HELLO, UPPER VALLEY!
Boy, there's a lot of activity up there. A low to our south, a low to our north, a cold front coming through, a disturbance from the Plains... Here on the ground what it all adds up to is a chance of rain in the morning and then rain throughout the afternoon and tonight. Could be heavy at times. Highs near 70.Woodstock volunteers aim to bring residential life back to village, woo teachers, police officers, other moderate-income families. A lot of the homes in downtown Woodstock are absentee-owned, and there aren't a lot of lights shining out those windows at night. Now, with a $500,000 gift in hand, the Woodstock Community Trust wants to buy and fix up houses, then cover the down payment for medium-income families.Just figured you'd want to know: Pink lady slippers are starting to bloom at Hartland's Eshqua Bog. It's an annual late-June show in one of the more unusual pockets around here -- a post-glacial ecosystem dating to 10,000 years ago. Jay Campion to propose self-sustained, 250-unit condo project for Lebanon. The site, just off Route 120 by the corner of Etna and Labombard roads, would include two condo buildings, office and light industrial space, and a village store. Campion aims to use solar and geothermal power for heat and power, and build his own wastewater treatment facility. This move, which goes before the planning board next week, replaces his earlier proposal for a liquified natural gas facility on the site. (VN, subscription reqd)NH legislators shelve paid family leave, ready budget. House and Senate negotiators decided to axe a family-leave measure that had drawn a veto threat from Gov. Chris Sununu, but are going ahead with their plans to stop a business-tax cut, a move Sununu's also threatened to veto. They agreed yesterday to a $138 million boost in education spending, and increase Medicaid reimbursements by $60 million. The legislature will vote on the budget next week. National analysts say NH primary isn't what it used to be; NH voters say "Pshaw!" The Boston Globe's Victoria McGrane and James Pindell (a veteran NH political writer) look at the impact of a changing Democratic calendar -- CA and TX have moved their primaries to early March, DNC debate rules mean finding donors around the country -- on candidates' reliance on the NH primary. The campaign may be more nationalized, they say, but "the candidates are coming here all the time," as one NH operative puts it.It used to be that family-planning contracts in NH sparked fierce debate; yesterday the Executive Council approved 10 of them without discussion. The contracts provide $3.8 million for reproductive health services, including at Planned Parenthood and Mascoma Community Health Care. There's a 4-1 Democratic majority on the council these days.NH conferees agree to minimum-wage boost. Legislators may have gone the way of their Vermont counterparts in axing paid family leave, but unlike them they reached a compromise yesterday on increasing the hourly minimum wage, from $7.25 an hour to $10 next year and $12 in 2022. They also agreed to a rise in the wage for tipped workers, a move that led hospitality industry lobbyists to say they'll ask Sununu to veto the measure. It was a bad winter for bee colonies. Nationally, says NPR, nearly 40 percent of honeybee colonies were lost last winter — the highest winter hive loss since records started being kept 13 years ago. In New Hampshire, the Monitor reports, 55 percent of the hives didn't survive, down from 58 percent the previous winter. There are lots of reasons for the troubles, including pesticides and mites, but they signal bigger pollinator problems. "The picture is well beyond honeybees," says an ag extension prof in the NPR story. "The whole system is crashing."This is cool: time-lapse videos of the clouds and weather over Sugarbush. There's this guy who runs a glider service--rides and lessons--over in the Mad River Valley in VT. He's pointed a cam at Lincoln Peak and Mt. Abraham, and is capturing clouds, systems, and sunsets as they move through. It's the Sugarbush WaveCam, and it's pretty darn mesmerizing.Can Vermont justices of the peace actually serve as judges? Jay Furr, who's both a JP and the weigher of coal for Richmond, VT, discovered that there's this obscure provision that under "extraordinary circumstances," Vermont justices of the peace can be commissioned by the state Supreme Court to serve as magistrates. He asked Seven Days to look into it. Turns out the odds are pretty small. But then, Furr is accustomed to disappointment. "I've been weigher of coal for four or five years," he says, "and no one has ever asked me to weigh a lump."WHAT YOU GOT GOING TONIGHT?There's Her Majesty's Secret Circus show in Haverhill. Brent and Maya McCoy helped found Vermont Vaudeville, but they're also circus street performers of some renown -- you can find them outside Boston's Faneuil Hall, for instance, during the summer. Juggling, acrobatics, unicycling, slapstick, plunger arrows... Life does not have to be serious, people. Weather permitting, starts at 6 on the Haverhill Corner common. But if you do want to be (kind of) serious, Suzanne Hinman will be at the Hood. She's talking about Diana, the Roman goddess of the moon, the hunt, and chastity, and the nude-sculpture rivalry between Augustus Saint-Gaudens and Frederick MacMonnies. She'll also be signing copies of her book about the building of Madison Square Garden and the controversial, 18-foot Saint-Gaudens Diana that capped it. Starts at 5:30.And if you want to be even more serious, the NH ACLU is holding a civil liberties training session at the Leb Library. They'll be talking about ways to promote criminal justice reform, support LGBTQ and immigrant communities, and advocate for racial justice. Session includes training in various ways to organize and interact with elected officials. Runs from 6-7:30 pm.Or you could go see The Hello Girls in New London. Two years before women got the vote in this country, 223 women shipped out for France to serve as phone operators near the front lines in WWI. They were fluent in French and English, and connected and translated for French and American officers. After it was all over, they returned home to be told they were not actual veterans. The film traces this history, and will be introduced by Carolyn Timbie, granddaughter of one of the chief operators. 7 pm at Tracy Memorial Library.Hope the day treats you well. See you tomorrow.
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