Vermont Business Magazine Jamaica Cottage Shop, Inc provides business to consumer wood manufacturing, Internet marketing and online retail. It's also one of the fastest growing businesses according to Inc. 5000. Not only have the companies on the 2018 Inc. 5000 been competitive within their markets, but the list, as a whole, shows staggering growth compared with prior lists. 

Vermont Business Magazine The 24th Annual Burlington & Cool Schools Penguin Plunge to benefit Special Olympics Vermont was held on February 2nd at the Burlington Waterfront. Despite temperatures in the teens, with an even lower wind chill, over 1,200 people braved the elements and plunged into the frigid waters of Lake Champlain. The Penguin Plunge is the largest fundraising event for Special Olympics Vermont, and this year, over $548,000 was raised to support sports training and competition, health screenings, and leadership opportunities for children and adults with intellectual disabilities in Vermont.

Vermont Business Magazine The University of Vermont Board of Trustees voted Friday morning to name Dr Suresh Garimella of Purdue University as the university's next president, according to the Vermont Cynic, UVM's student-run newspaper. Garimella was announced February 4 as the sole finalist candidate to replace Tom Sullivan as its next president. Sullivan plans to step down in Summer of 2019. Garimella currently serves as Executive Vice President for Research and Partnerships at Purdue University. He is also a PhD in mechanical engineering. Garimella was the presumptive new president and met with the media Thursday.

Vermont Business Magazine Preliminary data for 2018 currently shows that nearly all opioid-related fatalities among Vermont residents were of accidental or undetermined intent and that the overall state increase was very small (108 to 110), according to a recent report from the Vermont Department of Health. But the number of fatalities has skewed sharply toward southern Vermont. Opioid-related deaths in Chittenden County were cut in half from 2017 (28) to 2018 (14), but the four southern counties increased 56 percent and more than made up (+22) for the decline in Chittenden (-18). 

Vermont Business Magazine Senator Patrick Leahy: There is no national emergency. No one who subscribes to reality can claim otherwise. Crossings are historically down, billions are being spent on border security, and Congress yesterday appropriated still more. President Trump simply failed to get a deal to build his wasteful vanity wall. He failed to get a deal with Mexico, despite promising his supporters more than 200 times that Mexico would pay for it. He failed to get a deal with his own party, even during the two years when Republicans controlled all levers of government. And he failed to get a deal now. The President’s inartful failure to get a deal does not justify him manufacturing a false national emergency.