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After holding a pre-Town Meeting informational meeting earlier this week, Waitsfield voters headed to the polls and elected Jordan Gonda to the select board along with Chach Curtis.

Gonda and Jennifer Stella ran for a three-year seat on the board with Gonda receiving 307 votes to Stellas 101 votes. Curtis ran unopposed for a two-year seat on the board and received 395 votes.

Waitsfield voters passed a $2.4 million budget 364 to 90 and also voted 297 to 160 to permit cannabis retailers and integrated licenses. Voters approved spending an additional $10,000 for the Mad River Valley Recreation District 337 to 119. Waitsfield voters cast 343 yes votes and 109 no votes on adding an additional $10,000 appropriation to the Waitsfield Conservation Commissions Restroom/Recreation/Conservation reserve fund.

Voters also approved a measure calling for establishing a reserve fund for invasive species management in the amount of $10,000. That vote was 355 to 96. Voters also approved exempting the Masonic Lodge from property taxes for five years by a vote of 280 to 164.

Other election results saw Ted Joslin elected as a lister, Jennifer Peterson elected delinquent tax collector, David Babic elected library trustee, Joslin elected as town agent, Laura Brines elected cemetery commissioner and Robert Cook elected cemetery trustee.

At the towns informational meeting on February 28, after the board fielded questions about Town Meeting and the budget, board members held a regular meeting during which they discussed the towns indoor mask requirement. The board renewed its indoor mask requirement for 30 days at its February 14 meeting with a plan to revisit the issue at this weeks meeting. Curtis said his preference was to extend the requirement for the next two weeks because Washington County is still in a high COVID risk area , as defined by the CDC.

Gonda pointed out that part of the new CDC guidelines on county by county. COVID risk levels are based on the availability of hospital beds for non-COVID patients and board member Fred Messer (who is also the towns health officer) concurred that Washington County is still high risk.

Im inclined to leave things as they are, board chair Christine Sullivan said and board member Brian Shupe agreed. Sullivan pointed out that the school district would be making a decision on whether or not to continue requiring masks in schools in the coming days as well. Schools are allowed to remove mask requirements if vaccination rates are at or above 80%. Currently, Harwood Union, Crossett Brook, Waitsfield and Fayston are over 85% vaccinated and Fayston is close to 80%, Sullivan said. Brookside Primary and Moretown are not there yet, she added.

Stella, who was present at the February 28 meeting objected to the board making the decision to keep the mask mandate in place for another two weeks.

The rest of the world is backing down on mask mandates and were going forward with a mask mandate. Masks have done nothing to quell the number of cases. Its time to let people make their own decisions, she said.

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Waitsfield voters elect Gonda and Curtis to the select board - The Valley Reporter

Misinformation and political divisions over science have hampered much-needed climate action in North America, according to a landmark United Nations report.

The second chapter of the sweeping assessment from the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the most authoritative look at global climate change, was released on Monday.

It says that the unequivocally human-caused climate crisis is dangerously disrupting the natural world and has left about half the people on the planet highly vulnerable to impacts.

Follow the latest on the IPCC report and reaction across the globe.

And for the first time, the IPCC report, which is signed off by 195 governments before release, took an in-depth look at the role that climate change misinformation is playing in North America.

In an email, Dr Sherilee Harper, an IPCC lead author and Canada Research Chair in Climate Change and Health at the University of Alberta, told The Independent: Evidence assessed in the report shows how strong party affiliation and partisan opinion polarization can contribute to delayed climate action, most notably in the USA, but also in Canada.

The IPCC report found that vested interests have undermined science, downplaying the risk and urgency of the climate crisis, and created polarization in public and policy domains.

Dr Max Holmes, executive director at Woodwell Climate Research Center in Massachusetts, told The Independent that he was glad to see the IPCC calling out climate misinformation, calling it super important.

We lead the world in vested interests generating rhetoric and misinformation that undermines climate science, he said.

Climate misinformation has had heightened attention in the US in recent weeks. The streaming platform, Spotify, was forced to confront the issue, along with Covid misinformation, after a series of guests on Joe Rogans hit podcast made false and inaccurate statements.

During an interview last month Dr Jordan Peterson, a Canadian clinical psychologist who is not a climate scientist, told Mr Rogans millions of listeners that theres no such thing as climate then falsely claimed that more people die every year from solar energy than from nuclear.

