Daybreak Monday 6/15/20

WE MEET AGAIN, UPPER VALLEY!

Getting warmer... A trough of low pressure that tracked through yesterday cleared out overnight, and a surface high has stepped in to take its place. Lots of sunshine today, temps getting back toward normal: highs in the mid 70s, calm winds from the north. Down into the high 40s tonight.

So how'd that weekend look?

You'd almost think it was posing. Like many of us, Andrea Miller had only seen luna moths in photos... until the other day, when there one was, hanging out on a tree in Weathersfield, VT. "Stunning creature," she writes. "Almost magical looking." Loons know how to swim from the moment they're born. Once they've dried off their down after emerging from the remains of the eggshell they've broken through, that is. Mary Holland's latest Naturally Curious post has a lovely shot of a nesting loon incubating eggs—which is what a lot of them are doing right now, though some loon chicks have already emerged.Lebanon man missing. Michael Fanger, who is 79 and has memory issues, wandered away at about noon yesterday on Blueberry Hill Drive and hasn't been seen since. He had not been found by last night, and Lebanon police have posted his photo at the link. He was wearing black/white sneakers, faded blue jeans, and a t-shirt of unknown color.Lebanon pulls out of CATV. Like Hanover, Hartford, Norwich, and Hartland, the city helped support the community-cable non-profit, which among other things makes footage of town government available. But as part of the City Hall renovation project, Leb plans to install internet-enabled equipment. “We can now do everything CATV could do for us,” Mayor Tim McNamara tells the Union Leader. The pullout blows a $67K hole in CATV's budget. “It absolutely cuts me off at the knees,” says executive director Donna Girot.What do you do to celebrate HS graduation during a pandemic? Hold a parade, of course! 

"The silver lining of this pandemic and of George Floyd's senseless death, is that these events have exposed the dire need for change. Who better to make that change than all of you?"

Dartmouth held a graduation, too, though no parade. That quote was from Harvard epidemiologist Michael Mina in a baccalaureate address yesterday, before the actual graduation ceremony was streamed to graduates, friends, and families. Khan Academy founder Salman Khan gave the commencement speech, likening this year's graduates to those who came of age during the Depression and WWII.

SPONSORED: Mascoma Bank redirects funds from BBQs to food banks.

For the bank's team members, hosting community BBQs is an annual opportunity quite literally to serve their neighbors. For safety reasons the bank has canceled them this summer, but recognizes that the need for meals and support for senior members of our communities has rarely been greater and that food insecurity is rising for all ages. So they have committed the funds that would have gone to BBQs to organizations providing food assistance. You'll find a full list at the link, along with how you, too, can help this summer.

Sponsored by Mascoma Bank.

InfuseMe to close.

The

VN

's John Lippman (second item at link) reports that the Powerhouse Mall shop for high-end and infused olive oils, vinegars, and other gourmet foods will close at the end of June. The store had begun to expand beyond its own footprint, with both the Co-op Food Stores and Dan & Whit's agreeing to carry its products, but the pandemic, co-owner Jen Driscoll tells Lippman, has made it "difficult to maintain the business."  

Windsor School's principal on leave after FB post. The Mt. Ascutney School Board voted unanimously Friday to put Tiffany Riley on paid administrative leave, and will work on "a mutually agreed upon severance package," Supt. David Baker tells the VN. The move came after Riley posted on her personal FB page, "I firmly believe that Black Lives Matter, but I DO NOT agree with the coercive measures taken to get to this point across; some of which are falsified in an attempt to prove a point..." The post drew wide condemnation. “It’s clear that the community has lost faith in her ability to lead," Baker says.A third weekend of racial justice rallies in VT and NH. There was a march through downtown Randolph and a rally and march in Bethel, both of them covered by the VN's Alex Hanson. There were demonstrations in Bennington, Waterbury, Stowe, and Brattleboro, with writeups in VTDigger. And in NH, rallies in Plymouth, Rochester, Peterborough, and Keene—where, NHPR's Daniela Allee reports, demonstrators filled Central Square.Vandal mars "Black Lives Matter" street painting in Montpelier. Hundreds of volunteers turned out to paint the words in huge block letters in front of the Vermont statehouse on Saturday, with the approval of the Montpelier City Council and Gov. Phil Scott. By yesterday morning, someone had strewn oil and dirt along the "V" and graffitied "$400 million gone," "put it back call Trump," "We the pepbul" and other messages, Seven Days reports. Police caught a suspect on camera and are looking for leads. Stock car racing's back, but it's going to be a little different. Devil's Bowl Speedway in West Haven, VT reopens tonight with a "COVID Crusher" event, 29 laps for Sportsman Modifieds. The grandstand's closed though, so people can only watch from the pit, and only one person at a time will be allowed in the bathrooms. Meanwhile, Thunder Road in Barre reopens on Thursday... but with no spectators allowed at all. The race will be televised. But let's get back to Devil's Bowl for a sec: Really? One person at a time?So, about that climate legislation... The VT legislature was squaring its shoulders to move forward with bills to stiffen the penalties for not meeting greenhouse-reduction targets (the state's lagged on that front) and to join the regional Transportation and Climate Initiative. But the pandemic has stifled work on both fronts: a House-passed bill on the first issue may be set aside so the Senate committee considering it can finish Act 250 reforms; and the TCI bill rests on a final regional agreement that won't be out until late this year."Blue jays are the single most important distributors of oak trees." Naturalist and writer Ted Levin's been contemplating has patch of turf in Thetford during the pandemic, and yesterday spent time watching "a family of motormouth blue jays." They're not just prodigious acorn-spreaders, he writes. "Some people just don't like blue jays. They think they're rude and aggressive. But what they really are is intelligent, resourceful, gregarious, loquacious, supercilious, bellicose, adaptable  . . . more or less, just like us."

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What's that? Oh yeah, I had to look them up, too.

Proteomics

: the study of "the structure, function, and interactions of the proteins produced by the genes of a particular cell, tissue, or organism."

Epigenetics

studies "changes in organisms caused by modification of gene expression rather than alteration of the genetic code itself." Got that?

Sunny day, fresh week... I think we've gotta go in on a beat. The incomparable Ruthie Foster,

from her brand new album with her big band, live last year at Austin's grand old Paramount Theater. 

See you tomorrow.

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