GOOD MORNING, UPPER VALLEY!
Hey puzzle people! The folks at Hanover-based NewsGames (they're the ones behind the weekly news quiz and the much-missed Vordle) have a new game they're working on. And guess who gets to test it! You'll find more in the usual games spot at the bottom of the news section.It'll be a drier but cooler morning, clouding over again later today. We get a few hours of sky and sun today as one low pressure area moves out and another approaches. That one brings a chance of showers tonight, but mostly the rain from the new front will pass to our south. Temps today ranging through the 50s, down to the mid 40s tonight.The committee chair: A turkey vulture, up close. Which is an unusual sight, Catherine Holland points out, because "they spend most of their time soaring high in the sky searching for carrion." But the weather was soggy the other day, their wings were waterlogged, and several chose a spot in Orford to wait things out. And did you know (thanks, Catherine!) that when vultures are on the ground or in trees together, it's called a committee? Or that when they're flying in a group, it's a kettle? And when they're feeding, a wake?But what do you call a group of volunteers installing a loon nesting platform? Maybe a flotilla? Actually, the folks from the Loon Preservation Committee and their platform on Lyme's Post Pond make up just a few of Newbury photographer Ian Clark's latest blog post, which also features beavers, loons themselves, video of a skunk peeved by—or at least, leery of—a trail cam, painted turtles, warblers, and, not to be missed, a Canada goose taking flight, its wing tips just riffling the water.Sharon voters reject bond for school repairs, improvements. Tuesday's vote was 271-220 against a proposed $9.5 million bond that would have paid for safety upgrades, heating and ventilation improvements, and building permanent pre-K classrooms at Sharon Elementary School, reports the Valley News's Christina Dolan. Opponents cited property tax hikes—about $715 for a $300,000 property in the first year of the loan—Dolan writes. In other school vote news, voters in Bradford and Newbury VT on Monday night approved the Oxbow school district's $21 million budget.SPONSORED: Make a difference in someone's life today! At Hearts You Hold, the Upper Valley-based nonprofit that supports immigrants, migrants, and refugees by taking the time to ask them what they need, we're still flooded with requests as the weather warms. At the burgundy link or here, you'll find requests from farmworkers in Orange and Grafton counties who need clothing, shoes, even beds while they keep area farms running. And elsewhere, requests for strollers, cribs, laptops, and other goods to help Ukrainian, Afghan, and other refugees get back on their feet. Sponsored by Hearts You Hold.Grafton County prosecutor will not pursue charges against student journalists. The arrests of The Dartmouth's Charlotte Hampton and Alesandra “Dre” Gonzales during the May 1 demonstration and crackdown drew national attention, and in her Monday letter to campus, President Sian Beilock wrote that they should not have been arrested. On Tuesday, reports the paper, the state declined to press charges and assistant county attorney Mariana Pastore motioned for bail conditions—including a ban on setting foot on the Green—to be removed. "I’ve been kind of biking two inches away from the edge of the Green everywhere I go," says Hampton.Man who assaulted two DHMC guards, including former NH state rep, gets deferred sentence. You may remember that last year, Felix Nyabuto, then a student at Dartmouth, was under psychiatric care at the hospital when he became violent, and injured guard and then-state Rep. Joshua Adjutant so severely that Adjutant resigned his legislative seat. Last week, reports John Lippman in the VN, Grafton County Superior Court signed off on a plea agreement crafted by prosecutors that imposes no jail time, but requires Nyabuto to be on probation for two years and to complete counseling.“There’s a reference to a hot dog in every song." Last summer, VTDigger's Ethan Weinstein was working on a profile of the long-gone Barnard recording label Rooster Records when the label's founder, Will Wright, handed him a wrapped cassette tape, “The Best of Dillon Simmerman". It turned out to be by then-folk singer, now state Sen. Dick McCormack, who's retiring at the end of this term. It was a satirical homage to Bob Dylan, Weinstein discovered after ha managed to hunt down a tape player: “Hey Mr. Franks ‘n Beans Man", “Cross Eyed Lady Of Long Island” “All Along The White Tower".... Weinstein reports.In Concord, GOP legislators agree on expanding access to Education Freedom Accounts. But not on how much. At the moment, families making up to 350 percent of the federal poverty level are eligible for the program that helps fund private school or home schooling. The GOP-led House narrowly passed a measure to raise families' allowed income to 500 percent of poverty level, or $156K for a family of four, reports NH Bulletin's Ethan DeWitt. But Tuesday, a GOP-led Senate committee killed that bill and offered its own, settling on a 400 percent cap—a move likely to rile the House, DeWitt writes.Vermonters’ views on wildlife "are often more complex than the public dialogue shows." Following up on her piece on the views of advocates and politicians embroiled in the debate over wildlife management, VTDigger's Emma Cotton digs into what interviews, surveys, studies, and commentaries show about