Current News

Vermont Business Magazine Localvore Today has officially released a free iOS mobile app into the iTunes App Store. The app was created to make purchasing and redeeming offers and event tickets easier, to eliminate the need for printing, and to provide all the information you need about a local business right at your fingertips.

In tandem, Localvore Today closed a $700,000 Series A investment round in a private offering this month. Localvore Today has recently expanded to Portland, Maine and now reaches an audience throughout New England numbering more than 50,000 subscribers. For business owners, the company is offering several new services for digital marketing including event ticketing, marketing strategies for new and existing promotions, sponsored content on their in-house blog, and managed email marketing.

Additional Information

Vermont Business Magazine Governor Peter Shumlin issued the following statement after news that President Obama has issued a memorandum calling for increased training for professionals who prescribe opiates and a call for greater access to treatment for those suffering from prescription drug and heroin addiction. (President Obama's full plan is presented below.)

“I am incredibly encouraged by the steps President Obama is announcing today, especially his efforts to further the conversation about how we deal with pain management in America. The opiate crisis affecting this country is linked to the vast over prescription of pain medication going back to the approval of OxyContin in the mid-1990s. Since then, painkillers have been handed out like candy. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, doctors in the United States prescribed enough painkillers in 2010 to ‘medicate every American adult around-the-clock for a month.’

Vermont Business Magazine The Vermont Technology Alliance, an industry trade group representing Vermont’s tech businesses, announced today the finalists of the 2015 Vermont Tech Jam Awards, sponsored by Merchants Bank. The awards will be presented during the Vermont Tech Jam — a job fair and tech expo organized by the independent newsweekly Seven Days and the Vermont Technology Alliance. The 2015 Tech Jam is Friday and Saturday, October 23 and 24, at the Sheraton Burlington Hotel and Conference Center; it’s underwritten by Dealer.com and MyWebGrocer.

Vermont Business Magazine People's United Financial, Inc (NASDAQ: PBCT) has reported net income of $68.4 million, or $0.23 per share, for the third quarter of 2015, compared to $61.6 million, or $0.21 per share, for the third quarter of 2014, and $61.7 million, or $0.20 per share, for the second quarter of 2015. Operating earnings were also $68.4 million, or $0.23 per share, for the third quarter of 2015, compared to $63.0 million, or $0.21 per share, for the third quarter of 2014, and $63.7 million, or $0.21 per share, for the second quarter of 2015.

The Company's Board of Directors declared a $0.1675 per share quarterly dividend, payable November 15, 2015 to shareholders of record on November 1, 2015. Based on the closing stock price on October 14, 2015, the dividend yield on People's United Financial common stock is 4.4 percent.

Vermont Business Magazine The third meeting of the Solar Siting Task Force will take place on Thursday, October 22, 2015, from 1:00 – 3:00 pm in Room 11 of the Vermont State House, 115 State Street, Montpelier, Vermont. The Solar Siting Task Force was created in Act 56 of the 2014-2015 legislative session. Details on the membership, duties, and timeframe of the Task Force can be found in Act 56, Sec. 26g.

The draft agenda for the October 22, 2015 meeting is listed below. The remaining meetings of the Solar Siting Task Force will occur as follows:

Vermont Business Magazine This school year, Edmunds Middle School and Hunt Middle School in Burlington, Vermont have been selected to join the Verizon Innovative Learning Schools (VILS) program directed by the nonprofit Digital Promise, a program that is using mobile technology to extend learning beyond the walls of the classroom. All 405 students at Edmunds, and all 383 students at Hunt will receive their own personal tablet equipped with a 2-year Verizon Wireless 4G LTE data plan, enabling 24/7 Internet access for learning at school, at home, and wherever they want to take them.

This program will provide new learning opportunities for students, especially those who may not have high-speed internet connections available to them at home.

Vermont Business Magazine The Small Business Administration Vermont District Office is accepting nominations for its 2016 small business awards. Previous Vermont winners include Ben and Jerry’s, Switchback Brewing Company and the 2015 Small Business Person of the Year winner, Monica Greene, Vermont Precision Tools. Since 1963, the SBA has recognized the outstanding achievements of America’s small businesses for their contributions to their local communities, and to the nation’s economy.

Vermont Business Magazine Governors and state legislators routinely praise small businesses for their contributions to economic growth and job creation, but states actually give big businesses the dominant share of their economic development incentive awards, according to a study of 14 states. In Vermont, 63 percent of awards valued at 83 percent of dollars awarded went to "big businesses," according to the report.

This analysis of more than 4,200 economic development incentive awards in 14 states finds that large companies receive dominant shares: 70 percent of the deals and 90 percent of the dollars. The deals, worth more than $3.2 billion, were granted by programs that are facially accessible to both small and large companies.

Vermont Business Magazine SolarCity (NASDAQ: SCTY), the nation's #1 solar provider, will host an all-day hiring event on Wednesday, October 21, with the aim of adding 500 employees to its sales force across 10 states, including Vermont. SolarCity, which provides more than one out of every three new solar power systems in the US, provides local solar sales, installation and service from more than 80 facilities. The company employs more than 14,000 in the US and had been adding more than 500 new employees per month in 2015, on average. The new hires will help it meet growing demand for solar in the Northeast, the Mid-Atlantic and California--among the fastest growing solar markets in the country.

The simultaneous events will take place on Wednesday, October 21 from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. in the following locations:

Vermont Business Magazine Susan Koch, a Union Elementary School Kindergarten and First Grade teacher in Montpelier, has been selected as the 2016 Vermont Teacher of the Year (VT-TOY), the Agency of Education announced today. In addition to teaching first grade, she has encouraged and developed the Educating Children Outdoors (ECO) Program in Montpelier. This outdoor education program has now spread to all of the grades at Union Elementary. All students are given the opportunity to learn in a natural setting throughout the entire school year.

Also recognized are:

· Alternate Anne Marie Mahar, a science and biology teacher for grades 11-12 at Rutland High School; and

· Finalist Stephen Rand, an English teacher at Harwood Union Middle and High School for grades 9-12.

Vermont Business Magazine US Department of Agriculture Assistant Secretary Dr Gregory Parham visited Slopeside Syrup in Richmond Tuesday joining USDA Rural Development State Director Ted Brady who announced that the maple producer was one of six Vermont forest and agricultural producers receiving $734,045 in USDA Value Added Producer Grants. The grants will help Vermont farms and forestry operations build a natural pork supply chain, produce more naturally raised turkeys, make artisan yogurt and gelato, create goat milk truffles, develop maple energy snacks and study new wood-based products.

Vermont Business Magazine In the third quarter of 2015, the Vermont Community Loan Fund (VCLF) provided $790,000 in flexible, supported financing to small businesses, early education and child care programs, affordable housing developers, and community-focused organizations, to support job creation, safe and affordable homes, high-quality early care and vital community services throughout Vermont.

Commenting on the busy lending period, VCLF Executive Director Will Belongia said, “Loan after loan, quarter after quarter, year after year, the Vermont Community Loan Fund’s work creating access to capital continues to show great benefits for Vermont: stronger, healthier communities, new jobs, safe, affordable homes, families on the rise. The opportunities we create for all Vermonters go far beyond the dollars and cents."

Projects financed in the 3rd Quarter of 2015 include: