Granite United Way Offers Free Tax Assistance for Those Earning Less than $51,000 Yearly

Get your dancin’ shoes on — it’s the weekend! For many of you, the work week’s end is in sight and you’re looking forward to a night out with friends or time well spent with family. So, with all of that in mind, I’m sure you’re in the mood to talk about ... taxes? Perhaps that doesn’t sound so thrilling. But how about getting your taxes done for free, if you bring home a salary of less than $51,000 a year? The Volunteer Income Tax

Video: Mad Rivers Flowin'

Claremont — The rivers, they're alive! Maybe not, but they sure were fascinating to watch today. Last week's deep freeze combined with this week's unseasonally warm weather created several ice jams, which clogged the Sugar, White and Connecticut rivers, among others. The resulting clogs caused river levels to rise, and in Claremont, fire officials took the precautionary measure of issuing an optional evacuation advisory to several homes near the Sugar River, in the area of Beauregard Street. To the casual observer, it looked pretty cool;

Watch Out — It’s Windy Out There!

Highlighted from Today’s Pages: J.D. Salinger Book and Movie On The Way

Did you see the news today about the new J.D. Salinger film and biography scheduled to be released next year? The film, which will air on PBS within the coming year, promises to shatter “a myth that people have read about and believed for 60 years about J. D. Salinger (as) someone too pure to publish, too sensitive to be touched,” and replace it with the narrative of “an extraordinarily complex, deeply contradictory human being,” according to a statement from filmmaker-screenwriter Shane Salerno. The renowned

Video: A Flight to Remember

I was lucky enough to tag along with 82-year-old Janet Bailey last week during a special flight out of Lebanon Municipal Airport. I was able to film some video during the flight, too, which is available for viewing at the Valley News Vimeo page. Click the link to take a look. (To read the full article, click the link below under the "Related Stories" section.)

One Student Reflects on Challenges at Dartmouth

A soon-to-be-graduated Dartmouth College student submitted an op-ed to the school’s student newspaper this week lamenting her time on campus, where she said “being a poor, black woman ... is not conducive to much of anything.” The Dartmouth published the piece authored by student Jennifer McGrew yesterday, the same day college officials reported the third incident of racism in as many months. She writes, in part: My situation is my situation. I cannot and will not speak for anyone but myself. I cannot say that

Have More Americans Died From Gunfire Since ’68 Than in All U.S. Wars?

According to PolitiFact, this claim from PBS commentator Mark Shields is not only startling but also true. On Dec. 21, 2012, Shields told PBS NewsHour host Judy Woodruff, “You know, Judy, the reality is — and it’s a terrible reality — since Robert Kennedy died in the Ambassador Hotel on June 4, 1968, more Americans have died from gunfire than died in … all the wars of this country’s history, from the Revolutionary through the Civil War, World War I, World War II, in those

Coming Sunday: The United Pets of America 

Norwich — Meet Face, the 125-lb short-haired Saint Bernard who I had the pleasure of hanging out with at Dan & Whit’s on Tuesday. (At left is owner James Brower, of Hartland.) I was talking to people about their pets while working on an upcoming story about the number of dogs and cats per household across the United States. Take your best guess: Does New Hampshire have more dogs per household than Vermont, or is it the other way around? And what about cats: Do

Abandoning West Lebanon Dreams, Turkish Kebab House Opens in Essex Junction

West Lebanon — I’m a little late to the punch here, but it turns out that a Turkish restaurant that was scheduled to open in West Lebanon this past spring was forced farther north by financial constraints. Vural and Jackie Oktay premiered the Istanbul Kebab House in Essex Junction, Vt., in May. They had gone before the Lebanon Planning Board in December 2011, and won approval to open the restaurant on the first floor of 14 Main St., between Lebanon Sewing & Vacuum Center and

Sprinkler Soaks Fairlee Town Hall with 6,000 Gallons of Water

(Originally posted online Thursday, Jan. 10. Updated to reflect the Jan. 11 edition of the Valley News.) Fairlee — A waterfall doesn’t belong in the middle of Town Hall. Neither does a river or a salmon ladder. Those, however, were descriptions offered by town officials yesterday as they recalled the deluge of water that gushed from a second-floor sprinkler early Sunday morning, damaging floors, ceilings and some equipment on its determined journey into the basement. “We knew that something was terribly wrong because water was