will won't worry about that than I do but we as a committee do have to worry about human rights issues I mean that is definitely within our remit if you really can't establish that the position is even ECHR compliant before it's in front of us then then maybe that actually to be clear that's not exactly not what I'm saying the the power is capable of being exercised compatibly it would not be in a bill otherwise and that's not just a view of the Scottish ministers it's also a view of the prelating officer as well as issued a certificate of competence and in terms of what's in section 79 it the reason we have a long list of things which deregulations can cover is to try to to give some flesh on the bones now clearly there's still some some evidence base to pull together to target the power but it's difficult to to sort of put the cart before the horse by saying well we know we want to do this because we've got the evidence base for it finalised until that is finalised and it's clear and it's robust it's difficult to know what the regulations might say as I say it's it's that's why we've taken a power because you know the government has to have the flexibility to be able to um to to have in the bill something that has the headline policy in it but also then to be able to to expand on it by regulations sorry what go back to this the difference between assigning a tenancy and and selling a tenancy I would like to be quite clear about this because how will assigning a tenancy relieve the problem that you've outlined in terms of 1991 act in terms of as defined by mr McKenzie that it's a matter of not being able to get adequate compensation for for for leaving a tenancy and moving out of a tenancy how then will assigning that tenancy a tribute of I mean I just want to be clear are you assigning it or are you selling it which is it and why yep calling what will expand on the on the policy but in terms of assignation the the assign or would approach an assignee and in return for value for whatever the the value of that tenancy would be to an incoming tenant would in return give that money to the assignor the assignee then steps into the shoes of the former tenant that allows the former tenant to leave with the money and the new tenant comes in and that's essentially how the process is is expected to work so you're not selling land in the normal sense of the word it's still reverse it still belongs to the to the to the owner absolutely this is this is assignation there's no there's no land changing hands it's merely the right to be there as a tenant which can pass it's the tenant's interest that that is passed nothing through to land ownership making the points perhaps for the record that a 1991 tenancy cannot be assigned cannot be sorry cannot be assigned and that is the point that at the moment there's limited assignation well there's limited assignation and therefore there are tenants who who really don't want to be there but can't do anything for practical commercial sense yes yeah and that's why we're allowing the conversion into a term and then that tenancy to be offered on the open market under certain conditions so there is a value to be had for the existing tenant from the incoming ten to me means it is being sold the tenancy not the tenancy yes i understand that and all of this with or without um the forgive me for not being more up to speed on this but all of this with or without the consent of the landlord again we're still looking through the options on that there are landlord rights that we have to balance against the rights of the tenant so we need to get both of them finally balanced because it's important that we do not just for a1p1 but for the policy intention we need to create some measure of confidence within the sector on both sides tenants and landowners so that tenancy land can continue to be made available so we need to get a balance right completely we can't see in terms of the fine detail of where that will go that's clear okay thank you that i think just to expose that probably any further down there is a policy issue for for the other committee but i'd now like to return to john mason who was leading a line of inquiry okay so if i'm understanding this correctly all tenants would have the power to convert so so the discussions that are going on at the moment the consultations are primarily about the conversion process is that correct rather than whether or not this there actually can be a conversion it's the it's the detail of the term of the tenancy that we would convert to and the detail of how it is targeted and who it is available to and how we ensure that we get the rights of the landlord addressed appropriately within that it's all of that that's being considered the overarching goal of conversion we believe the review group made a convincing case stakeholders have made a convincing case we believe it is absolutely appropriate to do it but we need to make sure that we take the time to get the detail right and that's why we've put this broad power in the bill it's the right thing to do but we need to take time to explore the fine detail of it i mean you do understand that you know this committee is a little bit concerned about broad powers not just on this issue but on any because it if it seems to be too wide i mean if we can dig down into a couple of things you said i mean that you said the length of the tenancy there and there was an answer where i think it had been suggested that maybe 25 and 99 years there's a range of suggestions some have suggested 15 years some 25 some 35 some 99 and some actually wanted us to go the full way in terms of assigning the 91 act tenancy and maintain it as a 91 act tenancy and we believe that didn't get the balance right so we had conversion instead in the bill i mean still i think the answer we got from the scottish government was 25 to 99 although you're now seeing it's actually wider than that it's 15 to 99 just putting forward the range of views that we've heard and some have said 15 but yes 25 are we any closer to knowing then a figure or would it not be one figure for everybody this is almost deciding things that is not for me to decide so there's a range of figures that we're considering now we've said he said already as well about the getting the balance between the tenant and the landlord i mean as a layperson reading this it does appear that there's the advantages is swinging towards the tenant which is a policy decision so i'm not that's not my question although that's what it appears to be so are the landlords being safeguarded in this process i mean is there a kind of balance in here that's that's why we've taken the time to go through the whole process to make sure that we do get the balance right it's important that we try and maintain some confidence within the sector amongst the landlords but it's also important that we address the problem that is there there are some who would say that the balance right now is too much in favour of the landlord not enough in favour of the tenant we have to look at the whole situation including the overall agricultural sector and get that balance right for both sides right and as well as getting the balance right from kind of our perspective also applying to echr is that right so that again you're comfortable that's where we're getting to we're comfortable that conversion is capable of being legislated for within the competence of the parliament and addressing a1p1 right okay well i think my final point then is i mean given the significance of this power which certainly does appear to me to be the case and the policy is not developed we're looking at a normal affirmative procedure is that considered sufficient or should it even be something stronger than that we believe we've got the structure right that the overall the overarching bill has conversion so there's debate within the parliament right now on whether conversion in itself is something that's appropriate then we believe that we've got the regulations appropriately focused on affirmative because a lovely scrutiny is needed because of the contention that lies below even the conversion so there's contention that whether we should allow conversion and there's contention on what we should do in terms of targeting the lens of term etc so we believe affirmative is appropriate for those reasons i think we're like any area in the bill we're open to consideration of that if the parliament would make points right okay i think that's okay for me thanks very much indeed if i could jump sorry given that this is an area of law where we have been found in the past our parliament not to be ECHR compliant and this is probably a daffladi question but um can you and you tell us that you're absolutely confident that this is a1p1 um to use your terms compliant um can you can you can you as it were show us your working and maybe you already have um as to the absolute thought process the legal process that takes us to this conclusion can you provide that to the committee and maybe asking it um an unreasonable question i don't know but given that this is an area where the parliament has already got into trouble and been rebuked um then be grateful if that could be done the the simple answer is yes we can give that insurance the power is within competence um the question obviously is is how the power is exercised um and also when uh the affirmative regulations would come before parliament at that point parliament would also have the opportunity to scrutinise them um but as the power stands on the face of the bill it is ECHR compatible and we're confident of that beyond that i i'm not free to to devolve Scottish Government's legal advice um which i'll understand on the ministerial code yes that's naive of me not to realise that processably but nonetheless thank you something that we've provided Rackie in terms of the consideration of a1p1 in the ECHR issue across the agricultural holdings bill so that would be useful information um it was an annex to the letter or within the body of the letter but there's pretty comprehensive text on what we need to consider to make sure we get the balance right that may help you i think that would be helpful if that's not in the position of this committee that would be helpful as that's one of our website at the moment um it was submitted by written evidence uh i think last week it's just a note of the Scottish Government's approach to article one for the call one no that's fine thank you in which case we'll know where to find it thank you that's fine okay could i take you to section 81 and the sale to a tenant or third party where a landlord is in breach of an order or award simply to note that where it's a sale to a tenant um then the rules on that and procedure that are on the face of the bill whereas when it's a sale to a third party this is subject to regulations and i'm just wondering if somebody can explain to me the nature of that procedural difference please thanks thank you um the tenants provisions within the bill mirror the relevant sections within part two of the agricultural holding Scotland act 2003 so that a mirror of what's there already the new affirmative regulations that would be prepared using the regulation making power will set out the procedural aspects for the land court valuers auctioneers other relevant parties who would be involved in the sale to a third party to be quite technical in terms of the actual process they would all be required to follow because we would need to ensure that it was fair and it was transparent for everyone involved and also so the court was comfortable in bringing forward those procedures that the whole of the industry was behind them and on a living playing field they're primarily technical in terms of the process that's going to be applied and how they're going to work um they will contain