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In US Congress, the House Committee on Oversight and Reform has been calling on chief executives and board members of the USs largest oil companies to testify in an investigation into the fossil fuel industrys alleged long-running campaign to spread climate disinformation and greenwash its role in causing global warming.

Last week, the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy hosted a virtual roundtable with some of Americas most prominent climate scientists to discuss how arguments for delaying action on climate change can be countered effectively.

In a statement US Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry said that the IPCC report paints a dire picture about climate change impacts already occurring and the terrible risks ahead if we continue to ignore science.

Denial and delay are not strategies, they are a recipe for disaster, Secretary Kerry said. Fortunately, we have a blueprint for action. The best scientists in the world have shown us that we must accelerate adaptation action, with urgency and at scale.

The IPCC report says the world faces unavoidable climate impacts over the next two decades with global warming on track to exceed 1.5C (2.7F) above pre-industrial levels.

Even temporarily exceeding this warming level will result in more severe impacts, some of which will be irreversible.

North America is facing accelerating climate change hazards, and Indigenous Peoples, low-income and historically marginalized communities are the most vulnerable.

Climate-linked extreme events have battered North America in the past year from the Pacific Northwests deadly heatwave, Western wildfires and megadrought, and powerful storms like Hurricane Ida. Their cascading impacts are increasingly difficult to manage.

Communities in low-lying coastal cities are particularly at risk, the IPCC report says, from sea-level rise and hurricanes.

Increased heatwaves, droughts and floods are already exceeding plants and animals tolerance thresholds, driving mass mortalities in species such as trees, and amplifying threats to protected species.

Climate-driven declines will continue to impact food security and intensify losses of key US crops and livestock. Marine species are expected to decline or shift to different areas as ocean acidification and marine heatwaves increase.

Heavy exploitation of limited water supplies, especially in the US Western and northern Mexico, will lead to heightened impacts and risks.

Risks can be reduced by adaptation over the coming decades but plans must be ramped up and transformational, the authors noted. At the same time, planet-heating carbon emissions need to be slashed.

Since the last IPCC report in 2014, experts can now assess many more adaptation strategies - those which have worked, and those with unintended negative consequences.

One example of so-called maladaptation is seawalls. While a seawall may help protect people from coastal flooding in one location, its possible that the same structure can negatively impact others living further down the shore, or have adverse consequences during an extreme rain event.

Dr Holmes said that he hoped the IPCC report would inspire more thoughtful adaptation strategies. You can do things that are worse than doing nothing, he noted.

The first chapter of the sixth IPCC assessment was published last August and revealed that it is more likely than not that the world will reach 1.5C sometime over the next 20 years. UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres called the report a code red for humanity.

The third section of the report will focus on mitigation - what needs to be done to limit planet-heating emissions - and is expected at the beginning of April.

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IPCC report calls out misinformation as barrier to tackling climate crisis in North America - Yahoo News

Ill wager no wounds were found in his back! Purportedly, theseare the words of the mother of Alamo hero Jim Bowie when she heard of hisvaliant death. Bowies life has beenwell documented in history books, andHollywood films where such notable actors as Alan Ladd, Richard Widmark, andJames Arness portrayed Bowie.In his early days, Bowie was known as a carousing woodsman with a violent temper. But in 1828, he made a public commitment of faith in Christ. Six months later, Bowie married Maria Ursula de Veramendi, and he was the father of two children.While most of us have heard about Jim Bowies knife, few knowabout his Bible. According to an 1897 article inThe Southern Mercurynewspaper, Jim Bowies Bible came to rest inthe library of the Texas SupremeCourt. The Chief Justices have used this same Bible to inaugurate governors,and other elected officials for over 150 years.Published in 1816, this pocket-sized King James Version of the Bibleis bound in brown sheepskin and is inscribed on the flyleaf with the words,Supreme Court of the Republic ofTexas, 184[?]. We do not know the lastnumber because half of the page was torn off. Tradition says that Sam Houston gainedthe Bible and wrote his name in it, but someonestole his signature by tearingoff the page.Ever since, this same Bible has been referred to as Sam HoustonsBible, and over 30 Texas governors have placed their hand on it including RickPerry and Greg Abbott. At hisinauguration in 1995, Governor George W. Bushstated unambiguously that the Bible upon which his hand rested was SamHoustons own.Numerous studies have been done to verify or disprove that thisBible actually belonged to Sam Houston and Jim Bowie. Convincing arguments havebeen made on both sides, butin the end, the governors continue to take theiroath of office by placing their hand on Sam Houstons Bible.Did Houston or Bowie ever own this Bible? No one knows for sure. Butthe overriding reality is that the governors of Texas believe in the authorityof the Bible! By taking their oath ofoffice publicly with their hand on aBible, they validate the importance of the Word of God.Recently, Jordan Peterson, a highly-regarded Canadian psychologist,stated that the Bible is way more than just true, its the bedrock of Westerncivilization. Indeed, the Bibleprovides wisdom, guidance, and Divinerevelation for governing society.Conversely, if the Bible is ignored or disparaged, society isdoomed. Could it be that devaluing the Bible is a major cause of our current problemslike raging violence, breakdown ofthe family, racial tensions, rampantimmorality, and so many more societal issues?Jesus said, It is written: Man shallnot live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.(Matthew 4:4 NIV) It is still true today.

