Daybreak Thursday 2/25/21

GOOD MORNING, UPPER VALLEY!

High pressure moving in. Sun, too. Last night's snow and rain are gone, though the wind isn't. With the arrival of a cold front last night we'll see temps drop slightly today, a mix of sun and clouds, highs getting into the mid-30s. It'll be gusty out there, with winds from the northwest. Into the lower teens tonight.And here's the early light of day looking out at:

Dartmouth sees surge among students. In an email to the community late yesterday, Covid task force chairs Lisa Adams and Josh Keniston said that the college has seen at least 22 active cases among students, and that "this number may grow overnight." The college shifted all dining options to "grab-and-go" last night and has closed its gym and fitness center. Outdoor activities are still allowed. "We are looking into possible sources of the increased transmission. The students who have tested positive are in isolation on campus, resting comfortably, and receiving medical attention," they wrote.Land around Gile Mountain in Norwich nears permanent protection. The Upper Valley Land Trust and the town conservation commission have raised all but $10,000 of the $330,000 they need to preserve 290 acres that include Norwich's town forest, the Gile Mountain Fire Tower, and a parcel connecting the two. The whole thing will be called the Woody Adams Conservation Forest. It came about after Tony Adams, owner of the connecting parcel, offered his property to UVLT with an eye towards protecting it in honor of his father, more than doubling the town's Gile Ridge acreage. Details from the UVLT at the link.“You want permanent display, they want permanent entombment.” That was US District Court Judge Geoffrey Crawford yesterday to lawyers for artist Sam Kerson, during a hearing on whether to grant an injunction blocking Vermont Law School from covering Kerson's 1993 murals, The Underground Railroad, Vermont and the Fugitive Slave. The school announced last summer that it intended to paint them over after years of complaints about their depiction of slaves. The two sides were in court yesterday, and the Valley News's Alex Hanson gives the blow-by-blow.SPONSORED: Did green energy really cause the massive Texas blackout? Take this pop quiz and find out. With so much finger-pointing and wild claims about the polar vortex that struck Texas last week, we put together a 10-point quiz to help you sort fact from fiction. One thing it makes clear: Don't think this is just a Texas problem. Hit the maroon text above for a rich summary of the story behind the story of how this disaster actually played out, along with links to how you can help. Sponsored by Solaflect Energy.NH vaccination sites turn to waitlists to keep vaccines from being wasted. Hospitals and state sites haven't publicized them, reports NHPR's Todd Bookman, but they're there, since vaccines have a six-hour shelf life once they reach room temperature. Because there are no formal guidelines, each facility has come up with its own rules for the waitlists; often, they're limited to people who already have appointments—and who can get there quickly. “People are like, we gotta get dressed. It’s like, ‘Come in your bathrobe, we don’t care. We need access to your arm anyway,’” says one hospital official.“I’m locking the doors right now so everybody in the chamber will stay in the chamber!” That was NH House Speaker Sherm Packard yesterday as the House moved unexpectedly to take up the second of two anti-abortion bills, causing Democrats to walk out—and Packard to refuse to let them back in later to vote, reports the AP's Holly Ramer. Even though committees had recommended against them, the GOP-dominated House passed both bills easily: one bans abortion after 24 weeks, the other requires “medically appropriate and reasonable” care for all babies born alive.NH House rebuffs Sununu on business fines. Legislators in the GOP-led chamber voted narrowly, 188-169, to overturn what the Monitor's Ethan DeWitt calls one of the governor's "most significant" Covid-related executive orders: to impose fines of up to $1000 on businesses that violate the state's Covid-19 rules. About $10,000 in fines have been issued so far, and the bill would require their refund, as well as the restoration of any licenses that have been voided. The measure still faces a second vote, and Sununu yesterday vowed to veto it if it reaches his desk.Why Texas-style power problems couldn't happen here. And why they could. In what amounts to a little primer in InDepthNH on the New England electricity