GOOD MORNING, UPPER VALLEY!
The good news: high pressure. The not-so-good-news: It's arctic. Things will start out cold today, then warm all the way up into the high teens, maybe 20, while decent winds from the northwest will make it feel colder. Sunny at first, then cloudier in the afternoon, then partly sunny again. New England. Down into the single-digit minuses again tonight.And here's daybreak...
...over a just-stirring White River Junction, the crescent moon fading in the sky, from Leslie Barbour;
...in the McDowell Mountains in Scottsdale, AZ, from Ginger Buchman, one of Daybreak's far-flung readers.
"They love to kick us when we're down." It's "Lost Woods" Week 11, in which Henry, Eddie, Wally, and Lydia do something about all those leaves. Lebanon author and illustrator D.B. Johnson (Henry Builds a Cabin and other classics) lends his new comic strip to this spot each Friday, a week's worth at a time. Scroll right to see what happens, left to catch up on previous weeks.
A look ahead at town meetings. The Valley News has begun its town-by-town previews for towns in VT, laying out major topics for debate, noteworthy warrant articles, contested races, logistics, etc. Here's their take on:
After years of waiting, Westboro demolition may finally move forward. The VN's Tim Camerato reports that NH has agreed to unfreeze funds it set aside two years ago to clear decrepit buildings and do site cleanup at the Westboro Rail Yard. The state DOT plans to put the project out to bid in May or June; it will include removing the yard’s bunkhouse, roundhouse, sandhouse and chimney. State Rep. Rich Abel says demolition will create “terrific opportunities” for Lebanon, including a riverfront park.SPONSORED: Is Norway really "out-EVing" America, as GM's Super Bowl ad says? Oh, yeah. Fully 54 percent of the cars sold there last year were entirely electric. The pre-Super Bowl ad war between GM and Audi Norway was both funny (who knew Norwegians like their pizza with big fishes?) and some of the most exciting news for the climate in years—well worth five minutes of your time to see the future unfold. It's a long road to catch up to Norway, but hit the maroon link for a summary of the Audi-GM back-and-forth... and some EV incentives that are available now. Sponsored by Solaflect Energy.Hiking Close to Home: River Park Trails, West Lebanon. The Upper Valley Trails Alliance points out this "great new addition to the Upper Valley trail network." River Park features an easy, 1.6-mile set of loop trails along the Connecticut River that are groomed in winter for cross-country skiing and mowed for summer walking. The trails are part of the future River Park development. You can access them from the west side of Route 10, approximately .4 miles north of Bridge Street.Windsor Central school district down to two finalists for superintendent. The supervisory union, which includes Barnard, Bridgewater, Killington, Plymouth, Pomfret, Reading, and Woodstock, alerted the school community in a letter this week that it's considering two people for the job, reports the VN: Sherry Sousa, the district's current interim superintendent, and former VT Secretary of Education Rebecca Holcombe, who lives in Norwich, was principal in Fairlee and helped launch the Rivendell district before going on to her state post and then running last year for governor. If you're going to unhook an electric fence with your teeth, Hartland heifer says, use the insulated sleeve. Over the last few days, a video of a heifer undoing an electric fence to let out its fellow cows has taken the world by storm—but with little back-story other than that it took place in Hartland and was filmed by Wylie Wood. The VN's Liz Sauchelli tracked down Wood, who works at Sunnymede Farm, who says that he and his fellow farm workers watched the cow pull the trick several times before he decided to film it. "She doesn't have a very exciting name—it's H308 currently—but we're going to start calling her Houdini after seeing this," Wood told the UK's Daily Mail.
