GOOD MORNING, UPPER VALLEY!
Quick note: Some of you have reported issues with links over the last few days, or that you haven't gotten Daybreak at all. There are anecdotal reports that Mailchimp (the service I use to send Daybreak out) has been having problems, though they haven't confirmed that. Sorry about that! Let me know if it continues.Well, no sense putting this off any longer: We've got a spring storm headed our way. Actually, two systems, with the bigger one arriving tonight and tomorrow. Today, rain likely or certain for much of the day, high around 50. Rain tonight, mixing with snow—heavy and wet, so there may be power outages. The main accumulation will be tomorrow. Lows in the low 30s tonight.So what is this all going to amount to? The weather folks say a dusting to a few inches low down by the time it's over, and 6-12" across higher terrain, especially in the mountains and a belt through Rutland and Windsor counties and eastward. Here are the total forecasts for Vermont and for New Hampshire.
Early morning both directions...
Looking west at a bank of clouds from Beacon Hill in Strafford, by Jim Wilson;
And looking east at the rising sun along Middlebrook Road in W. Fairlee, by John Pietkiewicz.
Catalytic converter thefts soar around the Upper Valley. In a warning on Tuesday, Dartmouth Safety & Security noted that two converters had been stolen from cars parked in the college's Lewiston lot (down by the bridge) in Norwich. Mechanics' shops throughout the Upper Valley are reporting that cars left overnight have been hit in recent days, too. It's a national problem: Catalytic converters contain rhodium, platinum, and palladium, all extremely valuable—rhodium's selling for $28,100 an ounce, as of yesterday.Leb sets aside proposal for playing fields by the river behind former Kmart. You may remember that last month, the city's rec director, Paul Coats, proposed building three fields and a parking lot on the eastern edge of the Two Rivers Conservation Area. However, reports the Valley News's Tim Camerato, members of the Conservation Commission last week raised issues with the plan, both because the soils in the area may be prone to flooding and because they argued it should remain undisturbed. “The message was clear," Coats tells Camerato. "The project needs to come off the table."SPONSORED: What's powering your electric vehicle when you're on the go? After all, an EV charging station is only as clean as its source of power—which might be a mix of natural gas, nuclear, hydro, and even coal if it comes from the electric grid. Solaflect's backyard solar Trackers lock in a 25-year supply of pure sunshine to power your EV at a price equivalent of roughly 75 cents per gallon, with plenty of power left over for other home electrical needs. Learn more about your charging options—and their impact—at the maroon link. Sponsored by Solaflect Energy. Dartmouth to require vaccinations for returning students. At the weekly online "Community Conversation" yesterday, reports The Dartmouth's Griselda Chavez, Provost Joe Helble announced that all students will need to be vaccinated before returning to campus, or to get vaccinated shortly after arriving. Religious and medical exemptions will be dealt with case-by-case. The college will not require vaccines for employees, Helble said, but "strongly" encourages them.Thetford Academy outdoors instructor gets new summer gig: running Ohana Family Camp. Scott Ellis, who's been coordinating the school's outdoor program for four years—and has been a regular on Willem Lange's outdoors NHPBS program, Windows to the Wild—will take over the Aloha Foundation's family camp this summer, foundation director Vanessa Riegler announced yesterday. Ellis has a long history with the foundation, as a camper and a counselor at the Hulbert Outdoor Center and an early caretaker at the Ohana property on Lake Fairlee after Aloha took it over.Mink's cubs "big and healthy." That's the word from Lyme's Ben Kilham in a Union Leader article about a bear cub in Marlow, NH, that was rescued and taken to Lyme's Kilham Bear Center. That cub is doing fine, reports Damien Fisher. In addition, he writes, this year Kilham plans to release about 40 18-month-old orphaned cubs rescued last year, including Mink's two sons. Chance drop-by leads to AVA dance premiere. In January, returning to his home in NYC from a spur-of-the-moment trip to the Whites, dancer Nicolas Fiery happened to pass through Lebanon, notice AVA, and decide that it looked like the perfect spot for a dance performance. So on Saturday Fiery, born in France, and his collaborator Sofía Forero, born in Colombia, will premiere Bound for an audience that can gather outside the gallery's large, street-side windows to watch. On her Artful blog, Susan Apel describes how it all came together and what Fiery and Forero are up to.New NH news source launches. The New Hampshire Bulletin premiered yesterday with a team of four. Led by former Concord