NICE TO BE BACK TOGETHER AGAIN, EH, UPPER VALLEY?
You may have thought yesterday was the start of summer, but today's weather would like to remind us just who gets to make that call. After a decently cold night, the remnants of a Midwestern storm system have decided to pay us a visit. So: rain settling in at some point today and lasting into the evening. Highs only in the 50s, dropping back into the 40s tonight. But nothing can take this past weekend away from us, right?Dartmouth, women plaintiffs seek mediation. The college and the nine women suing it for failing to act on allegations of sexual misconduct have asked to delay litigation until July 31. They want to start talks to “resolve this matter without further litigation.” They've agreed to a mediator, Robert Morrill, a retired NH Superior Court judge. The motion was filed on Friday, and The Dartmouth has the full document.
With report, Strafford middle school under scrutiny. Worried about an exodus of 7th and 8th grade students from The Newton School in S. Strafford, the school board earlier this year hired a Burlington-based consultant to dig into what's going on. The report's out, and it finds that while the school still enjoys support among the families that have remained, those pulling their kids cite "a pervasive lack of respect and a pattern of disruptive behavior by some of the middle school students." Still, results are ambiguous, and a task force will be meeting through the summer on whether or not to close the middle school. (VN, subscription reqd)In a principal's home, vaxxer debate aims for the heart. A few years ago, Doug Heavisides' daughter Scout was given a vaccine, Flu Mist. She developed tics and an autoimmune neuropsychiatric disorder. Now 11, Scout has started treatment--a couple of weeks ago she went on Facebook asking the community for its prayers. There was a deluge in response. In a poem/essay/rant that just went up on his blog, Heavisides, who runs the Hartford Area Career and Technical Center, tries to come to grips with it all as a father--and explains why he is still not an anti-vaxxer. parkrun comes to the Upper Valley. It's a simple idea: show up every Saturday and walk, jog, or run for 5 kilometers with a bunch of other people. The idea is togetherness, not competition. parkrun began in England in 2012 and has spread around the globe. Starting this weekend, Woodstock becomes only the second site in New England for the event. Somehow, it took a South African, Geraldine Fowler, and a Welshman, Dominic Lord, to get it going here. Thanks to them, the Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller parkrun gets underway this Saturday, winding through the park, up to The Pogue, and back down.PBS NewsHour takes a look at the new Hood. In a conversation with museum director John Stomberg and deputy director Juliette Bianco, WGBH correspondent Jared Bowen profiles their approach of highlighting lesser-known works. Bowen points out that the Hood has one of the largest college-owned collections in the country, and that as much of it as possible will be rotating into view. "All through the center of the museum, we're looking at the art of today, the art of now. We like to think of the Hood as a responsive museum, responsive to the world," Stomberg says.As Leb landfill refuses any more construction debris, Claremont recyclers bid for new transfer station. American Recycling in Claremont wants to create a railside facility for sorting demolition and construction materials. They'd be dumped on a concrete slab, recyclables would get hauled across the road to its recycling area, and what's left would get hauled out of state on rail cars--it's unclear where to. The planning board is meeting tonight to consider the proposal. (VN, sub still reqd)Just a little tone-poem about WRJ. Chris Lane's FB video is only a minute long, but it'll help you see White River Junction in ways you don't often think to look.The weekend brought no clarity on just what the heck the VT Legislature is up to. On Friday, the House adjourned for the season. The Senate did not. Senate Pres. Tim Ashe and House Speaker Mitzi Johnson remain at loggerheads, though Johnson seems dug in: The Senate can do whatever it wants, but the House is done. VTDigger's Jon Margolis details the standoff. So, given the state of play, VPR is up with a tally of what happened during the legislative session. In an overview of the session's greatest hits (plus some under-reported measures), it tracks a series of bills, including paid leave, the minimum wage, clean water funding, school consolidation, cannabis... You can wonk out to heart's content.Overall, vaccination rates at VT schools are high, but state officials note that lower rates at certain schools leave their communities at risk for measles, other illnesses. In all, 110 schools don't meet the 95 percent vaccination threshold. You can find rates for every school in the state using VTDigger's interactive tool.One in five of NH's rural roads are in poor condition. That's the conclusion of a report by a national surface-transportation group, which finds that 21 percent of the state's roads fall into the Federal Highway Administration's lowest-rated category. That compares to 17 percent for Vermont and 15 percent nationally. (Maine's worse, at 22 percent.) You remember a few years back when a group of 4th graders tried to make the red-tailed hawk NH's official state raptor? How could you forget? With the students watching from the gallery that day, the House rejected the measure because hawks are too violent, and one lawmaker declared the hawk would be a good Planned Parenthood mascot because it tears its prey apart “limb from limb.” Well, the students are 8th graders now, and they tried again. This time the House passed the bill and it's on Gov. Chris Sununu's desk. He says he'll sign it.Oh, also, it's turtle-nesting time, and NH state biologists want you to be careful out there on the roads. Mature females are leaving their ponds and wetlands to go lay eggs, and humans and their cars are among their greatest threats. If you can safely stop, you can even help them get across. Vermonters, this goes for you, too.Sometimes, a thousand words are worth a thousand words. "The colour of deep ice is blue, a blue unlike any other in the world – the blue of time," Robert Macfarlane writes in his extraordinary essay about the Greenland ice cap and what it remembers of millions of years of earth's history. Sure, right, this is hardly local. But if you live in northern New England, you have more than a passing interest in ice. Macfarlane is a writer of the highest order, and his piece--really more like 2,700 words--is a pure treat to read. SO HERE WE ARE, BACK TO LIFE, WONDERING JUST WHAT TO DO TONIGHT.Megan Baxter comes back home for a reading at Left Bank Books. Baxter, who grew up in Hanover, worked at Cedar Circle Farm for years, and now lives in Greenville, SC, came out last year with her first book of essays, The Coolest Monsters. It's essentially a memoir through linked essays, though she also writes about opal mining, hunting for ginseng, and the lightning storm that killed farmhand Connor Cook back in 2012. "We all run out, eventually, to the sea or rise up into the clouds.” Starts at 7 pm.Or you could go see The Island President in Woodstock. The temperate world seems finally to have been hit in the face with the reality of climate change, but if you were president of a low-lying chain of 1200 islands in the Indian Ocean a decade ago, you were terrified before everyone else. Mohamed Nasheed was elected in 2008, charged with restoring democracy after the end of a 30-year dictatorship. He quickly faced an even more dire issue: rising sea levels. A full seven years ago, NYT critic A.O. Scott wrote: "[T]he hope that infuses this movie makes it all the more upsetting to walk out of the theater and contemplate a looming disaster that the world’s leaders seem unable to prevent." Woodstock Town Hall Theater at 6 pm.Or yes, you might want to learn about Aretha Franklin and her love of opera. There's this fantastic story about the 1998 Grammys, when Pavarotti, who was supposed to sing "Nessun Dorma" from Turandot that night, called in sick -- a half hour after the live show had begun. Who agreed backstage to take his place? Aretha Franklin. Ahead of the White River Indie Festival gala and Upper Valley premiere of Amazing Grace (more on that later this week), director and producer Jarvis Green will be in conversation with, and host a recital by, soprano Tiffany Abban and bass-baritone Barrington Lee, focused on Franklin's legacy and opera chops. Starts at 6:30 pm, at WRJ's The Village.All together now: "Vanish, o night!" See you tomorrow.
If you like Daybreak and think one or more of your friends would like it, 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!