GOOD MORNING, UPPER VALLEY!
Sunny, warmer. There's been this low-pressure system dawdling south of the Maritimes, and it finally took the hint and headed out to sea overnight as high pressure settles in. Lots of sunshine today, temps into the mid-60s, light winds from the northeast. Those shift tonight, as airflow from the south brings us even higher temperatures tomorrow. Down to around 40 tonight.The waters of April...
Ben Gardner was out the other day on the Colette Trail in Enfield, along Bicknell Brook, which was on its way to thawing out but not fully there yet.
Meanwhile, in Norwich, Rich Cohen was out in the woods by a stream he's crossed "I don’t know how many times." This time, he decided to follow it—up to a little falls he'd never seen before. "Just one of those pleasant surprises" you get in the woods, he writes.
“I knew when I looked at him something was wrong.” That's Lisa Ockington-Nugent, whose former boyfriend, Jeff Ely, was shot and killed by a NH State Police SWAT team in Claremont March 31. He'd made a frantic call to her days before and, worried, she'd gone to see him for the first time in a year. In the Valley News, Anna Merriman details Ely's mental health struggles, determination to rebuild his life after a stint in prison, and deteriorating last few days. “He was a wonderful person,” Ockington-Nugent tells her. “If he cared about you, he cared about you wholeheartedly.”Geisel investigates possible cheating. In a town hall meeting with students on Monday, reports the Valley News's Nora Doyle-Burr, medical school Dean Duane Compton said that several first- and second-year students face allegations that they used course materials online while taking closed-book exams remotely. The investigation, Doyle-Burr writes, may have begun with as many as 20 students, but that Compton yesterday said the number of students under review "has gotten smaller at each stage.”SPONSORED: APD's Emergency Department is here for your health needs when you need them addressed quickly. Learn how in this video featuring the medical director of the Emergency Department, Dr. Jennifer Pope, and pediatrician Dr. Laura Greer, making plain why Alice Peck Day Memorial Hospital’s emergency department is a good choice for patients needing care quickly in the Upper Valley. Sponsored by APD.NH House passes budget. It may be more notable for what it says about the GOP caucus, which pretty much held together, than about what the budget that actually makes it into law will look like. That's because, among other things, budget writers courted conservative Republicans by axing Gov. Chris Sununu's higher-ed merger plan, cutting his proposal for public-school infrastructure spending, and slashing business taxes. Sununu called the budget "off the rails" and says he will seek changes once it reaches the Senate, reports the Union Leader's Kevin Landrigan. (Paywall alert)House budget includes ban on teaching about systemic racism. The measure drew the most heated debate and closest vote of the day, as House members decided 193-186 to keep it. Backers said that parents should feel comfortable their children can't be taught that whites are inherently racist. “If you spent a day in my shoes," responded Rep. Jean Jeudy of Manchester, who grew up in Haiti, "you would know why it is so important to educate people about racism.” Expect more on this when the Senate takes up the budget.NH charges six men as it probes youth detention center abuse. “This is not over, and we will continue to investigate these horrific allegations," Sununu said yesterday in the wake of the former staffers' arrests, which were for the sexual abuse of 11 children over the course of a decade at what is now the Sununu Youth Services Center in Manchester. Several of those arrested, reports the AP's Holly Ramer, were named in a lawsuit filed last year by more than 200 men and women who allege they were physically or sexually abused as children from 1963 to as recently as 2018.Fewer vaccines than expected for NH next week—but plan on "few, if any, restrictions" by July 4. That's what Sununu told the state's Executive Council yesterday, writes InDepthNH's Nancy West. Though he didn't say how many fewer doses the feds are allotting for the week, he noted the state remains ahead of its initial vaccine schedule and said he's hopeful that the third mass vaccination, 12,000 people this weekend at Loudon, will go ahead as planned. Meanwhile, he added in response to a question, people planning parades and other July 4 festivities should have confidence that they'll occur.So...is opening up VT by July 4 realistic—or even wise? That's the question VTDigger's Mike Dougherty and Erin Petenko asked a range of experts. The state Chamber's president is gung ho, but one restaurateur worries about whether he'll be putting his young workforce at risk. Brown