The Week Ahead: September 17-23, 2012

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This week in news and events in the Green Mountain State's political sphere: an "interesting" Obama fundraiser, a Vermont appearance by former Obama adviser Van Jones, and some newsworthy readings at the Burlington Book Festival.

Monday, September 17

• Today's the deadline for monthly campaign finance reports. It's like Christmas for political reporters.
• Vermont Business Magazine hands out its 5x5x5 Growth Awards, for five growing local businesses in five categories over five years, at the Doubletree Hotel in South Burlington.

Tuesday, September 18

• Jonathan Goldsmith, a.k.a. the Most Interesting Man in the World, holds a fundraiser to support Barack Obama's reelection campaign at Nectar's. We wrote all about that one last week.
• Longtime political journalist Barrie Dunsmore gives a talk called "Discerning Fact From Fiction: Navigating Political Campaigns and the Media." (Sounds useful this year, no?) The talk begins at 7 p.m. at the Writers' Barn in Shelburne. It's free, but RSVP by emailing [email protected].

More after the jump...

Thursday, September 20

• Joe Flynn, the director of emergency management for the Vermont Department of Public Safety, gives a talk on the state of post-Irene infrastructure repairs in Vermont at the Doubletree Hotel in South Burlington.
• NetSquared presents a free talk titled "Civic Engagement in the Digital Age (Vermont-style)" at OfficeSquared (no relation) in Burlington, looking at what digital disruption and the open data movement mean for local government.

Friday, September 21

• Middlebury College hosts presentations and roundtables from three leading China scholars — Ezra Vogel (Harvard), Yasheng Huang (MIT) and Scott Rozelle (Stanford) — on "The Political Economy of China's Rise".

Saturday, September 22

• The Burlington Book Festival runs all weekend, with readings, panels, workshops and lots more fun for you bookworms. Some of the events mentioned below are of particular interest to this blog's target audience. All of these events happen at various theaters and rooms in the Main Street Landing Performing Arts Center in Burlington.
• Climate activist Bill McKibben, who is this year's "festival dedicatee," gives a talk on The Fight We Actually Should be Having: Taking on the Fossil Fuel Companies at 11 a.m. at the Film House.
• Former house rep and current VPR commentator Bill Mares and Green Mountain Coffee director of social advocacy Rick Peyser team up for a talk about sustainability practices in the coffee industry. The two men wrote a book about it called Brewing Change: Behind the Bean at Green Mountain Coffee Roasters. That event happens at high noon at the Black Box.
• An hour later at 1 p.m. in the Black Box, former governor Madeleine Kunin reads from her book, The New Feminist Agenda. Click here to read Kathryn Flagg's story about Kunin's work from earlier this year.
• Harper's contributing editor Garrett Keizer, whose latest book is all about privacy issues, speaks at 3 p.m. in the Great Room.
• Journalist and Vermont native Michael Hastings talks in the Black Box at 4 p.m. Hastings has contributed to Rolling Stone (including the piece that took down Stanley McChrystal) and more recently BuzzFeed, and released his latest book about the war in Afghanistan, The Operators, earlier this year.
• Also happening all weekend long: the Pride Vermont Festival. Parades, food festivals, cruises, and lots more fun. Check out the full guide in this Wednesday's Seven Days.
• In non-festival news, Van Jones keynotes the Vermont Natural Resources Council's 50th anniversary celebration at Shelburne Farms. You may remember Van Jones as the adviser to President Barack Obama who was run out of office after Glenn Beck and other conservatives took him down. These days he leads a new left-of-center political organization, Rebuild the Dream. Also expected at the VNRC party: the aforementioned McKibben, Vermont Law School professor Gus Speth, and Gardender's Supply founder Will Raap.
• Lastly, state treasurer Beth Pearce kicks off her reelction campaign with an event at Halvorson's in Burlington.

Sunday, September 23

• One last dose of Book Fest action: Retiring state senator and entrepreneur Hinda Miller talks about her memoir, Pearls of a Sultana: What I’ve Learned About Business, Politics and the Human Spirit, at 11 a.m. No word on what hijinks Miller has planned for this one.
• Wall Street Journal foreign-affairs columnist Bret Stephens gives a lecture on "Israel and the New Middle East" at the Davis Center at the University of Vermont.