WELL GOOD MORNING, UPPER VALLEY!
That sun never did appear yesterday, did it? But today... Once burned, twice shy, but allegedly the clouds are parting even as we speak and the sky should be pretty much cloudless all day. Temps bumping up toward around freezing in the early afternoon, then dropping to the low single digits overnight. Winds from the northwest. Now if only last weekend hadn't happened and this was all powder...Leb's last sawmill may disappear. A company called Progressive Manufacturing has asked the zoning board's permission to build a "light industrial building" and parking lot on the site of the GH Evarts sawmill, which closed last year. The VN's Tim Camerato speculates that the site, on Rte. 120 near the Plainfield line, might be taken over by gas-burning fireplace manufacturer Solas, which is currently in the Airport Business Park — and shares corporate offices with Progressive Manufacturing.Three locals snag "Good Food" awards. Windsor's Silo Distillery, WRJ's Vermont Amber Toffee, and Brookfield's Fat Toad Farm all carried home awards from the Good Food Foundation's annual SF shindig honoring "taste-making crafters at the vanguard of deliciousness and social and environmental excellence." Silo won for its vodka, Vermont Amber's Elizabeth Feinberg for her Pumpkin Seed Chipotle Toffee, and Fat Toad for Cinnamon Goat's Milk Caramel. Don't click the link if you're hungry.Speaking of eating, Still North Books is open for food and drink now. The new Hanover bookstore opened its book part back in December, but now it's extended its hours (10 to 10, 6 on Sundays) and added a menu. Breads are made in-house. Artful blogger Susan Apel also gives a shout-out to the folks at Literary North, "a treasure trove of information about poetry readings (including an annual one with pie), book signings, and writing workshops" that really deserves its own post. Also, an invaluable calendar of events.And speaking of the farmers who grow the food we eat... Just four companies now control 60 percent of global seed sales, a consolidation they've achieved in no small part through patenting those seeds. Now a Vermont Law School professor and student have laid out a strategy for farmers and plant breeders who hope to preserve the strains they develop and to make their genetic material more widely available. “Biodiversity in crop species is essential to the future of farming," says VLS prof Emily Spiegel, "especially as climate change alters growing conditions.” Apparent E. Coli outbreak in northern New England may be linked to Subway lettuce. Food Safety News reports that late last year there were cases in VT, NH, ME and, interestingly, Nevada. They were not made public until now. Officials in Vermont have confirmed they're working with the CDC and FDA to investigate, but the health departments in NH and ME have remained silent. The five confirmed patients in Vermont were all children. There's a little more detail about NH's suspected coronavirus cases. As you've probably read, New Hampshire is monitoring two patients with flu-like symptoms at hospitals in Littleton and Concord, and expects a CDC report on the cases as early as today. The patient in Littleton, according to a hospital Facebook post, is a student from White Mountain School in Bethlehem who'd been in Hunan, China, in December and came to the hospital’s emergency room last Thursday with “mild flu-like symptoms.” “There is no risk to public health by being in our building," the hospital wrote. "We have no concerns about operations continuing.”UNH may be looking at layoffs. In a letter this week, president Jim Dean wrote that he's forming committees to review cost-cutting recommendations from a consulting group, NHPR reports. “We would be disingenuous if we said: ‘Hey, we are going to be moving all this money and it’s not going to affect anybody,’” he said. “It’s acknowledging the obvious.” It will be months, though, before the university even knows how many people might lose their jobs.Unnamed conspirator in record Vermont opioid settlement was Purdue Pharma. On Monday, US Attorney Christina Nolan announced a $145 million settlement with a tech startup called Practice Fusion on charges that it had taken kickbacks to work with "Pharma Co. X" to push prescriptions for its pills. Now Seven Days' Derek Brouwer reports that comparisons of documents shows the manufacturer in question was Purdue Pharma. "The filing sheds new light on how Purdue found ways to increase OxyContin prescriptions even as the company's opioid empire was beginning to collapse," he writes.Vermont lost jobs in 2019. The Public Assets Institute, a Montpelier-based research and analysis nonprofit, reports that at the end of 2019, the state had 1,100 fewer nonfarm payroll jobs than the year before. Its workforce shrank as well. Meanwhile, the state's self-employed workforce has held steady at about 15 percent, the highest rate in New England and among the top five nationally.Super Tuesday be darned: All eyes will be on Fair Haven, VT. It was cute when the Fair Haven police chief put Sammy, the department's popular K-9 german shepherd up for mayor. After all, last year a Nubian goat, Lincoln, won the post of pet mayor. But now the town's announced that Lincoln's running for re-election! The vote's March 3, and people have to pay ($1, goes to refurbish the town playground) to vote. Man, talk about political dilemmas...Here's a pic you don't see every day. This happened over the weekend, but it's never too late for love. Or at least for a proposal. In the middle of a bridge. Over the Piscataqua River. Both were civil engineering students at UNH, and he wrote NH DOT asking permission to use the bridge for that purpose. They said yes. So did she.(Oh, and if you're not a FB user, just click the little "Not Now" on the annoying popup once it appears.)No shouting, just news that connects you. If you like Daybreak and want to help it keep going, here's how:
WHAT'S GOING ON?
John Morton (Olympic biathlete and coach, US national cross-country team member, masters athlete, and much-sought-after trail designer) and Tim Beck (longtime alpine skier and Stowe stalwart, former president of Sno Engineering, VP of mountain planning for Vail Resorts) will take a look at the last 40 years of the ski industry in VT and NH. Both are former Dartmouth coaches, so that'll probably come up, too. 11 am to 1 pm at The Village at WRJ.
Kovel, who died two years ago, was a psychiatrist and anthropologist who, in 2001, co-authored the first "eco-socialist manifesto," which argued that globalization and industrialization underlie the world's ecological crises. In later essays he criticized environmentalists who were "uninterested in social transformation." At the Yankee Bookshop, 5:30 pm.
Johanna Miller, who runs the energy and climate program at the Vermont Natural Resources Council, will be reviewing upcoming legislation and the various local resolutions being considered at town meeting on March 3. Barrett Hall at 7 pm.
Revel in the sun! See you tomorrow.
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