Daybreak Friday 6/12/20

OH, SO IT'S YOU, FRIDAY!

Clear and sunny, then some clouds.

The weather's settling into a quiet time for the next few days, but there's a smaller cold front than yesterday's paying a visit, which will produce whatever clouds we see today as well as cooler than normal temps tomorrow. Winds from the west, temps reaching the high 70s during the day, lower 40s overnight. 

Speaking of overnight...

A couple of weeks ago, photographer Bob Wagner was in Strafford and took this shot of the night sky. There's a feature known as the Dark Horse that's visible only on crystal nights with low humidity, and if you check the pic out you'll see it: at the lower end of the band of the Milky Way, that dark area that looks like a prancing horse on end, in profile. It's part of the Great Rift obscuring the center of the galaxy from our view.

Meanwhile, down here on earth, those bear cubs are still pretty darn cute.

They were in Laur Izutsu's back yard in Hanover a week ago. So was their mom, who wanders into the video after a little bit. They were back just the other day, too.

Oh, right. Numbers. 

Hartford makes Juneteenth official holiday. That was the day in 1865—June 19—when Union soldiers landed in Galveston, TX, with news that the Civil War was over and that slaves had been freed two and a half years earlier. The town "recognizes that presently, 155 years after the last enslaved peoples in the United States of America were freed from the shackles of bondage, people of color continue to struggle and overcome racism and bigotry.  The Town wishes to show solidarity and stand with our Black, Indigenous and Communities of Color by adopting Juneteenth as an official holiday," says the official release.  Dartmouth requires everyone on campus to wear a face covering. The new policy, sent out yesterday by the college's Covid-19 task force, "requires all persons to wear cloth face coverings at all times when using or accessing shared or communal spaces at any Dartmouth worksite." The task force also issued guidelines on travel to campus, stressing that people who haven't been given specific clearance shouldn't come.Leb police arrest WRJ driver in road rage incident. Walker Albrecht, 20, had allegedly brandished a gun—later found to be a pellet gun—during the incident on 12A, and a witness reported seeing him fire it at the victim's vehicle. Police called to the scene "conducted a high-risk motor vehicle stop in the Burger King parking lot," according to the official release.That food pantry by the Methodist church in WRJ? It's a true community effort. You may remember the other day's item abut the new, permanent little structure to replace the 24-hour-a-day coolers. In her latest post, Susan Apel talks to Hannah Cerasoli, who started the program. Food comes from an astounding variety of sources: Stern's, Jake's, the Hartford Community Coalition, Harvest Hill residents, the Leb Latter-Day Saints' youth group. Cerasoli also talks about the thefts and vandalism that plagued the effort. "It definitely crossed my mind 'at what point do people not really want this?'" Be ready for change as area gyms, restaurants, banks reopen. UVAC's doors—well, its back door, anyway—are open again and CCBA reopens Monday. Jesse's and Molly's start up outdoor dining today, indoor on Monday. Mascoma Bank's branch lobbies are open again. But the VN's John Lippman runs down the new normal: face masks, reservations required at the gyms, temperature checks at the restaurants and the banks...  Dan & Whit's to offer something you couldn't get before: haircuts. But just once. After the pandemic shut down Andrea's Hair Salon and Diane's Casual Cuts in Norwich—big contributors to the 19 Days of Norwich campaign for the Haven that owner Dan Fraser organizes—two of the haircutters went to work at the store. Now Fraser wants to help the salons get back on their feet, so next Friday, 16 people will get to have their hair cut in the D&W parking lot. Slots go to the highest bidders, proceeds to the salons.It's not just Thetford—AT&T proposes tower for Chelsea, too. It would reach 100 feet over the tree canopy on a hill near the intersection of Routes 110 and 113, the VN's Anna Merriman reports, on land owned by a Georgia-based organization, Affordable Housing America. Town officials and residents have mixed feelings: They want the cell service, but are concerned the tower will mar the landscape without providing adequate coverage. Some town officials say "they want to hold a public hearing soon," Merriman writes.Spring and summer settle in. VINS's Emily Johnson put together a drone video of what it looked like from high above as white gave way to green and the river freed up by the nature center. One thing you won't see: visitors. There haven't been any for months, but that changes on Monday, when they reopen. NH mental health system, already stretched thin, preps for influx of patients. And providers are worried. “Before the pandemic, there were very significant gaps in the mental health and addiction care system to begin with," says DHMC's Dr. William Torrey. "Because of long-standing discrimination against people who have challenges with mental health and substance use disorder, society hasn’t invested adequately in care.” The silver lining providers see: the rise of telehealth, which has made mental health services far more accessible. NH to lift stay-at-home order. At a press conference yesterday, Gov. Chris Sununu announced he'll let the order expire on Monday and shift to a "safer at home" advisory with no distinction between essential and non-essential businesses. Gyms, bowling alleys, racetracks, charitable gaming facilities, museums, and libraries will all be able to open or expand capacity.Well, at least you might be able to get growlers in restaurants. Wearing face masks and sitting six feet apart on the floor of UNH's ice hockey arena, NH House members met yesterday for the first time in person since the pandemic shut down the legislature. They quickly stalemated, when a move to change deadlines on House bills failed to get the two-thirds vote it needed, meaning bills needed a two-thirds majority to pass. One victim was a measure to ban racial profiling by law enforcement. Legislators did approve one bill allowing restaurants to sell growlers of beer during the pandemic. VT moves closer to mail-in balloting. House members are expected today to give final approval to a measure that paves the way for Secy of State Jim Condos to make absentee balloting widely available for the fall elections. The bill, which passed a first vote 106-32 on Wednesday, doesn't actually mandate the move; it just gives Condos sole authority to make it, rather than sharing the decision with Gov. Phil Scott.Coalition of VT public safety leaders offers reform measures. The group includes the state police, the AG's office, the state police chiefs' association, all in consultation with the state's Fair & Impartial Policing Committee. Their draft plan (at the link) calls for changing hiring practices; new training (including in "the history of law enforcement upholding and protecting antiquated and unjust laws"; evaluating cultural awareness in promotion decisions; and revamping improper-conduct investigations.Well, thank goodness for Elizabethan lawyers. Archeologists believe they've found London's earliest known theatrical playhouse, which was built just outside the city around 1567. It was described in a pair of lawsuits: a single-gallery multi-sided theater for touring companies, with a fixed stage, trap doors, and a 30-foot turret for aerial stunts. The Red Lion seems to have staged only one production, but the guy who built it went on to build another, which in turn was dismantled and provided the timbers for what became Shakespeare's Globe.A visit from a phantom fireball... A ritual to end Christianity... Sure, we all do that on vacation. For his series on oddball NH destinations, JW Ocker writes about a cottage in Hebron once owned by a psychic named Evangeline Adams. In the summer of 1916, she hosted British occultist, magician, mountaineer, and libertine Aleister Crowley. There, on the shores of what is now Newfound Lake, he formulated his Star Sponge vision and "practiced some sex magick. It was good times there in that little cabin in the summer of 1916," Ocker writes. Somehow there's no plaque, but the cabin's still there.

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Reading Deeper

Four years ago, the Broadway cast of

Hamilton

performed a work at the annual "Gypsy of the Year" competition, a variety show by Broadway and Off-Broadway chorus members. Called "America,"

of "America the Beautiful," Langston Hughes' "Let America Be America Again," Bob Marley's "One Love," and Lin-Manuel Miranda's own words, a beckoning to America's better self. Seems apt.

See you Monday.

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