information on who can and can't buy the land and a range of other elements set out in 38m which set the framework for what will be within the regulations but there will be much more detail it will also help manage a situation where future land prices fluctuate perhaps within a regional area or across the country and it will help manage that process and ensure that it's fairness to the landlord and the tenant and how that process works thank you for that comprehensive answer that's helpful the government's written response states that the power in section 38m deals with procedural aspects on the sale of the holdings under the circumstances where the land court is varied in order for sale under section 38l it appears so over that some of the matters listed in section 38m 2 cannot be described as purely procedural for example section 32m 2e provides the regulations may include provision about persons to whom the land cannot be sold and 38m 2m provides that regulations may make provision about what is to happen where the land is not sold within a specified period appreciate that's a detail you may not immediately have at your fingertips for these matters in particular appear to be significant and not related purely to the sale process why is it appropriate to leave them to regulations please thank you in relation to the persons whom the land cannot be sold we need to ensure that research are compliant on the actual provisions within the regulations on that so it's clear to both parties that this is not used as a tool or mechanism for them to wait to the sale to the third party to try and regain their family's interests in that land or the tenancy so whether tenant has decided he does not want to sell the land he does not want to take on the tenancy and he has notified the court and they have agreed to an order to enable the land to be sold to a third party that he is not using that is a way to come back in here she is not using that as a way to come in later on and try and get a knock down price on the land when it goes for sale on the open market because of course any agricultural tenancy sold in the open market with a sitting tenant on it will have a different price value to the value that that land would have without a tenant on it it's also to ensure that the landlords family or business interests don't try and use it as a mechanism as well to try and secure the land back into the family business so that's the reason why section e is in section m we think the likelihood of the land never getting sold will be quite slim because the demand for land is so high and regardless of having a tenant there the demand is so great and the prices that land are going for are significantly higher than perhaps they might be in the future at some point so we need to make sure that we allow enough flex to manage the process that if in the future land prices drop or the situation on the management of land changes significantly across country that we can manage that process and the land court have a process to follow that they are comfortable with and the optioneers and the professionals in the industry feel as fair and appropriate do you see that as a fallback position sometime in the future when you genuinely don't know what the circumstances will look like but it might just happen yes yes okay thank you very much indeed on that point i think we go to richard baker on rent reviews thank you very much cabina the delegated plasma random and the written response explain that the policy on the new system of rent review is subject to an ongoing modelling process and to further consultation with stakeholders as well and so for that reason provision about significant aspects of the policy in particular provision about the productive capacity and the standard labour requirement of agricultural holdings is held over for regulations why should the Scottish parliament confer power on the Scottish ministers to legislate for this matter when the policy on significant aspects of it is still not yet clear to the response on conversion but even more so the productive capacity whether to move to productive capacity there is some contention over so we believe that is appropriate to put in the primary legislation so there's appropriate scrutiny of parliament and stakeholders off that underneath that there's a lot less contention of what you need to do to determine to define productive capacity and the factors you need to take account of the meetings that are exploring this are getting closer and closer to a solution that all in the sector landlords tenants failures are in agreement with and so we believe it's appropriate that within the primary legislation a debate happens on the most contentious point of whether we should move to productive capacity underneath that we believe it's appropriate to have the other aspects and regulations and have it at negative because the contention there is much less is very technical in terms of the things that we need to take account of in order to reach appropriate rental levels that's where we're at just now on it and we are sharing work with Racky and we'll be willing to share it with others in Parliament on the detail of those meetings we've suggested that we provide that material around the end of October to allow the work to settle to a point where you can get a very good idea of where it is heading and we're happy to supply material at any point but that is the most appropriate thing to give you a really useful idea of where it is without providing you too much information that is still in flow of being agreed by the end of October you'll think you'd be a lot for the down line in terms of reaching conclusion on that yes in terms of defining the productive capacity and other factors that we need to take account of when determining rent we're very close to broad agreement on certain aspects already and we should be progressing more in the technical detail by the end of October so you mentioned earlier the the nature there should be over the regulations and my next questions on that because in the new process of rent review provided for by the bill the productive capacity of an agricultural holding is a highly significant factor in the term the termination of the fair rent for that holding and as dedicated powers my random list and number of elements of productive capacity which the Scottish ministers may ultimately decide should or should not be relevant to the rent review process so it does appear that there may be in fact a range of policy choices as to how productive capacity should be determined and Parliament might expect then to have a greater role in scrutinising what these you know what are substantive choices irrespective of the stakeholder engagement which has taken place so why does the Scottish government then consider that the negative parliamentary procedure provides actually a sufficient level of parliamentary scrutiny on these very substantive matters yeah that compare it to the conversion where underneath what's in the bill there's still a lot of contention on where we should go and a lot of options on where we should go on productive capacity underneath what's in the primary legislation there is a lot less contention about what we need to do to make sure there's a fair rent assessed and the technical details that go within that that's how i believe for conversion it's appropriate to have the regulations affirmative because of the level of contention and the variety of options for productive capacity we believe there's a lot less contention it's much more about the technical detail based on the advice that we're getting from the industry the industry will shape this with us providing the facilitation of that but it will be the industry that shapes us to make sure that we get the detail right thank you thank you very much i think that brings us to the end of our questions does Gibson have anything else that he'd like to ask please no i don't at the moment thank you but the discussion is very helpful too the rule of affairs climate change and environment committee in our deliberations on these matters and i'm sure we'll come back to them thank you i'm just wondering if i could return to the issue about the timing that you've just mentioned at the end of october and just suggest that it's quite important that the Scottish government makes sure that the parliament is on a timetable which is consistent with you nailing some of these things down i don't know where on earth we are on timetables i mean that will be a fact that is known but clearly if good information was to be arriving shortly after we've gone through stage one that might be unfortunate it might be rather better if stage one was after we've got a lot more detail i understand it with my committee that we're talking about into december before we're writing our first stage report so we should be able to review anything that we get from the government on this matter in good time and it might be that we might be trying to relax what we're saying on the same timetable we'll talk about that separately okay thank you very much indeed for your evidence i'll just briefly suspend while we move people around thank thank you very much and if we can resume again colleagues um thank you for your patience that takes us back to agenda item number four which is instruments subject to affirmative procedure no points have been raised by our legal advisers on the qualifying civil partnership modification scotland order 2015 draft nor on a mental health detention in conditions of excessive security scotland regulations 2015 draft the committee may wish to note however that the qualifying civil partnerships modification scotland order 2015 draft was withdrawn and relayed in order to make a clarification arising from a query raised by our committee's legal advisers is the committee content with these instruments please yes okay gender item five instruments subject to negative procedure no points have been raised by our legal advisers on the education assisted places scotland revocation regulations 2015 ssi 2015 318 nor on the software expert direct payment scotland amendment regulations 2015 ssi 2015 319 nor the public bodies joint working integration of joint board establishment scotland amendment number three order night 2015 ssi 2015 321 nor on the discontinuance of legalized police sales scotland rules 2015 ssi 2015 324 is the committee content with these please yes okay gender item six instruments not subject to parliamentary procedure the act of sederant rules of the court of session 1994 and ordinary cause rules 1993 amendment child welfare reporters ssi 2015 312 this instrument amends the procedural rules of both court of session and the sheriff court article two of the instrument inserts a new rule 49 22 into the rules of court of session 1994 article four insults a new rule 33 21 into the ordinary cause rules 1993 paragraph 11 of each new rule provides that we're a child welfare reporter acts has referred to in paragraph 10 the court or sheriff may having heard the parties make any order or direction that could competently made under paragraph six paragraph 10 in each rule is composed of sub paragraphs 10 a and 10 b policy intention is that the phrase acts has referred to in paragraph 10 means that the child welfare reporter has acted as referred to in either sub paragraph 10 a or 10 b drafting of paragraph 11 does not make this policy intention clear and the rule is capable of being interpreted so as to mean that the general welfare reporter must in order to act as referred in paragraph 10 have done things mentioned in both sub paragraphs 10 a and 10 b does the committee agree to draw the instruments of the parliament's attention under reporting ground h as the meaning of articles two and four could be clearer in that respect does the committee agree to call on the law president's private office to amend paragraph 11 in both new rules in order to make clear the intended effect of those paragraphs no points have been raised by our legal advisers on the marriage prescription of forms scotland amendment regulations 2015 ssi 2015 313 nor on the children and young people scotland act 2014 commencement number nine and saving provision order 2015 ssi 2015 317 is the committee content with these instruments please gender item seven is the penton hills regional park boundary bill members are invited to consider the delegated powers contained in this bill there are two delegated powers is the committee agreed to report that is content with both the delegated powers in the bill thank you gender item eight smoking prohibition children in motor vehicles scotland bill this item of businesses the committee to consider the response of the member in charge of the bill to the committee stage one report do members have any comments are we content to note the response and if necessary reconsider it after stage three to thank you springs us finally to a gender item nine interests of members of the scotland parliament amendment bill purpose of this item is for the consider committee to consider the response from the standards procedures and public abordements committee to its stage one reports do members have any comments to the committee's attention again to the fact that i am the convener who has been writing to you are we otherwise content to note the report and if necessary again reconsider the bill after stage two thank you very much that i think completes the public items so i now move this committee into private


