GOOD MORNING, UPPER VALLEY!
Cloudy, maybe some rain, cooler. Remember yesterday's front? It seems to have stalled on its way out, so clouds will linger and there's a chance of rain through the morning. Things will start to clear out eventually, though not until after noon, and we won't really see much sky until late in the day. A good bit cooler than yesterday, with highs only in the low or mid 60s. Temps dropping into the low 40s tonight, maybe some 30s in the valleys. Pssst. Old Navy's open. It feels like for months West Leb habitués have been wondering when the new store in the Kohl's plaza would start doing business. Rumors of a soft opening surfaced on FB yesterday afternoon, and were quickly confirmed by people who'd gone. Official opening is on Saturday.Feds are on the escaped pigs case. Vermont's Agency of Agriculture had given Orange farmer Walter Jeffries until Tuesday to get them rounded up. Yesterday, he met with officials to sign an agreement giving USDA's wildlife services permission to install game cameras and other monitoring devices in hopes they'll help figure out how to recover the pigs.Walpole locked down as police in VT and NH hunt for fugitive up and down CT River. Zachariah McAllister of Westminster, VT, had warrants out for his arrest when he was pulled over in Brattleboro yesterday morning. He took off, headed up toward Bellows Falls, was eventually spotted in Walpole doing over 100 mph and, not surprisingly, crashed. The chase continued on foot and the town was locked down briefly. McAllister was then seen again across the river, in Westminster. As of late yesterday, he still hadn't been found. Tribute to 9/11 victims, responders, pops up near-spontaneously in Hartford. A group of local residents turned out by Town Hall to wave flags and hoist remembrance signs. They were pulled together in less than a day via Facebook by Joseph Bublat. "I thought it would be really good to bring it back to the community and wave some American flags...and just show support for our local EMS and fire department and everybody, just spreading some good will and patriotism," he tells Eric Francis.And speaking of 9/11, Norwich U put out a striking "We'll Never Forget" photo yesterday. A lone cadet standing guard at night by the flagpole, the campus lit up behind him, the moon illuminating a brooding cloud above..."Not enough women in leadership positions in the theater." That was Northern Stage's Carol Dunne explaining to writer Susan Apel why she created the BOLD Theater Women's Leadership Circle, a grant-funded effort spread over five regional theaters around the country to nurture women directors, playwrights, and tech designers. In the new issue of Image, Apel describes NS's efforts to do just that, as well as seriously expand its educational programming for kids, teens, and adults. Hit the link, then the "full screen" icon, then go to p. 48. Yeah, sorry, Image doesn't make it easy.On the Dartmouth sexual misconduct settlement: The Dartmouth has full details, plus the text of the settlement itself, in case you want to take a look.Enfield Village gardener's work starts getting some attention. Last week, the VN's Alex Hanson wrote a lovely little story about Angela Gow, who for the last few years has tended a patch of ground at the corner of Main Street and Shaker Hill Road. She grows tomatoes, fuschia, gazania, zinnia, sunflowers, and petunias, and hands the tomatoes out to passers-by. Hanson's story got picked up by the AP, and it's now gone national. The link is to a CT paper. GMP warns of scam calls. For the second time in as many months, the utility (along with Burlington Electric) put out an alert that scammers, using a number that pops up as GMP (or BE), claim to be from the power company, demand immediate payment, and threaten to cut off power within a half hour if you don't pony up. If this happens to you, the utilities say, just hang up.VT, NH refuse to join $12 billion opioid settlement with Purdue Pharma. Yesterday's huge deal between the maker of Oxycontin and attorneys for some 2,000 localities and about half the states drew a "no, thanks" from the AGs in the twin states. VT's TJ Donovan simply texted that the state "did not join the settlement." In NH, associate AG James Boffetti said, "The tentative agreement, as it stands, does not sufficiently hold the Sackler family, who bear significant responsibility for this opioid crisis, accountable. It is a bad deal for the people of New Hampshire."The VTDigger vs. State of VT smackdown over EB5, explained. A couple of weeks ago, Digger founder Ann Galloway revealed that the state has been unable to produce months of emails related to the scandal over fraudulent development projects. This came after eight months of a legal fight between Digger and Donovan. Now Seven Days weighs in with the back-and-forth between the non-profit news organization and Donovan and explains what the tussle over the documents means. And in a related development, it turns out that State Auditor Doug Hoffer's report on the scandal will be delayed. That's because Donovan has asked Hoffer's office not to interview former state officials until after the criminal case against the Jay Peak developers at the heart of the scandal has ended — and the trial won't even start until October a year from now, at the earliest. It's going to be years before a dispassionate accounting materializes.Hemp becomes VT's fastest-growing crop (by acreage). In 2013, there were 175 acres registered with the state. That had grown to 3,290 acres by last year. This year? 7,800 acres, in all 14 counties, planted by 900 registered growers. Ninety percent of it is going to CBD production. Hungry? Newsday hits the VT Cheese Trail. Well, strictly speaking, just the southernmost section. The "once cheddar-centric state is...churning out feta, mozzarella, bloomy rind, goat and sheep milk cheeses and more — all for the tasting on a scenic cheese trail spread from Brattleboro to the Canadian border," Jim Merritt writes in the Long Island paper. He stops by Spoonwood Creamery in Jacksonville, Grafton Village, some distilleries and breweries, and down a "winding, dusty" road to the Vermont Shepherd shack at the edge of a sheep meadow. But go do your own adventure: Here's the full map. If you like Daybreak and want to help it keep going, here's how:
SO.... TONIGHT?
Pony pulls, oxen log skidding, sheepdog trials, harness racing, tractor pulls, pig racing, gargantuan pumpkins, acres of canned produce, kids tending all manner of livestock, more food in one stretch of field than you can possibly know what to do with, bands, bright lights, shrieks... Oh, you just have to go live your own Fair. Gates open at 8 am today.
Fox, a well-known photographer in Vermont and the performing arts world in DC, has been collecting books since...well, the description says "birth." He's got something on the order of 40,000 of them now. He'll be talking about the ins and outs of collecting, will "share adventures in the jungle and jumble of books," and tell tales about his encounters with their authors. Starts at 7.
They're high-profile masters of what's come to be called "chambergrass," a blend of Celtic, bluegrass, and other folk traditions, all using chamber instrumentation (in this case, violins, violas, and a cello). The group, which can barrel from lyrical to high-octane and back in the span of a single song, is based in Canada, though its founders met at Berklee in Boston and its most recent addition, Ben Plotnick, is from Nashville. “Being asked to join The Fretless was a bit like the fiddle version of being asked to join Led Zeppelin,” Plotnick says. Music starts at 5:30.
Okay, up and at 'em... See you tomorrow.
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