Current News

University of Vermont Extension has received a five-year, $518,500 grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to expand a program aimed at sixth and seventh grade Vermonters proven to reduce risky behavior in youth. The Children, Youth and Families at Risk grant, from the National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) within USDA, will fund a program called PROSPER, for Promoting School-Community-University Partnerships to Enhance Resilience.

The grant will enable Extension to continue its PROSPER program at Lyndon Town School in Lyndonville, where it has been in place for just over two years, and extend it to Mount Anthony Union Middle School in Bennington.

By a number of different measures, Vermonters are leaving themselves open to identity theft and fraud and are not practicing some basic ways to protect themselves. Indeed, 14 percent of Vermont adults in the last two years have had someone rip them off financially, typically through a credit or debit card. An AARP Vermont telephone survey of some 800 adults across the state looked at how Vermonters are being targeted by scams and what they are doing to secure their personal information and identities.

“Vermonters are being targeted and falling victim to scams and cons at an increasing rate and older Vermonters are particularly at risk,” said Greg Marchildon, AARP Vermont State Director. “The findings in this statewide survey show that there is much more the average citizen can do to protect their identities and personal finances from these criminals.”

Summary of findings:

HOME-BASED/PERSONAL PROPERTY PROTECTIVE MEASURES

Lane closures on I-89 in Milton will be ongoing this week. Northbound closures will go from 7AM to 2PM while southbound closures are scheduled from 10AM to 7PM, Monday through Friday. Southbound traffic is diverted to the northbound lane in Waterbury at Exit 10. A reduction in the speed limit will slow traffic through this work zone. The southbound entrance ramp at Exit 10 is closed between 3PM and 6PM, Monday through Friday. The detour is on Route 2 through Waterbury on to Exit 9 in Middlesex. In Hartford the bridge from New Hampshire is reduced to one lane. Expect delays. Paving from Hartford to Sharon in the northbound lane will cause delays this week.

The Northeast Delta Dental Foundation has given an $8,500 grant to the University of Vermont Dental and Oral Health Residency Program to support continuing education opportunities. This is the 5th year the Foundation has provided funding for the program, which is the only residency in Vermont for training and recruiting new dentists. The program attracts dental graduates from throughout the country and offers rotations in general dentistry at the Program’s facility in South Burlington and at private specialty practices and at The University of Vermont Medical Center. Their experience includes treatment of urgent care in the emergency department, anesthesia education, oral surgery, and general medicine training at the hospital. In addition, residents learn about business and personal skills in order to improve their transition to successful dental practice.

The Vermont Democratic Party announced today the winners of this year’s David W Curtis Leadership Awards. The recipients are Chittenden County State's Attorney TJ Donovan; Agency of Transportation Secretary Sue Minter; and Rutland County Democratic Chair Kathy Hall. The presentation will be on June 19th at the 16th Annual David W Curtis Awards at the Burlington Sheraton with special guest speaker DNC Chair Representative Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL 23rd District).

Thomas J. Donovan, Jr

Vermont SBA A woman’s clothing store located on Main Street in Montpelier has been opened for about a year and its owner is only 27 years old. Sarah DeFelice started Bailey Road, named after her grandparents’ farm in Northfield Vt., because she wanted something to call her own and felt she had the experience to do so.

Brattleboro Memorial Hospital has been recognized with six awards from three separate organizations to honor achievements in health care marketing and communications. In April, BMH and its partnering agency Jennings Health Care Marketing won a Gold as well as a Silver Award at the 32nd Annual Healthcare Advertising Awards, sponsored by the Healthcare Marketing Report. The awards recognized BMH’s “Rapid Care” campaign for the hospital’s Emergency Department.

“We were fortunate to have the chance to work with a high caliber organization and have our work recognized in this distinguished healthcare award competition,” said Dan Dunlop, Principal with Jennings. The Healthcare Marketing Report’s competition is the oldest, largest and most widely respected advertising awards competition in the country and one of the ten largest of all advertising awards. BMH’s campaign was chosen from a pool of 3,500 entries.

The University of Vermont Medical Center has received a record nine awards to recognize its leadership in practicing environmentally responsible health care from Practice Greenhealth, (PGH) a leading national association devoted to that mission. Runner-up was the Cleveland Clinic with seven awards.

This is the 6th year in a row UVM Medical Center has been selected by PGH for its top awards, which recognize health care facilities that set the highest standards for environmental practices. Special recognition was given this year to “greening” operating rooms, energy efficiency projects and sustainable food service. (See full list of awards below.)

Highlights

Green Mountain Power & NRG, a Fortune 250 company, today opened a new public electric vehicle charging station in Rutland to help electric vehicle owners save money and charge up more quickly. The chargers are conveniently located downtown on Cottage Street and are the first “Freedom Stations” to be installed in Vermont in partnership with NRG EVgo, and represent the first comprehensive electric vehicle charging network in New England. GMP and EVgo plan to install 12 Freedom Stations statewide this year, increasing Vermont’s energy independence and contributing to cleaner air and lower carbon emissions.

VTel today introduced 10 Gigabits per second (Gbps) Internet available to every VTel home. VTel’s new 10 Gig residential Internet has been made possible by an $85 million VTel telephone network award from the US Department of Agriculture’s Rural Utilities Service (RUS). This RUS project is expected to be complete by June 30, 2015, on budget and on schedule, VTel said in a statement.

“We were proud four years ago to initiate first-in-Vermont 1 Gigabit Internet, at a billion-bits-per-second, at $35 a month” said VTel Chief Technology Officer Justin Robinson. “We’re even more delighted today to announce first-in-Vermont 10 Gbps Internet.”

Governor Peter Shumlin today signed into law consumer protection legislation to crack down on rent-to-own enterprises that target lower and middle income Vermonters. Rent-to-own stores market to lower and middle income individuals with troubled credit histories by promising a no-interest, hassle-free way to own consumer electronics, furniture, and other household items. The rent-to-own model works by giving consumers products upfront in exchange for a small monthly rental fee, which, if paid for the duration of the contract period can result in ownership. That small monthly rental fee can add up, however, inflating the cost of some products by 300 to 400 percent. And with only 25 percent of rent-to-own transactions actually leading to ownership, many consumers may find themselves paying full price or more for a product they won’t own.

Representative Peter Welch (D-Vermont) has joined 21 House colleagues in urging the US Food and Drug Administration to compel manufacturers to more clearly convey the serious risks associated with the use of opioid pain relievers. Currently, only extended-release and long-acting opioids have prominently displayed warnings, known as “black box warnings,” that indicate the significant potential for abuse, overdose, addiction, and neonatal abstinence syndrome. Welch and his colleagues asked that these same warnings be placed on immediate release opioids, which have the same risks and accounted for over 90 percent of the opioids prescribed in the United States in 2009, according to FDA.