This is Witchspace news for Friday the 9th of June 2023. I'm CMDR Buur. An Elite Dangerous news this week. Patch 15.02 arrives. You can now build your own LEGO SRV, there's a Glaive Survival Guide from the AXI, the successor to EDDB is looking for more developers, get set to witness the first landable atmospheric planetary collision and more. As always if you enjoy our videos please do hit the like button and if you haven't already be sure to subscribe and click the bell so you don't miss any of our Elite Dangerous content. You can also join our Patreon if you would like to help directly support our work, links to that and everything else are below. We start this week with a perennial favourite of ours here at LEGO. Serial creator and SPVFA admin CMDR Nick Webb has been working on a custom LEGO build for a Scarab SRV. I'm pleased to say that not only is the build complete but Nick has also published the complete brick listing and build instructions onto Twitter for CMDRs to download and build themselves. The instructions are, I'm gonna use the word proper, are proper and look like they've come from a bonafide LEGO kit which of course they didn't. The build comes complete with a CMDR figure, four cargo canisters and working cargo storage area and I flip in love it. You'll find a link in the video description below to grab the brick list and instructions for yourself if you fancy hitting up your favourite generic building brick online imporium and cobbling together your own SRV. A couple of weeks back we published some community gathered tidbits on surviving an encounter with a Thargoid Glaive, the first of the Green Meanie's new Hunter Class vessels. The Glaive appears to be specifically designed to disrupt a pilot's ability to move with any degree of urgency and even comes equipped with the tools to prevent commanders firing up their frame shift drive and jumping away. The galaxy's premier gloopy alien menace removal and elimination community, the AXI, have now had time to conduct their own altogether more scientific and measured approach to the problem of what to do about the Glaive and I'm frankly overjoyed to report that a guide from the ever competent and informative CMDR Mechon has now surfaced. The fantastic guide deals with everything you need to know about how the Glaive operates, what tools it employs against you, where to find them, their weaknesses and how to kill them and importantly how to escape and evade from Glaive encounters if combat is not an option for you. As is the case with all of Mechon's stuff, the guide is succinct, well presented and gets straight to the points you need to know. It's an absolute must watch if you're operating in Thargoid controlled space. As always you'll find a link to the video in the description below. As promised last week patch 15.02 arrived in the game this week bringing with it a fairly huge raft of fixes. There was some confusion in the community when the patch initially arrived as Fdev had used the words quality of life update to describe the patch. Understandably a portion of the community took quality of life to mean quantifiable and deliberate changes to existing features in the game. For example improving the flow of a frequently travelled UI or adding a guide to refuel fleet carriers or key binds for functions like docking computers and supercruise assist. What Frontier meant in this particular instance by quality of life was however numerous bug fixes whose implementation would improve the quality of life for commanders because obviously they're not then faced with that bug again. With that minor comms wiggle sorted out then what did we get? Whilst the lion share of the fixes in 15.02 do centre around the more recently implemented content and features such as glaives, titans and revenants and the various ways and means they utilise to rapidly and hilariously disassemble both your ship and body possibly the bigger headliners were the fixes that had been outstanding for much longer away from that newer content. At the top of the patch notes that you'll find linked below are fixes for lateral thruster rotational correction issues, the mining pulse wave scanner not actually highlighting high yield rocks in planetary rings, needless repetition of the objective failed prompt triggering when cancelling an on foot mission and insufficient numbers of targets arriving at a settlement for raid and massacre missions. This is where a mission requires 10 kills and where 9 targets show up meaning you can't complete the mission. These particular issues have been outstanding for a year or more and in the case of the sighted log for rotational correction issues that was originally created in November 2021 so it's really good to see these issues resolved finally. One other point of note in case it's valuable to you the deployed frontline solutions turrets that spawn as surface conflict zones now have a 10 minute downtime when disabled as opposed to the 2 minute downtime that has been in place since the turrets were first added to the game just after Odyssey launched 2 years ago. The notes specifically mention that the change should encourage, my word not F devs, commanders with surface attack capable vessels to now actively engage the turrets and open up a window of opportunity for ground engagement or attacks on drop ships. That sounds awesome on paper but I remain to be convinced that the turrets themselves contribute enough in terms of firepower to warrant themselves being assaulted in the first instance. I'm aware that they exist and that they shoot at things I'm not convinced that shooting seriously affects anyone or anything actually engaged in the meaningful actions in the conflict zone. I'm genuinely curious to know if I'm missing something with regard to front lines deployed turrets so if your experience has been different do please let me know in the comments below. You may remember a few weeks back we reported on the demise of the Elite Dangerous suite of tools at Eddb.io. Upon the announcement of the website's imminent departure the community immediately leapt into action to begin designing and coding a replacement. That replacement is to be called the Elite Dangerous Pilots Network or EDPN and one of the minds behind the project Reddit user LamaAir took to the platform this week looking to recruit more developers to the cause and also encourage ideas from the community at large on what the site should include and how it might improve on what Eddb.io did so well. They are particularly interested in front end developers that have experience with React or back end developers familiar with Spring slash Java. If you think you might be able to help or want to ensure your ideas are heard then head over to the Edpn Discord server which you'll find linked below. Starting this Saturday the 10th of June it's once again Buckyball week. This time out the gate the ever imaginative Buckyball Racing Club presents a challenge to the Pilots of Elite Dangerous in the form of Tunnel-ish Vision hosted by Commander Cigur. Running until the 18th of June the race requires its terminally determined pilots to let's call it explore the superstructure and tight spots of the bubble at speed with likely predictably explosive results. As always with all things Buckyball the barriers to entry are extremely low meaning just about anyone can participate if they so desire. To get involved yourself or at the very least view the results of others involved in the race check out the link to the competition on the official forums which is of course posted below this video. The ever-vigilant all-seeing collective of apocalypse seeking scientists at Canon Research notified this week about an impending planetary collision taking place within relative spitting distance of the bubble. Whilst planetary collisions in a galaxy as vast as elite are perhaps not as rare as you might imagine what makes this one particularly noteworthy is that one of the colliding bodies is a landable atmospheric world making the collision in the system sign of ZL-OB51-0 the first of its kind. The target system is around 770 light years outside the bubble and the collision is expected to begin around 1.30pm UTC on Monday the 12th of June. Don't go expecting any cataclysmic explosive events to occur planetary collisions are in fact essentially a bug and in reality the planets will gracefully slide through each other but these occurrences are no less spectacular for it especially as you can witness it on foot at ground zero. The entire event is expected to last around 24 hours with likely spectacular views at the very least for an hour or two either side of the actual collision so plenty of opportunity to witness one of elite's more unique foibles you'll find the system name and all the details in the description below this video are you planning on building yourself a lego srv will you perhaps be volunteering for the elite dangerous pilot network racing in buckyball or traveling to witness a planetary collision let us know in the comments below that's it for now thanks very much for watching we'll be back later this week with more videos until then 07 commanders follow the greens on the way out and do keep clear of the toast rack we very much look forward to seeing you next time


Welcome to our hands-up date, here's what's happening around your Navy. For the first time in over 14 years, more than 500 sailors and civilian mariners aboard submarine-tendered USS Frank Cable departed Naval Base Guam for deployment. Frank Cable is on a scheduled deployment in 7th Fleet to conduct maintenance in support of U.S. submarine forces and surface vessels in the Indo-Asia Pacific region. The 29th annual Joint Women's Leadership Symposium is open for registration and will feature Chief of Naval Personnel Vice Admiral Robert Burke. This year's theme, leading with purpose impacting the future, prepares women to excel in the military today and tomorrow. The symposium brings service members, decision makers, and policy influencers together to address global challenges to women in the service while encouraging and strengthening leadership development. You can read more about what's happening around your Navy at Navy.mil.


