Daybreak Friday 12/11/20

GOOD OF YOU TO DROP BY, FRIDAY!

A fair-weather day. With winds from the south and warmer air filtering in aloft, we should get the warmest day of the week, though there'll still be clouds around, especially first thing this morning. Temps into the low 40s, down into the low 30s tonight.Henry heads out into Lost Woods alone... sort of. As you'll remember from last week, Lebanon's D.B. Johnson, the bestselling author and illustrator of Henry Hikes to Fitchburg and other books, has launched his new cartoon strip "Lost Woods" in this space on Fridays. It's a week's worth of strips at a time: Just hit the maroon link, then scroll right.One thing you can say for cloudy mornings: When conditions are right, they make for jaw-dropping sunrises. Andrew Steele was out at the top of the field behind the La Salette Shrine in Enfield early Wednesday, and got this one overlooking Mascoma Lake. College drops plans for biomass plant. "After careful consideration, Dartmouth has determined that [biomass]...was not the right path forward," VP Josh Keniston said in a statement. Instead, reports the Valley News's John Gregg, the college will focus on upgrading its "antiquated steam-heating system to a higher-efficiency hot water system" and will still rely on oil, though it hopes to use a less dirty version. It will also expand geothermal and solar, which are expected to meet 65 percent of its heating needs.SPONSORED: Still shopping? Find wonderful gifts at AVA Gallery and Art Center’s Holiday Exhibition (through December 31). Featuring paintings, prints, jewelry and more by local artists.  There’s a lovely little 2021 desk calendar with twelve paintings by Coralea Wennberg.  At $20, it’s a perfect gift for friends and family. Proceeds from its sale benefit AVA. Visit AVA at 11 Bank Street in Lebanon or shop online. Sponsored by AVA Gallery and Art Center & friends.Court approves Springfield Hospital, clinics' plans to emerge from bankruptcy. Earlier in the fall, the hospital and Springfield Medical Care Systems, which oversees its clinics in Ludlow, Chester, Bellows Falls, Londonderry, Springfield, and Charlestown, filed plans to become separate organizations, with separate boards. Yesterday, they announced in a press release that their plans have been approved by bankruptcy court. The plan "includes reducing long-term debt to a sustainable level for each company," the release said.Hiking Close to Home: Wright’s Mountain, Bradford, VT. Wright’s Mountain is the highest point in Bradford and, says the Upper Valley Trails Alliance, offers "a huge variety" of trail experiences. The quickest route to the summit is from the Wright’s Mountain Road Trailhead: From the parking lot follow the main trail to the summit for unparalleled views of the Waits River Valley. If you have more time and are feeling adventurous, extend your hike to visit Devil’s Den, a rocky ravine with a cave. All in all, there are over seven miles of trails in the network, so plenty to explore.Tree-decorating close to home. "Half here, half there, I head out on the trail. Half hearted, with half a mind, I rise up into the half-lit pine forest above the river..." NHPR's Sean Hurley was in the forest near Thornton, NH, when he stumbled on two women decorating trees. “There's so few, like, good surprises in life,” one said, "and if you don't know it's there, it's kind of really nice to come upon it and see it all decorated.” But there's an update, NHPR notes: After Hurley's story aired, the US Forest Service said it's changed its mind on tree decorating and is "requesting that visitors leave their ornaments at home."NH medical examiner: Dick Hinch died of Covid-19. The Republican House Speaker, who was sworn into the post on Dec. 2, died on Wednesday. Yesterday afternoon, the AG's office released a terse statement that the state's chief ME had determined the cause as Covid-19. In a statement, GOP leaders said they are “committed to protecting the health and safety of our fellow legislators and staff members who work at the statehouse in Concord.”Not surprisingly, this has put politicians on edge. "Fierce criticism resurfaced Thursday around choices made by Republican representatives... many of whom openly refused to wear masks and lobbied against any remote legislative meetings," writes the Monitor's Ethan DeWitt. In the immediate wake of the AG's statement, GOP Rep. William Marsh of Brookfield was especially blunt, tweeting, "Those in our caucus who refused to take precautions are responsible for Dick Hinch's death." Gov. Chris Sununu had words for anti-maskers, too: "Don't act like a bunch of children, frankly."It seems like there are outbreaks everywhere in NH. In addition to the state men's prison, the NH Veterans Home, nursing homes throughout the state—including Hanover Terrace—and, now, the Merrimack County Jail, state epidemiologist Benjamin Chan yesterday said that healthcare facilities "are being stretched as a result of rising caseloads and a shortage of staff, and urged residents to take responsibility for helping limit the spread the virus," NHPR reports. In one small piece of good news, the state's vaccine registry is now up and running; NH had been the only state without one.So how is NH's surge affecting its hospital capacity? The state now has 248 patients with confirmed cases in the hospital, and several dozen more with suspected cases. NHPR's Jordyn Haime and Casey McDermott look at the data: though hospital beds remain, Covid patients are taking up a larger share of those beds; at smaller hospitals, which often have just a handful of ICU beds, Covid numbers are rising; some small hospitals are starting to have more trouble transferring patients who need specialized care to larger, southern-tier hospitals. You can check hospital-by-hospital data at the link.OneCare VT budget proposal with administrative pay raises meets resistance. At its meeting on Wednesday, the Green Mountain Care Board—which among other things oversees the accountable care organization—pushed back on its proposed 18 percent increase in pay and benefits. The discussion comes at the start of what VTDigger's Katie Jickling calls "a critical year" for OneCare, as state officials debate whether to continue with the all-payer model it spearheads, amid growing questions about its effectiveness. "No, you're not getting shot at, but you are getting exposed to COVID-19 every single day. This is foreign territory for all of us." During the pandemic, the Vermont National Guard has proven itself a flexible and versatile force, setting up field hospitals, distributing 3.2 million pounds of food, creating pop-up test sites, helping the contact-tracing effort, and even helping UVM rebuild its hacked hospital network. Seven Days' Kevin McCallum profiles the Guard's response—and signs of strain as volunteer reservists juggle their Guard duties with civilian responsibilities. High school student takes on restoring VT's oldest Jewish cemetery. It's in E. Poultney and was established in 1873, after a group of immigrant German-Jewish families settled in the area right after the Civil War. Containing somewhere between 60 and 85 graves (records are hard to come by), it had been forgotten and ignored for decades, until Netanel Crispe heard about it and, eventually, located it—the entrance was so overgrown it took him three tries. it's in some disrepair, and he's raising funds to restore it. “Snowshoe hare botches the winter forecast. Hard to be more vulnerable than a white rabbit in a green and brown forest!" That's the caption on a photo sent in to Northern Woodlands from Dalton, NH. Each month, the mag collects photos sent in by readers related to northeastern forests, and its November collection is rich: a ruffed grouse from S. Strafford, autumn snow in the Berkshires, a moose bed in Waterford, VT...Does it look more like Larry David or Bernie Sanders? Or as one Redditer put it, maybe Larry David doing a Bernie Sanders impression? Regardless, it's a duck. 

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The expressive, stylish, and utterly listen-able jazz singer Stacey Kent grew up in New Jersey, lives in London, and is adored in France (she's fluent, and in 2009 was named a

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in the French Order of Arts and Letters). But she's also made her mark in Bossa Nova, plumbing its depths in her quiet, eloquent way.

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