#vtdigger

[nycannabistimes]

Smdh @talltruck ・・・ TALL TRUCK.. Vermonts Finedest!! Article by @vtdigger Lessons learned the hard way. #talltruck #talltruckvt #vermontsfinest #vermontsfunnest #topshelf #vtdigger #vermont #ilovevermont (at Times Square, New York City) https://www.instagram.com/p/Cqbmaf_sLPy/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[catdotjpeg]

UPDATE 4:02pm EST: Mondoweiss has verified in their article that the family is asking "that no one make donations to fundraisers unless specifically organized by our families." Thanks to @justaboutsnapped for flagging this!

Three Palestinian college students were shot and wounded in Burlington, Vermont Saturday evening, local Vermont TV station WCAX reported. The victims, unnamed by police, reportedly include Brown undergraduate Hesham Awartani ’25, as well as Kinnan Abdelhamid and Tahseen Ahmed, students at Haverford College and Trinity College, respectively. Police statements did not identify a shooter or indicate that a suspect is in custody; the Council on American-Islamic Relations is offering a $10,000 reward for information leading to an arrest, The Messenger reported.  The shooting took place at 6:25 p.m. Saturday, and safety personnel brought all three victims to the University of Vermont Medical Center, according to VTDigger. Awartani and Ahmed sustained serious injuries, according to a statement from their high school in the West Bank. The Arab American Anti-Discrimination Committee has called upon authorities to investigate the incident as a hate crime. The organization wrote in a statement that “the three victims were wearing a kuffiyeh and speaking Arabic. A man shouted and harassed the victims, then proceeded to shoot them."  Brown is aware of the incident but could not confirm the identity of the victims, University Spokesperson Amanda McGregor wrote in an email to The Herald. “We received the difficult news from the family this morning that a Brown undergraduate currently enrolled in his junior year at the University is in the hospital after being shot while out of state for the Thanksgiving break,” McGregor wrote. “We’re not at liberty to release details about his health status or his identity, but we are actively offering care to the family and support to our student, as well as members of our campus community.” All three students attended Ramallah Friends School in the West Bank before attending college in the U.S., according to a Facebook post from the school. “Ramallah Friends School board, administration, staff and community are deeply distressed by the recent incident involving three of our graduates, Hisham Awartani, Kinnan Abdel Hamid and Tahseen Ahmed who were shot and injured last evening in Burlington, VT,” the school wrote in the post. “While we are relieved to know that they are alive, we remain uncertain about their condition and hold them in the light. We extend our thoughts and prayers to them and their families for a full recovery, especially considering the severity of injuries,” the statement continued. “We stand united in hope and support for their well-being during this challenging time.” [...] Basil Awartani, who identified himself as Hisham Awartani’s cousin, shared in a post on X that “My cousin Hisham has been shot in the back while walking with his friends in Burlington for simply wearing kuffiyehs and speaking Arabic. Dangerous performative rhetoric from US pundits and politicians as well as constant dehumanization of Palestinians has a real-life cost.”

-- "Brown junior among three Palestinian students shot in Vermont Saturday night" from Brown Daily Herald, 26 Nov 2023 12:36pm EST

Kinnan Abdelhamid is a student at Haverford College in Pennsylvania and Tahseen Ahmed is a student at Trinity College in Connecticut. Their current condition is unknown.

[blueiscoool]

A Very Rare Tiny Plant not Seen for 108 Years Found in Vermont

The last time a botanist recorded a sighting of false mermaid-weed in the state was in 1916.

Vermont state botanist Grace Glynn has been searching for false mermaid-weed for years, but the spring-blooming herb with dainty flowers has always eluded her—and everyone else. No one had documented false mermaid-weed in Vermont since 1916.

But that all changed last month, when Glynn opened a photo she’d been sent by a colleague. In the image snapped on May 7 by a state biologist surveying turtle habitat, she caught a glimpse of the elusive flower in the corner of the frame.

“I sort of did a double take and rubbed my eyes and couldn’t believe that I was seeing this plant,” Glynn tells WCAX.

When she visited the site in the state’s rural Addison County to investigate, she found hundreds of false mermaid-weed sprigs on both public and private land—the first confirmed sightings in Vermont in more than a century.

The Vermont Department of Fish and Wildlife called the discovery “BOTANICAL BREAKING NEWS,” in a Facebook post announcing the find.

