Valley News du lieu suivant : West Lebanon, New Hampshire • A2

LOCAL REGIONAL A2 Satur day, Mar ch 1 9, 2022 www.vnews he robins are back, mask mandates are gone and COVID-19 has been dialed back to COVID-18, or maybe something much lower. Forgive me if not feeling too rosy about this, except for the birds. Our feeder has been hop-hop-hopping this week; our freeloading feathered friends are welcome, welcome in- deed. We are especially cheered by one pair, whom we call Mr. and Mrs.

Cardinal, even though their marital status is unclear. For all we know they could be living in sin. a simpler world just outside our living room window, where a small woodpecker taps at suet like a madman, a squirrel stuffs his face with sunflower seeds, and the fearless chickadees take crap from anyone. not exactly the peaceable kingdom, since house cats lurk on the borders. But among the birds only a rare fluttering kerfuffle.

Elsewhere, the geopolitical outlook is rot- ten. The suffering of the innocents in Ukraine has turned my stomach about mankind and war, and made me wonder why I see it so clearly in other places, in other times, in other skin tones. embarrassed, in retro- spect, and need to dwell on this. Our American COVID conflict is a different sort of business. For reasons that are bigger than you and me, it grew into a cold war be- tween the vaxxers and the anti-vaxxers, the masked crusaders and the droplet deniers.

I am a mask enthusiast. The New Hamp- shire COVID dashboard shows why. Just about of the COVID deaths in the Granite State have been among those aged 60 and up. As a card-carrying AARP member, my tribe. The mask regimen has been inconvenient, but not all bad.

I had a cold com- mon or otherwise since I donned mine, no fever, flu, sniffles, snuffles, croup, cough or wheezing. I have suffered neither pharyngitis nor catarrh. I have been so healthy sicken- ing. My mask game has been pretty good. I started with cloth ones, some of them jauntier than me, like one with hot peppers.

I stepped up to a mask with added filter material, then graduated to double-masking with a polyester mask with highly adjustable ear loops, worn over a surgical mask. The surgical ones are American-made and easier on the ears Chinese factories anticipated my big head. During the omicron surge I scored KN95 masks from a reputable source or as reputable as I could find recommended by Wirecutter reviews from the New York Times. adjusted to the anonymity the masks afford. I know people recognized me, and doubled or tripled my degree of social cluelessness.

Just recently I almost rec- ognize a 6-foot-7 former co-worker while food shopping. not like he blends in with the frozen shrimp. We tried to shop during off-hours and avoid stores where mask scofflaws are com- mon. I think gotten the stink eye from a couple of anti-maskers, but maybe they were sour people who always look like that. Too bad for them.

I had prepared a snappy com- ment if anyone said anything: just wear- ing it for my infectious tuberculosis cough, A few weeks ago I was mightily vexed by three mask-scorning men who smirked their way through the grocery store. They had the look of naughty school boys. Their Carhartt work clothes were so clean and nifty-new it seemed they done a lick of actual work in them which took my judginess to a whole nother level. But over time grown weary of the COVID conflict over vaccines and masks. The online warriors have battled to a standoff.

We are dug in to our positions. I sensed that the mandates were going to go. The governors who track the political winds saw that the public was fatigued. rather be reelected than right, and I under- stand that. We are with COVID, but even now a thousand Americans a day are dying from it.

Some victory. Lately heard a couple of podcasts that described how inner negative voices work against us, denying us contentment, happi- ness, peace of mind. If this is true on the per- sonal level, why not in a bigger sense? What about the people who skirmish online daily, fill their heads with agitating news on cable TV and the radio? They get enough of the other folly. Someone posted online that a shopper had made sheep noises to insult mask-wearers in an Upper Valley supermarket. I wondered how long and obsessively a person had been stew- ing over these matters to be so ugly, so dis- dainful, so rude.

Pretty long, bet. And how long have I been stewing about the mask mockers? Just about the same, I suppose. Dan Mackie lives in West Lebanon. He can be reached at dan.mackie@yahoo.com. THE FAC EO OV MASKING By DAN MACKIE For the Valley News OVER EASY By SARAH MEARHOFF TDigger MONTPELIER The state Senate has advanced a bill that promises to take future action on qualified immunity for police offi- cers, but it fails to eliminate the legal doctrine outright as propo- nents had hoped.

By voice vote on Friday, the Senate approved a substantially amended S.254 on its second reading. One floor vote remains before the bill heads to the House. Sen. Dick Sears, D-Benning- ton, who championed the bill, told his colleagues on the floor that the bill was stripped down from its original intent after his Senate Judiciary Committee heard ex- tensive testimony against the bill from officials in law enforcement. we come to you with to- day is a watered-down version.

not going to sugarcoat Sears said. In its current form, S.254 would commission an indepen- dent report on qualified immu- nity application in Vermont. The bill also would codify the state Supreme Zullo v. Vermont decision, which grants citizens a private right of action against state police on alleged fla- grant violations of Article of the state Constitution. Sears as well as other pro- ponents of the bill said it met a of opposition from law enforcement, as well as mu- nicipalities, mirroring lobbying ef- forts against similar legislation in other states.

The opponents deny those claims, but law en- forcement did provide extensive public testimony against the bill this legislative session. Sen. Joe Benning, R-Caledo- nia, who voted against the bill in the Senate Judiciary Committee last week, told his colleagues on the floor Friday that he was sym- pathetic to law enforcement offi- arguments. He said S.254 is part of a trend of legislation na- tionwide in total, sum up to say you like police Qualified immunity is a widespread legal doctrine estab- lished in U.S. Supreme Court precedent that protects public servants from being sued for vio- lating civil rights while on the job.

