I-91 Brattleboro Bridge Replacement Project Update: Week of December 14

by Not Signed In | Town Plan

NOTE: Upcoming night closure of I-91 Northbound between Exits 2 and 3 to re-address pothole problems. This work is weather dependent. It is tentatively scheduled for Monday night, December 15th between 8:00 pm and 6:00 am. The actual closure date will be communicated to stakeholders at least 48 hours in advance, after the team is able to confirm forecasted weather conditions are acceptable for work to proceed.

I-91

Northbound I-91 traffic has been relocated onto the southbound bridge. Traffic will remain reduced to one lane in each direction on I-91 until completion of the new bridge. The new bridge will be 104’ wide and is designed to carry all four lanes of traffic –two northbound and two southbound.

Sanders Opposes Spending Bill

by Not Signed In | Politics

WASHINGTON, Dec. 12 – Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) issued the following statement on a massive $1.01 trillion spending bill that the Senate plans to take up later today:

“At a time when the middle class continues to disappear, and the gap between the very rich and everyone else grows wider, this bill comes nowhere close to reflecting the needs and priorities of America’s working families.

“Instead of helping to strengthen Social Security, Medicare and other programs that help working families, this bill would allow the Pentagon to spend almost as much as the rest of the world combined on our military and seemingly never-ending wars in the Middle East.”

Brattleboro Pay-As-You-Throw Advisory Committee/Working Group Meeting Agenda

by Not Signed In | Town News

The Brattleboro Pay-As-You-Throw Committee (PAYT) will meet on Tuesday, December 16, 2014 at 4:00pm in the Hanna Cosman meeting room at the Municipal Center.  The Committee will then meet jointly with the Selectboard starting at 6:15pm in the Selectboard meeting room at the Municipal Center.

Jan Anderson
Executive Secretary
Brattleboro Town Manager’s Office
(802) 251-8100

Brattleboro Police-Fire Facilities Building Committee Meeting Agenda

by Not Signed In | Town News

The Brattleboro Police-Fire Facilities Building Committee will hold a joint meeting with the Selectboard on Tuesday, December 16, 2014 starting at 6:15pm in the Selectboard meeting room at the Municipal Center.

Jan Anderson
Executive Secretary
Brattleboro Town Manager’s Office
(802) 251-8100

…

Police-Fire Facilities Building Committee
Tuesday, December 16, 2014 – 6:15pm
Joint Meeting with Selectboard
Selectboard Meeting Room, Municipal Center
Agenda

Larry Bloch and Wetlands Preserve Remembered

by LEH | Entertainment

If you missed the Sunday Keene Sentinel, here is a. At Larry’s request, his first wife and “dream companion,” Laura Bloch Bourque, gathered together the many boxes of carefully saved calendars and photos of their nightclub into one amazing book which must be seen to be appreciated. Bands such as the Dave Mathews Band, Phish, Hootie and the Blowfish and so many others played at Wetlands Preserve in the 1990s.

The Sentinel article tells about the love that went into the writing and publishing of the book. The book itself is for sale at Everyone’s Books on Elliot Street in Brattleboro and Toadstool’s in Keene and Peterborough, NH

Ramsey Clark, “Without Demands for Compensation for Wrongful Deaths/Destruction, Anti-Imperialist-Wars Journalism is Hypocritical”

by jay janson | Op/Ed

Ramsey Clark and yours truly believe the great economic power shift Eastward augurs a future grand scenario in which the present and poverty of constructive thought from First World journalists will come to be recognized.
I plan to translate this treatise into various languages spoken in the neocolonial plundered world.

Sanders Welcomes Funding for Affordable Rental Housing

by Not Signed In | Politics

WASHINGTON, Dec. 11 – Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), a national leader in efforts to increase affordable housing, welcomed a move today that could free up hundreds of millions of dollars to expand affordable rental housing nationwide.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency ended its temporary suspension of contributions to funds designed to allow more renters to find the homes they need at prices they can afford. The agency that oversees Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac ordered those companies to begin to make payments to affordable housing funds next year. The money will go into a fund to provided dedicated revenue for low-income housing. States and local agencies then could apply for the money and use it to finance very-low-income rental housing construction or rehabilitation projects.

Sanders Votes No on Defense Authorization Bill

by Not Signed In | Politics

WASHINGTON, Dec. 11 – The Senate today advanced a Department of Defense bill that would authorize $560 billion for the military. The vote was 85-14. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) voted “no” and issued the following statement:

“I am voting no because I have very serious concerns about our nation’s bloated military budget and the misplaced national priorities this bill reflects.

