Editorial from the Concord Monitor:
As it turns out, Scott Brown isn’t the only politician from next-door New Hampshire voters should be watching.
In an interview with The Nation magazine this month, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders says he’s thinking about launching a campaign for president in 2016.
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2014/03/25-1
WASHINGTON, March 25 – Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) issued the following statement today on reports that President Barack Obama intends to seek another 90-day extension of the bulk collection of Americans’ phone records before asking Congress to make private phone companies store the records:
“As someone who voted against the Patriot Act and opposed its reauthorization, I have long been concerned about out-of-control intelligence agencies.
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 in the Fall of 2015.
Weather permitting, night work will be conducted Sunday night, March 30th through Saturday night, April 5th.
Route 30
The speed limit on Route 30 near the work zone has been reduced to 40 mph. This reduction will remain in effect through the Spring of 2016.
PUTNEY, V.T. – (March 25, 2014) Putney based SunFarm Community Solar in conjunction with Vermont’s largest utility, Green Mountain Power (GMP), and the nation’s leading community solar developer, Clean Energy Collective (CEC), are brining a community-owned solar array to residents in the Brattleboro area. It is the second in a progression of community solar facilities planned for Vermont, making community solar available to some 70 percent of the state’s electricity customers.
BURLINGTON, Vt., March 24 – At a time of growing income and wealth inequality in the United States, U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) on Sunday will host free screenings of the Robert Reich documentary “Inequality for All.”
Sanders has held hundreds of town meetings across Vermont. This Sunday’s events will mark the first time he has held four town meetings simultaneously.
The documentary, featuring former U.S. Labor Secretary Robert Reich, will be shown in Middlebury, Brattleboro, St. Johnsbury and Bennington. Afterward, the audiences will come together via video conference for a discussion led by Sanders from Middlebury Union High School.
A since the NSA spying revelations. In it, the researchers say that U.S.-based search traffic fell 2.2% for terms perceived as likely to get one in trouble with the government. Internationally, there was a similar drop in terms that might be embarrassing to family or employers.
It doesn’t sound like much, but with the high volume of searches, the number is indeed quite large. (No wonder that tech companies are starting to push back against spying, at least in PR efforts. They see their numbers dropping more clearly than anyone, and that equates to lost profits.)
Please join us. Conductor and pianist Ignat Solzhenitsyn will discuss the writing of his father Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn and their family’s life in Cavendish in the 1980s in a talk at Brooks Memorial Library on Friday, March 28, at 7 PM. (This talk was originally scheduled for February 5 at 7:00 pm.)
Solzhenitsyn will recollect his father’s painstaking crafting of the Red Wheel — a history of the Russian Revolution — and his family’s life in Cavendish during Solzhenitsyn’s exile from the Soviet Union. Ignat Solzhenitsyn was born in Moscow in 1972, the middle son of author Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn.
Things seem hard, in Brattleboro. It’s been a long winter, and spring is very sought for and very over due.
When things get hard, one of the best remedies I know of, is to launch a UFAUX. So we went and bought the supplies needed for a really BIG one. We hope to do so on Gallery Walk, in May. Yes, I know that is a long way away. But hopefully it gives us enough time to plan it well. Also, we can celebrate more spring like weather then !
So, look to the skies, in May, and smile.
Representative Town Meeting members repeatedly tried to “send a message” to the Brattleboro Selectboard at their most recent meeting. Throughout, representatives also stated that they didn’t think the Selectboard was getting that message.
As an outside observer, the message was simple: Taxes are too high. If you are going to cut something, cut additional Police Fire bonds and not the Library or Recreation and Parks departments. The bonds can wait.
BCTV Ch.8 Schedule for the week of 3/24/14
Monday March 24
12:00 am Green Mountain Vets for Peace: Ep. 130
1:00 am Pres. Coolidge Site Panel Discussion
2:00 am FSTV Overnight
4:00 am The Folklorist Ep. 6
4:30 am The Vermont Healthcare Experiment
5:00 am Common Good VT: The VT Community Foundation’s Food and Farm Initiative
“What shall we call “hard” non-fiat currencies?
