'DamNation' looks at how dams affect nature

On Friday, Oct. 3, at 7:30 p.m., Marlboro College Graduate Center hosts a screening of a new documentary, “DamNation,” which takes viewers across the United States in what the producer says is “a powerful odyssey chronicling the shift in attitude about our nation's dams.”

The producer adds the audience “will witness the journey from national pride of the engineering wonder of dams to an awareness of the impact of dams on our rivers and our lives by extension.”

A press release for the event notes the film “opens on a birth, with Franklin D. Roosevelt's dedication of Hoover Dam, and on a death, as the engineer at Elwha Dam powers down the turbine on its last day.”

The film boasts majestic cinematography and unexpected discoveries. The film takes up a metamorphosis in values, from the conquest of the natural world to knowing ourselves as part of nature.

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Dummerston Historical Society hosts Roger Katz photography exhibit

When Roger Katz, who died in 2013 at age 65 after a long battle with cancer, he left behind a vast collection of photographs from a lifetime of viewing the world through the lens. His affectionate curiosity about people and places found expression in thousands of striking pictures taken...

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The climate march is done, and the real work begins

I was one of the 2,000 Vermonters at the climate change march in New York on Sept. 21, joining people from across the country in calling for urgent action on this problem. If you were as inspired and energized by this march as I was, there is much that...

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Stop talking and support skate park

If everyone donated $1 for every discussion about the Brattleboro Skate Park, we would have had enough money to build 73,242 skate parks by now. The time for superfluous discussion is over. The discussion topic of the skate park has been beaten to death. I sincerely think it has been discussed more than Vermont Yankee, the Middle East, and the Champlain Monster combined. It has gotten to the point of gross absurdity. It has become an embarrassment to our community's...

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Empty Bowls Dinner reflects on its first decade

The 11th annual Empty Bowls dinner is set for Saturday, Oct. 11, at Landmark College. Now, with this fundraising tradition entering its second decade, organizers took a few moments to look back at how the event has grown and to note what keeps so many hosting and attending the dinner. In 2003, a small group of potters met at Brattleboro Clayworks to figure out how to launch an Empty Bowls dinner in Southern Vermont. Inspired by a group of high...

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Flu shots available at Grace Cottage

Grace Cottage Family Health offers public flu shots on three Saturdays this fall: Oct. 4 and 18, and Nov. 1, from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. Walk-ins are welcome. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends that everyone 6 months old and older get a yearly flu vaccine, as this is the best way to reduce the chance that you will get seasonal flu and lessen the chance that you will spread it to others. People older than 65,

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Fall foliage exhibit in Wardsboro features fine art, crafts, antiques

An exhibit and sale of fine art, crafts, and antiques is open in October every day from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. in the Green Barn on Route 100. The barn, across the road from the Bittersweet Café and Bakery and the Wardsboro Country Store, shares its parking with the Wardsboro Post Office. Event sponsor Friends of the Wardsboro Library has been an ardent promoter of local artists since the nonprofit formed in 2001. The annual July 4th Art Show...

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RFPL hosts 24-Hour Comic Day Challenge

Get your coffee, tea, or favorite caffeinated beverage ready: Local artists and storytellers who want to test their creativity and push their artistic limits are invited to the Rockingham Free Public Library for this year's 24-Hour Comics Day Challenge. The day of extreme cartooning allows 24 straight hours for amateur and professional cartoonists of all ages to challenge themselves to write, draw, and letter an entire 24-page comic in 24 hours. Create your comics traditionally or digitally. The RFPL will...

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Are you prepared for growing older?

An elder forum held in Wilmington last month brought 25 interested people together to brainstorm about services and resources that attendees identified as important to the quality of their lives as they age. The notion that people need to mobilize themselves now to create an affordable option to remain in our community as we age was evident to all who attended. Very little is available right now, and so have an opportunity to create a vibrant and engaged community that...

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New program helps job seekers get ready for work, advance in their careers

Enrollment is open for a free, eight-week course aiming to help the unemployed and those with little work experience gain marketable skills, land jobs, and advance in their careers. “Ready for Work” begins Oct. 7 and will be held at CCV's new Brattleboro academic center. Participants will receive intensive, one-on-one support to help them write résumés, interview confidently, overcome employment barriers, search for and apply to jobs, and work smart - core skills most requested by Vermont businesses.. According to...