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David G. Rose has been a credentialed minister for over 55 years. He is the author of the book GOD and TEXAS, and the founder of David Rose Ministries in Richmond, TX. Comments may be sent to parsonrose@aol.com, or visit http://www.davidroseministries.com.

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GOD and TEXAS: Jim Bowie's Bible | Community | fbherald.com - Fort Bend Herald

In a culture that has plenty of chick flicks to go around, it is rare for there to be a true dude flick that isnt another war movie. However, Clint Eastwoods Gran Torino is a dude flick if ever there were one, and it is marvelous. While the violence, crude language, and derisive humor may put some viewers off, these factors accentuate the exaggerated but thoroughly masculine feel of the movie and its characters. Like any movie that displays strong masculinity or a traditional message, Gran Torino was snubbed by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, but I argue that Gran Torino presents a blunt picture of modern young mens predicament, and a beautiful and inspiring image of what our manhood can be.

Many of the scenes that set the mood of Gran Torino are deeply cathartic for a man of Generation-Z. Its establishing shots show a beautiful local church where people congregate surrounded by neighborhoods dilapidated in poverty. Based in economically depressed Detroit, young men are shown involved with gangs and dealing with the cultural confusion of mass immigration among poor Hmong migrants. Among the rich urban socialites like main character Walter Kowalskis children, immodesty and a dearth of tradition are shown in the lack of any respect that Walts son and granddaughter have for their home city, even at the funeral of Walts wife, which opens the movie. This is life for the young American man: a world lacking modesty, economic guarantees, religion, or culturea world without meaning.

The film does not name the illness that underlies these symptoms, but it can be clearly seen by the watchful eye. The problem with our declining America, Eastwood outlines, sounds like a Jordan Peterson lecture: we are burdened by chaos unbridled by traditional and sensible masculine order. All of the perpetrators of decay in this film are agents of this untraditional, insensible chaos. The antagonistic women in the film are nagging like Walts daughter-in-law (literally named Karen), or entitled like his granddaughter Ashley, whose first major conversation in the movie is to ask if she can have Walts car after he dies. These typical examples of unbalanced feminine chaos are countered by the unbalanced masculine order of street thugs, like the movies antagonist Spider, or disrespectful and out-of-touch Gen-Xers, like Walts son Mitch.

Through Walts relationship with Thao Vang Lor, a young, fatherless Hmong boy whom he takes under his wing, our young men see the image of the life we wish we could have. Thao is the archetype that modern young man sees himself to be: effeminate, weakened by exile from the masculine order of his home culture and deprived of the birthright that is his fathers presence in his life. However, Thao still has a deep sense of honor and an underlying knowledge that there are things worth standing up for. The goal for the young man is the masculine life Thao achieves by the films end, complete with a father figure, a grill fork in one hand and a beer in the other, and roots in a community. We want Thaos virtuesa hard working job, competence, experience, a pretty girl on the arm, and strong friends across racial and cultural lines to boot.

