GOOD MORNING, UPPER VALLEY!
That was a pretty red sky out there this morning. And you know what that means.... There's a cold front sidling past us, so yesterday's just a sweet memory. Today? Showers arriving this morning and settling in for a spell, high keeping to around 70. It'll all clear out at some point this evening, and we get some dry time before the next chance for weather late tomorrow.Hartford police cruisers and officers rock new look. They've been outfitted with a new logo -- easier to see on the cars than on uniform patches -- that include images from each of the town's five villages and Mt. Ascutney off in the distance. It's all part of a rebranding and website redesign process the Hartford PD launched with Dartmouth's Center for Social Impact. Developer Mike Davidson proposes 5-story building for downtown WRJ. The project, which would go into the vacant lot at 132 S. Main Street -- next to COVER and across from Trail Break and Matt Bucy's redone American Legion building -- would include commercial space on the ground floor and up to 52 apartments. Northern Stage might lease 22 of the apartments; it already uses half of the studio apts in Davidson's revamped College Cleaners building. (VN, subscription reqd)Leb Airport lands $1 million federal grant. The FAA's handing out $495 million in airport infrastructure grants to 327 airports around the country, and the Lebanon Airport snagged a small chunk. It will use the money to update its master plan and construct a building for snow-removal equipment. Three small airports in VT -- Morrisville, Swanton, and Newport -- got grants totaling $959K.Small fire at Cantore's closes W. Leb pizza restaurant for a few days. The fire yesterday morning broke out after a food processor or hand mixer shorted out and melted a plastic water pipe, which burst and damaged an electrical panel. The damage was isolated. “Without the plastic smell, you would think everything is fine,” says owner Vinnie Cantore. He hopes to reopen Thursday. (VN, etc)Dartmouth researchers develop system to track employee mood, performance. The combination of fitness bracelets and smartphones builds on earlier work by Andrew Campbell, a computer science professor at the college, to create an app to monitor student behavior and predict academic performance. The new system tracks physical activity, location, heart functions, sleep, stress, and other measures. It's "meant to be empowering," says Campbell. "This approach could certainly benefit companies, but can also be helpful to individual employees who are looking to boost their performance."Legislative ethics committee votes to pursue probe into NH House leader. The committee is responding to a complaint that Majority Leader Doug Ley improperly participated in legislative business affecting the state chapter of the American Federation of Teachers--which he leads. Ley insists he has not "lobbied" on the union's behalf.UNH to help residents learn how to attract, sustain pollinators. This is a little far afield, but with bee populations stressed and habitats feeling the effects, it's good to know. July 30 in Durham, the university and NH Ag Extension will run an all-morning session on how to create a wildflower meadow and pollinator gardens. They'll also cover growing efforts by citizens, farmers, gardeners, researchers, and others to turn around pollinator decline. VT's at the forefront of trying to regulate data brokers -- and discovering how tough it is. It was the first state to require data brokers to register, in a law that went into effect last year, and privacy advocates believed it would help consumers know who was collecting what about them and how to opt out. Maybe. But the Washington Post says few of the companies that did register have "offered clear answers about what they do with data and whether users may remove themselves from databases."Will rural hospitals' struggles spill over to community clinics? VPR is up with a story about the trend among hospitals to take over small community practices as docs retire or struggle to stay afloat--and asks, "If a Vermont hospital gets into serious financial trouble, what will happen to the standalone clinics?" No one wants to speculate yet, but some clinics, including one in Barre and Gifford's physical therapy office in Wilder, have been shuttered. VT clarifies rule, says insurers in state can't deny coverage to transgender youth based solely on age. The state in 2007 prohibited discrimination based on gender identity, then said the law applies to coverage of medically necessary care, including "gender-affirming" surgery. Yesterday, after complaints that insurers were citing age to deny care, the Dept of Financial Regulation ruled that age can't be used to deny the surgery unless other clinical factors support the decision.Vermonters watch less TV than in all but two other states. VTDigger's Jon Margolis has been ferreting around in the American Time Use Survey put out by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, and there are the numbers: 2 hours, 19 minutes, 41 seconds each day on average. That's about 5 minutes more than in Utah and a minute longer than Maine, but a solid 20 minutes less than NH, 28 minutes less than MA, and 2 hours, 10 minutes less than WV. Aren't you glad you know?Sometimes, you need an outsider to remind you what's in your backyard. There's a travel site called "Every Avenue Travel" that's put together a Vermont summer vacation guide -- and a lot of it is right here. Sure, the Quechee Balloon Festival and King Arthur Flour, but also Northern Stage (though, umm, its season isn't right now), the AT, and Woodstock's Sculpturefest/Art on the Farm. Oh, and the Norwich Farmers Market: "Locals call this the best farmer's market in Vermont." You reading this, Seven Days?SO.... WHAT TO DO TONIGHT?The Australian troupe Circa, which opens at the HOP Friday, is holding a public master class in form, rhythm, weight, and how bodies move through space. The troupe takes "all the things people do in circuses, from jumping on each other, doing acrobatics, hand to hand, bouncing on their hands, hanging off trapezes, flying through the air, tumbling," says artistic director Yaron Lifschitz, and reimagines them "as the palette for making extraordinary, contemporary works of performance." Starts at 6 at the Straus Dance Studio, 16+, prior dance/movement experience.Or maybe you're more into voice than movement, in which case: "Sing for the Earth" at the HOP. "In this program," they write, "you are invited to reflect on the relationship between humans and nature as the group reads through diverse short choral works related to nature, led by Handel Society director Robert Duff." For singers 12 and up, sight-reading skills helpful but not required. Starts at 8 in Spaulding.Or maybe you just want to be entertained: Rebecca Rule and "That Reminds Me of a Story" in Grantham. Rule has been collecting and telling stories about New Hampshire for a couple of decades, and she's got a lot of them in her pocket. "The great thing about collecting stories," she says, "is they’re free and you don’t have to dust them." She'll be at the Grantham Town Building starting at 7.Thumb your nose at the weather and have a lovely day out there anyway. See you tomorrow.
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