Daybreak Monday 11/11

HAPPY VETERANS DAY, UPPER VALLEY!

Sorry to be late... Mailchimp system issues this morning.

Hang on, 'cause here we go.... Looks like the first measurable winter weather is headed our way. Any snow overnight was due to a cold front moving through, but the real action is headed here this afternoon. There's a very slight chance of snow and rain this morning, which become likely this afternoon, followed by snow, sleet, and freezing rain tonight. It'll be all snow to our north, but around here there's a chance of snow on top of ice glaze overnight. Low 30s.As for snow totals? The Weather Service has a handy forecast map, though here's betting it gets updated as the storm gets closer.The hottest housing market in the Upper Valley? Woodstock. The VN's John Lippman says that the past decade's "bull run" in stocks is fueling a second-home buying spree. “The stock market has always been tied to Woodstock,” realtor David Donegan tells him. “The town has a history and brand that people know.” Also, the Woodstock Inn and Twin Farms introduce people. "Come for the spa treatments and Anichini sheets; stay for Worthy Kitchen and Wassail Weekend," writes Lippman.Study finds thousands of dams to be safety risks, including several around here. A two-year study by the Associated Press of dam conditions around the country found 1,680 to be "high-hazard" because they're in poor or unsatisfactory condition. Of those, 37 were in New Hampshire and nine in Vermont. Local dams include Windsor Upper Dam and Lower Reservoir Dam in Hanover. You'll find a map at the link.Lebanon's already solarized three municipal buildings. Pat McGovern's got pics of the police station, public works administration building, and solid waste facility posted on Facebook. Hanover town clerk will tell prospective voters they don't need a driver's license to register or vote. Betsy McClain has been pressing the state to clarify HB 1264, the GOP-passed law that changed residency requirements. She now has a letter from the AG, Secy. of State, and Dept. of Safety commissioner: "No one can be denied the right to register to vote or to vote for failing to meet the requirements of the motor vehicle code.” In other words, you need legal residency to get a license, but don't need the license to vote. Hartford tech center inks logo deal with Nike. "Nike’s new marketing and advertising strategy focuses on utilizing more moral, hard working, and consistent professionals than athletes: Educators," says Doug Heavisides, principal of the Hartford Area Career and Technology Center. Okay, not really, it's satire... but a guy can dream, right? Are there wild boar in the Upper Valley? Interesting discussion on FB started off by someone who saw a dead pig in the woods while she was out running in E. Thetford. Consensus is that it might have escaped from Corbin Park, the high-priced hunting club in Croydon, though apparently there's a small number of boar that have migrated to the area as well. In case you missed the hustings hoo-hah this weekend... Three Democratic candidates were in the Upper Valley on Saturday. Here are links to videos of the town halls by:

It's full-on winter in the mountains

. Sure, this storm may produce the first real snow for most of us, but up at the Ammonoosuc Ravine Trail, by Mts. Washington and Monroe, looks like it's old hat.

NH legislative committee tables feds' money for charter schools. Just catching you up on an item from Friday. The Joint Legislative Finance Committee met that day and stunned pretty much everyone by opting to reject, for now, a $46 million federal grant to expand charter schools. The Dem-controlled committee wants more time to study the impact. Republican Gov. Chris Sununu is pretty unhappy. NH has at best five years to get its solid-waste issues in gear. Other states are sending trash to private landfills in NH, municipal landfills are filling up, recycling's a mess, towns have been left rudderless ever since budget cuts forced the Bureau of Solid Waste Management out of helping them plan... It's all in this report.Vermonters find religion, though not quite for the reason you might think. A new study in Pediatrics says that after Vermont tightened its mandatory vaccination laws for school-age children by eliminating the "personal belief" exemption, the proportion of kindergarten enrollments claiming a religious exemption — which the state allows — vaulted from 0.5 percent of students to 3.7 percent. That's a sevenfold increase.Frenchwoman denied permanent residency in Quebec because she lacks "sufficient proficiency" in French. A little far afield, but still, they are our neighbors. And their immigration ministry denied Émilie Dubois, who completed a doctorate in bio at QC's Laval U., a residency certificate because one chapter of her thesis was in English. “It is beyond absurd, it is not logical, it is a joke,” she told the NYT. Thanks for the tip, EL!

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IT'S A QUIET NIGHT OUT THERE

So instead, here's what's been planned for Veterans Day — but given the weather, check before you go:

Have a great start to your week! See you tomorrow.

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