AND A GOOD MORNING TO YOU, UPPER VALLEY...
Well heck, let's just let the weather service say what it has to say. "Lots of sunshine is expected Thursday with temps rebounding nicely into the mid 40s to low 50s." Though it could get a little gusty. It'll be getting warmer over the next few days. Just sit back, relax... and ignore tomorrow night's forecast.Spate of racist emails on campus in hands of Hanover police. Dartmouth has rolled out a new security protocol for its email system. In talking it over yesterday, college spokeswoman Diana Lawrence also noted that it has handed its investigation of a series of racist emails targeted at Asian students over to the Hanover Police Department. The emails were "spoofed" to appear to come from a student's account, but originated from outside the college system.Norwich SB opts for plastic-bag ban. You'll still be able to get your groceries bagged in paper at Dan & Whit's, though the board decided last night to give retailers the option to charge 10 cents per bag. The idea "is to encourage the re-use of bringing in your own bag,” says SB member John Langhus. “We’re going to give you a 10-cent reminder to bring your own bag.” Spurred by Marion Cross School 5th graders, Norwich becomes the third Vermont town to ban plastic shopping bags. (VN, subscription reqd)Remember that VTrans wants public input on what the new Quechee Gorge Bridge barrier should look like? It's running an online survey for members of the public to weigh in. Black or green? Curved top or straight? Design elements or stark bars? Just click the link to look over the options and give your carefully considered opinion.The guy behind the set for Northern Stage's Once is a local whose skills were nurtured by locals. Alexander Woodward grew up in Norwich and went on to get a master's in set design at Yale. Along the way, Marion Cross School's Tracy Smith, then-Hanover High theater-troupe director Bill Hammond, and Opera North all helped him find his way. “He is from this culture,” Northern Stage artistic director Carol Dunne says. “It’s another example of how theater has grown around here.” (VN, sorry about that.)Hypertherm officially grows larger. The leading-edge industrial-cutting company announced a couple of weeks ago that it planned to acquire a West-Coast waterjet-cutting manufacturer, OMAX, which is based in Kent, Washington. The deal closed yesterday. Hypertherm will add OMAX's 367 employees to its existing 1400-strong workforce, and keep its new subsidiary's operations and facilities in Kent. Leb loses its bid to require Rymes to shield Westboro railyard propane tanks. Rymes Propane & Oil uses the old Westboro yards to offload and store propane. The city, worried about a possible explosion, had proposed safety measures to NH state regulators designed to protect nearby residential areas. State officials said no dice to a city delegation: The measures go beyond existing fire codes and federal regulations, and could be challenged. (VN... I know, I know. They just had a lot to say today.)Seven Days went up yesterday with a blowout piece about sex trafficking in Vermont, its ties to drugs, and the state's over-slow awakening to its reality and human cost. Deeply reported, personal, big-picture, and human--it's all there. The one-line summary: It's worse than you think and it's not just in Rutland and Burlington. "It's a much better business model" than selling drugs, says one former prosecutor. "You can sell a bag of dope only one time, but you can sell a girl over and over and over again." Just read it.VT's only juvenile detention facility gets sued for mistreating kids housed there. The state's defender's general office alleges that staffers at Woodside Juvenile Rehabilitation Center in Colchester are using "dangerous and painful" restraint techniques. This is after years of complaints. The Dept for Children and Families, which runs the facility, says the lawsuit contains "factual inaccuracies."VT auditor says state is falling short on Medicaid billing practices. The state's Dr. Dynasaur program requires low-income households to pay monthly premiums of anywhere from $15 to $60, but is not enforcing them. So while many families pay regularly, some do not, with no penalty. As a result, state Auditor Doug Hoffer argues, the Dept of Vermont Health Access is not treating Dr. Dynasaur recipients equitably. "Dr. Dynasaur has eligibility rules that reflect tough choices made by Vermont’s elected representatives in the Legislature," he says. "DVHA is not authorized to ignore the clear intent of the Legislature.”Move in NH to stop charging indigent defendants for a lawyer. In New Hampshire, as in most states, people charged with a crime who are too poor to pay for a lawyer are still charged for their legal defense, even if found innocent. Now there's a move in the legislature to keep the state from seeking payment from defendants who are found not guilty. "This whole process is really designed to squeeze blood from the stone," says the state ACLU's legal director. NH currently collects about $1.5 million a year from the fees.Southern New Hampshire University opens new facility... in Tucson. The rapidly expanding private institution, which has about 3,000 students in Manchester and more than 100,000 online, is opening an operations center in the Arizona city. Tucson's pool of bilingual workers and its offer of a downtown location were key factors in SNHU's decision. So was its location. "To a bunch of New Englanders who have a lot of winter, you’re pretty appealing,” the college's president and CEO told the Arizona Daily Star.SO.... GOT PLANS TONIGHT?You could go learn about the Underground Railroad in these parts. Local author Michelle Arnosky Sherburne will talk about Vermont's contribution to the Underground Railroad, which had several local connections: in Thetford, Norwich, and Strafford, as well as across the river in Lyme. Turns out that Delia Webster, the first woman arrested for aiding a fugitive slave, was a Vermonter. All this despite the fact that abolition was far more fiercely debated in the state than is popularly believed these days. Sponsored by the Thetford Historical Society, at Thetford Elementary School at 7.Or you could consider "The Evolving Supreme Court." Washington University prof Lee Epstein, a highly regarded legal scholar, will be talking about how the Court's shift to the right will affect "several highly salient areas of the law, including abortion, guns, and affirmative action." In Room 3 of Dartmouth's Rockefeller Center, starting at 5 pm. Or you could go hear Cece McDonald in conversation at Dartmouth. She's a transgender, African-American activist and icon. Imprisoned for manslaughter after a 2011 attack on her and some friends that wound up with her stabbing one of the attackers, she has become a critic of the "prison-industrial complex" and its treatment of black and trans people. 6:30 pm at Filene Auditorium.Or maybe you don't want to be serious at all tonight. If so, four words: Barefoot in the Park. At town hall in Woodstock. Robert Redford, Jane Fonda, both young and in full glamor. Though let's just say, it's extremely 1967.Enjoy the day! See you tomorrow.
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