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Band of snappers

Photographer Tom Singleton says he believes that the art of photography is about seeing the world in special ways. “Through photographs you capture your vision to pass on. Photography doesn't just record a document but rather an experience. When that shutter snaps, sometimes it comes out great and sometimes not, but it is always an adventure,” he says. For the third consecutive year, Singleton invites Windham County's photographers to join him on Saturday, Oct. 11, in downtown Brattleboro as part...

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The science is solid, the risk is real. And so we marched.

I'm not a frequent social activist. I haven't been to a major rally since my college days, but when my teenage daughter gets excited about something I care about, I'm all in! And Michaela was getting excited by the social media buzz about the People's Climate March, so with some last-minute scrambling, I headed down to New York City with family and friends to the big march. By the time we succumbed to the FOMO (fear of missing out) and...

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Milestones

Births • In Brattleboro (Memorial Hospital), Aug. 29, 2014, a daughter, Luella Bliss Wilson, to Ellenka Wasung-Lott and Robert Wilson of Townshend; granddaughter to the late Howard Lott and Michalina Wasung of Townshend and Marjorie and Steve Wilson of Simi Valley, Calif.; great-granddaughter to Norman and Junellen Lott of Marathon, Fla., and Claudine Wilson of St. Georges, Bermuda. College news • The following local people are registered for the fall 2014 semester at Castleton State College: Maxwell Bostwick of Brattleboro,

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Liberty Union state senate candidates seek debate with Democrats

We are saddened that Becca Balint, Jeanette White, and the Windham County Democratic Party Committee have not accepted our offer to participate in a forum to be held in Brattleboro which would include all the candidates for the state senate. This rejection flies in the face of Vermont's great tradition of candidates shaking hands and discussing crucial issues facing Vermonters and the planet. The Liberty Union Party has some answers to the fundamental questions of how we are going to...

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Save the planet by super-insulating your home

After the hugely successful People's Climate March, and in spite of the scant media coverage, the question some ask is, “What's next?” Since buildings in the United States are the source of nearly half (48 percent) of our carbon emissions (twice as much as cars, at 24 percent), Community Solutions of Ohio has produced Passive House Revolution, a documentary film that describes the history, progress, and simplicity of super-insulating buildings to decrease energy demands, and therefore, the carbon emissions, as...

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Annual Buddy Walk is Oct. 4

Organizers here are hosting Brattleboro's sixth annual Buddy Walk on the Common this Saturday, Oct. 4, at 10 a.m. All are welcome. The walk, developed by the National Down Syndrome Society in 1995 to celebrate Down Syndrome Awareness Month and to promote inclusion of people with Down syndrome, has grown from 17 walks in 1995 to nearly 300 planned worldwide this year. This year's Brattleboro Buddy Walk, a celebration of local accomplishments and goals for raising awareness and promoting community...

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Open government ideas for the digital age

We discussed open government in the Ethan Allen Room of the Vermont Statehouse during the recent Digital Economy Summit on Sept. 23. Ethan Allen's statue stood there, arm raised for recognition to speak of timeless Vermont. I felt lonely as a grassroots Vermonter among so many public officials and authorities contemplating their status quo. Open government is a nationwide concern and movement that we did not discuss. Is Vermont that different? While the proverbial six degrees of separation might be...

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Drew Gradinger is Kindle Farm School’s new director

Health Care and Rehabilitation Services announces the promotion of Drew Gradinger to director of Kindle Farm School. The school was in its fledgling years in 1998 when Gradinger began working there. Since then he's held a variety of positions: classroom assistant, middle school teacher, technology specialist, and assistant director. He's also seen Kindle Farm grow from 10 boys served in the annex of a local public library, with one van. Gradinger says in a press announcement that his passion is...

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Long past time for Windham County drivers to begin respecting pedestrians, bikers

The weather has been great recently. Unfortunately, pedestrian safety is still a major issue a year after the hit-and-run. One Monday night, it was the failure of a large pickup to yield in the crosswalk when I was facing traffic with my snow-white hand sticking straight out into the crosswalk clearly indicating intention to cross - which is the rule of law, giving me right of way. Early afternoon the next day, within 45 minutes, came three serious intent-to-injure failures...

