Daybreak Thursday 2/27/20

WELL, HERE WE ARE, A YEAR LATER.

I'll get to that in a minute, but first... What do the weather folks like to call it? Oh, right! "A complex storm system." Today, elevation matters. Precipitation will be heavy at times, falling as rain below 1000 feet, a mix for locations above that, and serious snow in the mountains. Also, the farther north you are, the more likely it'll be snow. High winds will also be an issue, though more to the west and east of us. The upshot around here: rain, gusts as high as 45 mph. So anyway... This is a little hard to believe, but Daybreak got its start in life one year ago today. It went to 25 people. This morning, 3,384 of you (fingers crossed) will see it in your inboxes. This would not have happened without a growing community of you who've passed it along, sent photos and tips and feedback, and put your hard-earned cash into helping it stay afloat. I'm fiercely grateful to every one of you. Daybreak depends on you. If you'd like to continue to nurture it, here are three things you can do:

Oh, except: Curious what was going on a year ago? Well for one thing, it was windy. But a lot colder..."It seems like everybody has an opinion about it." That's Anna Merriman, the VN reporter who's been following the moves in four towns to limit local officials' cooperation with immigration authorities, talking to VPR's Henry Epp. Hartford, Norwich, Lebanon, and Hanover will all vote on the question, and Merriman lays out what the proposed ordinances would do and the concerns that drive each side.As the VN continues its look at upcoming town meeting issues:

If you're trying to keep track of the downtown Hanover shuffle, The Dartmouth's got a roundup. Verizon into the old North Face store, Hanover Haircutters onto Main Street, Skinny P... well, somewhere else. The writer doesn't mention My Brigadeiro crossing the street, but you already knew that. One reason: everyone wants to be on Main Street.Really nice shot of the iced-over falls just outside Simon Pierce last Sunday night. Though as one Reddit user comments, "Is anyone else concerned about the state of the concrete on that building?"And speaking of Quechee... There's a lovingly detailed review of the Cabin Fever Antiques Show that drew dealers from across the region to the Mid-Vermont Christian Academy gym on Feb. 15. A cherry fall front desk on a bracket base with a scalloped interior and hidden drawers, made somewhere in the region; a large mahogany Chippendale document box with a till and five separate locks, displayed by Horse and Bear Antiques of Norwich; a mid-century leather Ralph Lauren ottoman priced at $225, "a good buy if compared to online sellers." You get the drift.NH has third-highest real-estate property tax rate. WalletHub looks across the country. The caveat: They use Census data, so don't capture everyone, and these are median values, so the figure doesn't account for higher and lower local rates. Still: NH homeowners pay a median of $4,498 on a $205K home (the national median home value), for an effective rate of 2.2 percent, behind only New Jersey and Illinois. Vermont's only a few spots behind, at 1.88 percent. Vehicle property taxes? NH is 10th. VT doesn't impose them.Nearly 50 bodies of water in NH have excess salt levels right now. The problem is that this warmer, wetter winter is leading towns to use more salt it's washed away and then reapplied more often, reports NHPR's Annie Ropeik. State officials worry that it's becoming the new normal, and are training certified salt applicators to use less and trying to encourage homeowners to do the same. Which is tough. "It has become sort of normalized that if it doesn't crunch under your feet, you're simply not safe,” one official says.And as if that's not enough, state officials also worry that this winter's reduced snowpack will cause problems in the summer. The state has 60 - 75 percent less snow on the ground than average right now, Ropeik reports, which means there's less available to run into drinking water supplies come spring. State water division director Tom O’Donovan says there's a 50-50 chance of a drought this summer.VT House approves retail pot sales. Late yesterday, legislators voted 90-54, largely along party lines, in favor of establishing a retail cannabis market, putting in place a 20 percent tax rate, and steering money toward prevention and after-school programs. The Senate's already passed its version, so now the issue goes to a conference committee, where tax structure, local control, and highway safety issues all have to get ironed out. Things look to heat up on VT climate-change legislation. Key senators are saying that the "Vermont Green New Deal" bill, which would tax wealthy residents to raise $30 million annually for climate action, is unlikely to go anywhere, and they're focused on other climate measures. 350Vermont and other groups will be holding a press conference today to press the Senate on the measure. “We feel like we don’t really have any more time to waste setting up committees and advisory boards,” a 350VT field organizer tells VTDigger.Vermont Republicans hope to sustain uneasy harmony. The state GOP's been roiled over the past two years by the vehemently pro-Donald Trump rhetoric and, some Republican lawmakers contend, divisive tactics of party chair Deb Billado. But now, Seven Days' Colin Flanders reports, Billado says she's just focused on recruiting candidates and fundraising, while Republican legislators and activists are muting their criticism. Why? One word: November. If you snowboard, clear your calendar March 13. That's the day resorts all over the world, working with Burton Snowboards, will offer free lift tickets to riders in honor of Jake Burton Carpenter, who died last November. The only local one is Stratton Mountain. Others are out west, as well as in Canada, Japan, and Europe. Register by March 8 at the link.I know this is a national-politics-free zone, but it's Daybreak's birthday so I'm going to geek out for a moment. One of the more reliable pollsters on Americans' attitudes toward the media and politics is the Pew Research Center. They've now got this handy tool that makes it easy to slice and dice their polling results. Turns out, 25 percent of US adults get news from the Trump campaign... and 26 percent from a Democrat's campaign. Meanwhile, 31 percent of black Protestants trust local news "a lot," while only 18 percent of white evangelical Protestants do. Jump in, thrash around, and see what your fellow Americans think these days.

