GOOD MORNING, UPPER VALLEY!
Mostly sunny, warm. Some snow overnight tonight. "Warm" is relative, of course, but after last week, mid-30s feels like t-shirt weather. Today's big feature, though, looks to be wind: There's low pressure tracking through to the north with a cold front behind it, but that's also set up strong airflow from the southwest (hence today's temps) with gusts around here getting into the 30 mph range. Modest snow arrives tonight, with snow squalls possible. Totals won't amount to much, but it could be tough driving. Lows in the upper teens.Ice and snow. They're hard to ignore right now, eh?
Especially when the ice is big, as at the Bradford falls, where the Waits River is being dramatic these days—from John Guest;
Or when the snow is moving, as with this snow devil in Lyme from Lisa Schwartz—or is it "a snownado?" she wonders.
Windsor County sheriff's deputy: “We’re actually getting to do police work." As John Lippman writes in the Valley News, a department once known chiefly for writing speeding tickets has expanded its role not just in Windsor County, but beyond—providing policing coverage to Orange County towns, staffing courthouse coverage for Orange and Washington counties, helping out police in Caledonia County... For the most part, Lippman writes, Sheriff Ryan Palmer's approach has been welcomed by neighboring departments (though not Orange County's sheriff) and Windsor social service agencies.Former Canaan police officer: "All of the sudden, I couldn’t even walk up a flight of stairs." Nenia Ballard used to do CrossFit competitions; now, grappling with long Covid, she's spends part of her time in a wheelchair. In NH Bulletin, William Skipworth profiles Ballard, an Episcopal priest, and a state legislator, all of whom have had to reorder their lives due to the illness. In a new report, the NH Fiscal Policy Institute estimates 4,000 Granite Staters have had to leave the workforce and another 5,300 have had to reduce their hours. Docs still don't know what causes it, says DHMC's Jeffrey Parsonnet.SPONSORED: An Imperfect Faith (for imperfect people). In a time of stress and uncertainty meet other like-minded souls searching for kindness, hope and forgiveness. Led by The Rev. Dr. Guy Collins, join us for an exploration of the challenges of life and the promises of the Christian story. Click on the burgundy link or here for more information. Sponsored by St. Thomas Episcopal Church.In West Leb, "very good" food fast. Last week, the VN profiled the new Happy Dumpling in the Powerhouse Plaza (not to be confused with the Powerhouse Mall; the plaza's the spot anchored by Shaw's). Now, Artful's Susan Apel checks in with a review. The menu, she writes, is small, with prices that are "more than fair." The food itself "tasted like my memories of China." And overall? "Happy Dumpling is a happy place," Susan writes, a room "filled with diners anticipating and then enjoying their food together."In a North Haverhill courtroom, rape trial of Dartmouth alum gets going. Kyle Clampitt, a 2020 graduate of the college, has been charged with raping a student on the roof of a fraternity in 2022, and all this week his trial will be under way in Grafton Superior Court. Friday, its first day, featured graphic testimony from his alleged victim, reports the VN's John Lippman, with the prosecutor telling jurors that she'd "begged" Clampitt to stop, and the woman herself describing an ordeal that ended when she sought refuge from a frat member; Clampitt's attorney argued the events had been "consensual.""I mean, who wants to be the guy that closes a 200-year-old general store?" Dave Dauphinais never really pictured himself running the Tuftonboro General Store: He inherited it from his wife, Erin, who died in November. And as Annmarie Timmins notes for NHPR, the store and community anchor is now at a crossroads: "Dauphinais has decided he can’t run the store without his wife, but he hasn’t yet decided what’s next," she reports. He's considering selling, leasing, or turning the store into apartments. Meanwhile, the regulars who gather over coffee each morning fill Timmins in on why the store matters.NH ranks high for risk of respiratory illness. In fact, reports WMUR's Jon Schoenheider, it's among the top three states in the country, alongside NJ and WI, according to new data from the CDC—which comes despite the Trump administration's freeze on health communications. The new numbers show a spike in flu cases—with 11 deaths so far—as well as smaller bumps in Covid and RSV cases. Says one doc at Wentworth-Douglass Hospital in Dover, "Even though we've had an uptick in COVID cases, I haven't seen the same severity and symptoms as for the flu."In northern VT, details on the days leading up to border patrol agent's shooting. They were contained in court documents unsealed at the end of last week, Seven Days' Colin Flanders reported on Friday. The suspects—21-year-old Teresa Youngblut, of Washington state, and Felix Baukholt, a German national—had checked into a Lyndonville hotel Jan. 14, both wearing what appeared to be black tactical clothing; Youngblut had a holstered firearm. Last Monday, Baukholt died and Youngblut was injured in a shootout near the border that also killed agent David Maland. Youngblut is scheduled in court today.At the VT State House, two mysteries: details on the governor's education plan, and who put up a "memorial plaque" by a vent? As Ethan Weinstein reported Friday in VTDigger's weekly legislative wrapup, "Final Reading" (scroll down), ed officials this week are expected to fill in key numbers and other details in Gov. Phil Scott's proposed overhaul of the state's public education system. (And lobbyists Maggie Lenz and Nick Charyk write that every committee in the legislature will get their whacks at it, even agriculture). But the big question, writes Shaun Robinson: Who put up a plaque memorializing Rep. Conor Casey—a notorious prankster who is still very much alive?The Monday Jigsaw. It's at the Dartmouth Winter Carnival ski-jumping competition, which started up in 1922 "on the newly constructed jump overlooking the 13th green of the Hanover Country Club golf course," writes the Norwich Historical Society's Cam Cross. The jump was eventually torn down in the early '90s. Here's a view of the 1934 competition: "Note the crowd at the top of the hillside, as well as the stylish skiing garb," Cam writes.
Heads UpTonight's the biweekly "Bluegrass etc." jam session at the Ottauquechee Yacht Club (the Woodstock bar). Organized by area musician and music festival impresario Ben Kogan, the "suggested canon is bluegrass, Beatles, and the Grateful Dead," though other genres are fine if enough people know them. Acoustic string instruments and horns welcome. 6:30 pm, details at the link.At Sawtooth Kitchen in Hanover, Coast Jazz Underground. It'll be a night of Cuban rumba and other Afro-Latin jazz rhythms led by guest artist Zack O'Farrill—son of a classical pianist and a jazz pianist. Starts up at 8 pm.And to get us going for the week...The first single released off bluegrass mandolinist Sierra Hull's forthcoming A Tip Toe High Wire album: "Boom".See you tomorrow.
Written and published by Rob Gurwitt Associate writer: Jonea Gurwitt Poetry editor: Michael Lipson About Rob About Michael
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