Current News

Vermont Business Magazine In honor of Native American Heritage month, and in the spirit of Thanksgiving, Vermont Evaporator Company is donating a portion of its sales to support indigenous peoples and causes for the sixth year in a row this November. This year, the company will be setting aside a portion of its November sales for a local nonprofit, Alnôbaiwi. In past years, Vermont Evaporator Company has supported a tribe's struggle to reestablish sovereignty over their ancestral lands, organizations helping indigenous communities emerge from COVID, and groups leading BIPOC food and land justice and sovereignty efforts across the country. This year, the company is bringing its dollars back home to support people working to preserve Vermont Abenaki cultural heritage right here in Vermont.

Vermont Business Magazine The University of Vermont Athletic Department is proud to announce that newly signed partner Vermont Federal Credit Union will serve as the presenting sponsor for the Women's Basketball program as well as the UVM She Roars Program for the 2023-24 and 2024-25 seasons. Vermont Federal Credit Union will also sponsor the Vermont Night games across all winter sports. To support women in Catamount Country and beyond, the partnership will incorporate a season long, in-arena promotion, titled "When Women Win." Vermont Federal Credit Union has pledged to donate $25 to Vermont Works for Women every time a UVM women's athletic team wins at home.

Vermont Business Magazine To address what the U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy recognizes as “the defining public health crisis of our time,” thirteen colleges have received $3.275 million in funding from The Endeavor Foundation for the first phase of “Enhancing Student Learning and Experience through Campus Wellness, Student Wellbeing, and Mental Health Initiatives.” The multi-year collaborative project seeks both to respond to pressing needs and to integrate attention to mental health, wellbeing, and wellness throughout student learning.    

Vermont Business Magazine To honor Veterans Day 2023, November 11, the Vermont Department of Labor is organizing three Job Fairs this week designed to connect veterans and other job seekers with employment opportunities. These events are free and will highlight Vermont employers who actively recruit Military Veterans. “The Department is committed to helping Veterans find great opportunities in the workforce” said Lloyd Goodrow, Local Veterans Representative. “The first hour of each job fair will be exclusively reserved for Military Veterans to have the opportunity to meet with local employers.” 

Vermont Business Magazine Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont) and Senator Peter Welch (D-Vermont) today announced the formation of a Judicial Nomination Advisory Panel to fill the expected vacancy on the federal bench in the District of Vermont, created by Chief Judge Geoffrey Crawford stepping down from active service. As federal judicial nominees go through the Senate, Sanders and Welch are standing up a joint Judicial Nomination Advisory Panel to screen candidates and make recommendations, continuing the tradition established by the late Senator Robert Stafford and Senator Patrick Leahy. Sanders and Welch, in consultation with Representative Becca Balint (D-Vermont) and the Vermont Bar Association, will make recommendations to the White House to fill the vacancy. 

Vermont Business Magazine The VNA & Hospice of the Southwest Region invites the community to attend a free memorial service on Sunday, December 10, 2023 at 3pm at the Unitarian Universalist Meetinghouse on 108 School Street in Bennington. Through music, poetry, art and fellowship, this special ceremony, open to individuals of all ages and faiths, will help pay tribute to loved ones who have passed away. 

Vermont Business Magazine The Vermont Association for the Education of Young Children (VTAEYC) recognized Tammy Gosley of Bennington as the 2023 Vermont Early Childhood Educator of the Year. Gosley is a Lead Teacher with Head Start / Early Head Start of Bennington County, a program of United Counseling Service. The prestigious annual award honors exceptional early childhood educators and spotlights the importance of high-quality early childhood education for Vermont’s children, families and communities. The award was announced on November 7 at the VTAEYC Annual Conference, in a ceremony sponsored by Mascoma Bank and held at the Stoweflake Mountain Resort & Spa in Stowe, Vermont.

Vermont’s Killington Resort, the largest ski and snowboard resort in Eastern North America, is ready for winter with a jam-packed event series kicking off with the Loaded Turkey Rail Jam on November 18 and concluding with VT Green Up Day on May 4.  After that, Killington’s lifts will continue to spin as long as the snow lasts, with eyes on a multi-sport Memorial Day weekend and June skiing and riding. On November 24-26, Killington Resort will host the biggest event of the year, The Stifel Killington Cup, with performances by nationally touring acts Young the Giant, Matisyahu, Mix Master Mike and 220 KID. Double brit-nominated, multi-platinum-selling songwriter and producer 220 KID will play Friday evening as part of the athlete bib presentation and fireworks display, and again on Saturday night at the Wobbly Barn. 

by John McClaughry Thirty years ago I spent four days in the small Baltic nation of Estonia, attending a liberty conference. In the Soviet era (1940-1991) communist apparatchiks appointed in Moscow ruled the three Baltic countries as sham Soviet “republics.” The enterprising Estonians were shackled, and by 1946 more than one-quarter of the population had been deported to a Siberian Gulag, or executed, or had fled the country. But as the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, Estonia’s “Singing Revolution,” where hundreds of thousands came together in defiance of their overlords to sing forbidden patriotic songs, had pried it loose from Soviet control, sent its communist overlords home to Russia, welcomed its expatriates, recreated its democratic parliament, and restored its independence. 

Vermont Business Magazine As negotiations on new rules for addressing pandemics are underway at the World Health Organization (WHO), Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont), Chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee, today sent a letter to Ambassador Pamela Hamamoto urging her to push for the inclusion of strong reasonable pricing, technology sharing, and access standards in the international agreement. Ambassador Hamamoto leads negotiations over the Pandemic Accord with the target date of May 2024 for an agreement to be adopted by WHO’s 194 member countries.

by Timothy McQuiston, Vermont Business Magazine COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations were down slightly last week, but they have remained steady since late August. Fatalities also continue at a steady rate, with another 6 last week for a pandemic total of 1,050, as of October 21 (the most recent data available). The CDC released a new vaccine booster in October. The Vermont Department of Health reported November 1, 2023, that COVID-19 hospitalizations fell to a statewide total of 30, down from 31 last week. COVID-19 activity remains in the "Low" range, according to the VDH. Reported cases last week were 217, down from 220. Cases were over 300 in late September.  VDH reported 21 COVID deaths in October (there were 33 in October 2022 and 47 in October 2021 and zero in October 2020, which was the last month since the beginning of the pandemic to record no COVID-related fatalities). 

Northeastern Vermont Development Association This Wednesday there will be a lunchtime webinar presentation of the VT Public Service Department's recently released report, Vermont Weighs In – Public Opinion on Renewable Electricity. This report covers work done in partnership with MassINC Polling Group to conduct a statewide survey and focus groups to hear from Vermonters about their priorities around electricity and discuss considerations for future policies and programs. Want to learn more before attending? Read the full report or review the summary slides. Review NVDA's report following the Sept "Say WATT" listening sessions to see what top electricity priorities were identified in the NEK. Participate in the Renewable Energy Standard (RES) Reform Working Group Meeting on Nov 15 (online).