I propose the following: Gold based currency and Oil based currency.
The Gold Based currency should be called the Trojan because its value is reckoned on a troy ounce of .999 fine gold
Authors Note: An Eidetic Memory is the ability to remember the intricate details of sights, sounds, and conversations during the adolescent’s years with no relationship to the child’s intelligence or learning skills. It is estimated that between two to ten percent of children are born with this aptitude. In the medical profession this memory phenomena is diagnosed as HSAM or Highly Superior Autobiographic Memory that some health professionals dispute.
As a follow-up to the high school student interview in Part 2, the one sided dialogue in Part #3 is with the same individual who discussed the events surrounding the implementation of the Vermont Sales Tax in 1971. When asked one question about the Hinsdale Raceway, the twenty-six hundred word response revealed an incredible detailed description of what transpired during a three hour timeframe fifty-four years ago. This is a very personal and poignant remembrance about growing up in Brattleboro.
I eavesdropped on ibrattleboro’s excellent coverage of your town mtg, & was pleased to see the discussion about the ill-conceived proposal from the legislature to kill our local school boards. I believe the Vt legislature originally met for much shorter sessions, and like so many institutions has grown bigger just because there was time available for it to do so. This proposal suggests they have too much time on their hands and are inventing fixes for things that ain’t broke.
Sure, we can always use improvements to our public education system, but abolishing our citizen school boards seems misguided, especially since they cost almost nothing to maintain (in Guilford, for example, just over $2,000 a year in a school budget of some $2 million!)
This week’s listings, arranged in Robert’s Rules of Order:
RECENT REQUESTS:
Gallery Greeter at BMAC
Events Security at BMAC
Moving Furniture with Truck March 22-23
Seeking Dog Trainer
Help Putting Up Flyers in Brattleboro and Surrounding Towns
Request for Special Diets Foods for April 11th Putney Community Supper
Help Me Find Alternative to my Current Windows XP!
I Need Some Ukrainian Easter Eggs (Pysanky), New or Old!
Repair Plastic Window Velcro-Backing on Yurt Wall
Some Lingering Questions Using my Windows 8
While watching town meeting today many downtown merchants spoke about their opposition to the proposed 1% local options tax because it will send people to NH (as if those of us on the border towns don’t shop there already). I was very disappointed to hear little to no discussion about how NOT approving this tax continues to hammer those of us who pay property taxes in Brattleboro.
Downtown merchants shifted their focus to out-of-state visitors long ago. We have very few stores that provide necessities anymore: a drug store, a hardware store, an Elliot Street convenience store, the Co-op. The bike stores, specialty/gift stores, and even Sam’s non-clothing sections target specific hobbies or are for discretionary items.
Last year the inaugural Tulip Trot 5K had over 250 enthusiastic runners and walkers. Please help us make this year’s event even bigger and better! Come out rain, mud and/or shine and support the Green Street School PTO while you walk or run down neighborhood streets and scenic woodland trails. Let’s get out and moving to celebrate the springing of spring!
Joan Bowman is excited to announce that she will be running for a seat in the Vermont State Senate, representing Windham County, as a Democrat.
“I am pleased to announce my candidacy and look forward to a spirited campaign that focuses on the issues that matter to residents of Windham County. Over the last six months I have had the pleasure of serving as a navigator for the Vermont Health Connect program. In this capacity I assisted hundreds of Vermonters in their efforts to finally get the affordable health care they deserve. As a Vermont State Senator I will work toward sensible solutions that pilot our region and state towards economic prosperity and social equity.”
We’ll be attempting the annual live blog of Representative Town Meeting. The official festivities get under way at about 8:30 am at the high school. See you in a few…
Here is the Finance Committee Report for this year.
Following are most of the recommendations:
The Town finances are being handled competently.
The economy is very fragile.
Prime importance should be on making effective use of the $10 million development money that Entergy agreed to contribute to the region. Without good jobs and increased incomes we’ll be forced to make significant changes in the way we live.