Two years ago a group calling themselves the valve turners were charged with criminal damage to property of a public pipeline after using bolt cutters to turn off valves to a pipeline in Leonard. Today three of the activists started trial proceedings in Clearwater County. All three defendants have pleaded not guilty to the charge. The group gave a press release to the media saying they plan to focus on the overwhelming threats of climate change and explained why their actions were necessary during their defense. Jobs for Minnesota also released a statement about the trial condemning the actions of the group and urging the court to send a message about the dangers of actions like theirs. The courts went through jury selection today but a jury has not yet been set. Court proceedings are expected to last until at least Thursday.


In my previous video, I used an off-sided figure that 1 in 7 women in the U.S. and 1 in 4 college aged women in the U.S. have been victims of rape or attempted rape during their lifetime. I had no idea this would be such a contentious issue, but I had multiple people tell me that this claim had been debunked and it really gave me pause. Having right over the last week at least several dozen papers on the topic, this was not a figure that varied much. 1 in 7 or 1 in 6 in the general U.S. population of women, depending on the year of publication, and 1 in 4 to 1 in 5 in the college aged population. Critics claim these numbers were based on a single 1985 deceptive study by Dr. Mary Koss commissioned by and published in Ms. Magazine. I'm going to take a few minutes to unwind this particular claim. Dr. Mary Koss is a clinical psychologist and regents professor at Arizona Health Sciences Center. She is an editor of multiple academic works on sexual victimization of women. Her resume, or we should say curriculum vitae, is 57 pages long and includes editing chapters in books of clinical psychology, taking the main stage at national psychology conferences, and chairing international committees on public health policy. That's now. Let's go back to pre-1985. After completing a clinical residency at the VA hospital in Minneapolis in a brief assistant professorship at nearby St. Olaf College, Dr. Voss was recruited to Kent State University in Ohio in 1976 where she remained until 1988. In 1982, she published a new research survey instrument, a test called the Sexual Experience Survey, which asks questions about behaviors which conformed to Ohio rape statutes at the time, as well as some non-rape behaviors of interest to research into how people might sexually victimize each other. I'm going to call this survey instrument the SES from here on out. The SES has become a standard instrument in survey research on sexual victimization, and this original paper has been cited over a thousand times. Is the test misleading? Well, that depends on if it's scored correctly and how the results are reported. For example, one question on the current SES, and I'll put a link below to the short form version for victimization. Someone had oral sex with me or made me have oral sex with them without my consent by, a, telling lies, threatening to end the relationship, threatening to spread rumors about me, making promises I knew were untrue, or continually verbally pressuring me after I said I didn't want to, b, showing displeasure, criticizing my sexuality or attractiveness, getting angry but not using physical force after I said I didn't want to, c, taking advantage of me when I was too drunk or out of it to stop what was happening, d, threatening to physically harm me or someone close to me, e, using force, for example, holding me down with their body weight, pinning my arms or having a weapon. Respondents tell how many times in the last year each scenario occurred. Other questions focus on attempted rape, sexual contact including kissing, fondling and removing clothing without consent. There's also a series of questions specifying insertion into vagina, anus, or mouth occurred under any of the above conditions. Now, how are the results scored and tallied? Well, not all affirmative responses to these questions are legally rape.  Threatening to end a relationship to coerce sex is also not considered rape. Any answer of a or b gets counted as coercion, not rape. However, c, d, and e, someone who is too drunk to stop someone from taking advantage of them, threatened with physical harm or using force to prevent resistance, those are all legally rape and count in the rape statistics. Attempted rape is also counted in a separate category, but the one enforced that does include cases where someone threatened to use force but failed to complete the rape act. So just to really come out and say it, insertion into an orifice by force, threats of harm, or through drug or alcohol incapacitation are what are counted as rape in the survey results. Attempts at using these behaviors that were unsuccessful, also count in the survey in a separate but included category, which makes sense to me if the purpose is to express risk. A victim is a victim whether the crime was successful in its purpose or not. Having someone hold a knife at your throat makes you a victim of violence, whether your throat was subsequently slashed or not. An area is no safer if only one in a hundred drive-by shootings kill someone. Dr. Koss collected results from 7,000 students at 35 schools, and the results were published in 1983 in a paper called Rape, The Scope of the Problem. The editorial staff of Ms. Magazine did indeed read Dr. Koss's research. They initiated a project called the Ms. Magazine Campus Project on Sexual Assault, directed by editor Ellen Sweet, asking Dr. Koss to oversee the survey arm of the project and using funding supplied by the National Institutes of Mental Health. The results of this broader sampling were published in Ms. Magazine in 1985 as Date Rape, The Story of an Epidemic and Those Who Denied. And later in 1988, the study data were incorporated into a book called I Never Called It Rape by Robin Warshaw. I'm going to set all that aside for now and focus only on the peer-reviewed results published in 1987 in the Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology titled The Scope of Rape, Incidents and Prevalence of Sexual Aggression. This is the proper scholarly analysis for the scientific community. You can download and read this paper using the links in the description bar. In this survey, 3,187 women and 2,972 men who attended college were of traditional college age were asked to record the number of times since age 14 they had been involved in sexual situations as described in the 1982 SES instrument. Recall that rape, according to the Ohio law, only included penetrating intercourse under the use or threat of violence or force or when the victim's judgment had been intentionally, substantially impaired. As before, separate categories were kept for sexual coercion, sexual contact that didn't include penetration and attempted rapes that were unsuccessful were kept as a distinct subcategory of all rape.   These 5 categories have some overlap in single individuals, so it's not as simple as adding them up to obtain the final rape numbers. But these are the figures and the only figures included in the 1 in 4 statistic. And just for contrast, 44% of women reported unwanted sexual contact, fondling, kissing, removing clothing as a result of coercion. Note that this is much higher than the rape number of 1 in 4, as would be expected. It was still a bit shocking. 25% of women reported they had given in to penetrating intercourse because a man continually pressured them. Neither of these was included in the rape category for the record, but they tell a story and are useful facts for looking at sexual dynamics. Now, I can practically hear the ticking of keyboard keys. Too broad, some of you are saying. Okay. Even the most strict definition of rape, something no one can dispute, unwanted and successful penetration by a penis through physical force, includes 9% of college aged women, 1 in 11. That is no matter what your definition, the absolute floor statistically. Penetration by something other than a penis, and my imagination is somewhat limited, so I'm going to assume that this is in most cases a finger, is a matter of subjective definition. But holding someone down and penetrating them with anything is not normal behavior. The victim of such crime has been violated. The alcohol and drugs I will concede could be subjective. Part of that number could fall into a gray area, but as you can see, it's not the largest figure. Let's switch back to the conclusions of the authors. Using only the legal definition in Ohio, 27.5% of women reported experiencing and 7.7% of men reported perpetrating an act that met legal definitions of rape. There are two rates of victimization given. The FBI compliant figure, which specifies penetration by a penis, and the national crime statistics abbreviated NCS, which includes penetration by non-penis objects. The FBI penis only rate is 38 per 1,000 women every six months, and the NCS figure is 83 per 1,000 women per six month period. What about other studies, more recent data? The Centers for Disease Control does a study called the National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey about every 10 years. The most recent results are from 2010, and you can read the full report using a link in the description bar. I'll use the study author's own words here. Nearly one in five women in the United States has been raped in her lifetime. This translates to almost 22 million women in the United States. The most common form of rape victimization experienced by women was completed forced penetration, experienced by 12.3% of women in the United States. About 5% of women experienced attempted forced penetration, and 8% experienced alcohol slash drug facilitated, completed forced penetration. Again, if you're going to exclude anything you think could possibly be tainted by subjective definition, the rate would still be one in eight in the general population. I could go on to review a few other nationwide studies conducted by various agencies or researchers, but I hope my point is made clear in this single example. The actual number among researchers in this field is not much in dispute. The incidence of rape or attempted rape among women attending college might be as high as one in four if we allow a fairly liberal interpretation permitted under legal statute. If we restrict the definition to the most stringent level and risk excluding a high percentage of actual rape cases, the number is no less than one in 11. These are only the cases where a woman was held down or threatened with harm and forcibly penetrated against her will by a penis. It may very well be a matter of subjective definition where in this range of numbers, you feel the best description of the scope of the problem of rape falls. Regardless of your position, one in four to one in 11, I don't think you can deny that there are millions of rape victims and this is a problem we should take very seriously. I'm not someone who identifies with the label feminist, though I consider myself an egalitarian, but denying the scope of this problem helps no one. Thanks for watching.


