Current News

Vermont Business Magazine The Federal Nuclear Waste Policy Committee of the Vermont Nuclear Decommissioning Citizens Advisory Panel (VT NDCAP) will hold its next regular meeting on Monday, June 17, 2024 from 12:00 noon to 1 PM.  A hybrid format will be used for this meeting.  In accordance with Vermont Open Meeting Law, the following physical location will be available for those wishing to attend this meeting in-person: Governor Hunt House, Small Meeting Room (1st Floor, rear of the building), 320 Governor Hunt Road, Vernon.

Vermont Business Magazine Governor Phil Scott signed four bills into law, as passed by the General Assembly. These include H.644, An act relating to access to records by individuals who were in foster care. Scott said: "This bill will allow Vermonters to access their files from their time in foster care, which is important because I believe everyone deserves to know about their past."

The Vermont State Police is investigating an incident in which a man was shot and killed by a state trooper Wednesday afternoon, June 12, 2024, in the town of Orange. The shooting occurred at about 1:25 p.m. outside a home on Spencer Road. The man was pronounced deceased on scene. His identity is unknown at this time. The trooper was uninjured but was brought to Central Vermont Medical Center in Berlin for evaluation as a precaution. This investigation is in its earliest stages and involves detectives with the Vermont State Police Major Crime Unit and Bureau of Criminal Investigations, uniformed troopers from Field Force Division, and the Victim Services Unit. The Crime Scene Search Team will respond to the location of the shooting to process the scene.

Vermont Business Magazine Vermont Public has partnered with Front Porch Forum on outreach efforts for its Citizens Agenda initiative during the 2024 election season. The Citizens Agenda model of election news coverage aims to put people — not preconceived ideas — at the center of the reporting process. To accomplish that, Vermont Public is taking its cues from Vermonters to ensure their concerns inform candidate debates, voter guides and more. Vermont Public is traveling around the state throughout the year to hear from Vermonters in person and inviting participation online.

Vermont Business Magazine Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont) today, with 31 of his colleagues in the Senate, called on the National Mediation Board (NMB) to urgently resolve unfairly delayed contract negotiations that have left more than 100,000 flight attendants and airline workers stuck in expired contracts without the ability to strike – all while cost-of-living expenses are on the rise and airline carriers rake in record-breaking profits. “We are concerned about the increasing number of contract negotiations before the NMB that are being unnecessarily drawn out at the expense of workers,” wrote the senators. “We understand that there are ongoing negotiations that have dragged on for as long as five years and we have heard from workers who are rightfully frustrated that they are being subjected to unfair delays in bargaining. Without new contracts, these workers are left further and further behind…”

Vermont Business Magazine NECANN will host its 5th Annual Vermont Cannabis & Hemp Convention June 14-15 at the Champlain Valley Expo Center in Essex Junction presented by Berkshire Bank. This year’s event will feature 15 speaker sessions with 40+ expert cannabis speakers with sessions on a variety of cannabis issues related to the Vermont industry. On the expo floor, there’ll be 100+ exhibitors covering the full spectrum of the industry: growing, distribution, brand development, ancillary businesses and more. The convention’s keynote address will be delivered by Riley Kirk on the topic: Understanding Cannabis Science to Help Consumers at 1pm Saturday June 15.

Vermont Business Magazine U.S. Senator Peter Welch (D-Vt.), member of the U.S. Congress Joint Economic Committee (JEC), shared a new report released this week by the JEC’s Democratic staff finding that flooding causes as much as $496 billion in losses each year. On Friday afternoon, Welch will visit two sites in Windham County that are hosting floodplain restoration and mitigation projects. In July 2023, Vermont experienced several days of nonstop rain, with nearly nine inches of rainfall falling on parts of the state. The torrential rain caused flash flooding, washouts, and mudslides across the state. Homes, businesses, farms, and public infrastructure were damaged, and many were completely destroyed.  

Vermont Business Magazine More than two hundred Vermont counselors, social workers, nurses, health care providers, and other health and human service professionals will come together on June 14th as part of the Collaborative to Advance Mental Health Treatment and Substance Use Recovery for Everyone (C.A.R.E). The Whole Person Care: Enhancing Substance Use Disorder & Mental Health Treatment conference is centered around the importance of holistic care for people with Substance Use and Mental Health concerns.  

Vermont Business Magazine Vermont’s alpine and cross-country ski area members joined industry partners, supporters, and friends at the Vermont Ski Areas Association's (VSAA) 55th Annual Meeting at Jay Peak Resort late last week to recap a challenging but successful season. Despite facing many weather challenges Vermont’s alpine ski areas reported 4.1 million skier visits for 2023-24, down less than half a percentage point from the 2022-23 season. Visitation this season remains 4 percent above Vermont’s 10-year average and outpaces a 6.2 percent decrease in Northeast region visits (12.4 million) and a 6.6 percent decrease in national visits (60.4 million).

by Mike Donoghue, Vermont News First, Vermont Business Magazine A special food drive is underway to provide free weekly dinners to the Burlington mayor and her wife to help reduce the burden of being public servants. Emma Mulvaney-Stanak, who took office as Mayor on April 1, and her partner Megan Moir, the director of water resources for the city of Burlington, make about $250,000 a year, but friends have started a food drive for the two women and their two children. The sign up is through a website known as MealTrain.com and features a picture of Mulvaney-Stanak, Moir and their two children. The website also says people can donate food cards to DoorDash, Panera, Chili’s, Visa and more to the family. 

The Vermont State Police has cited Veronica Lewis, 40, an inmate at Chittenden Regional Correctional Facility in South Burlington, on a charge of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon arising from an attack on her cellmate. The assault occurred at about 4:55 a.m. Wednesday, May 29, 2024. Per standard protocol, the Vermont Department of Corrections reported the incident to state police, who initiated an investigation. VSP’s investigation determined that Lewis, who is serving a sentence for attempted second-degree murder for the shooting of her firearms instructor in 2015, entered her cell and attacked her sleeping cellmate, 52-year-old Yvonne Frederiksen, with a facility-issued tablet computing device and a lock that had been placed inside a sock. 

Vermont Business Magazine Through generous funding from KeyBank Foundation, the Pomerleau Family Foundation, the University of Vermont Medical Center, and many individual donors, Spectrum Youth and Family Services has been able to make its Nightly Shelter a year-round resource for homeless youth. On May 14, 2024, Spectrum officially expanded its seasonal warming shelter operations from seasonal to year-round programming to fill the critical gap in the local continuum of care, offering a youth-friendly overnight option when other shelter beds are full.