“At a time when our national debt is more than $18 trillion and we spend nearly as much on defense as the rest of the world combined, the time is long overdue to end the waste and financial mismanagement that have plagued the Pentagon for years.

Fairpoint Internet Outage

by cgrotke | Other

Fairpoint’s high-speed interent service seems to be offline for Vermont and New Hampshiire.

As we rely on it (I’m away from the world HQ at the moment), updates to the site and answers to emails will be minmal, if at all, until they sort things out.

I wonder where Fairpoint could find a bunch of talented, knowledgeable technicians to help them bring this back online more quickly? Hmmm…

Anonymity & Pseudonyms Promote Cyber-Bullying

by JohnWilmerding | Op/Ed

Yeah I think I’be been ‘pushed around’ on iBrattleboro just a bit. And I have definitely spoken out quite a bit — and been taken to task for — questioning why people on iBrattleboro would want to debate serious issues under pseudonyms … and especially why they might expect to do so and still be taken seriously. It particularly irked me recently when someone criticized a Town employee by name on this site, but declined to give their own!

42nd Christmas at Christ Church: “All My Heart Rejoices!”

by fomag | Music

Guilford, Vt. – Friends of Music at Guilford’s 42nd Annual Christmas at Christ Church program, featuring choral and instrumental music, a holiday reading, and carols, is set for 8:00 p.m. on Friday, December 12, and 4:00 p.m. on Saturday, December 13. Christ Church is at the corner of Rt. 5 south and Melendy Hill Road in the Algiers Village of Guilford.
      
This season’s theme for the program — “All My Heart Rejoices!” — is reflected in nine mostly familiar holiday song texts in unfamiliar arrangements by composers from the past five centuries, including Arthur Sullivan’s “It Came Upon the Midnight Clear” and Charles Gounod’s “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel.” Choral director Tom Baehr’s composing and arranging skills, featured in the repertoire of several recent Chamber Singers concerts, are represented in the version of “All My Heart This Night Rejoices!” being performed this weekend.

Elliot Street, Again

by Rolf | Op/Ed

Today, we again have news of another persons stabbed, (multiple times), on Elliot Street. My friend was reading the paper. I didn’t have my reading glasses, but I saw the headline had the word stabbing in it, and I immediately knew it was going to be on Elliot Street and in the early morning hours, as happened over and over again on that street, at that time.

The Holiday Trade – A Look Among The Dealers, 1875

by cgrotke | History

Digging through the old newspapers today, I found an interesting story describing the holiday items for sale at some of the stores downtown in 1875 during a period of economic hard times for many people.

The article provides quite a few extended details about the stores and items for sale, so I thought I’d share it. Set your iBrattleboro time machine for early December, 1875, and let’s go shopping in downtown Brattleboro.

Brattleboro Union High School Board Meeting Agenda

by Not Signed In | Education

BRATTLEBORO UNION HIGH SCHOOL BOARD
53 Green Street
Brattleboro, VT 05301
www.wssu.k12.vt.us

NOTICE OF COMMITTEE MEETINGS

The BUHS #6 Planning and Policy Committee will meet at 5:30 p.m. on Monday, December 15 in the WRCC Cusick Conference Room

NOTICE OF MEETING

The BUHS #6 Board of Directors will meet at 6:30 p.m. on Monday, December 15 in the WRCC Cusick Conference Room.

Brattleboro Core Arts Project Update

by Not Signed In | Town Plan

We welcome you to a meeting to discuss the findings of the second track of the CoreArts project (conducted last Winter). The meeting will take place at noon on December 15, at the Marlboro College Graduate Center.

CoreArts conducted four moderated Panel Discussions: 1) Cluster v. District v. Hub? Who’s in, Who’s out? Concepts of Boundaries and Gates 2) Arts/Culture and community: What’s the economic model? 3) Exploring Brattleboro’s Cultural Landscape: Past, Present, and Future, 4) Cooperation and Collaboration: Lessons from the field.

Vermont Wins $33 Million for Pre-K, Delegation and Governor Announce

by Not Signed In | Education

WASHINGTON, Dec. 10 – Vermont was awarded $7.3 million in what is expected to be a $33.4 million, four-year federal grant for pre-kindergarten programs at public schools and Head Start agencies throughout the state.

Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), Rep. Peter Welch (D-Vt.) and Gov. Peter Shumlin (D) announced the grant today.

In Our Names – “The Torture Report”

by Nan Stefanik | Politics

What was released today is not the full 6000-page report but rather the redacted executive summary of the report by the Senate Intelligence Committee.  IMHO it is only a matter of time until someone releases the entire report.

I thought some here might appreciate links to coverage other than MSM.

The Intercept of course is all over this.  Glenn Greenwald is ‘live-blogging’ it: