Current News

Vermont Business Magazine On Saturday, July 15, Governor Phil Scott and Senator Bernie Sanders will help communities all along the 93-mile Lamoille Valley Rail Trail (LVRT) celebrate the trail’s completion at a day-long event and end-to-end bike ride. Governor Scott will ride the length of the trail from Swanton to St. Johnsbury, making trailside stops throughout the day (see full schedule below). Senator Sanders will lead interested Vermonters for a walk along a section of the trail, leading into the Morrisville celebration. Governor Scott and Senator Sanders will be joined at the Morrisville celebration by state and local officials, supporters of the LVRT and community members.

Vermont Business Magazine The US Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) Region 1 Office is announcing a grant competition for an “Environmental Justice Thriving Communities Technical Assistance Center” (EJ TCTAC) to help New England communities and other environmental justice stakeholders access federal technical assistance and resources to address environmental and energy justice concerns. EPA Region 1 includes the states of Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Vermont, and 10 Tribal Nations.

Vermont Business Magazine The Vermont Department of Financial Regulation, along with several other states, reached a settlement with Lear Capital regarding unregistered securities activity and misleading marketing. Under the terms of the settlement, Vermont investors who entered a transaction with Lear between January 1, 2016, and March 3, 2022, will receive a distribution equal to the difference between a hypothetical 12 percent fee and the fee charged by Lear. 

Vermont Business Magazine Over 100 attendees gathered together on Thursday, June 22^nd for Windham & Windsor Housing Trust’s Annual Meeting and 35^th anniversary celebration. Residents, Shared Equity homeowners, supporters, staff, funders and friends mingled at the block party-themed event held on the site of the organization’s very first redevelopment at 50, 58, 64 Canal Street in downtown Brattleboro. 

Vermont Business Magazine The U.S Department of Agriculture’s National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) estimated 172 thousand acres of corn planted for all purposes in New England for 2023, down 1% from last year’s acreage of 173 thousand acres. Vermont's production is unchanged and it leads all states in corn and hay production.

by Aubrey Weaver, Community News Service Deepfakes — fake images and videos made with machine-learning technology that can realistically depict people’s faces  — have made headlines in recent years for tricking people and even the news in a lot of relatively harmless ways, such as a viral image of Pope Francis sporting a Rihanna-esque puffer coat. But lawmakers and advocates say photo-generative software represents a serious escalation of “image-based sexual abuse”: the practice of blackmailing or extorting an individual by threatening to leak nude or sexual images of them. 

Northeastern Vermont Development Association Governor Scott signed the HOME Act into law on June 5th. This legislation marks a strong compromise between housing and environmental advocates who worked with the Administration to find a path forward for housing policy reform. The HOME Act modernizes local zoning and land use regulations by allowing higher density development in areas with sewer and water service, creating more housing opportunities and affordable homes. Key provisions of S.100 include: Affordable & Inclusive Housing Expansion; Land Use Regulations; and Municipal Zoning Reforms.

Vermont Business Magazine NuHarbor Security, trusted managed security provider in Colchester, has announced the winner of its recent Natural Language Processing (NLP) hackathon. ”The Polyglot Project” was created to spur interest and innovation in the challenges posed by the differing outputs and alerts created by cybersecurity tools. It presented a specific set of criteria for the creation of an AI/ML-based approach to creating an evolving and dynamic common ontology for cybersecurity information. The winner of the competition, which had over 800 early applicants, was Chirag Hegde, a developer and student. 

by Joyce Marcel Popular, some say inspirational — and very tall — Thomas A Dee got into the field of hospital administration when academia barely recognized it as a profession. By the time he was 26, he was running two small hospitals in upstate New York. Now at 67 and the height of his career, he runs the tiny juggernaut that is Southwestern Vermont Health Care (SVHC) and is currently getting it ready to merge with Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center.

Vermont Agency of Transportation This weekly report is a list of planned construction activities that will have traffic impacts on state highways throughout Vermont for the week of July 3. Most crews will not be working on Monday and Tuesday for the holiday. Please remember to drive safely in all work zones. Lives depend on it.  

Vermont Business Magazine Beginning on July 1, 2023 changes to Vermont Adoption Law will allow adopted Vermonters greater access to their adoption information.   Starting July 1, 2023, any adult adopted person who was: Born in Vermont will get unrestricted access to a certified copy of their original birth certificate. It does not matter where or when the adoption took place. They may get this from the Vermont Department of Health’s Vital Records Office;  Adopted in a Vermont court may get identifying information about a former parent, unless the parent filed a request for nondisclosure before July 1, 2023. They may get this from the Vermont Adoption Registry.  

Vermont Business Magazine Residents throughout Central Vermont are encouraged to attend the upcoming Youth Opportunity Regional Forum on July 12 from 5:30-7 p.m. at Kellogg-Hubbard Library in Montpelier for people of all ages and backgrounds to come together to discuss how we can improve opportunities for youth in our communities. Free pizza and desserts will be served. The “Vermont Youth Opportunity Initiative” emerged through The Vermont Proposition Initiative which was coordinated by the Vermont Council on Rural Development in 2021 through input from thousands of Vermonters.