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October 2026 Precipitation Report

by local | Nature

What is normally the wettest month of the year was very dry this year. There was measurable precipitation on only 6 days, totaling 1.72 inches compared to the NOAA normal of 4.77 inches. Year to date my total is 32.44″compared to the average of 39.71″ at this point. That is over seven inches below the normal for the year. The last rain recorded at this location was on the 17th, 2 weeks ago. On the bright side, it has been very enjoyable weather, and the growing season is well over with the many frosty mornings this month.

Most of Vermont was dry this month with Southern Vermont being the driest. The exception is far northern Franklin County near the Canadian border where several CoCoRaHS stations reported slightly above normal rainfall.

Soup, Stories & Info on Changes to Medicaid & Medicare

by ESchwartz | Health

The Vermont Workers’ Center will host a Soup & Stories gathering 5:30-7:30 P.M. on Wednesday, Oct. 21 at the First Congregational Church, 880 Western Ave., West Brattleboro. All community members are invited to come together over soup and salad to share experiences with the healthcare system and to discuss ways to take action for a system in which we can all meet our health needs.

There will be a brief presentation about current and upcoming changes to Medicaid and Medicare that will outline the changes, who they affect, and how to maintain coverage if possible. There will be information and resources people can take home, as well as information about SNAP and heating assistance.

Fischer’s Game of the Century – Platinum Anniversary Edition

by IM Holland Mills | Recreation & Sports

Fischer had not played any “name” players save Santasiere leading up to this event in the fall of 1956. He became the youngest USA Junior Chess Champion earlier that year, scoring 8.5/10. One can reasonably infer that he was invited to this particular tournament, which featured well-known American players such as Reshevsky, Mednis, Bisguier and Larry Evans, all of whom would make their mark in the American chess world.

The tournament was the Rosenwald Memorial, held at the fabled Marshall Chess Club (23 West 10th Street #2, likely never to be relocated). The game was played on a Wednesday, so it likely took place that evening.

In Praise of Master Lipnitsky

by IM Holland Mills | Recreation & Sports

Isaak Oskarovich Lipnitsky was born in 1923 in Kiev; passionate about chess as a child, he played in the Ukrainian Championship at age 16 and was a rival of David Bronstein who would go on to become Challenger in 1951.  With Operation Barbarossa initiating the Great Patriotic War, Lipnitsky attended military academy, graduating as Lieutenant in the Red Army with counterespionage duties. He fought in the Battle of Stalingrad and all the way through to Berlin; his service record can be found at the Museum of the Great Patriotic War.

After the war he resumed his chess career, winning the 1949 Ukrainian Championship and thus became a Master. The following year he was in a three-way tie for second in the Soviet Championship. In 1956 he once again won the Ukrainian Championship in Kiev, scoring an outstanding +11=8, and authored Вопросы современной шахматной теории—Questions of Modern Chess Theory. It is for this publication he is remembered: reprinted fifty years later in the original Russian and a year after that in English, it is now considered a classic of chess literature.

Sobibor

by RDavis | Activism

In a peaceful forest in eastern Poland, not far from the Belarus border, descendants of survivors of one the Nazi extermination camps gathered on October 14 to preserve the memory of what happened at Sobibor in 1943.

In the summer of 1942 Jews began to be transported by train to Sobibor to be murdered. When they arrived, they were told that they were to be in transit to another place. Within a few hours of getting off the train most were dead.

The Warsaw Ghetto

by RDavis | Activism

The view from our hotel room in Warsaw, Poland overlooks some of the remaining pieces of the brick walls from the Warsaw ghetto. As I grow closer to the end than to the beginning of my life, I have become more curious about where I have come from than where I am going. I don’t know if it is a universal phenomenon, but the feeling has been compelling for me.

As a second-generation American Jew I know that I should be more aware of where my family came from. Sadly, when I had the chance to talk to living relatives and hear their history, I never asked questions. It turns out that my cousins were equally as ignorant, and now the generation that lived our history have all passed on.

Living Well. Dying Well – A Workshop for Our Community

by ann.newsmith | Family

Center for Solace and All Souls Church, Unitarian Universalist will offer Living Well, Dying Well – a community workshop on Sunday, October 25, at 1 pm, that explores our beliefs around dying, and connects us to resources through Center for Solace and in our community.

