Current News

by Hilary Niles vtdigger.org The proposed AnC Bio biomedical research park in Newport was under an environmental spotlight Monday evening. Health and safety concerns and traffic burdens dominated discussion at a two-hour public hearing convened by the District 7 Environmental Commission. Five Newport residents were given party status to the Act 250 deliberations — meaning they are granted the right to appeal the commission’s decision of whether to issue an environmental permit for the four-story, 84,000-square-foot facility. Official state and municipal interests, such as the city of Newport and the Northeastern Vermont Development Association, are granted party status automatically.

Goddard College today announced the creation of the Goddard Graduate Institute, which will house three of its master’s degree programs. Bringing together faculty from across the humanities, social sciences, and health arts disciplines, the Graduate Institute seeks to integrate scholarship and personal development with social, ecological, artistic and cultural action to support students who want to effect positive change in the world.

The Institute’s faculty will advise students pursuing the Individualized Master of Arts, Master of Arts in Health Arts & Sciences, and the Master of Arts in Social Innovation & Sustainability. Additional cross-disciplinary activities—such as workshops, symposia, conferences, publications, and hands-on projects—will also enhance and engage students, and professionals on campus.

Vermont scored well in enacting balanced policies that enhance the delivery of effective pain management for patients battling a chronic disease such as cancer, according to a new report issued by leading researchers and patient advocacy groups. Nationwide, the findings showed that states have made considerable progress over the last decade in enacting policies that enhance access to pain care, including the use of pain medications, and minimizing potential treatment barriers. Based on 2013 data, the report gave Vermont a letter grade of A in measuring the quality and balance of its policies to make pain treatment available to patients. The state also received an A in 2012. Prior to that, it got B+s in 2006, 2007 and 2008, which represent the three previous reports.

by John McClaughry Vermonters moan about their steadily rising education property taxes, especially as the number of students continually decreases. Rarely do citizens focus clearly on the causes of rising school taxes, and the possible solutions. That is, in part, because the “education stakeholders” are ever alert to control the agenda for “reform”.

Their time-worn offering this year was “governance reform”. That means grouping towns into large “Regional Education Districts”, at first through incentives, then later by state mandate. This legislation collapsed in the final days of the 2014 session, in part because the House leadership realized that members who voted for it might not do so well with their voters this November.

The inaugural Do Good Fest hosted by National Life Group over the weekend raised nearly $11,000 for Branches of Hope, the Cancer Patient Fund at Central Vermont Medical Center’s National Life Cancer Treatment Center. Roughly 1,500 people attended the daylong music festival on the grounds of National Life Group, which was co-sponsored by The Point FM.

For the 4th year in a row, US News & World Report has designated Burlington-based Fletcher Allen as a “Best Regional Hospital” after a thorough review of quality indicators and a national survey of specialists. The US News rankings, now in their 25th year, recognize hospitals that excel in treating the most challenging patients. Only 14 percent of the 5,000 hospitals analyzed earned Best Regional status. As part of the Fletcher Allen Health Care ranking, three specialties were selected as “High Performing”- Orthopedics, Gynecology and Urology - meaning the care provided is at or near the same level as that provided at top centers in the US. For example in Orthopedics, there have been no infections in primary knee replacements in the past 3 ½ years (1,481 procedures).

The Vermont Attorney General’s Office has filed suit against Dollar Tree Stores, Inc, a national discount chain based in Chesapeake, VA, for violating a 2010 settlement with the State to stop selling jewelry. The settlement, contained in an Assurance of Discontinuance under the Vermont Consumer Protection Act, resolved claims that Dollar Tree sold products containing high amounts of toxic lead and cadmium in violation of Vermont law, and was intended to protect Vermont’s children from exposure to those and other toxic substances.

Vermont Business Magazine Pier 1 Imports opened its first corporate-owned store in Vermont with much fanfare in South Burlington. The store, which officially opened on Tuesday, completes Pier 1 Imports’ retail presence in each of the 50 states across the country. Customers were lined up waiting to get in as an A-list of local dignitaries opened the two-store shop next to the also brand new Trader Joe's off Dorset Street. The event included the presentation of a donation of $2,500 from Pier 1 to representatives of Burlington-based nonprofit Women Helping Battered Women.

Vermont Business Magazine Demographic, social and economic changes combined with major policy developments have affected the lives of lower-income children in both positive and negative ways since 1990, according to the Annie E Casey Foundation’s 25th edition of its annual KIDS COUNT Data Book. For 2014, the three highest-ranked states for child well-being were Massachusetts, Vermont and Iowa; the three lowest-ranked were Nevada, New Mexico and Mississippi.

by Morgan True vtdigger.org An administration report on ways to improve and reorganize the Department for Children and Families has been pushed back. In May Governor Peter Shumlin ordered the Agency of Human Services to develop a plan to reorganize DCF, following the deaths of two toddlers involved with the department. Doug Racine, the secretary of the agency, was required to release a report by Aug. 1, but that deadline has been pushed back to October to allow input from advocates and stakeholders.

The governor’s Council on Pathways from Poverty asked for the delay, according to Christopher Curtis, an attorney with Vermont Legal Aid and a co-chair of the council.

Researchers at Dartmouth-Hitchcock and the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth College are playing a key role in a multi-center $22.5 million, four-year effort to develop next-generation technologies to restore memory function in individuals who suffer from memory loss. The project, which is in support of President Obama’s BRAIN (Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies) initiative, will combine research on the basic mechanisms of memory function with the development of systems designed to electrically stimulate discrete regions of the brain.

The project, which is led by Michael Jacob Kahana, Professor of Psychology at the University of Pennsylvania, is part of the “Restoring Active Memory” program sponsored by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or DARPA.

Dr. Steve Arthur, the recently retired Director of the Office of Oral Health for the State of Vermont, recalls a visit to his 92 year old mother in an out-of-state assisted-living facility and being very concerned at what he found missing in her care there.

“It’s true that I’m probably more alert to oral health care needs than most, but I noticed how little, if any, attention was given to my mother’s dental hygiene needs,” he said. “My mother has dementia which makes it difficult for anyone to provide oral health, but I believe her dental care was already being overlooked. It wasn’t a priority for the staff there and her oral health care needs were being neglected.”