Daybreak Friday 7/5

THAT WAS A NIGHT FOR FIREWORKS, EH, UPPER VALLEY?

Tonight's looking pretty nice, too.... After this lovely, cool morning, the rest of today looks a lot like yesterday: sunny and getting kinda steamy, though don't complain: Humidity's lower east of the Greens today. Meanwhile, there's a change up above, a cold front approaching to our north. Don't fret about this evening, but it'll bring possible showers overnight and rain and thunderstorms tomorrow. Once it clears out, a beautiful bout of sunny days with highs only in the 70s and low 80s to start the week.The women helping fuel WRJ's revitalization. A big piece in the Boston Globe on Revolution's Kim Souza, UV Yoga's Leslie Carleton, Open Door's Kate Gamble, JUEL's Elena Taylor and Julie Sumanis. It's a full-on look, keyed off Souza's calculation that "25 businesses that have opened in the once-vacant and newly built storefronts in the four-block downtown area are run by women." To the inevitable gentrification question, Souza responds, "When women are opening businesses in a defunct town, it’s less about money and power and more about care and community.” Grafton meeting house restoration thrown in doubt. Just catching up on a VN story from yesterday. You'll remember that Mascoma Valley Preservation had a deal with the Peaceful Assembly Church to buy its building -- the old meetinghouse -- and begin restoration. But the town is suing for back taxes, and now a court has issued a restraining order preventing the sale. MVP and PAC are peeved, the selectboard's holding firm. Hearing July 29. (VN, sub reqd)Red River CEO killed in jet-ski accident. Jeff Sessions, who ran the Claremont-based computing services company from its Reston, VA office, died early Wednesday along with his wife, Elizabeth Howle. They were jet-skiing after midnight in Edgewater, MD, and apparently hit a day marker. According to a company press release, company founder and board chair Rick Bolduc will step in as acting CEO."I'm addicted to the process of putting things in little boxes." That's Jarad Greene, of WRJ's Center for Cartoon Studies, in last week's edition of "Stuck in Vermont," the Seven Days video series about life in the Green Mountain State. The paper's Eva Sollberger visited CCS to talk to people at its Graphic Memoirs Summer Workshop. "Comics allows you to be the director, the writer, the actor... Everything!" says student Andres Catter.DHMC partners with Willing Hands on new farm. The VN's Nora Doyle-Burr writes about a quarter-acre plot between a parking lot and the hospital's child care center that's now devoted to vegetables. The produce, grown by volunteers, will go to local food pantries. For D-H, it's part of a push to “address nonclinical factors that affect the health of our community,” says Chelsey Canavan, a population health coordinator. (VN, sub reqd)

And speaking of crops, it's shaping up to be a bumper strawberry year. The cold spring delayed the crop, supermarkets still don't have them yet, and some farms suffered losses in heavy rains. But what's out there in the fields is looking--and tasting--wonderful. The berries are "gorgeous," says Nancy Schartner of Schartner Farms in Conway NH. "They just took their time coming."Diversity increasing in both VT and NH. Hang with this for a moment. Axios, the DC news-for-insiders outfit, has put together an intriguing interactive graphic showing county-by-county changes in the probability that two people chosen at random will be of a different race or ethnicity. Every county in both states is less diverse than the country, but there are some striking numbers: Grafton's score rose 46 points from 2009-17, Coos more than doubled. Overall, the country's diversity index grew about 5 points. New commission to study whether NH should have a dept of energy. A bill signed by Gov. Sununu will set up the panel to explore whether the state should consolidate energy-policy efforts currently divided among several agencies. Don Kreis, the state's advocate for utility consumers, will sit on the commission, along with reps from utilities, lobbying groups, and agencies. "I am interested in ...defining what assumptions drive the way we do things now, and questioning all of those assumptions and taking this wherever it leads us," he says.

VT ready to expand testing for PFAS. Those are per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, found in food wrappings, Teflon, polishes and other commercial household products, firefighting foam... And they're all over our ground and water. The legislature this year required testing for drinking water supplies, and state officials are now expanding the testing program. "These types of chemicals are everywhere in this state," Atty Genl TJ Donovan tells WCAX.Looking for a new ride? You could check out the Cross New Hampshire Adventure Trail. The 83-mile dirt and paved bike route runs from Woodsville to Bethel, Maine. It's the continuation of the Cross Vermont Trail, which ends in Wells River. Marty Basch rode it, from the Ammonoosuc Rail Trail in Woodsville through what he calls "the gems of the route": the Presidential Rail Trail and birder-friendly Pondicherry Wildlife Refuge, "with spectacular northern mountain views from the road and trail."And to send us soaring into the weekend: Peregrine falcons have made a comeback in Massachusetts. Yeah, yeah, it's not VT or NH, but this WBUR piece by way of VPR is uplifting anyway. There were no peregrines in the state a few decades ago. Now there are 46 nesting pairs. They're the fastest animal on the planet -- adults can reach 240 mph in a dive -- and they've taken nicely to skyscrapers and bridges. “These guys live here in the city and do just fine, they’re happy as clams," says retired MassWildlife biologist Tom French.NICE NIGHT LIKE TONIGHT, YOU'VE GOTTA HAVE PLANS...Because for starters, the Vermont Symphony Orchestra will be at Suicide Six. The program channels American optimism: Bernstein, Copland, Joplin, Artie Shaw, John Williams, Sousa, Tchaikovsky. Okay, right, Tchaikovsky, but it's his 1812, and that might as well be American, since it accompanies, as always, the fireworks. Gates open at 5:30 for picnicking, music starts at 7:30.And it's First Friday in WRJ. There's music all over town, and new art openings at Scavenger and Revolution.This is the last weekend to catch "Peter and the Starcatcher" at the New London Barn. It's the prequel to Peter Pan, about how a sullen orphan became The Boy Who Would Not Grow Up. When it first opened in NYC the Times's Ben Brantley wrote that the musical "sustains a breathless air of adventure and a cocky confidence in its powers to enchant that elude most family oriented spectacles." 7:30 tonight and tomorrow, 5 on Sunday.The South Royalton Town Band plays Woodstock. Spread out a blanket, savor some locally made ice cream, and revel in a summer night as the band celebrates its 150th year with show tunes, Dixieland, marches and more. On the Woodstock Historical Society's back lawn, starts at 7 pm.It's opening night for the Chosen Vale International Percussion Seminar public concerts in Enfield. Every summer, talented musicians from around the world converge on the Enfield Shaker Museum for the Chosen Vale trumpet and percussion seminars. It's a chance for immersive study in the nuances. And then they and their teachers perform. Tonight, new works "that explore the vast possibilities of percussion music" by Caroline Malonee, Ellen Reid, Sarah Belle Reid, and Nina Young. In the Mary Keane Chapel (next to the Great Stone Dwelling) at 8.And because no one's ever quite ready for the 4th to end, tomorrow there's more celebrating -- and fireworks...

Whew. You're going to need your rest. See you Monday.

Daybreak is written and published by Rob Gurwitt                     Banner by Tom HaushalterAbout Rob                                                                                   About Tom

If you like Daybreak and would like to help it keep going and evolve, please hit the "Support" button below and I'll tell you more:

And if you think one or more of your friends would like Daybreak, too, please forward this newsletter and tell them to hit the blue "Subscribe" button below. And thanks! And hey, if you're that friend? So nice to see you! You can subscribe at: 

Thank you!