No hand-waving, just news that connects you. If you like Daybreak and want to help it keep going, here's how:

OKAY, "PLANT INTELLIGENCE" IS FULL UP TONIGHT, SO WHAT ELSE YOU GOING TO DO?

Well, for one thing, former UN Ambassador Susan Rice will be at Spaulding.

Rice was Bill Clinton's assistant secretary of state for African affairs, served as UN ambassador for Barack Obama's first term, and then became Obama's national security adviser for his second term. She's got a new memoir out, 

Tough Love: My Story of the Things Worth Fighting For,

and will be talking about it with Dickey Center director Daniel Benjamin, a longtime former colleague. It's free, but you need to reserve tickets at the link. Starts at 4:30.

In Thetford, the River Junction Writers are debuting their new book, Short Tall Tales.

The writers are Lis Barfield, S.J. Cahill, Chris Collins, Alison Hine, Judith Janoo, and Virginia Ramus, and in this collection of never- and previously published stories, they take readers "from the jungle coasts of Vietnam to the villages of New England, explore the worlds of military pilots and race car drivers, of alcoholics and outcasts, of partners, husbands, wives and widowers, of love lost and love gained..." 7 pm at the Latham Library.

Meanwhile, at the Hood, it's Dell Marie Hamilton performing "Blues\Blank\Black."

 "A complex, superbly performed piece of truth-telling," a reviewer wrote of her performance at Harvard a few years ago. She fuses song, fairytale, spoken word, and gesture, along with excerpts from Toni Morrison's

The Bluest Eye 

and

 Beloved

to look at issues of race, gender, and police violence. 6 pm, but the Hood notes that due to high interest, seating will be first come, first served.

If you're in the mood for quicksilver blues of a different, more acoustic, sort, Chris Smither will be at the Flying Goose in New London.

He was born in Miami, grew up in New Orleans, and headed to Boston in the '60s to immerse himself in the folk scene there. He became friends with Bonnie Raitt (she's recorded two of his songs), and over the years has attracted a strong coterie of admirers — including Josh Ritter, Raitt, Loudon Wainwright III, Dave Alvin, Patty Larkin, and others, who covered his songs on the 2014 album

Link of Chain

. He's still going strong. Room opens at 6, show at 8, as always, call to reserve a spot: (603) 526-6899.  

Oh, speaking of the blues and daybreak... In 1971, the camera crew for

Gunsmoke

 decided to take a road trip to the U of Oregon in Eugene, because they'd heard that a barnstorming blues revue with Muddy Waters, Big Mama Thornton, Big Joe Turner, and George "Harmonica" Smith was appearing there.

I know.... You don't have time for the whole thing. So you could just check out the first few minutes, with Big Mama

tearing

up the house with "Early One Morning." If you're totally impatient, forward to the 2:45 mark, where she starts in earnest, but I wouldn't recommend it. 

See you tomorrow.

Daybreak is written and published by Rob Gurwitt                     Banner by Tom HaushalterAbout Rob                                                                                   About Tom

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