A letter from Rep. Jeanette White in the Brattleboro Reformer explained that the Reformer had been started to offset the Republican-leaning Phoenix.
This makes me think that maybe the Phoenix should rise from the ashes. The Reformer has been so one-sided for 30 years that it's almost as though it has been a paid newsletter for the Democratic and Progressive parties.
An Oct. 25 Reformer editorial makes 11 references to the Koch brothers but none to George Soros, the behind-the-scenes funder of Democratic/Progressive candidates, PACs, and other causes. I assume this is to support the constant drumbeat Democratic/Progressive candidates throughout the country are pounding.
Let's look at campaign funding here at home.
Well, they're here. The Koch brothers have crossed the border into Vermont with their PAC dumping a quarter of a million dollars into Vermont to try and buy elections. The attack ads have started, funded by this money, and we can only hope that Vermont voters will repudiate the...
Three-minute VY siren test scheduled for area towns BRATTLEBORO - On Saturday, Nov. 1 at noon, state and local public safety agencies will conduct an audible sounding of the 37 sirens located within the Vermont Yankee ten-mile emergency planning zone. The pole-mounted sirens are located in the Vermont towns...
I have had the pleasure of knowing Laura Sibilia for the past seven years and to work with her in ongoing economic development efforts through her work with the Mount Snow Valley Chamber of Commerce and the Southern Vermont Economic Development Strategies (SeVEDS) group. Over this time, I have experienced her leadership in education, economic development, and community building. Laura is a passionate advocate of high expectations for educational organizations. She has given her time and her talents to her...
We have a strong local voice in our district, where Representative John Moran pays attention to our various concerns by holding Saturday meetings in each town during the legislative session. We are a district of small schools and, thanks to Rep. Moran's efforts, we were spared the loss of nearly $400,000 in state education funding. Because of the importance of having Readsboro included on the Route 100 Scenic Byway, Rep. Moran intervened and had the town reinstated. As my old...
When I step out onto my porch each day and breathe in the air constantly being renewed by the mighty Connecticut River, I am humbled. Such beauty and history and power. It's reflected in everything we do here. The independent backbone of all who settled this state and of those who live and are raised here. The active muscle of optimism. It's why, when my husband wanted to return to the place that raised him, I made a conscious decision...
Next Stage Arts Project continues its Shades of Blue concert series with singer/guitarist Guy Davis on Saturday, Nov. 1, at 7:30 p.m. A great storyteller, musician, and actor with his roots solidly in the blues and Americana, Davis has garnered multiple Blues Music Awards and has appeared on “Late Night With Conan O'Brien,” Garrison Keillor's “A Prairie Home Companion,” “Mountain Stage,” “World Café,” and at theaters and music festivals across the world. Davis grew up in New York City and...
Obituaries • Maj. Irvin W. Bruneau (USAF Ret.), 86, of Guilford. Died Oct. 15 at his home. Husband of the late Jerilynn D. (Carley) Bruneau. Father of Mark Bruneau, and his wife, Lauren, of Essex; Matthew Bruneau, and his wife, Kelly, of Williston; Hope Bruneau Reilly and her husband, Christopher, of St. Albans,; and Jessica Bruneau of Guilford. Brother of Nancy Brady of Tiverton, R.I., and Joan Breen of Providence, R.I. He was born in Fall River, Mass, the son...
The elected officials who represent us in the Vermont State Legislature are a critically important aspect of our state government working on our behalf and for the entire populace of the state. These men and women are our voice in developing and maintaining who we as Vermonters strive and claim to be. The two state representatives from Windham District 3 are Carolyn Partridge and Matt Trieber. Both of these legislators have done an outstanding job as our voice in Montpelier.
“World Leaders and Global Citizens: Photographs by Patrick Leahy, U.S. Senator” opens Saturday, Nov. 1, at Brattleboro Museum & Art Center (BMAC). The exhibit marks the 40th anniversary of Leahy's election to the U.S. Senate. An opening reception, free and open to all, will be held from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. The senator will not be present at the opening but is expected to give a guided tour of the exhibit at a later date. Today the most senior...
The phrase “sand needs more respect” isn't likely to be on the top of anyone's list of sand-related thoughts, but by the time you've finished seeing eco-thriller Sand Wars, a 2013 documentary from French director and writer Denis Delestrac making ripples worldwide, you might have second thoughts. Sand, along with air and water, is one of the top three most used of Earth's natural resources. Not just for the beach, sand is a vital ingredient in the construction of concrete...
Winston Prouty Center for Child Development offers a free, four-week parenting education series to help parents promote children's social and emotional skills and use positive approaches to help kids learn appropriate behavior. “Positive Solutions for Families” is designed to give participants new strategies to handle daily routines, cope with challenging behavior, and help their children learn to solve simple social problems. Organizers say participants will receive a guidebook that offers advice for supporting their children across common family routines. The...
Oh, to be 17-years-old again. To know the world as one knows a black-and-white photograph. To know one's parent and his many flaws. To have a fixed idea of who Dad is and what your story is as a result. That is the situation Ben (Samuel Schneider), the protagonist of Caroline Link's coming-of-age film Exit Marrakech, finds himself in. We meet Ben as he takes off for summer vacation from his German prep school for a trip to meet his...
Dan Feliciano, Libertarian gubernatorial hopeful, and Republican Rob Roper, president of Ethan Allen Institute, have been running scare tactics before the Nov. 4 election - tactics aimed at Medicare recipients, probably to intimidate them into not voting for incumbent Governor Peter Shumlin. These two free-market proponents are implying that Vermont's Act 48 and Governor Shumlin are deceiving our Medicare recipients. They claim that Act 48, which outlines the rules for a future single-payer plan - Green Mountain Care/universal health care...
The Winter Farmers' Market returns to the Robert H. Gibson River Garden for the ninth season of the longest running diverse indoor farmers' market in southern Vermont. Fans of the famous outdoor summer farmer's market in West Brattleboro can follow many of their favorite vendors indoors starting Saturday, Nov. 1, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Visitors to the Winter Farmers' Market will find plenty of farms - and more local produce than ever before. Each week the beautiful River...
The beautiful animation of Ernest & Celestine, based on the beloved books of Belgian writer and artist Gabrielle Vincent (1928–2000), captured an Academy Award nomination for best animation. But it's the adaptation of Vincent's brilliant storytelling that has turned this film into an instant classic, a poignant and joyful crowd-pleaser for every age. Subtle messages that could have been clichés, such as “we are all connected,” are conveyed as lightly as feathers or snowflakes drifting on a breeze, imperceptibly touching...
How often are we afforded the opportunity to witness the life, loves, and intellectual revelations of an extraordinary person we thought we knew, but don't really, in a comprehensive and revealing 90-minute documentary? I am a wee bit embarrassed to admit that I've taken Susan Sontag somewhat for granted in my life as a vaguely intimidating intellectual giant of my parent's generation, born in the same year as they, 1933. I have a couple of her works of my shelves:
Prior to being elected to office, John Moran was an advocate for affordable health care. In 2011 he voted for Act 48, laying the groundwork for single-payer health care. If re-elected, he will continue to work on health care, both to improve the enrollment process and to determine the financing to provide universal health- care coverage. John's dedication and hard work, along with experience and established relationships with colleagues in the House, Senate, and the administration, will bring us closer...
John Moran is a nonpartisan leader who has done a good job serving our district. He has held regular office hours in every town he represents and makes a point of trying to help all of his constituents, regardless of their politics. He has voted to expand credit to small businesses, to boost workforce training, and to promote job creation. It is his priority to see single-payer health care up and running in Vermont. He has worked on alternatives to...
When my mom passed away in March, it forced to me to revisit the idea of how precious and fragile life is. As we gather once again to elect new officials into office, please keep her in mind. She was a decent, kind woman who knitted hats and mittens for kids who didn't have them in our schools. She gave service at the PTA. She taught us to give back, in whatever way we could, to help better the world.
Deborah Wright, also known as “Na” to me and five other grandchildren, is whom you should choose as your state representative for Windham-3. Deborah cares about our community, as well as everybody in it. She is always fighting for what she feels is right, but at the same time listens to other people's opinions. I might not know much about this type of stuff, but everything I do know is from her. She talks about everything going on in the...
The Windham Northeast Supervisory Union Board's budget subcommittee unanimously agreed to remove the Westminster West School from the proposed fiscal year 2015 budget. At an Oct. 7 meeting, the three-person subcommittee discussed student population and staffing projections. “It became clear the population of the school would be so small that it would be impractical to operate it and do it right,” says committee member Dan Axtell. Although the WNESU board has taken no formal action, as three of the five...
Vincent van Gogh is usually seen as a tormented artist who went crazy. But Charles Monette has written and is starring in a new one-man show that attempts to portray the Dutch painter in a different light. For two weekends - Nov. 6 through Nov. 16 - Acting on Impulse Theatre Company presents the world première of “Becoming van Gogh,” based on the Post-Impressionist painter's diaries and letters. The production is directed by Mac Gander, who also helped edit Monette's...
Our Place Drop In Center is collecting bowls and auction items for its 17th annual benefit Empty Bowl dinner and auctions Sunday, Nov. 2, at Alyson's Orchard in Walpole, N.H. Potters who have pledged bowls include Malcolm Wright, Natalie Blake, Virginia Wyoming, Claudia Teachman, Susan Dunning, Melissa Clark, Jean Meinhardt, Miranda Thomas, Maya Zelkin, and Mary Hepburn and her Vermont Academy pottery students. This year's supper features a live auction with auctioneer Sharon Boccelli and an array of items such...
Congratulations, John Moran, for staying focused on the issues concerning Vermonters and not engaging in the negative campaigning plaguing the media these days. He has always promptly responded whenever I have concerns or questions. He spent several hours with me at my home when I needed help and advice on an issue. He listened intently and responded with concern and caring. He offered good, sound advice, drawing from his experience. He has worked many years in health care, and that...
A Vermont-based group of female comics will bring their special brand of comedy to the Windham Ballroom at Popolo Restaurant on Saturday, Nov. 8, in a show to benefit Main Street Arts. Doors open at 7:45 p.m. for the 8:15 show. Popolo will provide a cash bar. As the program announcement reads, “These Vermont Comedy Divas have raised thousands of spirits and dollars for great causes in their travels across New England through their 'Divas Do Good' program that raised...
The Arts Council of Windham County will hold its annual membership meeting on Wednesday, Oct. 29, from 6 to 8 p.m. in Studio 11 on the second floor of the Whetstone Studios, 28 Williams St. The purpose of the meeting is to elect new trustees, to meet the current executive board and trustees, and to discuss council roles. Members of the ACWC and prospective members, artists, and craftsmen of the region are encouraged to attend. Find out more about what...
I sincerely thank the voters of the Windham-3 district, including the towns of Athens, Brookline, Grafton, North Westminster, Rockingham, and Windham, for your support in the August primary. I am honored by the trust you place in me. I strongly encourage voters to exercise your right to vote in the General Election on Nov. 4. Once again, I ask for your consideration and vote. Early-voting ballots are available now and can be sent to you by contacting your town clerk,
One of my favorite quotes from Rep. John Moran is: “In a national setting where Congress and the Supreme Court appear to have more respect for the personhood of corporations than women, it is with satisfaction that I can be part of our moving forward in Vermont to create a just balance between work and family, and fairness in employment for men and women alike.” Examining John's accomplishments and his focus points, one can readily see how his actions support...
The Nov. 4 election will soon be here. Since the Aug. 26 primary, Brattleboro has had a new polling place: the Municipal Center. To better inform voters, I'm listing 10 things you need to know about voting there: 1. Voting will take place on the second floor in the Cosman and Selectboard Meeting Rooms (Room 212). 2. You won't need to step up or down even one step to vote! There is an elevator just inside the back entrance at...
