Current News

Vermont Business Magazine Two Sheehey Furlong & Behm shareholders have earned the honorable distinction of “Lawyer of the Year” for 2025 by Best Lawyers, a peer-reviewed guide to the legal profession. Diane McCarthy has been recognized by her peers as the 2025 “Lawyer of the Year” in Business Organizations for Burlington, Vt. She was also recognized generally in the categories of Banking and Finance Law, Corporate Law, Mergers and Acquisitions Law, and Real Estate Law. Mark Melendy has been recognized as the 2025 “Lawyer of the Year” in Trust and Estates Law for Burlington, Vermont.  Mark was also recognized for high caliber work in Tax law.

Vermont Business Magazine Governor Phil Scott and the Vermont Department of Economic Development (DED) today announced that the Business Emergency Gap Assistance Program (BEGAP) application portal will open on Thursday, August 29 at 8:00 a.m. BEGAP is a grant program for businesses, nonprofits, landlords, and farms that suffered physical damage from flooding. It is available for properties damaged in 2023 and/or 2024. Applications are due November 15, 2024 for properties affected by the 2024 floods. Grants will cover 30% of net uncovered damages, up to $100,000. Preference will be given to Vermont-based operations, and 10% of funds have been set aside for Black, Indigenous, and Persons of Color applicants.

Vermont Business Magazine The Department of Buildings and General Services (BGS) has announced applications are now being accepted for implementation grants of up to $500,000 through the Municipal Energy Resilience Program (MERP). The grants are available to communities that participated in the recent MERP-funded energy assessments and were designated as having a high or highest energy burden in the 2019 Efficiency Vermont Energy Burden Report. All 14 Vermont counties are represented in this group. The participating municipalities have been provided with assessment reports identifying the best-value energy-related infrastructure investments, from envelope sealing to electrical vehicle charging stations. Over 500 facility energy assessments have been completed statewide to date. 

by Timothy McQuiston, Vermont Business Magazine For the week ending August 17, the Vermont Department of Health reported that the number of COVID-19 cases in Vermont continues to grow, hospitalizations are up and COVID-related deaths in August already are more than the last four months combined. COVID fatalities increased by 9 in the last week and are at 1,177 since the beginning of the pandemic over four years ago. The weekly report also shows that hospitalizations and general "syndromic" cases have increased somewhat in the last few weeks to about 15 people being treated at a Vermont hospital each week. At the beginning of the summer there were only about 5. The number of COVID cases is elevated and there were 281 cases reported last week. Cases had been falling in April and May and were as low as 31 at the beginning of May. 

Vermont Business Magazine The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has announced $26 million in funding, including $368,000 allotted for Vermont, to protect children from lead in drinking water at schools and childcare facilities. This grant funding will be used to reduce lead exposure where children learn and play while advancing the goals of the Biden-Harris Administration’s Lead Pipe and Paint Action Plan. In children, lead can severely harm mental and physical development, slowing down learning, and irreversibly damaging the brain. In adults, lead can cause increased blood pressure, heart disease, decreased kidney function, and cancer.

Vermont Business Magazine Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont), Chairman of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP), on Tuesday issued the following statement after drugmaker Eli Lilly agreed to significantly lower the list price for the starter dose of its weight loss drug Zepbound: Last month, President Biden and I co-authored an op-ed demanding that Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly substantially lower the outrageously high prices they are charging Americans for popular weight-loss and diabetes drugs. In fact, we said that if these profitable pharmaceutical companies “refuse to substantially lower prescription drug prices in our country and end their greed, we will do everything within our power to end it for them. Today, I’m pleased that Eli Lilly took a modest step forward, by reducing the starter price of Zepbound.

Vermont Business Magazine U.S. Senator Peter Welch (D-Vermont) today recognized Vermont’s esteemed research institutions for receiving an accumulative $8,603,831 in investments from the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF). The awards were granted by the NSF this fiscal cycle to a variety of research projects conducted at Vermont institutes of higher learning. Norwich university received $2 million, Middlebury received about $680,000 and UVM received nearly $6 million.

Vermont Business Magazine Leading-edge technological and mechanical systems were on display at the Fanny Allen campus in Colchester on Saturday, as UVM Medical Center’s Driver Rehabilitation Program and Trauma Survivors Network hosted an Adaptive Car Show, shining a light on the often-novel and little-known equipment, specialized training systems and rehabilitation programs that help individuals with physical limitations and other clinical needs enjoy – or recapture – the ability to safely and effective drive. More than a dozen adaptive vehicles crowded the College Parkway parking lot on Fanny Allen’s campus amid a festival atmosphere that brought adaptive car owners together with clinical specialists, community programs supporting individuals with adaptive motor vehicle needs, and visitors eager to learn more about how adaptive vehicle technology works and the wide range of injuries and conditions served by the hospital’s Driver Rehabilitation Program.

Vermont Business Magazine The Attorney General’s Office announced that Andrew Moffitt, 21, of Hartland, Vermont, was arraigned today on one felony count of Luring a Child. The charge brought against Mr. Moffitt is the result of a criminal investigation initially conducted by the Baltimore County Police Department in Maryland and later referred to the Vermont Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force (VT-ICAC) with assistance from Homeland Security Investigations, Vermont State Police, and Hartford Police Department. Mr. Moffitt is alleged to have engaged in sexually explicit conversations with a minor on the Discord platform. 

Vermont Business Magazine The American Red Cross continues to experience a national blood emergency as remnants of Hurricane Debby and other severe weather events across the country have further complicated efforts to rebuild the nation’s blood supply. Those in unaffected areas are urged to make an appointment to give now. Over the next two weeks in Vermont, 36% – or 485 blood donation appointments – are vacant across the state. Weather in recent weeks has added to the summer shortfall in donations by forcing the cancellation of nearly 60 blood drives throughout the country, many of which were caused by Debby, causing approximately 1,500 lifesaving blood products to go uncollected. Annually, severe weather − such as blizzards, tornadoes, floods and hurricanes − impacts about 90,000 blood donations made to the Red Cross. In Vermont, 57 blood drives have been canceled due to weather over the last 10 years, including eight so far this year. 

Vermont Business Magazine Vermont State University (VTSU) has named Caitlin Stover, PhD, RN as the new Dean of Nursing and Health Sciences. Stover joins VTSU as the nursing program continues to expand to meet the demands of the health care workforce crisis. Highly skilled and well-prepared nurses are desperately needed across Vermont in all sectors of the health care system. VTSU graduates about 375 nursing students at all levels each year, with programs offered from a practical nursing certificate to a Master’s-level nursing education, with flexible learning programs that include online courses, in-person and on-campus options, and hands-on learning experiences in state-of-the-art labs available for every student.

Vermont Business Magazine CPR Therapeutics, Inc (CPR-T), a development-stage medtech startup funded by the N.I.H and N.S.F to develop a generation technology for cardiopulmonary resuscitation, has announced that seven of its pre-clinical studies had been accepted after peer review for presentation at the annual American Heart Association Resuscitation Science Symposium (AHA-RESS). This year, the meeting will be in Chicago the week of November 16th. CPR Therapeutics, Inc. is developing the first multimodal precision non-invasive system for cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR). It will be a more effective treatment for cardiac arrest, which is one of the leading causes of death worldwide. There are currently no devices that are consistently more effective than old-style manual chest compressions. Intact survival after cardiac arrest remains below 10% in many communities.