SO WE MEET AGAIN, UPPER VALLEY!
Hello rainfall my old friend... Though it won't be until late morning or early afternoon, whenever a low moving up the eastern seaboard reaches us--and even then it's just likely but not a dead cert. Interestingly, today's high (maybe brushing 60) will be around noon. Once the system gets here, temps will drop. And then we'll just bump along with showers and lower-than-normal temps for a couple of days. Sigh...Just a little housekeeping... It's likely that for some of you, yesterday's Daybreak ended up in a spam filter or, if you use Gmail through your browser, in your Promotions tab. If so, you can keep it from happening again. Hit the link for a how-to on adding Daybreak's email address to your Gmail contacts. Or you can find yesterday's newsletter in the Promotions tab and drag it to your Primary tab. Questions? Email me at [email protected].Cottage Hospital in Woodsville bucks rural trend: It's doing okay. While rural hospitals around the country struggle to keep the doors open, Cottage has pursued a couple of strategies to keep itself in the black. It's focused on specialty care -- a podiatrist, a rheumatologist, an endocrinologist -- and built a secure geriatric psychiatric unit that draws patients from around New England. WCAX profiles what's going on.And speaking of mental-health care, NH, VT chief justices say their states need to do better. At Tuesday's DH forum on law enforcement and mental health, they noted that the criminal justice system's focus on punishment is ineffective when facing mental illness and substance abuse. VT state police talked about the success of a program placing mental-health counselors in the St. Albans barracks to work with troopers. The evening was awash with pilot programs and suggestions for change. Fingers crossed. (VN, sub reqd)What's your favorite sight along NH Route 4? NHPR wants to hear from you! It started as the state's first turnpike, 36 miles long, and now it's one of the state's major east-west routes, from the Seacoast, through the Mascoma towns, to the VT border. NHPR wants to do a summer road trip profiling the ribbon of road we all both enjoy and curse, and is looking for suggestions and questions. Survey at the link.Local cleanup and reuse projects get EPA grants. In a round of federal funding aimed at redeveloping brownfields around NH, the Upper Valley Lake Sunapee Regional Planning Commission netted $300K for site assessments and cleanup and reuse plans in Claremont and Lebanon. There's also money to begin reuse planning at Leb's Westboro rail yard.Claremont school district faces $320K in IRS fines for failing to comply with Affordable Care Act filing requirements. This comes hot on the heels of a missed deadline that cost it $460K in school lunch funding. The district is looking for a new business and finance director.Play about nursing app that attracts the attention of the tech industry gets Neukom award. The play is Machine Learning, by Francisco Mendoza, and Dartmouth's Neukom Institute for Computational Science will help Mendoza develop it at VoxFest next month; it'll also get a staged reading at Northern Stage during the 2019/20 season. The play explores how a computer scientist’s intelligent nursing app both repairs and complicates his fraught relationship with his father.Single-home prices in NH rise, market cools. The median price for a single-family home rose to $300,000, a full 5.4 percent higher than last May. It's caused by a decline in inventory: New listings are down 7.5 percent from last year. Overall, sales are down 1.2 percent for the year so far. The houses that are selling tend to be smaller and more affordable.NH closing in on a budget, Sununu draws lines in the sand. At a press conference yesterday, GOP Gov. Chris Sununu said he would veto the budget if it includes a mandatory paid family medical leave program. But he also said he's open to compromises on education funding, Medicaid reimbursement rates, and a secure psychiatric unit. The House and Senate are set to begin reconciling their two different budget versions.Not to be outdone, VT Gov. Phil Scott held his own press conference. He wanted to defend his veto of a 24-hour waiting period on handgun sales. There's no evidence, he said, that it would have saved lives -- though as Seven Days' John Walters points out, he focused on the specifics of 24 hours and handguns, refusing to say whether a longer waiting period or a bill including all firearms might be effective. He added that he's open to other gun safety measures. Maple syrup numbers for 2019 are out. Vermont produced 2.07 million gallons, up 7 percent from last year, according to the USDA. Vermonters put out 6 million taps, the most since 1928, and yield per tap is rising. This is all with a season that averaged 18 days shorter than last year's. The state produces nearly half the national total and twice as much as NY, which is next on the list. You can dive deep into the numbers at the link.Vermont needs a “deliberate assertion of state powers, independent of a federal government that is increasingly hamstrung and feckless.” That's former Burlington Free Press editorial page editor Stephen Kiernan, who yesterday released an 8,300-word manifesto calling on the Green Mountain State to assert itself with new policy ideas, beef up its executive and legislative policy research/development capabilities, and inspire greater civic engagement. Co-signers include writer Chris Bohjalian and former AG Bill Sorrell. THERE'S SO MUCH TO DO TONIGHT!David Crosby and a few of his friends, the Sky Trails Band, will be at LOH. Do we really need to say anything more, except that, at the age of 77, Crosby's in an incredibly fertile creative stage? There are tix left, but just a handful. There's a "community forum for a hate-free Vermont" at the Hartford High School library. This is the second in a series organized by the AG's office, the Vermont NAACP, and others. “This series is intended to take the pulse of Vermonters’ experience of discrimination,” according to moderator Etan Nasreddin-Longo. “It aims to bring policymakers, stakeholders, and community members together for productive and difficult conversations that will work to reduce animus and discord.” Starts at 5:30.Velya Jancz-Urban (a "charismatic weirdo") and her 25-year-old daughter, Ehris, (sarcastic but poised) will be at the Yankee Bookshop in Woodstock, talking about How to Survive a Brazilian Betrayal. It's kind of a memoir. Motivated by an 11-year friendship with a charming Brazilian named Jose Geraldo, they spend four years preparing a move to rural Brazil, where they'll run a dairy farm and open an English school. It doesn't happen, and together, they pick up the pieces. Starts at 6. And, of course, rain or shine, tonight's Feast & Field in Barnard. Julian Loida & Charles Overton based in Boston and play vibraphone and harp -- an unusual combo with original music that features an unusual blend of influences: jazz, global roots, New Age, R&B, and classical. Starts at 5, runs until whoever's left sitting around the bonfire wanders home for the night. Whatever you do, enjoy it. See you tomorrow.
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