WAIT, FRIDAY ALREADY?
Even better, it brings more snow. There's a clipper system making its way over from the Great Lakes, which sounds more dire than it is. Snow will probably be light around here, maybe an inch or two, with higher totals to the south and in the southern mountains. It will taper off tonight. Temps getting up to around 30, winds variable, down into the teens tonight. Looks like some sun will be back tomorrow.Developer wants to turn six acres of his West Leb parcel into a riverfront park. David Clem, the developer behind the River Park life sciences, office, retail and residential project that might, someday, actually take shape in old West Leb, is proposing to preserve the strip of land along the Connecticut River in perpetuity. The idea would be to connect a future public park north to Boston Lot, as locals would like, and "sort of ‘fix the smile’ of river frontage," as he told the Conservation Commission recently. (VN)Hartford police complete specialized mental health training. It extends to every officer in the department, which has already received 163 calls this year for people needing help due to a mental health issue; 10 of those were about someone armed with a weapon. "These types of crisis situations are some of the most extreme events for law enforcement officers nationwide," Chief Phil Kasten tells WCAX. "They are asked to make split-second decisions with limited information and oftentimes under great and tremendous pressure." Now it's Leb's turn. Immigration advocates with Rise! Upper Valley are gathering petition signatures for a "welcoming" ordinance that would prohibit city employees from asking a person's immigration status or participating in immigration enforcement. A similar effort touched off months of controversy in Hartford earlier this year. Rise's Yolanda Huerta tells NHPR the group is focused on Hanover and Norwich, as well. ArtisTree to open gallery in Woodstock. The Pomfret-based community arts center has landed a prime spot in the center of town, at the corner of Central and Elm streets. The two-room spot will show local artists' work, as well as rotate shows "to explore art that will be a novel and exciting experience." The gallery's doors open on Saturday.So let's say you suddenly realize life is short and you want to eat dessert first. Where should you go? That's what the Upper Valley VT/NH Facebook group is debating at the moment. Lou's? The carrot cake at Molly's? The cannoli at Wicked Awesome? The fried dough ice cream sundae at Poor Thom's? The meringue buttercream at the Woodstock Farmer's Market? The... NH's third largest landowner? The Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests. It owns almost 57,000 acres in 100 towns, from a huge chunk of Mt. Monadnock to the 35 acres of the Creek Farm in Portsmouth. These and other tidbits in an interview with Jack Savage, the society's new president.“If food waste were a country, it would be the world’s third-largest emitter of greenhouse gases, behind the U.S. & China.” That striking line is from a National Geographic article cited by Grow Compost, a company that collects food scraps around Vermont and western NH and hauls them to farms, its own composter, and an anaerobic digester to convert them to energy. As the company points out, "This holiday season in Vermont is...the last one you can simply throw out your food scraps in the trash. Starting July 1, 2020, food scraps are banned from landfill disposal in Vermont."Scott orders investigation into allegations of sexual misconduct and drug use by officers at correctional facility for women. This is a fast-moving story. On Wednesday, Seven Days' Paul Heintz published a blockbuster citing officers' and inmates' allegations that guards have "sexually assaulted inmates, harassed female employees, and pursued sexual relationships with women who have left the prison" but remain under supervision. That night, Gov. Phil Scott ordered his human services secretary to investigate. Yesterday, Heintz published a report showing that Corrections Commissioner Mike Touchette had been informed about some of these allegations two years ago.Scott confidant's program suspended as auditors investigate whether money was improperly spent. The VT Agency of Transportation is looking into whether Scott's close friend, Associated General Contractors executive VP Richard Wobby Jr., improperly billed a federally funded driver safety program he oversees, Project Roadsafe. The investigation comes after allegations by the project's former director, who left in October."Literally the best sign. If that store wasn't 3000 miles away I'd go in and buy something." That's a West Coast Reddit user commenting on the sign outside Woodstock Home & Hardware, which of course is known around here for its clever signage and which in this case has been attracting wide attention on the social news and discussion site. And which I literally should not tell you any more about.If you like Daybreak and want to help it keep going, here's how:
SO ABOUT TONIGHT...
. Downtown's got sparkle, Revolution's got eggnog lattes, the Center for Cartoon Studies hosts a holiday book sale, Newberry Market's crawling with vendors, Vital Communities has an open house at The Engine Room that blends into a DJ'd dance party, and everywhere you turn, there's live music and good food. Oh, and at 7 at the Briggs, there's the Hanover High Broadway revue,
anchoring the school's spring musical.
The convivial live-music showcase at the First Congregational Church has taken off as a place to go hear serious acoustic talent. Tonight, it's Dan Freihofer and the Pocket Dinos at 7:30, with their polished country/bluegrass harmonies; at 8:15, folk quartet Never Too Late (which includes coffeehouse organizer Adam Sorscher); and at 9 pm, Monique Byrne (banjo) and Andy Rogovin (guitar), who form the Americana duo Crowes Pasture.
. Pierson, a pianist and composer who spent her early years in Kansas and then in Maine, now lives in North Conway. Her jazz trio (she also has an acoustic trio) includes Shawn Nadeau on bass and Craig Bryan on drums, and every year they do a Guaraldi Christmas album tour around the Northeast. They're stopping by the Plainfield Community Church tonight, starting at 7.
This film was produced by Chris Wood of SoRo's Building a Local Economy (BALE), and though it was around last year, it hasn't had many screenings locally this year. It's narrated by Penobscot elder Sherri Mitchell (Weh’na Ha’mu Kwasset), who introduces the Penobscot myth of the cannibal giant, a creature awakened by the destruction of the earth, then moves on to look at five groups working to "protect what is sacred and precious to us.” 7 pm.
Or maybe you just need to do something madcap, in which case: Bald Mountain Theater's Krampusnacht: Stories of Light and Dark for the Winter Solstice.
Yeah, it's a drive up and over the gap in Rochester, VT. And yes, the real Krampusnacht was yesterday. And sure, it's not going to draw the 35,000 people who thronged one Krampusnacht gathering in Graz, Austria a few years back. But still, there'll be short stories by local authors, folktales, poems, music, and "colorful, costumed characters sprinkled throughout from the more pagan and lesser-known Christmas traditions." Spice Studio on S. Main St. at 7:30.
OHHH yeah! You
knew
this was coming: The Vince Guaraldi Trio,
... Now go have a lovely day and a full weekend. See you Monday.
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