Also on today’s menu:
A Pause On Anthropological Study
A Place To Meet And Share Thoughts
How Safe Are Schools From Gun Violence?
Department of Safety Commissioner Robert Quinn, saying New Hampshire is facing a crisis at the Pittsburg crossing from Canada into New Hampshire, wants to have State Police deputized to patrol the northern border against illegal immigration. Quinn went to Capitol Hill on March 28 to testify before the House Homeland Security Committee’s Subcommittee on Oversight, Investigations, and Accountability.
The state already joins the Customs and Border Patrol in keeping watch over the 51-mile stretch of woods under Operation Stonegarden, but the Biden Administration cut the federal funding that supports the initiative this year. Quinn said it has resulted in a loss of overtime pay and the inability to buy all-terrain vehicles for the patrol.
Governor Chris Sununu sent a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayrokas this month, pushing for a new Section 287 agreement for New Hampshire so the state would receive full funding for Operation Stonegarden. Sununu also has announced a $1.4 million state initiative to secure the border under a new Northern Border Alliance Program.
A Pause On Anthropological Study
Dartmouth College’s anthropology department will not offer an osteology course “for the foreseeable future” after discovering the skeletal remains of at least 15 Native Americans in its academic collections. Under the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA), federally funded museums and institutions must consult with federally recognized Native American tribes and Native Hawaiian organizations to provide for the repatriation of human remains, as well as funerary, sacred, and communally owned items. A visiting team of forensic anthropologists and archaeologists is working with Dartmouth to re-inventory the human skeletal remains in Dartmouth’s possession.
Osteology is the study of bones to help understand the natural world and our place in it, providing a record of human interaction with the environment and one another. NAGPRA, passed in 1990, requires an inventory of Native American remains and associated funerary objects and cultural items, but does not address the handling of non-indigenous skeletal remains.
“The history of human skeletal acquisitions is ugly,” says Provost David Kotz. As North American archaeology was established as a discipline, researchers excavated Native American burial mounds, and some of those cultural artifacts became part of the Dartmouth collection. “Alumni would travel the world and donate things they collected. The osteological collection was accumulated over the course of more than 200 years in this piecemeal fashion, and documentation was not always present or well-established,” Kotz said.
A Place To Meet And Share Thoughts
On January 22, 2021, I launched the News Café in its current form, as a Substack newsletter, pulling together news items derived from various sources to provide a virtual meeting place for subscribers to read and comment on the broad range of stories about what is happening locally and around the world. In the two years and 66 days since that launch, I have gained 73 subscribers, of which 10 are paid subscriptions. Those meager numbers are disappointing, and the $420 in annual income even more so, but I am heartened to see that non-subscribers also are viewing the weekday posts. The News Café has had as many as 386 visits on some days, referred to the “café” by friends or social media posts. Word of mouth works.
Readership is not large by any means, but I think it is important to continue seeking out and sharing information that may or may not reach readers through other means. The “big” stories get plenty of coverage, but not always with both sides represented. I try to sift through the biases to present a fuller picture. Then there are the “little” stories that do not get much attention. They still interest me, and I hope they interest readers of this newsletter.
But the purpose of this café, is not just to offer food for thought. It is a virtual gathering place where people are encouraged to talk about what they consume for news. In addition to reporting news items, I occasionally comment on them, and encourage others to do so as well. This is a community, and café chatter is important in maintaining a community. Like a musical café — and I think of Bristol’s Purple Pit — I hope you will feel at home here, and feel free to discuss anything on your mind.
How Safe Are Schools From Gun Violence?
Surveillance footage of the shooting Monday at the private Christian school in Nashville showed many familiar security measures, including the double set of locked glass doors the killer shot through before fatally shooting three children and three school employees.
The shooter had legally bought seven guns, but the killer’s parents told police they did not realize the guns were in the house. They said the 28-year-old who was under doctor’s care for “an emotional disorder” should not own weapons.
Audrey Hale, who was killed by police less than 15 minutes after beginning the attack, had conducted surveillance of the premises, drawn maps, and written what police described as a “manifesto”. Hale, a former student at the school, came armed with three guns, including a semi-automatic rifle.
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