market, NH's Consumer Advocate, Don Kreis, lays out the arguments. On the one hand, facilities can withstand winter, ISO New England is regulated by the feds (its Texas counterpart isn't), and the capacity market (he explains it) is a buffer. On the other hand, NH consumers can choose unregulated electricity suppliers, which means whopping bills in hard times could happen.Can liberals and conservatives even talk to each other in rural America? This NH man wanted to find out. Last summer, Bill Donahue hosted a Black Lives Matter rally on the Gilmanton green. The vitriol from his neighbors poured out online and in letters to the editor. So Donahue set out to talk, in person, with his critics. In a readable, highly personal account in the Washington Post Magazine, he recounts his quest, which did not start well, weaving in Belknap County politics, changes in small-town NH, and the satisfaction of finally talking—and talking—with a neighbor whose beliefs are different. (Thanks, TL!)Oops... You've got to feel for D. Kent Young, the town clerk of Stratton, VT. Hard up for a photo for the cover of the town report, he seized on an internet meme telling people who move from "there" to stop making "here" more like "there." It mostly escaped notice until NYT reporter Ellen Barry, eyeing VT for her big Slate Ridge piece, saw it and tweeted it out. The criticism—of a town that lives on tourism and second-home owners—has been national and fierce. Young is rueful. “I apologize,” he tells VTDigger's Kevin O'Connor. “I wish I had found a picture of a flower.”"You need to apologize before you can fix something and heal it.” That's Nulhegan Abenaki Chief Don Stevens talking to David Goodman on VTDigger's "Vermont Conversation" about the move working its way through the legislature to apologize for the state's forced sterilization program. It began in the '30s and targeted Vermonters who were Indigenous, French-Canadian, mixed-race, or poor or disabled. In the podcast, Goodman talks to historian Nancy Gallagher, reporter Amanda Gokee, Stevens, and state Rep. John Killacky, who introduced the resolution."Play safely with your trusted pod." The Vermont Huts Association made that their appeal for the pandemic, and it's worked: The VHA's cabins, huts, yurts and lodges are fully booked into April. What began in 2018 with a single hut, Chittenden Brook off Brandon Gap in the Greens, has grown into eight backcountry and "sidecountry" huts, writes Seven Days' Ken Picard. All are located along a trail or a spur off a trail network, and though they're rustic, they offer a warm place (and firewood) in winter. Picard profiles the effort.Post-pandemic, arts and culture orgs will "continue to live in two worlds. The virtual world is not going away." They're already considering life once things ease up, and there's not much question that it will be more digital than in the past. The benefit is that this has allowed them to reach more people, writes Seven Days' Margaret Grayson—from the Norwich Historical Society's podcast driving tours to the VT Symphony Orchestra's online concerts. On the other hand, providing a decent online experience definitely adds expenses—up to $8,000 more per concert for the VSO."Mom-and-pop ski areas with colorful histories, passionate staff, and deeply invested communities – is the collective story of skiing that we all share." That's Doug Fish, founder of Indy Pass, talking about a film that's in the works from Teton Gravity Research. Their big-mountain, lots-of-air features mostly set in the West have won them an action-sports following. Now they're turning their cameras on eastern mountains, including Jay, Bolton, and Magic in VT, reports the Boston Herald's Moira McCarthy. Now, this would be pretty wild. Especially since VINS has already led the way with its Tree Canopy Walk. Over in Belgium, there's a new cycling equivalent, an elevated bicycle path that runs through the forest in a nature preserve. It gradually rises to a height of 33 feet and covers almost half a mile in a large, grand circle—designed that way, writes Samantha Pires in My Modern Met, so that a crane at the center could build the structure "while being minimally invasive to the trees and surrounding plant life."

So...

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And you know, what the heck? Let's go with Darlingside, our neighbors from Boston, today. They recently went up with this version of "Time Will Be," from their pandemic-era album Fish Pond Fish.

See you tomorrow.

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