GOOD MORNING, UPPER VALLEY!
Don't let that dusting out there fool you. There's high pressure settling in above and drier air moving into the region; a trapped layer of moisture is keeping things cloudy elsewhere, but not so much round here. We get mostly sunny skies. There's also warm air being brought in on a northwest wind, so whatever the skies look like, it'll be getting into the mid-40s. Back into the 20s tonight.Hey, Mink has cubs! Three of them! That word comes from no less an authority than Gov. Chris Sununu, who joined Fish and Game officials yesterday to check in on the peripatetic bear at her undisclosed den location. It's somewhere in the area, which seems only right given her long journey home last spring from her exile to the far north. The cubs are all male and weigh over 6 lbs. each. Here's really, really hoping they don't pick up bad habits from the neighbors. That roving coronavirus guy? The state's now checking in daily to make sure he stays put. Of course, it's just by phone (here's hoping a landline), so who knows. But Benjamin Chan, NH state epidemiologist, says, “We have the power to require someone to isolate if they are symptomatic." If someone refuses, they can bring in law enforcement. Over 100 people were at the event he attended, but only a handful are being asked to self-quarantine. Oh, and the guy? He's now national news.Meanwhile, four Geisel med students have been asked to self-quarantine. They were close contacts with the second coronavirus patient. Also, Dartmouth is discouraging international travel, and is asking people who do travel internationally to self-quarantine for 14 days before returning to campus if they visit or pass through Iran, China, Italy, South Korea, Japan, or any other country that gets a "Level 2 or 3" warning from the CDC. The Dartmouth has the state of play on campus. Woodstock approves public safety building expansion and hiring emergency responder staff. The $4.5 million bond to renovate and expand the town's public safety building passed comfortably on town meeting day. So did the measure to add six emergency responders, as the town continues to scrape for volunteers to serve as EMTs and staff ambulances. Meanwhile, incumbent SB member Ray Bourgeois was unseated by Keri Cole. (VN)And continuing town meeting wrapup, Thetford opts for collegiality in selectboard races. After turmoil on the board last year, voters re-elected Nick Clark, who as interim chair in recent months has earned respect for his diligence and willingness to work with a wide array of townspeople. They also chose Steve Tofel, son of the town's longtime former moderator, known for his calm open-mindedness, and Mary Bryant, an energy committee member and frequent volunteer, over opponents with more clamorous profiles. (Link to VN)Six of seven towns opt for regional energy coordinator. The Two Rivers-Ottauquechee Regional Commission will move ahead with its plans to create a position for someone to help the towns develop and manage energy planning and implementation. Voters in Woodstock, Norwich, Barnard, Sharon, Strafford, and Thetford agreed to help fund the $116,000 position; voters in Pomfret did not. The commission's trying to figure out whether to find another town, or fund the Pomfret portion some other way. (VN)And while we're catching up, Tuesday's town meeting in Tunbridge marked its first in 37 years without Euclid Farnham as moderator. Farnham, a dairy farmer and lifelong resident, is kind of Mr. Tunbridge. He was president of the World's Fair for 31 years, and more than anyone responsible for changing it from a "drunkards' reunion," as it was once called, to its more family-friendly—and highly successful—modern-day version. After a standing ovation once state Rep. John O'Brien was done reading a legislative resolution in his honor, Farnham said, "Tunbridge is my home. It’s where I’ve lived for 86 years and Tunbridge is where I’m going to die. Now let’s get down to business.”Oh, and one last thing: In Fair Haven yesterday, the therapy dog beat the goat and the K9 for pet mayor. Murfee, who visits nursing homes, schools and hospitals, took the balloting over incumbent goat Lincoln and the town police dog, Sammy. DHMC's new geriatric emergency department takes shape. The hospital's been working on it since last fall, and a website called HealthLeaders takes an in-depth look. The idea is to use telemedicine to provide 24-hour coverage at four rural "spoke" hospitals