WELCOME BACK, FRIDAY!
Foggy in spots at first, but getting sunny and warm. In fact, the weather service is promising a "beautiful and textbook late summer/early fall day." Figure we should hold them to that? Temps climbing into the high 60s by mid-afternoon. There's a low and associated front headed our way from the Great Lakes, but while it might get windy this evening (more so to our west), it won't really affect us until tomorrow.Upscale clothier J McLaughlin will open on Monday in the old Dartmouth Bookstore space. It's the Brooklyn-based company's first store in New Hampshire. Susan Apel stopped by yesterday afternoon to check it out, and found a gingham-checked ceiling and "a smattering of inventory." More to the point, as she says, "The Dartmouth Bookstore space has seemed so empty for so long. Finally and soon, the retail environment on Main Street is about to see a change."Hartford school officials ponder how to deal with student homelessness. About 50 students a year lack a fixed address. While schools have showers and the district uses federal money to supply clothing and food, it is trying to come to grips with families' struggles to find affordable housing. This hits the schools' bottom line, since they're required by law to bus kids who are enrolled in Hartford but had to move elsewhere, and vice versa. "In the last 18 months, we have seen this explosion in the cost of transporting kids,” Asst Supt Noel Bryant says. (VN)Woodstock Farmers' Market founder Jack Crowl — who also co-founded the Chronicle of Higher Education — died on Wednesday. He was 84. Crowl and his partner started the highly successful, well-regarded newspaper of academe in 1966; he sold his share in 1990 and moved to Vermont. He went on to open the equally successful, if not nationally known, Farmer's Market, which is now run by his son, Patrick.Green Mountain Care Board approves 2020 budgets for Gifford, Springfield, and Mt. Ascutney hospitals. But it will require Gifford and Springfield, which both have struggled financially, to provide regular updates over the next year. It approved Mt. Ascutney's bid to charge commercial insurers more, but will require it to trim a budgeted increase in net patient revenue. The VN's Nora Doyle-Burr has the details, and you can find hospital-by-hospital particulars here. (VN)Remember Ed Stemmler's dawn photo the other day from atop Mt. Ascutney? When he got back, he checked out what he had on his camera, and sent along this one, too. It's completely different, just mists, ridgelines, and an otherworldly peach sky. To get the day started right...Etna has highest highest household income in NH; Norwich is 2nd in VT. A study by UnitedStatesZipCodes.org, based on newly released Census data, finds that Etna is New Hampshire's wealthiest zip code, with a median household income of $168,100. Lyme comes in at #12, and Hanover at #28. Woodsville and Claremont are among the poorest in the state. Across the river, Charlotte tops the VT list, while Norwich ($108,711) comes in just behind. S. Strafford is #7, Barnard #14, and Woodstock #21. Wells River is the second poorest town in the state. Click on the Etna link for NH data, Norwich for VT.So I guess here's hoping we get hit by a tornado. Yesterday, Google announced it's going to boost "original reporting" in search results. Kudos, but Richard Gingras, Google’s VP of news, was a little blurry on what this means. In particular, as the NYT noted, the outlets he said would be helped have sizable news teams. As for smaller, local papers? "Google, Mr. Gingras said, is putting 'increased effort into, How do we do right by local outlets?'" the Times' Marc Tracy wrote. "He cited reporting on natural disasters as the type of local coverage that could benefit from the changes."NHPR is up with the first episode of a new podcast on the state's role in the presidential nominating process. The title tells you this is not your usual cute-little-towns-pick-a-prez coverage: "Stranglehold." "We're asking questions that people don't want to know the answer to," says co-host Lauren Chooljian. First episode focuses on Secy of State Bill Gardner, who's been setting the date for the NH primary for the last 40 years.Next week is the NH legislature's veto session, and NH Business Review's Bob Sanders has a preview. Gov. Chris Sununu has vetoed some 55 bills passed by the Democratic-controlled legislature, and lawmakers will meet Sept. 18-19 to try to override. The bills include a major expansion of net metering, which has bipartisan support, and paid family leave and a minimum wage boost, which do not.Scott rejects Medicaid funding boost. Last month, Green Mountain Care Board chair Kevin Mullen said the state needs to increase funding for Medicaid, arguing that hospitals are raising prices for patients with private insurance to offset inadequate Medicaid reimbursements. This week, Gov. Phil Scott pushed back, saying "the root of the problem" is that the cost of health care is too high. “We stick by our letter," Mullen told VTDigger yesterday. "I think that they did a very thoughtful and thorough response to our letter and I’m glad that the conversation is occurring.”Guy Fieri sets Burlington/Winooski aflutter. The Food Network mega-star was spotted filming in front of Pingala Cafe in Winooski and Hong's Chinese Dumplings in Burlington on Wednesday, and by Citizen Cider in Burlington yesterday. Unclear whether it's for Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives or a different show, and no one's talking.Sorry, VT... NH gets to preen today. The website Big 7 Travel just ranked all 50 states in order of sexiness after asking its social media followers where to find "America's most beautiful people." Vermont's way down the list at 39th (but hey, ahead of Kentucky and Utah, so that's something). New Hampshire comes in at 20. The reasoning? For Vermont, "Few notable celebrities might be to blame" (of the two the site cites, one is Patrick Leahy), while NH gets kudos for Adam Sandler and Mandy Moore and, um, "Any country who can eat their bodyweight in fresh lobster will always be sexy, fact." Okaaaaay....
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SO WHAT'S ON TONIGHT?
Yeah, so, Poe... Was he mad? That's the question he asks the audience at the beginning in this collection of four Poe stories put to stage by Cleveland-based playwright Eric Coble. Over the course of “The Raven,” “The Fall of the House of Usher,” “The Pit and the Pendulum,” and “The Tell-Tale Heart,” you get to decide. Runs this weekend and next at the theater's temporary space on Waits River Road. Just a guess, but you might want to leave little kids at home.
Two NY stand-up comics face off against two Boston comics, McDonald in the middle as host and ref. Eddie Brill (NYC) did 17 years of audience warmup for Letterman; Mike Speirs (NYC) mostly does standup, but also did a stint in Showtime's
Escape at Dannemora
; Carolyn Plummer (Boston) does standup all over the country; Paul D'Angelo (Boston) is the stage name of Paul Murphy, who spent 11 years as an assistant DA while doing standup on the side. Starts at 7:30.
Part of the Center for Transformational Practice's "Tend the Root" series: "When the concept of love is a mystery and not well defined, it can be used to control, harm and dominate. Peggy will share her personal and professional perspectives on the meaning of love and its role in gender-based violence." Starts at 7.
They're unreal. Don't miss them. Starts at 7:30.
Have a great, relaxing weekend. See you Monday.
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