NASHUA, Iowa (KWWL) — A person is using his bike all the best way from Nashua, Iowa to Nashua, New Hampshire.
Andy Armstrong is a pastor on the First Church in New Hampshire and began his journey from the Little Brown Church Friday morning in Nashua, Iowa.
He says that there’s a historic connection between the 2 cities and church buildings. He’s elevating cash to restore his church’s bell tower.
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KWWL talked to him as he handed by Waterloo on Friday.
“I simply am extremely grateful to the sort of hospitality that I’ve obtained alongside the best way,” Armstrong stated. “It simply appears that individuals right here in Iowa are extremely sort to cyclists, you’ve got acquired a heat spot for us. And that basically goes a great distance, so I am actually glad to start right here in your state.”
The journey is about 1,500 miles, and Armstrong plans to journey about 60-80 miles a day. This might put him within the vary of reaching New Hampshire in a pair weeks.
CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — A private school teacher who says she was fired after driving an 18-year-old student to get an abortion is suing New Hampshire’s Department of Education and officials she says falsely suggested she circumvented state law.
New Hampshire law requires parents to receive written notice at least 48 hours before an abortion is performed on an unemancipated minor. But in this case, the student wasn’t living with her parents and was a legal adult, according to the lawsuit filed Monday.
The teacher, who filed the suit as “Jane Doe,” said she provided the student with contact information for a community health center last fall when the student disclosed her suspected pregnancy and later gave her a ride to the appointment in October. The school fired her within days and referred the matter to the Department of Education, which revoked her teaching license earlier this month.
The lawsuit says the department exceeded its authority and violated her due process rights by revoking her credentials without a fair and impartial process. And it accuses Education Commissioner Frank Edelblut of pushing a false narrative of her conduct via an opinion piece he published in April.
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The essay, titled “Thank God Someone is Looking Out for the Children,” was published in response to New Hampshire Public Radio reports critical of the commissioner. In it, Edelblut asked rhetorically whether the department should “turn a blind eye” when “allegedly, an educator lies by calling in sick so they can take a student – without parental knowledge – to get an abortion.”
According to the lawsuit, department officials knew for months prior to the essay’s publication that the student in question was an adult and thus not subject to the parental notification law.
Kimberly Houghton, spokesperson for the department, declined to comment on its investigation of the teacher and referred questions about the lawsuit to the attorney general’s office. Michael Garrity, spokesperson for that agency, said Wednesday that officials are reviewing it and will respond in due course. Attorneys for the teacher did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The teacher’s firing was first reported last week by The Boston Globe, based on investigatory records it requested from the Education Department. The lawsuit said the department’s “biased and stilted disclosure” of information that should have remained confidential until the case was settled created a misleading narrative that damaged the teacher’s reputation and put her at risk.
A hearing is scheduled for July 3, five days before the teacher is set to begin a new job.
“She’s a beautiful old lady,” said Kevin Parker, 70. “We just wanted to help her.”
Parker, who also lives in Fitzwilliam, was one of the neighbors who joined the team to help repair the greenhouse. He said work got underway a few weeks ago, after he and another neighbor, Todd Reed, had assembled a team.
“It became like a barn raising thing for a couple of days,” Parker said. The repairs took about 15 hours, according to Parker, who has been spending summers in Fitzwilliam for as long as he can remember. Twenty-five years ago, he became a full-time resident.
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Todd Reed said the team of volunteers stripped rotten wood off the frame of the greenhouse and cut two pieces of 40-foot plastic to drape over the frame. Amanda Gokee/Globe Staff
Parker, who is a retired general contractor turned vegetable farmer, said Bullock is beloved in town, and when it became clear that she needed help, people were willing to volunteer.
“She’s been struggling,” he said. “The thing got ripped a couple of years ago. Rolls of replacement have been there since the fall, but no one got the ball going to help her.”
That changed this spring, when her longtime neighbor Todd Reed, 60, led the repair effort.
When Reed moved to Fitzwilliam in 1986, Bullock and her husband were the first people he met. Her husband passed away in 2017, but Bullock has kept the farm stand going on her own.
“She’s just one of the nicest, sweetest ladies you ever want to meet,” said Reed, who was happy to work on the repairs after Bullock called him and asked for help. He has an auto body repair shop and raises honey bees.
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Reed said the team stripped rotten wood off the frame of the greenhouse and cut two pieces of 40-foot plastic to drape over the frame. They also installed ventilation and a double-layer of plastic that can be filled with air in the winter to provide extra warmth.
Some people were there for their knowledge, while others were just needed to hold the huge piece of plastic, according to Reed.
“You’ve got to realize unrolling a piece of plastic that size, if you get any wind at all, it makes a pretty big kite,” he said. “You need people just to hold down the corners. They don’t necessarily need to know what they’re doing, they just need to be a body holding a corner.”
Thanks to his recruitment, he said there plenty of bodies: around eight to 10 people were there to help, which was enough to avoid the kite scenario.
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Frances Bullock’s farm stand has been a roadside fixture in Fitzwilliam for at least the past 40 years. Amanda Gokee/Globe Staff
Reed said the repair should last for about three to five years before it needs to get done again.
Bullock has already filled the greenhouse with annual flowers that she can sell this year.
“I’m really happy to have this,” Bullock said. She said the money from the farm stand helps her pay to heat her house in the winter.
Bullock said she started the farm stand about 40 years ago. “We grew more than we could eat and neighbors kept coming by looking for stuff,” she said.
Now, she said the ears of corn have become a favorite among her customers.
“Fitzwilliam is split politically but all the residents love the loons on Laurel Lake and Mrs. Bullock’s corn,” said Barbara Schecter, a longtime summer resident of Fitzwilliam.
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Residents said in the town of about 2,400, it’s typical for neighbors look out for each other.
“I’ve been helped through times, too,” Parker said. “It is a place where money’s not the first issue.”
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Amanda Gokee can be reached at amanda.gokee@globe.com. Follow her @amanda_gokee.
