Daybreak Friday, 1/16/26

Getting sunny, definitely colder than yesterday. We’re between systems today, with clearing skies this morning and some good sun in the middle hours of the day, before things begin to cloud up again late. Highs today in the mid 20s, lows overnight in the mid teens along with a chance of snow by dawn and all day tomorrow

“Fighting or playing?” So writes Kevin Lary from Canaan, as two deer meet in the night at the edge of a snowy woods. “Lots of acorns in the area,” he adds.

Did you catch Dear Daybreak yesterday? If not, you missed James AuBuchon’s breathtaking sunrise photo looking out over Lake Sunapee off in the distance; and Lisa Silbert’s wry story about a bear, a chicken coop, an electric fence, a lesson in rural living—and a new slogan to live by. And Dear Daybreak could use some more good stories: If you’ve got something to share, please send it in.

Sad news about that owl. Yesterday, Daybreak ran Nicholas Grougan’s photo of Windsor’s fire chief holding an injured barred owl he’d rescued from crows that were harrying it by the side of the road. He describes the rescue to Clare Shanahan in the Valley News: how the owl tried to escape and got caught in a tree. “It was just such a chill bird once it knew that we were there to help it,” he tells Shanahan. Once at VINS, though, rehabilitators elected to euthanize it. “The owl was thin and had likely not been able to hunt for a while. Its wing had already calloused and partially healed, so it could only extend about halfway, which was why the bird couldn’t fly,” Shanahan writes.

Key Randolph-area community development group shutting down. For three decades, the Randolph Area Community Development Corporation has been a key player in developing affordable housing, from senior housing like Joslyn House to mobile home parks. But this year, reports Tim Calabro in The Herald, RACDC is dissolving itself. The reasons range from sharp cuts in federal funding for affordable housing to a phishing attack that cost it $450,000. “That moment I realized that there was no way we were going to be able to survive,” director Peter Reed tells Calabro. Most of its properties will pass into the hands of Barre-based Downstreet Housing.

Lawsuit engulfs another Woodstock-area foundation. This time it’s the Bridgewater Area Community Foundation, where Charles Shackleton, the furniture maker, and Collen Doyle, the moving force behind the Woolen Mill Comedy Club, have sued over what they allege was their improper removal from the foundation’s board. In the Standard, Mike Donoghue reports they contend they were removed “after they began to inquire about possible mismanagement, questionable spending and the re-writing or forging of documents by certain foundation members”; they also challenge the naming of Kristiana Birmingham as executive director and of other new board members. Lots more details at the link.  

SPONSORED: Jason Moran is one of today’s most visionary jazz artists. And on Thursday, January 22, he performs at the Hop with The Bandwagon in an evening of inventive, fearless improvisation and exhilarating music. The powerhouse trio have been making music together for 26 years and have been described as one of the most exciting rhythm sections in jazz, pushing the genre forward while honoring its roots. Get tickets today at the burgundy link or here. Sponsored by the Hopkins Center for the Arts at Dartmouth.

Two former VA docs set up “direct primary care” shop in Leb. Alex Grossman and Elizabeth Wolfe, both internal medicine practitioners, are the only staff at their new clinic on Hanover Street, reports Clare Shanahan in the VN. Under their model, patients pay a monthly fee of $235 (plus a registration fee), which is not billable to insurance. “By cutting out insurance, not having staff and keeping their patient panels small,” Shanahan writes, “both doctors hope to focus on building relationships with patients.” “This was the balance for us to be able to provide the kind of care we want,” Grossman tells her. There are similar practices in Lyme and WRJ.

At the Hood Museum, a sprawling series of exhibits tries to “foster conversation about America and how artists have seen it.” So writes Alex Hanson in the VN about the dozen America at 250 exhibits the museum has mounted, drawing from its own collection. It often puts works next to one another as a form of dialogue, Hanson writes: “Frank Stella’s shaped canvas, ‘Chocorua IV,’ with its dramatic offset triangle, seems less radical next to pottery made by the Hopi-Tewa artist Nampeyo.” Meanwhile, “From Mastodon to Mosaic” starts with a mastodon molar, dug up in in the 1770s. Hanson talks to director John Stomberg and curator Jami Powell about it all.

This week in the woods, on the wing. For one thing, do you know how to tell the difference between a Cooper’s hawk and a sharp-shinned hawk? Look at heads, tails, and size, writes Northern Woodlands’ Jack Saul for this third week of January. One other thing: Cooper’s hawks like to perch in the open, though “short wings help it maneuver through brush and other obstacles in pursuit of its favorite meal of small birds.” Also out there: boreal chickadees, ruffed grouse (in winter, “scales on the toes enlarge into a comblike, horny fringe and become akin to snowshoes”), a red fox den, and violet-toothed polypore.