Monitor opinion editor Dana Wormald, it includes two former Monitor colleagues—Annmarie Timmins and Ethan DeWitt—and former VTDigger writer Amanda Gokee. The Bulletin is the latest addition to States Newsroom, a nonprofit network aimed at revitalizing statehouse coverage around the country. The first issue includes pieces by Timmins on why children in psychiatric crisis are ending up in the state's ER's, one by Gokee on the state's energy efficiency efforts, and...NH House Finance chair double-dares Senate colleagues on culture war issues. DeWitt reports that in an email to the Senate Finance Committee yesterday, Rep. Ken Weyler declared that unless they keep such controversial measures as the ban on teaching "divisive" racial concepts in schools, and handing state-of-emergency control to the legislature, the budget will fail in the House. He also urged them to ax Gov. Chris Sununu's voluntary paid-leave plan. “If I go back to the House with major changes, then I will not get a bill passed,” he warned.Kids under 19 now make up a quarter of NH's new daily Covid cases. While cases have been rising among those under 70 for the last month, "the increase is most noticeable among young people," reports NHPR's Sarah Gibson. Erik Shessler, a pediatrician at CHaD, tells Gibson, "Where we’re getting most of the spread...on the kids’ side is families and different gatherings—for example, sleepovers, parties, sporting events: things on those lines that are on the periphery of the school, as opposed to in the school.” Crammed schedules, rising prices, shortages face construction industry. The Monadnock Ledger-Transcript's Tim Goodwin is focused on contractors in the Peterborough/Jaffrey region, but he could be writing about anywhere in the twin states. Vinyl windows, PVC boards, plumbing pipes, electrical conduits, siding, foam insulation, exterior doors, decking... all are hard to get. And prices, say suppliers, keep rising every few days. Even so, Goodwin reports, contractors' phones keep ringing. “I think people are just anxious to move forward,” says Mike Shea, CEO of Belletetes, the building supply company.Scott, legislators at odds on budget timing. Democrats in both houses, writes VTDigger's Kim Norton, decided not to wait around for Scott's proposals on how to spend the $2 billion-plus VT is slated to receive from the federal stimulus package. Instead, the House passed its budget in March and the Senate appropriations committee is aiming for its own package next week. Scott proposed his initial plan for the federal money last week. At a press conference Tuesday, Scott fretted, “I’m concerned that they’re spending this before we know what the rules are, and we may have to pay it back.""Book the first thing you can get, and then check back every day to see if you can improve upon it." That's Dan Barnes, talking to VPR's Mitch Wertlieb about his advice to people looking to set up vaccine appointments. Frustrated by how hard people had to work to navigate the state's vaccine signup process, Barnes, a marketer who lives in Winooski, has been collecting tips and shortcuts and consolidating them on his website, (like, focus on the state and CVS; Walgreens is "clunky," he says, and Kinney books too far out). If you work at it, he tells Wertlieb, you should be able to get a shot within a week or two.St. Mike's prof's app helps cannabis users quantify their high. Or, more accurately, gauge their impairment. Ari Kirshenbaum, who teaches psychology at the college, created Indicator to help cannabis users better understand its impact on their faculties—and the impact of, say, edibles versus a joint. "If we can just get that information into the minds of the public—that this is how cannabis might affect your function in a negative way—I feel like I'm doing a public service," he tells Seven Days' Courtney Lamdin. He stresses that it's still evolving, and can't yet tell users whether they're in a condition to drive.Whoa whoa whoa, Maine. Not so fast! Remember the news that Maine has edged out Vermont for most breweries per capita? Well, that was based on Maine Brewers' Guild numbers that may have jumped the gun a bit on data from the national Brewers Association, reports NECN's Dustin Wlodkowski. That data hasn't been released yet, but some of it "was shared" with NECN, he says, and it shows VT still ahead. Everyone's playing nice and saying that whatever the case, it's a win for New England. Hello? Irony Department? On March 31, the National Weather Service evacuated its staff from a weather station on Cape Cod that it used to measure atmospheric conditions, including a changing climate. The reason? Rising sea levels and fierce storms last year chomped away at the bluff, to the point that the outpost is in danger of falling into the sea, reports The Guardian's Oliver Milman. "The pace of it caught everyone by surprise," says one meteorologist. "We were a couple of storms from a very big problem.” (Thanks, Granite Geek!)
