Top stories developing across the region at the noon hour:
The Vermont Army National Guard is muscling up, with the arrival of new main battle tanks at northern Vermont armories; Howard Dean may lead the polls among Democrats in New Hampshire, but a new poll says President Bush would beat him there; American Skiing Company reported on Thursday that it lost $41 million in the first quarter; the one-million dollar clean up of the former TRL paper Mill Complex in Bellows Falls is finished; Governor Douglas is expected to comment today on the spat between Vermont and the International Paper company over a test-burn of tire chips in Ticonderoga.