Daybreak Thursday 11/11/21

GOOD MORNING, UPPER VALLEY!

Sunny, but cooler. The high pressure that brought us yesterday afternoon is moving off, and though we'll climb above freezing pretty quickly this morning, the high won't get much above 50 around here. Still, plenty of sunshine for most of the day—until we start seeing the forerunners of tomorrow's system late in the day. Clouding up in the evening, rain possible overnight.Frost up close... and far away. The meandering lines of the first hard frost in a West Fairlee field and the scene as cows graze in the early-morning light along Middlebrook Road the same day, both by John Pietkiewicz.“Our vetting process to determine which submissions were valid did not happen early enough and was not thorough enough." It's back to a nearly blank slate for Hanover High's mascot selection committee, reports the Valley News's Benjamin Rosenberg. After nine potential designs were disqualified for lack of originality—including one of the two in a possible runoff—the HHS Council has voted to restart the selection process. The committee is seeking new designs for the Huskies, Maroon Crush, Trailblazers, Hawks, and Bears.Homes listed for sale in Woodstock... only they're not. In October, a woman came to Omni Reporter blogger Gareth Henderson's door, wanting to tour his house. It was listed for sale online, she told him. So, it turned out, were several others in the neighborhood, Henderson discovered—mostly on Craigslist. Scam rental listings, he reports, aren't uncommon, but a realtor tells him "the fake for-sale scenario 'is pretty new,' but could have the same goal of falsely collecting some kind of deposit." Henderson adds that there have been no reports of successful for-sale scams in the Woodstock area recently.SPONSORED: Start your career with Simon Pearce! At Simon Pearce, we are family. For generations we have recognized that our people are our most valuable asset. From design, production, and shipping, to our restaurant and retail locations, each piece is handcrafted, produced, and handled by our exceptional team. All employees enjoy great benefits with competitive pay, PTO, product and restaurant discounts, and so much more! Apply today to be a part of a brand that celebrates handcrafted excellence, heritage craftsmanship, and extraordinary design in glass and pottery! Sponsored by Simon Pearce.“Generation after generation of teenagers went through his camps and were transformed by the experience of singing together.” That's Peter Amidon, who directs the Guilford VT Community Church choir, reflecting on Larry Gordon's legacy. The Village Harmony founder died Tuesday after being removed from life support following a bike accident last week. In addition to the musical Tuesday wake at Gordon's home, writes Jon Kalish in a VTDigger obituary, vigils were also held in Brattleboro, Boston, Western Mass., NYC, DC, the SF Bay Area, Seattle, England, Germany, and South AfricaNH State Police: Bone fragments did not belong to Maura Murray. When they were discovered at Loon Mountain in September, about 25 miles from the N. Haverhill site where Murray, a UMass nursing student, disappeared 17 years ago, they raised hopes that they might be connected to her case. But state police say that based on radiocarbon dating, they belonged to someone who most likely died between 1774 and 1942. "My family will continue to search for Maura and will leave no stone unturned," Murray's sister, Julie, said in a statement yesterday after the news broke.NH Exec Council does 180, approves $22.5 million federal contract for vaccinations. The move essentially reverses its controversial decision last month to reject the money. It was "introduced as a late item and not on the agenda or the Executive Council’s website" before yesterday's meeting, reports NH Bulletin's Annmarie Timmins. The willingness of three GOP councilors to reverse course rested on a nonbinding resolution supporting a legal challenge to federal vaccine mandates in the workplace and an effort to make the state vaccine registry opt-in, rather than requiring users to opt out. NH Ed Dept invites students, parents to drop a dime on teachers. NHPR's Sarah Gibson reports it's just launched a new webpage, rooted in the state's controversial law barring public school teachers from teaching that "one identified group" is inherently superior or inferior or "inherently racist, sexist, or oppressive, whether consciously or unconsciously." The new webpage, titled "Right to Freedom from Discrimination in Public Workplaces and Education," offers parents and students a questionnaire that "does not constitute a formal charge of discrimination, but [is] the first step in making such a determination."

NH Utilities Commission gets new chair. Dan Goldner, who worked at Texas Instruments for three decades before being named to the commission in May, will replace Dianne Martin, who resigned last month to run the state's Administrative Office of the Courts. Though the lone Democrat on the Exec Council has questioned Goldner's experience, Consumer Advocate Don Kreis tells NH Bulletin's Amanda Gokee that Goldner has made a positive impression during his tenure so far. The Council also approved a former lawyer for Unitil, and is due to vote on a former consumer advocate staffer for the third seat.Get ready for a bunch of out-of-state SUVs bombing up and down I-91 and I-89 this winter. Because, reports Anne Wallace Allen in Seven Days, VT ski areas are seeing robust early sales. This comes after a gut-wrenching season last winter, when ski areas saw a $100 million collective drop in revenues. Now, inns are reporting earlier-than-usual bookings, as are ski resorts. "Christmas and Martin Luther King Day weekend are trending as strong or stronger than the 2019-2020 season, right before COVID," Kevin Mack, general manager of Burke Mountain Resort tells Allen. "There is pent-up demand out there."VT extends emergency housing program until March. Strictly speaking, writes VTDigger's Lola Duffort, it's not a revival of the pandemic-era move to house those in need in motels, which ended for about 700 Vermonters this past summer, but it has the same effect. Instead of requiring temps to drop below 20 degrees before offering shelter to unhoused Vermonters, the state "will now allow anyone making less than $24,000 a year to seek shelter in motels from Nov. 22 to March 1, 2022, regardless of the forecast," Duffort reports.VT State Police defend decision not to pursue threats against elections officials. Tuesday, Reuters posted a story tracking down Trump supporters who'd threatened officials in the wake of last year's elections, including a construction worker in VT. His voicemails, including one saying Secy of State staffers would get "popped," were reported to state police, who declined to pursue the case—and, reports Reuters, never contacted the caller. Washington County State's Atty Rory Thibault also declined to prosecute. “It’s horrible. It’s rude. It’s offensive,” he tells VTDigger's Riley Robinson. “But our Constitution allows us to be horrible, rude, inconsiderate people to one another.”The man who made kale go viral heads to the screen. Around 2000, a local farmer asked Montpelier t-shirt designer Bo Moore to emblazon a shirt with the words “Eat More Kale.” Right away Moore saw the slogan’s market potential and began cranking out tees and stickers that soon achieved ubiquity in VT. Then a litigious chicken sandwich chain sent him a cease-and-desist. Now, writes Margot Harrison in Seven Days, a documentary goes inside Moore’s “David v. Goliath” legal battle, his efforts to trademark “Eat More Kale,” and the national media frenzy—none of which has much at all to do with eating kale. That photo of your cat? It belongs in a museum. You'd think we had all the platforms we’d ever need to broadcast cute pictures of our pets, but Google would like a word—because your pet pics are closer to art than you might think. The tech giant has launched Pet Portraits, an app that uses machine learning to “compare your pet photos to artworks from museums around the world.” Upload a photo and your little friend “could be matched with ancient Egyptian figurines, vibrant Mexican street art, serene Chinese watercolors, and more.” Just remember: You still can't bring your dog to the Louvre or the Frick.Daybreak doesn't get to exist without your support. Help it keep going by hitting the maroon button:

And here, just as a taste, is the Schumann Quartet last fall at London's Wigmore Hall,

See you tomorrow.

Daybreak Where You Are: The Album. Photos of daybreak around the Upper Valley, Vermont, New Hampshire, and the US, sent in by readers.

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

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