Agencies and munici- palities say qualified immunity is a necessary protection that al- lows officers to do police work without fear of frivolous lawsuits. In its original form, S.254 would have eliminated qualified immunity as a defense for any po- lice officers accused of violating civil rights. Sen. Kesha Ram Hinsdale, D- Chittenden, has been a supporter of ending qualified immunity for police officers and included a sim- ilar provision in her own police re- form bill package, S.250. On the floor Friday, she asked her col- leagues to reflect on their first in- teractions with police officers.

old were you? Do you feel that the interaction was justi- fied? Do you feel that you got off maybe better than you should have, and you face the same consequences that someone else might have? Did it traumatize you? Did it make you fearful for life of interacting with another po- lice officer? Was your body touched? Did you lose your civil liberties and wonder if you would lose your she asked. this chamber looked different, if this chamber was full of people of color, or people with disabilities, the answers to those questions would be significantly Senate President Pro Tem- pore Becca Balint, D-Windham, threw her legislative might be- hind the bill at the start of the leg- islative session, but it was not enough to get it through in its original form. experienced immense push back in this work, but that mean that we give Balint said in a statement after the vote. bill voted on by the Senate today is not the bill we started with, and while it is a good first step, there is more work to Full Senate sends watered-down version of legislation to House Qualified immunity bill advances VERMONT STATEHOUSE SIDE JOB VALLEY NEWS REPORT FOR AMERICA ALEX DRIEHAUS Hypertherm employees Hayden Hatfield, left, and Madison Schreiber, both of Bradford, use their community service time to pick up trash on Glen Road near Riverside Community Park in Lebanon on Wednesday. Schreiber and Hatfield worked in retail early in the COVID-19 pandemic and said they were thankful to get jobs at Hypertherm, which offers them opportunities such as on-the-job training and paid community service time.

a fun way to get out of work but also still work Schreiber said. By KATHY McCORMACK Associated Press CONCORD Two staffers at a New Hampshire day care cen- ter illegally restrained children, and one of them was fired in Jan- uary after pulling a child by the shirt and yelling at them, ac- cording to a report released by the state Child Care Licensing Unit. The report, released Monday, found the Woodside School in Concord violated a state regula- tion that says staffers shall not use corporal punishment, and another saying that they should not attempt to control behavior actions which are damaging to including yelling. The two staffers were seen bear-hugging or holding chil- dren in an attempt to control their behavior, the report said. Woodside School places the utmost importance on the safety and well-being of children in our care.

We take the findings of this report very the board of directors said in a statement Friday. took immediate action, with agree- ment from the state, to address the situation that prompted the investigation. We are looking at every possible opportunity to en- sure that we continue to offer a safe and nurturing learning en- vironment for Woodside takes care of chil- dren from infancy through preschool, and has an after- school program for older chil- dren. It has two locations in Con- cord. The report said the violations occurred at the center on the campus of St.

School. The Woodside School leases its building on St. campus and operates independently from St. School. Among the corrective action plan measures mentioned, the report says a child psychologist will visit the program to consult with the staff regarding trauma- sensitive interventions, and that there will be additional staff training on mandated reporting and identifying abuse and ne- glect.

NH: Day care staffers illegally restrained kids Most Hood plants up after cyber schools concerned LYNNFIELD, Mass. Most HP Hood LLC plants are back up and running after the dairy network system was the vic- tim of a security but some school districts are concerned that they will have a milk shortage as a result. of an abundance of caution, we took all of our plants off last weekend, Lynne Bo- han, a spokesperson for the Lynnfield, based company said in a statement Friday. a result, we were unable to manufacture or re- ceive raw materials, including She added, IT team and others have been working around the clock to resolve the issue and I am happy to report that most of our plants are up and She said the matter is still under investiga- tion. Hood is a main dairy supplier in New Eng- land.

In Peterborough, N.H., the superinten- dent at the ConVal School District said it will be affected by anticipated milk shortages caused by the cyberattck. Superintendent Kimberly Rizzo Saunders said in a statement Wednesday it has been made aware by its food service vendor that anticipates significant impacts in its or- dering and delivery processes throughout the next She said the majority of meals are expected to be offered with juice or wa- ter as a substitute beverage. Police: DNA identified in search for girl missing since 2004 WATERBURY, Vt. Vermont State Po- lice investigators used advanced DNA se- quencing techniques to identify a sample found as part of their investigation into the 2004 disappearance of a 17-year-old girl in the town of Montgomery, police said. But investigators say identifying the source of the DNA found near the aban- doned car of Brianna Maitland does not mean they have identified a suspect in her disappearance.

are continuing our ac- tive efforts to investigate every lead associ- ated with this case, and we constantly look for new technological advances to aid in our lead investigator Detective Sgt. Angela Baker said in a statement. Brianna was last seen on the evening of March 19, 2004, when she left work at the Black Lantern Inn in Montgomery. She was headed to a house where she was living, but she never arrived. The next day her car was found about a mile from the restaurant.

The now-identified DNA sample was later found near the car. Police have said there is no evidence Bri- anna left the area willingly and they believe she was a victim of foul play. The DNA col- lected from near car was added to the DNA database and compared to samples from 11 people of interest in the case, but no match was found. In the fall of 2020, the state police sent samples to a Texas-based forensic sequenc- ing laboratory. After months of investigation, police were able to interview, and obtain DNA samples from possible Wire reports LOCAL REGIONAL BRIEFS.