GOOD MORNING, UPPER VALLEY!
Decent chance of rain today. You remember yesterday's sagging cold front? Well, now it's draped. Meanwhile, there's a low pressure system making its way toward us from the west, but the front's going to keep its heaviest effects mostly to the south of us. The upshot? Mostly cloudy, a chance of rain all day – up to a quarter inch – with a thunderstorm possible this afternoon and highs in the mid/upper 70s. Dropping into the 50s by daybreak tomorrow.New Taftsville Country Store owners aim to nurture region's general-store revival. The store's been around since 1840, but when it shut down late this spring, it looked like it might have reached its end. That's when John and Jennifer Endicott "did what any sane couple in their 50's with no retail experience would do," as Jennifer puts it: They offered to buy it. They're modeling its makeover on nearby successes like Brownsville Butcher & Pantry. Right now they're open two days a week with wine, baked goods and fresh fish, but hope to add a café and prepared foods as soon as the town and reconstruction will let them.Two teenagers, including 17-year-old from Sharon, arrested after drive-by. The incident took place Sunday in Braintree VT, when a 16-year-old boy from South Carolina allegedly fired a handgun from a moving vehicle after an argument. State police found and busted him in Burlington late yesterday afternoon, along with a 17-year-old girl from Sharon who was arrested as an accessory after the fact. They're juveniles, no names released. (VN, sub reqd)"I just don't like reading hyperbole. There's a lot of empty words, you know." That's Rebecca Bailey, the HOP's chief writer and publicity coordinator, telling Seven Days what irks her most about press releases. Bailey's held the job for a decade, and the paper turned to her last week for a Q&A on how to promote the arts. "She writes clearly and beautifully about the artists and performers who visit the Hop," it noted, "and she has advice for Vermonters who want to promote their own work — or that of others — to the media and the world." While we're catching up on last week... Here's the letter the Hartford police union wrote on behalf of Phil Kasten. The town's police chief is in the middle of the contentious debate over its approach to immigrants, and the union last week went public with its support not just for his stance, but for how he has "worked tirelessly to transform" the department. A pdf of the letter just got posted to Facebook. Let me know if you have trouble getting to it.Dartmouth unveils new sexual misconduct policy. It's been in the works for over a year, and yesterday the college made it official for everyone on campus. No sexual or gender-based harassment, exploitation, violence, stalking, or plying with drugs or alcohol; no retaliation for reporting; no exertion "of power, supervision, or authority by one individual over another in relationships of a sexual or intimate nature." Takes effect Sept. 1.
Speaking of the college, you can do things with 3D printing beyond making little figurines. There's a very cool conference on 3D printing going on at Dartmouth through today, and the Concord Monitor's David Brooks goes full geek on it. Turns out, he says, that “it’s very useful in ways we didn’t expect.” Including, for instance, creating soft components for robots, "so they can shape-shift as needed or perform delicate operations with squishy fingers instead of doing rugged things with rigid clamps."
Whaleback needs $50K for repairs. The Upper Valley Snow Sports Foundation, which took over the beloved local hill a few years back, notes that “heavy wind and rain this spring caused windows to break and water to get into the ski lodge. When attempting repairs, rot in the building framing was discovered..." Overall, revenues are up and expenses down, so it seems a good time to undertake major fundraising. (VN, sub reqd)NH, VT among states with biggest jumps in suicide rates over last 20 years. A new study by seniorliving.org, based on data from the Census and the Centers for Disease Control, finds that since 1999 the suicide rate per 100,000 people has jumped 76 percent in NH (2nd biggest increase in the country behind ND) and 73 percent in VT (4th, just after Alaska). Rural states crowd the top ranks for overall suicide rate, with Montana leading the country. NH ranks 15th overall (19.9 per 100K), VT 20th (18 per 100K).New data may show growing wealth gap in VT. Overall, state economists report, between 2010 and 2017, adjusted gross income reported by tax filers making $200-$500K increased by about 70 percent; income reported by those making under $30K has fallen. Middle-income Vermonters also seem to be gaining. UVM economist Art Woolf cautions that the numbers by themselves are ambiguous. "Either the poor are getting poorer, or the poor are moving up. Those numbers are consistent with both stories.”
Wired looks at rural "brain drain" and efforts to reverse it. An interesting piece in the all-things-digital mag, rooted in a congressional report earlier this year that found that educated workers in their 30s were decamping from rural states at high rates -- with VT leading the pack. It's a wide-ranging article, covering VT's "remote workers grant" and Matt Dunne's Rural Innovation Initiative, which has nine communities in its network, including Springfield. In the end, though, Brookings' Mark Muro says federal policy, not local "experiments," will be needed.SO... WHAT'S ON FOR TONIGHT?Well, let's see... If you want to help the Lions come back to Lebanon, tonight's a good night to do it. We're talking the service organization, of course, not the actual king of beasts. There are clubs in Norwich and Hanover, Enfield and Orange. But Lebanon's shut down 16 years ago. The people trying to restart it are meeting at 6:30 in the Leb Public Library's community room.Or there's Haunted at Dartmouth. This 2014 film is a feature-length documentary by Liwaa Yazji, a Moscow-born Syrian filmmaker who, as the Syrian civil war made its way toward Damascus, set out to answer the question, When your house is destroyed, what do you do? She thought of it, she says, "as a way to 'archive' the sad, surreal and absurd stories of people abandoning their history, memories, identity and life – to throw themselves into the unknown in most cases." In Haldeman 041, starts at 5, followed by a Q&A.Or if you're in the mood for music, the Grippo Funk Band will be in Fairlee. The band's been knocking around Burlington for a couple of decades, ever since alto saxophonist Dave Grippo called some of his friends together for a gig at Red Square, the Church St. nightclub. Touring musicians started sitting in, and over time the band developed its own -- as they put it -- "deadly locked-down grooves." They'll be on Fairlee Town Common starting at 6:30.Have a fine day out there. See you tomorrow.
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