GOOD MORNING, UPPER VALLEY!
A bit cooler, showers likely. There's low pressure passing to our south and an attendant cold front coming through this morning. That will keep things cloudy pretty much all day, with temps only getting to the mid-40s. Chance of rain this morning, rising to a near certainty this afternoon, possibly ending with some snow tonight. Winds will be from the northwest, down to the lower 20s tonight.One more sunset... Because this one's a little unusual: Travis Paige's drone still from high above Forest Ave. in Lebanon, with the city stretched out below, Colburn Park and city hall just visible over there on the right, the Mascoma River curving off in the middle distance, and far to the west, the sky a sea of yellows, oranges, and reds over Killington.Maggie Cassidy to leave Valley News, move to VTDigger. Cassidy has been the newspaper's top editor for the last two years and has worked there for nine, starting as a reporter and moving up to become its web editor before replacing Martin Frank at the end of 2018. She will become VTDigger's deputy managing editor, working with managing editor Paul Heintz—himself a recent transplant from Seven Days—on that organization's daily and investigative coverage. After Cassidy leaves April 9, VN news editor John Gregg will serve as interim editor.Tenney tree comes down. The maple, over 150 years old, was the last visible reminder of Weathersfield farmer Romaine Tenney's 1964 stand against the construction of I-91 through his property; he set his house and barns on fire and died in the blaze. VTrans declared the dying tree a danger to the Exit 8 park-and-ride in 2019, and yesterday, crews dismantled it. Photographer Nancy Nutile-McMenemy, who's been documenting the saga, caught the takedown on video. The state is funding a memorial to Tenney at the site.Leb High School baseball coach resigns after assault charges. The VN's Anna Merriman reports that Travis Pelletier, who lives in Hartford, pleaded not guilty Tuesday after being arraigned on charges of breaking four of his wife's ribs with a baseball bat. In a statement yesterday, LHS Principal Ian Smith wrote that Pelletier, who's been coach there since last year but never actually coached a game, due to Covid, stepped down for “personal reasons.”SPONSORED: Crush Cancer with us! Join the fitness community March 21-27 for donation-based classes virtually hosted by your favorite trainers, instructors, studios and gyms. Check out the full lineup of 21 classes and sign up today! Funds raised support critical cancer research and important patient support services at Dartmouth and Dartmouth-Hitchcock’s Norris Cotton Cancer Center. A huge thank you to everyone participating and the local businesses that donated gifts. If you can't join in the fun, consider making a donation! Sponsored by the Upper Valley Fitness Network for Friends of NCCC."What could be better than having a diner 300 feet away from my pillow?" That's Brian Boland, the by-now legendary owner of the Post Mills Airport, talking about his idea of building a diner on land he owns across from the airstrip. Boland's been a diner "maniac" for years, he says, and finally decided he could build a replica of a 1920's-era diner, but he doesn't want to run it. So he's been posting on the listservs looking for someone to take it on. In a Daybreak Interview, he explains what he's thinking.There might be a slight delay in bird arrival... On his daily blog, writer and naturalist Ted Levin notes that each spring, more than two billion birds cross the Gulf of Mexico. They're riding tailwinds, but when atmospheric conditions change and suddenly they're flying into the wind, "birds descend on the land... everywhere, anywhere. Exhausted. A fallout." And the Cornell ornithology lab predicts fallouts over the southeastern US over the next few days. "He doesn’t really let anything get under his skin.” That's Gov. Chris Sununu describing his pick to be NH's next attorney general, John Formella. Formella, a Hanover High grad whose mother, Nancy, co-led D-H for five years, will have a confirmation hearing before the Executive Council today. “John loves government, loves policy, loves making it work, and I would put him in the category of someone who wants to do the right things in government,” one attorney who knows Formella well tells NHPR's Josh Rogers. Rogers profiles Formella and his behind-the-scenes time as Sununu's chief counsel.“I was pleasantly surprised that five minutes after I started, I was back getting a cup of coffee.” That's Derryfield NH high school English teacher Diane Hotten-Somers, talking to NHPR's Todd Bookman about yesterday's rollout of the state's new VINI vaccine scheduling system. Hotten-Somers had watched her husband struggle with getting an appointment using the old federal VAMS system. Yesterday's launch, Bookman reports, saw no technical glitches.Public higher education in NH faces "grim" financial future. That was the upshot of a state House hearing yesterday with the chair of the university system's board of trustees, writes InDepthNH's Garry Rayno. Joe Morone said that Sununu's proposal to merge the university and community college systems is five years overdue, and that with high tuition rates and a sharp dropoff in students in upcoming years, the systems are overbuilt for the state's population. “We’re entering into this crisis as the second most expensive public higher educational institution in the country,” he told lawmakers.Ryegate biomass plant gets two-year lease on life. The wood-burning power plant's contract to provide energy for Vermont utilities expires next year, and yesterday the state Senate voted to extend the contract just until 2024. The 30-year-old plant operates at a fraction of the efficiency of more contemporary plants, and the two-year time frame—far less than the plant's owners or local legislators had hoped for—is designed to spur efficiency upgrades. Loggers, writes VTDigger's Amanda Gokee, "say a Ryegate closure would decimate the industry in Vermont." Border tower proposal draws official scrutiny. Earlier this week, VT Attorney General TJ Donovan said that the federal border patrol's plans to erect up to eight surveillance towers in northern VT towns raise serious privacy concerns for people living in those towns. Yesterday, the state's congressional delegation chimed in—falling short of asking the feds to "quash" the idea, writes Seven Days' Colin Flanders, but calling for an extended public-comment period. Critics say CBP has "given no compelling reason for why the cameras are an immediate need," Flanders writes.With UVM historic preservation program on the chopping block, VT's preservationists worry about the future. Since the program started in 1975, writes Seven Days' Amy Lilly, "its 375-plus graduates have populated every level and sector of preservation jobs in the state." They've overseen state historic sites, become leading planners in the state, staffed the Preservation Trust, gone into historic restoration—and become strong advocates for safeguarding VT's sense of place. It's one of the UVM programs slated for closure, but the program's two professors, Lilly writes, are trying to rescue it. Vermont car stuck at Montreal airport finally makes it home—nearly a year late. You remember that story back in February about Emmanuel Capitaine, who through a set of mishaps as borders closed at the start of the pandemic had to leave his car in Montreal? Well, thanks to a Vermonter with dual citizenship who read Sasha Goldstein's story about it in Seven Days, the car's back. Though first, Marie Hamilton had to get it hauled to a repair shop because the battery was dead and the brakes had seized. Getting it across the border, she tells Goldstein, was easy: The agent had read the story. “It was the most perfect tempura broccoli we ever made.” That's Steve Chu, co-owner of a popular Baltimore fusion restaurant, Ekiben. Last Sunday, he was standing in the back of a pickup in Vermont with a deep fryer, trying to fend off the frigid air and making tempura broccoli for a dying Vermont woman who loves Ekiben's dish and whose daughter and son-in-law live near Baltimore and had reached out for the recipe. Chu's response: He and his partner would drive to Vermont and cook it for her themselves. And they did. An amazing story well told by the Baltimore Sun's Christina Tkacik.
