A PLEASURE TO SEE YOU, UPPER VALLEY!
Sunny, a little warmer. Dry air's moving in aloft, and we get this nice slot today with mostly clear skies and highs reaching toward the mid 40s. Winds from the southwest. Cloud cover moves in tonight, temps down into the higher 20s. One thing you can say for these recent days: We've had some flamboyant skies. Especially in the morning or late in the day. Lauran Corson was out by the Pogue in Woodstock on Tuesday morning and snapped this one.Leb officials working to shut down gym owner's planned "herd immunity" party. Marc Garza, who owns Crom MMA & Fitness on the Miracle Mile, has been advertising a "We Defied the .02 odds and Lived Til Xmas" party at the gym on Dec. 12. He calls Covid-19 a "scamdemic" and tells the Union Leader's Damien Fisher, "I have the freedom to do what I want in this country.” City officials disagree. "We’re working with the Attorney General’s Office on this matter," says City Manager Shaun Mulholland.Hanover Terrace outbreak grows to at least 20. In results released yesterday afternoon, 14 more residents tested positive for Covid in addition to the six who'd been identified Tuesday, reports the Valley News's Nora Doyle-Burr. “This is a frightening situation,” Hanover health officer and deputy fire chief Michael Hinsley tells her. “This is agonizing for the staff (and it’s) unbelievably scary and stressful for family members.” Doyle-Burr also reports that Valley Vista in Bradford has resumed admissions and Enfield Village School has gone remote after a case there.Dartmouth student found dead last month remembered as a "kind friend, thoughtful classmate and lover of nature." Beau Dubray, a freshman from South Dakota, died by suicide Nov. 19 at the age of 18. “Everywhere he went, he held a philosophy of caring for everything around him," a classmate tells The Dartmouth's Andrew Sasser. A member of the Cheyenne River Sioux and Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara Nation, Dubray was an all-state cross-country runner and an outdoorsman, committed to finding ways of helping his community at home maintain its ties to buffalo and the land.Judge orders Canaan to release internal report on 2017 encounter involving former police officer. It's a victory for the Valley News, which has argued that there is a public interest in knowing what happened after Samuel Provenza, now with the state police, pulled over Crystal Eastman and they subsequently struggled. In a decision yesterday, reports the VN's John Gregg, Grafton Superior Court Judge Peter Bornstein ruled that the “public has a right to know that the police take their complaints seriously and that the investigation was ‘comprehensive and accurate.’”So, if you come upon a group of people bundled up in hats and mittens, wearing headlamps, sitting in their cars singing... Don't be alarmed. It's a "driveway choir," a pandemic-era effort by the Choral Arts Foundation of the Upper Valley to help the region's various choral groups rehearse together. This summer, CAFUV plunked down about $6,500 for mics, headsets, mixers, FM transmitter, and programming help to get the system running. The North Country Chordsmen vetted it, and these days several choruses and church choirs are using it. Link goes to video of the Jubilate Singers, led by Susan Cancio-Bello, giving it a test run in October. (Thanks, JE!)D-H using robot created by local robotics team to bring iPads to Covid patients. The effort got underway in the spring, as the hospital worried about keeping patients connected to families while conserving PPE and protecting health care workers. They linked up with the Grasshoppers, a robotics team of students from various high schools joined through the Hartford Area Career and Technology Center. With the help of a pile of local companies and volunteers, they designed, prototyped, and built a robot that can cover five feet per second and maneuver around the tight spaces in hospital rooms.Time to start planning for drone deliveries. And above all, for their noise. A couple of months ago, a trio of engineers at the WRJ-based Resource Systems Group put out a self-funded white paper on drone noise mitigation. Its main point: Delivery drones are on their way, and states and communities need to plan allowable routes and other noise-mitigation strategies. A drone's whine, RSG's director of acoustics, Eddie Duncan, tells Seven Days' Ken Picard, is like the hum of an electrical transformer, and people find it as annoying or distracting as a mosquito.NH addiction treatment provider dealing with Covid outbreak. At least 27 clients and staff of Granite Recovery Centers have tested positive since Saturday, reports NHPR's Lauren Chooljian. The group runs a dozen treatment facilities around the state; its chief residential facility is in Effingham. Asked which were locations are affected, CEO Eric Spofford told Chooljian they have had "positive cases at [Effingham] and several of our other housings.” A state spokesman says they're aware of only five active cases.First vaccines in NH by Christmas, Sununu says. At a meeting of the state's Executive Council yesterday, reports InDepthNH's Nancy West, the governor told councillors, “The recipients of the vaccine will be healthcare workers not just in hospitals, but in long-term care facilities and those with underlying conditions in those long-term care facilities.” He said he expects about 10,000 doses of Pfizer vaccine, and a week later 20,000 or more doses of the Moderna vaccine. NH legislators choose leaders. Meeting outdoors at UNH in 40-degree weather, the House and Senate yesterday were sworn in and, as expected, chose Republican Dick Hinch as speaker and fellow-Republican Chuck Morse as Senate president. About a third of the House—130 members—stayed away, either because of the cold or due to news of a Covid outbreak among some Republican members. Legislators also kept on Bill Gardner as secretary of state; he's served 44 years in the job. The GOP holds a 14-10 majority in the Senate and a nine-vote edge in the House. And then the House restored concealed-carry on the House floor and bagged anti-sexual harassment training. The new GOP majority flexed its muscles not long after its organizational votes, opting to make the changes even though a third of the chamber's members hadn't yet been sworn in. They reversed the ban on firearms and a requirement that all members attend anti-sexual harassment training in person instituted by Democrats when they took over in 2018, reports the Monitor's Ethan DeWitt.VT tries