Dairy, forest industries are a priority for Working Lands grants – VTDigger

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Dairy, forest industries are a priority for Working Lands grants – VTDigger

KIRBY – As the region’s wood industry evolves, a Northeast Kingdom logger is using a $130,000 state Working Lands Program grant to develop new outlets for low-grade wood products. Heath Bunnell started a business this summer that takes in wood waste and creates products such as mulch, compost and kiln-dried firewood.

Bunnell bought a farm in Kirby last year and spent the early part of the summer overseeing the deconstruction of a large barn on the property, which once held a brick factory and later a scrap car business. Bunnell wants to provide a market for the low-grade wood that has flooded the market since Northeast mill capacity diminished sharply in 2015 and 2016.

The Plymouth Mail Truck Robbery — Timothy J. Baker

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The Plymouth Mail Truck Robbery — Timothy J. Baker

On August 14, 1962, a man in a police uniform stopped a mail truck headed for the Federal Reserve Bank in Boston. What the postal worker behind the wheel didn’t know was that the officer was an imposter, the truck was filled with $1.5 million and the largest cash heist in history up to that point was underway.

Brandishing guns, the “policeman” and another man wearing civilian clothing stormed the truck, which had just left tourist-laden Cape Cod. The thieves forced the mail employees out of the truck and onto the highway, where they were bound and gagged. They then threw their captives into the back of the truck and took off.

According to the employees, the hijackers, who called each other “Buster” and “Tony,” stopped twice to unload cash before dumping the truck and the people inside just outside Boston, some 60 miles from Plymouth, Massachusetts, where the robbery occurred. By the time the hostages escaped, Buster and Tony had already made their getaway.

Because of the carefully chosen location of the heist, there were no witnesses. A 15-foot-high median strip prevented southbound motorists from spotting the suspicious happenings in the northbound lanes, where the truck was stopped. Buster and Tony—or their accomplices—placed stolen detour signs about four miles south of the truck to reroute traffic behind them.

Simple Living Alaska – Beehive Update August 2019 | Keeping Honey Bees in Alaska

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I never seen those polystyrene bee hives before, but I can certainly understand the need for insuation in cold climates. I am sure they've been tested for styrene leaching out of the polystyrene, but still I have questions -- maybe not scientifically based. I know they're is a lot of concern on some quarters about styrene leaching into food, especially oily food. Plus how durable are they? Maybe I'm just old fashioned, luddite.

Communities forming ‘buyers club’ for clean energy – Times Union

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Commentary: Communities forming ‘buyers club’ for clean energy – Times Union

A CCA is like an electricity "buyers club." By leveraging the purchasing power of tens of thousands of households, a CCA can negotiate for clean electricity at an affordable price. A CCA negotiates the price and generation sources of residents' electricity with a selected supply company, and that supplier becomes the default source of electricity for the households and small businesses in the member municipalities. National Grid continues to deliver and bill for the electricity.  While cost is important, the biggest benefit of forming a CCA is that every household is automatically enrolled in the program (except those in the state's Home Energy Assistance Program). From an environmental perspective, it will have the same impact as if every house and small business were to install solar panels on their roofs overnight. Because electricity accounts for 19 percent of our carbon emissions, a CCA that supplies clean electricity will be enormously beneficial.

CCA gives residents more and better electricity choices. Anyone can opt out of the CCA program at any time and at no cost. Residents can switch to another electricity generation mix within the CCA program (if one is offered), back to National Grid, or to another energy supplier entirely. Residents have all the current supply options plus one or more options within the CCA.

Maybe this is good, maybe it's not. Most of these renewable energy projects would be built without local buy-in, because of the state mandates.  Not sure if it really makes that much of a difference, but I'll have to watch and look to see if it makes sense to continue in the program or opt-out. I certainly have a lot of concerns with those industrial solar farms that are popping up everywhere.

HISTORIC 1962 HEIST STILL UNSOLVED – capecodtimes.com

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HISTORIC 1962 HEIST STILL UNSOLVED – capecodtimes.com

PLYMOUTH -- Forty years after a mail truck was robbed of more than $1.5 million in one of the largest holdups in state history, the crime remains unsolved.

Authorities think as many as five men and one woman were involved in the robbery on Route — in Plymouth, which netted $1,551,277, about $300,000 more than the more famous 1950 Brinks robbery in Boston. But the only two people ever brought to trial were found innocent, and the money was never recovered.