Daybreak Tuesday 3/14/23

GOOD MORNING, UPPER VALLEY!

Well. There appears to be snow going on out there. It's going to last off and on all day, through the night, and possibly into tomorrow, and given temps hovering right around the freezing mark during the day both today and tomorrow, the snow will be heavy and wet. Since it's also going to get windy out there, especially this afternoon, the weather folks are warning of potential power outages. Snow amounts (below) are highly location-dependent—in general, the farther south you are, the more you'll get.So here's what that looks like:

Not surprisingly, some NH town meetings are getting postponed. Most towns in the region will go ahead with floor meetings this evening or voting today (including Lebanon, where polls are open until 7 pm). But Charlestown, Lyme, Grantham, New London, Springfield NH, Walpole, and Wilmot have all pushed things back. The Valley News has rounded up postponement details for the first five of those (at the burgundy link); the NH Secy of State's office is keeping an updated postponment list, which you can check here.VT Principals Assn ousts Mid Vermont Christian from sporting events. The organization, which oversees school athletics in the state, announced yesterday that its board had voted unanimously to bar the Quechee school from inter-school play after its girls' basketball team last month refused to play a school with a transgender team member, reports VTDigger's Peter D'Auria. At the time, head of school Vicky Fogg explained that "playing against an opponent with a biological male jeopardizes the fairness of the game and the safety of our players.” This violated the VPA's anti-discrimination and gender identity policies, the organization told the school.In founding of Dartmouth and its med school, the roots of today's regional development challenges. In Sidenote, Li Shen and Thetford Development Review Board chair Tim Taylor lay out their thinking: The med school begot the hospital, which brought doctors and other professionals—and demand for high-quality schools—to Hanover and Norwich, which drove up house prices and "effectively solidified an already developing economic stratification in the Upper Valley." Coupled with back-to-the-landers and other migrants who wanted large lots, the result is rural sprawl, they write.SPONSORED: Part-time congregational musician wanted. The First Universalist Society of Hartland is seeking an enthusiastic congregational musician 4-5 hrs/wk to accompany hymns, provide service music, and support music in our Unitarian Universalist congregation. We are open to a wide variety of beliefs and styles of music, actively affirm LGBTQIA+ folk, and seek wholeness, hope, and liberation within our vibrant community and beyond. Visit our website for full job description, info about our UU congregation, and how to apply. Sponsored by First Universalist Society of Hartland.NH AG's office subpoenas printing company over Haverhill political mailing. At issue are two mailers—which urge opposition to two warrant articles—that do not identify the person or group responsible for sending them out, the AG's office says in its press release. The postal permit belongs to Spectrum Printing in Manchester, which "is refusing to disclose the name of the party that paid for the mailer without a subpoena which the Election Law Unit is serving," the office writes. In yesterday's Journal Opinion newsletter, Alex Nuti-de Biasi includes copies of the mailers that are most likely in question.NH's Community Power Coalition sets rates 20-40 percent below utilities'. The group, including Hanover, Lebanon, Plainfield, and Walpole, announced yesterday that its initial electricity rate will be 15.8 cents per kilowatt-hour—"a 22 percent savings compared to Eversource’s energy supply rate, and 28 and 39 percent savings compared to Liberty Utilities and Unitil, respectively"—writes Hadley Barndollar in NH Bulletin. Rates will take effect in May, when the Coalition becomes the default energy provider for its 10 member towns. Residents and businesses will automatically take part unless they opt out.Building civic health, town by town. UNH's Carsey School of Public Policy is just out with a guide for townspeople who want to gauge and strengthen the health of civic engagement and local democracy—or as they put it, "what factors bring people together or push them apart." They offer ways of looking at everything from which groups affect and are affected by civic life to whether communal spaces in town encourage or discourage connection. Includes tips on interviews and focus groups, doing community surveys, and the like.AI art you never asked for. But let's just suppose that US presidents were pro wrestlers...The Tuesday Vordle. With a word from Sunday's Valley News.

Heads Up

And the Tuesday poem...what if a keen of a lean wind flaysscreaming hills with sleet and snow:strangles valleys by ropes of thingand stifles forests in white ago?Blow hope to terror;blow seeing to blind(blow pity to envy and soul to mind)—whose hearts are mountains, roots are trees,it's they shall cry hello to the spring—From "what if a much of a which of a wind" by e.e. cummings.See you tomorrow.

Written and published by Rob Gurwitt   Writer/editor: Jonea Gurwitt    Poetry editor: Michael Lipson  About Rob                                                                                              About Michael

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