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A comeback for the ages

At 8:46 p.m. on April 17, 2011, the Brattleboro Fire Department received a box alarm call from Main Street's iconic Brooks House. Soon afterward a tenant called to report smoke in the building. The calls marked the beginning of a five-alarm fire that not only spelled the potential destruction for the downtown's historic signature landmark, but for the economic and aesthetic life of Brattleboro as well. On that dreadful night, light and smoke were visible from Interstate 91, several miles...

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Welcome back, Brooks House

In November of 2010, I sat in the second floor office of Jonathan Chase, owner of the Brooks House, in a room crowded with the history of one of Brattleboro's most prominent commercial buildings. Forty years earlier, his father, Norman, saved the building from the wrecking ball and converted a defunct hotel into a mixed-use retail and residential building, with 60 apartments. But in the fall of 2010, the Brooks House was a little frayed at the edges. Several retail...

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Quiet solidarity

As I stood waiting for my phone to charge outside the historical apartment building on West End Avenue in New York City at the biggest climate march in U.S. history, I watched the crowd take the form of a long line stretching in either direction as far as the eye could see. I marveled at the size and at the good humor of the marchers, who had been waiting for two hours to even begin due to the unexpected surge...

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Around the Towns

Athens Town Office Volunteers sponsor raffle ATHENS - There is still time to get tickets in the raffle being sponsored by the Town Office Volunteers (TOV) of Athens. The TOV, a group of citizens that came together to help save the town money and provide much-needed repairs to the old one-room schoolhouse that serves as the Athens Town Office, is holding this fundraiser to help fund the renovation efforts. They have saved the town considerable money to date, and have...

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Three losses and a tie for Colonels on homecoming weekend

It wasn't the best of homecoming weekends for the Brattleboro Colonels. The field hockey, football, and boys' and girls' soccer teams played home games over the weekend, netting three losses and a tie. In football against undefeated St. Johnsbury last Friday night, things looked good for the Colonels when Tyler McKinney scored on a 54-yard run in the first quarter. Unfortunately, the undefeated Hilltoppers then scored 27 unanswered points and went on to beat Brattleboro, 27-14, at Natowich Field. The...

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The Snaz to play benefit concert for local nurses’ organization

A local nurses' organization, MANOS, invites you to a benefit concert featuring The Snaz on Sunday, Oct. 5, from 2 to 4 p.m. at Main Street's Fireworks restaurant. While rocking out to Brattleboro's homegrown music sensation, you can bid on offerings by dozens of local artists and artisans at a silent auction. Snacks are free. There's also a cash bar. Tickets are $20 for adults and free for kids under 12. Proceeds benefit Helping Babies Breathe, which teaches Nicaraguan midwives...

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Mrowicki returns to KidsPLAYce

State Rep. Mike Mrowicki, D-Putney, has returned to the place where he had worked three decades ago. Mrowicki has joined KidsPLAYce discovery center as its administrator. KidsPLAYce, on Elliot Street below Hotel Pharmacy, reopens Oct. 4 after its summer closure. Hours are Tuesday through Saturday from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Opening-day celebrations include an appearance from the Caterpillar Lab, which invites kids to encounter all things Northeastern caterpillar up close and personal. Admission is free, though donations are warmly...

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Standing my ground at 55

As my pupils dilate, I can actually feel the black expanding while my blue iris contracts. Blood leaves my extremities and thunders toward my heart. My peripheral vision gets blurry, and directly in front of me is the only thing I see: his nose, which looks like it's made out of flesh-colored Play-Doh. I say, “Now you're in my personal space.” He backs up, rolls some deodorant to his underarms, and calls me another name. I forget now which one.

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Hypocrites drive to the climate march

These people must know their travel to New York City produces greenhouse gases as well as pollution. These are the same people who fought to close down Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Plant, a non-emitting power source that displaced millions of tons of pollution. They have the audacity to call themselves environmentalists? They are hypocrites.

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How many marchers worked to shut down VY?

So how much greenhouse gas did this group generate driving in cars or taking buses (15 of them from Vermont) down to New York City? How many of these people had a hand in shutting down the Vermont Yankee plant, a facility that supplied 70 percent of the electricity generated in Vermont with essentially zero greenhouse gases - generation that will largely be replaced by greenhouse-gas-emitting natural gas? Another question: How many hypocrites can you organize for one demonstration?