Skiing Close to Home: Green Woodlands, Dorchester/Lyme. For a truly beautiful cross-country skiing experience, says the UVTA, head to Green Woodlands. Over 50 kilometers of groomed skate and classic ski trails span easy to advanced terrain, with warming huts scattered throughout where you can stop for hot chocolate. The trail system is designed by Olympic coach John Morton and groomed to pristine conditions on Thursdays and Fridays. No fees required, just bring a smile and respect the wilderness. Note: There's virtually no cell service on the property, so come prepared. Parking at the end of Dorchester Road from Lyme, or on NH Route 118 in Dorchester.

Daybreak’s Upper Valley News Quiz. Were you paying attention this week? Because we’ve got questions. Like, where will you find a large outdoor skating loop besides Lake Morey? And where did Advance Transit’s new executive director get her start in transportation? Meanwhile, you’ll find NHPR’s New Hampshire quiz here, and Seven Days’ Vermont quiz here.

Plymouth State to close Museum of the White Mountains building. In an email yesterday, university president Don Birx and provost Nate Bowditch announced that due to state cuts to higher education, the Plymouth NH institution “must close the Museum’s current standalone building”—though they added, “we want to be clear about what is not changing: the collections, and the University’s stewardship of the Museum of the White Mountains.” The collection will be relocated to the university’s library, while “the Museum’s presence will be woven into the academic and public life of the University in a way that fits our budget,” though what that means remains vague.

Leaked Signal chat stokes NH furor over what GOP rep meant by “segregated schools.” In the Globe’s Morning Report newsletter (no paywall), Steven Porter parses the back-and-forth between GOP Rep. Kristin Noble, who chairs the House education policy committee, and Democrats who pounced on her comment in an exchange over a bill to require that high school students learn about hunting and firearms usage: “when we have segregated schools we can add all the fun stuff lol,” she wrote. Critics decried what they labeled as racism. Noble responds she was talking politics: “Republicans have been self-segregating out of the leftist indoctrination centers for decades.”

As number of VT school bus companies dwindle, prices rise. For one thing, as Mountain Views district Supt. Sherry Sousa says, less competition “makes it really hard to negotiate a contract that meets the needs of our communities and is fiscally responsible.” Moreover, write Greta Solsaa and Corey McDonald in VTDigger, at least four of the companies that remain—First Student, Butler’s Bus Service, Bet-Cha Transit and Mountain Transit—are owned by private equity firms. “How responsive are they to your needs?” says one former superintendent. “And at some point, when they control the market, they’re gonna jack up the price, and you’ve got very little say.”

Preserving ice for the ages. Scientists are all too aware that the Earth’s ice is melting fast, and with it, the history of the planet’s atmosphere. Preserving the information that’s stored in ice—atmospheric gases, aerosols, pollutants and dust—is critical, write the AP’s Nicole Winfield and Paolo Santalucia. A consortium of European research institutes has created the Ice Memory Foundation, a repository on the Antarctic Plateau. The vault will hold core samples—each one an “atmospheric time capsule”—from around the world for study in the future. The first, from Mont Blanc in France and Grand Combin in Switzerland, arrived at their new frozen home this week. 

“Hypothermia can occur in minutes. So why do I do this?” That is, why does Orion Miller surf the St. Lawrence in Montreal in the dead of winter, dodging ice chunks the size of trucks and plunging into water that is still liquid only because of the speed at which it moves? In their short film on Montreal’s “ice surfer,” Shan Canuel and William Comtois-Jean try to capture what Miller gets from extreme discomfort. Along the way, they also capture some stunning footage of ice. Sometimes, Miller will rest on a sharp-edged chunk floating down the river and think about the beauty of the jagged ice around him, “like crystal.”

Today's Wordbreak. With a word from yesterday’s Daybreak.

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HEADS UP

There are all sorts of good performances and events happening this weekend, and you’ll find them here. One thing that didn’t make it into yesterday afternoon’s Weekend Heads Up email: Saturday morning from 7-9 am, writer and naturalist Ted Levin is leading a walk in the Hartford Town Forest to explore it and talk about the ecology of overwintering birds, as well as winter natural history. Details here and a serious reminder: No dogs!!!

And for today...

The Australian indie-folk-rockers dance us into the weekend.

See you Monday for CoffeeBreak.

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