5 Things You Need to Know Today: Dec. 1

Our weekday morning column, 5 Things You Need to Know, provides you with information that can help you plan your day and give you some fodder for water cooler conversations.

1. The Capital Improvement Committee will meet at 7 p.m. at the

2. Learn how to at workshop of the Central Massachusetts Disaster Animal Response team from 6 to 10 p.m. at the Grafton Municipal Center.

3. Today is World AIDS Day. If we have learned nothing else from this crisis, it is that the problem is hardly limited to big cities and foreign countries. We all need to be aware.

4. And finetune those lists: 24 shopping days til Christmas. And I've been good, just an FYI...

5. Forecast: Rain, high 61, low 49.