Current News

by Jules Older For what feels like a long, long time, I've been saying this: We should stop automatically denigrating all things AI, stop wishful-thinking it will go away, stop denouncing it as the devil’s pitchfork. Then, we should start thinking about, talking about, planning and designing a different kind of world. And this: If I'm right about this job-deficient future, visionaries, philosophers, politicians, planners and governments need to think seriously about how people, mostly without jobs and work, will thrive. And the time to start thinking about what will replace jobs and work is right n-o-w.

Vermont Business Magazine The Attorney General’s Office today announced that it has reached a settlement with United Counseling Service of Bennington County, Inc (UCS), resolving allegations of service failures that resulted in serious safety risks to Medicaid recipients and to the public. Under the settlement, UCS will pay the State of Vermont $483,464 and implement dramatic organizational reforms, including appointing an external oversight monitor, hiring a new director of quality to take over day-to-day management of the division, and publicly reporting substantive corrections for up to three years.

by Timothy McQuiston, Vermont Business Magazine According to multiple reports, federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents (ICE) on Wednesday morning attempted to apprehend an alleged undocumented immigrant who had previously been deported and re-entered the US. A car chase involving ICE ensued near the South Burlington High School and Tuttle Middle School on Dorset Street and nearby off-road areas. The result of the chase was multiple-vehicle crashes with reportedly two subjects fleeing the scene. A small building on Dorset Street was then sited as the apparent location of the subjects and others rumored to being related to the subjects. ICE agents then waited several hours for a federal warrant to allow them to enter the building, which they eventually received. Local law enforcement as well as Vermont State Police were also on the scene as over 100 protesters eventually congregated. Once the warrant was served, law enforcement and protesters clashed, some protesters were arrested, there were minor injuries to protesters and law enforcement and the subject of the original arrest warrant was found not to be in the building and as of this writing remains at large.

by Timothy McQuiston, Vermont Business Magazine Average gasoline prices in Vermont are $3.50 per gallon, up 34 cents per gallon from last week, up 51 cents/g from last month and up 36 cents/g from a year ago, according to AAA, as the war in Iran has created chaos and uncertainty, drone strikes on shipping and pushed Brent crude over $100 a barrel. The national average price of gasoline has risen 34 cents per gallon in the last week, averaging $3.59/g today. The national average is up 65 cents per gallon from a month ago and stands 51 cents per gallon higher than a year ago.

Vermont Business Magazine Today, Treasurer Pieciak stood with local leaders in Brattleboro to announce a major $4 million funding commitment from his 10% in VT program to support Phase 1 of The Village at Winston Prouty. The $9.5 million project will build 28 new units of workforce housing on the Winston Prouty campus. The treasurer’s investment is the most significant tranche of funding committed to date. Units will target 80 to 120% of area median income, supporting more affordable local housing options, a stronger hiring pipeline for Brattleboro employers, and economic growth for generations to come. Residents will have direct access to child and family services from The Winston Prouty Center and enjoy close proximity to trails and natural green space.

Vermont Business Magazine Chittenden Solid Waste District (CSWD) is alerting the public to a highly sophisticated phishing scam that occurred during construction of its new Materials Recycling Facility (MRF). Scammers posing as representatives of CSWD’s construction partner contacted CSWD’s finance team requesting that we update our system with their new payment terms.  The fraudulent emails were particularly convincing, using email addresses nearly identical to those of the construction company, purporting to be from a known member of the finance team, and included that person’s photo. 

Vermont Business Magazine The Vermont Outdoor Recreation Economic Collaborative launched a toolkit to give Vermont communities of all sizes a practical roadmap for measuring and growing their outdoor recreation economies. The Vermont CORE Toolkit (Community Outdoor Recreation Economy), a comprehensive resource designed to support municipalities and local organizations, is available starting today at vtcoretoolkit.com. VOREC will host a webinar to introduce the Toolkit on Friday, March 13, from 11 am to 12:30 pm.

Vermont Business Magazine Vermont boasts over 1,400 miles of lakeshore, and nearly half is developed in a way that impacts water quality and wildlife habitat. Ahead of construction season, the Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) is holding a free training on best practices to develop, manage, and restore shorelands. The training advances the state’s goals to improve and protect clean water, flood resiliency, and wildlife habitat. The Shoreland Erosion Control and Restoration Training is a great opportunity for engineers, landscapers, designers, contractors, consultants, project managers, and other site workers.

Vermont Business Magazine As Vermonters patiently wait for spring temperatures, the Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) invites the public to report when Vermont’s lakes and ponds lose their ice cover. Also known as the “ice-out date,” this date marks when lakes or ponds become ice-free from shore to shore. When ice covers lakes, the water below separates into layers based on temperature and density. When the surface ice fully melts in the spring, the heavy cold water sinks, and the water column fully mixes. Water samples collected at this time of mixing show the baseline amount of phosphorus a lake will have available to fuel algae and aquatic plant growth during the spring and summer.

Vermont Business Magazine The Chittenden County Regional Planning Commission (CCRPC), in its role as the Clean Water Service Provider (CWSP) for the Northern Lake Champlain Basin, recently supported completion of two new projects in Chittenden County in 2025 to reduce phosphorus runoff into Lake Champlain. CCRPC provided 100% of the needed funds for a stream restoration project at the Wolcott Family Natural Area in Colchester managed by the Winooski Valley Parks District (WVPD). The CCRPC also contributed some funds for improvements to Beebe Lane which provides access to the public beach on Lake Iroquois, a project primarily funded via a Congressionally-directed EPA Community Grant obtained by the Lake Iroquois Recreation District.

Vermont Business Magazine Since the end of February and the start of war in Iran, fossil fuel prices in Vermont have been increasing dramatically. EAN recently analyzed how gasoline price increases are affecting Vermonters and our state economy. The full analysis is available on EAN’s website. Key points – consumer level: At $3.06/ gallon (the Feb. 27th, pre-war price), the average cost of gasoline per Vermonter was $120 a month. At the March 11th price of $3.54/gallon, that cost has risen to about $140 a month, or roughly a $20 increase in monthly gasoline costs per Vermonter.

Vermont Business Magazine Attorney General Charity Clark today joined a coalition of 17 attorneys general in challenging the Trump Administration’s demand that higher education institutions provide new data via a recently added component to the Integrated Postsecondary Education System (IPEDS), a collection of interrelated surveys administered by the Department of Education. The stated purpose of this new survey is to track institutions’ compliance with the Supreme Court decision in Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard, which limits how race can be considered in admissions. But IPEDS is not a tool for enforcing these requirements and should not be used to attack race-conscious admissions practices. The rushed attempt to convert it for that purpose leaves institutions vulnerable to inadvertent errors and unreliable data that could lead to costly penalties and baseless investigations into their practices. This vast data demand also jeopardizes student privacy by requesting in-depth information that could be tied to individual students.