Daybreak Friday, 10/24/25

Mostly cloudy, chance of showers. Low pressure’s been building in and colder air is starting to arrive, as is a quick-moving disturbance that’ll bring us a chance of showers this afternoon. More clouds than sun due today, with highs into the mid 50s, lows overnight in the mid 30s.

Extreme drought recedes a bit in VT, but not in NH. Yesterday’s federal drought monitor report showed some lessening of drought conditions up in the northwest corner of VT, but otherwise, things remain unchanged. Here’s VT, and here’s NH.

A skunk by any other name would smell as bad. So writes Ted Levin about Erin Donahue’s trail cam video. “Mefitis is the Roman goddess of foul-smelling gases. Mephitis mephitis, Latin for BAD odor, is the scientific name of the striped skunk, one of vertebrate biology's most justified monikers. In November, striped skunks enter winter dens, often communally. Occupied dens may be 40°F warmer than empty dens. Skunks may lose up to half their body mass in winter, and lower their metabolism to conserve resources. (Torpor, not hibernation, which is hormonally controlled.) You can detect an active skunk den (hopefully not under your porch) by its mephitic odor.”

Hanover police issue warrant for woman whose car prompted bomb squad response. Last Sunday’s incident began after witnesses saw the 50-year-old Wisconsin resident pour what turned out to be ammonia over her car, and ended some eight hours later after a state police bomb squad determined the car contained ammonia and bleach. Now, reports Eric Francis for Daybreak, the HPD has obtained a warrant charging the woman with disorderly conduct and displaying “offensive material” in messages taped to the car’s windows. Police say they don’t know if she’s still in the Upper Valley, but “do not believe she poses a threat to the public,” Eric writes.

Burglars nab two computers, donation jar from Bethel Public Library. The break-in earlier this month was the first anyone can remember, reports Darren Marcy in The Herald. “We don’t know, we think they must have come in through a window in the back,” Board of Trustees Chair Lisa Campbell tells him. The donation jar—labeled “The Pig”—had a small amount of cash, but the two Macs the thieves took are worth about $1,400 apiece. Their disappearance leaves the library with just one for the public to use. “One is not quite enough,” says Campbell. “Even if we could replace one, that would make a difference for us.”

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Nine Upper Valley projects get VT tax credits for building revitalization. They’re not minor, either. As Liz Sauchelli reports in the Valley News, Fairlee-based Village Ventures will see $212,230 in tax credits to turn Bradford’s Jenkins House into apartments and a combined $225K for the Bridge + Main buildings in Fairlee; the Norwich Grange restoration will see a $177,500 credit; the American Precision Museum in Windsor is getting a $157,452 credit toward renovating its building; and more. In all, the state is subsidizing 34 projects to the tune of $3.3 million.

Woodstock sees banner foliage year. You could see it in the raw numbers—walk-ins to the Woodstock Chamber jumped by 5,000 visitors Oct. 1-14 compared to last year, reports Tom Ayers in The Standard—and you could see it in the milk consumption at the new Dreamscape Café in town, where co-owner James Williams tells Ayers, “We were going through at least 50 gallons of whole milk, let alone almond and oat milk on top of that, every single day. That’s a lot of lattes.” Inn and shop owners saw similar jumps in business, though Billings did not. One theory: Bus traffic was down this year, but there were a lot more people visiting by car—to streets’ chagrin.

SPONSORED: Discover the magic of learning at Crossroads Academy! Our Fall Admissions Open House is November 13 from 8:30–10:30 am. Meet inspiring teachers, tour classrooms, and see how we nurture Strong Minds and Kind Hearts in grades K–8. Separately, you’re invited to join our free Intro to Kindergarten program—Fridays, November 14, 21, December 5 & 12 (1:00–2:15 p.m.)—where children ages 3 1/2–5 enjoy joyful, hands-on adventures exploring the five senses. Register for either at the burgundy link. Can’t attend? Email [email protected] to schedule a visit anytime. Sponsored by Crossroads Academy.

The world comes to Dartmouth to talk youth mental health. Really. Attendees at a three-day symposium organized alongside the UN Development Programme will come from Africa, Asia, Europe, Latin America, the Middle East, and North America. Co-organized by economist David Blanchflower, who studies happiness and, at the behest of the UNDP, unhappiness, it’ll feature everything from a panel with six former US surgeons general to sessions led by NYU social scientist Jonathan Haidt and Bowling Alone author Robert Putnam to hikes: “There’s growing evidence that face-to-face activity with peers, without phones, in the outdoors is very helpful,” says economist Bruce Sacerdote. Sessions Monday and Tuesday will be livestreamed. Schedule here.

Porcupines take to the trees. After a summer spent feeding on the ground, they’re up in the canopy now, writes Northern Woodlands’ Jack Saul in this week’s “This Week in the Woods”—partial to hemlock, but also basswood, sugar maple, beech, and oak. Also changing their diets around now: pine warblers, which prefer insects but can chow down on seeds; and red squirrels going from fruit, insects, eggs, and baby birds to conifer seeds (a single squirrel can cache as many as 15,000 cones in middens). Also out there: British soldier lichen, whose name you’ll get as soon as you see it.

