

Vermont Business Magazine The Pulmonary Rehabilitation program at Southwestern Vermont Medical Center (SVMC) is now accepting patients for their fall sessions.  People who have trouble breathing in the heat and humidity, who get short of breath walking long distances or upstairs, and who are struggling to quit from cigarettes are encouraged to seek a referral. SVMC Pulmonary Rehabilitation started in January 2015 with seven participants. Since then the program has completed nine sessions and has helped forty three patients improve their lung function and breathe easier. The success of the program prompted an expansion to morning and afternoon classes this past January, accommodating up to sixteen patients at a time.

Vermont Business Magazine OneCare Vermont, the state’s largest Accountable Care Organization (ACO), has been included in the Becker’s Hospital Review list of “100 ACOs to Know.”  To be included on the list, ACOs must “…stand out for their excellence in quality, achievements in driving down cost and ability to grow and take on risk.”  Becker’s Hospital Review has published a version of this list annually since 2012.

The Becker’s Hospital Review editorial team selects ACO’s for inclusion “…based on quality and cost performance, participation in CMS’ Next Generation Model, the Pioneer Model, advanced tracks of the Medicare Shared Savings Program and a number of recently formed commercial contracts.”

Vermont Business Magazine The federal receiver now running Jay Peak and Burke Mountain resorts stated Friday that former Jay Peak CEO Bill Stenger is no longer an employee at Jay. Stenger, the face of Jay for two decades who was embroiled in the EB-5 foreign investor scandal, had the previous day issued a statement to the media indicating that he had entered into a settlement with the Securities & Exchange Commission over the civil suit they had brought against him. Jay Peak owner Ariel Quiros separately faces charges of fraudulently taking money from investors for his personal use. He currently is fighting the SEC in court over the charges and over the freezing of most of his assets in Vermont, his home state of Florida and in other places.

Vermont Business Magazine The 21st Annual Southern Vermont Garlic and Herb Festival soared to record-breaking heights this past Labor Day Weekend on the grounds of Camelot Village.  With beautiful weather and over 100 volunteers helping the festival run smoothly, the two gates saw well over 15,000 people attend. Gates opened at 10am on both Saturday and Sunday and attendees ate garlic, shopped, strolled among the over 200 vendors, listened to eight live bands and enjoyed the last days of summer.

“We saw 8,000 festival-goers on Saturday and a little over 7,000 on Sunday,” said Matt Harrington the executive director of the Bennington Area Chamber of Commerce, the organization that coordinates the event. “We captured this by using a ticket process this year that helped us calculate the numbers.”

by Mike Smith It's hard to beat an incumbent politician, especially federal ones. In 2014, over 96 percent of incumbent members of Congress were reelected — this despite a collective approval rating of around 11 percent. This trend is true in Vermont, and especially for U.S. senators. Since voters began to directly elect senators beginning in 1913 (prior to that the Vermont Legislature decided who would represent the state in the Senate), no elected U.S. senator has ever lost a reelection in Vermont. Our senators are elected for life, or at least until they choose to step down.

Which takes us to the case of Sen. Patrick Leahy, America's longest-serving member of the senate. He's been in Washington for 42 of the 103 years Vermont voters have been electing senators. Leahy may hold the safest senate seat in the country.

Vermont Business Magazine Two major and anonymous financial commitments totaling $100,000 have been committed to Porter Medical Center in Middlebury in the form of “challenge grants” intended to encourage others to support the upcoming “People for Porter” annual campaign. Through these challenge grants, every donation made to Porter between September 15 and December 31 will be matched on a 2-1 basis by these donors according to Porter’s Vice President for Development Ron Hallman. 

“We are deeply grateful to these anonymous friends who have come together to offer this incredible challenge opportunity for our local supporters,” he said. “This is a unique opportunity for every member of this community to have their individual donation, regardless of the amount, to essentially be tripled thanks to the availability of these matching funds.”

Vermont Business Magazine The Administration will present its transportation budget rescission plan to the Legislative Joint Fiscal Committee at the Committee’s scheduled meeting starting at 10:05 am in the Ethan Allen Room of the State House on Thursday, September 15, 2016. A public hearing will be held following the Administration’s presentation. At the Emergency Board meeting held in July, an updated FY2017 revenue forecast was adopted that is $2.8 million less than the forecast used to construct the FY2017 budget adopted by the Legislature. Pursuant to 32 V.S.A. § 704(b)(1), the Agency of Transportation (VTrans) submitted a plan to realign appropriations with the reduction in the Transportation Fund Revenue.

Vermont Business Magazine For the seventh consecutive year, Clark-Mortenson Insurance is part of an elite group of independent insurance agencies around the United States participating in the
Independent Insurance Agents & Brokers of America (IIABA or the Big “I”) “Best Practices” Study Group. Each year since 1993, IIABA and Reagan Consulting, an Atlanta-based management consulting firm, join forces to study the country’s leading agencies in six revenue categories. The agencies comprising the study groups are selected every third year through a comprehensive nomination and qualifying process and awarded a “Best Practices Agency” designation. The selected “Best Practices” agencies retain their status during the three-year cycle by submitting extensive financial and operational data for review each year.

Vermont Business Magazine The Community Health Team has developed an explainer program that provides support in helping individuals create an advance directive. An advance directive provides documentation and clear instructions for a designated agent to reference on a person’s behalf should they be in a position to where they are unable to make decisions for themselves. “A health crisis can happen at any time and planning ahead is a gift someone can give to their family,” explained Sarah Narkewicz, RN, MS, CDE, Program Director of Bowse Health Trust and Blueprint for Health Manager. “It is important for people to identify someone who can speak for them and to share their wishes should a health crisis occur. Our expert volunteer team is ready to help people solidify these important directives.”

Vermont Business Magazine Brattleboro Memorial Hospital is offering a Chronic Pain Self-Management Program at Grace Cottage in the Holt Conference Room with a partnership with SASH (Support and Services at Home). This free workshop series is scheduled to start on September 21 from 3 pm to 5:30 pm and continue every Wednesday ending October 26^, 2016.

Living a Healthier Life with Chronic Pain Workshop is a Self-Management Program (CPSMP) designed for people who have either a primary or secondary diagnosis of chronic pain (as defined as lasting for longer than 3 to 6 months or lasting longer than the normal healing time of an injury) and focuses on problem solving, appropriate usage of medications and exercise, nutrition, emotions and communicating with health care providers. The CPSMP is a workshop given over two and a half hours, once a week for six weeks.