It’s not surprising that false mermaid-weed (Floerkea proserpinacoides) had gone undetected for so long. Each individual plant is “absolutely tiny” with flowers that are “as small as the head of a pin,” per the department. Even when trained experts are out searching for the plant, it’s hard to spot and can be easily overlooked.

What’s more, it only emerges for a short window of time—typically from late April to early June. This is what botanists refer to as an “ephemeral” plant.

Botanists also suspect false mermaid-weed populations have suffered because of extreme flooding, invasive species and human development. Its rediscovery is “a sign that good stewardship by landowners and conservation organizations really can make a difference,” according to the Facebook post.

“It’s a glimmer of hope … in an otherwise grim world,” says Matt Charpentier, a field botanist in Massachusetts, to the New York Times’ Jenna Russell.

The last botanist to document false mermaid-weed in Vermont was a woman named Nellie Flynn, who collected 22,700 plants from around the world during her lifetime. So, amid all the excitement of finding a long-lost plant, Glynn also found herself reflecting on the past.

“It was just amazing to touch this plant and to think, ‘Oh, Nellie Flynn was probably the last person to ever touch this species in Vermont back in 1916,’” Glynn tells Vermont Public Radio’s Zoe McDonald. “And I always think about how there are just these threads through history that kind of tie you to other botanists, and it just adds depth and richness, I think, to an already rich story.”

In Vermont, the plant’s state rank has now been updated from possibly extinct and missing to very rare and critically imperiled. Glynn also plans to send some of the plant’s seeds to a seed bank in Massachusetts that preserves native New England species.

But even though false mermaid-weed has been rediscovered, the work of Vermont botanists is far from finished: They still have another 600 or so rare and uncommon native plants to search for and, ideally, conserve throughout the state.

This is not the first time an unusual plant has made an appearance in Vermont: In May 2022, a citizen scientist discovered nine specimens of a federally threatened orchid, known as the small whorled pogonia, in Chittenden County. It was the first time anyone had seen the plant since 1902, VTDigger’s Ella Ruehsen wrote at the time.

By Sarah Kuta.

[politicalblade]

30 days.

Because he was an ex-soldier.

Oh my bad. Ex-trooper.

Either way, 30 days in a specific location. I hope the people of Vermont shoot their shot.

[knithacker]

"Bernie Sanders’ mitten maker spins a new yarn: a surprisingly raw, revealing memoir" via VTDigger

Read the article: 👉 https://buff.ly/44XA5Pb

Get the book: 👉 https://buff.ly/3wyX3wZ

[beardedmrbean]

QUECHEE — Mid Vermont Christian School has been banned from participating in sporting events in the wake of its decision to forfeit a girls’ basketball playoff game rather than play against a team with a transgender student-athlete.

The Vermont Principals’ Association, the governing body for high school sports in the state, wrote in a letter to MVCS on Monday that the Quechee school’s decision violated two VPA policies — on “commitment to racial, gender-fair, and disability awareness” and on “gender identity.” The decision was made following a meeting of the VPA’s Executive Council earlier Monday.

“The result was a determination that policies have been violated at the school level, thus there is an immediate determination of ineligibility for Mid Vermont Christian in VPA sanctioned activities and tournaments going forward,” the VPA wrote in a corresponding news release.

The Eagles’ girls basketball team, seeded 12th in the Division IV postseason, refused to play its first-round game at No. 5 seed Long Trail on Feb. 21 because of a transgender female player on the Mountain Lions’ roster. VPA policy provides students to participate in sports and other activities “in a manner consistent with their gender identity,” and “discrimination based on a student’s actual or perceived sex and gender” constitutes a violation of the policy.

MVCS’ ban is indefinite and will take effect immediately.

“We wanted to be thoughtful, and we wanted to make sure all of our stakeholders had an opportunity to provide comment,” VPA assistant executive director Lauren Thomas told the Valley News.

MVCS head of school Vicky Fogg wrote in an email to the Valley News on Feb. 22 that “we believe playing against an opponent with a biological male jeopardizes the fairness of the game and the safety of our players.” The Long Trail girls played their full 20-game regular-season schedule without incident, and following the Eagles’ forfeit, the Mountain Lions fell to No. 4 seed Arlington in the quarterfinals.

The MVCS boys team went on to make its deepest playoff run in school history, overcoming a fourth-quarter deficit to defeat top-seeded Long Trail in the semifinals on March 6. Several of the Long Trail students wielded pride and transgender flags at that game. The Eagles then lost to Rivendell in the championship game on Saturday.

