Opinion

Column: Everyone’s thinking of Greenland, again

By JOHN GRIESEMER

It’s been six long years since I was last here thinking about Greenland. Somebody had to do it back then, and since I’m the author of a novel called “No One Thinks of Greenland,” naturally, it fell to me.

Column: From plumbers to Proud Boys, justice is scarce

By WILLIAM CRAIG

“I got something to show you,” said Barry. The short, jacked inmate tugged me toward the double doors opening onto the dark prison yard. “Something good.”

A Solitary Walker: Nurtured by the wild places

By MICKI COLBECK

Jan. 20, 2025: My sleepy eyes open slowly to look out the frosty window. The view is toward Kibling Hill at 1,950 feet of elevation, and the first thing I see every morning.

Forum for Jan. 25, 2025: Party of truth?

Thank you for publishing the op-ed piece by Bill Hamlen (“To consolidate its gains, the GOP should hold fast to ‘facts’ and ‘truth’ ”; Jan. 18).

Forum for Jan. 24, 2025: NH state librarian

Gov. Kelly Ayotte should renominate the highly-qualified Mindy Atwood to be New Hampshire’s state librarian. It seems to me that we want a librarian who stands up for freedom and access to all the information available to us in our great state of New Hampshire. The state librarian has no influence over local libraries, so Atwood’s wisdom and knowledge would only affect the State Library, not school libraries.

Column: Vermont can still make progress on climate change

By LARRY SATCOWITZ

The Clean Heat Standard (CHS), part of Act 18 of 2023, had the overall aim of reducing the use of fossil fuels for heating in Vermont. It would do this primarily by providing incentives for the air sealing and insulating of buildings and the adoption of alternative heating technologies. Act 18 did not implement the CHS but instead required the Public Utility Commission to study the idea and issue a detailed report.

Forum for Jan. 23, 2025: Lebanon property assessments

Multifamily rental developments in Lebanon are assessed at significantly lower rates per square foot than comparable owner-occupied properties, such as condominiums. If those rental properties were taxed equitably, Lebanon would not face the current budget shortfalls that are straining city resources and taxpayers alike.

A Yankee Notebook: The recurring new experiences of old age

By WILLEM LANGE

Those who’ve visited this column a few times before this may remember that I try to do one new thing each week. It’s a very stimulating sort of activity, and only rarely gets me into trouble I can’t handle easily; but the alternative life of humdrumming seems to me unendurable. It’s also, as you get older, more difficult to do, mainly because you’ve done so many things already.

Forum for Jan. 22, 2025: Praise for a coach

For many years I have had two cords of wood delivered to my house. One year I thought, maybe I should put an ad in the listserve asking for help to stack all this wood.

Column: My fight with United Healthcare

By JENNIFER COFFEY

Thirty years ago, I came home to New England with my high school sweetheart and had a beautiful baby boy. We bought a house and planted our flag firmly in the soil of the American Dream.

Editorial: Is Vermont primed to overhaul its schools?

All elections have consequences, but some are more consequential than others. Such might be the case with the tax revolt last fall that upended the political order in Montpelier and brought an influx of Republican legislators to the Statehouse. It potentially created the conditions for a major overhaul of K-12 public education in Vermont.

Column: GOP should double down on ‘facts’ and ‘truth’

By BILL HAMLEN

In early January, a friend called to say Happy New Year and discuss the election. He’s a lifelong Democrat, but we never let that get in the way of our friendship. He seemed excited to share the news that James Carville published an op-ed in The New York Times on Jan. 2, explaining that the Democrats lost as the economy was weaker than he had calculated.

Column: Hidden under the Upper Valley’s affluence

By NARAIN BATRA

Last year, Valley News investigative reporter Jim Kenyon wrote a heart-wrenching story about Jennifer Kahn, a 59-year-old school secretary at Mascoma Valley Regional High School who also worked as a restaurant waitress in Lebanon. Working on the dinner shift and depending upon her minimum hourly wage and tips, Kahn worked hard to “pay for everything from utility bills to her kids’ college educations … mostly as a single mom.” It wasn’t a sob story but a wage-tip-sharing legal case with her employer that drew the reporter’s probing attention.

Forum for Jan. 18, 2025: Public school funds

Using public funds to support waivers for private schools, charter schools and home schooling will continue to be a contentious issue in the coming years. I agree with the many New Hampshire taxpayers who have legitimate and practical concerns about the lack of accountability for tuition waiver spending and the associated drain on funding for public schools.

Forum for Jan. 17, 2025: Drinking age

What an interesting piece Steve Taylor wrote about the rather quiet Upper Valley nightlife of today, versus that of decades ago! (“A Look Back: What Happened to Upper Valley Nightlife”; Jan. 13).

Forum for Jan. 16, 2025: NH plates

A recent story (“Protecting the lakes”; Jan. 6) included another example of how the New Hampshire Legislature continues to avoid proven ways to reduce cyanobacteria blooms, and instead ironically, chooses to add to the problem. One representative’s bill proposes a New Hampshire Lakes license plate to raise funds for bloom reduction. This is like having a beerfest to raise funds for alcohol abuse recovery programs. Warming waters are the single biggest driver of blooms, according to the state’s chief aquatic biologist, and private transportation is the single biggest emitter of CO2 in the US. Rather than promoting private vehicles for transportation, we should be promoting alternatives. And even more so, we should be careful not to lead people to believe that they will be saving lakes by driving. Another motor vehicle based environmental protection funding program, the Moose Plate, has done little to save the moose and has coincided with a greater than 50% decline in its population since 2000.

A Yankee Notebook: Routine and memories stave off loneliness

By WILLEM LANGE

Living alone, as I do, and being an extrovert, which I am, I get a little lonesome at times. Not the hand-wringing lament sort of thing, but rather the recognition that it’s been a day or two since I’ve experienced human interaction. Kiki’s great, and a constant companion, but we don’t hold many two-way conversations in either of our native languages. So it’s pretty quiet around here, rather like a hermitage.

Forum for Jan. 15, 2025: Home fires

So far the fires in Los Angeles have destroyed more than 36,000 acres of land and 9,000 structures, driven by high winds and severely dry conditions. Last week in Derry and Windham, N.H. brush fires driven by high winds and severely dry conditions required 60 firefighters from 16 towns to battle flames. These severely dry conditions result from human-caused climate change driven by the use of fossil fuels — oil, gasoline, propane and natural gas.

Forum for Jan. 14, 2025: Reputation inflation

The two brief words “persistent inflation”(“A President whose star keeps rising”; Editorial, Jan. 4) hardly describe what, for many of us who were actually around then and raised on parents’ tales of the Depression, was the worst aspect of Jimmy Carter’s term as president. At inflation’s peak, a CD might pay 18%, but your money would have lost value by the time you cashed it in. Friends spent and then overspent almost frantically for months, taking on debt to buy anything they thought they might eventually need because their money was going to become worth far less if they waited. The venerable Girard Bank of Philadelphia (now extinct) called to recommend that we move our professional corporation’s nascent retirement fund elsewhere, since inflation, plus rising costs and fees, would likely exhaust the fund over the next 10 years.

Over Easy: A glorious new day has dawned

By DAN MACKIE

I bet you thought liberals were going to run the New World Order. Tell that to Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos and Mark Zuckerberg, the three richest men in the world.