ordinary Vermonters' beliefs. She finds that far from being divided into neat pro-vs-anti-hunting-and-trapping camps, they hold an array of convictions that depend in part on purpose (91 percent approve of trapping to help with wildlife restoration) and often overlap on basic values.26.2 miles, 5000 feet of elevation gain, once a day for 10 days. Why? "This is my suffering, to demonstrate that you can get through to the other side," Chip Piper tells Seven Days' Hannah Feuer. In part, Piper, 55, runs ultramarathons to help himself work through—and to some degree understand—the overdose death of his stepson four years ago. He also solicits sponsorship dollars, which go to two Vermont recovery nonprofits. And Piper is just one of a small cadre of parents and siblings Feuer profiles who've channeled grief into action—including Windsor's Tera Howard, who organizes Overdose Awareness Day.A whole new way to mark your age. Ever check out the celebrities who share your birthday? Bor-ing. Much more fun: the food sensation that came out the year you were born. On Taste of Home, Nancy Mock runs down each year from 1940 (York Peppermint Patties) to 2000 (gourmet cupcakes, all the rage after an appearance in “Sex and the City”). In between, goldfish (the crackers) hit shelves in 1962, Pop Tarts two years later, Sour Patch Kids in 1985. It's all processed food, though 1955’s green bean casserole recipe does have canned or frozen green beans... doused in canned fried onions and mushroom soup.Introducing News Clues. NewsGames maestro Kevin McCurdy believes this may be the first game to combine a news item and direct interaction with AI. The idea is pretty simple: The AI prompter gives you five chances to guess the item it's picked out in a local or regional news photograph, with the clues starting out pretty obscure and growing easier each time. We're just running this twice for now, today and tomorrow. It's still in beta stage, and Kevin's interested in feedback: Did you find any bugs (and if so, what)? And what do you think of the puzzle (and why)? Email him at [email protected].
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Organized by Dartmouth Civics—the student-run group that also organized last year's candidates forum—and by the Rockefeller Center, "Hanover Demystified" gets under way today at 5 pm with Town Manager Alex Torpey giving a quick explanation of next week's town meeting. He'll be joined over the next two hours by town officials answering questions about articles on this year's town meeting warrant, the three candidates for two selectboard seats, and candidates for a variety of other town offices. In Rockefeller Center's Hinman Forum.
David Lindsey-Abaire's comedy about a pair of Odd-Couple-ish roommates in an assisted-living facility starts, Shaker Bridge writes, with "a seemingly harmless bet between the two women [that] quickly escalates into a dangerous game of one-upmanship that reveals not just the tenacity of these worthy opponents, but also deeper truths that each would rather remain hidden." Runs through May 26.
Also at 7, Hanover High's Footlighters launch their spring production of Mean Girls, High School Version
, staged by something of a dream team of creatives: directed by Eric Love with Kevin David Thomas as music director and Susan Lamontagne as choreographer. Based on Tina Fey's 2004 film, the musical charts the doings between Cady Heron—who grew up on an African savanna but now has to deal with all the viciousness of a suburban Illinois high school—and the trio of reigning A-listers known as The Plastics. Tomorrow and Saturday also at 7, Sunday at 4, in the HHS auditorium.
, the last in the "Come As You Are" movie series cosponsored by APD. It's the British film, inspired by actual events, that in turn inspired the musical: A struggling small-town shoe factory owner sets out to save the business by making custom footwear for drag queens. Complications ensue.
JAM had several staff there, with cameras, from late afternoon until well into the night. Leading off this week's highlights is a compilation of what those cameras recorded, from several vantage points, in a six-hour-long reel, from rally to faceoff between police and demonstrators to arrests. It's timestamped and you can choose where you want to drop in. Also this week: storyteller Cindy Pierce's March performance of "Wrangling the Drift", her new show about her mom's "dementia journey"; and a panel of community media leaders on "Free Speech, Hate Speech, Misinformation and You".
But now, let's jump into the day...
...with Toronto's Lemon Bucket Orkestra, which you probably haven't heard of unless you're a fan of "Balkan-Klezmer-Gypsy-Party-Punk" bands, as they describe themselves. Or, maybe, you remember an incident about a dozen years ago, when an Air Canada flight to Romania got delayed and the band broke out their instruments (including trombone) and played an impromptu concert. Anyway, here we are in 2024 and they've got a new album coming out next week.
Which they describe this way: "'Cuckoo' seamlessly blends Eastern European influences with Western flair, featuring aggressive Balkan brass melodies, fiery Ukrainian and Spanish rap against floating traditional Ukrainian polyphonic vocals, and heavy hip-hop grooves." Like, how could you not check it out?
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, writers, and librarians who think you should 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.
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