Hiking Close to Home: Mills Riverside Park, Jericho, VT. The Upper Valley Trails Alliance has just completed an accessibility assessment and highly recommends this walk. Mills Riverside Park offers scenic loop trails with stunning Mount Mansfield views from the start. (Note: The covered bridge mentioned in the description was recently removed due to aging and replaced with a sturdy new structure.) Multiple loops let you tailor your hike to your ability, winding through fields and woods with benches at scenic overlooks. There's also an off-leash dog area with its own trail network. Fall is ideal for the open-field views and brilliant Mount Mansfield backdrop.

Were you paying attention this week? Daybreak’s Upper Valley News Quiz has some questions for you, like: Where’s Stateline Sports going to be moving this winter? And what did a police bomb squad find in that car parked behind Dartmouth’s dining hall? Meanwhile, you’ll find both NHPR’s New Hampshire quiz and Seven Days’ Vermont quiz at this link.

Information for Vermonters and Granite Staters about SNAP benefits. As you may know, there’s a lot of uncertainty around what’s going to happen to what used to be known as food stamps come Nov. 1. That’s because of the ongoing federal government shutdown: At least 25 states, Politico reported yesterday, have said recipients won’t get benefits next month. Both VT and NH just issued guidance: VT says the Nov. 1 benefit won’t be issued (unless the government reopens before then), though October’s is still usable; NH says it secured enough funding for the Women, Infants, and Children program to last until Nov. 7, and yesterday announced the state will partner with the NH Food Bank’s mobile pantry and local food pantries to help families in need.

Two-day layoff for top aide to NH Supreme Court chief justice let her collect $50,000 from state. The move, reports Todd Bookman for NHPR, came during a state courts budget crisis, around the time Chief Justice Gordon MacDonald announced a hiring freeze and warned of potential layoffs. His aide, Dianne Martin, was laid off from her job as his chief of staff—allowing her to cash out $43K in unused sick and vacation time and earn another $6K “termination” pay; two days later she took up a new post working for MacDonald. The maneuver was unusual enough to generate a whistleblower complaint. Bookman details the events and their background.

Police find body during search for missing Middlebury student. Search efforts had been ramping up ever since Lia Smith, a 21-year-old senior from Woodside, CA, was reported missing Sunday. She’d last been seen a week ago. Yesterday morning, state and local police agencies and members of the public launched what the VT State Police called “a comprehensive search” in and around Middlebury. Around 1:30 pm, a VSP team found a body at The Knoll, the college’s organic farm in Cornwall. It’s being brought to the state medical examiner’s office today for an autopsy. “Initial investigation does not indicate that the death is suspicious,” the VSP says in its press release.

VT Abenaki leaders condemn Québec Abenaki’s “continued malicious attacks
on our people’s existence.” You no doubt remember that last Friday, reps from Québec’s Odanak First Nation unveiled a report asserting that five prominent members of Vermont tribes were actually of European ancestry. This week, the leaders of the four VT-recognized tribes issued a press release saying that the assertion is “false” and “greed-inspired” and that the report is “junk science, compiled with bias and full of factual and interpretive errors”—and issued “with the obvious ulterior goal of facilitating Odanak’s desire to make millions of dollars from land claims in Vermont.”

“For him, he was preparing a gift for friends.” That’s a longtime friend describing the radio show Robert Resnick would put together for UVM’s WRUV starting in 1970, but it could easily describe his legendary folk music show on VT Public Radio, “All the Traditions”. On Sunday up in S. Burlington, a Who’s Who of Vermont folk musicians will gather for “Robertpalooza: A Loving Musical Tribute to Robert Resnik”, and as a curtain-opener, Seven Days’ Chris Farnsworth digs into Resnick’s life story, from his childhood in a musical NJ home to his ability to play over 60 different instruments (he had a library program called “60 Instruments in 60 Minutes”).

The Comedy Wildlife Photo Awards unveil their finalists for the year. Need we say more? (Well, yes, actually: After you click into an image to see it better, hit either “I Agree” or “Change Settings” to get rid of the cookies banner obscuring the photo titles at the bottom.)

Today's Wordbreak. With a word from yesterday’s Daybreak. If you want Wordbreak all weekend long, just use the same link tomorrow and Sunday.

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HEADS UP

If you missed yesterday’s email, you’ll find the weekend Heads Up section here.

And for today...

Eloise & Co. (Becky Tracy on fiddle and Rachel Bell on accordion) with pianist Rachel Aucoin will be at the First Congregational Church of Lebanon on Saturday. Here’s a taste.

See you Monday for CoffeeBreak.

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Written and published by Rob Gurwitt      Poetry editor: Michael Lipson    Associate Editor: Jonea Gurwitt   About Rob                                                 About Michael