Dr. Elisabeth Kübler-Ross wrote that: “For those who seek to understand it, death is a highly creative force. The highest spiritual values of life can originate from the thought and study of death.” — Death: The Final Stage of Growth, 1975

We share a universal experience of death and so let us prepare, gathering support so that we might approach dying in open ways. What are our beliefs around dying? Do we feel prepared to approach our own death or the death of a loved one?

September 2026 Precipitation Report

by local | Nature

Rainfall this month was near normal with 4.25 inches recorded compared to the NOAA normal of 4.21 inches. The month was tending on the dry side until rain from this past weekend’s Nor’easter dropped 1.89″. A little less than half of the month’s total.

The Water Year, a 12-month period used by hydrologists to measure and analyze water resources, especially in the western US, ended on September 30th. My number for the past 12 months is 41.42″ compared to the NOAA average of 47.54″. More than six inches below normal.  For year to  date my location is currently at 88% normal with 3 months to go.

Vote

by RDavis | Activism

Too many event these days seem improbable and ridiculous. That is because of the influence of one person. It is no secret that our system of government has been trampled on and reconfigured in ways that would have seemed impossible a few years ago. One of the biggest threats to democracy that we now face is the assault on our system of voting.

In the words of the Brennan Center for Justice, “Since day one of his second term, the Trump administration has attempted to rewrite election rules to burden voters and usurp control of election systems, targeted and threatened election officials and others who keep elections free and fair, supported people who undermine election administration, and retreated from the federal government’s role of protecting voters and the electoral process.”

Green Mountain Conservancy to Host Three Fall Hikes

by Green Mountain Conservancy | Nature

Please join the Green Mountain Conservancy (GMC) for our Fall Hike Series on three GMC nature preserves. These hikes are free and open to the public.

On Sunday, September 27th at 4 pm there will be an early evening hike along the Old Oaks Headwaters Preserve that includes the opening of the newly established parking area and trail access. The preserve is part of the largely unfragmented 3,000+ acre Harrisville Forest block that provides migration corridors for many species, and is the headwaters for the Green River. Please join us to enjoy a sunset hike on this unique preserve.

Directions: Go to The Campus at Marlboro Music, 2582 South Road, Marlboro, VT 05344. There will be people to guide you to parking and the trailhead.  Arrive at 3:45 for parking and a short shuttle to the site.

Fuel for Anxiety

by RDavis | Living

The Windham County Heat Fund is heading into an unprecedented year. Fuel prices are obscenely high and people are aware that prices will not go down anytime soon. We are all paying the price because of the actions of our deranged and unhinged president.

Sadly, we all feel helpless to do anything about the price of fuel. Truck drivers are giving up their jobs and farmers are struggling to get in their crops. Diesel is now over six dollars a gallon and, if that continues, the price of all commodities will continue to escalate.

I heard a recent story from a mid-west farmer who has to pay $1800 a day in diesel costs and he feels he is reaching the point where farming may become financially impossible to sustain.

Day of Action for Medicaid & Our Hospitals

by ESchwartz | Activism

The Vermont Workers’ Center is hosting a rally and people’s fair in Brattleboro, as part of a national day of action coordinated by the Nonviolent Medicaid Army. It will take place on Saturday, Sept. 19, 2026 from 11 A.M. – 2 P.M., on the Centre Congregational Church lawn, 193 Main St., Brattleboro.

We’ll gather to share stories, food, and healthcare resources and to affirm that we deserve a healthcare system that benefits us all and keeps our rural hospitals open. This free gathering will include speakers from Brattleboro and around the state, a community meal, Medicaid and SNAP assistance, NARCAN training from the AIDS Project, basic health screenings, a communal art project, children’s activities, and singing. There will be opportunities to take action in support of universal healthcare and our hospitals, and a celebration of the victory in preserving the birthing center at Brattleboro Memorial Hospital.

Is The U.S. Safe From Attack?

by RDavis | Activism

There have been a number of small wars/military actions against the U.S. on U.S. soil. The largest war was when King George’s army tried to stop the colonists from breaking away from mother England. Since then, the American public has been mostly protected from the death and destruction that war brings. Of course. 9/11 stands alone, but it is only one incident on one day.

In the modern era, Americans have been protected from having to live with a war in our own towns and cities. For Americans, war has been an action without direct consequences. That is not to make light of the thousands of military people who have died trying to protect this country from afar.

Soldiers make up a small percentage of the American population, but they always are the ones who see what war is really like. They are our proxies and they have to be shipped off to foreign countries in order to fight wars that politicians create because they can’t solve disagreements politically.