Daybreak Monday 8/10/20

WELCOME TO THE WEEK, UPPER VALLEY!

Temps, humidity rising. I know, right? Didn't we go through this already? At least it's short-lived. Today, foggy to start in spots, there's some unsettled air aloft bringing a slight chance of showers and thunder late in the day, but really it's mostly sunny with highs getting into the mid-80s and relative humidity climbing ahead of tomorrow's stickiness. Low tonight in the mid-to high 60s.Rising above the fog. The valleys around Plainfield were socked in first thing Friday morning, but William Daugherty sent his drone rising slowly through the mist to catch the hilltops poking through and a pink and orange sunrise lighting everything. A little 56-second dollop of perspective.

So... What happened out there?

Dartmouth Coach starts up again this week, with changes. The bus service that's been a vital connection to Boston and New York will resume next Sunday at 2/3 capacity and with reduced service, the VN's John Lippman reports. It will leave 17 seats per bus empty, has installed plastic dividers on the headrests, and will cut service to Boston to six trips a day (from 10) and to NYC to once each on Friday and Saturday. In all, Lippman says, 10 of its 25 drivers will come back to work full-time, and another five part-time.Main Street Kitchens leaving Main Street, adding second store; Engine Room shuts down. Lippman writes that the kitchen-supply store, which has been a Main Street fixture for over two decades, has opened on Allen Street, where Folk (and, briefly, AroMed Essentials) used to be; the Main St. location will also remain open until the end of the month. In addition, owners Dave and Kaitlyn Barrette are opening a second front in the former Allen Pools & Spas building by the VA in WRJ. Lippman also reports that the pandemic has claimed Brandon Fox and Big Fatty's attempt to make a go of WRJ's Engine Room. How Bethel emerged in the Black Lives Matter limelight. As protests grew in the wake of George Floyd's death, Junction mag's Colleen Goodhugh writes, Bethel record producer David Phair—who is Black and grew up in a series of white foster homes in VT—joined up with the owners of Babes Bar to begin planning marches. Bars "are always a site of organizing,” says Babe's co-owner Owen Daniel-McCarter. Since then, the bar has held a teach-in, and, says Daniel-McCarter, “There’s a lot of things that we’re going to work on that I’m really excited about. I’m really excited to keep working with David and others.”SPONSORED: Do you have a child going off to college or leaving home? Or a family member who might need help with health or financial matters? Join Everything In Order, the Upper Valley business that helps people create essential legal documents, for this week’s webinar on the documents you need to participate in your loved ones' health and financial matters. It's this Thursday, August 13th, at noon. RSVP at the link. Sponsored by Everything In Order.Leb planning board meets tonight to consider 44-unit affordable housing project at Old Etna, Heater roads. The Lebanon Housing Authority development across from the high school's playing fields would be aimed at entry-level, retail, and service-sector workers, the VN's Tim Camerato reports. Board members will most likely focus on traffic concerns, Camerato writes, given backups as DHMC workers leave at the end of the day and pending projects up the 120 corridor. Alshawi ends hunger strike. In case you missed this on Friday, several hours after Dartmouth named the external investigator it's hired to look into Maha Hasan Alshawi's sexual misconduct allegations against a professor, the grad student ended her four-week hunger strike.  “Although I still do not have answers to all my questions, at this point, I am ending my hunger strike and look forward to working, in good faith, with the independent investigator to ensure that my allegations are investigated fully and fairly," she wrote on FB.78-year-old ultralight pilot rescued after crashing into Lake Winnipesaukee. The craft was about 1000 feet above Meredith Bay when its engine stopped and the plane hit the water. The pilot, David Grapes, was rescued by boaters—including an off-duty Massachusetts police officer—and taken to the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries. The plane sank.After dropping to zero, NH emergency-room waits for mental-health beds climbing again. That day with no one waiting for a psychiatric bed came in late March, the first time in eight years. For a time, the AP's Holly Ramer reports, the numbers were in the single digits. But they hit 67 recently, and there's a shortage of community-based care beds. “When there is a crisis, people tend to hold it together for a while, and the impact on the mental health side is felt later. And that later appears to be now," says NAMI-NH's Ken Norton.Oops: NH GOP threatens to bury Durham in absentee-ballot requests. The party sent out a statewide mailer to voters last week encouraging them to send in their ballot requests. It had the appropriate street address pre-printed for the voter's city or town clerk... but in each case, the town and zip was for Durham. The party's readying a new mailer; a spokesperson could not say how much the initial mailing cost, WMUR reports.Speaking of politics, Volinsky, Feltes to debate civil liberties. The NH ACLU and UNH School of Law are hosting two one-hour "Civil Liberties and the Corner Office" programs starting tonight. The two Democratic gubernatorial candidates, Andru Volinsky (this evening) and Dan Feltes (Thursday) will discuss the issue and respond to audience questions. On Zoom, starts at 6:30, link to register.Could the pandemic reverse Vermont's population decline? Maybe. With companies moving to remote work—in some cases permanently—Vermont has seen working professionals moving to the state, VTDigger's Anne Wallace Allen reports. A recent survey by UVM's Center for Research on Vermont found almost 2/3 of them are under 50 and a whopping 92 percent have a college or advanced degree. “There is big potential...for Vermont and other places that are perceived to be safe,” says the CRV's director. Still, only a third say they're likely to stay; the rest aren't sure or expect to leave. Flynn launches music series with a catch—it's kinda pop-up. In a sign that you can't keep cultural life down even during a pandemic, the Flynn Center, Burlington's mainstay performing arts center, together with UVM's Lane Series and the Burlington jazz festival, is launching "Hurly Burly," a series in outdoor public spaces focused on performing artists of color. They'll start up on Saturday with Latin jazz trumpeter and bandleader Ray Vega, and run each weekend at least to late September—but won't announce the time or venue until the day of the show.Ammonoosuc Ravine Trail best hike in NH? Long Trail to Mansfield summit the best in VT? Travel + Leisure has a list of the "best hikes" in each of the 50 states. You can (and should) argue the "best" moniker, but still, there are plenty of ideas here. Like, did you know the 1,200-mile Ice Age Trail is entirely in Wisconsin? Or that the best sunsets in Rhode Island are in Beavertail State Park on Jamestown Island? Or that Castle Rock is "one of the wonders of Kansas"? Sheesh, where'd I put that bucket list?“The storytelling part is what I’m good at. I’m not that good at the farming part.” Remember the "All Ducks Go to Bed" video Daybreak linked to a few months back? That was by Morgan Gold, a duck farmer in Peacham, who featured in the NYT over the weekend in a piece by Ellen Barry looking at the wave of "farmer-influencers" winning audiences—and income—by retailing their exploits on YouTube. Setbacks turn out to build audiences. Sheepdog-mounted GoPros do not. “People were like, 10 seconds and I was puking,” Gold's wife, Allison, reports. (Thanks, EG!)

News that connects you. If you like Daybreak and want to help it keep going, here's how:

Reading Deeper

Fatoumata Diawara has Malian parents, was born in the Ivory Coast, grew up in Bamako, moved to France when she was 18 to pursue acting, and now lives in Italy. She's also got a thriving musical career, singing mostly in Bambara, the national language of Mali, and last year became the first Malian artist to perform at the Grammys (which, given Ali Farka Touré, Toumani Diabaté, Amadou & Mariam, and others, seems kinda late, doesn't it?).

 to start off the week.

See you tomorrow.

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!