So this is where we left off. This one to to remind you there should be a negative 2 there I'm not sure that we are left off previously which was not today There was a net should be a negative 2. They said we're still trying to solve this set of linear differential equations and We were kind enough to have been given the two answers That's what we're trying to get to the two most important things to remember while trying to solve this of course are these two This matrix a Which is a? Minus lambda I remember that's a scalar It's multiplying it by this identity matrix So it's a matrix minus matrix times this matrix case Equals zero and the way to get to my item values was this determinant of a minus lambda That's how I got to these characteristic values This is a two by two matrix day the two two hundred redeeming us So we're always going to get two item values there So with that with that in mind we now go to this equation here and what that suggests is well Let's have lambda sub one which is going to equal negative two. So let's see what we can get a Minus lambda I So that would be one three five three And I subtract from that this lambda I but lambda sub one is now negative two So there will be negative two zero zero negative two And from then I'm going to get the matrix one minus negative two that's three three minus zero zero five minus zero is five and three minus negative two is What am I doing? three five So that is my a minus lambda sub one I And I've got to multiply that with this two by two matrix K And you remember K sub I that that would just going to be K one and K two in this instance Remember that K was the slowest of of the possible values there. So I've got to multiply these two A minus so this one Multiplied by this two by two matrix times a two by one matrix is going to be three a Two by one matrix. So let's do that in whichever way you want three or three or five or five And we're going to multiply this with case of one in case of two if I multiply that I'm going to get three times case of one That's three times case of two or five times case of one plus five times case of two And it's going to be the matrix multiplication that I did get there I write zero like this, but you remember this is the zero vector the zero Column vector there a zero matrix. So zero zero. So this is going to equal zero zero So either of these I can see three times case of one plus three times case of two is going to equal zero And I can just take out three as a common factor So case of one case of one plus case of two is going to equal zero So I might as well just let case of one case of one equals one That means case of two is going to equal negative one now I can choose anything I could have chosen case of one to be two but try and keep things Can try and keep things simple. So there's my first the values for case of one and case of two so And this makes up this case of one That equals one negative one those are my That is my I can my first I can Vector from this these characteristic values or I can values I get this I can vector one negative one and learn behold. They was one negative one e to the power negative two So what does this mean? It means that x equals? e to the power negative two t and y equals e to the power Or negative one negative e to the power negative two t so that is x of one equals this equals that And if I were to take these and differentiate them I'm going to get back to this. I'm going to get back to this Now let's just use lambda sub two just to see if we can get to the other answer remember that was six So I'm going to have what was three One three five three and subtract from that six six zero Subtract that from that one minus it's negative five three five negative three So that's that and I've got to multiply that by my new Case of one in case of two. Let's call that face of three and face of four So I'm going to be left with negative five times case of three That's three times case of four Equal zero this comes exactly from here In other words, I'm going to have the fact that five times case of three equals three times case of four Or case of three. It's going to equal three fifths of case of four So if I let case of four equal five that means case of three is going to equal three So my second eigenvector is going to be Three five three five Lo and behold Three five exactly what it was there. So these are quite simple to solve


Hi everyone, this is Dan O'Neill, the executive director of the Ethan Allen Homestead Museum. Before we get to our third Sunday presentation, I would like to thank the following businesses for sponsoring today's lecture. They made a vital investment in our museum, and their support is why we are able to bring you this lecture series at no charge. This month, we're really excited to bring you Marissa Dobrik. She is a reference archivist at the Vermont State Archives. She is delighted to assist everyone doing historic research. She shares some of the many historic treasures available in the vaults of the Vermont State Archives. Thank you for this opportunity to share just some of the historical treasures that are in the Vermont State Archives and Records Administration. My name is Marissa Dobrik. I'm one of the archivists at the State Archives, and I act mainly as a reference archivist. However, I also do outreach like I'm doing today, and I process archival records that are coming in to the reference and research. I'm excited to share some of these historical treasures with you. Since this is a virtual visit, I will have contact information for me personally and the reference room for your research needs at the end. I appreciate and am willing to answer as many questions as we can. We are here to assist. I am going to start today with a little bit of information about the Vermont State Archives and Records Administration. We nicknamed this Visara, so you will probably hear me refer to it as that. Also, the meat of this presentation is the treasures from our archival vaults. And lastly, there'll be some contact information, how to follow us on Twitter, and just information for your reference needs or if you'd like to contact me personally. I very much wish I could give you a full tour of the State Archives. It's a pretty interesting building. Today, we are just sharing what it looks like. This was in different times when you could see the reference room in a more busy capacity. Vermont State Archives and Records Administration or Visara as a division within the Secretary of State's office were located in Middlesex. It's very timely to be sharing this with you today because it's Sunshine Week, which is a week where we highlight and share the importance of government records and open and accessibility for those records. It's really great to have this. Usually we would do an in-person in-service or some other kind of discussion to share that excitement. So I'm happy we can at least do this. We are home to record specialists across a wide variety of work related to the life cycle of records. The life cycle sounds a little funny, but that really means that a record can go from the active use to temporary storage to either destruction or permanent retention in the State Archives. The Archives is one area of that sort of broad hole. We're also at Visara charged with administering the Statewide Records and Information Management Program. There's a lot of abbreviations. We call that RIM. In the winter, you can see what we look like up in that space of Vermont State Archives, all that snow. We have been working in the building despite much of the state government has not been and has been working from home. Most of our work really requires being in the building. Our reference room is currently open to the public on a limited capacity. So for COVID precautions, wearing masks and our staff continues to answer questions by email or telephone. And we're happy to provide copies of records. And we've sort of loosened some of our more restrictions for assisting researchers with their copy request needs. The archival files in our largest filing room can look something like this. And I always say they look like there's something from a movie. Or maybe if you're like me and watch like Raiders of the Lost Ark or The Librarians or Warehouse 13, you kind of see this and it's jaw dropping and it looks overwhelming. The truth is, we know where everything is. We're open to all of our records are catalogued and easy to find what a researcher needs. So it looks innocently complicated, but it really isn't. Our staff in the record center staff can pull a box from the holdings and catalog immediately. And it's fun to take a look at this space. I really miss people getting to see it. In the past, we've done these tours where we've done sort of a spooky tour through the archives, just because I mean any warehouse at night can be give you some atmosphere. I once accidentally got locked in a record fault that wasn't fun and I wouldn't advise it. However, we have emergency capabilities and I was aided out as soon as possible. So the Vermont State Archives and Records Administration just to give you a little bit of a background used to be two different divisions. It was the State Archives and the Public Records Division called the SARA, where a division, as I mentioned, within the office of Secretary of State. We maintain a state archive, which is the historic records of long term value, but also for more modern things, the VT retain our digital repository that has things like the governor's records from Governor Shumlin. That also includes the most recent legislative sessions, audio records and handouts. This, our room specialists administer statewide records and information management. And then we also have a state record center for offsite storage of agency records. We also handle certain statutory filings and certificates. This is just a quick overview of what the SARA is. It's really important, I think, when we're sharing public records that we tell people we have a mission, we have a vision and we have a goal. I'm not going to read every each of these, but the biggest is where public records are a cornerstone of government transparency goes back to Sunshine Week. We need to share and make the sunshine known on what people have done in the past and what people continue to do. So having an informed people who recognize, as we recognize and manage the public assets is very important. So these records have to be authentic and reliable and there have to be tools so