FairPoint phone company files for bankruptcy

By CLARKE CANFIELD (AP) – 1 hour ago

PORTLAND, Maine — FairPoint Communications Inc. filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection Monday barely 18 months after becoming northern New England’s dominant telecommunications company, fulfilling critics’ predictions that the company wasn’t up to the task.

The company said it voluntarily filed for bankruptcy after agreeing on a deal with key lenders that will help lower its debt by about 62 percent.

[snip]

Hauser said the bankruptcy filing will not affect the company’s day-to-day operations or its efforts to expand its high-speed Internet network in northern New England.

“From a customer point of view, this is a nonevent,” he said.

Complete article…

Emphasis added by me, portions of article snipped.  Please follow the link for the full article.  I’m just trying to notify folks quickly.  I don’t know what it means in the long run but thought people should know. – Stew

Proudly presents Meet the Artist: George Tooker

The Cornish Colony Museum Windsor, Vermont

Proudly presents Meet the Artist: George Tooker

A unique opportunity to meet legendary American artist George Tooker, view rarely-seen works, and hear directly from the artist about his life and work.

Sunday, November 8, 2009 1 P.M.

The afternoon program includes:

• A private viewing of 21 original Tooker paintings permanently installed at St. Francis of Assisi Church in Windsor, with remarks by Mr. Robert Cozzolino, the curator of the recent critically-acclaimed Tooker retrospective at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, and co-author of George Tooker (Merrell Publishers, 2008) and by the Reverend Rene Butler.

• A wine and cheese reception at the Cornish Colony Museum with the opportunity to meet Mr. Tooker and hear his thoughts on his lifetime of work.

• Have Mr. Tooker sign a copy of a retrospective book of his work. Books will be available for purchase at the event. Tickets are $50 per person. For reservations or more information please contact the Museum at 802-674-6008 or curator@cornishcolonymuseum.org.

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All proceeds benefit the Cornish Colony Museum, dedicated to preserving and enhancing the enduring legacy of the nineteenth and twentieth century artists who made Cornish, NH and neighboring Windsor, VT their home.

www.cornishcolonymseum.org

Windsor to Host Shrine Game -Again!

Rutland Herald

http://www.rutlandherald.com/article/20091020/SPORTS/910200315/1007/SPORTS

Article published Oct 20, 2009

Shrine puts game back in Windsor

STAFF REPORT

WINDSOR — “The Board of Governors of the Shrine Maple Sugar Bowl, at its October meeting, voted to hold the 2010 football game at Windsor High School. It will be the second year in a row that Windsor will be the site for the event and the third time that the game has been played in Vermont. The 57th annual Shrine Maple Sugar Bowl will be played Aug. 7.”

“There were several other towns and schools that extended bids for the 2010 game and the Board of Governors indicated that the cost of putting on the game, while a factor, was not the deciding one. “The bids submitted by the other locations were all very close to Windsor’s” Board President David Lovell. said “What it came down to was location, community support and proven game attendance. Windsor had all three going for it.” Attendance at the 2009 game at Windsor High School was the best seen by the Shrine in five years. The crowd for the pregame parade was estimated to be the largest in over a decade. Donations from the Windsor business community and from the sale of souvenirs was well up over past years. “Altogether, Windsor has earned the right to host the 2010 game and we look forward to going back, Lovell said.” Windsor High School has a limited number of seats for football, but that will again be supplemented by portable bleachers rented from Dartmouth College. “

MOONDANCE IS ON!

via Rose Wilson:

Dear all Windsor Downtown Newsletter Readers,

Please accept this posting notifying you that regardless of what you may have heard, MOONDANCE IS ON! We are excited to present you with the best Moondance ever and look forward to your participation in the event!

Vendors: If you have already signed up and/or paid for vendor booths please contact Nate Larson at nate@nlwilson.com or call him at 917-748-5139.  We are looking forward to making sure we have you on the list and having you at the event.

Sponsors: If you have already contributed funds to the event we thank you very much.  If you haven’t received an e-mail from Nate confirming we have you listed as a sponsor please contact him at nate@nlwilson.com or call him at 917-748-5139 so so we can properly recognize you in our marketing efforts.

Performers: If you have already signed a contract to perform at the event and if you haven’t received an e-mail from Nate confirming we have you listed as a performer please contact him at nate@nlwilson.com or call him at 917-748-5139.

Press: If any newspapers, radio and TV personnel receive this e-mail, please place a public announcement that MOONDANCE IS STILL ON.

We thank you all for your support, and again, we look forward to bringing you the best Moondance ever!

Sincerely,
Rose Wilson
Director, Windsor Downtown Program
(802) 649-1000

Dartmouth Friendship Family Program Needs 20 Upper Valley Families

Dartmouth College’s international population has greatly increased in the past several years. The foreign national population is extremely diverse, with students, faculty, research scholars, and staff from over eighty different nations.  In order to enrich the stay of our international students and to help ease their adjustment to a new culture, International Student Programs sponsors the International Friendship Family Program.  This program gives new international undergraduate and graduate students the opportunity to become acquainted with U.S. families in the Upper Valley.  “Friendship Families” volunteer to help students adjust to college life and serve as a “window on American culture.” Students get to know their host families through occasional visits to their host families’ homes, and by spending time with them on special occasions and outings.  Friendship Families also benefit from the opportunity to learn about another culture, another part of the world beyond the Upper Valley. Families can sign up by filling out an application and students can choose to be matched with a host family by completing a request form.
Twenty Friendship Families still needed for new international students. Learn about another culture and share a slice of your home life in the Upper Valley.

To participate download the family application form from the OPAL website noted below. Blitz it to ‘Friendship Family’ with the subject title ‘Friendship Family Program’ by October 1, 2009.

http://www.dartmouth.edu/~opal/international/friendship/index.html

Twenty international students still hope for Upper Valley families!

Health Care Letter to the Editor

Hi Everyone – Below is a letter to the editor I wrote to the Valley News which is in today’s edition:

Watching President Obama’s speech last Wednesday to Congress I was struck by the President’s claim that “reducing the waste and inefficiency in Medicare and Medicaid will pay for most of this plan”.  He believes he can find “hundreds of billions of dollars” of fraud and waste inside of Medicare.  Am I the only one who sees the clear cognitive dissonance in the fact that the President says he will cut the waste, fraud, and abuse from one government program to pay for – wait for it – another brand new government program?!

Certainly any new government plan with a new government bureaucracy will have its own billions of dollar’s worth of waste, fraud, and abuse.  I would not be surprised if the next suggestion for reform of a significant part of our economy from the President will be paid for by the waste, fraud, and abuse of the health care reform he is now proposing.

It seems to me that we can fix the problems in the health insurance industry well short of creating a massive, entrenched, new federal system.  It is wrong that paying customers could be dropped or denied coverage for pre-existing conditions, and it should be outlawed.  Also, let’s give tax credits to the uninsured so they can buy their own plan out of the 1,300 plans that already exist today across state lines, much like we do already with our car insurance.  If the insurance industry does not play ball, then regulate them heavily, like utilities, to make them contribute to real reform.

What concerns me most is the government option along with a proposed fee to mandate insurance for employers and individuals.  I could see why many businesses, especially small business, would rather pay the fee instead of continuing to pay for their employee’s health insurance premiums.  This would lead to many more millions of Americans being forced into the government plan than the President and the Congress originally anticipated leading to unintended consequences, much higher deficits and national debt, and higher taxes to make up the difference.

Larry J. Dougher Jr

Windsor, VT