Daybreak Thursday 8/27/20

GOOD MORNING, UPPER VALLEY!

Unsettled today. Various little disturbances are passing overhead, and rain's a good bet at some point this morning—a chance at first, then a likelihood around mid-morning with a chance of it lasting into the afternoon. Should clear out after that. Temps barely getting above 60 and dropping only slightly into the mid-50s tonight.Merlins, green herons, a Great Blue... and some bemused frogs. Etna photographer Jim Block has been visiting New London's Esther Currier Wildlife Management Area, also known as Low Plain. The marsh there has trails and several blinds for watching—and photographing—the wildlife. Which he did.

As for the numbers...

Six of those NH cases are people who attended the motorcycle rally in Sturgis, SD. Overall, more than 100 cases have been associated with the event, and, as the AP's Holly Ramer puts it, "Public health departments in multiple states are trying to measure how much the coronavirus spread during the 10-day rally before participants traveled home to nearly every state." New Hampshire, of course, is in the midst of Motorcycle Week in Laconia.Dartmouth goes ahead with in-person plans. In an all-campus email yesterday, President Phil Hanlon and Provost Joe Helble announced the college will proceed with its plan to have half the student body back, starting on Sept. 8. "Our goal is to manage our plan effectively and safely while respecting and sustaining the hard work the Upper Valley has done to flatten the curve," they wrote. A 1 percent testing positivity rate will trigger "an immediate review." Metrics will be available next week on a dashboard page. Letter at the link.And speaking of Dartmouth and letters... In a letter to the board of trustees, Bloomberg reports, a group of students assert that the college's decision to cut five varsity sports discriminates against athletes of Asian descent. Among them, the golf, swimming and diving, and men's lightweight crew teams included more than 30 Asian-American varsity athletes, nearly half the total on all the college's teams. “The college’s decision will further discourage young athletes of Asian descent from pursuing athletics," the students wrote.  And speaking of going ahead, Lebanon schools will stick with the hybrid model. Despite a petition signed by 470 parents who believe a full reopening would be safer and better for their kids than the hybrid approach, the school board isn't making any changes—no special meeting to reconsider its plans has been called for by any of its members, Vice Chairwoman Jenica Nelan said at a board meeting last night. Students will return Sept. 8 in two cohorts, each in school two days a week. Wednesdays will be all online. (VN)Plainfield mandates masks. The Selectboard voted 3-0 yesterday evening to require them in buildings open to the public, including stores and restaurants, and to encourage them on trails and sidewalks. A first infraction merits a warning, the VN's John Gregg reports; second and third carry fines. The ordinance took effect immediately.Rymes goes to Canadian firm. The Concord-based propane and oil company, which has locations in West Leb and New London, is being bought for $159 million by Superior Plus, a propane company based in Alberta and Ontario. Rymes is the company's third acquisition in 2020, and will expand its “U.S. propane distribution footprint and scale in New Hampshire and New England," Superior Plus says.The Co-op Food Stores become the newest podcast kid on the block. It's called Local Food Factors, and aims to tell the stories of the small-scale farmers and food producers "who determine how well we eat," says Allan Reetz, the podcast's producer. The first episode, just out, highlights farmers markets. "Regions like the Northeast will never feed the nation," Reetz says in it. "But stable, community-based farming is kind of like having a backup generator for when the power grid goes down... Shopping at farmers markets is how we partner with the people who build and maintain that backup generator."NH rules change on endangered species comes in for scrutiny. It eases the permitting process for construction projects when it comes to their impact on endangered species. Conservationists hate it. At public hearings starting today, the state Dept. of Environmental Services will take it up. It "wants to find a way to allow development to continue if they think there's a responsible way to do it," explains NHPR's Annie Ropeik. "That's really the heart of the debate, is, what does that mean, is that possible, and what are the tradeoffs?""Unless the entire country can get this virus under control, there is not much that can be done to get my business back up to where it was." That's Julie Rohleder, who owns the Fitch Hill Inn in Hyde Park, VT, talking to VTDigger's Anne Wallace Allen about the dire picture facing the state's small inns. The Highland Lodge in Greensboro has taken in about half the income it had at this time last year; the Wilmington Inn is running 65 percent below last year. "We have an economic downturn based on the fact that people aren’t moving,” says one state official."Adult-onset hunters"? That's the term used by Louis Porter, VT Fish and Wildlife's commissioner, talking about a new weekend for novice turkey hunters the department is hoping will lure newbies—and more experienced mentors—into the field. The department is also introducing a new electronic reporting system designed to make it easier for hunters to submit information. The number of hunting licenses issued by the state has dropped by more than half over the last 40 years, and officials hope to reverse that."Pairs well with late staff meetings, tech snafus, upended expertise, existential crisis, and ongoing complications." Our Impossible Ask is a 7.7 percent ABV double IPA to honor educators headed back to school, who get a discount. It's brewed by Jesse Cronin, who left his job as Magic Hat's head brewer in March and decided to launch his own nanobrewery, Lucy & Howe, out of his Jericho farmhouse. With emphasis on "nano." "You could do the whole tour by kinda coming in and just spinning in a slow circle," he tells Seven Days' Sasha Goldstein.Northeast Kingdom duck farmer-influencer finds fame on YouTube. "Show me a more Vermont headline, I'll wait," Seven Days' Andrea Suozzo tweeted out yesterday in reaction to that WCAX story. The VN's John Gregg responded quickly: "20-Foot Pile of Goat Manure Combusts in Windsor." Then NYT editor Amanda Newman chimed in with a 2014 classic, "Norwich Farm Reports Theft of 70 Pounds of Organic Broccoli," and Twin State Derby alum Sarah Maxwell Crosby with "Missing VT Emu, Found 80 Miles Away From Home, Reunited With Owner." Thread and commentary at the link.An ode to letters...and the heights and depths people go to mail them. Great Big Story is a CNN offshoot that creates micro-documentaries, in this recent case about letters—that people write by hand. A guy in the Netherlands who collects letters in bottles—who knew people were tossing so many in the sea? The Japanese postmaster who created the world's first underwater letter box. The women in Verona who handle letters to Juliet. And Hikkim, India, site of the world's highest post office. (Thanks, P!)

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