GOOD MORNING, UPPER VALLEY!
On the heels of yesterday, today should be even nicer. There's a very slight chance of showers this morning, but mostly we can expect partial sun and temps finally getting up above 60. Clouds will build back in tonight, ahead of what will probably be more showers tomorrow. From here, though, you can see Saturday and boy, can't wait. Mink the bear takes star turn on NPR. Hanover's best-known bear is back in the national limelight, and the best part is the visual of the tracking map, where you can see just how widely she roamed after getting dropped off near the border last year. People with regular access to the data, including NH's governor, seem to be riveted. Even Ben Kilham is impressed: "We should get her into a triathlon," he says. But: She's getting closer to Hanover, and if she starts showing up in people's yards again, says town manager Julia Griffin, "I don't know what more we can do."NH Fish & Game looking into how Dartmouth student came to be lost. In a nutshell, they're not pleased. The search and rescue effort cost $50,000 to $60,000 they estimate. And several students on the group hike--including Arun Anand, the student who lost his way as he was trying to get back to the Ravine Lodge--were not prepared for the winter conditions on Mt. Moosilauke. "It could all have been avoided," Fish & Game Col. Kevin Jordan says. "It is very frustrating for us." Someone will be paying that bill, he adds. (VN, sub reqd)12A washout section in Plainfield will remain open during repairs. There'd been concern that NH DOT would have to close the portion of roadway near River Road that was undermined during last month's storms. But state officials told a meeting last night that -- though repairs will take three to four months and won't begin until mid-summer -- they'll be able to keep one lane open throughout. This is especially good news for the farms clustered near there. (VN, yadda yadda)The Dartmouth powwow was last weekend, and photographer Nathan Larson is up with a series of portraits. The participants stare straight into the camera, some with broad smiles, some serious, all striking. If you'd like a jolt of color, beauty, and arresting visuals this morning, this will do it.Clem, Lebanon at odds again. Developer David Clem, whose River Park project in old West Leb is still hung up 12 years after he bought the land, is losing patience. "I’ve spent a lot of money measuring fog in Lebanon over the last 10 years and I’ve had enough. I’m not willing to do it," he told the planning board earlier this week. The issue this time: He needs to build temporary gravel parking lots for housing tenants, and he and the city can't agree on city oversight. (VN: I know! Third one today.)Jake's markets establishing toehold in Burlington. The owners of Jake's Quechee Market and various other Upper Valley stores will be opening Jake's ONE Market in a refurbished auto-parts store in Burlington's North End this fall. It'll follow the company's template of groceries, dairy, local produce, beer/wine, and prepared foods. "I think there's a really awesome food scene [in the Old North End] that continues to get more interesting over time," says owner James Kerrigan.VT adult day centers help aging-in-place generation age in place. WCAX has a profile of Scotland House, the center that took over the hillside between Quechee and Woodstock once held by Scotland By the Yard. It's the latest of 15 adult centers in the state. They provide services that allow seniors who need more than basic in-home care to stay out of nursing homes. "We all want to age in our own home and not have to go into a facility," says Scotland House's Gretchen Cole. Plastic bag, straw bans die in NH Senate. The measures passed the House last month, but yesterday, senators opted against them. They killed the straw ban outright, and replaced the text of the plastic-bag ban with a proposal requiring towns to assess progress on reducing solid waste. "At this time, I believe that the citizens and businesses of New Hampshire are already turning the tide against plastics,” said one Democratic senator. “Thus this legislation seems unnecessary."Northern Pass gets its day in court. The NH Supreme Court heard arguments yesterday over whether the state's Site Evaluation Committee failed to do it job properly when it denied Eversource's bid last year to bring Quebec hydro power to southern New England. The utility says the committee didn't consider all the evidence. Opponents argued regulators had no obligation to do more than they did. It's going to be a while before any decision.24-hour waiting period for handgun purchases clears VT House. In a vote late last night, the House pushed forward a measure to require handgun buyers to wait 24 hours before they can actually get the gun. Backers consider it a suicide prevention measure. The bill, which has already cleared the Senate, passed 82-58, which is shy of the 100 votes it will need to override a possible veto by Gov. Phil Scott.Minimum wage, family leave move forward in VT legislature. With the clock ticking toward final adjournment on Saturday, the House approved a watered-down bill to raise the minimum wage to $15 by 2026, while the Senate passed the paid family leave bill allowing workers to take 12 weeks off to care for a newborn and six weeks to care for ill family members. Scott vetoed similar measures last year, and neither house mustered enough votes to override should he do it again.This is a little mind-blowing: Orvis has been in business 163 years and never ran a TV ad. Until this week. The Manchester VT-based outdoor goods retailer has gotten by on catalogs and other direct marketing, and more recently on digital promotion. But it's time to build a stronger identity, says COO Simon Perkins, the third generation of the ownership family. "We know we have low brand awareness." Plenty of slow-mo fly-fishing shots and hunting dogs in the 30-second spot. BTW, the name of the DC-based ad firm they're working with? Admirable Devil.SO... GOT PLANS?There's this interesting-looking Dartmouth panel talking about the Arab Renaissance of the 19th and early 20th centuries. Known as al-Nahda, it was a time of intellectual and political reform and literary exploration that produced, among others, the works of Taha Hussein and Kahlil Gibran. The panel includes Middle Eastern Studies chair Tarek El Ariss; Lebanese writer (and 2015 Man Booker finalist) Hoda Barakat; Princeton comp lit scholar Lital Levy; and UT-Austin historian Yoav DiCapua. Starts at 5 at the Rockefeller Center.Or you could go see Clyde Peterson's Torrey Pines -- and Peterson himself. The film is paper-cut stop-action animation, usually described as a "queer punk coming-of-age tale," but it's a little more than that. Peterson was 12 when his mother, who was schizophrenic, decided to take him on a cross-country trip. Without telling anyone. Their travels ended in New York, when the police caught up with them. All this is mixed in with the normal pangs of adolescence, Peterson's growing trans identity, and some trippy psychedelia. Soundtrack by Death Cab for Cutie’s Chris Walla. 7 pm at the Loew Auditorium.And speaking of trippy, Pamela Z will be part of the Festival of New Music at the HOP. An "intermedia" artist who works with voice, live electronic processing, sampled sound, and video, she's toured extensively, composed for the Kronos Quartet, and won more awards than there's room for. "I’ve always felt that if there are boundaries in the arts, they’re easy to cross. I like them blurred," she said a couple of years ago. At Faulkner Recital Hall at 8 pm -- it's free, but may be sold out, so call the HOP ahead of time.But then, maybe you don't want to sit, in which case there's Hanover's Main Street Mile. Sponsored by Hanover Parks & Rec and the Upper Valley Running Club. Starts at the Hanover Country Club, winds its way through downtown, ends at the Green. You need to be able to do at least a ten-minute mile. Starts at 7 pm sharp. Entrance fee is $20 same-day, and there's a 200-racer limit. Of course, you could also just go watch. But where's the fun in that?Go have a good day. See you tomorrow.
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