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Can people pull society back from the brink?

I went to the People's Climate March in New York City on Sept. 21. It was great to see 400,000 people geared up to make change happen - change for human and organic survival. There was peace in the crowd, a model for the world. There was urgency, too. I heard a term, “decade zero,” meant to identify the immediate period after climate change reaches the tipping point, the marker in time after which no amount of carbon reduction will...

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Entergy: Meeting was ‘watershed moment’ for VY

Themes of trust and transparency and questions of “What's next?” echoed through the inaugural meeting of the Nuclear Decommissioning Citizens Advisory Panel (NDCAP). Many on the panel and in the audience have followed every detail of life of the 42-year-old Vermont Yankee nuclear reactor in Vernon. Few, however, have trod the new soil of decommissioning a reactor, storing spent fuel, or preparing a small community or regional economy for the loss of a large, high-paying, employer. Last summer, plant owner...

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The little lit fest that's not so little any more

“The Brattleboro Literary Festival has gotten so big that it has become more difficult to promote what there is to see,” says Sandy Rouse, the festival's organizer and co-founder. “We are bringing in 52 authors for 40 events, and that is not including our local authors who are part of the open reading hosted by Write Action, which brings participants up to 60,” she explains. From Oct. 2 through 5, the 2014 Brattleboro Literary Festival hosts authors of everything from...

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Seeking success

On the last day of ITVFest, sitting in a tent of billowy fabric with filmmakers and social entrepreneurs, Bill Forchion recalled when a movie executive rejected his business card. Forchion remembers the executive saying, “Don't give me your business card. Be your business card.” Filmmakers and entrepreneurs sometimes get so swallowed up by “doing their business,” said Forchion, a local filmmaker and performer, that they forget that their authentic selves are the biggest part of their project's story. Forchion's anecdote...

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Austine alumni rally at Statehouse in support of continued services for Deaf community

“Austine Strong” was the theme Sept. 27 during a rally at the Statehouse in Montpelier. The “Save Austine School and Services” rally, organized by the Austine Alumni Association's Save Austine School Committee, drew hundreds of supporters, organizers reported. The rally was prompted by the Board of Trustees of the Vermont Center for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing to close the Austine School in Brattleboro, the organizers said. The rally began with a full-throttled roar of the Harley-Davidson Deaf Riders...

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Brooks House to hold ribbon-cutting, grand opening on Oct. 3

On April 17, 2011, a five-alarm fire at the Brooks House nearly destroyed the landmark building and the economic and aesthetic life of downtown. Three and a half years later, the lights are back on in the historic former hotel, and the town is invited to celebrate. After more than a year of renovation and construction, work on the 80,000-square-foot building is nearly finished. The Brooks House now includes an 18,000-square-foot academic center for the Community College of Vermont and...

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In-Sight Photography Project's benefit auction features world-class photography

Burt Glinn was one of Magnum Photos' preeminent photographers. One iconic image he captured was that of a young girl swinging in front of Barcelona's Sagrada Família. This image - donated by Glinn's widow - is just one of the internationally known photographs that will be available for purchase at In-Sight Photography Project's 16th Annual Silent Auction & Exhibition. The estate of John Launois has donated two photographs, including one of the Beatles that became the Aug. 8, 1964 cover...

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Moyse Chorale, joined by noted chamber soloists, perform memorial concert on Oct. 12

Since their midsummer break, the 34 members of the Blanche Moyse Chorale have been hard at work preparing for the upcoming Blanche Moyse Memorial Concert. Over the past weekend, the group devoted almost 10 hours of rehearsal to perfecting their rendition of motets by Johann Sebastian Bach. Over the next four weeks, shorter, but no less intense, rehearsals will be focused on refinement and interpretation. Director Mary Westbrook-Geha has challenged the Chorale by selecting four motets for the Memorial Concert...

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Before we act, first we must talk

The People's Climate March on Sept. 21 was a great success, not only in terms of the amazing number of participants, but also by demonstrating the climate movement's multi-racial, class-diverse, and intergenerational potential. This is important. Climate change is the paramount issue we have to resolve - if we don't, there won't be any other issues for us to worry about. But it's also the one that, at the same time, must include the other issues we face - peace,

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