GOOD MORNING, UPPER VALLEY!
Still sunny, still cold. In fact, maybe even a bit colder than yesterday, as Arctic air is sprawled comfortably above us and seems in no hurry to leave. There'll be more clouds around than yesterday, especially this afternoon, but still plenty of sky. Highs in the mid teens, back into the low minuses tonight.So if you can't beat 'em... Here's more ice. But up close, and in ways that show just how beautiful it can be.
Like these crystalline fronds, from Morgan Brophy in Sharon;
And this video from above, alongside, and under a patina of ice glazing a creek in West Hartford, "on its way to the White River, the Connecticut River and the Atlantic Ocean," as Mike Vecciarelli writes.
Hartford shooting victim dies of injuries. On Sunday afternoon, police officers and firefighters responded to a report of a shooting in the 200 block of Fairbanks Turn in Quechee, where they discovered "a male individual with an apparent gunshot wound to the head," the HPD wrote in a press release yesterday. He was taken to DHMC, where he died. "Preliminary investigations indicate that all parties involved were known to one another, and the incident is believed to be isolated," they continue. "Updates will be provided to the public as new information becomes available."
Rivendell district puts off school consolidation plan. As Christina Dolan writes in the Valley News, the cross-border district in 2023 announced plans to close one of its two elementary schools and move students to Rivendell Academy in Orford. But since then, both the district's superintendent and Rivendell Academy's principal have stepped down; at a school board meeting last month, chairman Mark Avery said tasks were slipping through the cracks and the district's "basic foundations" need attention. "We realize that it will take a bit more time before intelligent decisions can be made," the board says.SPONSORED: 273 miles in 4 days on Vermont'a Long Trail... "Just go for it." That’s what backpacker turned ultramarathoner Will Peterson says about fear of failure. The Dartmouth med student returned to the Long Trail this year with help from the community as he attempted to break the Fastest-Known-Time 4 day barrier. In this interview, he reflects on breaking records, overcoming injuries, and why he does it. Sponsored by Cioffredi & Associates Physical Therapy."I want people to question what they think they know about Native American people." Cara Romero's new exhibition of photographs, Panûpünüwügai, got its official opening at the Hood Museum in Hanover last week. It features not just Romero's photographs of fellow Chemehuevi citizens in the Mojave, reports NHPR's Julia Furukawa, but work she did with several Indigenous students at Dartmouth—including Native Hawaiian Teani Kristina Kawaipuhilani DeFries, who graduated last year and wore a traditional hula outfit for her photos... underwater.“She was the kind of music teacher you see in the movies." Becky Luce died at age 70 last month, after nearly five decades teaching music in the Lebanon, Plainfield, Windsor, and Hanover school districts, and as director of the Upper Valley Community Band and the children's chorus at Upper Valley Music Center. But she went far beyond notes and technique, writes Christina Dolan in the VN. One former student, Sarah Moffitt Teeven, remembers Luce's encouragement: “When you’re a 12-year-old girl and you’re sort of shy and awkward, and someone believes in you, it changes your DNA a little bit."SPONSORED: Dartmouth Health: Caring for our communities. As New Hampshire’s only academic health system and the state’s largest employer, Dartmouth Health is committed to helping our communities thrive. Our care goes far beyond our hospitals and clinics. As part of our mission, we provide charitable care to those without the means to pay and support many critical community needs, including improving care for mental health, leading change for rural healthcare and advancing research for improved health outcomes. Learn more at the burgundy link or here. Sponsored by Dartmouth Health.I-91 shooting incident in northern VT leaves two dead, including border patrol agent. Details have been scant since the VT State Police announced yesterday afternoon that the agent had been involved in a shooting along the highway in Coventry, just south of Newport and about 15 miles from the border. I-91 was shut down in both directions for a time; the northbound lanes eventually reopened. As VTDigger's Alan J. Keays reports, the FBI last night issued a release saying, “One U.S. Border Patrol Agent was killed, along with one subject. Another subject was injured and in custody." No further details.VSP arrests six for helping suspect in shooting of St. J police officer. On Friday, the state police announced that they'd arrested five people for helping Scott Mason, the suspect in that December shooting of Capt. Jason Gray, try to escape. One was charged with "accessory aiding in the commission of a felony, and negligent storage of firearms resulting in serious bodily injury," the rest with being "accessories after the fact." Yesterday morning, a sixth person was taken into custody as an accessory. All six are St. Johnsbury residents.VT enters into new health care payment model with the feds—amid uncertainty on whether it'll actually take effect. Much less what impact it'll have. On Friday, writes VTDigger's Kristen Fountain, the Green Mountain Care Board voted 3-1 to join up with the program run by the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services—replacing the Vermont-specific “all-payer” model that expires at the end of this year. But the new plan doesn't take effect until a year later, and it might not do so at all if a variety of conditions—like adding up to 20 staff members to the board by mid-2026—don't happen.Alcohol to eating disorders to the mental-health impacts of politics: Unraveling podcast strives for "deeper, more honest public conversations around mental health." It's a joint effort by therapist and a former journalist, both at the Brattleboro Retreat, and in Seven Days, Lauren Dorsey writes that in its six months of existence, it's garnered an international following. Each subject usually gets at least two episodes: one focused on an expert, the other on someone who's lived the issue. "Our sweet spot is often right at the intersection of mental health and [how] people are experiencing it," says Retreat VP Kurt White, one of the hosts.“News alert to American [road] planners: paint has been invented.” In 3QuarksDaily, UK transplant Richard Farr lays out (hilariously) how awful driving in the US is and, not so hilariously, how factors like bad highway design and lousy driving make US roads among the deadliest in the world. Americans, Farr writes tetchily, "have simply never been trained to drive properly.” He takes aim at Clueless Lane Camper Syndrome, "whether burger-steering at the speed limit or at that most annoying 4 mph less..." His (American) credit card company once blocked a car rental in Ireland as a bad risk. "This is like being told by a Yemeni warlord that it’s risky to drive in Canberra," he writes.
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Fleece vests, sweatshirts, head-warming beanies... Strong Rabbit has updated the Daybreak page to keep up with the changing weather. Plus, of course, the usual: t-shirts, long-sleeved tees, the Daybreak jigsaw, those perfect hand-fitting coffee/tea mugs, and as always, "We Make Our Own Fun" t-shirts and tote bags for proud Upper Valleyites. Check it all out at the link!
VT Law & Grad School holds its MLK celebration today, and its centerpiece is a conversation between two best friends: Thetford child and family clinical psychologist Raymond Chin, who also volunteers with the Hartford Restorative Justice Center; and John Green, who recently retired from a career in health care (but who met Chin when they were both at the Rhode Island School of Design). 12:45 pm, Chase Community Center and by livestream.
It's an evening of improvised music with Ethiopia-born Swedish and Norwegian vocalist Sofia Jernberg, along with Taylor Ho Bynum (cornet), Tomeka Reid (cello), and Ole Morten (bass). Jernberg is known, among other things, for her exploration of split-tone singing, pitchless singing, and distorted singing. 8 pm at The Warehouse, 4 Currier Pl.
The Tuesday poem.
Before you know kindness as the deepest thing inside,you must know sorrow as the other deepest thing.You must wake up with sorrow.You must speak to it till your voicecatches the thread of all sorrowsand you see the size of the cloth.Then it is only kindness that makes sense anymore,only kindness that ties your shoesand sends you out into the day to gaze at bread,only kindness that raises its headfrom the crowd of the world to sayIt is I you have been looking for,and then goes with you everywherelike a shadow or a friend.
— From
. And
back during the pandemic.
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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