Current News

The new Vew-Do “Love Your Brain” Balance Boards Provide Multi-Step Progression to Better Balance.

The LoveYourBrain Foundation announced today that it has partnered with Vew-Do Balance Boards to provide a fun and innovative way for people with traumatic brain injuries to improve their balance, and their lives.

“I have been using Vew-Do balance boards ever since I started snowboarding and they have been very beneficial in my recovery from a traumatic brain injury,” said Kevin Pearce, co-founder of the LoveYourBrain Foundation. “After a TBI, everything becomes unbalanced. Not only your mental state but also your physical state. I am really excited about developing new balance boards tailored specifically for the TBI community.”

Vermont Rural Ventures provided New Markets Tax Creditfinancing to Vermont College of Fine Arts (VCFA), bringing $3 million of new funds to the nonprofit graduate education institution.

This financing and new capital allows VCFA to expand programming and complete several capital improvement projects. Low-cost and long-term financing from Vermont Rural Ventures will conserve working capital and help stabilize VCFA for the future.

This project is the first significant construction at the campus since 1966. Alumni Hall, a gymnasium built in 1932, will become a new multi-purpose exhibition and gathering space for the community, students, faculty, and visiting artists. Schulmaier Hall will be renovated into leased office space for the State of Vermont Human Resources Training Center. And a garage and two other buildings will be converted into a new faculty and alumni retreat center for use during VCFA program residencies.

Vermont Business Magazine On August 20-21 (Thursday-Friday), Brand USA, the United States destination marketing organization established by Congress in 2010, brings its global travel campaign to Stowe and Smugglers’ Notch as part of its partnership with the Vermont Department of Tourism and Marketing to produce four innovative, in-language videos to attract international visitors from the United Kingdom. Brand USA’s mission is to grow the United States’ share of the global travel market through critical partnerships with cities, states and destinations around the US.

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Erin Mansfield vtdigger.org Vermont’s senior senator is hoping the state will lead the way in how companies protect themselves from cyberterrorism. US Senator Patrick Leahy, D-VT, told a convention of 1,000 captive insurance industry executives Wednesday that he is working with U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-SC, to pass a law that would help large companies put money aside as insurance for cyber attacks.

The bill, the Captive Insurers Clarification Act, is one page long. If passed, it would change a section of federal insurance law to allow more companies to insure their risks through captive insurance companies in Vermont.

“We have to strengthen our lines of defense against cyber attacks,” Leahy said. “It’s a common-sense bill, and I think we can do something with it.”

Vermont Business Magazine Nearly sixty Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Vermont (BCBSVT) employees participated in the 10^th Annual Lake Champlain Dragon Boat Festival, hosted by Dragonheart Vermont, on Sunday, August 2^nd, 2015. BCBSVT has sponsored the festival for many years, as well as bringing two teams to compete, have fun and support a good cause. All participants worked hard and brought their team spirit! BCBSVT employees also staffed the Green Team, which keeps contestants and visitors hydrated with a water truck and managed the waste and recycling generated by the festival goers – helping the Dragon Boat festival become one of the greenest in Vermont.

“I am honored to work with such a wonderful group of people and am proud to work for a company that supports this great event,” said Megan Peek, community relations and health education manager at BCBSVT. “We look forward to this festival every year – paddles up!”

Vermont Business Magazine Attorney General William H Sorrell, the Department of Public Service, and two utilities filed a Petition yesterday in the US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit challenging a decision by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC). NRC regulations state that the Vermont Yankee decommissioning trust fund (VY trust fund) can be used only for decommissioning expenses. The regulations prohibit using the fund for managing spent nuclear fuel at the site. Nevertheless, the NRC recently approved an exemption from those regulations.

“This is a fund that was set up for one purpose—to clean up the Vermont Yankee site,” said Attorney General Sorrell. “The NRC’s own regulations make clear that any other expenses Entergy might be facing, including the costs of managing spent fuel, cannot come out of this fund. The NRC should not have exempted Entergy from those regulations.”

Vermont Business Magazine The Vermont Department of Labor (VDOL) announces the start of the fall semester plumbing and electrical apprenticeship classes. The Vermont DOL provides a grant to Vermont Technical College for the related classroom instruction, test preparation and other activities related to this program.

“Apprenticeship is an excellent opportunity for Vermonters who are interested in the electrical and plumbing trades to enter those professions with an employer-sponsor. The apprenticeship program, with structured on-the-job training and related technical instruction, allows apprentices to learn while earning a competitive salary1 Vermont’s Labor Commissioner Annie Noonan.

Vermont Business Magazine NPI, a Technology Management company in South Burlington, has complteed a technology project for YWCA of Vermont and Camp Hochelaga. The office in Essex Junction received an upgrade of their wireless capabilities as well as improvements in their network performance; the Camp’s wireless was also upgraded.

Deb Sawyer Jorschick, Executive Director, found project leader Drew Larsen to be a true asset during the assignment, saying “he kept us informed and used (technology) terms we could understand.”

The $6000.00 project included donated equipment and the work of several members of the technical team.

“We couldn’t have done this on our own,” Jorschick states, adding “they went above and beyond what was expected and we are very grateful that everything fell into place at the right time.”

Source: NPI. 8.13.2015

Vermont Business Magazine Vermont Governor Peter Shumlin and US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Region 1 Administrator Curt Spalding, standing today on the shores of Lake Champlain at North Beach, shared the formal Plan to reduce phosphorous runoff into Lake Champlain and the agreed upon “Total Maximum Daily Load” (TMDL) that will place a cap on the maximum amount of phosphorous that is allowed to enter the Lake and still meet Vermont’s water quality standards.

The TMDL sets new pollution reduction targets and pairs with Vermont’s final draft implementation plan to prevent pollution from flowing into Lake Champlain and its tributaries. The EPA opens a 30-day public comment period on the TMDL with its release.

Vermont Business Magazine The Green Mountain Care Board on Thursday announced its decisions on 2016 rate increase requests for health insurance plans offered on Vermont Health Connect (VHC), Vermont’s online health benefit exchange. The GMCB reduced the rate requests and approved a 5.9 percent annual increase for Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Vermont, and a 2.4 percent increase for MVP. The rates were filed by insurers on May 15th and were subject to a 90-day technical analysis and review by the GMCB. The review process included two days of rate hearings open to the public, input from the Office of the Health Care Advocate, and public comment from almost 500 Vermonters.

Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Vermont (BCBSVT), which insures more than 65,000 Vermonters through VHC, requested an 8.6 percent average annual rate increase for its VHC plans beginning January 1, 2016.

Vermont Business Magazine Burlington Electric Department and Green Mountain Power today are warning customers about an ongoing bill payment phone scam that threatens customers with disconnection if they do not pay immediately. In a new wave of calls today, BED customers received calls claiming to be from GMP and giving the customer a fake toll free number to call, which is answered by a recording claiming to be Green Mountain Power.

These calls are not from BED or GMP, and customers should call only the legitimate, listed phone number from their utility, not the number left on the message. The authorized phone number for GMP customers is 888-TEL-GMPC (888-835-4672) and for BED is 802-865-7300.

by Seven Days Nearly 9,000 Vermonters weighed in on the state’s 2015 “best of Vermont” awards, with a whopping 590,000-plus individual votes in 171 categories.