GOOD MORNING, UPPER VALLEY!
Mostly cloudy, getting colder. Drier air is making its way into the region, but—with winds shifting to come from the northwest—so is colder air. This morning's clouds will start to part later in the day, and we'll bump along around or slightly above 40 degrees until later this afternoon, when temps start to dive toward an overnight low in the low 20s.Doing everyone a favor, WMUR has just compiled the top moose videos shared on its u local NH page this year. Moose sparring, swimming, hanging out in the snow, walking through fields and woods and on roads and...Northern Stage names new managing director. For a little while over a decade ago, Jason Smoller worked in the development office at the theater while his wife was at Dartmouth; he also played oboe in the Dartmouth Symphony. Yesterday, Northern Stage announced that he'll be back in the Upper Valley starting in January—joining producing artistic director Carol Dunne at Northern Stage's helm. Smoller is currently director of development and marketing at the Irish Repertory Theater in Manhattan, where, the NS announcement says, he designed its first-ever online strategy during Covid.Dartmouth launches $100 million effort to boost STEM programs for underrepresented groups. The move was announced Tuesday by President Phil Hanlon at a forum in San Francisco for alums and tech entrepreneurs, and builds on a $25 million gift from financier Jim Coulter and his wife, Penny. The money will go toward establishing an undergrad scholarship for women and Black, Latino, Indigenous, and first-gen students interested in STEM, as well as to faculty recruitment, mentoring undergrads doing research, and to "enhanced career and graduate school advising," the college's announcement says.Former Orange County sheriff's deputy sentenced in 2019 road rage incident. According to Windsor County Superior Court records, reports VTDigger's Alan J. Keays, William Pine was off-duty in October, 2019, when he followed on the heels of another vehicle, tried to block it, and fired shots at it. Yesterday in WRJ, criminal court Judge Timothy Tomasi sentenced Pine to 18 months to 10 years; prosecutors had asked for at least four years. Tomasi, Keays writes, cited Pine's long military service, record as a mentor, and work to overcome post-traumatic stress disorder and substance use disorder.“I was more nervous for the alumni game than I was for Jimmy Kimmel." Not to mention playing for a crowd of 20,000 at Killington's World Cup ski races. But somehow, Tris Wykes writes for the Valley News, rising music sensation, Hanover High grad, and Strafford rec soccer alum Noah Kahan managed to pull it all off: late-night, the World Cup, and the annual alumni soccer match at Hanover’s Merriman-Branch Field the day after Thanksgiving. Kahan, Wykes writes, was memorable as an HHS player "for the various ways he’d beg for playing time." “Where do you think he learned about alienation and depression?” longtime coach Rob Grabill jokingly asks Wykes.SPONSORED: The arts are everywhere this winter with the Hop! As the iconic building undergoes a widescale expansion and renovation, live arts offerings will be popping up across Dartmouth College and the Upper Valley all winter long. An insightful film event, a sensational a cappella group, a fearless choir, and cutting-edge classical music are just a few of the highlights. Check out the Hop's full slate of winter events at the burgundy link. Sponsored by the Hopkins Center for the Arts.Claremont faces scrap over Arrowhead Rec Area lodge. The city is considering leasing the lodge to the Wheelhouse Bike Shop, which over the past couple of years has spearheaded efforts to make the hill a mountain biking destination. For the last two decades, the all-volunteer Arrowhead Recreation Club has used the lodge as a base and warming area for wintertime tubing and skiing operations; some of its members believe leasing the lodge will make it impossible to use it in wintertime, Patrick O'Grady reports for the Valley News. City officials say they want find a way of making the deal work for everyone.Burlington, Concord among top five US cities for winter warming. From 1970 to 2022, the nonprofit organization Climate Central writes in a new report, the 238 locations it studied across the US have seen winter temps warm 3.3°F on average. For Burlington, however, it was 7.1°F, tops in the country, and for Concord, 6°F, ranking it fourth. The study also found that Concord on average now has 22 more days with above-normal temps then in 1970; Burlington saw 21. Burgundy link goes to the study; here's a Boston Globe writeup (paywall).SPONSORED: You can improve someone's life right now! Hearts You Hold is a VT-based nonprofit that supports immigrants, migrants, and refugees in a concrete way. We believe that only the individuals themselves know what they want or need and that it is critical to take the time to ask them. Currently, there are many requests waiting to be funded, including from Ukrainian refugee families who are trying to rebuild their lives in the US. Needs include everything from winter clothing to bedding to a floor lamp. Hit the link above, pick an item (or more) to fund, and make a difference now! Sponsored by Hearts You Hold.Unprecedented NH House opts for the status quo. The most closely divided House in state history—201 Republicans to 198 Democrats, with one seat still undecided—met yesterday to organize, and voted to re-elect Republican Sherm