GOOD MORNING, UPPER VALLEY!
Sunny, warmer. That high pressure's here for a while longer, keeping things quiet around and above us. It's going to be a blue-sky day, highs getting into the mid- or upper 70s, winds from the west. Down into the upper 40s tonight.Okay, two more...
...kids: Ian Clark managed to come across a septet of wood ducklings in Ryegate on Sunday;
...lupine: And early yesterday morning, Erin Tunnicliffe hiked up Holt's and back down the Skiway—"Attached is the reward," she writes. And adds: "Full disclosure, the post-hike latte at Cedar Circle was also part of the reward…"
Leb mask mandate ends June 30. It was a unanimous vote on the city council last night, reports the Valley News's Tim Camerato. Though regional case rates are low and neither Lebanon nor its neighboring Grafton County towns (except Canaan) has any active cases reported by the state, several council members "want to allow time for businesses to adapt and give people a final chance to get vaccinated before the mandate ends," Camerato writes—hence the wait. In addition, Norwich is reopening some public buildings tomorrow to people who are fully vaccinated, and Thetford Town Hall reopens Monday."A Foodie Paradise You May Never Want to Leave." That's NECN's take on Woodstock, Quechee, and Bridgewater. It calls out Melaza, with its "eclectic mix of New England and tropical influences"; that "offshoot of the cult-like Worthy Burger in South Royalton called Worthy Kitchen"; White Cottage—"basically a fast-food joint that serves much tastier versions of fast food than at the chains, while residing in a breathtaking setting just above the Ottauquechee River"; Simon Pearce; the Public House Diner; and Ramunto's and Long Trail Brewing in Bridgewater. SPONSORED: Niles took a fall at the skate park and hurt his hand. See him talk about his visit to the APD Emergency Department in this video. APD is conveniently located just 1.5 miles from exits 18 and 19 off interstate 89 in Lebanon, NH. Our emergency department offers short wait times, friendly staff, and emergency-medicine trained providers. The same emergency physicians who provide care at APD also provide care at DHMC. We don’t want you to experience a health emergency, but we are always here if you do. View Niles’ ED video to hear more. Sponsored by APD.Yes, there are a lot of chipmunks. No, it won't last forever. In the Monitor, David Brooks talks to Matt Tarr, a UNH Extension wildlife biologist, who says that plentiful food last fall and a mild winter—"More adults survived the dark months to breed, and they’re healthy enough to have bigger litters and multiple litters," Brooks writes—have produced this year's chipmunk explosion. But, of course, foxes, owls, bobcats, and coyotes now also have plenty to eat, and as their population rises, the chipmunks' inevitably will fall.Municipal net metering heads to guv's desk in NH. After much to-ing and fro-ing, legislators yesterday worked out an agreement to allow towns to produce their own energy and sell what's not used back to the grid. In a win for green-energy advocates, they agreed to increase the cap on what municipalities can produce from 1 to 5 megawatts, reports NHPR's Daniela Allee. At the same time, she says, they also responded to concerns about cost-shifting to ratepayers by asking state regulators "to maximize the benefits and minimize the costs of net metering."As federal eviction moratorium gets set to expire, about half of NH applicants for emergency assistance still waiting. The federal moratorium expires June 30, and about 3,000 of the 6,000 people who've sought rental help through NH's emergency assistance program have yet to find out if they qualify, reports NHPR's Casey McDermott. They're being handled through Community Action agencies, and because the program is new and complex, says Elliott Berry of NH Legal Assistance, "The bottom line is, a lot of people are in the queue." He has advice for people who are still waiting to hear back.With state of emergency over, VT returns to in-person public meetings. As of yesterday, the Secretary of State's office says in a memorandum, "a physical meeting location for public participation must be provided" by town boards and commissions. They can still meet virtually, reports VTDigger's Kevin O'Connor, but only if at least one member is present at the public meeting spot. Odds are high, he writes, that many will try to hold onto a hybrid form, since public participation rose dramatically with online meetings. “I just have to go out and buy some pants," says one Brattleboro selectboard member."That car is all I've got. My ticket to work, my house, everything." Norma Cushing was laid off from her job at the start of the pandemic, and for the last eight months has been living in a Holiday Inn, a step up from her Hyundai Sonata, which she was using before. She's