Merriam-Webster chose “pandemic” as its word of 2020. A number of news organizations have named the pandemic their stories of the year, hardly going out on a limb.
COVID-19 impacted everything we did this year, from the precautions we added to our newsgathering operation to the stories we told.
As I recently reviewed our website’s year-end metrics, the 10 most-read stories reflected that reality: they were mostly coronavirus, coronavirus, coronavirus, plus a breath of fresh air from the former Croydon police chief, who, on a chilly night in February, stripped down to his briefs and boots and walked nearly all the way home from the town offices after the Selectboard axed his job. (Remember that?)
I often share a version of this list at year’s end, but in a departure from past practice, I decided to organize 2020’s account by the most-read stories of each month, to help us reflect on the most talked-about news of our communities from the beginning of this tumultuous year to its close.
It was a year marked by great challenge and loss, and I hope that reading the newspaper — in print or online — fostered some small sense of connection to your neighbors and indeed the world. Thank you for reading and for your encouragement and support; our newsroom appreciates it deeply.
“Two being tested for coronavirus in New Hampshire,” Jan. 27
Nobody in the Twin States would test positive for the novel coronavirus until early March (more on that later). But weeks before then, two people in New Hampshire underwent testing after they had traveled to Wuhan city, China, which was the original epicenter, and experienced respiratory symptoms.
At that point there were cases in the U.S. in Arizona, California, Illinois and Washington.
“The risk to our communities in New Hampshire is low, but we want to identify people who may be infected with this new coronavirus in order to prevent spread,” State Epidemiologist Dr. Benjamin Chan said in a news release at the time.
“Bottom Line: Sturm, Ruger missing the mark as gun sales continue to tumble,” Feb. 22
This installment of Valley News business reporter John Lippman’s weekly column, Bottom Line, was our most read story of the year on our website, with more than 35,000 views (sorry, Croydon).
“President Donald Trump may be the best friend the NRA ever had, but the so-called ‘Trump Slump’ is blamed for an industrywide dampening in gun sales,” Lippman wrote in the column about the difficulties faced by gunmaker Sturm, Ruger, which has a plant in Newport, N.H.
Well into election season, the company was singing a different tune. Lippman reported in October that a Ruger executive hailed an “incredible surge in demand,” and he followed up with a Nov. 7 story under the headline “Gun sales blazing as pandemic, protests and Upper Valley transplants trigger purchases.”
“Dartmouth-Hitchcock employee tests ‘presumptive positive’ for coronavirus,” March 2
The first known case of COVID-19 in the Twin States was certainly a big headline.
In February, a Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center employee traveled to Italy, which was by then a second hotspot of the coronavirus after Wuhan. The employee, a medical provider who lives in Grafton County, felt unwell and sought care at the hospital’s ambulatory care center on Feb. 28. He was told to self-isolate, but went to a party at The Engine Room in White River Junction with about 100 people.
The employee — who has never been publicly identified — ultimately tested “presumptive” positive for COVID-19 on Sunday, March 1, with the results confirmed the following day. His case was eventually linked to two other cases, including another DHMC employee and a church parishioner who attended services with the second person.
“COVID-19 news roundup: Vt. releases town-by-town breakdown of coronavirus cases; NH notifying first responders of cases,” April 27
Covering the coronavirus in March and April was like getting knocked around by waves at the ocean. Updates and developments rolled in quickly as scientists learned more about the virus and governments, schools and businesses responded. As soon as you thought you knew what the news was, another wave crashed down and turned everything on its head. We might post an update about something being postponed in the morning, only to have it canceled by the afternoon.
To navigate these choppy waters, we turned to what we internally called COVID-19 roundups or “COVID news of the day.” We posted short news items online throughout the day as we could verify and report them, usually at one link online, and then engineered that into a single package for print. Our top three stories of April were all COVID-19 roundups, including this one.
“West Lebanon Kmart to close, job listings say,” May 29
Alas, anytime we write about comings and goings on Route 12A in West Lebanon, it’s bound to get lots of clicks. Lippman found Kmart was likely on its last legs, and within a few months the storefront was empty.
The story, as with most 12A stories, also drew a lot of comments about what people wanted to see in the space, with many hoping for a new Target store, which may explain our most-read story of December.
“Board ousting Windsor principal after ‘insanely tone-deaf’ posts on Black Lives Matter,” June 12
This was our first report of the conflict between Mount Ascutney School Board and Windsor School Principal Tiffany Riley, who wrote a Facebook post many saw as critical of the Black Lives Matter movement, touching off a debate about racial sensitivity, free speech, the expectations of educators and experiences of students of color — especially in this predominately white region.