Packard 205-194 yesterday over Democratic leader Matt Wilhelm. At least five Democrats sided with Packard, writes Amanda Gokee in NH Bulletin. The House then joined with the Senate in electing incumbent Republican Secretary of State David Scanlan to a full term. The House also sent the evenly split election for a seat in Rochester back to the voters.NH Exec Council reappoints embattled ag commissioner. Last week, you'll remember, Shawn Jasper underwent a tougher-than-usual grilling at his renomination hearing, after some farmers accused him of not listening to their concerns and taking a "combative" approach to people who disagreed with him. Yesterday, executive councilors voted 3-1 to give him another five-year term, with Republican Joe Kenney (who opposed Jasper five years ago) casting the sole "no" vote, and Democrat Cinde Warmington voting "yes" but "with reservations," report NH Bulletin's Ethan DeWitt and Annmarie Timmins.“I had the priests come and give him the last rites. And I headed home to prepare myself to talk to the kids.” Last October, docs at DHMC told Pam McEnnis, whose husband, Mark, was hospitalized for Covid, that it seemed unlikely he'd make it through the weekend. A parade of friends visited to wish him goodbye, reports NHPR's Paul Cuno-Booth—and then McEnnis rallied. He's better now, though he had four fingers partially amputated, and has become an evangelist for the Covid vaccine—which he'd avoided, in part out of suspicion of the government, before he got sick. Cuno-Booth tells his story.And Covid case levels... Are going up in both states.
In NH, the state yesterday reported 217 new cases, with an average of 198 cases per day for the week between Dec. 1 and Dec. 7, up 53 percent over the week before. Meanwhile, the state hospital association reported 73 people hospitalized with Covid, down somewhat from previous days.
And in VT, the state continues to rate community Covid levels as "low" statewide, reports VTDigger's Erin Petenko—even as 439 cases were reported this week compared to 273 the week before. Hospitals in the state, Petenko notes, have also reported a surge in RSV, though it was one of only four states in the country reporting low levels of flu to the CDC. Overall, 43 people were hospitalized for Covid as of yesterday, up from 27 a week earlier.
Housing crisis forces Vermonters to confront "uncomfortable questions about the state's future." Especially, writes Seven Days' Derek Brouwer, town plans and zoning bylaws that have had the effect of reserving swaths of the state "for people with money," as one Jericho resident puts it. In the final installment of a yearlong series on the housing shortage, Brouwer focuses on how Jericho and Shelburne have kept denser, more affordable housing out—but also notes that Vermonters are organizing "in ways Vermont hasn't seen in at least a generation" to promote looser zoning and housing development.In Derby VT, a home for Ukrainian refugees with disabilities. Years ago, reports Vermont Public's Mikaela Lefrak, Theresa and Scott Cianciolo adopted twin boys from Ukraine with Down Syndrome and founded a ministry that works with children and adults with development disabilities in the country. After the Russian invasion, they bought a former nursing home and turned it into a home for refugee families with kids with special needs. Volunteer nurses and teachers visit every day. On Saturday, volunteers are staging a benefit concert at the Highland Center in Greensboro. It's already sold out.Crash! If you've read Daybreak for a while, you know it's a sucker for a good domino video. And this one's good, though a few years old: an intricately designed "coliseum" with at least one remarkable feature. If you want to see more architectural destruction by the guy, he's got a whole YouTube channel.The Thursday Vordle. Using a word from yesterday's Daybreak.Your generosity is what keeps Daybreak alive. Help it keep going by hitting the maroon button:
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Interested in "green burials"? Today at 5:30, Sustainable Woodstock hosts an online presentation on the environmental impact of conventional burial and "initiatives that are in the works to solve this very real part of our global problem."
This evening at 7, Grantham's Dunbar Free Library hosts the Hanover Conservancy's Adair Mulligan—who for 20 years was conservation director at the Connecticut River Joint Commissions—giving an online "armchair tour" of the Connecticut, its history, natural history, and impact on the communities up and down its banks.
Woodstock's Wassail Weekend gets going in earnest tomorrow (stay tuned) but to kick things off, tonight at 7:30 Pentangle Arts brings the Cape Breton supergroup Còig into the Town Hall Theater for an evening of high-energy original and traditional Celtic tunes.
And, well, yes of course...
Còig. Impossible not to. They're not a YouTube kind of band,
Not as ripping as they can get when they're tearing through a tune, but rich and heartfelt.
See you tomorrow.
The Hiking Close to Home Archives. A list of hikes around the Upper Valley, some easy, some more difficult, compiled by the Upper Valley Trails Alliance. It grows every week.
The Enthusiasms Archives. A list of book recommendations by Daybreak's rotating crew of local booksellers, writers, and librarians who think you should read. this. book. now!
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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