epidemiologist Aditya Khanna says the variants could throw a wrench in plans, and that case rates will make a better yardstick than vaccination totals. And Dartmouth's Anne Sosin says that evidence of young people suffering from "long Covid" calls into question the tradeoffs the state is making."Overall, not a great performance, class." In a post-mortem on VT's pension reform pickle—you'll remember that House Speaker Jill Krowinski just pulled a reform package—Seven Days political columnist Dave Gram issues a report card. He does not grade on a curve. Krowinski gets credit for being brave enough to tackle an issue whose eventual solution won't leave anyone happy, but loses points for "apparent naïveté." Phil Scott gets a D- for being missing in action, treasurer Beth Pierce a C- for being late to the game, and the state employees' union an F for resorting to "the politics of intimidation."VT-based electric aircraft company strikes deal with UPS. BETA Technologies, which is based in S. Burlington, makes a cross between a plane and a helicopter. Yesterday, reports WCAX's Christina Guessferd, it confirmed that UPS has committed to buying 10 of them, with an option for another 150. “It’s a huge deal for the entire industry because it’s a big step into sustainable aviation by a major player in the logistics world," says BETA's CEO. The company, which has 200 employees now, will be looking for another 300 over the next few years as it goes into production."I wanted to know what it was like to spend all day asking personal questions of strangers." Radio producer Erica Heilman recently got a call from a VT contact tracer; she'd tested positive for Covid. So Heilman did what journalists do: She called the woman back to ask her some questions, too. It's not easy getting people to relax enough to go into detail about whom they've spent time with, Julie Rabouin tells Heilman, and not everyone cooperates. But, Rabouin says, "I think Vermonters are just overwhelmingly kind and helpful, and want to do the right thing for their family, their community and their state.”A Vermont rooting interest in the Oscars. In December, 1993, Bread and Puppet founder Peter Schumann showed up in the besieged city of Sarajevo, answering a call for artists to show their solidarity with residents. There, at a workshop, he met a 19-year-old student named Jasmila Žbanić. She came to Glover to live with Schumann and his wife, Elka, during the summer of 1995, the year Bosnian Muslims were massacred by Serbs. Now Žbanić is up for an international Oscar for her fictionalized account of those horrific events. In Seven Days, Jon Kalish talks to Schumann and Žbanić about it all.The agony of defeat: VT loses most-breweries-per-capita status. To Maine, no less. Eight years ago, Vacationland had 35 licensed breweries operating. As of 2021 it's up to 156, with no end to the growth in sight. That puts it at one brewery for every 8,654 residents, reports Emily Burnham in the Bangor Daily News. Vermont, which led the nation until now, has 72 active breweries, or one for every 8,657 people. Of course, that's based on Census Bureau population estimates, so hope springs eternal that the official count could change things. Or that another new Green Mountain brewery opens.Freedom! It's suddenly spring, and there may be light at the end of the pandemic tunnel, so it seems apt that VINS's Emily Johnson has just put together a new video montage of rehabbed birds being released into the wild. Barred owls, Great-horned owls, a bald eagle (don't blink), phoebes, a bittern... "Good luck! Godspeed!" you want to call as they all light out for the territory.
Now then...
Dartmouth reports 18 active cases among students (down 1) and 5 among faculty/staff (no change). There are 33 students and 9 faculty/staff in quarantine because of travel or exposure, while 19 students and 17 faculty/staff are in isolation awaiting results or because they tested positive.
Colby-Sawyer remains at 1 active student case, none among faculty/staff. 1 person is in isolation, 5 are in quarantine.
NH reported 434 new cases yesterday, for a cumulative total of 86,935. There was 1 new death, which now number 1,250, and 96 people with confirmed cases are hospitalized (up 2). The current active caseload stands at 3,387 (up 74). The state reports 158 active cases in Grafton County (up 11), 46 in Sullivan (down 6), and 327 in Merrimack (up 8). In town-by-town numbers, the state says that Lebanon has 19 active cases (up 5 over the last two days); Hanover has 18 (down 14); Claremont is at 16 (down 2); Newport has 14 (up 5); New London has 12 (up 2); Haverhill has 8 (up at least 4); and Sunapee has 6 (down 4). Piermont, Warren, Rumney, Canaan, Enfield, Plainfield, Grantham, Wilmot, Croydon, Charlestown, and Newbury have 1-4 each. Grafton, Springfield, and Cornish are off the list.
