Just when the weather is getting pretty cold, . The Elliot Street Fire Fund has been established at TD Bank to help these folks.
While emergency relief agencies have seen to their immediate survival needs, there are also needs that won’t be filled because of limits to those agencies work programs and resources. Click the story title, above, for details.
Are you paying too much to heat your home, business, or rental property, or looking to cut your use of fossil fuels? A new generation of super-efficient electric heat pumps, suitable for northern climates, may be the answer for you. These devices provide heat and domestic hot water using 25-50% less energy than conventional systems. They are environmentally-friendly as well – 87% free of carbon emissions in Green Mountain Power territory. Heat pumps can also be combined with solar electric panels to provide 100% renewable energy.
Save the date! David Macaulay, award-winning author and illustrator of Castle, Cathedral, and The Way We Work, will discuss current projects in a talk, “Life in the Studio,” at the Library on Wednesday, November 6, at 7 PM, in the Main Room. The talk is part of the Vermont Humanities Council First Wednesday Lecture series
Macaulay is an award-winning author and illustrator whose books have sold millions of copies in the United States alone, and his work has been translated into a dozen languages. Macaulay has garnered numerous awards including the Caldecott Medal and Honor Awards, the Boston Globe–Horn Book Award, the Christopher Award, an American Institute of Architects Medal, and the Washington Post–Children’s Book Guild Nonfiction Award.
WASHINGTON, Oct. 30 – A Senate committee today advanced legislation by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) to reauthorize the Older Americans Act, which supports Meals on Wheels and other services for the country’s rapidly-growing population of seniors.
The 5-year reauthorization sent to the Senate floor by the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee was cosponsored by Sens. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), the chairman, and Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.), the ranking member. Sanders chairs the Subcommittee on Primary Health and Aging.
First passed by Congress in 1965, the Older Americans Act provides essential services for seniors like nutrition programs, job training, caregiver support, transportation, preventive health services and protection from abuse and financial exploitation.
The Brattleboro Town School Board has three budget meetings scheduled for Wednesday, October 30, 2013.
First meeting 10/30/13 – 8:30 a.m.
Wednesday, October 30th: 8:30 a.m. The Brattleboro Town School Board’s Energy Committee will meet at 8:30 a.m. on Wednesday, October 30 in the WSESU Central Office Conference Room, 53 Green Street.
This morning I was at Dental Health on Western Avenue and while I was there I saw some really interesting product labels from the Brattleboro Jelly Company. Dr. Neumeister had them mated and framed and they looked like they were probably from the early 1900’s. I looked online and I found other vintage Brattleboro Jelly Company labels for sale. Amazon.com even sells a canvas reproduction of the company’s maple syrup label. But I couldn’t find any information on the company itself.
Where was it located? Who owned it? When was the company in business? I have a feeling that there’s an interesting story behind those labels and I’m hoping that someone on ibrattleboro knows it and is willing to share.
Ken Brace
WASHINGTON, Oct. 29 – Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) said today that a special congressional committee meeting for the first time on Wednesday should do what Americans clearly want and come up with a budget to promote jobs and the economy without cutting Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and other benefits for working families.
“At a time when less than 10 percent of the American people approve of the job that Congress is doing, I believe it’s time that we started to listen to what the American people want us to do,” Sanders said.
A member of the Senate Budget Committee, Sanders was appointed to the joint Senate and House conference committee that is assigned to come up with a long-term budget plan by Dec. 13 in order to avert another government shutdown.
I once visited the Western Wall in the holy city where notes are stuffed into the cracks, the in-box of God. Imagine, the standing ruins of Roman Jerusalem, and a procession of unique wordsmiths each hand-delivering the edited essence of their ultimate skinny.
In that crumbling courtyard, under protective eye of Uzi-packing soldiers and who-knows-what-else, I remember scribbling my note, eyeing my spot. Can’t remember what I put on paper. Nor do I recall whether my missive was responded to or not, time just washed it away.
About a week ago, I was speaking with an old college buddy. He was reminiscing about a time when we both read George Orwell’s 1984 (everybody was reading it at the time). He sent me a You Tube link to a
film version released in 1956.
In the classic novel, Orwell describes a then-not-too-distant future where an oppressive totalitarian elite has perfected a system of social control based on perpetual warfare, manipulation of perceived reality, and total surveillance of the population. The servile obedience of the bureaucracy and the mindless poverty of the masses keeps them in power. (MHP)
Statement of Senator Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), Chairman, Senate Judiciary Committee, On Introduction of the USA FREEDOM Act of 2013
October 29, 2013
The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, or FISA, was enacted 35 years ago to limit the government’s ability to engage in domestic surveillance operations. In the years since September 11, 2001, Congress has repeatedly expanded the scope of this law to provide the government with broad new powers to gather information about law-abiding Americans. No one underestimates the threat this country continues to face, and we can all agree that the intelligence community should be given necessary and appropriate tools to help keep us safe. But we should also agree that there must be reasonable limits on the surveillance powers we give to the government. That is why I have consistently fought to curtail the sweeping powers contained in the USA PATRIOT Act and FISA Amendments Act, while also bolstering privacy protections and strengthening oversight. And that is why I continue my efforts today by joining with Congressman Jim Sensenbrenner, as well as members of Congress from both political parties, to introduce the bipartisan USA FREEDOM Act of 2013.
