Current News

Compressed natural gas (CNG) is now paving the streets in the center of Rutland, running the largest commercial laundry in the state, as well as heating the local hospital. The gas is being delivered by NG Advantage and what it calls a "virtual pipeline," consisting of a fleet of high-tech tractor/trailers, as the region waits for the natural gas pipeline to be extended from northern Vermont by 2020.

Rutland’s Mayor Chris Lourassaid, “A significant number of local employers currently use large amounts of #2 and #6 fuel oil to produce heat. This is inefficient, expensive, and not an environmentally sound practice for the long term.

The Mad River Food Hub, the CAE Vermont Food Venture Center and the Vermont Community Loan Fund are pleased to announce a new equipment leasing program for food businesses and entrepreneurs.

The Vermont Value-Added Producer Equipment Access Program will help emerging food business by creating access to specialized equipment that will help them increase production and enhance product quality. Participants will have worked with a food business incubator for at least 3 months, have annual revenue of over $20,000, be planning to use the equipment in Vermont and directly or indirectly source ingredients from Vermont farms and producers.

The Equipment Access Program has been made possible by philanthropic support, in particular from the Castanea Foundation, High Meadows Fund, the Surdna Foundation, the John Merck Fund and the State of Vermont’s Working Lands Enterprise Initiative.

by Anne Galloway vtdigger.org Is it legal for the Shumlin administration to keep financing plans for the single payer health care system a secret? Even when those plans have been shared with House legislative leadership? Those are the questions at the heart of a lawsuit brought by Representative Cynthia Browning, D-Arlington, against the state of Vermont. Governor Peter Shumlin has used executive privilege, a legal doctrine that protects his decision-making process, to keep the deliberations of the Business Advisory Council on Health Care Reform and the Consumer Advisory Council on Health Care Reform out of the public purview. Browning believes Shumlin has applied the doctrine too broadly in order to prevent public access to information about his plans for single payer. She said her request does not breach executive privilege.

Vermont Businesses for Social Responsibility (VBSR) has chosen Mark Curran, Founder and Co-Owner of Black River Produce, as the 2014 recipient of the Terry Ehrich Award for Excellence in Socially Responsible Business. Named for the late owner of Hemmings Motor News and a founding member of VBSR, the award is given to a VBSR member who best exemplifies Terry Ehrich’s commitment to the environment, workplace, progressive public policy and community.

by Morgan True vtdigger.org Margot Page was worried about a gap in her health coverage. It was March and her pharmacy claims were being rejected. Earlier in the year, Page, 61, of Sunderland purchased health insurance through Vermont Health Connect, the state’s online insurance marketplace. Her old coverage expired in March, but despite months of back-and-forth with Vermont Health Connect customer service representatives, she was unable to change the start date of her coverage, which was mistakenly entered as April. In a panic the first week of March, Page reached out to her friend, Representative Patti Komline, R-Dorset, for help. Komline put Page in touch with Lindsey Tucker, a deputy commissioner for the Department of Vermont Health Access, and the woman who happens to be in charge of the day-to-day operations for Vermont Health Connect.

Vermont Business Magazine Norwich University’s College of Graduate and Continuing Studies (CGCS) has announced the renewal of a grant that will support students in the online Master of Science in Nursing program. The National Faculty Loan Repayment Program will provide $250,000 towards the repayment of student loans to those graduates that agree to go into teaching in an accredited nursing school upon graduation. The grant is from the US Department of Health and Human Services Health Resources and Services Administration.

HowardCenter was recently awarded a three-year accreditation—the highest level of accreditation—from CARF International (formerly known as the Commission of Accreditation of Rehabilitation Facilities) for its San Remo Drive clinic, which provides medication assisted treatment for individuals with opioid dependence. The award commends the HowardCenter and notes that, “This achievement is an indication of the organization’s dedication and commitment to improving the quality of the lives of the people served.”

The CARF Accreditation report highlights program strengths, including HowardCenter’s long, rich history of providing high-quality, compassionate human services in Vermont and a high level of patient satisfaction.

by John McClaughry The future of Obamacare is hanging by a legal thread, thanks to what its supporters have passed off as a mere “drafting error”. Now MIT professor Jonathan Gruber, selected by Gov. Shumlin to receive yet another juicy contract to try to make sense out of Green Mountain Care, finds himself uncomfortably in the spotlight of the legal issue.

The Affordable Care Act of 2010 (ObamaCare) contemplated the creation of health insurance exchanges in every state. An earlier version in the Senate mandated states to create such exchanges, through which federal tax credit subsidies would flow to persons buying government-approved insurance.

Brattleboro Memorial Hospital hosted a special art reception on July 31 to showcase more than two dozen pieces of original Vermont artwork, thanks to a generous donation by the Susan Sebastian Foundation of Williston, Vermont. The Foundation was established in April 2009 by Elise Braun of Waterbury, Vermont, following the death of her daughter, Susan Sebastian in 2008. Born at Brattleboro Memorial Hospital on July 31, 1956, Susan graduated from Stowe High School in 1975 and lived with her husband Jim in South Dartmouth, Massachusetts, until his death in 2004.

Susan suffered from a long illness before her own death and spent a good deal of time staring at hospital room walls with her mother by her side. She told her mother, "When I get out of here, I am going to sell my house to buy art for hospital patient rooms."

by Anne Galloway, vtdigger.org After months of pressuring CGI to repair the state’s dysfunctional health care exchange website, the state of Vermont is finally cutting ties with the IT firm. Lawrence Miller, chief of health care reform, announced Monday that the state has reached an exit agreement with the Canadian technology company and the remaining Web development work that needs to be finished will be carried out by Optum, a subsidiary of United HealthCare, a national insurance company.

Lawrence Miller and Gov. Peter Shumlin. VTDigger file photo

Over 294 Vermont businesses will benefit from a $200,000 settlement with a Texas company announced today by Vermont Attorney General William H Sorrell. The State of Vermont sued Enhanced Services Billing, Inc (ESBI) in May, alleging that the company violated a state law designed to protect Vermonters from unauthorized charges on their landline telephone bills (a practice known as “cramming”), and facilitated cramming by a seller of Web services called Localbizusa. The Stipulation and Consent Order requires ESBI, a “billing aggregator” based in San Antonio, Texas, to pay $75,000 in refunds to the businesses and $125,000 to the State.

Vermont Law School has lost another significant member of its community. Vermont Law today announced the death of Geoffrey “Jeff” Benson Shields, former Vermont Law School president and dean. Dean Shields, 68, passed away peacefully, in the company of his loving wife Genie, on Saturday, August 2, at their Guilford, Vermont, home.