In addition to basketball, MVCS has competed in the VPA in volleyball, golf, cross country and track and field, and also has fielded soccer teams that competed independently. Erva Barnes, MVCS’ athletic director and boys basketball coach, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

VPA executive director Jay Nichols told VTDigger on Monday that the executive board reached a unanimous 15-0 decision, and could not remember another instance of a school being ousted from the organization.

“If you don’t want to follow VPA rules, that’s fine,” Nichols said. “But then you’re just not a VPA member. It’s fairly simple.”

[fem-fatalist]

GOOD.

Ironic too that this effectively excludes all the girls on their team from competition, harming their enrichment and access to sport, when the purpose of segregated sports was to encourage access for women.

Their logic is ahistorical and fucking stupid.

Icing on this shitty cake is in this related article, the school wanted state funding while being exempt from state policies, like those regarding anti-discrimination:

Earlier this year, Mid Vermont Christian School submitted a letter to the state Agency of Education seeking permission to receive public tuition funding while also asserting that it reserved the right not to follow all of Vermont’s anti-discrimination laws.

“As a religious organization, the school has a statutory and constitutional right to make decisions based on its religious beliefs, including hiring and disciplining employees, associating with others, and in its admissions, conduct and operations policies and procedures,” Fogg wrote in the Jan. 5 letter. “By signing this form, the Mid Vermont Christian School does not waive any such rights.” To the extent state laws conflict with the school’s beliefs, “including on marriage and sexuality, the school has not included that language in its handbook or online, nor can it affirm that particular aspect of the Vermont Public Accommodations Act.”

I’m really fucking tired of the entitlement of churches and religious organizations like this, that think their (bigoted) beliefs place them above everyone else and associated laws.

[vegasgogreen]

Medical cannabis user fired from transit job loses appeal over state’s denial of unemployment benefits - VTDigger

http://dlvr.it/TCL4KN

[focusonthegoodnews]

Vermonters planting native gardens to help pollinators prosper - VTDigger

https://vtdigger.org/2024/08/05/vermonters-planting-native-gardens-to-help-pollinators-prosper/

[802learning]

This article discusses why Vermont is one of the leading states (Washington County) for disaster declarations.

[anthrocode]

Leaving Big Pharma for mushroom farming, Wiseman family finds purpose in Worcester  

The products, the Wisemans say, can boost immune systems, improve memory and energy and spur a range of other healthy body functions. Source: Leaving Big Pharma for mushroom farming, Wiseman family finds purpose in Worcester – VTDigger

[ezilis-respite-farm-sanctuary]

So, this happened. Which is cool, I'm glad for the exposure this provided Black farmers in our area.

Few things. The paper got Naima Penniman's name wrong. The picture does not include Farmer James, who had a lot to say and a lot that needed to be heard. My eyes are closed in the picture and the person most in focus is our (very awesome) white facilitator.

Also, the bill I referenced was about more than outdoor farming but also specifically around outdoor cultivation of cannabis.

I spoke on VT state Bill H549. If they start there, they will continue to other farming operations that "offend sensibilities". The Bill is an impingement on the right of people to be self-sufficient and make a living. 

"Two state representatives, Karen Dolan, D-Essex City, and Lori Houghton, D-Essex Junction, have introduced a bill, H.549, which would prohibit outdoor cannabis cultivation in densely populated areas that are served by municipal water and sewer and have 500 or more persons per square mile" -- from a different vtdigger article than below.

I invite improved editorial involvement in the Montpelier Bridge, including fact-checks and proofreading.

That said, thank you to my fellow farmers, the organizers of the Green Mountain Film Festival, everyone who came to see the documentary "Farming While Black" and those who were able to attend the panel! Amazing experience.

KX

[petnews2day]

Cats of Cambridge village: Long-operating cat colony gets community support - VTDigger

New Post has been published on https://petn.ws/DMCz3

Cats of Cambridge village: Long-operating cat colony gets community support - VTDigger

Gray Baby, a member of the Gates farm cat colony in Cambridge, lurks in a corner of the barn among the beef cattle. Photo by Gordon Miller/News & Citizen Gray Baby, a member of the Gates farm cat colony in Cambridge, lurks in a corner of the barn among the beef cattle. Photo by Gordon […]

See full article at https://petn.ws/DMCz3 #CatsNews