that we can efficiently provide access to the records. Some of these things I think people find boring. You think the sounds boring, but boring and bureaucracy. Still, it's really important that people know that these are available. A lot of people have no idea what they can access in their state archives and that behind sort of these little tour facade, there is some incredible documents that are waiting for you. As I mentioned, VT retain, if you're working from home and would be interested in looking at some of the records available that have been born digital, that is where you can go. Access right now is the reference room. This is sort of the home base for people coming to visit us. There's security concerns about using records. I mean, if somebody has been to a library, there might be multiple versions of a single book. Unfortunately, an archival record is often it. We have one copy and if something happens to it, well, that is lost. And you'll hear about what has happened when other places have lost their records before later. This is just a reference room. It's not exactly the most fancy, but this is where we assist people with their research and all of the staff who work with reference very much enjoy the variety of questions that we get to help people puzzle out. This is just our landing page right now for reference. We're open by appointment and it's Monday through Friday 9am to 4pm. And you can make an appointment by calling us and you'll see that number at the end. We also have just other things that are available. We have some people come in for authentication and getting access to their some vital records. This is a quick little view of our staff. Some of it is pictures that were taken before the pandemic and some of it is taken afterwards. Can see me last year with a little more coiffed haircut pre COVID-19. I was giving a talk on historic court records in the Vermont State Archives. Nancy Austin Bradley is in the upper left hand corner. She is the primary contact with reference work up front. We have a roving archivist program that is run by Rachel Onoff. And that is an exciting program where individual historical societies can get assistance for their historical research. She also does a lot of assistance with grant writing and is a good resource to be familiar with. Tonya Marshall is in the green mask. She is the state archivist and head of this division. Can see Sally Blanchard O'Brien in the middle there doing some processing. She also assists Rachel Onoff and then not every person who works here is viewable here. And I think I cut off poor will at the very bottom, but all of our staff here are very happy to provide assistance as we can. People sometimes ask me, well, what is it that people are researching in the archives? And it's a wide, wide variety and these are just a sampler of requests we've gotten in the last month and a half. So we have people who've been doing land boundary research and that's from boundaries dating back to 1792. We've had judgment in an 1857 court case, which was the sort of the precursor to child custody. There was a transcript that was copied in 1777. It was copied about 100 years later related to Fort Ticonderoga describing sort of the pitiful conditions that soldiers were facing there. People doing railroad valuation research and plenty of people doing far more recent research in legislative history and legislative tracing. What is the legislation now? What did it used to look like? And we've had somebody kind of doing some exciting research in their home. It was built in 1800 and they're researching the history of it from the land to the house building and who lived there. The types of researchers we have at Vassar range a lot and I'm just genealogy and personal research, whatever that nature of research is, is our primary research. We have plenty of people doing legal research and that's in legislative as well as the Supreme Court briefs or previous case history documents that they can study entry orders. And agency users are other state government employees doing research either in archival records or long term storage of their own records that are stored here. We have scholars, so that's students and I consider scholars from our National History Day sixth graders up through PhDs working on major projects and initiatives. Special projects can run the gamut in pre-COVID we had some pretty exciting ones and people working on books or novels and then I just make sure you know a little nudge here you could put your project here. We would love to assist you references keeping on my feet and learning things every day and that's really what I love about what I do. So this is just sort of the sample page. So many people tell me that records are boring or the government records are boring. And it's just not. These are three things that are straight from our holdings. Calvin Coolidge gave his Vermont is a state that I love that speech was given in 1928. Just a year after the devastating floods that managed to get Vermont pretty well flattened for a time. He always said that the brave little state moniker comes from this and says I love Vermont because of her hills and valleys, her scenery and invigorating climate, but most of all because of her inalienable people. They're a race of pioneers who have been beggars themselves to serve others and a spirit of liberty should vanish in other parts of the union and support of our institution language. It could all be replenished from the generous store held by the people of this brave little state of Vermont. The document you're seeing in the middle is probably one of the more tragic pieces here but it's just so powerful. May Evelyn LaBelle was murdered in June 1911. And this is her dying statement that they used to convict Arthur Bosworth of her murder. This is a government record. It is part of an investigation and it is so very powerful. And then on the right, Vermont no longer does executions at the state level, but this was an entry ticket for the execution of Edwin C. Hayden in 1881. He murdered his wife. So government records to me are so much more than boring. And I'm going to share with you some of my very favorite pieces. This is just the tip of the iceberg of what you could find here. And my biggest argument for using archival records, especially Vermont state ones, they're not used as much as they could be and they have some treasures that are just waiting to be found because somebody's treasure is waiting to be uncovered. It might not be a treasure to anyone else until somebody tells us it is. So I'm going to start with the Vermont Constitution. It was written in 1777 and it originally had a preamble, but that preamble was removed in the 1793 when we sort of rehashed it. It was written by Ira Allen and it was very much his own personal rant against New York, New Hampshire and Great Britain for all of the fuss going on with sort of trying to not only make the colonies a little bit heal but he was pretty ticked off that they were trying to get New York was trying to force Vermont to be under its jurisdiction. It was largely drawn from Pennsylvania 1776 Constitution but went a few steps further it prohibited adult slavery, and it had universal manhood suffrage. So the stylistic writing at the top, and I think a lot of people have seen this before it's on vellum, and it's been preserved. It's pretty good you can read it very well. It gave birth to the state, and it basically Vermont's founding documents had radical innovations but what's interesting about how Vermont's Constitution worked is that it had a mechanism called the Council of Consensus that would propose amendments to the Constitution, if needed, and that was every seven years. They were proposed several that were adapted and 1786 Constitution, and really sort of set the foundation so amendments to the Constitution were very frequent but there are a few that might be up for approval by voters this year. The remarkable thing about the Constitution documents is you're seeing just the front page there's 16 pages of the 1777 Constitution and then there's also pages and pages of every time the amended editions were made, and sometimes some of the debates in the journals by the General Assembly and its predecessor to the Senate called the Governor and Council. I mean it's our Constitution and I think sometimes like you can have this idea of a piece of paper, but when you get to touch it and you see that this is a founding document that has so much history attached to it. I find that it's just a powerful piece of history that is just right here and waiting for you. Sometimes documents and treasures have a very circuitous route coming back to us. This is just a letter, George Washington's letter, and this is an article explaining how Vermont got it back. Essentially, we have two George Washington letters in the Vermont State Archives holding this one that I'm talking about today is by far the more famous of the two. The letter was purchased and donated to the state in 1984 and unlike some things that don't tend to have a monetary value it was sold at auction at Christie's for $14,300 in 1984. This is for page letter, it's one where George Washington wrote himself instead of having a secretary doing the writing. We let people look at this letter. It is interesting because as early as 1779 the United States Congress tried to issue a series of resolutions concerning Vermont and wanted and what would be required for them to join the union. There was a big debate going on and it got more and more heated and George Washington feared that Congress would order troops into Vermont. And this 1783 letter is just personally a favorite because he's telling his friend representative Joseph Jones that just the prospects of federal troops invading an independent republic was not a good idea they're seeking to join the union and it might take a while to have us join but you just shouldn't mess with that. I guess it's the easiest term. Vermont didn't want to join on the terms of the federal Congress, and there was a whole array of Vermont officials arresting and confiscating property of individuals that would are claiming allegiance to New York, and they were trying to actively assert authority. The most famous little quotation in here says George Washington says about for monitors that the country is very mountainous full of defiles and extremely strong. Vermont's for the most part are a hearty race, composed of that kind of people who are best