Daybreak Thursday 5/26/22

GOOD MORNING, UPPER VALLEY!

One more day... That lovely high pressure began moving out yesterday and there's actually a low pressure system on its way in, but we'll still see a mix of sun and clouds today and temps reaching the mid-70s, though the air's going to be more humid than it's been. Clouds moving in tonight as the chance of weather approaches, lows in the upper 50s.Just curious... Yesterday morning, a mom bear and her two cubs wandered through Lisa Cloitre's backyard near the Hanover/Etna line. They spent some time checking things out—and, Lisa writes, "devouring the jack-in-the-pulpits in our flower bed." Here's one of the cubs up a tree, eyeing the surroundings.Dartmouth faculty unswayed by pending changes to Lyme Road plans. College unswayed by plea to hold off. Even as the college moves to make its revamped plans for new undergrad housing north of campus public next month, members of the college's Faculty of Arts and Sciences Monday expressed skepticism. They passed a motion opposing the proposed development, objecting to "the erosion of the central campus as the core" of the college's undergrad housing. The motion asks the college to extend its planning pause. The college plans to move ahead anyway. Story at the link."We are a much larger manufacturer now than we were during the pandemic.” That's Ben Copeland, director of sales and marketing at Copeland Furniture in Bradford, talking to Furniture Today's Bobby Dalheim. You may remember that Copeland added a new 51,000-square-foot building for assembly and finishing (and, right now, storage), and the added space has allowed the company to ship out more furniture—"it’s at least a 30 percent difference," Copeland says—compared to a year ago. Direct demand from customers is also rising again, he tells Dalheim.SPONSORED: Concert tickets are still available to Bach’s Mass in B minor on Sunday! Don’t miss the chance to hear J.S. Bach’s monumental Mass in B Minor live at the Lebanon Opera House on Sunday, May 29 at 4 pm. Upper Valley Baroque ’s professional musicians—led by Filippo Ciabatti—use their skills, voices, and period instruments to bring this masterpiece to life and create an unforgettable experience for listeners. Tickets at the door. Free for students. Sponsored by Upper Valley Baroque.Route 12 south of Claremont set to reopen tomorrow. It's been closed for the better part of a year, since storms last summer washed a stretch of the southbound lane into the river. Traffic between Claremont, Bellows Falls, and Keene has been using I-91, and businesses in towns along the way have taken it on the chin, reports Dylan Marsh in the Eagle Times. "A lot of people that used to come here from other towns...don’t come through Charlestown anymore," says the manager of Ralph's Market there. "I think it will be really good for us and everyone else for the route to reopen.UV Business Alliance recognizes APD, Whaleback, others. At a ceremony honoring local businesses and organizations for their work over the past year, the UVBA—representing 460 businesses in the region—gave its Healthcare Business Award to the Leb hospital for its staff's "extraordinary resolve and resourcefulness" in navigating the pandemic. Among others, Jon Hunt, Whaleback's director, was recognized as Innovator of the Year, King Arthur as Large Business of the Year, the Norwich Bookstore as Small Business of the Year, and Mac's Maple as Products/Service Business of the Year.“No matter the barriers, we must keep the doors to international artistic exchange and collaboration open.” That's the Hop's Mary Lou Aleskie talking about the two-day Music Mexico Symposium opening today. The gathering of musicians, composers, and academics is aimed at exploring the full breadth of music being created in Mexico, and came out of work by college director of bands Brian Messier to "build a repertoire of authentic Mexican choral, wind band, and orchestral compositions," Matt Golec writes in Dartmouth News.NH elections officials worry that harsher edge at the polls may cost them volunteer workers. “Do I think the temperature is rising and the tension is rising with that?” Concord's supervisor of the checklist, Zib Corell, tells NH Bulletin's Amanda Gokee. “Yeah, I do.” The problem, voting rights advocate Olivia Zink says, is that as older volunteers step away from working the polls, younger people haven't been willing to replace them. Zink worries, Gokee writes, "that poll workers who face threats and intimidation will resign and leave vacant positions in their wake." A busy day in Concord today. The House and Senate are wrapping up business for the session, and they've each got a slew of bills to consider. There are business tax cuts, a few measures to boost workforce housing (though most of those were axed by legislators earlier in the session), money for municipal roads and bridges, expanding keno to convenience stores... Oh, and let's not forget the new $30 million parking garage for House members. NH Business Review's Bob Sanders rounds things up.As the emerald ash borer’s havoc continues, NH gives “biocontrol” a go. First the bad news: there’s no saving today's ash tree at this point. As Granite Geek’s David Brooks writes, the emerald ash borer is well-established in New England, recently forcing the 168-year-old Peterboro Basket Co. to close its doors. But could the insect’s spread be tempered by a predatory species from its native China? Forestry officials have introduced three species of wasps at several locations throughout the state—a strategy to protect ash saplings as they mature. It will be decades until we know if it works.VT cases appear to be dropping. Although the state yesterday did not report case numbers and hospitalizations—as it had said last week it planned to do every Wednesday—VTDigger's Erin Petenko writes that the seven-day average of new cases fell 23 percent over the past week compared to the week before. It's the first time the average has dropped by more than a single point since the BA.2 surge began in March. People arriving in emergency rooms with Covid-like symptoms have also dropped slightly, but Petenko notes that wastewater surveillance at two locations has shown an increase.Vermont's legislative turnover highlights the costs of serving. You know the numbers: a third of the Senate, nearly a third of the House, and all but five of the House's 14 committee chairs. But in Seven Days, Kevin McCallum goes into the human stories: legislators wrung out by the pandemic, tired of missing family, struggling to keep livelihoods going. People in their 20s-40s are leaving, McCallum writes. The workload and low pay make the legislature "inaccessible to many Vermonters who are not retired or independently wealthy," says a young soon-to-be-former legislator.VT businesses try to build more recovery-friendly workplaces. Faced with the drug crisis, employers in the state are "looking for ways to accommodate more people who are trying to reenter the workforce while in recovery" from addiction or time in the criminal justice system, writes Anne Wallace Allen in Seven Days. This can mean anything from hiring recovery coaches who can help workers navigate the challenges to building in scheduling flexibility. In all this, VT is playing catchup with NH, which has had a "Recovery Friendly Workplace Initiative" in place for four years.In the world of competitive fondue, there is no fon-don’t. Look, it isn’t every day you get to make awful puns on melted cheese. Nor is it every day you sit in as a judge at a fondue-making championship. That’s what Thibault Hollebecq, writing for Vice, found himself doing recently in the French Pyrenees: tasting creative fondue interpretations at France's (surprisingly) first annual National Fondue Championship. An early frontrunner came infused with wasabi and Japanese whiskey; the winner blended in Gentian, a French liqueur. Just to see the photos of this event is enough to give you fondue FOMO. (TH)The Thursday Vordle. You've got this!Daybreak doesn't get to exist without your support. Help it keep going by hitting the maroon button:

