UP AND AT 'EM, UPPER VALLEY!
We're rotating sun and rain for the next few days, and today's one of the sunny ones. There'll be some fog this morning and it may take time for the clouds to clear, but high pressure's building in briefly and the day should be quite pleasant — sunny, a little breezy, highs inching toward or above 70. Lows tonight around 50, ahead of the next front headed our way. Canaan dog owners up in arms. Citing "unhealthy conditions" and "a threatening environment for [people] who are afraid of dog attacks," Canaan on Monday declared it's barring dogs from the town beach on Canaan St. Lake. This has been a favorite dog-walking spot for years, and townspeople aren't taking kindly to the move. "What is the process to overturn this?" runs a typical comment on the police department FB page, where a new ordinance was announced. "I'm not sure how in the world this became law but I highly doubt it reflects the wishes of the townspeople." Stay tuned.Why won't Norwich reveal how much was stolen? That's what Norwich blogger Chris Katucki wants to know. He's been trying to learn how much the recent cyber scam cost the town, and officials aren't saying — though they need to dip into reserves to cover the loss. "Financial investigations" are on tonight's SB agenda. Maybe then?Frat that inspired Animal House now incubates startups — and the Boston Globe has noticed. The old Alpha Delta house on East Wheelock was shuttered after the frat was de-recognized by Dartmouth in 2015, but these days it's the AD Innovation Center, housing five startups, all with ties to Dartmouth. The anchor is Worthee, an app designed to help low-wage workers better manage their careers, which was started by John Pepper — Boloco founder, Norwich SB chair, and one-time Alpha Delta social chair — and Kevin McCurdy, former CEO of Picaboo.And speaking of Dartmouth, it's having second thoughts about biomass. The VN's John Gregg notes that when the college's trustees met over the weekend, they announced support for the overall Green Energy Project without mentioning the proposed biomass plant. “At this point, biomass is still on the table, but we are going through a process to kind of confirm if that makes sense,” the college's Josh Keniston told Gregg yesterday. It's assessing solar, wind, hydropower, and heat pumps..."essentially anything that doesn’t combust," he says.Only Yesterday offers "plentiful insight" into what drew Lennon and McCartney together. Alert reader CJ sent along The New Yorker's review of the Northern Stage production that's been running Off Broadway the last couple of weeks, about a day and night that the two founding members of the Beatles spent in a motel in Key West in 1964. The play got its start as part of NS's New Works Now festival, then had its world premier there last year. VT, NH hardwoods industry struggles in China trade war. VPR takes a long look at companies in both states that provide lumber to furniture manufacturers overseas, and especially in China. They've been whacked at the knees by global price volatility kicked off by the tariff war, and unlike other ag industries are getting no relief from the feds. Says Lyme Timber CEO Jim Hourdequin, “The hardwood industry is collateral damage in Trump’s trade war with China.”Deal for 3 NH ski areas and VT's Mt. Snow closes, Sacklers do just fine. The sale of Peak Resorts — in which a branch of the Oxycontin-making family owned a 54 percent stake — happened yesterday. Attitash Mountain Resort, Wildcat Mountain, Crotched Mountain, and Mt. Snow will now be owned by Colorado's Vail Resorts.Just under the wire, NH lawmakers, governor arrive at budget deal. With a resolution funding state government due to expire on Monday, Democratic leaders and Gov. Chris Sununu yesterday afternoon released an agreement they'll bring to the legislature today. It preserves the business profits tax cut Sununu wanted, but with a trigger provision that could change the rate. It also imposes spending reductions Sununu had sought, but locks in an increase to the state’s Medicaid reimbursement rate and provides $40 million in revenue sharing for cities and towns. Jasper Hill, the iconic VT cheesemaker, branches into goats. (And yep, there's a cute pic.) The Greensboro farm has been winning international accolades for its cow's milk cheeses for years. Not it's teaming up with a new goat dairy in Hardwick, owned by a couple of California transplants who bought their herd and milk-processing equipment from Windsor's Oak Knoll Dairy. Their first joint project is Bridgman Blue, a natural-rind blue cheese.Nothing says "autumn" quite like hang-gliding. In a piece on "heart-pumping" New England adventures, Boston magazine highlights the options at Morningside Flight Park in Charlestown, from which you can get a bird's-eye view of the "Insta-worthy knolls of New Hampshire’s Upper Connecticut River Valley." If you want to stay earthbound, they also recommend mountain-biking through the woods and quarries of Millstone Trails, an "under-the-radar gem featuring some 60 miles of daredevil-friendly paths" near Barre.Meanwhile, to get you ready for the season just around the corner... For the last four years, a trio of filmmakers have been working on a movie about the Rochester/Randolph Area Sports Trails Alliance (RASTA) and its efforts to build a backcountry ski network in the central Greens. They started in 2015, expecting to make a 7-minute short. But "the storyline is way bigger than we ever imagined and has taken on a life of its own," says one. Now "Leave Nice Tracks" is almost done. Backcountry Mag has the story.
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SO WEDNESDAY, WHAT'S UP?
You could go get an update on where things stand in Puerto Rico as it rebuilds from Hurricane Maria.
The Norwich Congregational Church will be hosting Lydia Rosaly Velázquez and Angel Cepeda, who have been involved in United Church of Christ disaster recovery work on the island and are in Vermont to brief area congregations on where things stand. No link, but the potluck dinner and presentation will run from 6-8 pm.
That's the title both of tonight's talk in Bradford VT by Janet Burnham and of the book she co-wrote in 2014 about Guernsey's work around the state. The self-taught architect did 19 churches from the top to the bottom of VT, the Woods School (now Bradford Academy) and a near-replica that's now the main VLS building in S. Royalton, six of Montpelier's downtown office blocks, and a couple of buildings in New Hampshire. Starts at 6:30 pm at the Bradford Public Library.
Narrated by Alicia Vikander, the documentary bills itself as a "cinematic meditation on humanity's massive re-engineering of the planet," and it's filled with just that: the most polluted city in Russia, a marble quarry in Italy, lithium pools in Chile's Atacama Desert... The film, says the
NYT
, seems "caught between a desire to spread a message to mainstream viewers and more cryptic, artistic aims.... But as advocacy, the movie is potent and frequently terrifying." At 6 at Woodstock Town Hall.
Australian director Kitty Green's film began as a project about something else, but then the Harvey Weinstein scandal broke. And what she produced, says
Vanity Fair
, is "a powerful movie about the ways power enforces silence, even between assistants and other underlings—people convinced they have everything to lose. It’s a movie about the tragedy of being brought into the fold and conditioned into that silence." At 4 and 7:30 pm.
Get some sun! See you tomorrow.
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