calculated for soldiers and truth, who are soldiers for many, many hundreds of them are are deserters from this army, who having acquired property there would be desperate in defense of it, while knowing that they were fighting with halters about their next. So even George Washington was just like it wasn't worth the fight. We just have a, I think, just like the brave little state we have a concept and view of ourselves as pretty hearty but hey George Washington agreed. Well what happens. I think many people know that eventually Vermont did decide that we would join the union, and that we became the 14 state the 14 star on March for 1791. This was going to happen. The Secretary of State, Thomas Jefferson, the federal government sent a copy of the Bill of Rights. It originally had 12 proposed amendments but only to him past the amendments were that was on compensation of members of Congress was actually finally ratified in 1992 Vermont ratified it in 1791. As I said Vermont joined the union March for 1791. So, birthday just passed. It was the 10 state at the time to join to ratify the Bill of Rights to the Constitution, and it wouldn't become law until Virginia ratified it on December 151791 a month later. It has Thomas Jefferson signature and I kind of squealing every time I see it I can't help it I've been FSR long enough but I about a decade and I still love seeing this particular document anytime we bring it out. It's also been restored on there been some staining damage on it, but it is the sort of cover sheet testing to it authenticity, and then it includes those first 12 proposed amendments. So sometimes the treasure, or what I would call a treasure doesn't look like much until you open it up and realize what it says. Vermont, it did something called the Court of Confiscation, this was authorized by the governor and Council in 1778, there had been one in each county and seven men were essentially appointed to confiscate the estates of British sympathizers, these loyalists. And then the confiscated land would be sold to benefit the Treasury. I am opening to just one page. It looks relatively innocent. It is just page 18 from January 1779. This particular document is pretty remarkable. The idea of confiscating land of Tories came by Ira Allen, Ethan Allen's brother, and he'd been the one to suggest this plan. And this page is a volume documenting proceedings when Ethan Allen accused their younger brother Levi of having Tory sympathies. And so they had Levi's property seized. So, Levi had gone to Long Island to help free Ethan when he was imprisoned there a few years earlier. And at the time he sort of made some connections to get Levi would sell to the British. The proceedings then in 1779 took his property and he was imprisoned for six months. When Levi was let out, he turned firmly to the British side, and ended up first in Florida. When Florida was sold to Spain by the British. He came back to Vermont. He sent his brother Ethan to a duel, which was not accepted, and eventually he was convinced to put his resentment behind him and be welcomed back in the family so I guess that's one thing. Family squabbles and other times is not quite as historic, but some epic family fights here, real true family feud. He eventually participated in some of these secret negotiations to potentially make Vermont a British province. But of course that went to nothing because we did in fact join the union. Levi died in Burlington's debtors prison in 1801 and he is buried in unmarked grave on the prison grounds. But you'll see there's nothing, I guess that looks fancy about this but it's still a remarkable document and it's just waiting for people to take a look. So there's some treasures abounding I'm going to share to from a set of records called the manuscript Vermont State Papers. These are records of Vermont government they date mainly from 1760 to 1860, but it sometimes goes even later than that as late as the 1950s. It was the original core of the state archives, and it includes an abundance of records from petitions to the legislature pardons. Other sorts of petitions of like just to governors, grand lists correspondence resolutions committee reports court confiscation documents mostly financial depositions and even once found a set of justice of the peace records where they're suing their friend for the theft of a deck of playing cards. It isn't there is a name and subject index of the papers and the pre 18th century indexes online so the pre 1800s excuse me. This is the landing page it's at our web page and it's just the nine index if you're looking for it. You can search by personal, like a keyword, or by name or by date or by description, I recommend keyword. So we can see Alan Ira to search by last name first name, and you can expand your results. This the second half of the index which is dates from mostly 1800 to 1860s is not online. It's only available in our reference room, and it is a very, very underused record set. And because of that I'm sharing two documents I found there. This is a letter from the famous Secretary of State Daniel Webster. This is actually part of a whole other piece of cool Vermont history. Christian Meadows was a skilled engraver and he'd been pretty respectable citizen but he got roped into counterfeiting in 1849 under the leadership of somebody who called himself Bristol Bill. And that story was all over the news for a couple of years because they gone to Groton, Vermont thinking that, well, you know they can't catch us in Boston they can't catch us in other big cities they're not going to catch us here. Well, they did. Christian Meadows was a model prisoner and was also repentant. And so he had worked on some engraving and wanted to get back to good citizenship. Daniel Webster had seen some of his engravings and had written to the governor at the time that's Charles Williams to pardon Meadows. So he could use his talents engraving maps for the federal government. Well, Governor Williams declined and but eventually harasses Fairbanks issue to pardon and Meadows was freed. He did live in Windsor for a little while but eventually he sort of disappeared into Canada and was not heard from so we don't even know what happened to Christian Meadows. The whole set of records related to Christian Meadows, Bristol Bill and sort of the adventures of their, their time counterfeiting is something I felt should be a movie so if anybody out there would like to research them and start writing that screenplay. I have some suggestions for you. So Hiram Turner is not a famous scholar or famous statesman he is just a person, writing in 1867. He was very not impressed with his neighbor, I mean we're talking in the time of war. He had put up the Confederate battle flag, and he wrote that he was offering the governor to I would cordially tender my services to take that or any other flag of that character down with its possessor also. And of course he signed it your obedient servant as was the norm at the time. He was a regular East Randall for a month or giving his opinion to the governor. People still do that today, not quite as beautifully written, but they write to their governor for all sorts of reasons and those correspondence are just as valid. This one just cracks me up. One of the other generals papers is a set of records that I would say, given sort of the nature of getting them back because they had been sold and were repurchased at the most part in 1919. The records date from 1779 to 1838, and they show gorgeous surveys and plans done by Ira Allen James White Law Samuel Kraft and ebb and Judd. They're absolutely stunning documents. The index is readily available as a PDF form online but it takes a little bit of challenge to use. Every time I look at them I'm just blown away by the artistry of early surveyors and we're talking importance of laying out Vermont landscape, but when you look at these things it's just stunning it's just beautiful. But after saying that I'm going to share something that's not really beautiful but it just cracks me up. I have a bit of a sense of humor and ebb and Judd it was one of these surveyors. He was a legendary figure in Essex County he was a statesman land agent, farmer merchant a mill operator I think he also published almanacs and compiled and invented and surveyed and he surveyed much of Essex County. Many researchers use the survey or general records for what they're intended to take a look at the town, how towns and roads were laid out in the early part of Vermont history but this one is seeing this famous man at age 25. His personal journal as he was going through and surveying. It has the reflections of a young man with some kind of comedic timing says he went to a Thanksgiving day dance. It was Thanksgiving day in the state of Vermont went to Mr halls at night and was entertained with a fine supper of roasted turkey chicken pies and apple pies. This apple pie or apple I have tasted at coups. We had a fiddler and a coups dance and went tense to Mr. Mr Lucy's about 10 o'clock at night, when we found a company drinking scalded rum or hot toddy as they called it. We had a high caper as it is usually called about midnight we returned to Esquire Eames and made out to get to bed without help. So anybody who's commonly experienced some slight tipsiness. I thought, I feel like I could talk to Evan Judd, I get where he's coming from, and his whole journal was edited by D Gregory Sanford for Vermont history article. I just love some of his plane thoughts on life. Another treasure we have here is the New York inferior court of common pleas was created under British rule and a jurisdiction of the province of New York. And these records range from 1770 to 1774 so all of the cases are going to be instead of the people or the state of Vermont it's going to be the crown versus the defendant in a criminal matter. The county seat was chosen as the unsettled town of Kinsley, which is now the town of Washington, and that seat was eventually moved to Newberry and 1771 it was a much broader swatch of land than the current county setup. Again, maybe you're seeing here in a time of being home and cooped up a lot I've looked for humor. How many of you out there I'm sure can talk about how much you hate the Vermont roads, mud season, all of that. Let me tell you a lot. This is the 1774 and in it, it says that they traveled until night, there being no road and the snow very deep. We traveled on snowshoes, we traveled some ways and held a council. When