TOP O' THE MORNING, UPPER VALLEY!
Let's just revel in a short forecast. Yesterday's system has passed by. Tomorrow's furnace is yet to come. Today? Partly-to-mostly cloudy, temps in the high 70s. Almost sweater weather.That was a joke.Really what I want to say this morning is, Thank you. Daybreak hit 2,000 subscribers yesterday. (Welcome, DW: That was you.) I don't know how that stacks up against other newsletters, but to me it feels like a lot. This could not have happened without you -- your subscriptions, your daily readership, your encouragement, and above all your forwards-to-friends. Please keep it up. I think we're on to something.Hartford selectboard meeting on immigrant policing packed, heated -- and long. Like, 150 people and almost 6 hours, says the VN's Jordan Cuddemi. Tuesday's meeting was to discuss proposed changes to the town's policing policies, including whether to bar discussion of immigration status with federal authorities. Chief Phil Kasten told the crowd that the proposed changes would tie the PD's hands. “Policing here is a collaborative responsibility," he said. "We cannot do it without our partners.” The SB's trying to finish by July 30. (VN)Hypertherm piloting program to teach software development to high schoolers. The effort, funded by Lockheed Martin, will teach HS juniors and seniors computer programming, algorithmic problem solving and critical thinking, and basic software development. "This program is one more way we are working to ensure upcoming generations are engaged and capable in all areas of [STEM]," says Stacey Chiocchio, the company's Community Citizenship Manager. Applications are due tomorrow, classes start this fall.Seven Days interviews local hypnotist Karen Gray. The former RN, who lives in WRJ, launched Green Mountain Hypnosis in Leb in 2016 and works with clients to overcome anxiety, change habits -- even, in one case, get over a fear of eating eggs. "People are easy to hypnotize," she says. "You already know how to go into hypnosis. Daydreaming — that's a hypnotic trance."Julian Castro, Amy Klobuchar headed this way. The two presidential candidates will both be in Cornish, at the home of former state Sen. Peter Burling and former NH Superior Court Judge Jean Burling: Castro tomorrow evening, Klobuchar on Saturday afternoon. The VN's John Gregg has the details, plus a roundup of local endorsements. (VN, sub reqd)Norwich's Rebecca Holcombe has her work cut out for her. That's Seven Days political columnist John Walters in the wake of the former VT education secretary's announcement Tuesday that she's running for governor. It's basically a précis of establishment Montpelier's view: Phil Scott's popular; it'll take money; other potential Democratic candidates will be competitive; Holcombe's strength is policy, not campaigning; and she ticked off the press corps last year by not explaining why she resigned as ed secy. NH now mandates free menstrual products in schools. Remember that bill requiring all female and gender-neutral bathrooms in middle and high schools to stock them for free? Gov. Chris Sununu signed it yesterday. Advocates had contended that girls concerned about easy access often stayed home from school during their periods.There's been growing concern in VT about cyanobacteria blooms. Especially around a set of beaches on Lake Champlain, some of which have been closed recently. But it's an issue statewide, and this link takes you to the state health department's interactive map, where you can check for the latest monitoring reports on recreational lakes and ponds. Morey, you'll be pleased to know, is doing fine. But it's worth bookmarking: Things can change week to week.As if that weren't enough, the state is also getting more worried about PFAS contamination. The chemicals were discovered around the ChemFab factory in North Bennington in 2016. Then they were also found in the well water of a dairy farm 120 miles to the north, near Burlington. Then in Pownal, and Shelburne. Now the state's testing all 700 public water systems. And groundwater around the state. "This has the potential to impact a large portion of the state," says Jen Duggan, of Conservation Law Foundation Vermont.Barnard's Twin Farms is 5th most expensive luxury hotel in US. It's $1,882 a night, twice as expensive as the Waldorf Astoria in Beverly Hills. That's according to a new survey by Luxury-Hotels.com, which puts The Ranch at Rock Creek in Philipsburg, Montana, at the top of the list: $3,600/night. The only other hotel in the northeast in the top ten was The Point, in Lake Placid ($2,327), though two in Lenox, MA made the top 20. Oh, those rates? They were the cheapest available for a double in July and August.BOY, THERE'S A LOT TO DO TONIGHTFor starters, Circus Smirkus opens today at Fullington Field in Hanover. Its performers may be 10-18, but it's as close as a circus can get to pro while still being joyful and effervescent. Go whether you have kids with you or not. There are two new local troupe members this year: Miki Hertog-Raz and Will Ciardelli. Shows, sponsored by Sharon Academy, are at 1 and 6 today, tomorrow, and Saturday. If you're thinking of the 6 pm show tonight or tomorrow, or the 1 pm show on Saturday, stop reading and get tix now! They may be gone by showtime. And hey, say hi to the nice parking people... I'll be one of them. The Bradford Fair also opens today. Monster truck rides, helicopter rides, the mini-horse pull, the log-loading competition.... How could you stay away? Plus, of course, the beer tent, all the fried dough and fair cuisine you've been saving yourself for, and tonight on the main stage, Donna Thunders and the Storm. Runs 3:59-10 pm today, then all day tomorrow, Saturday, and Sunday.And, oh gosh, the Norwich Fair opens today, too. Arcade games, rides, music, dunk tank, cow-pie bingo.... and all the fried dough and fair cuisine you've been saving yourself for, plus earnest boy scouts selling hot dogs, hamburgers, etc. Runs 5-10 pm today and tomorrow, 11-10 Saturday, and noon-5 on Sunday. Or if you'd rather be in a building tonight, Apollo 11 is at the HOP. "Somehow," writes Peter Bradshaw in The Guardian, "it doesn’t look like something that happened 50 years ago – but rather an extraordinarily detailed futurist fantasy of what might happen in the years to come, if we could only evolve to some higher degree of verve and hope." Except, of course, it's not a fantasy. It's a documentary. Starts at 7:30 pm in Spaulding.Tonight's the second Meetinghouse Reading, in Canaan. Christopher Benfey, who's made a specialty of the Gilded Age, will be reading from IF: The Untold Story of Kipling's American Years. Specifically, Brattleboro, where he started The Jungle Book, the first Just-So Stories, a draft of Kim.... And Pulitzer finalist Hernan Diaz will be reading In the Distance, his first novel, about a hulking Swede wandering America’s desert frontier in the years between the Gold Rush and the Civil War. It is, said the Times, "an uncanny achievement: an original western."Do not tell me you're going to stay home tonight. See you tomorrow.
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