School administrators take note: Those assembly speakers you find to address a hall full of fidgety students can indeed change lives. Dan Hopkins is living proof. His new business, GrassTrack Safaris, has its roots in one of those assemblies.

Now living in Lebanon, Dan grew up in Rumford, Maine. In the early 1980s an assembly lecture (by Charles Darwin’s great-grandson) introduced him to African game and environment. The explorer suggested that Dan and a friend accompany him on his next trip, which seemed like pie in the sky. But relatives from LA who worked in commercial aviation insisted he should not miss this opportunity.… Read More

The popularity of bicycling has reached an all-time high in this country both as a form of exercise and a form of transportation. The Lebanon Police Department has responded to the increased bicycle traffic on our local highway and byways with a two-wheeled task force of their own. Lebanon Police Captain, Timothy Cohen, heads up that division and notes that, while the number of bicycle patrolmen has increased, his two-wheeled patrol has been in existence since 2008. It is an elite group.

“You don’t just ask an officer to get aboard a bicycle and go on patrol,” Cohen explained. “If selected, the officer has to go through a rigorous 40-hour training session that is quite demanding.… Read More