it was concluded it was best to open the court that we saw not it was whether in Kingsland or not, but we concluded we were far in the woods. So this is continued or adjourned over the next turn to court. If one adjourned over into the last Tuesday and May next. So they didn't know where they were. So they weren't sure if they were actually in the Kingsland. This is part of the problem of settling and having a jurisdiction where there's no settlers there wasn't any place so they couldn't say where they were, but they could say that the roads were very bad. So those that are found in this early set of records includes just some very basic topics. Debt cases tavern license assaults by individuals against others mostly bar room probably and then appointments of officers to see the needs of the developing area, especially road construction, which makes sense. It's an interesting case where Rebecca Martin had what was considered an early kind of child custody case against somebody called his Echia silhouette. And at the time, he was cleared on the charges because of the timing of the child's birth, and then Rebecca's brought up on charges of what was called whoredom in the next term. So our court records are one of those things where I could just go on at length about and I have, I've given that talk before. I'm always happy to point people in the direction of some of the untapped treasures of historic documents for court record research. The probate court records, I think a lot of people think even just something this mundane can't be a treasure, but the probate would do wills and settlements of the states but it also did adoptions guardianships name changes. Later the correction of vital records civil commitments to the state hospital, and also people committed another instances and then insolvency up until the United States took over bankruptcy in the 1890s. So, for example, what kind of treasure you find I mean I think a lot of people are familiar with the Morgan horse. And I just kind of, we came across this. Justin Morgan, the figure of fame died and Randolph in 1798 he was impoverished at the time so his estate was insolvent, and they were doing an inventory to see what they could sell for his creditors to pay off his debts. He wasn't as the owner figure but at the time. He was better known as a composer and a musician of church music, mostly a him. And you can see in the estate inventory that there's no horses anymore at his property but they do mention tack saddle bags and other writing equipment. That's medical opium. And one of the things about inventorying about one in four of our mantras had an estate that went through the probate court process whether they had enough property that had to go through a court mediation, or if they were insolvent and somebody had to sit down and figure out who was going to be paid and how they were going to maintain any widows or children. People who find their own ancestors find treasures and you might not think that that's true but for many it is you can find some remarkable things like even down to what sort of books they were reading. Newspapers, the entire microphone collection from the state library is now in the state archives and includes most Vermont titles. The microphone collection spans from late 1700s to the present day, and nearly all the papers are available online through a newspapers.com access. Newspapers are fill in the blanks for what the public record just simply doesn't have whether the records don't exist because fires or floods or lack of keeping something. Newspapers recorded all sorts of things from day to day life or what was historic happening in the town or location at the time. So newspapers.com portal is available free to Vermont residents. There is access through our webpage that points you on how to get access to these records. There's some very interesting things you find in newspapers, and my most exciting is the obituary of Lucie Terry Prince. There are so much people whose lives aren't well documented in the government record, but this is the obituary of Lucy Terry Prince she was stolen from Africa as a baby. When she was born around 1730, she was sold into slavery enrolled island and she married a Abu Jaya Prince, who bought her freedom in 1756. The family moved to Guilford in 1764 and she died in Sunderland in 1821. She's remembered for her ballad bar fights. It was a 1746 incident that she was writing about, but it was preserved orally until it was published in 1855. It is considered one of the oldest known works of literature by an African American, and she was also known to have argued before the Vermont Supreme Court against racial sabotage that her neighbors were trying on their property. She had a really remarkable life and there's not much in the state archives about her, but this obituary gives her just how remarkable she was in a time where people didn't think she could do the thing she could. If possible, she's well worth researching further and reading more about her. In the seal of Vermont. There are documents and in the series of records that document does say at the seal. It was designed by Ira Allen and 1778, but a new seal was created in 1821 and variations of what were used until 1937, which is when they decided to return to the original and the legislature had a counter created by Tiffany and company cast in 1937 and I think the purpose of a seal from the historic day to now is to market document is official. You can see the seal as the impression that it has document documenting things that are important to Vermonters from cow pine tree, which makes Vermont, you know the green mountains. Sheaves of wheat for the agriculture economy. And then of course prime place for months motto freedom and unity on the left you can see the proclamation when they ordained the great seal. And you can see the impression in gold. This is how it looks. I mean it just looks so small and this guy was done in 37 but I love holding it. It just there's just something about the weightiness of history when you see something that was re envisioned from the original in the 1770s and brought back in 1937 and is still what we use to seal of Vermont today. Photographs in archival holdings are very rich, but they're very hard to find what you need. Unfortunately, indexing wasn't all that well done. Edwin T Houston photographs from his studio are in the state archives and they are well indexed and so I'm going to talk a little bit about some of those. I was based in Montpelier from 1920 to 1942 and the studio continued kind of under new ownership for a while after that. And he took many photographs of government buildings officials legislators, and then views in and around Montpelier as the state capital that included a photograph of Amelia Earhart. So this photo is, she visited Vermont in March 1935. It was a really exciting visit for Vermont she visited before sort of in passing because she had friends here, but she was giving a speech to the legislature in support of aviation. Her speech is published in the journal for the time in the senate journal. And she also had spoken to cadets at the Norris University, her friend was the president Porter Adams. And this photograph has been a popular one, I mean, she disappeared just two years later, and you can see there's all sorts of people crowded around to see her from the dignitaries to school children. This is a somewhat large photograph. How do you really put the price on something that is completely disappeared. As a treasure goes, you could maybe even though it's black and white walk off and look right into this. I think it's flipped but this photograph was taken of rights fill in 1933 and rights fill is the town that doesn't exist anymore. The 1927 floods forced sort of some reevaluation and the needs to build reservoirs to keep that flooding from happening. So the Civil Affilian Conservation Corps the CCC built the rights for them from 1933 to 35, and that required disbanding and flooding the village and so they took pictures of the village before it was inundated and you can see like it just looks like a town, but it doesn't exist anymore. And eventually, they had to move even the bodies out of from the cemetery and move them to middle sex. This is just a photograph of Sheldon from 1914 hand colored slide. I have shown you photos and items and stories that I consider treasures of the Vermont State Archives, but archival records are meant to be of enduring value and state public records are held in the name of the people of the state of Vermont. These are your records, they're part of your story as an archivist I feel privileged to know that the records and then I know some of the stories that come with them. I'm happy to share the stories and the documents with researchers. These that I've selected document famous people Vermont history, some humor.  So if you look at this kind of image I feel like I could walk off onto that dirt road into Sheldon of 1914, an archive like ours is so much more than the stereotypical of a hidden away place, or something that isn't relevant today. This document comes to life with sort of humor, solemnity, feuds, beauty of Vermont and so it documents what happens in the state archives. I still very very wish I could have this conversation live and take your questions, but I very much appreciate your time. If you have questions you can contact the reference room at<PHONE_NUMBER>. We respond within one business day. Our email is sosperiodarchivesatremont.gov for your reference queries, and then you can email me personally at marisa.dobrickatremont.gov. Our reference room is opened by appointment from nine to four, and we have a Twitter handle. Eventually we look forward to being open again without appointment and to assist people far more. I very much appreciate having visitors and would love to see you again soon. Thank you so much. Thank you Marisa for a wonderful presentation. Next month we are really excited to bring you Dr. Jess Robinson. He is the Vermont State Archaeologist and a Professor of Anthropology at the University of Vermont, and he is going to present on some of the latest findings about the early Woodlands period here in Vermont. We look forward to seeing you then. And as always, if you enjoyed this presentation and would like to support the Ethan Allen Homestead, please go to the donation link in the description box below or on our website, ethanallenhomestead.org. Thank you very much and we'll see you next month.