A PLEASURE TO SEE YOU, UPPER VALLEY!
Still quiet out there. High pressure continues to build into the region, and we'll see partly sunny skies throughout the day with temps in the high 70s again and nothing terrible for humidity. There are a couple of upper-level disturbances approaching later tonight, bringing a chance of rain overnight (as well as tomorrow), though the odds are heaviest to the south and west of us. Low tonight around 60.
Last numbers for the week.
NH added 25 new positive test results yesterday, bringing its official total to 6,742. It reported 1 new death, which now stand at 419. There are now 5,941 official recoveries (88%), and 382 current cases. Grafton and Sullivan counties remain where they've been for a while, with 103 and 40 cumulative cases, respectively, while Merrimack gained 1 for a total of 460. Meanwhile, Grafton and Sullivan have 4 current cases each, and Merrimack has 11 (up 1), with between 1 and 4 current cases reported in Lebanon, Grantham, Claremont, and Charlestown.
VT added 9 new cases yesterday (5 of them in Rutland County), bringing its total to 1,445. There was 1 new death, which now stand at 58 total; one person is hospitalized. Windsor County gained a case, bringing its cumulative total to 72. Orange County remains at 14.
Grafton, Merrimack counties "on track for containment" of the coronavirus, NH health official says. Testifying to the governor's re-opening task force, deputy public health director Trish Tilley said most new cases are in the south—many of them among people in their 20s—but that the state's northern and western counties continue to keep the virus in check. Hillsborough County accounts for a full 50 percent of the state's cumulative cases. GW Plastics to be sold to Swedish company for $230 million. The buyer is Nolato, which makes polymer-based products for medical and other uses. GW Plastics, based in Bethel, makes injection-molded medical-device and vehicle-systems parts and has plants in Royalton, Mexico, China, and Ireland, with about 1,100 employees. “No jobs are going to be lost. We will stay in Vermont. Current leadership intends to stay with the business,” chief exec Brenan Riehl tells the VN's John Lippman. “We have no intention of changing [or] shutting down any facilities.” Closing is expected in September.Local, music communities rally to help Jeremiah, Annemieke McLane. For years, the two musicians have entertained, taught, and inspired audiences in the Upper Valley and beyond. On Tuesday, the house Jeremiah built in Sharon burnt to the ground while they were away. The fire, a reader writes, took "their instruments, all of their sheet music, decades of notes, recordings, not to mention furniture and personal belongs—all gone." The United Church of Strafford has organized a fund to help them rebuild, Sharon Elementary teachers have organized a book donation effort to help their son Luke replenish his supply, and musicians all over the country are putting out word. Dartmouth names external investigator in hunger-strike case. The college has chosen Philadelphia-based lawyer Maureen Holland, who served as an interim Title IX coordinator at Baylor University and has investigated sexual assault and harassment cases, to look into the claims by grad student Maha Hasan Alshawi. Alshawi confirmed on Facebook that Holland had been in touch, but "has not responded to requests for comments since Wednesday evening," The Dartmouth reports. College spokesperson Diana Lawrence says the college will have nothing further to say until the investigation is complete.
School nurses try to find a clear path through confusing guidelines. They are, of course, the people who will be making decisions about kids who show up with any Covid-19 symptoms—which could also be anxiety or allergies or another chronic condition. "Many school leaders," reports NHPR's Sarah Gibson, "say they are struggling to make sense of conflicting guidelines from state and federal officials on face masks, social distancing, and quarantine protocol." The school nurses association is readying guidance; the state's school nurse coordinator position has been unfilled since January.All those beavers in New Hampshire? You can thank the six reintroduced in 1928. And another 48 in 1940, but you get the idea. They'd been trapped to extinction by the end of the 1800s, so that's a pretty swell comeback. Other stuff you might not have known, from this column in the Laconia Daily Sun: each spring parents kick their kits out of the lodge, meaning "there are lots of young, inexperienced beavers out roaming around"; and heron and osprey build their nests in trees that die when the water behind beaver dams flood their roots. Lots more at the link. In the annals of bizarre true-crime stories... Remember how, back in June, someone vandalized the large "Black Lives Matter" street painting in front of the VT statehouse in Montpelier? Using security camera footage and DNA collected off a spray paint can in the trash, police identified the culprit as 56-year-old Fred Seavey. But on July 1, before he could be charged, Seavey died in a one-car crash on I-89 in Waterbury when his car veered off the road into ledge in the median. Yesterday, the top prosecutor for Washington County, VTDigger reports, "declined to press charges because Seavey is dead.""It was clear at the time that Zuckerman strongly opposed strengthening the state's vaccination requirements." The most heated debate between VT's lt. gov. and his rival for the Dem gubernatorial nomination, Rebecca Holcombe, involves Zuckerman's past support for a philosophical exemption to the state's vaccine mandate. Zuckerman accuses Holcombe of misconstruing his record; Holcombe says Zuckerman disbelieves science. Seven Days' Paul Heintz digs deep, finding differences between what Zuckerman says he was trying to achieve and how others involved in the issue remember it.VT may rank first in the US