to balance public health with letting churches do their thing. Ignite Church in Williston, VT, disinfects regularly, but at a service last Sunday Seven Days' Chelsea Edgar found most people unmasked. "No matter what any governor says, the king of kings...says that you can sing all you want!" pastor Todd Callahan told his congregation. Public officials are treading lightly. "Everyone really hears what these guys are saying when they say spiritual nourishment is incredibly important," says Charity Clark, the AG's chief of staff. "Trying to strike a...balance of keeping everybody safe while honoring that is a real challenge." VT tax commissioner says education property tax could rise average of 9 percent next year, signals school-spending struggles ahead. As VTDigger's Lola Duffort points out, it's just a forecast, with more than the usual dollop of uncertainties this year. The commissioner's annual Dec. 1 letter highlights rising school spending, especially on health insurance, as well as a spike in the state Education Fund's contribution to the teacher pension system. Local school officials, Duffort writes, warn that schools "cannot be asked to bear sole responsibility for a collective problem." Tech platform creates portal for free meals for Vermonters. In its day job the company, Localvore Passport, gives subscribers access to restaurant deals. But it's teamed up with Everyone Eats, the state- and federally funded hunger relief program, to make it easy for people to order free meals from restaurants participating in the program, reports Seven Days' Sasha Goldstein. Restaurants are reimbursed $10 for each meal they provide. Users verify eligibility and sign up, then download the app and can order meals. Locally, the Skinny Pancake in Quechee and the Windsor Diner are participating. Now here's a college program that puts you through your paces. 2,190 miles-worth, to be precise. It's called Semester-A-Trail, and it gives students at Emory & Henry, a small liberal arts college in VA, credit for thru-hiking the AT. Students design projects that they can complete on the trail without laptops or textbooks, spend two months prepping, and then get dropped off at Springer Mountain, GA. “It’s going to be harder than you thought it could possibly be,” Jim Harrison, the English prof who runs the program, tells them, “but it will also be more beautiful than you ever imagined.” (Thanks, JG!)
And in the numbers...
Dartmouth has 1 active student case and 6 (down 3) among faculty and staff. There are 6 students and 4 faculty/staff in quarantine because of travel or exposure, while 2 students and 15 faculty/staff are in isolation awaiting results or because they tested positive.
NH reported 566 new cases yesterday; its official total is now 22,332. There were 9 new deaths, which now stand at 537, while 162 people are hospitalized (up 2). The current active caseload stands at 4,694 (down 328). Grafton County is at 116 active cases (up 15), Sullivan has 44 (down 4), and Merrimack has 536 (up 10). In town-by-town numbers, Hanover has 27 active cases (up 12). Newport has 15 (up 1), Claremont is at 11 (down 1), Lebanon remains at 6, and Grantham at 5. Charlestown, Newbury, and Sunapee are back in the 1-4 category, along with Haverhill, Warren, Orford, Wentworth, Canaan, Enfield, Plainfield, Grafton, New London, and Springfield.
VT officially added 101 cases yesterday, but the state's also added in "probable cases" reported to the health department since Sept. 6, so its new total case count is actually 222 above what it was the day before, bringing its official total to 4,461, with 1,732 of those active (up 129). There were 2 new deaths, which now stand at 74, and 23 people with confirmed cases (down 5) are hospitalized. Windsor County gained 4 cases (64 over the past 14 days) to stand at 218 for the pandemic. Orange County gained 3 cases (with 85 over the past 14 days) and is now at 223 cumulatively.
News that connects you. If you like Daybreak and want to help it keep going, here's how:
Billings Farm's film series starts streaming Once Were Brothers: Robbie Robertson and The Band today. The rock writer Greil Marcus once described them as "committed to the very idea of America: complicated, dangerous, and alive. Their music gave us a sure sense that the country was richer than we had guessed; that it has possibilities we were only beginning to perceive." Lots of archival footage, music, and interviews with the likes of Springsteen, Clapton, Van Morrison, Taj Mahal, and others. $12, runs through Dec. 6.
At 6 pm, Hanover Adventure Tours hosts the next installment in its Adventure Talk Series, though it's a bit more sedentary than the last one: Matt Brown, a member of the League of NH Craftsmen, will be talking about making color woodblock prints using the Japanese hanga method. The hanga movement dates to the early 20th century and revitalized the traditional techniques used by Hokusai, Hiroshige and others. "Which part craft, which part art?" Brown asks in his title. Via Zoom.
At 6:30 pm, the Bradford Public Library hosts local author Makenna Goodman (via Zoom), talking about and reading from her buzz-producing new novel, The Shame. Call 802-222-4536 or email [email protected] to register.
And at 7 pm, the Thetford Library's got local fantasy writer Dean Whitlock. He'll be reading from his Carver’s World trilogy—Sky Carver, Raven, and Fireboy—which is due to be released as a boxed set next month. He'll also preview his forthcoming novel, The Bell Cannon. To sign up and get the Zoom link, email [email protected].
Finally, this has nothing to do with reading or Zoom, though come to think of it, if you put the pedal to the floor... The Hanover Energy Committee is looking for electric vehicle owners, no matter where they live, to volunteer to serve as mentors—and evangelists—to neighbors or friends who are considering an EV. They've got a quick survey if you're interested.
Five years ago, the British folk-rock band Mumford & Sons did a sold-out tour of South Africa with the legendary Senegalese singer and guitarist Baaba Maal (you've heard him even if you didn't realize you had: that's him on the
Black Panther
soundtrack at the moment the film first takes you to Wakanda).
And here, in case you inexplicably forgot to bookmark it,
that Sarah and Nelson Rooker have so generously been maintaining.
See you tomorrow.
Written and published by Rob Gurwitt Banner by Tom Haushalter Poetry editor: Michael Lipson About Rob About Tom About Michael
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