UP AND AT 'EM, UPPER VALLEY!
Because it's sunny this morning, but it's not going to last. There's a warm front crossing the region, and at some point things will cloud over and there's a chance of rain starting in the evening turning into a better-than-decent chance overnight. We're still in this colder-than-"normal" spell, so it won't get out of the low-to-mid 60s today and will drop back into the 40s (though hey! High 40s, so count your blessings) tonight. Gillibrand hops on board Dartmouth pseudonym petition. You remember the one: It demands that the college drop its insistence that all plaintiffs in the class-action sexual misbehavior suit be identified. Now U.S. Sen. and presidential candidate Kirsten Gillibrand has signed on. “Senator Gillibrand believes this is just plain wrong," her New Hampshire spokesperson emailed the VN. “Dartmouth should do the right thing and change course.” (VN, subscription reqd)
Richmond School student is finalist in Doodle4Google design contest. Every year, Google holds a contest for elementary- and middle-school students to create a "doodle" homepage design. Winners get a $30,000 scholarship and $50K tech package for their school. One of this year's Grade 8-9 finalists goes to Hanover's Richmond Middle School, and you can check out (and vote for) her intricate design at the link. "Just like the people in the drawings," she writes, "I hope that we will be able to evolve our technology, reach to the stars, invent new creations, take care of our precious planet, teach our knowledge to others, and paint ourselves in the future that we dream of."Norwich struggling to deal with school septic issues. Effluent from the Marion Cross School system has been seeping onto the town green for years, and now school officials are trying to zero in on a solution in time for town meeting next year. The school could replace its system, move it, or hook into Hartford's sewer line. The first is the cheapest option, and even that would be at least $275K. (VN, subscription still reqd)Vermont expanding park & rides, including locally. One of the less-noticed bills that actually made it through Vermont's legislative session would fund the design of new park & rides and expand space at several existing ones. One of the three up for expansion is along I-89 in Royalton, and it looks like Thetford's now in line to get a new one. Royalton's 91 new spots will come in 2021. Cows did indeed once graze on the Dartmouth/Hanover green. There's a new exhibit at the Baker-Berry Library, created by students in a food history class, chronicling the history of agriculture at Dartmouth. It takes in what was once the college's most popular major (Ag), victory gardens at Occom Pond during WWII, and a recent move to teach English to migrant workers on dairy farms. (VN: I know, third one, but people: Cows! On the green!)VT legislative session opens Dem-Prog fissure. According to VPR, the failure of the Dem-controlled legislature to pass its minimum-wage and family-leave bills has left Progressives feeling restive. They may challenge moderate Dems in 2020 -- even though most Progs also run as Democrats. Could get interesting...New data shakes up state rankings on localvore food index. For the last 7 years, Strolling of the Heifers, a non-profit food advocacy organization based in Brattleboro, has ranked states on production and consumption of local food. New USDA data has created dramatic shifts in the index. VT still ranks first in the country, as it did last year. California's now second. NH dropped from 5th to 16th. NH scores court victory on lottery. The state had sued the Trump Administration over its decision last fall that online lotteries violate the 1961 Wire Act. In a decision Monday, federal Judge Paul Barbadoro ruled that the act applies only to sports gambling, not games of chance. This clears the way for the state to keep selling tickets, which generate about $5 million a year for the budget.Sununu vetoes net metering bill. NH Gov. Chris Sununu vetoed a measure allowing towns and businesses to generate solar and hydro power and then sell it back to the grid. “We should not force our ratepayers to massively subsidize those who can afford to construct 40-acre solar farms,” he says. The legislature will try to override. Last year, after a similar veto, the Senate had the votes to do so, but the attempt fell short in the House.Former NH guvs meet, reminisce, tell stories. They were at the Statehouse yesterday celebrating the building's 200th anniversary. Amid the tales of working in such an intimate, publicly accessible space, former Gov. Steve Merrill talked about meeting a woman at a farmer's market who asked why there was a crowd around him. He told her he worked at the Statehouse. As what, she asked. Governor, he replied. "And she said, 'Oh, I'm so embarrassed. I don't live around here.' I said, 'Really? Where do you live?' And she said, 'Hooksett!'"Dartmouth profs say Godzilla has doubled in size. Just in time for the release of the new Godzilla movie, profs Nathaniel Dominy and Ryan Calsbeek write in a paper published in the academic journal Science that since 1954, the monster has evolved 30 times faster than any organism on earth. The reason? They think it comes down to a spike in collective human anxiety.Another British travel writer visits VT and comes away amused. And maybe a little befuddled. Leave aside the fact that she was there in mud season and the article's illustrated with a beautiful photo of fall colors. Writer Olivia Grant stayed at Barnard's not-for-the-hoi-polloi Twin Farms, which not surprisingly gets raves, and ventured to high-end restaurants, including Simon Pearce. "If this was the full horror of mud season in Vermont I think I can definitely brace it," she concludes. Though she does nail "crunchy," declaring, "If someone is ‘crunchy’ they make their own granola, support Green Peace, exist on gluten-free soda bread and carry their children in a cloth papoose."HEY, IT'S TUESDAY, GOT PLANS?Well, you could go see for yourself: Godzilla's at both the Nugget and the Entertainment Cinemas on the Miracle Mile. Or, well, Godzilla: King of the Monsters is, to be exact. An interesting little tussle going on over at Rotten Tomatoes: The critics are falling over each other to pan it, the audience is mostly liking it. This means that if you're in the mood for big, loud monsters, you might just have to go see for yourself. After all, as the London Evening Standard's critic says, "[T]he film is unlikely to flop. Like its XL star, it’s just too big to fail." And she probably didn't even read the Science article.Or maybe you're in the mood to travel, in which case: the Bolshoi Ballet in HD down in Concord. They're doing Cuban choreographer Alberto Alonso's Carmen and Petrushka, a new piece by Romanian choreographer Edward Clug. Bizet, Stravinsky, and the Bolshoi's stars. "Bolshoi," of course, means "large" or "grand," which makes you wonder how Godzilla would do on pointe. Okay, okay, I'll call it quits. At the Capitol Center for the Arts, starting at 6 pm.Of course, it may well be raining out. In which case: a glass of wine, a good book, and we'll see one another tomorrow.
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