Current News

Vermont Business Magazine Mark Redmond, the executive director of Spectrum Youth and Family Services will receive the 2016 Distinguished Citizen award from Champlain College. President Donald J. Laackman and the Board of Trustees will make the presentation during Convocation on Friday, Aug. 26 at 3 p.m. at Roger H Perry Hall. Champlain College will welcome the members of the Class of 2020 on Friday morning as new students move into their first-year residence halls in the morning and then begin a full weekend of orientation events. Upperclass students living on campus will move in on Sunday and classes for all students begin on Monday, August 29.

Mark Redmond

Vermont Business Magazine Governor Peter Shumlin today shared the last set of results from a statewide plan to test for perfluorinated compounds (PFCs) at sites where the harmful chemicals may have been used. The former location of Harbour Industries in Shelburne was the final site tested for PFCs. Three out of four groundwater monitoring wells showed the presence of the chemicals PFOA (perfluorooctanoic acid) and PFOS (perfluorooctanesulfonic acid), which are types of PFCs. PFOA levels ranged from 8 to 430 parts per trillion, and PFOS levels ranged from 9 to 300 parts per trillion. The Vermont health advisory limit is 20 parts per trillion. PFOA and PFOS are suspected carcinogens that were used widely in the US in a number of industrial processes.

Vermont Business Magazine August of last year,  Jon and Pam Baker of Roswell, GA celebrated a moment they were not sure would ever come. Their sons, Gavin and Jake Baker took their first dose of Orkambi, a drug recently approved by the FDA to help control their cystic fibrosis. At this “First Dose Party,” the Bakers were surrounded by hundreds of family and friends that helped make this special drug possible.

Vermont Business Magazine Following new recommendations from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the nasal spray flu vaccine will not be available in the U.S. for the upcoming flu season. Instead, all flu vaccinations will be given as a standard shot. The nasal spray flu vaccine has been offered in recent years to healthy individuals ages 2 to 49. This past June, the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices voted to recommend that it not be used during the 2016-17 flu season. New research has shown a significant difference between the effectiveness of the standard flu shot and the nasal spray flu vaccine. During the 2015-16 flu season, the flu shot was 63 percent effective at preventing or reducing influenza-related illness in people ages 2 to 17. However, the nasal spray, which accounted for fewer than 10 percent of all flu vaccinations, was only 3 percent effective.

Vermont Business Magazine "The Minuteman Scholarship Campaign was introduced in 2015 with the intent to enhance the National Guard's ability to recruit highly qualified Cadets on a recurring annual basis. All of the qualified applicants for Reserve Officers Training Corps scholarships were eligible to for consideration for the 4-year Minuteman Scholarship. In early February of this year, the Vermont National Guard was authorized to nominate six Cadets for up to a 4-year Guaranteed Reserve Forces Duty (GRFD) scholarship, the Vermont National Guard is excited to have a talented pool of young men and women whose desire to serve their community, state and nation," said Maj Gen Steven Cray, adjutant general of Vermont.

Vermont Business Magazine For the second year in a row, the University of Vermont welcomes an incoming class with record-breaking academic credentials. Topping the Class of 2019's high scores, the incoming Class of 2020 earned an average 3.64 GPA and SAT scores in critical reading and mathematics of 1206. Additionally, a record 39 Vermont students who earned Green & Gold Scholarships, offered to the academically strongest rising senior at 68 state high schools, have chosen UVM.

Vermont Business Magazine NMC was recently named one of the 2016 “Most Wired” Hospitals, using technology to improve the efficiency of care delivery and  create a new dynamic in patient interactions. Most Wired hospitals are redefining the way they provide care in their communities, using technology to build patient engagement with the individual’s lifestyle in mind, which includes electronic access  to their care team. These innovations are shown by the results of the annual Health Care’s Most Wired survey, released by the American Hospital Association’s Health Forum. 

Northwestern Medical Center photo

Vermont Business Magazine Vermont is recovering more slowly than most states from mortgage failures as part of the Great Recession. Vermont had fewer foreclosures than most states, but is also working through the process of reconciling non-current mortgages more slowly. Vermont now is at about the national average for non-current mortgages after having been on the low or very low end of the range for most of the period starting in 2008.

Vermont Business Magazine Top RN to BSN (www.toprntobsn.com), a leading nursing school search resource, has published its 2016 ranking of the best residential BSN programs in the United States. The University of Vermont program ranked 46th in the nation. The reviewers cited UVM's clinical program and in particular its practicum in conjection with the UVM Medical Center as one of its strengths. UVM is also among the most expensive for out-of-state students at $39,130 tuition and fees, with the University of Michigan the highest at $45,410 tuition and fees.

Vermont Business Magazine Today, the Vermont Department of Public Service filed expert testimony in the Vermont Gas Systems (VGS) rate case recommending a 5.68 percent rate decrease. Vermont Gas had requested a rate decrease for its customers of 3.3 percent. The testimony filed today with the Public Service Board recommends that no more than $112.5 million of the Addison Expansion Project costs be allowed in rates at this time. The Department also recommends that $5 million from the System Expansion and Reliability Fund (SERF) be returned to ratepayers as part of this rate reduction as soon as the Project is in service. Vermont Gas has said the project will be completed by the end of 2016.

Vermont Business Magazine Joined by Vermont State Police Commander Matthew Birmingham, US Senator Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) on Monday announced that six new positions – including five detectives – have now been added to the Vermont Drug Task Force to strengthen heroin trafficking investigations in Vermont. This expansion of the Task Force was made possible with a $1.4 million grant from the Department of Justice’s Anti-Heroin Task Force program that was awarded last September. The program, administered through DOJ’s Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS), was created by Leahy as a result of Senate Judiciary Committee field hearings he held to examine heroin and opioid abuse in Vermont. The program targets areas with high rates of primary treatment admissions for heroin and other opioids. Vermont was one of only six states to receive the grants, which totaled $5.8 million.

Vermont Business Magazine The Council of State and Territorial Epidemiologists (CSTE) recently awarded the Castleton University Polling Institute a $400,000 contract to develop and pilot test an interactive health-related survey and journal system. Director of the Polling Institute Dr. Rich Clark and Associate Director Amanda Richardson will lead a team of experts from major research universities. The international team of researchers was assembled by YMG survey group, owned and managed by Yasamin Miller, former director of Cornell University’s Survey Research Center.