Current News

Vermont Business Magazine With overdose deaths from prescription opioids skyrocketing across America, Governor Peter Shumlin on Monday signed a law to expand Vermont's successful medical marijuana system and give doctors an alternative to highly addictive opiates when treating some conditions such as chronic pain. Under the legislation, S14, new groups of Vermonters will now have access to medical marijuana, including those with glaucoma, chronic pain, and patients under hospice care. This adds to conditions that already have access to medical marijuana, which include cachexia or wasting syndrome, cancer, HIV/AIDS, multiple sclerosis, seizures, severe pain, and severe nausea. 

by Brattleboro Retreat President and CEO Louis Josephson The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recently issued a tragic new report showing suicide rates in the U.S. have risen to a 30-year high. While the rise was particularly sharp among women, the report also outlined increases in rates of suicide among nearly all races and age groups. Statistics on suicide rates in Vermont bring the issue closer to home. While the new CDC report indicates that the nation’s suicide rate has risen to 13 per 100,000 people since 1986, here in Vermont the rate of death from suicide has been calculated at nearly 18 per 100,000 or roughly 80 suicides per year. This is higher than the number of deaths in our state by motor vehicle accidents or homicides. Sadly, suicide is the second leading cause of death for young Vermonters between the ages of 10 and 24.

Vermont Business Magazine VSECU, a member-owned cooperative and not for profit credit union for everybody in Vermont, has launched its semi-annual blood drive series for the American Red Cross. The credit union will host six blood drives at branch locations around the state throughout June and into early July. The semi-annual blood drive series launched last year and has generated strong community support and participation. During two drives across VSECU branches in 2015, 144 units of blood were collected. Every unit has the potential to save three lives, meaning the 2015 drives collected enough blood to save as many as 432 lives. VSECU aims to exceed that total in 2016, as part of its commitment to positively impact the communities it serves. 

Vermont Business Magazine - by John McClaughry Citizens without a physical science background naturally find it hard to know what to believe about the claims put forth by those who believe in a coming human-caused climate catastrophe.

The climate alarmists – for want of a better description - define “climate change” as increasingly serious and potentially catastrophic changes in global temperatures, sea levels, sea ice, glacier melt, hurricanes, droughts, floods, and species extinction, caused by the carbon dioxide released by humans who burn fossil fuels to power their economy and lifestyles.

Vermont Business Magazine For the last couple of weeks, there have been rumblings that the governor might veto the hard-fought and much-compromised renewable energy siting bill. Today, Governor Peter Shumlin vetoed S230, An act relating to improving the siting of energy projects. The veto message is copied below. The goal of the bill was an attempt to give more authority to communities on where solar and wind energy developments can be located. Until now, there has been very little, if any, local regulation of small scale renewable energy generators. The fight in particular has been between farmers who see these resources as important to their economic viability and local officials and community members who want some say on where they can be located. The Public Service Board has had, and would continue under S230, to hold ultimate authority over siting.

Vermont Business Magazine Sovernet Communications today announced that its state-of-the-art fiber network now supports broadband services for numerous rural Vermonters in the so-called “last mile,” by providing dedicated Internet access and data transport to other service providers. These providers, in turn, are extending further and further into rural Vermont to serve residential and business customers. In 2010, Sovernet was the sub-recipient of a $33.4 million “middle mile” federal broadband stimulus grant from the National Telecommunications and Information Administration. As a combined result of the proceeds from the federal grant, Sovernet’s own investment of $12 million, and additional funding from the state of Vermont, Sovernet now delivers high-quality voice, data, and Internet services to more than 300 vital community institutions, including public libraries, schools and colleges, healthcare facilities and hospitals, municipal and state government offices, and other service providers throughout Vermont.

Vermont Business Magazine If Vermont development officials are looking to grow the economy, they might want to look at a relatively small segment that produces big results. Vermont has an estimated 439 middle market companies ($10 million-$1 billion in annual revenues), which make up 0.93 percent of all firms in the state according to the latest Middle Market Power Index from American Express and Dun & Bradstreet. The newest report in the series finds that the middle market is an increasingly important sector as it has accounted for more than half (53 percent) of total job growth nationally since 2011. Additionally, while middle market firms make up less than 1 percent of all US businesses (0.96 percent), they contribute one in four dollars (26 percent) and employ one in four workers (27 percent) in the private sector. Vermont ranks 45 out of all 50 states and the District of Columbia for growth in number of middle market firms from 2011-2016.

by Mike Smith Since our earliest days as a nation, America has been the hotbed of entrepreneurship in the world — a place where hard work and ambition can turn a dream into economic success. But recent polling data, and the unexpected popularity of two presidential candidates, suggests many Americans have lost confidence in significant parts of our economic system. For example, in 1979, according to polling done by the Gallup organization, a strong majority of Americans, some 60 percent, had either a great deal or quite a lot of confidence in the banking industry. In 2015, after the housing and banking crisis and the collapse of huge financial institutions like Lehman Brothers and Bear Sterns, that number had shrunk to only 28 percent. 

And according to a recent poll, also conducted by Gallup, those between the ages of 18 and 29, view socialism nearly as positively as they do capitalism. 

Vermont Business Magazine The Community College of Vermont (CCV) held its graduation ceremony Saturday at Norwich University’s Shapiro Field House. More than 550 students from across the state received associate degrees at the event. Students representing all 14 Vermont counties graduated along with students from 12 other states and 18 countries worldwide. The youngest graduate was 17 and the eldest was 66. Also among the graduates were 41 veterans and active duty military personnel.

Vermont Business Magazine In 2011, Vermont experienced two extraordinary storms. In the late spring, rains caused Lake Champlain to rise to its highest level on record. At the end of August Tropical Storm Irene hit. Researchers suggest more extreme weather could be on the way. Costs from hurricane damages in the United States are expected to increase 39 percent in the coming decades because of the effects of climate change and coastal development, according to a new report prepared by the Congressional Budget Office for Sens. Bernie Sanders and Patty Murray. The 2016 hurricane season began Wednesday.

Vermont Business Magazine - In an effort to build on health care cost containment efforts that have been a priority since he came to office, Governor Peter Shumlin has signed a law to make Vermont the first state in the US to require greater transparency of drug manufacturers when they increase the prices of prescription medications. Under the legislation (S216), insurers will be required to provide Vermonters with information about how much prescription drugs will cost out of pocket. The law also requires state health care regulators to develop a yearly list of the top fifteen drugs that have yielded the highest price increases. Manufacturers of those medications would then be required to justify the increase to the Attorney General’s Office.

Vermont Business Magazine - Renowned researcher, Dr. Esther Sternberg, presents concepts from her best-selling book. Southwestern Vermont Health Care, with support from the Susan Sebastian Foundation, is proud to host Dr. Esther Sternberg at 4 p.m. Saturday, June 11 at the Arkell Pavilion on the campus of the Southern Vermont Arts Center in Manchester, VT.