Despite the many years I have lived here, it wasn't until John Moran's first term in office that I began to feel we were finally being represented in Montpelier. Since that time, I have come to know John and his dedication to all the people who live in his district. John is a strong advocate for working families, quality and affordable health care for all, and a keen understanding that working people need to make a livable wage to support...
I have known Laura Sibilia, an independent running for state representative in Windham/Bennington house district, in many capacities for the past 15 years and have always been impressed by her. We have served together on the Dover School Board, where I learned how passionate, hard-working, and informed Laura always is. Our children have attended schools together, and here I found we had shared values of family, education, and fairness. When something needed to get done - a fundraiser, staffing the...
For eight years, John Moran continually listened carefully to our particular concerns and represented us well in Montpelier. Whether supporting policies such as child care, increased minimum wage, veterans' benefits, or equal pay for women, he is a strong voice for working families. When we needed help after Tropical Storm Irene in 2011, he was there advocating and securing aid for our region. He is keenly aware of our cross-state-border issues of education choices and funding and, more recently, our...
I have known John Moran for 28 years, and we have been married for 25. His commitment on behalf of our district is exceptional. He is always available whether in Montpelier or at home to attend to community, group, or individual matters. He takes direct responsibility in his re-election efforts without reliance on a campaign manager or a treasurer because his service as a legislator is without staff. Thus, while in session, he is accountable directly to constituents: reading hundreds...
I vote for the candidate who I feel will do the best job for us all. Just look at John Moran's many important accomplishments in his eight years as our state representative. John is a man of integrity and has the ability to work with the opposition in Montpelier and has built those alliances. He is respectful of their positions on an issue but willing to compromise until decisions are made that meet the goals he feels will work for...
Voters, sadly, often vote for what they do not want. They often believe they cannot get what they want and would like to be a winner in some sense rather than a loser, so they vote for the “lesser of two evils” and choose between Democrats and Republicans. The public views both the Democratic and Republican parties as “evil.” Both parties have fully participated in and cultivated the system of capitalism, which has brought the world to the brink of...
For many years, I worked in the oft-maligned hospitality service jobs of the Deerfield Valley region, jobs that allowed me to make a decent living with maximum flexibility while I had small children. The last service industry job I had was as a waitress at Dot's Restaurant. This was a very busy, and therefore fairly lucrative job a few days a week, allowing me maximum time with my three young children. My interest in economic development began there. Folks treasure...
Economic development is easy to talk about but difficult to achieve. Our district's gorgeous landscape and laid-back, rural culture present us with a unique set of challenges. Some people in our district fear that economic development will destroy the Vermont way of life we all cherish. They fear that condos will replace farms, that new businesses will replace time-honored trades, and that increased tourism will ruin our tranquil afternoons. I believe that economic development means strengthening our existing agricultural, artistic,
Though I am not a voter in her district, I have been fortunate to know Laura Sibilia as a friend and as an associate as we continue to work in the Legislature to protect the interests of small schools and rural communities. What has impressed me most about Laura is her natural talent to be a strong, outspoken advocate for all Valley towns and schools. I have spent numerous occasions walking the halls of the capital building with her while...
The announcement on Oct. 23 came with a sigh of relief. After more than a year of searching and three chosen candidates turning the position down, the Selectboard announced it has hired Peter Elwell as the municipality's next town manager. An undercurrent of relief and jubilation accompanied the board's formal announcement and ratification of Elwell's four-year contract during a special board meeting. “We're looking forward to working with Peter,” board chair David Gartenstein said in a phone interview. Elwell's first...
How do you know that this year's election is a low-wattage affair? When the biggest thing that has happened to date is the video from the Vermont Public Television governor's debate “going viral” on social media, as bloggers around the country write about their amazement at seeing seven candidates sharing the stage and being treated fairly. But that's how it has been in Vermont this fall. Unlike the tumultuous races we're seeing elsewhere in New England and the rest of...
All Souls Day falls on Sunday, Nov. 2, and marks a collaboration between Brattleboro Area Hospice and Friends of Music at Guilford. FOMAG's “Rest in Peace” concert, co-directed by Tom Baehr and Amy Cann, begins at 3 that afternoon in the sanctuary of Guilford Community Church. A teatime reception follows the concert. Two song series and a few instrumental interludes are featured in this first of four arts programs - including music, art, film, and theater - scheduled during the...