Hospital officials announced today has once again stepped up in support of the greater Brattleboro community with a $75,000 pledge to Brattleboro Memorial Hospital’s “The Doorway to Exceptional Care” capital campaign.
“We are proud to support Brattleboro Memorial Hospital’s capital campaign for the renovation and expansion of the Emergency Department. The improved facility is vital to our community and to People’s United Bank’s 160 employees working in Brattleboro,” says Arne Hammarlund, Community Services Manager.
Alternative transportation can be a tough sell in a rural state like Vermont, where residents often have to travel long distances to get to work and shopping. Brattleboro’s main streets are often choked with traffic, creating headaches for motorists along with air pollution that can cause health problems.
The Brattleboro Energy Committee has been working for several years to address this issue. In 2010, the Committee organized the Brattleboro Business Transportation Roundtable, made up of representatives from Brattleboro-area businesses and institutions such as the Brattleboro Retreat, Brattleboro Memorial Hospital, Windham Southeast Supervisory Union, and Landmark College. The Roundtable has been working to promote alternative commuting such as biking, walking, carpooling, and taking the bus among its employees through programs such as the Way To Go Commuter Challenge.
VERNON – On Monday October 28th, the Vermont House Commerce and House Natural Resources and Energy Committees held a joint hearing in Windham County to hear about community and economic impacts expected from the date certain closure of Vermont Yankee.
The Windham Regional Commission (WRC), Brattleboro Development Credit Corporation (BDCC), southeastern Vermont’s regional development corporation, and the Southeastern Vermont Economic Development Strategies (SeVEDS) testified about the need for full decommissioning, urgent economic development needs, and the plans they have developed to meet those needs, in the Windham Region. All three organizations are poised to work on the rebuilding of the Windham regional economy in the face of the loss of jobs, payroll and business activity resulting from the closure. The regional organizations estimate their immediate mitigation financial needs at 2.3 million dollars.
Theory & Musicianship I, an introduction to music theory for all instrumentalists & vocalists, will provide the fundamental skills related to music theory, analysis, and general musicianship. Designed for instrumental and vocal students, members of this course will use their primary instrument to help review basics of key, interval, and diatonic chord motions. Basic actions of harmony and voice leading will be discussed, providing students with insight into how a melodic line implies or demands certain chord movement. Discussion of melodic content, phrase, and motive will lead to an introduction of basic analytical techniques.
The Brattleboro Selectboard will hold a special meeting on Monday, October 28, 2013 at 3:00pm in the Selectboard meeting room at the Municipal Center. It is anticipated that the Board will enter into executive session at 3:15pm to discuss a personnel matter.
REVISED AGENDA ATTACHED.
Jan Anderson
Executive Secretary
Brattleboro Town Manager’s Office
(802) 251-8100
BCTV Ch.8 Schedule for the week of 10-28-13
Monday October 28
12:00 am Lost, Found and Remixed – A Filmaker Panel Discussion
1:30 am Organic Politics: Restore Our Communities
2:00 am FSTV Overnight
4:00 am Archival Filmmaking in the Age of Mass Production
5:00 am Targeting Obesity in Vermont
5:35 am Red Grooms & Stephen Hannock- 9/28/13 at BMAC
The Board of Library Trustees of Brooks Memorial Library seeks enthusiastic and dedicated library lovers to fill three upcoming vacancies on the Board. One candidate will be elected at the March 2014 representative town meeting to complete one year of an unexpired term. Two others will be elected at town meeting to fill three-year terms.
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Brattleboro, Oct. 28th, 1863
Mr. Cole, Sir:
My opportunity for writing is not very good, but I will take my pencil and make the best of it. With regard to that house I wish you and my wife to do what you think is best. I do not know how cold it is up there and I do not know the cost of moving the house and should think that it was too late to undertake moving and digging a new cellar. We shall probably be mustered for pay next Saturday and shall be paid next week or week after.
Vocalist and Composer, Kavita Shah to appear in VJC’s Emerging Artist Series, November 2nd, 2013 at 8:00 PM
The Vermont Jazz Center launches its new Emerging Artist season with a choice that perfectly fits their concept. The goal of the series is to present young musicians who deserve to be heard, individuals who are on the cutting edge, performing original, fresh, high quality music; artists with unfamiliar names whose personal statements are moving the music forward. Kavita Shah is all of the above and more. A talented singer, she is a tireless organizer with a vision and a body of work that challenges the definition of jazz while at the same time paying deep respect to its lineage.
