TOP O' THE MORNING, UPPER VALLEY!
We're used to this by now, right? Kinda rainy today, getting more showery as the day goes on. Highs only in the mid-50s. Fortunately, the front's moving through quickly, and it'll be gone after this evening. Then, because we deserve it, we get a weekend of nice, dry weather. At least, that's the forecast right now. How should Hartford Cemetery be cared for? New rules set in place by longtime civic presence Ken Parker, who oversees upkeep, have cleaned the grounds up by stripping gravesites of mementos left by family members. There's now a fraught discussion on the town FB page, kicked off by a mother who for decades has left flags and artificial flowers on her son's grave. You'll find a lot of the usual Facebook mob mentality, but as you read through, it's also a town sorting out a pointed issue. "It’s pretty easy to hear one side of the story and comment your two cents," Parker's son writes, "but if this is really important to you all then I would suggest taking action, volunteering for the committees, and make a diffidence in your town."Dartmouth wants developer for 300-unit complex on Mt. Support Road. The $50 million project would house graduate and professional students. “We are responding to a need that our graduate students have been communicating to us. They want to rent quality housing at an affordable rate,” says Executive Vice President Rick Mills. “Our goal is to...help ease the chronic housing shortage in Hanover and neighboring communities.” If approved, the project would sit next to a proposed 250-unit complex for D-H employees.There are several chances coming up to get to know the proposed Ashley Community Forest. This is a 268-acre, beautifully forested piece of land straddling the Sharon/Strafford line. It was one of the parcels Utah-based developer David Hall tried to buy for his NewVistas project; instead, the Alliance for Vermont Communities, with help from the Vermont Land Trust, snagged it. They want to turn it over to the towns as a town forest. Tomorrow morning there'll be a bird walk with lifelong birder Dick Rubin, who lives in Sharon. There'll be more walks on upcoming weekends. Get in touch with Michael Sacca ([email protected]) for details.Hanlon rejects call for changing Dartmouth psych department leadership. As you'll remember, two activist groups last week asked the college administration to clean house in the Psychology and Brain Sciences department after two new women joined the lawsuit over sexual misconduct there. College President Phil Hanlon yesterday responded, asking the critics to “appreciate the work of many concerned administrators, faculty and staff in the PBS department...who are actively pursuing significant measures to ensure that students have a safe environment in which to learn, research and grow.”Democratic candidates, including Joe Biden, will be headed to NH in the next week. Eight of them, in fact, including five tomorrow. Cory Booker, Kamala Harris, Kirsten Gillibrand, Michael Bennet, John Delaney... As we talked about yesterday, the only two headed to these parts are Andrew Yang and Beto O'Rourke, but if you're in the mood to travel, some will be in driving distance. No word yet on Biden's itinerary or schedule.Sununu vetoes paid family leave bill. NH Gov. Chris Sununu yesterday vetoed the measure, passed by the legislature in March, requiring up to 12 weeks of paid leave for the birth, adoption or fostering of a child, or for illness of an employee or relative. He labeled the bill an income tax, and offered his own, six-week voluntary plan in its stead. Democrats immediately criticized him, but it's unclear they have the votes to override. Manchester Airport is struggling for passengers, doing fine with cargo. Passenger traffic there is less than half what it was at its peak in 2005, dropping from 4.5 million to 1.9 million last year. Fewer than half the passenger gates are being used, and the number of airlines flying to and from the airport has fallen to four. The problem: Low-cost carriers opted for Boston. The bright spot? The airport's handling more cargo than ever: 185 million pounds last year. Says its new director: “That’s like 37,400 F-150 trucks!”Rural hospitals in NH are in trouble. It's not just small hospitals in Vermont that are struggling. Margins are razor-thin, and they're having trouble keeping up with rising costs. NH's Medicare reimbursement rates are the lowest in the country, 49 percent of the national median. “It’s getting harder and harder to make this all work," says a Concord healthcare consultant.VT House votes to boost clean water funding, institute so-called "cloud tax" to help pay. The tax, on "pre-written software," would hit firms offering online software services. To fund clean water efforts, the measure actually shifts money that had been going into the state's education fund, so the new software sales tax is designed to fill that hole. Because the state has no experience collecting the tax, education backers worry that it won't live up to projections, and could leave school funds short.Feral boar shot in VT tests positive for pseudorabies. The boar was shot in Lyndonville back in March, and tests have come back showing it had the pseudorabies virus, or PRV. The state had been certified free of the disease, which is not actually related to rabies and is not dangerous for humans. It is, however, a threat to pigs, cattle, sheep and goats, as well as dogs and cats. The state ag agency is stepping up monitoring, and getting in touch with swine farms, especially up north.NH's lead role in challenging DOJ on state lotteries is fitting: it's where the modern lottery began. Back in January, the feds ruled that lotteries amounted to interstate gambling; New Hampshire has taken the case to court. Turns out, the state's long been at the forefront of people's right to put down their money against long odds. After a decade-long fight in the 1950s, the mayor of Keene managed to get the state to the first modern, state-sanctioned lottery. “Is either New Hampshire or Uncle Sam so hard up that this shabby dodge is the only way out?" Readers Digest opined at the time. "It will mean moral bankruptcy for New Hampshire.”HEY, IT'S FRIDAY!David Macaulay's out with a new book, and he's launching it at Norwich's Marion Cross School. The MacArthur fellow and Caldecott winner's hugely popular The Way Things Work pretty much sums up his lovingly detailed illustrations and accessible approach to pretty much everything. His latest is Crossing on Time: Steam Engines, Fast Ships, and a Journey to the New World. The official launch will be in MCS's multi-purpose room at 4 pm.It's Moms' Night Out in Hanover. Getting prepped for Sunday, pretty much a whole town's-worth of stores, restaurants, and salons are offering specials and discounts. It runs from 5-8 this evening, sponsored by the Hanover Chamber. You can find store-by-store, restaurant-by-restaurant details of what's on offer at the link.River Roost is taking over the taps at Samurai Soul Food in Fairlee. Do you need anything more than that? Shaker Bridge Theater is doing Wendy McLeod's comedy/mystery Women in Jeopardy in Enfield. So there are these two women, Mary and Jo, whose friend Liz has a new boyfriend, a dentist. His hygienist has just disappeared. So quite naturally, they suspect he's a serial killer, and set out to find out. Tonight and tomorrow at 7:30, and for the next two weekends.Scrag Mountain Music at the Chandler. Two violins, two violas, a cello and a double bass -- and the musicians behind them -- doing Brahms, early Sibelius, a folk-music-inspired viola quintet by Kenji Bunch, and "Evan Chambers’s electric trio Love Dogs, based on a Rumi poem." The Vermont-based group is devoted to bringing classical music -- defined broadly -- to audiences well beyond concert halls: barns, churches, the occasional grocery store. They invite people to "come as you are" and "pay what you can."Have a fantastic weekend! See you Monday.
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