GOOD MORNING, UPPER VALLEY!
Wait, what's that... that... thing up in the sky? Well, if you were up early, that was the moon. A ridge of high pressure building in today has cleared out the clouds, though there may be some patchy fog this morning. Otherwise, it's a mostly sunny day, highs bumping up toward 40, winds from the northwest. But don't get used to it: Clouds will saunter back our way once evening comes, with a low and associated warm front moving in tonight. Chance of sleet and rain overnight.Claremont to decide how to spend unanticipated $1.3 million for schools. The district scored that amount over and above what it expected in the state budget passed in July, and has until Dec. 1 to decide how to spend it. At a special school district tonight, the school board is hoping voters will approve spending half on expanding its special ed trust fund, and the other half to reduce upcoming property taxes. (VN)Hartford High advances in national STEM challenge. Samsung's "Solve for Tomorrow Contest" puts $3 million on the line to encourages 6th-12th grade students to solve real-world issues in their communities, using classroom skills in science, technology, engineering and math. It's announced 300 finalists, and Hartford is one of the five from Vermont. No UV schools are among the NH finalists.NH Democratic legislators criticize Sununu for closure of Springfield (NH) biomass plant. In the wake of the guv's veto of a bill requiring utilities to buy renewable generation credits from biomass facilities, EWP Renewable Corp. announced last month it's closing its Springfield and Whitefield plants. Three state reps — from Plainfield, Grantham, and Georges Mills — organized a press conference yesterday to lay the blame at Sununu's feet. His spokesman fired back that "low-income families and seniors on fixed incomes...would have seen their electric bills skyrocket if this legislation passed.""It’s one of the greatest spectacles in the world, a World Cup skiing event." That's Jean Pierre DeFrancesco-Sias, general manager of Basin Sports, by Killington, talking to VPR's Nina Keck about next week's fourth women's world cup at the mountain. Organizers expect some 40,000 people, and locals think the event, in Keck's words, "has acted like an economic turbo-boost." Retail and restaurant sales are up, so are sales of condos and homes, school enrollment — countering the statewide trend — is rising.
NH residency law back in court today. The lawsuit, filed by the NH ACLU and the state Democratic Party, seeks to block the controversial new law from creating a link between voter registration and driver or vehicle licensing. The question at hand, says NHPR's Casey McDermott, is "whether registering to vote or casting a ballot in New Hampshire now counts as a declaration of residency — therefore potentially triggering other requirements, and expenses, like in-state driver licensing or car registration."
Layoffs at Concord's NHTI bring state community college woes to forefront. The two-year college, one of seven in the Community College System of New Hampshire, is eliminating ten positions, including four full-time professors, library and tech services staff, and the director of its ESOL program. Enrollment is down 8 percent from this time last year, and it's part of a trend, says the Monitor's David Brooks: Nationally, community college enrollment has dropped 20 percent in a decade.Do you make music in VT? Then Big Heavy World wants to hear from you. The Burlington-based nonprofit is surveying all musicians (paid, unpaid, or just hacking around), concert venue owners, and "businesses that support music in Vermont" in an effort to understand music's place in the state's economy. The survey's paid for by a USDA grant, and BHW is hoping to detail what the music community needs to succeed — from events support to marketing help to performance spaces. Details at the link.First, snowmobile to the top of Mt. Mansfield. Then climb a ladder the height of a 10-story building. That's what a specialized repair crew will be doing today in order to get a handle on the fire that took out a WCAX/WPTZ antenna atop the mountain. The crew flew in yesterday, and today gets to work in the fog and snow assessing the damage.VT restoring 24-hour access to 211 hotline. As you may remember, the emergency referral line for social services, emergency housing, legal advice and other needs had to cut back its hours on Oct. 1. Now the Agency of Human Services has reallocated $162,000 to bring back round-the-clock service, starting Dec. 6 and lasting through the winter. As of Oct. 24, 211 was receiving between 80 and 120 calls a weekend to which it couldn't respond."We're in this moment of transition in our farm landscape." That's Nick Richardson, CEO of the Vermont Land Trust, on the for-sale sign that's been in front of the Dubois Farm in Addison County for a year. This isn't just any dairy farm sale. The asking price is $23 million, and the farm's one of the largest in the state. As Seven Days' Molly Walsh asks, "[I]n a state where many surviving dairies have bought up smaller farms in order to make it, what happens when the bigger fish go up for sale?" No one knows whether there'll be a buyer. "This story is...not going away," Richardson says. "There will be other farms.""All these photoshopped pictures of people ‘hiking’ and ‘climbing,’ it just doesn’t add up.” That's Lou Minotti of the Flat Vermont Society, whose conversion moment came at a Flat Earther conference. "I sat there in Arizona looking around at the vast, flat landscape, and it just made sense to me, you know? Like, this is how the world is. There are no mountains," he tells... you guessed it!... The Winooski.So this drone video must be a hoax. It's a little long, but as the ground freezes around us it's a tonic to the soul: a compilation that just went up on YouTube of Vermont's gorges, rivers, mountains, and forests from high above, at river and stream level, and in a variety of seasons.If you like Daybreak and want to help it keep going, here's how:
SO WHERE DO YOU WANT TO HEAD TONIGHT?
It's Agricultural Literacy Week, and the Norwich Public Library, with NOFA-VT (that's the Northeast Organic Farmers Association), is hosting Hamelman, the master baker, King Arthur instructor, and author of the near-biblical
Bread: A Baker's Book of Techniques and Recipes
. He'll have a bunch of KAF breads and local spreads on hand, so things won't get
too
theoretical.
This is the Jean Anouilh version of the Sophocles classic on tyranny and its discontents, which the French playwright adapted in the face of the Nazi occupation. Antigone's brothers, struggling over power, kill one another; her uncle, Creon, sitting on the throne of Thebes and desperate to restore unity after the civil war, arbitrarily brands one of them a traitor and forbids his burial. Antigone rebels. At 7 tonight, tomorrow and Saturday.
Neal Shulman has retired, but co-founder Rex Fowler is reviving the band 47 years after it got its start, bringing along a new ensemble. You'll need to call (603) 526-6899 to reserve tix, and it's first-called, first in line.
It's a regular third Thursday thing, and anyone can show up. Musicians and vocalists should have one jazz standard they want to play around with, but you're welcome just to listen. As Interplay Jazz & Arts, which is behind these, puts it, "It’s an event open to all musicians and appreciators of the arts!" Starts at 6:30.
Not on the screen. In person. The "hardest working man in show business" will be at the Capitol Center for the Arts in Concord, and there are still a few seats left. Starts at 7:30.
Okay... Time to face the day! See you tomorrow.
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