Joey Chang likes to refer to himself sometimes as Joseph Abraham Tal Tien-Ru Chang Jr. Senior III Esq., but mostly just goes by CelloJoe. He grew up playing classical cello, starting busking on the street in San Francisco as he got older, and soon got into improvisation... and then rapping, singing, looping, and beatboxing. Which are definitely not part of the standard cello repertoire. He's also outfitted a bicycle to carry his cello, which is definitely not part of the standard bike repertoire.

See you tomorrow.

The Hiking Close to Home Archives. A list of hikes around the Upper Valley, some easy, some more difficult, compiled by the Upper Valley Trails Alliance. It grows every week.

The Enthusiasms Archives. A list of book recommendations by Daybreak's rotating crew of local booksellers and writers who want you to read. this. book. now!

Daybreak Where You Are: The Album. Photos of daybreak around the Upper Valley, Vermont, New Hampshire, and the US, sent in by readers.

Want to catch up on Daybreak music?

Check out the Spotify playlist generously maintained by Sarah and Nelson Rooker.

Written and published by Rob Gurwitt         Writer/editor: Tom Haushalter    Poetry editor: Michael Lipson  About Rob                                                    About Tom                                 About Michael

And if you think one or more of your friends would like Daybreak, too, please forward this newsletter and tell them to hit the blue "Subscribe" button below. And thanks! And hey, if you're that friend? So nice to see you! You can subscribe at: 

Thank you!