“For real change to happen, sometimes the timelines have to line up. There’s the technology timeline and the social revolution timeline. They’re lining up now.” That's Brendan Keegan, CEO of Merchant Fleet, sister company to Hooksett's Merchant Auto. His firm has signed a deal to buy 12,600 electric vans from GM, reports David Brooks on his Granite Geek blog. The vans don't actually exist yet, but they're due next year, and will become part of the fleet that Merchant leases to companies around the US and Canada. “2021 will go down as the tipping point for electrification,” Keegan says.Community power could change the residential energy picture in NH. But first it has to survive the legislature. A state House committee today is due to hold hearings on HB 315, a measure backed by Eversource that would, state consumer advocate Don Kreis says, "make it all but impossible" for Lebanon, Hanover and other towns that join their Community Power Coalition to succeed at lowering rates and gaining more control over the electricity sources they use. Along with Kreis, an array of renewable-energy advocates oppose the bill; Eversource and the state Chamber support it. UNH ramps up Covid restrictions. The university's president announced yesterday that as of last night, it will bar gatherings with more than 6 people, spectators at hockey games, and in-person classes, reports the Monitor's Teddy Rosenbluth. UNH has seen a “dramatic and sustained rise in the number of positive" cases, Dean said, with 195 active cases as of Wednesday—its highest level during the pandemic.NH Senate backs right-to-work. The bill would bar labor contracts from requiring non-union workers to bear some of the costs of union negotiations and administration, even if they benefit. Backers have been trying for 40 years in NH, writes InDepthNH's Garry Rayno. With the GOP in control of the legislature and governorship, they figure this year may be their best chance. If they succeed, NH will become the only state in the Northeast with the restrictions. The vote was 13-11 in the Senate; the bill moves on to the House.Sununu proposes $13.8 billion budget with tax cuts, new department of energy, and higher-ed merger. In something of an understatement, NHPR comments, "Several of the proposals Sununu outlined Thursday are sure to attract scrutiny from the Legislature." These include his plan to merge the public university and community college systems; creation of a Public Integrity Unit at the state justice department and an independent office to investigate local police misconduct; and a state energy department that would combine disparate offices into one and focus on offshore wind. The so-called "UK variant" shows up in Vermont. In an announcement yesterday, Burlington said it had detected the Covid variant formally known as B.1.1.7 in its wastewater. The city's been on the lookout for the highly contagious version of the virus since last month. In a statement yesterday, Mark Levine, VT's health commissioner, said it's “a new stage of the pandemic here in Vermont.” VTDigger's Mike Dougherty notes the finding isn't considered definitive until it's detected in a person with Covid.VT Statehouse to get first portrait of a person of color. Alexander Twilight, who was born in Corinth in 1795 and graduated from Middlebury in 1823, is thought to be the first state legislator and college graduate of African descent in the US. Katie Runde, the Middlebury artist commissioned to paint his portrait, notes that Twilight was mixed-race and may have passed for white. “It’s a really ambiguous area that puts us in,” she tells Seven Days' Margaret Grayson. “Because we want to embrace him as the first college graduate of African descent, the first state rep of African descent. But we can’t overplay it, either.”Remember that guide to pronouncing VT towns? VPR's Brave Little State set out to compile it after a listener asked, “What do I need to know about moving to Vermont?” They've been collecting audio snippets from listeners with advice and talking to members of the Abenaki community about pronunciation of place names and landscape descriptions (including Askaskwiwajoak, the Green Mountains). Now they've got it up and running, and it's fantastic, with both written and aural pronunciation guides (and some great commentary by locals) to many of the state's cities, towns, gores, and Abenaki places. "I'm quickly becoming the Luddite in the family. I'm the person on the Zoom call who forgets to mute myself." Singer, songwriter, composer, and double-Tony winner Anaïs Mitchell left NYC in the pandemic and moved back to Bristol, VT, where she went to high school. In a wide-ranging conversation, she and Seven Days' Jordan Adams talk about Hadestown and where it's headed, her new book, her upcoming album, the effect of pandemic solitude on creativity, stillness, and her first real online show (more on that below).Upper Valley Residents Want Something Done About Coyote Attacks. There's more than one Upper Valley in the US, and every so often a headline from one catches the eye. This is from El Paso, TX, where the state and city are passing the buck on who's in charge when it comes to coyotes coming down from the arroyos and taking chickens, and for his part, KLAQ-FM's Buzz Adams thinks the whole thing's overblown. "If you’ve ever seen an El Paso coyote, you know that they’re pretty pathetic looking," he writes.
Beggars? They can absolutely be choosers. Jocelyn Anderson is a Michigan-based nature photographer who specializes in birds. Among other things, she likes hand-feeding them. So the other day, she had her hand outstretched with seeds and suet and other goodies and this tufted titmouse came in for a landing, snagged a small piece of suet... and then reconsidered.
Last numbers for the week.
But first: NBC News has come up with a handy site that gives you a quick but thorough snapshot of where things stand with the vaccine rollout in any given state, lays out the timeline for various groups in that state, links to the state's vaccine plan, and allows you to get a sense of when you might be eligible (or, if things are fuzzy, how the state intends to notify eligible groups).
Dartmouth reports 6 active cases among studentsand 4 among faculty and staff. There are 11 students and 5 faculty/staff in quarantine because of travel or exposure, while 6 students and 12 faculty/staff are in isolation awaiting results or because they tested positive.
Colby-Sawyer reports just 1 positive case over the past week, an employee. One person is in isolation off campus, and 2 are quarantining off campus.
NH reported 394 new cases yesterday for a cumulative total of 69,612. There was 1 new death, bringing the total to 1,117. Meanwhile, 138 people are hospitalized (down 4). The current active caseload stands at 3,146 (up 4). The state reports 179 active cases in Grafton County (down 13), 91 in Sullivan (up 3), and 263 in Merrimack (down 3). In town-by-town numbers, the state says Claremont has 47 active cases (no change), Newport has 15 (no change), Lebanon has 12 (no change), Hanover has 10 (down 2), Charlestown has 7 (down 1), Canaan has 7 (no change), Rumney has 5 (down 4), Haverhill has 5 (down 2), Grantham has 5 (no change), and Plainfield has 5 (up at least 1). Warren, Wentworth, Dorchester, Enfield, Cornish, Sunapee, Unity, Goshen, and Newbury have 1-4.
