OH WHAT A DAY OUT THERE, UPPER VALLEY!
Sunny, warm, dry. The weather service is actually calling it "North Country Chamber of Commerce weather." If you're up early, it may still be cloudy and/or foggy. If you're up a little later, it may still be humid. But if you believe in sleeping in, you should awaken to a near-cloudless day with low humidity and temps headed pretty quickly into the 80s. We'll see moister air and clouds return overnight, but let's worry about that tomorrow.Family planning services to continue at WRJ, Claremont Planned Parenthood clinics. This is news because the organization has announced that it will stop taking federal family planning money thanks to new Trump administration rules that would prevent it from discussing abortion with patients. VT announced yesterday it will make up the lost funding with state money. NH's vetoed budget likewise contained funding; Planned Parenthood will use its own emergency funds instead. (VN, sub reqd) New interstate school district in the works. Clearly the Upper Valley has started something. This new district would be well to our north — where VT, NH and Quebec all come together. The towns of Canaan, VT, and Stewartstown and Colebrook, NH, all face declining enrollments, and state and local officials are meeting to weigh a cross-river district to join Dresden and Rivendell. Intriguingly, there's also a VT-MA district under consideration in the southwest corner of VT. The Upper Valley Land Trust is trying to restore chestnut trees to the Upper Valley. The grand American Chestnut was decimated in the first half of the 20th century by fungal blight, but now, the VN's David Corriveau reports, the UVLT is trying to reintroduce them. It planted four seedlings on a patch of the trust’s Up On the Hill Conservation Area in Charlestown last week. Now they just have to keep the deer away for the next three to five years. (VN)"Costs matter to places like Dartmouth. Maybe the risk of such a cost will matter to the next Dartmouth, and to the Dartmouth after that." That's Susan Matthews, the science editor for the online magazine Slate and a Dartmouth grad, who just went up with a detailed, unflinching recounting of the brain science department sexual misconduct case. She brings the whole thing together: the culture of extreme drinking and allegations of abuse, the college's response(s), the lawsuit, the college's response to the suit, the settlement, and the meaning of it all.Religious groups from 4 states embark on walk, ride to NH jail that holds immigrant detainees. This is the second year that faith-based groups are marching to the Strafford County Dept of Corrections in Dover, which has a federal contract to hold detained immigrants. Last year's version was NH-only. This year, groups from VT, ME and MA are joining in. The Boston contingent set out yesterday. The VT group starts in Montpelier and has the longest route to cover, so will be in bicycle. It heads out tomorrow and rides to Norwich, then heads from Norwich to Franklin, NH on Thursday.Yankee Publishing moves toward employee ownership. The company, based in Dublin, NH, owns Yankee Magazine, The Old Farmer’s Almanac, New Hampshire Magazine, NH Business Review, ParentingNH and other publications. It's been family-owned for 84 years and now has 17 owners with no clear successor. Rather than sell assets to different buyers and face breaking up the company, the family's opted to start selling shares to employees—30 percent to start, and the remainder over the next dozen years. VT companies are helping students "go pro early." Jeffrey Higgins, who directs the manufacturing apprentice programs at VT Technical College, has a piece in Forbes describing the efforts by manufacturers like GW Plastics and Global Foundries to hire high school graduates as apprentices and provide both on-the-job-training and engineering technology courses at their plants. "Because 40% of Vermont high school graduates do not go on to post-secondary education, the companies are forced to fill the gap by growing their own college graduates," Higgins writes.Cross-border food trucks don't count? New England Travel Today is up with an "Ode to the Vermont Maple Creamee." It contains the tidbit that creamees may have gotten their start in Rutland in 1981, but that's probably territory best left unexplored. It's got a list of good places to find them in Vermont, none around here. Guess they've never been to a Nighthawks game, where Plainfield's Mac's Maple sets up. That counts as Vermont, right? The train line that doesn't exist. Here's a map of a fictional train line that runs from Springfield, MA to Montreal, through Brattleboro, Claremont and Windsor, WRJ, then Montpelier, Essex Junction, etc, with spurs to Norwich/Hanover, Rutland, and Burlington. Looking it over, you can't help but think, "You know, that would make so much sense!"SO... WHAT TO DO TONIGHT?Vermont dance band Sensible Shoes on the Strafford town common. You heard them (well, a few seconds of them) doing their song "Yes Means Yes" at the start of Philadelphia, and in the remake of The Manchurian Candidate. Mostly, though, they're known for their funky, blues-tinged... well, everything: country blues, R&B, blues rock, blues roots, blues blues. Starts at 6 pm.Or you could head out to Fairlee's town common instead, for the Vermont Bluegrass Pioneers. It's three VT bluegrass vets: Dan and Willy Lindner, who co-founded Banjo Dan and the Midnite Plowboys and have since continued on as the Sky Blue Boys; and Danny Coane, guitarist and lead singer with the Starline Rhythm Boys. The two Daniels switch off guitar and banjo, Willy on mandolin. Starts at 6:30.Or if you prefer to do your music-listening in NH, Jim Hollis will be in Grantham. One man, six-string guitar, classic rock. He's been around a while: Hollis was Salt Hill's first live performer. At Grantham Recreation Park starting at 6, and Taco's Tacos — that's Eddie Moran's little green food truck you see most lunchtimes by Colburn Park in Leb — will be there as well. Or you might want to hear naturalist and historian David Govatski talk about the Civilian Conservation Corps in New Hampshire. You know this already, but the CCC ran from 1933 to 1942, and had an outsized impact on America's state and national parks and forests. It had 21 camps in NH, and among other things was responsible for Bear Brook State Park and for carving out the original ski trails on Wildcat, Mount Tecumseh (Waterville Valley) and Cannon Mtn. Govatski, who was trained by CCC veterans, had a long career in the US Forest Service. He'll be at Alumni Hall in Haverhill starting at 7.Meanwhile, the Parish Players in Thetford are holding auditions for their Ten-Minute Play Festival. Eight different directors, characters from 20 to 80. Oh, and they need someone to play a border collie. No experience necessary. Starts at 6 at the Eclipse Grange up on Thetford Hill. Tomorrow night, too.Rrrrruf! See you tomorrow.
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