GOOD MORNING, UPPER VALLEY!
Sunny, warmer. Not warm warm, mind you, but still. High pressure's moving in and so's a warm front, though some cooler air from the southeast is going to keep highs lower around here than to our west (though just for today). Very few clouds today, with temps getting toward 50. Down into the upper 30s tonight. Just because you can see grass poking through doesn't mean you can't sled. Which is obviously music to one dog's ears. Harry is Lori Harriman's 8-year-old lab, and together they made some tracks at the Hanover Country Club yesterday morning. You'll want your sound up for the full sled experience.All of fall in three minutes. Well, 3 minutes and 2 seconds, to be exact. VINS's Emily Johnson stitched together a time-lapse video of the leaves changing each day by the Forest Canopy Walk, from full-on green Sept. 23 to mostly gone on Nov. 2. What's just as intriguing: For the first time this year, staffers tracked color changes for six species (maples, aspen, beech, oak, and birch) and charted when they hit peak. They'll compare dates in years to come. Incumbent governors easily re-elected; Democrat Molly Gray elected lieutenant governor in Vermont.
Republican Gov. Phil Scott had a massive 67-27 percent lead in Vermont voting this morning, while Gray led Republican Scott Milne by a narrower 49.8-42.4.
In NH, meanwhile, GOP Gov. Chris Sununu beat Democrat Dan Feltes so convincingly, writes the Monitor's Ethan DeWitt, that the AP "called the race at about 8:30 p.m. with less than 6 percent of the state’s votes tallied. Sununu even beat Feltes in Concord, the Democratic-leaning capital city where Feltes lives."
How the Upper Valley voted... Maggie Cassidy and John Gregg at the Valley News did a masterful job creating a page that pulls together results and town-by-town votes in the federal and state-level contests. It's where you should turn to see what happened in legislative and other races you care about.
Meanwhile, Thetford handily passed its nearly $4 million bond to repave and repair Route 132 from the Norwich line to Tucker Hill Road.
And younger people turned out in droves to work at the polls. Liz Sauchelli's VN article is about Enfield, but town clerks all over the Upper Valley reported similar enthusiasm for helping out.
And to get a sense of what it was like out there:
Here's NHPR's liveblog, with reporters catching glimpses from around the state of what was going on.
And here's a similar effort by a team of UVM student-reporters, who likewise fanned out to talk to voters and elections officials, though mostly farther north.
It happened yesterday afternoon on I-93 in New Hampton, NH. Amazingly, no one was hurt.
VT travel restrictions now affect all but 6 counties in the Northeast. Four of the "green" counties are in Maine, one's in central NY, and one's in western PA. Otherwise, it's a sea of quarantine-mandatory red out there, including Grafton and Sullivan counties, and a few pockets of yellow. Worth noting: If VT's counties were similarly color-coded, half the state (including the eastern tier of counties) would be yellow or red. Which will make ski season interesting. The state yesterday gave ski resorts the okay to re-open, but with restrictions—especially, notes Seven Days' Derek Brouwer, given that they rely so heavily on visitors from away. Out-of state customers will have to attest they complied with travel guidance, including quarantining, and ski areas will collect contact tracing info on everyone. In addition, areas are being asked to reduce reliance on out-of-state workers, and lifts and day lodges can't exceed 50 percent capacity. Meanwhile, the state also issued rules on winter sports for high schools. No wrestling or indoor track, though most other sports—including basketball and cheerleading without the actual cheers—can go ahead. Only they'll have to do so without spectators other than one parent per athlete's family. In addition, the fall's mask mandate for athletes and coaches has been extended to officials and refs. Practice can begin as early as next week, report the Free Press's Alex Abrami and Austin Danforth, but competition will wait until January.St. Michaels College classes will stay remote. The Covid outbreak there began with nine cases in mid-October, then grew by another 34 positives the following week, and added 22 more this week. In a letter to the campus Monday, President Lorraine Sterritt said that after meeting with VT Health Commissioner Mark Levine, the college has decided that all classes will remain remote and gatherings of any size will be prohibited. Students who want to return home will have to test negative within 48 hours before leaving. 17 hours. That's how long it takes a message to get from earth to Voyager 2, the spacecraft that left the planet 43 years ago and is now headed into interstellar space. Because of a maneuver back in 1989, there's only one radio antenna on earth that can communicate with it—and it's been offline for repairs since March. A few days ago, however, NASA sent out a call to test new equipment... and got an answer back. In addition to being just plain freakily remarkable, it bodes well for learning about what lies between solar systems.“Most glorious scenery I ever beheld.” That was Katharine Lee Bates, an English prof at Wellesley who'd spent the summer of 1893 lecturing at Colorado College, telling her diary about the view from atop Pikes Peak. That night in her hotel room, writes Jill Lepore in National Geographic, Bates began work on a poem. She called it "America, the Beautiful." Americans then, Lepore notes, were no less divided than they are now: "over everything from immigration to land use to racial justice to economic inequality." She dives into the story of Bates, her times, and the poem that became our unofficial anthem.
