Updated at 9:31 p.m.

The University of Vermont Health Network fell victim to a cyberattack Wednesday, disrupting operations throughout the Vermont and northern New York hospital chain. The attack appears to be part of a coordinated assault on the nation’s health care system allegedly perpetrated by Russian hackers.

The hospital conglomerate experienced "a significant and ongoing system-wide network issue,” spokesperson Neal Goswami said Thursday, describing it as a “confirmed cyberattack.” A spokesperson for the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Albany field office, Sarah Ruane, later said that it was investigating the incident alongside state and local authorities.

According to Goswami, the network lost access to a web portal that patients use to schedule appointments and access electronic medical records, slowing services throughout the hospital system.

The U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Agency issued a warning Wednesday "of an increased and imminent cybercrime threat to U.S. hospitals and healthcare providers." The federal agency said the hackers were using malware to steal data from hospitals and hold it hostage.

At a press conference Thursday evening outside of the UVM Medical Center in Burlington, hospital officials would not say whether the attack was related. They also would not say whether it involved the same type of ransomware that has disrupted patient care at other hospitals around the nation, deferring questions about the investigation to the FBI.

Dr. Stephen Leffler, the hospital’s president and chief operating officer, said at the press conference that he had received no such demands. “I’ve had no contact with anyone at this point,” he said. “So I really can’t comment on that.”

Immigration and Customs Enforcement will cease deportation proceedings against three Migrant Justice activists and pay $100,000 to settle a federal lawsuit claiming it had unlawfully targeted the advocacy group's members.

The settlement ends a federal lawsuit filed two years ago that alleged ICE had illegally sought to stifle Migrant Justice's political activism through a campaign of harassment, surveillance, arrests and deportation.

The agreement requires ICE to send a memo to its Vermont employees reiterating that they should not profile, target or discriminate against any individual or group for “exercising First Amendment rights.”

The University of Vermont Medical Center will be a trial site in the final testing phase of a coronavirus vaccine, officials announced on Tuesday.

The hospital, working with UVM's Vaccine Testing Center at the Larner College of Medicine, will enroll 250 participants for the phase three trial of a vaccine developed by the University of Oxford and AstraZeneca.

At a press conference on Tuesday, Gov. Phil Scott congratulated the medical center for being named a study site, which he said “will allow Vermonters to contribute to the important work of vaccine development.”

The third, and last, vaccine testing phase determines whether or not a vaccine is effective; it comes after a vaccine has proven to be safe across a broad population.

The AstraZeneca vaccine is one of four currently in the third stage of trials in the U.S., though testing was paused in early September after a UK participant began experiencing neurological symptoms.

For nearly 14 years, Vermont Public Radio’s Jane Lindholm has asked probing questions of her guests on seemingly every topic imaginable. Now, the “Vermont Edition” host is preparing for a new role at the station — and VPR is pondering how to revamp its midday public affairs program.

The station announced Tuesday that Lindholm plans to leave the show at the end of January, following a national search for her replacement. Bob Kinzel, who typically hosts the show once a week, will continue to do so, according to news director Sarah Ashworth.

Lindholm expects to spend much of her time expanding "But Why: A Podcast for Curious Kids," which she created in 2016. Melody Bodette, a VPR veteran who has produced the show on a part-time basis, will become a full-time senior producer. The two will also team up to produce special projects for the station, including documentaries and live events.

"Fourteen years is a long time to do anything, so I'm ready for some new creative challenges," Lindholm said Tuesday. "Also, it's really hard to juggle two shows that are both competing for attention and both deserve attention."

The former Champlain Inn in Burlington will reopen in December as a year-round homeless shelter for people in need, regardless of their sobriety.

ANEW Place, the nonprofit that operates the city’s only low-barrier shelter, purchased the property at 165 Shelburne Road using a $2.5 million grant from the federal CARES Act. The sale closed last Friday.

“This is a big deal,” ANEW Place executive director Kevin Pounds said at a press conference Monday. A year-round shelter “is a very practical way of saying to some of our most vulnerable neighbors … that you matter to us.”

The facility will be converted into a 33-unit, 50-bed shelter by December 1 and run all year. Previously, the low-barrier shelter on South Winooski Avenue was open only from November until April. The space closed this March when the coronavirus pandemic hit because it was impossible to physically distance in its cramped quarters.

Since then, guests have stayed in rented trailers at the North Beach Campground and in tents there when the lease ran out. For Mayor Miro Weinberger, the pandemic highlighted the need for a year-round shelter, a goal he’s championed since his State of the City address in 2017.
“Often, projects like this die because these are often not popular facilities,” he said on Monday. “I am so thankful that the community here in the South End understood that this was a critical community need.”

A bitterly divided U.S. Senate on Monday night confirmed Judge Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court, overriding protests from Democrats who warned that doing so just eight days before a presidential election would jeopardize the integrity of America's highest institutions.

The 52-48 vote fell almost entirely among party lines, with all but one Republican — Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) — voting to confirm. Vermont Sens. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) and Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) voted no as part of a unified Democratic front opposed to Barrett's confirmation for reasons of both policy and principle.

During a 15-minute speech Sunday on the Senate floor, Leahy said he believed Barrett would "set the clock back decades on all of the rights that Americans have fought so hard to achieve and protect." And taking aim at his GOP colleagues, he said, "The Republican arguments come down to one thing: 'We have the votes, so anything goes.' Yet having the power to do something does not make it right."

Sanders echoed those comments a day later, writing on Twitter that Barrett's confirmation process amounted to nothing less than a "illegitimate power grab" by Republicans.

“Today is a shameful day for our democracy," he wrote.
Barrett's confirmation comes as more than 60 million Americans have already cast ballots for the November 3 election. Her ascension to the high court gives conservatives a 6-3 advantage and marks President Donald Trump's third successful nomination, handing him a much-needed win in the waning days of a reelection bid that finds him trailing in national polls to Democratic nominee Joe Biden.