GOOD MORNING, UPPER VALLEY!
Okay, just hang on for the next few days... Tomorrow's May, so don't you feel like it should be all sky-blue skies and bright flowers and happy little birds? But no. Instead, there's a set of low-pressure systems moving through. Today's might bring some rain, though it's likely there'll also be some sun later this afternoon. Temps could rocket all the way up toward 50. Next front barges in later tomorrow, then another one on Friday. The weekend, though... Now we're talkin'. Even if it's forever away.One man in hospital, one in jail after NH Route 4 shooting in Grafton. The two got into a confrontation while driving yesterday afternoon, pulled over, began fighting -- and then one shot the other in the abdomen. The victim, unidentified, is at DHMC; the assailant, Joseph Brown, will be arraigned today. Both men are from Grafton. According to the VN article on the incident, a woman at the scene said one was her husband, the other her boyfriend. The road was partially closed down well into last night as state police investigated.Land Trust sues technical college over Norwich Farm Creamery. You'll remember the to-do last year over the Upper Valley Land Trust's bid to have milk and cheese producer Chris Gray and his wife, Laura Brown, leave the 6-acre farm. They're still there, and UVLT says that Vermont Technical College breached their purchase and sales agreement by allowing the couple to live there and produce cheese and other dairy products. The trust is seeking damages, rather than "get in the middle of the relationship" between the college and the creamery owners.The pothole that ate the Upper Valley. Don't know how I missed this the other day, but you know that seriously interesting pothole that always seems to be there near the Weathervane in West Leb? It's suddenly a Facebook celebrity -- this pic'll give you a sense of it. Lots of comments. "That’s lake Lebanon. Been there forever. Some say it’s bottomless..." says one.Hosted by the Thayer School, engineering students from India, Canada, and across the US are over at the NH Motor Speedway in Loudon racing hybrid Formula One cars. The annual event started yesterday and runs through Thursday. They're competing on design, acceleration, handling, and endurance... but also energy efficiency and sustainable materials. Yesterday and today are pretty geeky, but tomorrow's a good day to visit: acceleration and autocross events from 10 to 4. "Participating in Formula Hybrid specifically is like a vote for a more sustainable future,” says Annika Garbers, chief mechanical engineer for the Rochester Institute of Technology's all-women Hot Wheelz team.Something you'll probably start seeing in the news: The trial starts this week for the guy accused in 2016's wrong-way crash on I-89 that killed five high school students. Four of the students were from Harwood Union HS, one from KUA. Steven Bourgoin has pleaded not guilty. The trial is scheduled to start tomorrow up in Burlington.VT legislature creates drinking water standard for PFAs. The compounds, perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl, are used in nonstick cookware, firefighting foam and the like. They're toxic -- and have been found in wells around Bennington, as well as in wells around Bedford, NH. Both houses of the legislature want public water systems to be monitoring for the chemicals, though the health department says it may be tough for all public systems to test before the end of the year.What would it actually mean to increase the minimum wage? Vermont seems close to boosting it to $15 an hour. There's plenty of heat on both sides of the argument -- the benefits of making sure workers have a living wage, the challenges that would result to employers. VTDigger is looking into the potential effects, and the long and short is, it's a gamble. “The proposed minimum wage increase is outside the bounds of anything that has been done or studied,” says an economist in the state. “It’s not study-able....Until the wages are in place, we can’t really know what the impacts are.”Speaking of gambles, the Washington Post is up with a deep dive into Vermont's failed single-payer health care effort. Green Mountain Care, which lasted from 2011 until the end of 2014, foundered for all sorts of reasons, though chief among them were costs unaffordable to a publicly financed plan. It's a cautionary tale for the current crop of Dem presidential contenders, says the Post. "Vermont’s foray into publicly financed health care — in a state that in many ways offered the optimal conditions — demonstrates the extraordinary difficulty of trying to convert liberals’ dream of a more just, efficient health system into reality."You're not imagining things: gas prices are going up. They rose almost seven cents a gallon in NH last week, five cents in VT. They're now averaging $2.75 in NH, $2.80 in VT. The national average is $2.88 a gallon.Love this: There's a classic-rock station over in NY's Hudson Valley that's just out with a tip sheet on where its listeners can find Heady Topper and Focal Banger. "If you've ever taken a trip to Vermont you've most likely been asked at some point to smuggle back some beer," their guy writes, and nothing remains more sought-after than the two Alchemist beers. They used to be hard to get even in VT, of course, though now you can't cross a street without tripping over them. Okay, maybe not quite. But there's enough out there these days that you can find it for sale even in the Hudson Valley. Restaurants and bars alert their customers when they score some. Think of all the carbon not being emitted!GOT PLANS?For starters, there's always food. It's still restaurant week in Vermont, and Simon Pearce and the Parker House Inn are both participating. They're 150 feet from each other in Quechee, so you could do a park-once compare-and-contrast... but then you wouldn't be able to move.Or music. Jacob Green's at the Crossroads Bar & Grill in South Royalton, Jakob Breitbach and his pickup crew are doing their acoustic jam at the Filling Station in WRJ, and Ted Mortimer (guitar) and Katie Runde (sax) are at Windsor Station in Windsor. Or then again, maybe it's just time to learn something. Like how not to throw away your denim with a hole in it. Claremont Makerspace is teaching a class on Sashiko stitching, which is a form of embroidery that started in Japan a few centuries back to patch, repair, or reinforce worn clothing. You'll get a mindset along with your new patches. "We will consider environmental effects of our throw-away clothing culture, as well as the concepts of 'slow fashion,' 'mindful mending,' individuality, and responsible sourcing." Starts at 6.Whatever it's like outside, have a fine day. See you tomorrow.
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