Current News

Vermont State Police The suspect in this case is scheduled to be arraigned at 2 p.m. Monday, March 4, 2024, by video in the Criminal Division of Vermont Superior Court in St. Johnsbury. The suspect was arrested in connection with the Jan. 23, 2024, fatal shooting of 38-year-old Christina Chatlos in St. Johnsbury. The suspect, a 15-year-old male from Springfield, Massachusetts, will be charged as an adult in Vermont with second-degree murder. He is accused of fatally shooting Chatlos during a confrontation outside 510 Portland St. in St. Johnsbury. The suspect initially was taken into custody after the shooting on an unrelated warrant from the state of Massachusetts. He was extradited there and remained in juvenile custody as the investigation into the St. Johnsbury homicide progressed. 

Vermont Business Magazine The University of Vermont Board of Trustees today re-elected Ron Lumbra to serve as chair and welcomed three new members following a special meeting. Lumbra, who is scheduled to serve on the board until March 2028, was re-elected as the board’s chair for a fifth one-year term. Lumbra is a partner in the CEO & Board Practice of Heidrick & Struggles and based in New York. Previously, Lumbra was managing partner of the firm’s Centers of Excellence and the Americas region. Lumbra has more than 25 years of executive search and succession consulting experience and an extensive track record of recruiting board directors and chief executive officers to a broad variety of clients. 

Vermont Business Magazine As of March 1, the Department for Children and Families (DCF) is pleased to announce the successful continuation of sheltering all Vermonters currently in a room and eligible for the General Assistance Emergency Housing program. This has been made possible through collaboration with hotels/motels that accepted the new negotiated rate of $80 per night. While a handful of hotels/motels opted not to accept the new rate, it is important to note that no Vermonter lost their room due to these negotiations. Individuals requiring relocation were moved to alternate hotels/motels within the same geographic area. 

Vermont Business Magazine Linda Rossi, State Director of the Vermont Small Business Development Center (VtSBDC), has announced that VtSBDC has been awarded a one-year, $100,000 Portable Assistance Grant from the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) dedicated to funding a comprehensive Business Resilience & Empowerment Program and accompanying Guide. The Program and Guide will be available to Vermont’s businesses, communities, and service organizations that are engaged in a collaborative, statewide approach to building resilience for natural disasters, climate change, and other threats to the business community including cyber and fraud.

by Timothy McQuiston, Vermont Business Magazine Keurig Dr Pepper today issued a statement saying that they were closing their Williston manufacturing plant and moving those operations to their Essex Jct facility. The move would be executed during "the second quarter of 2024." The statement said all Williston employees will have "the opportunity to continue with the company at the Essex site." The large plant in Williston included a roasting facility and was well known for the rich smell of coffee when in operation. The Essex Jct plant will be the last of several facilities KDP has operated over the last 43 years in several locations and under the Green Mountain Coffee Roasters and Keurig brands. In total they have approximately 800 employees based in Vermont, of which 150 team members are currently in Williston.

Vermont Business Magazine UVM Health Network - Home Health & Hospice (HHH) is pleased to announce the receipt of two grants from the Vermont Agency of Human Services, totaling $1.18 million. Vermont received funding through the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 to enhance, expand, and strengthen home and community-based services (HCBS) and allocated a portion of those funds to offer grants to HCBS providers that serve Medicaid members. This funding, made possible by the federal government and distributed via VT AHS, recognizes the importance of home and community-based services to supporting the health needs of our population. 

Vermont Business Magazine Vermont organizations representing a broad spectrum of diverse interests including community school building, clean energy, flood resilience, regenerative agriculture and health care access will be lifted by a wave of support this spring when the first round of grant funding is administered by the University of Vermont’s Leahy Institute for Rural partnerships (LIRP). LIRP officials announced today that the institute has issued grants totaling over $1.7 million in funding to more than a dozen deserving projects around the state. The Leahy Institute for Rural Partnerships, officially launched late last year, is funded through a multi-year award from the USDA’s National Institute for Food and Agriculture (NIFA).

Vermont Business Magazine The Attorney General’s Office announced that Edwin Read, 31, formerly of Royalton and Barre, Vermont, was sentenced today in Vermont Superior Court, Windsor Criminal Division, after previously pleading guilty to one count of felony Aggravated Sexual Assault of a Child, one count of felony Possession of Child Sexual Abuse Material  – Second Offense, one count of misdemeanor Failure to Comply with Sex Offender Registry, and one count of misdemeanor Unlawful Mischief. Mr. Read was sentenced by the court to 25 years to life to serve.

Vermont Business Magazine Building on the success of last year’s launch, Howard Center is continuing its initiative to distribute free firearm cable locks as part of its comprehensive suicide prevention strategy in Chittenden County. Recognizing the critical link between suicide and firearm access, the program aims to encourage safer firearm storage practices. With firearms involved in over half of the suicides in Vermont, preventive measures are key to firearm safety. The majority of suicides occur within minutes or hours following the onset of suicidal thoughts. By increasing the number of barriers, such as secure firearm storage, individuals may have more time to seek help.

Vermont Business Magazine According to a new report, commissioned by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and released Tuesday by the Government Accountability Office (GAO), the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) has failed yet again to take basic steps to combat fraud in its massive contracting enterprise. Among other findings, the report showed the DOD often fails to even utilize the bare minimum of publicly available data to vet information provided by contract bidders. These shortcomings are costing taxpayers billions in misused funds.

Vermont Business Magazine In a Senate Agriculture Committee hearing yesterday, Senator Peter Welch (D-Vt.) urged U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Secretary Tom Vilsack to help Vermont farmers impacted by natural disasters like this summer’s brutal flooding and May freeze. He discussed the need to streamline and expand programs to make crop insurance more responsive to farmers following natural disasters, bolster conservation and climate resiliency funding, make rural renewable energy programming more accessible, and support farmers with more technical assistance in times of disaster. 

Vermont Business Magazine Average gasoline prices in Vermont are $3.23 per gallon, unchanged from last week. Prices are 5 cents/g higher than a month ago and 19 cents/g lower than a year ago. While prices are holding now, they are soon expected to rise again, just as prices across the nation largely already have done. The Vermont average price per gallon is 10 cents/g lower than the US average at $3.33/g.