BURLINGTON, Vt. (WCAX) – The UVM men’s soccer team is marching on to the NCAA Tournament Round of 32 for a third straight year after dominating Iona 5-0 on a wet Thursday night at Virtue Field.
Vermont broke the ice less than 20 minutes in on a long range effort from David Ismail, but it was Yaniv Bazini who broke the game open in the second half. The redshirt senior forward curled one around the Gael keeper from outside the box less than 20 seconds into the second half, then made it a brace with a cheeky backheel effort ten minutes later.
“We have a lot of experience,” Bazini said after the Cats’ sixth NCAA Tournament victory in the last three seasons. “I think for every person, when it’s like a do or die situation, everybody gives their best and everybody here is a team. As individuals give their best for everything. So I think this is the recipe that we have for our success.”
Ryan Zellefrow and Maxi Kissel would add tallies of their own for the emphatic 5-0 final score.
“I thought we came up and played really well,” head coach Rob Dow added. “We knew they had strengths. They’re champions of the MAAC, a possession oriented team, and they had a lot of confidence on the ball. We had to endure a few of those moments, but once we broke we knew we could be dangerous. And we had Sydney (Wathuta) going forward. We have Bazini going forward, Marcell (Papp) underneath and David (Ismail) on the right. That’s a really hard four to defend. And all of them had really good games.”
Vermont will head down to Long Island for the next round, where #7 Hofstra is waiting. Kickoff from Hempstead is slated for 5 p.m. on Sunday.

CONCORD, N.H. — Some New Hampshire families are spending nearly one-third of their income on child care, according to a new analysis from the Carsey School of Public Policy at the University of New Hampshire. 

Child care costs have gone up significantly in recent years, swelling 48 percent from 2013 to 2023 in New Hampshire, the analysis found. And there was an uptick in costs in the post-pandemic years, growing 12.5 percent from 2022 to 2023. 

Take, for instance, a family with one infant and a 4-year-old going to a day-care center. They are spending, on average, $33,257 per year on child care: $17,250 per year for the infant, and $16,007 for the toddler, according to the nonprofit Child Care Aware of America.

With the median family in New Hampshire with children under 5 earning about $112,230, according to the analysis, that means about 29 percent of their income would have to go to child care alone.

In the course of a year, that would make child care the single biggest expense for many families, more than the cost of housing ($11,400 to $20,772), food ($12,456 to $13,068), and health care ($12,876 to $13,068), according to the New Hampshire Fiscal Policy Institute. 

“The prices are rapidly increasing,” said Tyrus Parker, a research scientist at the University of New Hampshire and co-author of the analysis. 

What is driving that? 

“I think the price increase is due to a mix of factors, although I’d be hard pressed to assign a share to any given factor,” said Jess Carson, director of the Center for Social Policy in Practice at UNH and co-author of the analysis. 

The increased cost of rent, utilities, food, and cleaning supplies also affects child-care providers, she said. Plus, there are workforce shortages that can drive up wages to recruit and retain staff, she said. If they don’t have enough staff, providers have to decrease their enrollment – but that doesn’t necessarily bring a proportional savings in operating costs, according to Carson. 

And, she said, now that pandemic-era aid has wound down, the only way providers can increase revenue is by increasing tuition. The economic impact can ripple out beyond the immediate families affected, taking parents who can’t afford child care out of the workforce. 

“Families have to make compromises based on their economic realities,” said Parker. 

“Maybe a family would like their child to be in care five days a week, but instead they have to opt for three days, and then one of the parents goes down to working part time just because the cost of child care is too high,” he said.

This story first appeared in Globe NH | Morning Report, our free newsletter focused on the news you need to know about New Hampshire, including great coverage from the Boston Globe and links to interesting articles from other places. If you’d like to receive it via e-mail Monday through Friday, you can sign up here.

Amanda Gokee can be reached at amanda.gokee@globe.com. Follow her @amanda_gokee.

Jennifer Lane received a text message Tuesday afternoon purportedly alerting her to an outstanding “toll invoice” in New Hampshire. If she didn’t pay her $4.15 balance promptly, then a $35 late fee would be added, the message claimed.

Lane knew right away it was a scam. She’s the chief communications officer for the New Hampshire Department of Transportation, which manages the state’s E-ZPass electronic toll collection system, and her team had just sent out an alert a few hours earlier to warn customers about the con.

So she did exactly what the DOT’s heads-up had told the public to do if they receive such a message.

“I immediately reported it to my mobile carrier. I did not click on any links,” she said, adding that she would never give out personal or banking information when receiving a request via text message, email, or phone call.

If you know even the basics of cyber security, then you know “phishing” refers to the use of deceptive tactics online to trick someone into divulging sensitive information, such as by clicking a link in an untrustworthy email. When fraudsters use those tactics via texting — i.e., short message service, or SMS — that’s called a “smishing” scam.

The New Hampshire Department of Transportation said it was advised that an unknown number of Granite Staters are being targeted by an apparent smishing scam. It resembles cases that have been reported in other states in recent months, but the local messages are tailored to New Hampshire residents.

“It looks realistic, however the typos are obvious,” Lane said.

In this case, it seems the scammers are targeting phone numbers with 603 area codes, without any apparent insight into whether a number is affiliated with any of the state’s roughly 588,000 E-ZPass accounts, she said.

“Another employee in the office that does not have an E-ZPass received (a smishing message) as well,” she added.

New Hampshire’s E-ZPass will never send text messages requesting payment for tolls with late fees, according to the DOT’s message. Account holders should instead use the official NH Turnpike E-ZPass website or the NH E-ZPass mobile app.

If you receive a smishing text, you can alert your phone carrier by forwarding the suspicious message to 7726 (SPAM) and you can file a complaint with the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center, the DOT noted.

This story first appeared in Globe NH | Morning Report, our free newsletter focused on the news you need to know about New Hampshire, including great coverage from the Boston Globe and links to interesting articles from other places. If you’d like to receive it via e-mail Monday through Friday, you can sign up here.

Steven Porter can be reached at steven.porter@globe.com. Follow him @reporterporter.