Welcome to the Sunrise Herald with Giselle Goodman. This is the first place you should go to know about:

THE WEATHER AND OTHER STUFF
At 9 a.m., it was 17 degrees in downtown Portland.

The strong winds are gone. The aching cold is back. And tonight, snow returns.

Cold lingers in southern Maine as clouds move in during the day. It should definitely be snowing by evening, if not earlier. We'll be getting the top of a storm that will be widespread in southern New England. You can see it sneaking up on us in the radar below.

Areas such as Manchester, N.H., and below are at this moment under a heavy snow warning. (Keep that in mind if you're taking a plane out of there tonight.) They could get up to 10 inches or more if the storm track is right. Boston, too, is in the storm's path.

We shall fare better than they, with no more than 4 inches predicted. Even so, after it starts, sometime around 1 p.m., it will come down fast and furious. It will accumulate quickly and will seem like a much bigger storm than it really is.

(P.S. Even a little would be a lot for us: Meteorologist Jim Mansfield says it already has been a snowy season. Portland has recorded 10.2 inches of snow, which is about 3 inches ahead of normal.)

By the way, a really BIG snow-making event, a full on Nor'easter is on its way for the weekend, Saturday into Sunday probably. So today's a practice.

FOR MARINERS:

The gale warning is over, but wind on the sea will still be strong - gusting up to 20 knots. Water temperature is toasty compared to the air temperature: 43 degrees.

High tide in Portland at 1:02 p.m. Low tide 6:50 a.m. and 7:29 p.m.

FOR TRAVELERS:

• The section of Congress Street in Portland seen below was closed during the early morning hours after a car hit and took down a utility pole during the night. The road is back open now, though.

View Larger Map
_________________________________________________________________

THE NEWS FROM:

• RICHMOND — Yes, indeed, Richmond is Maine's water king after claiming the Maine Rural Water Association's title for water "au naturel."

Close behind was North Berwick's water, which won for best-tasting chlorinated water. The contest was held in Freeport yesterday with more than 25 water companies vying for the title.

Richmond's thirst-quenching lifeline gets to try again for another title on April 22, 2008, during the Great American Water Taste Test, a nationwide search for the best of the best.

Water at that contest is judged on clarity, bouquet, taste.

You might be laughing your head off by now, because we are, after all, talking about WATER here, not wine. But some people take it very seriously - Aurthur von Wiesenberger for one, who is a food and wine critic from California known for his discerning water palate. He's even written a booklet on the matter, titled, not surprisingly: "The Taste of Water."

Since he won't be a judge in April, maybe the folks of Richmond should send him a jug of their goodness and figure out what they can do to make their water taste like ... water.

• PORTLAND (AP) — Sens. Olympia Snowe and Jack Reed of Rhode Island are calling on the Bush administration to provide at least $14 million to lobstermen to help them comply with a new rule banning floating rope.

A federal rule that takes effect next October requires lobstermen to use sinking rope instead of floating rope on their traps. Supporters of the change say it'll protect right whales from getting entangled in floating rope.

Industry estimates have placed the cost of compliance at $10,000 to $15,000 for each near-shore lobsterman. The costs could be far steeper for those lobstermen who drop their traps farther out to sea in offshore waters.

• PORTLAND (AP) — The New Mainers' Workforce Alliance will hold its second graduation today at 12:45 p.m.

The graduation sends into the work force refugees and immigrants who are skilled in language and technology.

E-mail this entry to a friend