one of the people who will lose emergency housing when VT cuts back on its program. In Seven Days, Chelsea Edgar takes an all-embracing look at the issue, talking to state officials, advocates, front-line workers, and people who've been living in motels about the emergency housing program and what happens next.Preliminary heats for the 1,500-meter run start up at the U.S. Olympic track and field trials in Eugene, OR on Friday, and a lot of eyes are on Elle Purrier St. Pierre. She grew up and still lives in Montgomery, VT, near Jay Peak and close to the Canadian border. In fact, one of her high school coaches once drew the attention of the Border Patrol as he trailed her in his truck on a practice run—"When they pulled him over, he told me to keep running," Purrier St. Pierre tells the NYT's Scott Cacciola. Cacciola profiles her, Montgomery, and what it's like to be a small-town Vermont hero.Oh [email protected], where are you? Sometime around Thanksgiving in 2018, a 13-year-old Vermonter visiting Rhode Island scrawled a message in orange marker on an index card, stuffed it in a plastic bottle, and tossed it in the ocean. Earlier this month, 17-year-old Christian Santos was spearfishing in the Azores—2,400 miles away—when he found the bottle and its note. Now, reports Carlos Muñoz in the Boston Globe, Santos is hoping to find the unknown Vermont teen. “I would like to tell him I found it, and where it was, what I was doing. And we’re going to be friends for life.” (Thanks, CP!)How do you even begin to explain this to your friends? It's been pounding rain in Mumbai of late, and on Sunday, a car was parked on a piece of concrete covering an old, 50-foot-deep well when the cover washed away. Fortunately for the internet, "Children started shouting that the car was going down," the owner says. "I took pictures." A crane fished the car out the following day.
And in the numbers...
NH reported 25 new cases yesterday, bringing it to an official total of 99,196. Deaths remain at 1,364, while 18 people with confirmed cases are hospitalized (no change). The current active caseload is at 269 (down 14). The state reports 5 active cases in Grafton County (down 3), 21 in Sullivan (down 1), and 24 in Merrimack (down 4). In town-by-town numbers reported by the state, Claremont has 7 (no change) and Unity has 5 (no change). Canaan, Cornish, Croydon, Newport, Sunapee, Newbury, and Charlestown have 1-4 each. Haverhill and Hanover are off the list.
VT reported 9 new cases yesterday, bringing it to a total case count of 24,348. There were no new deaths, which remain at 256, while 2 people with confirmed cases are hospitalized (up 1). Windsor County added 2 new cases and stands at 1,506 for the pandemic, with 27 over the previous 14 days, while Orange County added no cases and remains at 822 cumulatively, with 8 over the previous two weeks.
Daybreak doesn't get to exist without your support. Help it keep going by hitting the maroon button:
Among people who care about climate, figuring out ways to manage land—and especially forests—for carbon storage and sequestration is a big topic. Today at 5:30, Sustainable Woodstock hosts Jim Shallow, director of strategic conservation initiatives at The Nature Conservancy-Vermont, talking online about the Family Forest Carbon Program, which gives enrolled landowners incentive payments for sustainable forestry practices, and how landowners can get involved.
And among locals who care about the environment, one of the longest-running public sagas has been the Elizabeth Mine cleanup in S. Strafford and Thetford. This evening at 6, the federal EPA holds an online public meeting to discuss the work that's been completed over the years, and the work that's still to be done, including inspections and monitoring.
This evening at 7, the Virtual Abenaki Heritage Weekend (which started yesterday) features an interview with Hillsborough, NH potter Vicki Blanchard. She's been focused recently on work that reflects older styles of Abenaki pottery, using local sources of clay and firing in a firing pit. No cost, but you'll need to register for the link.
"I'm always interested in [the fact that] the largest settlement of Scots-Gaelic-speaking Highlanders in the 1700s was in North Carolina," Rhiannon Giddens once told an interviewer. Which may be one reason Gaelic "mouth music" has always spoken to her—and she's taken the time to study the language.
during the 2014 concert Another Day/Another time: Celebrating the Music of
Inside Llewyn Davis
. "Whenever I do mouth music and there's Gaelic speakers in the audience, and they come up and go, 'Good job,' I'm always like, 'Phew,'" she says.
(Thanks, JD!)
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.
Want to catch up on Daybreak music?
Written and published by Rob Gurwitt Banner by 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!