Daybreak Monday 5/22/23

GOOD MORNING, UPPER VALLEY!

What you see is what's in store. High pressure has settled in, and despite air flowing in from the north we'll get temps up around 70 today and sunny skies. Lows tonight in the lower 40s.Yo dude! Stay away! Chipmunks may look cute, but to birds defending their eggs or fledglings, they're anything but. Which is probably why this finch—which has a nest nearby—has a thing or two to communicate in Sarah Berman's video from Plainfield.Inconvenience now, inconvenience ahead. It's road disruption season, and Valley News writers Frances Mize, Patrick Adrian, and Alex Hanson have pulled together an Upper Valley-wide look at the construction projects we'll be living with for a while. There's Lyme-Thetford, of course, but they also explain what's going on with the Ledyard Bridge and I-89 bridges, the railroad bridge over Route 14 in Royalton, work on repaving four miles of Route 11 between Claremont and Newport (starts today, here's NHDOT's press release), plus repaving due on 120, 12A, 4A, Lyme and Etna roads in Hanover, and more.Former LISTEN director's embezzlement charge: everyone missed the warning signs. That's the conclusion the VN's Jim Kenyon comes to after looking into Kyle Fisher's financial record—including a bankruptcy filing before he was first hired by LISTEN and a misdemeanor embezzlement charge in MI. On May 11, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for NH charged Fisher with taking more than $230,000 from the nonprofit he ran, to fuel a gambling addiction. Kenyon digs into his hiring, his financial dealings, and his record at LISTEN. "I always regarded him as upfront and real," says a former board chair.Dartmouth's energy transition: Lots of plans, not here yet. What with the Irving Institute, the college's Sustainability Office, the student-led Dartmouth Energy Alliance, and the faculty-led Energy Justice Clinic, there's plenty of thinking on campus about making good on outgoing President Phil Hanlon's 2017 pledge to cut fossil fuel emissions. In The Dartmouth, Lauren Azrin catches up on what it's amounting to: ending oil-burning at the central heating plant sometime in the next few years, creating a more "decentralized" energy system, and boosting energy retrofits. The timetable, though, is up in the air.SPONSORED: Upper Valley Habitat for Humanity is hiring a new executive director. After six wonderful years with Upper Valley Habitat for Humanity, Eva Loomis is stepping away, and we are accepting applications for a new Executive Director. We are looking for exceptional candidates who are passionate about housing affordability and ready to make a difference in our community. For more information, see the job listing here or at the burgundy link, and reach out to [email protected] with any questions. Sponsored by Upper Valley Habitat for Humanity.“I’ve not had a decent night’s sleep in months." Angelo Bermudez, a veteran and custodial worker, moved out of his place in Lebanon back in December, after he and everyone else there got eviction notices. He's been couch-surfing or sleeping in his car since, writes Nora Doyle-Burr in the VN. Same deal with Paul and Marilyn Morey, both 66, who were evicted last Monday. The Leb City Council last week asked city manager Shaun Mulholland to identify sites for a seasonal shelter—but in the meantime, Paul Morey says, "There is nothing available anywhere unless you want to pay $3,000 a month and have one car." Doyle-Burr details the long wait for people hoping for a roof.After El Niño: "Societies and economies absolutely do not just take a hit and recover." That's Dartmouth PhD student Christopher Callahan talking to Dartmouth News's Morgan Kelly about a new study looking into the long-term economic effects of the band of warm ocean water whose impact includes floods, droughts, and a rise in diseases. Callahan and geography prof Justin Mankin looked at global economic activity following the 1982-83 and 1997-98 El Niño events and found trillions of dollars in economic losses over years. NASA announced over the weekend it's seeing early signs of El Niño shaping up.NH releases plan to eliminate ER "boarding" for psychiatric patients in two years—a day after judge gives it one year. Remember how, last week, a federal judge told NH it has a year to end its practice of holding patients in a mental health crisis indefinitely in ERs? Turns out that the next day, the state issued its long-gestating plan to expand community-based services, inpatient psychiatric treatment, and transitional housing as a way of eliminating its waitlist. On NHPR, Paul Cuno-Booth reviews the state's proposal, both to expand the number of "beds" and boost community care alternatives.Who, Why, How, and When remain unknown. But the What (a left hand carved into rock with “WMDOW" underneath) and the Where (down a steep slope by a river bank in the Second College Grant up in NH's North Country)—those are possible. In New Hampshire mag, Marshall Hudson delves into the enduring mystery of the carving—which "was no casual etching done on a whim by some passing graffiti vandal," he writes. Vikings? The Rev. William Dow, Dartmouth Class of 1861? A memorial to a logger lost in an 1871 river drive? We’ll likely never know, Hudson concludes.VT legislature passes major firearms bills. Now the big question: Will courts go along? The three measures, writes VTDigger's Sarah Mearhoff, ban paramilitary-style training camps, bring state law on straw purchases and tampering with serial numbers in line with the feds, and create safe storage rules, expand red flag laws, and mandate a 72-hour waiting period for gun purchases. This last bill was couched as a suicide prevention measure—drawing criticism from gun rights groups—and the big question, Mearhoff writes, is whether it will run afoul of a US Supreme Court ruling last year."It's a dangerous machine if you don't use it wisely." That's Bob Hoffman, who lives in West Danville, VT, talking about guns. He's 83 now and started hunting when he was 13 or so. "I've always had guns," he says. And he's one of five people radio producer Erica Heilman talked to about guns for the current episode of Brave Little State. It's a remarkable 360-degree view: Hoffman's lifelong respect for guns; state police crime scene investigator Aimee Nolan on pointing a gun at someone; Wells River's Bonnie Boyce about the night her alcoholic husband came at her with a .22; W. Glover's John Rodgers on self-protection; and Army vet Joe Smith on PTSD and a suicide attempt.Such a fine purple! Or, actually, many purples. Plus some green. All in Friday night's northern lights, visible between fog raids atop Mt. Washington.The Monday Vordle. With a word from Friday's Daybreak.

Heads Up

And to take us into the week...Violinist and fiddlers Mark and Maggie O'Connor have a new album out. It's mostly Americana, but it includes Mark's arrangement for two violins of the haunting Ukrainian folk song "Verbovaya Doschechka"—which he first heard during an online performance at the start of the war with members of the Kyiv Symphony recording their violin parts from basements.See you tomorrow.

Written and published by Rob Gurwitt   Writer/editor: Jonea Gurwitt  Poetry editor: Michael Lipson  About Rob                                                                                           About Michael

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