UP AND AT 'EM, UPPER VALLEY!
So glad we got yesterday! Because now we get yanked around a bit. First, and I'm quoting here, we've got "subtle pieces of vorticity" moving across the region this morning. That's weather talk for air rotating horizontally, and what it's bringing us is showers: a chance in the morning and likely in the afternoon. Highs into the mid-60s, though, which is nice because tonight temps drop. More fronts arrive later in the week. Hmm.... So is there such a thing as brazen pieces of vorticity?Groups at Dartmouth push for overhaul of psych department. They're suggesting that the entire Psychology and Brain Sciences department be placed in "academic receivership" after last week's new allegations in the class-action lawsuit against the college. “While department chairs and deans may claim not to have known about years of harm," one group of alums and students wrote about the sexual misconduct allegations, "we insist that it was their job to know. Having abdicated that responsibility, they no longer have a right to hold powerful positions at Dartmouth...” (VN, subscription reqd.)If you want full details of what happened in Sunday's officer-involved shooting on the Quechee-West Hartford Road, Eric Francis has them. James Luce, who's 19, had known mental health issues and was in the midst of a "mental health emergency" when he was shot at by a VT state police officer. Luce is being held, the officer is on leave.Think of it as Donald Hall memorabilia week. The much-loved New Hampshire poet and former poet laureate died last summer, and his possessions are going on the block this week. First up tomorrow, William Smith Auctions in Plainfield is handling some of Hall's jewelry and silver, paintings, and a Dock Ellis baseball card. There's more in Boston on Friday, and then this weekend Hall's Wilmot farm and home will be open to the public as part of a large estate sale there.NH Mag names local nurses for its Excellence in Nursing awards. It's National Nurses Week, which makes this a good time to highlight this piece from the magazine. Among others around the state, it praises and profiles five DHMC nurses: Ericka Bergeron, a nurse manager at CHaD; Paul Hodgdon, a vascular access nurse; Kathleen Broglio, a palliative care nurse-practitioner; Daniel Moran, a gerontologic nurse; and Daisy Goodman, who focuses on healthcare for vulnerable populations. UNH researchers identify new strain of canine distemper in NH and VT. So far they've found it only in wild animals, including three fishers, two gray foxes, one skunk, one raccoon, and one mink. It has not been found in any domesticated dogs. The strain is in a genus related to measles, and is distinct from those for which vaccines exist. Before this, it had been identified only once: in a Rhode Island raccoon.NH primary make or break for Bernie. That's the conclusion Vox comes to: He won it big in 2016, expectations are high, it's the neighboring state... so anything less than a win or a strong second place would finish him. The problem: a lot of his support last time came from younger voters, and Sanders is "last year's news, a little bit," says a UNH pollster. Also, there's the new, tighter voter-registration-requirements thing, which could keep college students away from the polls. But what's really amazing? That anyone would call a single primary "make or break" this far ahead.We're all just fooling ourselves on recycling. That's David Brooks, the "Granite State Geek," in the Concord Monitor. Especially if our towns don't require sorting ahead of time: a lot of those bottles, cans, and paper are just being trashed, because they're too expensive to sort. You could always find a nearby community that does put things in separate bins; then the odds are better that stuff's actually being recycled. But be polite. "I would never encourage anyone just to show up at somebody else’s facility, so call first,” says the head of NH's solid waste division. NH lawmakers tackle budget, but spending may be driven by another force entirely: the courts. While the budget process is in full swing in Concord, a series of lawsuits are moving forward that may shape state spending into the future. The big-ticket item: A set of school districts are suing the state for higher per-pupil funding. But also: A psychiatric patient who was kept in a secure unit in the state prison -- despite not having committed a crime -- is suing for the creation of a secure psychiatric hospital. And the state is suing the feds to allow online lottery sales.VT's policy to keep solar projects away from undeveloped and agricultural land appears to be working. State regulators changed the rules a couple of years ago to encourage solar developers to put up arrays on landfills, sandpits, and brownfields. Since then, the Agency of Natural Resources has had over 100 "Certificate for Public Good" applications, including proposals for solar on three parking lot canopies, five landfills and 11 mineral extraction sites.Are there buildings that stand for a state? VPR's Tom Slayton was moved to think about this after the Notre Dame fire. "Which buildings," he wondered, "are so important they sum up our experience as a state and stand for what we consider ourselves to be?" There's the State House, he figures. But then, most towns also have their gems: the Strafford Town House and the Justin Morrill homesite; the St. J Athenaeum; Rutland's Service Building. It's a radio piece so he didn't come up with a long list -- but if you look around, you realize he could have. Epping NH firefighters rescue duckling. It's been a busy spring for rescuers: Last week it was the guy going after his drone in a tree in Manchester, yesterday it was a duckling in a storm drain. That little guy was tiny. All's well: they reunited him with his family.WHAT CAN YOU DO ON A TUESDAY NIGHT IN A BURG LIKE THIS?Well, you could go hear Jeremiah McLane, Ryan McKasson, and Eric McDonald decidedly not in a burg. They're playing a house concert at Fern Hill, a private home up in Brookfield, VT, that's large enough for a crowd. "Think cozy fireside pub atmosphere, where the spirit of Scottish, Irish and Celtic music is being shared with friends, by friends, making friends," says the come-on. McLane, of course, is a legendary accordionist from these parts; McKasson (fiddle, from Tacoma, WA) and McDonald (guitar/mandolin, Boston) have long traditional-music pedigrees. That's going to be some music! Concert starts at 7, jam before that. Or if earlier is better for you, you could go hear retired judge Charles Schudson talk about "Independence Corrupted: How America's Judges (Really) Make Decisions." Schudson, a 1972 Dartmouth grad, was a longtime Wisconsin trial and appellate judge. He'll be talking about the issues that affect judicial decision-making, as well as the political pressures that now threaten judicial independence. This is a free Osher lecture, starting at 4:30 in Oopik Auditorium at Dartmouth's Life Sciences Center.Or you could go to a reading of Whitman's "This Compost." This is International Compost Awareness Week, and the 200th anniversary of Whitman's birth is coming up on the 31st. You knew both those things, right? Stands to reason to put them together. "Something startles me where I thought I was safest," Whitman began his rumination on death, decay, and the regenerative power of the earth. Afterward, photographer Evelyn Swett will guide responses in writing or collage. Starts at 7 at Left Bank Books in Hanover.
That the fruits of the apple-orchard and the orange-orchard, that melons, grapes, peaches, plums, will none of them poison me...It's a miracle, Walt. See you tomorrow.
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