Current News

Vermont Business Magazine Vermont’s open enrollment period opens November 1. During Open Enrollment, Vermonters can sign up for or change their health and dental plans for 2025. Coverage starts January 1, 2025, for those who sign up on or before December 15. Open Enrollment ends January 15, 2025. This year, many Vermonters will be eligible for better coverage plans at lower premium costs due to increased federal subsidies. The Department of Vermont Health Access (DVHA) encourages everyone to check available plan options on the Vermont Health Connect Plan Comparison Tool to ensure the best possible coverage. 

Vermont Business Magazine Attorney General Charity Clark has announced two significant multistate settlements with Heritage Pharmaceuticals and Apotex which nationally total $49.1 million. The settlements resolve allegations that both companies engaged in widespread, long-running conspiracies to artificially inflate and manipulate prices, reduce competition, and unreasonably restrain trade with regard to numerous generic prescription drugs. As part of their settlement agreements, both companies have agreed to cooperate in the ongoing multistate litigations against 30 corporate defendants and 25 individual executives. Both companies have further agreed to a series of internal reforms to ensure fair competition and compliance with antitrust laws. 

Vermont Business Magazine U.S. Senator Peter Welch (D-Vermont) traveled to Waterbury Center this week to congratulate Verde Technologies on the opening of its new research lab and pilot production facility. While at the facility, he also celebrated Verde’s recognition as a grand prize winner of the U.S. Department of Energy’s Perovskite Startup Prize for its innovative work in the climate tech sector. Verde Technologies’ newly expanded facilities will allow the company to build out its pilot lines and start producing larger thin-film solar cells for upcoming pilot projects with local and national partners. 

Vermont Business Magazine More than 28,000 homes and businesses in the Rutland County region now have access to future-proof fiber internet from Fidium Fiber. Otter Creek Communications Union District (CUD) celebrated the completion of fiber expansion in partnership with Fidium during a ribbon cutting on Tuesday. Otter Creek CUD was named an official Gig Community during the event, with towns where fiber expansion was completed being named Gig Towns. Otter Creek CUD communities now have access to Fidium Fiber’s multi-gig speed all fiber network. This comes just 12 months after the CUD received a grant from the Vermont Community Broadband Board (VCBB), and just five months after Consolidated Communications began construction to expand its Fidium Fiber network. 

Vermont Business Magazine The Vermont Department of Corrections today announced the death of a Vermont-sentenced incarcerated individual at the Federal Correctional Complex USP Coleman I in Coleman, Florida, on Saturday, October 19, 2024. The Department was notified of the death by the U.S. Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) on Wednesday, October 30, 2024, and has completed required next of kin and victim notifications. Samuel Wright, 66, of Rosemère, Quebec, Canada, was lodged with BOP in May 1989, where he has since remained, to serve his Vermont sentence under the terms of a federal intergovernmental agreement. Due to a deportation detainer and sentence of 60 years to life, Mr. Wright was deemed unsuitable for placement in Vermont and housed within the federal system.

Vermont State Police Following review of an investigation by the Vermont State Police, the Attorney General’s Office on Thursday, Oct. 31, 2024, directed VSP to issue a citation to a Rutland City Police Department officer in connection with a shooting that occurred in the city in July 2023. Sgt. Andrew Plemmons is due to appear for arraignment Friday on charges of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and reckless endangerment. The hearing is expected to occur at 12:30 p.m. in the Criminal Division of Vermont Superior Court in Rutland. The charges arise from an incident that occurred July 3, 2023, during which Sgt. Plemmons shot and wounded two 21-year-old brothers from Springfield, Massachusetts, identified as Randy A. Perez-Coiscou and Andy H. Perez-Coiscou. They have since recovered from their injuries.

Vermont Business Magazine The Richards Group has acquired the Washburn and Wilson Agency of Bethel, Vermont. The partnership with The Richards Group will benefit clients by ensuring that decisions and service remain local for years to come, while expanding client services and resources. Washburn and Wilson’s staff will remain at their current office, located at 246 Main Street in Bethel, VT. Financial terms were not disclosed.

Vermont Business Magazine U.S. Senator Peter Welch (D-Vt.) has announced Vermont has received $20,770,801 in funding for the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP), which helps ensure Vermonters can heat their homes throughout the winter months and also prevents energy shutoffs, provides reconnection services, and offers energy efficiency upgrades. The funding from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is provided to the State for Fiscal Year 2025 and is a funding priority of Senator Welch and the Vermont Delegation. 

Vermont Business Magazine Northeast Kingdom Human Services (NKHS) in Newport has extended the hours of its Front Porch Mental Health Urgent Care (MHUC) program, now open 24 hours a day from Monday through Friday. The program previously operated 16 hours a day. The new extended hours will ensure care is available at any time during the week, allowing individuals in crisis to access timely support when they need it most. 

Vermont Business Magazine First Children’s Finance VT (FCF) is proud to announce the first recipients of the Vermont Planning Grant Project, an award designed to expand child care capacity across the state. Among the awardees is Craftsbury Saplings, which received a $50,000 grant to plan a new child care facility in Craftsbury, Vermont. These grants are part of a broad effort to strengthen Vermont’s child care infrastructure and increase access to affordable, high-quality early childhood education. Craftsbury Saplings, a non-profit community child care center, serves families in Craftsbury and its surrounding towns. With its current facility at capacity and a lengthy waitlist, the $50,000 grant helps lay the foundation for a new 7,100-square-foot building that will nearly triple current capacity, from 19 children to 54. 

Vermont Business Magazine BETA Technologies, Inc., an electric aerospace company based in Vermont, has raised $318 million in Series C equity capital. QIA led the raise and several of BETA’s largest investors, including Fidelity Management & Research Company and TPG Rise Climate increased their ownership in BETA. Longtime customer United Therapeutics has also joined this round as an investor. The financing round was priced at an increased valuation relative to prior equity capital raises and was meaningfully oversubscribed. To date, BETA has raised more than $1 billion in equity capital. Over the past eight years, BETA has developed sustainable products that lower the cost of transporting goods and people safely and reliably. This new funding will support the continued production, certification, and commercialization of those solutions, which include BETA’s all-electric fixed-wing and eVTOL aircraft ALIA, advanced high performance electric propulsion systems, as well as its multimodal charging systems and growing infrastructure network. 

Vermont Business Magazine This week, Vice President Kamala Harris and Administrator Isabel Casillas Guzman, head of the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) and the voice for America’s more than 34 million small businesses in President Biden’s Cabinet, announced that the SBA delivered a transformative $56 billion to small businesses and disaster-impacted communities in Fiscal Year 2024 (FY24). The FY24 Capital Impact Report shows that the Agency increased its annual capital portfolio – which includes startup, growth, and recovery capital, as well as surety bonds – by 7% over Fiscal Year 2023 (FY23). Moreover, for the first time since 2008, the SBA made more than 100,000 financings to small businesses, representing a 22% increase over FY23 and a 50% increase over 2020.