What is the medicine that cures the unbridled chaos of the young man and gives him this life of true, fulfilled masculinity? This medicine is represented in the image of the Gran Torino itself. This classic car symbolizes to the young American man watching this movie exactly what it symbolizes to Walt, and eventually to Thao. The Gran Torino is the spirit of American masculinity, built on the factory lines, informed by centuries of culture, and carefully maintained by an experienced man, with all his tools and habits, over a complete lifetime. That car is the very virtue that lives in the heart of the American man, dormant as it may be. This creature of the American male soul brings not only freedom, competence, and mobility, but it is also just undeniably cool. Thao is a stand-in for us, the next generation of American boys and young men, and like Walts prize and joy, we are being called to build true masculinity from the ground up, and it is only at that point that, like Thao, we inherit the ownership of the Gran Torino.

Featured Image Courtesy of K via Flickr

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The Countercultural Messaging of Gran Torino The Torch | Boston College's Catholic Newspaper - The Torch

WESTLAND New Boston Huron didn't stumble.

Huron's boys showed why they are ranked No. 1 in the state while rolling over the field in the Division 2 Regional at Town N Country Lanes Friday.

Huron shot a 3,840 series to easily top runner-up Tecumseh (3,772). Airport (3,758) took third and also qualified for the state finals Friday at Super Bowl in Canton.

Gibraltar Carlson just missed the cut, finishing fourth with 3,742.

Milan (3,601) was seventh.

Hurons Donald Jacobs had a huge day in singles Saturday. He averaged 221.5 over six games to win the Regional singles title with 1,329. He rolled games of 269, 192, 202, 266, 181 and 219.

Monroe County Region bowlers wound up claiming six of the 10 state qualifying spots. Joining Jacobs at state will be Nico Reach (1,185), Zack Sisk (1,164) and Jordan Bryson (1,150) of Carlson, Colin Peterson (1,171) of Airport, and Hurons Dakota Frahm (1,160).

Andrew Catalano of Huron fell just 7 pins short at 1,143.

Airport's girls earned a trip to state by taking second.

The Jets shot 3,419, which was second only to South Lyon East with 3,459. Huron was one spot away from the third and final state-qualifying spot with 3,171. Carlson placed 10th with 2,497.

Airport's Kyla Peterson was the individual Regional champion with 1,185. She was 20 pins better than anyone in the field.

Also qualifying for state were Huron's Veronica Richardson (third with 1,095), Airport's Ryan Giese (seventh with 1,022) and Milan's Rachel Peladeau (ninth with 1,004).

Huron's Mariah Nutter was close (14th with 982).

WOODHAVEN Nataleigh Eagle was the model of consistency for Monroe in the team event of the Division 1 Regional at Skore Lanes Friday.

She rolled games 201, 201 and 213 for a 615 series and helped the Trojans earn a trip to the state finals. They finished third with 3,214 including the best game of the day 910.

Lincoln Park was first with 3,412 and Warren Cousino second with 3,351.

Patricia Reaume and Rachel Folger both were well over average for Monroe.

Bedford was 11th with 2,751.

Monroe's boys were fifth with 3,919 and Bedford placed eighth with 3,841, Woodhaven (4,161), Warren Woods Tower (4,067) and St. Clair Shores Lakeview (3,965) qualified for state.

Bedfords Laci MacQuisten finished third in Saturdays singles competition with a six-game series of 1,157. She will be joined at state by Eagle (fourth with 1,149) and Teagen Pillette (sixth with 1,038) of Monroe.

Monroes Blake Cabrera fell just five pins shy of the boys singles Regional title with a 1,299. Bedford pushed Logan Cook (sixth with 1,256) and Cooper Grueling (seventh with 1,236) through to state.

Monroes Nick Walters was close to qualifying. He finished 12th with 1,189.

FLAT ROCK Flat Rock's boys took advantage of bowling on its home lanes to earn a trip to the state finals Friday at Jax 60 in Jackson.

The Rams shot 3,679 to take third place.

The first two qualifying spots went to Summit Academy (3,681) and Ann Arbor Gabriel Richard (3,695).

Jefferson finished eighth with 3,337.

On the girls side, Flat Rock was seventh with 2,687 and Dundee eighth with 2,652. The three state qualifying teams were Clinton (3,067), Onsted (3,046) and Summit Academy(2,931).

Individually, Alexis Brown (seventh with 968) and Raven Luff (10th with 930) qualified for state. No Region boys made the cut.

TECUMSEH St. Mary Catholic Central was sixth in the girls standings and ninth in the boys in the Regional at Ten Pin Alley.

Summerfield's first-year boys team placed 15th.

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Regional Bowling: Huron boys live up to No. 1 state ranking to win title - Monroe Evening News