SO GOOD TO SEE YOU, UPPER VALLEY!
Oh well, it couldn't last. The high pressure that's served us so well the last couple of days is moving off, and a front is going to be passing to our south. There may be showers and even a thunderstorm this afternoon. Mostly cloudy, but maybe a little sun, highs reaching toward 80. Mostly cloudy tonight, but showers and some thunder possible then, too.Parker withdraws early-release request. James Parker, convicted along with Robert Tulloch in the 2001 Zantop murders, has decided not to pursue his bid to get out of prison before his 2024 sentencing date. He'd filed for early release back in November, but changed his mind after the Zantops' daughters objected. “Jim does not wish to cause the family any more pain than he already has, so he hereby withdraws his motion to suspend," his lawyer writes in a notice filed in Grafton Superior Court. (VN, subscription reqd)Three people in Sunapee have reported seeing a mountain lion around town. Fish & Game officials are agnostic, saying it could be a Canada lynx or bobcat, but have set up cameras.Lyme tries to figure out what to do with River Road. If you bike, you know the 600-foot section that's been closed to car traffic since 2015. With a bypass through Arend Tensen's property slated to be finished at the end of next month, the town's mulling its options for the abandoned stretch: Allow bikes even though the pavement's slated to be torn up? Make it pedestrian-only? What about parking? Neighbors are concerned. “Every car door that shuts, we’re very aware of," says one. (VN, yadda yadda)Bethel's (or maybe Barnard's) La Garagista "is making some of the most coveted wines in America." That's Modern Farmer, out with a glowing writeup of Deirdre Heekin and her impact on the wine industry nationally. "I’m lucky that Vermont happens to be an exciting place to grow wine," Heekin says. "As a wine region, it has some of the oldest bedrock on the planet."As Woodstock looks to replace its high school and middle school, it's unclear whether the state will help out. Vermont has had a moratorium on school-construction aid for the past dozen years. Now, VPR says, the state's looking at lifting that freeze, especially as mergers cause districts to look hard at whether older buildings can serve their needs. But legislation this year to lift the moratorium never made it out of committee. NH budget negotiators have until tomorrow to wrap up, still issues to resolve. The House and Senate are reconciling their different budgets. They agreed yesterday on the Senate's version of a new secure psychiatric facility, mental-health funding for kids, and boosting Medicaid reimbursement rates for addiction treatment. Still to go: education funding and revenue sharing. Mandatory family leave and a halt to scheduled business tax cuts are still in the budget; Gov. Chris Sununu says he'll veto if either makes it to his desk.NH first in Kids Count Data Book, but slipping on some measures. The state has traditionally ranked high in the Annie E. Casey Foundation's annual report on children's well-being. So have most of the New England states--this year, MA is second, VT 6th, CT 8th, ME 9th. NH did drop on economic well-being: A quarter of its children live with parents who do not have a secure job, and 26 percent with parents paying too-high housing costs.Vermont State Police release 2018 traffic stop data. They've made efforts in recent years both to track and to reduce the disparity between stops involving white motorists and black or Hispanic drivers. And the numbers have indeed fallen. But you're still more than twice as likely to get searched if you're black or Hispanic than if you're white or Asian. Of the 53,436 traffic stops of white drivers, troopers conducted searches 0.6 percent of the time; it was 1.63 percent for the 1,533 stops of black motorists and 1.96 percent for Hispanics. EV charging stations in Vermont get boost in new law. The transportation funding measure signed by Gov. Phil Scott includes $2 million in new electric vehicle incentives, and uses some of the state's VW settlement money to add infrastructure. The state hopes to add 20-25 fast-charging stations over the next year, and have one within 30 miles of every Vermonter within three years. It's also spending $93 million on transit and $373 million on highways. None of this is local, but if you're in the mood for a food road trip this summer, Seven Days has a "bucket list" for you. There's the fried chicken (and creamees) at Canteen Creamee in Waitsfield, the Lamoille Valley Rail Trail that happens to pass by Lost Nation Brewing in Morrisville, the Dosa Kitchen food truck in Brattleboro, Grafton Village Cheese... And let's not forget the farmers' markets (full searchable list here). Speaking of traveling for food, here's a bear climbing a birdfeeder in Barton, VT. Sadly, it's just a pic, not a video. But still. GOT PLANS TONIGHT?Geoffrey Douglas reads from The Grifter, the Poet, and the Runaway Train: Stories from a Yankee Writer's Notebook. For the past couple of decades, Douglas has been covering New England for Yankee magazine -- but not the stereotype. He writes about tragedy and conflict and quirky characters and artists you've most likely never heard of, letting the region speak for itself. He'll be at the Norwich Bookstore starting at 7. [email protected] for reservations.Or you could hear the hidden history of Hartford's cemeteries. Last fall, the town hired researchers Angela Labrador and Neil Silberman to create a narrative history of Hartford's cemeteries. They delved deep, speaking to people who know the cemeteries well and going far back into town records. They'll be talking about what they found -- the recently uncovered 1800's Poor Farm cemetery on Old River Road, the Wright Tomb on VA Cutoff Road, and other pieces of town history hidden in plain sight. Town Hall, 6:30 pm.You could also think about heading up I-89 to hear Carey Lohrenz, the US Navy's first female F-14 Tomcat fighter pilot. She'll be giving an open-to-the-public keynote speech at Norwich University in Northfield. Her topic: creating high-performing teams and a culture of learning in business, rooted in what she learned in the no-room-for-error world of aircraft carriers--and as a woman in a virtually all-male environment. 7 pm in Mack Hall.Enjoy the day out there! See you tomorrow.
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