for frail patients who would benefit from taying nearer to home, and save the beds at DHMC for complex cases, which yield higher reimbursement rates. "If we can do that," says Daniel Stadler, DHMC's director of geriatrics, "we will provide better care and increase capacity at Dartmouth-Hitchcock for the complicated patients who need tertiary care." “The cost of bankruptcy is not cheap.” That's Springfield Medical Care Systems board member John Bond on why Springfield Hospital and its nine health centers are splitting up as they try to exit bankruptcy. Attorneys' fees have run more than $300,000 since June, reports VTDigger's Katy Savage, and the firm that's been managing the hospital costs more than $100,000 a month. Will the hospital and the health centers be sustainable without one another? "We'll find out," says former Rutland Regional Medical Center CEO Tom Huebner, who's been helping the hospital navigate its financial troubles.VT guvs field grows. Bennington lawyer Pat Winburn has thrown his hat into the Democratic primary ring, joining former Education Secretary Rebecca Holcombe and Lt. Gov. David Zuckerman. Winburn, a political newcomer, is spending $75,000 on an early ad buy to introduce himself. "A lot of people come to Vermont so they can be more than one thing." That's radio producer Erica Heilman introducing Rose Friedman and Justin Lander, who are the founding members of Modern Times Theater and co-founders of Hardwick's Vermont Vaudeville. Heilman goes on, "Museum-curator-intensive-care-nurses. Pig-farmer-writer-bloggers. Rose and Justin are homesteading-puppeteer-musicians. They’re not from Vermont originally, but I can’t really picture them anywhere else." The transcript to Heilman's latest Making It In Vermont is up; I suspect the audio will be even better.Lincoln the goat is not taking this lying down. "Have I not cleaned up all the tin cans from the side of the road? Is the grass not always at the perfect height?" Intriguingly, though, the target of the unseated goat's ire is not dogs, but humans, who seem to be winning all (but one) of the elected positions around. "If there is one species that has proven, time and time again, that they are unfit to govern this world we live in, it’s humans," Lincoln tells The Winooski. "Was there voter inference? I’m not saying there was, I’m just saying, it looks awfully suspicious, when everyone I know voted for goats, and then none of them won.”News that connects you. If you like Daybreak and want to help it keep going, here's how:
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This is not your usual take. Martin is a professor of religion at Washington University in St. Louis, and he argues that during Hoover's reign at the FBI, Americans looked to the agency as "a crusading army protecting Christian America." He looks at newly declassified files, personal correspondence, and other documents to trace the FBI's role in shaping our religious landscape. 4:30 at Dartmouth's Rockefeller Center.
Jeff and Kathy Parsonnet — he's an infectious disease specialist at DHMC, she's a former nurse — will be talking about contagion, the nature of the illness, treatment, and the status of vaccine development. They'll also provide reliable sources of information that reflect evolving knowledge about the disease and its outbreak. At the Norwich Public Library, 6:30 pm.
Vermont's Digital Revolution
is a documentary about Front Porch Forum, the Burlington-based nonprofit that has knit communities together throughout most of the state, much the same way the listservs have around here. Then it's on to
The Quarry Project
, which follows the development of a dance/theatre piece to be performed this summer down in the Wells/Lamson Quarry in Websterville, VT. 7 pm.
You know him — or at least, you know "The Garden Song" ("Inch by inch..."). He's New England folk music royalty (if that's not a contradiction in terms). 17 albums. Covers of his songs by everyone from Pete Seeger to Emmylou Harris to the Muppets. He writes deeply felt, memorably evocative songs that grapple with the present and honor the past. 8 pm, reservations required (603-526-6899).
Yeah, so, to get an idea of what the guy can do: Here's
, as timely now as it was then.
All this time i hear this roaringpavement steel and iron ore andpeople shouting all so surethat their side is the right side more and more...
It'll stick with you. See you tomorrow.
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