in Covid testing availability, but that doesn't mean all Vermonters can actually get tests. VTDigger's Katie Jickling writes that "a growing demand, evolving research around testing, and the patchwork of screening options have created disparities around who can get tested and when." Some testing sites don't have openings; others don't take asymptomatic patients; still others turn away patients showing symptoms; and the state's testing pop-ups are struggling with demand.Ski towns hit hardest by unemployment. The five VT towns reporting the highest rates in June, Riley Board reports in the Burlington Free Press, are resort towns: the homes of Mt. Snow, Magic Mountain, Okemo, Stowe Mtn. Resort, and Mad River Glen, all with surrounding towns whose businesses depend on the visitors they bring. Some resorts are starting to reopen, though, and the state ski association believes that with air travel down, northeast skiers will show up this winter. Oh, and heads up: It also predicts "an increased interest in cross-country skiing, which is often more of a solitary activity." Fall's coming, so that must mean... a sunflower maze? Or, actually, more like a house. Benjamin Pauly, the master gardener at the Woodstock Inn & Resort has created one—his second—at Billings Farm. This year's is one-way, with sunflowers in a variety of colors and heights. "All over the Northeast there are corn mazes, but nobody has sunflowers that are designed to be like an architectural place to explore," he tells Boston mag. “It’s...not like anything you’ve gone to before." It opened yesterday, and will stay open until first frost.Okay, but where do you get carbon powder? Once you've got that solved, Britain's Natural History Museum has you covered on how to make a footprint tunnel so you can figure out which small mammals are traipsing through your property. Cardboard, paper, masking tape, twine, some vegetable oil to mix with the carbon powder, and some bait. Includes tips to help you figure out the prints you're seeing.
News that connects you. If you like Daybreak and want to help it keep going, here's how:
Today from 3-7 pm, it's "Mask Up Upper Valley," the free face-mask giveaway being run by the Rotary Clubs of Hanover and Lebanon, the Upper Valley Business Alliance, and Upper Valley Young Professionals. Two masks per person. At the DHMC parking lot behind Jesse's on Route 120. They'll be doing it again tomorrow from 10-2.
The Co-op's cooking classes have gone online, and today at 5:30 you can learn to make pupusas, the Salvadoran street-food flatbread staple, topped with slaw. It's a "2-hour cook-along," they say, and they'll be recording so you can refresh your memory afterward. Costs $12.
If it's live music you want, Trifolium will be on the S. Royalton Green from 5-8 pm thanks to Upper Pass, which will have beer and food on hand. Justin Park (guitar, mandolin, vocals), Chloe Powell (cello, fiddle) and Andy Mueller (guitar, mandolin, fiddle) do fiddle tunes and folk songs.
Meanwhile, from 5:30 to 7, Gloucester, MA's Emerald Rae will be on the North Chapel back lawn in Woodstock, part of Pentangle's Music by the River series. She pulls everything from bagpipes to flamenco, electric guitar, and ukulele out of her fiddle and songs. Reservations required—if you don't see the "Click here to register" link it means they're at capacity.
At the drive-ins once dark falls: Bethel's got Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade; Fairlee's got Shrek and Happy Gilmore.
A bit farther afield... Back in May, the Weston Playhouse commissioned 14 playwrights to create short, one-person plays that respond to the present moment and explore the questions, “What makes a home? What stories might be hiding in its ordinary rooms?” One Room premieres tonight at 7:30, with a discussion beforehand starting at 7. Actors include Alfre Woodard, Daphne Rubin-Vega, and Dana Delaney. Free on Weston's YouTube channel, but a donation wouldn't be amiss.
And even farther afield, today at noon Wynton Marsalis and former New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu talk over the historical monuments debate. Back in 2017, when he was mayor, Landrieu was out in front early on removing Confederate monuments, in no small part because Marsalis challenged him on the issue. They'll be talking about that experience and what it tells us about today.
If you've been missing live dance performances, Open Door's Kate Gamble and a dozen dancers—including guests Neva Cockrell (Pilobolus) and Raphael Sacks (Sandglass Theater)—have worked together to choreograph a series of movement pieces spread over WRJ's Lyman Point Park "inspired by our shared experience during these challenging times." They'll be performing Sunday at 4 pm and 6 pm. Tickets required.
And finally, the Friends of River Park, which is the the non-profit group working on the 6-acre parcel donated by Lyme Properties as part of its work on the River Park development in old West Leb, have launched "Trails + Trucks" as a way of introducing people to the parcel, which has several miles of walking trails and a half mile of CT River frontage. Food trucks and trails right now, and they're working on adding farm stands and entertainment down the road. Every Sunday in August and possibly into September, 11 am to 7 pm. There are picnic tables and masks are required (except when eating).
I'd never heard of a "crankie" before, but they're a thing: hand-cranked scrolls of images that illustrate stories or songs.
, a traditional Québécois musical trio based in Montreal, with a crankie created by Julie Vallimont. The song is "Floristène," from the repertoire of Cape Breton singer and traditional-song collector Léo Aucoin.
(Thanks, GF!)
Have a fine weekend! See you Monday.
Written and published by Rob Gurwitt Banner by Tom Haushalter Poetry editor: Michael Lipson About Rob About Tom About Michael
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!