GOOD MORNING, UPPER VALLEY!
It'll warm up as the day goes on, getting into the low 60s, but the clouds will thicken as a warm front advances on us from the west. This front is bringing rain, which will get serious sometime overnight and then stick around through most of tomorrow.
The market and Norwich Solar Technologies had hoped to install a 150-kilowatt array atop booths and over parts of the parking lot. But Norwich Solar's Troy McBride said yesterday that they've had to suspend those plans after objections from the Co-op Food Stores, which owns the land. Co-op GM Ed Fox wrote the
VN
last month that the "project, as proposed, would limit use of this Co-op property for the next 25 years [and] could involve a potentially large investment."
(VN, subscription reqd)
National profs group charges Vermont Law School violated academic governance norms. In a lengthy investigative report, the American Association of University Professors says that VLS's move last year to strip tenure from most of its tenured faculty stepped outside "shared governance" standards and led to a "significant erosion of trust." VLS has responded vehemently, saying it was trying to avoid shutting down, and that the AAUP "does not identify a single viable alternative that was presented to the administration by the faculty." The AAUP report means that members may vote to sanction the VLS administration at their annual meeting next month.D-H, VA co-hosting reception next Monday for veterans around "99 Faces Project." The exhibit of portraits of veterans with mental health issues and of people who love them, by Boston-based artist Lynda Michaud Cutrell, is aimed at shaking the stigma attached to mental illness. The reception's keynote will be given by Brig. Gen. Donald Bolduc (U.S. Army, retired) and his wife, Sharon, talking about their own experiences with mental health challenges. The reception Monday evening is free and open to the public; the exhibit will be up for another five months.And speaking of D-H, major work starts Sunday on the loop road. The reconstruction project, which runs from the north inpatient visitors’ entrance east to the parking garage, will definitely get in the way of traffic, with times over the next few months when the road will be closed in both directions. The hospital's recommending giving yourself an extra 10 or 15 minutes. "Thank you for your patience as we make these exciting changes," it says.Dartmouth Dems join growing campus boycott of national Democratic campaign group. A while back, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee -- the official campaign funding arm of House Democrats -- announced it would not fund opponents of sitting members. Campus Democratic groups around the country, led by Harvard's, contend the policy will stifle younger and more progressive candidates who might want to take on incumbents. Dartmouth's now one of 70 College Democrats chapters taking part in the boycott.Sturm Ruger pushes back against effort aimed at "smart gun" products. At its annual shareholder meeting in New London yesterday, several faith-based groups, part of an activist investor group pushing for change at the company, tried to get it to commit to developing guns that can't fire without an owner's fingerprint or some other unlocking feature. Management rejected the idea. "While people think there is often a great market for 'smart guns,' or user-authorized technology, we are not seeing it,” said CEO Christopher Killoy. "I come and poach businesses all the time" from CT and NY, says NH guv. Chris Sununu was on CNBC's "Squawk Box" yesterday, and took the chance to flame both Connecticut and New York for their tax and economic policies, which he says are driving businesses into his arms. “I’ve got a catcher’s mitt, the businesses coming out of New York and Connecticut up to New Hampshire, it’s phenomenal," he said. To which CT guv Ned Lamont's spokesperson tweeted, "You might have your catcher’s mitt, but you’re striking out on attracting Fortune 500 companies." Could be the start of a beautiful friendship.NH House passes bill requiring schools to provide free menstrual products to students. The measure, which has already passed the Senate, requires female and gender-neutral bathrooms in middle and high schools to stock them. Republicans opposed the bill as an unfunded mandate on school districts. It now goes to Sununu's desk.Headed north? Things'll look different at the border. A new, $33 million US-Canada border crossing at Derby Line, VT, is finally done. The new facility at the end of I-91 replaces one built in 1965, and is both larger and more energy-efficient. But here's the astounding thing: 1.1 million people a year go through that crossing, which is the quieter, less crowded alternative to the I-89 version north of Burlington.Did you know that the official Scripps Spelling Bee pronouncer is a UVM prof? Neither did I. Jacques Bailly teaches classics at the university, and has been the pronouncer for the national spelling bee since 2003 -- you might have seen him in Spellbound or Akeelah and the Bee. He actually won the bee himself -- as a 14-year-old in 1980. The word? Elucubrate. A lovely, long piece in Seven Days on the ins and outs of spelling, pronunciation, and odd words. And while we're talking oddities: How is it that the most popular curry mix in Japan is called "Vermont Curry?" The curry, made by Japan's House Foods, has "a touch of apple and honey." So what does this have to do with Vermont? It's a long story, but it has its roots in a 1958 bestseller called Folk Medicine: A Vermont Doctor's Guide to Good Health. Written by a Barre doc, it recommended a mix of honey and apple cider vinegar, a fad that eventually found its way to Japan. Then... Oh, just go read the story.3 days, 3 candidates. Hey, it's time for some campaign visits!
First up, today, is entrepreneur and Democratic candidate Andrew Yang, who's an also-ran in the polls but whose proposal for a federally funded "universal basic income" for every American is winning him some attention, and whose fundraising has netted him enough donors to qualify for the first Democratic debate in July. He'll be at Dartmouth at 5:30 and in Lebanon at 7 pm.
Tomorrow it's Beto O'Rourke, on his climate-change-plan tour through New Hampshire. He'll be at Colby-Sawyer in New London at noon, at the Top of the HOP at 3:30, and at a house party in Lebanon at 5:30. You can go here to sign up (just scroll to the event you want).
And on Saturday, on the other side of the river, it's former Mass. Gov. William Weld, so far the only Republican to announce a challenge to President Trump for the GOP nomination. Hosted by VTDigger and the Valley News, he'll be interviewed by the VN's John Gregg at a forum at the Hartford High School gym at 3 pm.
SO WHAT'CHA GOT FOR ME, THURSDAY?For starters, the Hood holds a conversation on curating black experiences in theatre, museums, and "new territories." Jarvis Green, founder of local theater powerhouse JAG Productions; Roundabout Theatre Company artist-in-residence and visiting Dartmouth faculty member Miranda Haymon; and Monica White Ndounou, associate professor of theater at the college, will be talking about "the limitations and possibilities of curating a season of Black theatre, curating a story of Black experiences, curating a course or a museum exhibit on Black culture." At 5 pm. You could get a sense of what Dartmouth's thinking as it mulls the future of its campus and landholdings elsewhere. There'll be a public open house in Filene Auditorium from 7 to 9 pm, though you can show up any time and stay however long you want. There'll be stations set up around the room focused on a variety of topics. Tonight's opening night for Hanover High's production of Little Shop of Horrors. Before The Little Mermaid and Aladdin, there was the decidedly un-Disney Little Shop of Horrors. Howard Ashman and Alan Menken's comedy/horror tale of a diabolical plant and its human enablers, with its rock, doo-wop and early Motown score, has become a high school theater favorite. HHS's Footlighters do their version tonight, tomorrow, and Saturday. At 7 pm.Or you could remind yourself that truth has always been slippery, and go see Rashomon. Akira Kurosawa's 1950 masterpiece is about the murder of a samurai, the rape of his wife, and the four entirely different versions of what happened told by four unreliable, self-serving, all-too-human participants in the drama. It's been almost 70 years, and the questions about truth and the vagaries of human motivation that Kurosawa spotlighted still resonate. 7 pm at the Black Center's Loew Auditorium in Hanover.See you tomorrow.
If you like Daybreak and think one or more of your friends would like it, too, please forward this newsletter and tell them to hit the blue "Subscribe" button below. And thanks! And hey, if you're that friend? So nice to see you! You can subscribe at:
Thank you!