Current News

The Brattleboro Retreat marked the opening of its redesigned Admissions Department and Medical Clinic on Tuesday with an afternoon ribbon cutting ceremony and formal dedication of a new bronze sculpture situated outside the Admissions Department entrance. The six foot tall, 350 pound bronze sculpture, entitled “A Matter of Balance,” is the creation of Vermont artist Susan Read Cronin of Manchester Center, whose mother, Signa Lynch Read, generously donated the piece to the Retreat in honor of her daughter (the artist’s sister), who died in 2013. The piece depicts an elephant atop a unicycle.

Senator Patrick Leahy (D-Vermont) Wednesday announced $1 million in federal funding to the Vermont Department of Corrections to meet statewide goals in reducing prison recidivism rates. Vermont was one of five states to receive funding from the US Department of Justice for similar programs authorized by the Second Chance Act.

Leahy said: “Reducing recidivism rates is a fundamental step to improving safety in communities around the country. Funding for this program will help Vermont take steps toward this goal, to help make sure that offenders coming out of prison have the opportunity to turn their lives around. The Vermont Department of Corrections has done tremendous work in reducing the rate of recidivism in our state, and this grant will enable Commissioner Pallito and his team to continue to build on those successes.”

by Campaign for Vermont Vermont’s carpenters and woodworkers understand the common sense value of the saying, “measure twice, and cut once”. Sloppy preparation wastes both valuable resources and time, they know. Campaign for Vermont urges legislative leaders to “measure twice, and cut once” when it comes to education funding reform. With over $1.5 billion in taxpayers’ funds at stake as well as the education of our children, hastily and poorly crafted proposals can do more harm than good.

During the last legislative session, after numerous school budgets had been defeated, the legislature, with the support of the Secretary of Education, slapped together a school reform proposal (H.883) that essentially neutered Vermont’s local school districts in favor of larger consolidated school districts. Yet, the value of this proposal to both Vermont’s students and taxpayers remains unproven. Fortunately, that proposal did not become law.

by Anne Galloway vtdigger.org Governor Peter Shumlin, the incumbent Democrat, handily bested his three rivals in a debate on Vermont Public Radio Tuesday night. Shumlin used rhetoric to sidestep tough questions and successfully deflected criticism of the bungled health care exchange website among other issues. He used the forum as a platform to reiterate rhetoric about his record. In questions and responses, the governor stayed focused on his message that his administration has kept unemployment low, created jobs and improved the state’s economic environment in the past four years.

by Morgan True vtdigger.org The state’s largest private insurer will soon launch a website for small business customers that will allow members to renew their Vermont Health Connect coverage and change their information online. Vermont was the only state to mandate that businesses with 50 or fewer employees purchase health insurance through the state exchange, and it originally hoped to have them do so through the Vermont Health Connect portal. That didn’t happen in the exchange’s first year and won’t happen for the next enrollment period, either. State officials have given only a vague timeline for that functionality, suggesting that small businesses might be able to use the site by early 2015.

Don George, CEO of Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Vermont. VTDigger file photo

by Hilary Niles vtdigger.org Vermont is on the right track toward developing a digital economy and has more to do, Gov. Peter Shumlin told an audience at the Statehouse on Tuesday. Shumlin gave the keynote speech at a daylong summit in Montpelier organized by the Vermont Council on Rural Development. Vermont Connected drew about 275 attendees for more than 30 sessions that covered education, community building, business and policy. In his keynote, Shumlin praised the state’s congressional delegation for securing $400 million in federal stimulus funding to build out Vermont’s broadband infrastructure, which he dubbed the biggest public-private partnership in state history.

Shumlin acknowledged and dismissed an ongoing debate about whether the broadband it has produced is fast enough.

American and Vermont manufacturers are experiencing a renaissance. Numerous manufacturers are bringing outsourced jobs back home. There is a market opportunity to build upon and grow Vermont’s manufacturing economy with the Vermont value proposition: quality, ingenuity and innovation. In 2012, the manufacturing industry in Vermont accounted for $3.15 billion, or 11.5% of the state’s gross domestic product (GDP) and made up almost two-thirds of all Vermont exports. In 2013, manufacturing employed over 32,000 Vermonters.

The Lake Champlain Byway is pleased to issue its Draft Lake Champlain Byway Interpretation Coordination Plan for public comment. In particular, the byway is looking for feedback from residents, tourism-related businesses and intrinsic resource site managers from the 22 Vermont towns that comprise the byway. The draft plan and instructions for comments can be viewed at www.lakechamplainbyway.com. This is the first interpretation coordination plan for the Lake Champlain Byway. The goals of the plan are to build awareness among managers of the different sites along the byway about each other’s sites and programs; to identify areas of overlap where collaboration may be possible; and to assist with the development of consistent messaging among the sites and for the Byway itself.

Following the abrupt closure of the Vermont Center for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing, the Agency of Education announced today that it has chosen Nine East Network to provide school-based and parent/infant programs for students who are deaf or hard of hearing.

“It is critical that we ensure a smooth transition for these children and families,” said Director of Special Education Cindy Moran. “Susan Kimmerly of Nine East Network has stepped up to the plate at a critical time for these students, in order to ensure little interruption of expected and required educationally related consultation services.”

The announcement comes following the closure of the Austine School in Brattleboro, which also hosted the Vermont Center for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing (VCDHH). The VCDHH Board held an emergency meeting and voted to close on September 12. Once the Agency was notified, staff convened a group of stakeholders to develop a plan for continuation of these services.

Joined by state officials, substance abuse experts, medical staff and others, Governor Peter Shumlin today outlined Vermont’s progress in the battle against opiate addiction since January. The group highlighted expanded addiction treatment across the state, a new regional and national focus on the crisis promoted by Vermont’s leadership, an increased number of counties launching pre-trial risk assessment programs to move more Vermonters into treatment rather than prison, and more.

Richard M Nelson, a dairy farmer in Coventry, Vermont, has admitted to violations of Vermont’s water pollution law and agricultural practice regulations and has agreed to pay $33,000.00 in civil penalties for the violations. “Vermont’s laws and regulations relating to agricultural water quality help keep our state waterways clean,” said Attorney General William H Sorrell. “Farmers should know that when those requirements are not met, the State will pursue enforcement claims in State court.”

by Don George, President and CEO, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Vermont Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Vermont (BCBSVT) is an independent, not-for-profit Vermont company, governed and managed locally, and our sole focus is Vermont. One of our guiding principles is to put our members first, and at times it is important to advocate on their behalf. It is from that perspective that I offer this opinion.

The current health care system unfairly burdens Vermont businesses and individuals who pay health insurance premiums by requiring them to subsidize the services that government programs (Medicaid and Medicare) provide but don’t fully pay for.