VT reported 42 new cases yesterday (its lowest single-day count since last November), bringing it to a total case count of 20,442. There was 1 new death, for a total of 230, and 26 people with confirmed cases are hospitalized (up 1). Windsor County gained 5 new cases and stands at 1,225 for the pandemic, with 85 over the past 14 days, while Orange County added 3 new cases and is at 578 cumulatively, with 38 cases in the past 14 days.
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At 5 pm, Osher and Dartmouth's Rockefeller Center are hosting Yale prof and Norwich resident Nicholas Christakis, talking about his book, Apollo's Arrow, which looks at the impact of the pandemic on American society and lays out his thinking on what lies ahead. Short version: Things aren't over. The pandemic created new social and economic divisions, as well as new opportunities for cooperation, and our collective culture will be dealing with it long after the immediate health issues have dissipated. Free, no need to register.
And at 5:30, Vital Communities holds a webinar on investing locally for home creation. It will look at risks and the social, financial, and environmental rewards of different types of local investment, with: Mascoma Bank's Ken Wells on "how local banking creates local homes"; the NH Community Loan Fund's Josh Sattely on multi-family projects and their impact on affordable housing; the VT Community Loan Fund's Will Belongia on how individuals can get tax credit for participating in home creation; and Jen Risley of The Local Crowd, Monadnock, on crowdfunding projects that are creating homes. Free, but register.
This evening at 6:30, the Vermont Natural Resources Council hosts the Wild & Scenic Film Festival On Tour, a collection of short films on nature and environmental activism created by the South Yuba River Citizens League in California. This year, they include shorts on everything from a group of Minnesota backcountry skiers fighting to protect much-loved terrain to the first Black man on record to complete hiking's "triple crown," to a look at how the penguins of Elephant Island, off Antarctica, are doing. Tix are a sliding-scale donation.
One of the ways newcomers and longtime residents alike get to know the Upper Valley and its rich landscape is through the Valley Quests that Vital Communities curates. With the area's waterways opening up, this evening at 7 the Springfield (VT) Town Library is hosting a session with Sandy Gmur, the Valley Quest coordinator, on how to write a waterway quest that can guide people out onto a river, lake, stream, or other waterway while teaching them about its history, ecology, and wildlife.
Also at 7, Still North Books brings together Australian novelist Claire Thomas with Vermont author Makenna Goodman. They'll be talking about Thomas's new novel, The Performance, which delves into the complicated lives of three women who all happen to be at a performance of Samuel Beckett's Happy Days, weaving the play itself and their reflections into an intricate portrait of the search for meaning.
Also at 7, the Fairbanks Museum starts up a monthly "Night Owl Club" space Q & A with astronomy expert and educator Bobby Farlice-Rubio. It's a chance to ask questions about everything from what's going on with the Mars rover to rocket launches to the search for life beyond earth. Via Facebook or Zoom.
Also at 7, the Collegium Institute, an "independent academic community" connected to UPenn and rooted in the Catholic intellectual tradition, hosts an online conversation between Dartmouth's Marcelo Gleiser and Bryn Mawr chemist and spiritual writer Michelle Francl. They'll be talking about "science and discovery, beauty and the unknown, and their immersive journeys into the mysteries of the universe."
At, whew, 8 this evening, the Hop and Dartmouth's Theater Department launch the two-night "Radical Joy Project," a three-part (past, present, future) remote "performance project and collaborative collage" melding movement, spoken word, theater, and music. Directed by Northern Stage's Carol Dunne (past), Brooklyn-based choreographer Rebecca Martinez (present), and JAG Productions' Jarvis Green (future) it was developed collaboratively with a student cast and crew. No tix needed, via YouTube. More on it all here.
Finally, starting today and running through Sunday, Billings Farm's film series has River City Drumbeat, about an after-school community drum corps in W. Louisville at a moment of inflection: Its longtime leader, Edward "Nardie" White, is preparing to step down and pass the reins to Albert Shumake, a young man whose life was transformed by the drumline. The film, the NYT wrote, "listens for this community’s heartbeat, finding its steady pulse just as expected: healthy and strong."
If you happen to follow rapper Missy Elliott on Twitter, no need to keep reading. But in case you don't... the dance troupe W.A.F.F.L.E Crew (it stands for We Are Family For Life Entertainment) dropped a three-minute video of their moves to Elliott's "Lose Control" shot in an empty NYC subway car and showcasing some seriously slick action, including a contortion nod to Ciara and ace use of handrails and poles (really, that second guy? the one in red? holy cow!). This'll get you started for the day.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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