GOOD MORNING, UPPER VALLEY!
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Calm, some sun to start, getting cloudier, windier. There’s a low-pressure system coming through from the west later today that will probably bring some snow to the mountains. Down here in the valleys we’ll see it mostly in the form of clouds building in this afternoon, with winds shifting to come from the southwest and gusts up into the 20 mph range. Highs today around the freezing mark, lows mid 20
Mist, some sun to start. It was a bright red sky with fog hanging low over the trees in Thetford on Friday morning, from Sally Duston.
I-91 southbound back to two lanes through Fairlee. As Alex Nuti-de Biasi notes in today’s Journal Opinion newsletter (scroll down), VTrans last Thursday fully reopened the highway beneath the Fairlee cliffs to traffic, after nearly two years of work to stabilize the rock face. "Once the winter shutdown period begins, the contractor will not return until the spring of 2026, at which time remaining roadway work within the project limits will be completed. Roadway activities will include milling, paving, linestriping, and guardrail work,” the agency noted.
All things skating. Now that we’re getting back to winter (well, not tomorrow, but later this week), Liz Sauchelli has a helpful roundup in the Valley News of both indoor and outdoor venues. You already know about Lake Morey. Sauchelli also reports that after a year’s break, the Mascoma Lake loop is set to reopen, after the Mascoma Lake Skating Association arranged with Troy Lowery for his WRJ-based company to plow rinks and loops on the lake, accessible from the boat launch in Enfield. Sauchelli also includes details for a raft of outdoor rinks around the region (along with news that the Dartmouth Green rink won’t open this year), and the indoor rinks in Leb, WRJ, and Woodstock.
All things salt. Or road salt, anyway. In Sidenote, Li Shen writes about the shortage affecting Thetford and other towns in the region. “The town keeps running dangerously low and is using it sparingly while the road crew waits for the next delivery,” she writes—even sending out its own truck when word gets out that some is available. Ice storms “deplete reserves of salt very fast,” and Li explains why pre-treatment of roadways can be effective but wasteful (and not useful for bridges)—and why salt has such damaging effects on waterways and lakes all across the region. Brine can be just as effective—but Thetford doesn’t have the space to make it right now.
Demonstrations in several Upper Valley towns against ICE. They were part of a series of vigils and protests around the country on Saturday in the wake of the shooting death last week of a Minneapolis woman by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent. In the VN, Marion Umpleby checked in on the roughly 100 people who gathered in S. Royalton, a similar number in WRJ, and 300 or so people who gathered at Colburn Park in Lebanon. Gatherings were also planned in Norwich and Woodstock.
VT Lions (and friends) pack 30,000 meals for families with food needs. Lions Club members from Royalton, Strafford, and Windsor joined with other volunteers from VT, NH, ME, and CT on Saturday at the Canadian Club in Barre to pull together the meal boxes, half of which will go to the VT Foodbank and the rest to food shelves around VT and neighboring states. “Tables were lined with ingredients, scales, sealers, and boxes, but the real power came from the rhythm of teamwork: scooping, weighing, sealing, and cheering each completed box,” writes Royalton’s Carole Green, who helped organize the event. WPTZ’s Yunier Martinez was there: Here’s his report.
A bounty of “succulent, free-range meat is currently running through America’s backyards.” Though to write about why Americans should be eating more deer meat, The Atlantic’s Yasmin Tayag (gift link) headed not to the suburbs, but to our very own backyard, where she went hunting last month with Dartmouth biology prof Ryan Calsbeek and Wolf Tree owner Max Overstrom-Coleman. Tayag details how, “Wherever deer are overabundant, they are at best a nuisance and at worst a plague”—and how efforts to encourage hunters to sell venison to shoppers and restaurants run up against state policy and longstanding tradition. Turns out, VT’s the only state where hunters can legally sell deer they kill—but no one takes advantage of it. (Thanks, MS!)
With NH parental rights law, schools back off recording or streaming events. The law actually took effect last July, reports NHPR’s Annmarie Timmins, but it wasn’t until mid-December that the state ed department warned schools that they’ll need written permission from parents to audio or video record each student. As a result, districts—including Newport—are pausing recordings. “We may be doing something that’s not completely required,” Supt. Forrest Ransdell tells Timmins, “but I would rather be ahead of this than be the test case.” The state warns the stricture applies even if recordings won’t be shared or posted, though it’s silent on sporting events.
Is Boston Globe expanding VT coverage? It’s just a small social-media item from Dan Kennedy, who teaches at Northeastern and has carved out a niche covering the revival of local news around the country. He writes, “A source forwarded me a memo saying that Vermont-based stringer Paul Heintz is joining the [Globe] staff but will remain in VT… Good hire.” Heintz was a longtime reporter for Seven Days, left to become editor-in-chief of VTDigger, and since leaving there nearly a year ago has been freelancing for the Globe. Last month, Kennedy reported that Globe owner Linda Henry has cited “expanding our presence across New England” as a goal for 2026.
The Monday Jigsaw: The Savage Brothers. The Norwich Historical Society’s Cam Cross builds on his puzzle from last week, highlighting Vermonters in the New England Emigrant Aid Society who’d moved to Kansas. His researches led him to Joseph and Forrest Savage and their cousins, the Hazens, who’d been in the Hartford town band and who, in 1854, decided to pick up and move to Kansas as part of the abolition movement. With their instruments. You can learn more here.
Today's Wordbreak. With a word from Friday’s Daybreak.
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And for today...
As you no doubt know, Bob Weir died on Saturday, age 78. He had his own solo career, of course, but he’ll always be known as the youngest member of the Grateful Dead, “a creatively restless soul who helped flesh out the Dead’s music in multiple ways,” as the NYT put it. As with all things Dead, he leaves behind a massive collection of recorded performances. Here’s one:
And if you want more, the NYT has a collection of “10 Essential Songs”(gift link).
Thanks, JB!
See you tomorrow.
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