Today's numbers...
Dartmouth remains at 10 active cases among students, with 5 among faculty/staff (up 1). There are 20 students and 6 faculty/staff in quarantine because of travel or exposure, while 10 students and 14 faculty/staff are in isolation awaiting results or because they tested positive.
Colby-Sawyer reports 3 active cases among students (up 1 from last week), none among faculty/staff. In all, 3 people are isolating and 5 are in quarantine.
NH reported 412 new cases yesterday for a cumulative total of 89,983 (the 7-day daily average of cases has increased 12 percent over the week before). There were 4 new deaths, which now number 1,261, and 118 people with confirmed cases are hospitalized (down 5). The current active caseload stands at 3,544 (up 131). The state reports 228 active cases in Grafton County (up 9), 57 in Sullivan (up 7), and 296 in Merrimack (up 4). In town-by-town numbers, the state says Haverhill has 26 active cases (up 1), Newport has 20 (up 2), Lebanon has 14 (down 1), Hanover has 13 (down 2), Claremont has 12 (up 1), Enfield has 8 (up 1), Grantham has 8 (up 2), New London has 7 (no change), Sunapee has 6 (up 1), and Piermont has 5 (up at least 1). Orford, Wentworth, Rumney, Lyme, Dorchester, Canaan, Orange, Cornish, Croydon, Wilmot, Charlestown, and Newbury have 1-4 each.
VT reported 100 new cases yesterday, bringing it to a total case count of 21,488. There were 4 new deaths, which now number 237, while 29 people with confirmed cases are hospitalized (down 1). Windsor County gained 3 new cases and stands at 1,254 for the pandemic, with 71 over the past 14 days, while Orange County added 7 new cases and is at 648 cumulatively, with 98 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 5:30 today, VINS presents the second part of its "virtual bat event," with a discussion on "Rehabbing Bats in the Time of Covid-19." They'll be hosting Barry and Maureen Genzlinger of the Vermont Bat Center, the state's only bat rehabilitators, who'll talk about protecting bat populations and offering a tour through the center's bat rehab facilities.
Also at 5:30, Sustainable Woodstock hosts Ali Kosiba, the VT parks department's Climate Forester, who will be talking to landowners about the basics of managing a forest for carbon—how forests sequester and store carbon, and the various ways landowners can take an active role in helping that process.
And also at 5:30, VTDigger presents the next in its series of "Covid FAQ Live" panels, this one on the impact of the pandemic on young students and on education in general, and looking ahead to the massive influx of federal dollars for education recovery and how it ought to be spent.
At 6 pm, the Hood hosts a "virtual maker night" using flowers as inspiration. They'll explore how artists across the museum's collection use flowers in their compositions, and bring on Michael Reed of Robert’s Flowers to teach the basics of flower arranging. No experience necessary, but you'll need to register.
At 7 pm, Woodstock's Norman Williams Public Library hosts Rochester, VT's Elizabeth Shackelford, talking about her recent book, The Dissent Channel: American Diplomacy in a Dishonest Age. Shackelford, who resigned very publicly from the State Department in 2017 over the Trump administration's approach to diplomacy, writes about the daily challenges of serving as a young diplomat during civil strife in newly independent South Sudan, and more broadly about diplomacy, human rights, and the US role in the world.
Finally, starting today and running through Sunday, Billings Farm's next on-screen offering is Desert One, Oscar-winning filmmaker Barbara Kopple's documentary about the failed 1980 attempt to rescue the American hostages held in Iran. Followed by interviews with Kopple and three of the film’s onscreen stars, including two men on the ground for the mission and one of the diplomat/hostages follows the screening.
It's been four years since the Irish singer-songwriter Lisa Hannigan overcame writer's block to put together her album
At Swim
, filled with imagery she described to NPR's Bob Boilen in 2017 as being "adrift, of existing in the world without a steering wheel, of being controlled by outside forces." Hmm. Last May, in the midst of the pandemic, the National Gallery of Ireland invited her and the Irish-Sierra Leonian singer Loah to perform live from the empty gallery.
from
At Swim
.
See you tomorrow.
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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