VT reported 122 new cases yesterday, bringing it to a total case count of 13,249. There was 1 new death, which now number 188 all told. Meanwhile, 48 people with confirmed cases are hospitalized (down 6). The state re-jiggered total case counts for counties as it reassigned cases, and totals for both Windsor and Orange counties jumped: Windsor County gained 7 new cases but now stands at 949 for the pandemic (22 more than yesterday), with 120 over the past 14 days. Orange County had no new cases and is now at 462 cumulatively (15 more than yesterday) with 37 cases over the past 14 days.
News that connects you. If you like Daybreak and want to help it keep going, here's how:
Jagfest starts today, with an online festival of radio plays on the theme of love. “We are showing up to our fight armored in tenderness and passion, firing off with the gentility of a kiss,” JAG Productions founder Jarvis Green wrote of this 5th annual festival of new work by Black playwrights. Tix are $30 and you'll get instructions once you buy.
At 5 pm today, the Brattleboro Literary Festival hosts poet and novelist Jay Parini, who also teaches at Middlebury, talking with Emerson College prof Rosario Swanson about Parini's new book, Borges and Me: An Encounter. It's his memoir of a road trip as a young, journeyman writer through the Scottish Highlands with Jorge Luis Borges in 1970, filled with odd moments, like Borges standing in their rickety rowboat in Loch Ness and reciting the “Song of Creation” from “Beowulf” to Nessie—capsizing the boat and dumping himself and Parini in the water.
And at 7:30 this evening, the Middlebury Community Music Center and the Addison County youth nonprofit OK You've Got This host the woman herself: Anaïs Mitchell, in "OUR WINTER TABLE: An evening of love songs for connection & resiliency." The streaming show is free but you'll need to register.
If you need to get outside, tomorrow starting at 4:30 pm, Billings Farm is hosting a torchlight snowshoe of its trails—and a fire pit with hot drinks, s'mores, and Vermont folk tales. Be prepared for the "have you quarantined" questions if you're from out of state.
And at 5 pm, Norwich Rec and the Upper Valley Land Trust are hosting a "Nordic at Night" lit xc ski of the lower fields at the Brookmead Conservation Area. Trails will be groomed, and though there'll be lanterns, they encourage headlamps, too. VT Covid guidelines apply to this, and since there won't be anyone screening skiers it's open to Vermonters only.
Tomorrow at 7 pm, BarnArts presents an online "Local Music Show," hosted by Chloe Powell, featuring Bow Thayer, Jack Snyder, and Trifolium. There'll be pre-recorded music and live conversation about their music and creative process during the pandemic. Tickets are sliding scale, $5-$15.
Also tomorrow at 7, the Thetford Hill Congregational Church is hosting its annual Extravaganza Variety Show online, with singers, musicians, and joke-tellers. The lineup includes Jeremiah and Annemieke McLane, Charlie and Thaddeus Buttrey, Martha and Mark Tecca, Reckless Breakfast, the Thetford Chamber Singers, and plenty of others. You can also register to go pick up a dessert box tomorrow morning, to eat while you watch.
Starting Sunday at 2 pm and running weekly through March 7, Opera North is offering a series of Zoomed conversations and music with some of the creative forces behind its upcoming season. This Sunday, ON general director Evans Haile Zooms in from his piano bench in NYC to play his favorite love songs and welcome some guests for shared songs. Tix are $15 per household.
Three more commercial events you might want to know about: Starting at 11 Sunday, Harpoon is unveiling a revival of the old Catamount Porter in a limited-release event at the old Catamount-now-Harpoon Brewery in Windsor's Artisans Park (it'll be available in VT only this month); tomorrow through Monday, Hanover Adventure Tours is offering 50 percent off rentals of snowshoes, fat-tire e-bikes, mountain bikes, and snow tubes, with maps for where to take them and hot cider and cocoa to fortify you on both ends of your outing; and Trail Break in WRJ is re-launching its Sunday brunches with a heavy-duty-clothing drive for the Haven (gloves, parkas, boots, jackets)—bring in a gently used item, get a raffle ticket for a prize donated by Vermont Flannel or Suicide Six (oh, and they're encouraging reservations).
And finally, this starts Monday, but there's room for only 10 families per show and some shows are sold out, so you may want to plan ahead... The Lebanon Opera House presents Belfast-based Cahoots NI in their show The University of Wonder & Imagination, a live, online, interactive show blending magic, illusion, and physical theatre. "I couldn’t see the faces of the other audience members, but I know that I smiled and laughed through the entire show, and days later am still pondering how on earth they did it," one reviewer wrote after the show premiered late last year. $25 per household.
Remember this sort of thing? Weekend's almost here, so
doing "янки" (Yanky) live at a rain-soaked Glastonbury Festival in 2016.
See you Monday.
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