Turning to the numbers...
Dartmouth remains at 7 active cases among students and 1 among faculty/staff. There are 21 students and 6 faculty/staff in quarantine because of travel or exposure, while 7 students and 10 faculty/staff are in isolation awaiting results or because they tested positive.
NH reported 327 new cases yesterday, for a cumulative total of 79,367. There were no new deaths, which remain at 1,202. Meanwhile, 79 people with confirmed cases are hospitalized (up 13). The current active caseload stands at 2,212 (up 138). The state reports 106 active cases in Grafton County (down 2), 28 in Sullivan (up 1), and 228 in Merrimack (up 12). In town-by-town numbers, the state says New London has 53 active cases (up 2), Hanover has 19 (down 2), Lebanon has 6 (up at least 2), Sunapee has 5 (down 1), Canaan has 5 (down 1), and Claremont has 5 (no change). Haverhill, Orford, Lyme, Enfield, Plainfield, Grantham, Croydon, Springfield, Wilmot, Newbury, Unity, Newport, and Charlestown have 1-4 each.
VT reported 52 new cases yesterday bringing it to a total case count of 17,106. It reported 2 new deaths, which now total 217. Meanwhile, 24 people with confirmed cases are hospitalized (no change). Windsor County gained 6 cases and stands at 1,110 for the pandemic, with 56 over the past 14 days. Orange County added no new cases, remaining at 531 cumulatively with 17 cases in the past 14 days.
News that connects you. If you like Daybreak and want to help it keep going, here's how:
At noon today, the Vermont Historical Society hosts University of Denver historian Susan Schulten talking about Emma Willard, "one of the best known and most influential educators of the nineteenth century." Willard started up the Middlebury Female Seminary in 1814, convinced that girls should be as well educated as boys; a few years later, when state officials refused to fund girls' education, she decamped for New York State. Schulten will talk about her wide-ranging impact through her textbooks and other work.
At 5:30 pm, Sustainable Woodstock presents local composting and soil savant Cat Buxton, talking about compost and soil, their connection to water, food, and the climate, and how to use them to jumpstart and nurture biological activity in yards, fields, and woods.
This evening at 6, AVA Gallery presents sculptor and paper artist Stefania Urist talking about her new exhibition on trees and the ghosts of old-growth forests. She'll discuss her research methods, how she uses milled lumber and tree slabs in her work, and her habits in the studio.
Every year, the Norwich Bookstore holds a "Reading Group Recommendations" night, at which its staff chooses a few dozen books published in the last year—fiction and nonfiction alike—to give people in reading groups ideas and help them sort through the options. This year it's online, and at 7 pm, Penny McConnel, Liza Bernard, and Carin Pratt will talk over what's out there that they like—open to anyone regardless of whether you're in a reading group or not.
Also at 7, Vermont Law School and the Hartford Energy Commission are offering a webinar called, "Electric Vehicles in the Upper Valley: Affordable, Green, Fun!" They'll go over the nuts and bolts of buying an EV, from what's on the market locally to how to navigate the world of rebates and incentives to where to charge the things both at home and out in the world. Free, but you'll need to sign up.
Tonight at 8:30, the Hop presents the last of its members-only evenings with choreographer Mark Morris, journalist Paula Zahn, and a renowned guest—in this case, chef, writer, and food activist Alice Waters.
Finally, Billings' Farm's film series continues today, running through Sunday with Advocate, the 2019 documentary by Rachel Leah Jones and Philippe Bellaïche about Israeli human rights lawyer Lea Tsemel. Tsemel, a lightning-rod figure in Israel for her decades of defending Palestinians, calls herself "Lea Tsemel, losing lawyer" at one point. “I am a very angry, optimistic woman,” she says. The film, shortlisted for the Oscar, looks at her career while following two emotionally charged cases. Tix are $12.
One thing you can count on with Daybreak: It never gets with the program. So today, the day after St. Patrick's Day, here's the remarkable Irish-American supergroup The Gloaming, led by fiddler Martin Hayes and guitarist Dennis Cahill, in one of the seven sold-out shows they played at Dublin's National Concert Hall back in March, 2019.
(For you, SW!)
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Written and published by Rob Gurwitt Banner by Tom Haushalter Poetry editor: Michael Lipson About Rob About Tom About Michael
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