Also on today’s menu:
Footprints In The Snow
Fair Redistricting
After deciding to phase out the substance use disorder treatment program that Easterseals operated at Webster Place in Franklin, the organization is counting on $23 million in American Rescue Plan money to create a new residential facility for veterans. The state’s Executive Council approved the plan on Wednesday.
Webster Place once belonged to Daniel Webster’s family, later serving as a children’s orphanage and then as home to Sisters of Holy Cross. Alex Ray of the Common Man family of restaurants established the treatment center that Easterseals has been operating until cutting back on services last year.
Governor Chris Sununu supported the use of one-time federal funds to create 31 units of permanent housing and 30 respite/retreat beds for veterans and guests, and the Executive Council unanimously supported the project in which Easterseals would continue to own and operate Webster Place, with the state providing the $23 million to develop the plan.
Footprints In The Snow
The story of Pam Bales’ rescue of a stranded hiker on Mount Washington will soon hit movie theaters, with British actress Naomi Watts in the starring role. Watts is known for her performance in David Lynch’s Mulholland Drive as well as the disaster movie, The Impossible, about a family whose vacation in Thailand was ruined by a tsunami.
Joshua Rollins’ screenplay is based on Ty Gagne’s story, “Footprints in the snow lead to an emotional rescue,” which first appeared Appalachia magazine, describing Bales’ discovery of footprints while retreating from the mountain amid strong winds and snowfall. She decided to follow the tracks, and found a stranded, hypothermic man, whom she assisted to safety.
Bales, now 72, collaborated with Rollins, director Malgorzata Szumowska, and Watts during production, and planned to attend the film’s premiere in New York.
Fair Redistricting
Governor Chris Sununu rejected his party’s gerrymandered map for congressional redistricting, which had been universally panned in public hearings but which nevertheless made its way to his desk for signature. The map would have grouped towns in such a way that one district would favor Democrats and one would favor Republicans, which proponents argued would ensure that New Hampshire would have at least one congressman in the majority party in Washington, D.C.
Sununu instead created his own draft of a map that, in his words, “keeps our districts competitive, passes the smell test, and holds our incumbents accountable so that no one elected official is immune from challengers or constituent services.”
In a letter to Senate President Chuck Morse and House Speaker Sherman Packard, the governor said, “There is still enough time in this process to deliver a map for our citizens that gets the job done, and I hope you will continue to work to get something done through the legislative process that meets the expectations of our citizens. They are counting on us to get this right.”
Please Support Our Efforts
The News Café is a virtual meeting place where we discuss the news of the day: local, statewide, national, and international.
An offering by the Liberty Independent Media Project, the News Café does not rely on advertising, as most media outlets do, freeing us to provide an independent focus on events and cultural issues. The project instead relies on direct monetary support from donors and subscribers, as well as providing news to other media outlets.
If you like what we’re doing, and want to see more local news you will not find elsewhere, please give what you can.
Subscriptions to this newsletter are available for as little as $5 per month. Subscribers can share their knowledge, thoughts, and questions about any topic, and we may select some of those subjects for more in-depth analysis.
If you’re unable to pay but still want to receive all of the free public posts in your in-box, click the Subscribe button and select a free subscription.
Gain more control over how you feed your mind: You can now read News Café in the new Substack app for iPhone. With the app, you’ll have a dedicated Inbox for this Substack and any others you subscribe to. New posts will never get lost in your email filters, or get stuck in spam. Longer posts will never be cut off by your email app. Comments and rich media will work seamlessly. Overall, it’s a big upgrade to the reading experience.
The Substack app is currently available for iOS. Get the app
If you don’t have an Apple device, you can join the Android waitlist here.
I think that using Webster Place for our veterans is great usage of property once belonging to Daniel Websters family. He would be pleased. Barbara Greenwood