Entergy's corporate headquarters on Old Ferry Road sits quiet and mostly empty on one recent Friday afternoon. Outside the building, the airwaves and Internet buzz with news of the company's newly released site-assessment study outlining the decommissioning future of its Vermont Yankee nuclear plant in Vernon, a few miles away. Inside, spokesperson Martin Cohn leads the way up a set of open stairs, to the right, down a hall, and into a second-floor conference room. The pungent scent of onions...
I'll come right out and say it: In all my years covering high school sports, I have never seen a more emotionally intense and dramatic ending to a game than the one I saw in Townshend on the rainy afternoon of Oct. 22. The fourth-seeded Leland & Gray Rebels won a Division III girls' soccer first-round match on Oct. 22 against the No. 13 Richford Rockets, but only after 80 minutes of regulation time, two 15-minute periods of sudden-death overtime,
Sex and the developmentally disabled is not a topic for polite company, bringing up (as it does) the nasty bits behind the curtain. For parents, especially, this topic chills the soul. Who wants to think about their adult child's aching need for physical love - an urge, a natural instinct - knowing that this need might go unsatisfied for a lifetime? So we - as parents, as friends, as society - lie. We tell ourselves we're keeping the developmentally disabled...
Ahhhh, Brattleboro Film Festival! How do I love thee? Let me count the ways. At the press screening, Pride, your opening film, made me laugh out loud, and I burst out of the theater cheering. My Name Is Sand unfolded before my eyes an unknown world of beauty and mystery. Boy and the World, with its gorgeous animation, broke my heart and showed me how the world might end. The Starfish Throwers taught me that all is not lost and...
From the very first frames of Yasuhiro Yoshiura's Patema Inverted, there is the promise of a beautifully realized fantasy. Three distinct aspects of this fantasy are revealed in quick succession, and each poses a different time and visual style. The reconciliation of these three fleeting scenes quickly becomes the core of this full-length anime feature, which tells the story Patema and Age, two young people separated by disparate worlds, circumstance, and gravity. Patema is a princess of an underground civilization...
If you like film as an expressionistic art form, two dramas - Bluebird and Lake Los Angeles - should be at the top of your 2014 Brattleboro Film Festival list. At first glance they are an unlikely pair. Lance Edwards' debut film Bluebird is set in a northern Maine mill town in while Mike Ott's Lake Los Angeles, the third in a trilogy, takes place near an arid crossroad northeast of L.A. One is about Hispanic immigrants living in the...
We northerners and flatlanders will learn a thing or two from The Winding Stream, which tells the story of a family considered the royalty of country music. The Carter-Cash clan is a winding stream that becomes, in the words of Director Beth Harrington, a “rushing river.” A wide one, too - one that eventually encompasses country rock, the 1960s folk revival, and rockabilly. Told through a combination of animated photographs, archival footage, still photographs, anecdotes, letters, film footage of performances,
Konstantin von Krusenstiern promises that next weekend, Brattleboro will be a party town. More than 100 gay men from Boston are coming up to Southern Vermont to help raise funds for the Brattleboro Retreat's program that serves lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgendered (LGBT) individuals. On Saturday, Nov. 1, at 7:30 p.m., the Brattleboro Retreat presents a rare Vermont performance by the Boston Gay Men's Chorus at the Latchis Theatre. One of New England's largest and most successful community-based choruses, the...
On Friday, Oct. 31, Brattleboro Music Center presents Musicians From Marlboro at Centre Congregational Church in the opening concert of its 2014-15 Chamber Music Series. Musicians From Marlboro, the touring extension of the Marlboro Music Festival in Vermont, offers exceptional young professional musicians together with seasoned artists in varied chamber music programs. The resulting ensembles offer audiences the chance to discover seldom-heard masterworks and enjoy fresh interpretations of chamber music favorites. Musicians from Marlboro has introduced to American audiences many...