“I firmly believe Black Lives Matter, but I DO NOT agree with coercive measures taken to get this point across; some of which are falsified in an attempt to prove a point,” Riley wrote on June 10, in the wake of the racial justice protests spurred by the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis. She added, “While I want to get behind BLM, I do not think people should be made to feel they have to choose black race over human race.”
The board voted on June 12 to put Riley on paid administrative leave and on July 27 to fire Riley, later affirming its decision in October. Riley has sued, asking a U.S. District Court judge to rule that the board’s actions in June mean that that’s when she was fired.
The conflict resonated far beyond Windsor and drew national attention to the small school district.
“Community mourns man, 25, who was synonymous with White River Junction,” July 10
“A village has lost its folk hero,” begins this story by reporter Alex Hanson, told with photographs by James Patterson.
“For the past five years, Micah Porter had been an unofficial symbol in downtown White River Junction, skateboarding along, his long red hair spilling out of a bandana, part of his identity as a self-described pirate. He knew and loved everybody, and everybody seemed to know and love him.”
Micah — whom I knew in the way that everyone in White River Junction knew him, as a ubiquitous presence who had a knack for brightening your day — died on July 5, at age 25. The cause of death was suicide.
In addition to our A Life feature on Mondays, where we tell the stories of Upper Valley people who have recently passed away, we occasionally write “news obituaries” about deaths of community leaders — often people who have lived long lives and impacted their communities over the course of many years. Micah’s life was far too short, but most people in White River Junction can tell you his impact was outsized. The community grieved with his many friends and family.
“Mink, the bear who roamed Hanover with cubs, found dead,” Aug. 25
Much ink has been spilled about Mink the bear over the years, about her appetite for garbage consumption in Hanover; her cubs’ nefarious history of breaking-and-entering; and her death sentence by wildlife officials, redemption by the governor, expulsion to the far north and return to the Upper Valley the following year. So maybe it’s not surprising that just about 20,000 people flocked to the story of her death, which wildlife experts believe can be attributed to natural causes after her body was found in Lebanon. Also popular in the following days: officials’ attempts to capture her three cubs. Although one cub was killed when it ran in front of a bus, two were located and sent to a bear rehabilitation center in Lyme.
“Dartmouth quarantines 23 Tuck students after party in dorm,” Sept. 8
Dartmouth College officials called the party a “serious offense” against COVID-19 precautions, which were in place to help prevent transmission of the virus as the college welcomed back about half its student body to campus this fall for mostly online classes.
Out of those roughly 2,300 students, the college revoked campus privileges for 86 students because of violations of COVID-19 safety protocols after investigating about 600 reports of potential violations, officials said last month. Another 124 students were given warnings, and no action was taken in 397 of the reports. (It’s not clear where the students who attended the Tuck party may have fit into those numbers.)
Over the course of the semester, the college reported a positivity rate of just 0.076%, which Provost Joseph Helble said was “one of the lowest levels in the country” among national research universities.
Students are expected to return to campus in mid-January.
“Twin States’ virus restrictions divide Upper Valley, as Vt. limits non-essential travel to NH’s Grafton County,” Oct. 16
This was perhaps the clearest post-summer jolt alerting the Upper Valley that our relatively mild collective experience of the coronavirus in the warmer months compared to most other parts of the country may struggle to endure the winter. Our Vermont and New Hampshire communities were bifurcated when Vermont officials first added Grafton County (home to Lebanon, Hanover and several other Upper Valley towns) to its list of places requiring a quarantine period for nonessential travel.
Less than a month later, Vermont had thrown away the map altogether and said all travel outside the state for nonessential purposes requires quarantine.
“New Hampshire, Vermont residents urged to stay home for the holidays,” Nov. 7
Staff Writer Nora Doyle-Burr — who, on the health care beat, had quite the year — and photographer Jennifer Hauck documented health officials in the Twin States urging people to stay close to home for the holidays this year, and some of the side effects of those warnings (orders for smaller Thanksgiving turkeys being one). The story was published as the U.S. was hitting a high of 100,000 new COVID-19 cases a day, which was considered a troubling milestone.
On Dec. 30, the country reported 229,349 new cases, according to The New York Times.
“Contractor plans Target store in West Lebanon,” Dec. 3
With Kmart gone, Target is making plans to move in, according to plans filed at City Hall. What was that I was saying about stories on the comings and goings on Route 12A?
Valley News editor Maggie Cassidy can be reached at mcassidy@vnews.com.