A PLEASURE TO SEE YOU, UPPER VALLEY!
After the atmospheric drama of the last few days... There's a trough of weak low pressure wandering across the region today. It may bring some snow showers to our north, but around here it's just clouds, winds from the south, temps rising into the low 30s. Back into the 20s tonight.Maine driver leads NH, VT police on 100 mph-plus pursuit. The chase began on I-89 south of Exit 14 in New Hampshire, after police picked up on a silver sedan that was speeding and having trouble staying in its lane. It blasted up the highway, petered out through Lebanon, and then began again on the VT side after Hartford officers spotted the car. The driver exited in Sharon and turned up the windy hill into Strafford, got past spikes put out by troopers, and was eventually stopped in Tunbridge. Whew. Eric Francis has the details.Andrew Yang and his campaign team received death threats around Hanover swing Monday. That's DC's The Hill, which reports that someone going by the moniker HitmanYang emailed the campaign "threatening that if the number of tweets from the candidate reached an unspecified threshold that members of the campaign would be shot." Yang informed the FBI. The Hanover Police Department, says The Hill, "did not immediately respond" to a request for comment. And in case you missed Yang's Hanover town hall.... Here it is.Hartford faces homelessness head on. The VN praises the town for acting to help its homeless population, which these days is estimated at about 40. Welfare checks by the police and The Haven, efforts to forge a regional approach, businesses that have offered their buildings on winter nights, a new committee on homelessness aiming to report on the state of things this winter.... "[C]ommunities that take on such challenges discover their moral center and the sense of belonging to something larger," says the paper.Flying at night. Here in Hanover has a striking photo essay (words by Karen Wahrenberger, pics by Herb Swanson) about the Hanover High ski jumping team. “We are typically blessed with a team that has great camaraderie and spirit,” says coach Tom Dodds of his ever-changing crew, which has won 10 state titles. And which looks very cool when airborne under the lights.Advocates hope to make up Grafton County Meals on Wheels funding shortfall. The county's Senior Citizens Council doesn't have enough money for the program and has been forced to cut dessert from its deliveries to seniors, which is not sitting well with residents who depend on the program. "I don’t think it’s a case of bad management," says Linda Lauer, who chairs the Grafton County Board of Commissioners. "I think it’s a case of too little money. Funding is too low for what they’re tasked to do.” (VN)Leb writers' program gets national ink. You may remember that back in September, Sparrow Alden launched the new WriterSpace at River Valley Community College. It's a spot for writers to escape isolation or distraction, find company and help as they work, and take workshops as they polish their craft. Now Sarah Earle's recent VN profile has been picked up by the AP and is starting to spread. Here it is in US News & World Report.It may not have amounted to much here, but that was a heck of a storm to the east and south. Three feet in New Ipswich, NH, 26 inches in Woodford, VT, the most snow in a single storm since 1993 in Albany. "A typical nor'easter will produce accumulating snow for 10 to 16 hours in any one spot, but this one caused accumulating snow over a large area for more than 24 hours. In parts of New England, it ended up being about 36 hours," says AccuWeather Meteorologist Dave Bowers. AccuWeather rounds up the details for the region.The inexorable march of the brown marmorated stink bug. The invasive pest is becoming a nuisance in these parts, partly because they mass on the sides of buildings and partly because they live up to their name. The link is a striking time-lapse visual of its spread from eastern PA/western NJ north and westward. And here's UNH Extension warning of what's to come.VT should join 34-state nursing compact. That's the state's Office of Professional Regulation, which is part of the Secretary of State's office. Vermont faces a 4,000-nurse shortfall, and joining the compact, which allows RNs from any of its states to work in any of the other states without getting a new license, might help. But some nurses worry that the flow could go the other way: Once Vermont's a part of it, its nurses could just as easily head elsewhere.VT school taxes may see biggest increase in 10 years. In this year's version of an annual letter to the legislature, acting Tax Commissioner Craig Bolio forecasts a $72 million increase in school spending, which would boost the average education property tax bill by more than 6 percent next year. Some $28 million of the new spending stems from rising health insurance costs. Bolio notes, however, that school boards may find ways of holding spending increases down before tax bills go out."Like selling off the whole herd, torching the house and moving to Florida." That's former Sterling College president Will Wootton on the deal to move Marlboro College, where he was a student and later an administrator, to Boston. In an open letter to the Marlboro community, he decries the arrangement as, essentially, giving up too soon. And calls on senior faculty and donors — "claiming, rightly, their gifts of perpetuity were given to the reality, place, and idea of Marlboro College, in Marlboro, Vermont" — to fight it.Thank goodness he was strutting blaze orange. That would be Milo, a 22-year-old horse who got through his fence in Woodbury, VT last week and lit out for the territory. Milo's owner, however, had him draped in an orange blanket, and it was still on him three days later when a drone sent up to see if it could locate him got a pic, in the fleeting last minutes of daylight, of a little dot of orange surrounded by snow and bare trees. He's home and fine now.
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SO.... WHAT'S ON FOR TONIGHT?
. Heilman grew up in central Vermont, detoured through Michigan, Chicago, South Africa, and New York, and eventually wound up back in central Vermont telling an astonishing variety of stories about everything from taxidermy to donut shops to homelesness. You may have heard her quirky, delving work on VPR or listened to her podcast directly. She'll be giving a First Wednesday lecture tonight about how she does what she does, and sharing stories about her "extraordinary conversations with ordinary people." 7 pm at Norwich Congregational Church.
It's a chance to sample and buy fine wines (and eat the Norwich Inn's food), with a portion of all sales going to The Haven (and all money raised matched by the Byrne Foundation). Starts at 5 pm at the Norwich Inn.
Or you could go hang out in Hanover.
It's
, with Jakob Breitbach's live band and its deep well of singable songs: signup at 6, music starts at 6:30. And next door it's
, starting at 7. What's that? Oh yes, you can
totally
nail Gnarls Barkley's
Crazy
and then rocket over to floor everyone by knowing the first pizzeria to open in the US.
1905. Mott Street. You've got this. See you tomorrow.
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Thank you!