And some other numbers.
NH reported 132 positive test results yesterday, bringing its official total to 11,448. There were no new deaths, which remain at 483. The state's current caseload is at 1,450 (up 43), including 73 in Grafton County (up 4), 25 in Sullivan (up 2), and 189 in Merrimack (down 3). Lebanon still has 10 active cases (no change); Newport gained 2 and now has 8. Sunapee added 1 to stand at 6. There are 1-4 cases each in Lyme, Hanover, Plainfield, Grantham, Claremont, Charlestown, Unity, Goshen, New London, Newbury, and Wilmot. Enfield is off the list.
VT reported 19 new cases yesterday, bringing its official total to 2,237, with 346 of those still active (up 11). Deaths remain at 58 and 3 people with confirmed cases are hospitalized. Windsor County remains at 128 for the pandemic, with 14 of those in the past 14 days. Orange County gained 2 cases to stand at 40 cumulatively, 9 of them reported in the past 14 days.
News that connects you. If you like Daybreak and want to help it keep going, here's how:
Tonight's First Wednesday and Vermont Humanities lectures are online, giving you a remarkable menu of choices, all beginning at 7 pm. Closest to home, Dartmouth's Tarek El-Ariss, who chairs Middle Eastern Studies, will be talking about our relationship to water in times of crisis, hosted by the Norwich Congregational Church. Meanwhile, JAG Productions' Jarvis Green will be presented by the Brattleboro library in a reflection on "the afterlives and the legacies of the transatlantic slave trade." Elsewhere, talks on artists' activism, how the Civil War shaped the Western Hemisphere, farmworkers and food justice in VT, and a lot more. You'll need to register ahead of time—just go to the event you're interested in.
At 7:30 this evening, legendary columnist and storyteller Willem Lange will deliver a Zoomed lecture, "My Seventy Years as a Yankee," hosted by the Etna Library. He'll be telling stories "about trying to understand this unique part of the universe, ever since being exiled here at the age of fifteen." For Zoom info, email [email protected].
And while this isn't time-sensitive, if being stuck at home has blown your workout routine to smithereens, you might want to know about a new Upper Valley venture. Started up by marketing consultant (and former River Valley Club marketing director) Taylor Haynes and sales consultant Chris Acker, the Upper Valley Fitness Network aims to connect locals with trainers and small studios/gyms in the region that are offering services through the pandemic—virtually, one-on-one at home, or in a studio.
I think we need a diversion today.
(dropping in from Burlington) in an NPR Tiny Desk (Home) Concert a couple of weeks back. Phish drummer Jon Fishman joins in for a bit, as well. Just set it up and go about your day.
See you tomorrow.
Written and published by Rob Gurwitt Banner by Tom Haushalter Poetry editor: Michael Lipson About Rob About Tom About Michael
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