GOOD MORNING, UPPER VALLEY!
Sunny, still warm. We've got a day of high pressure while winds remain from the south, so we'll see mostly clear skies and temps nearing 40 today. High 20s tonight, clouds moving in ahead of some weak weather passing through.Earthrise. Hyper-local footage...if you think in solar-system terms, that is: video of Earth rising over the moon's horizon. It was taken in 2008 by a Japanese lunar orbiter, and planetary astronomer James O'Donoghue, who used to work for NASA and now works for Japan's equivalent, JAXA, just posted it on Twitter. Despite its age, it doesn't age.Hanover shuts down Occom Pond Party... for good. Or at least, indefinitely. "We’ve decided this event isn’t viable,” Liz Burdette, assistant director of the town's parks and rec department, tells the Valley News's Liz Sauchelli. “Without predictable winter weather, the challenges become insurmountable.” It's traditionally held in the second week in February and recent years, Sauchelli writes, have been unkind to it, doling out unsafe ice, rain, lack of snow, and, in 2016, no snow or ice. “It was really, really sad to cancel this event,” Burdette says. “It’s been our keystone event for so many years.”Hartford deputy chief Braedon "Brad" Vail tapped to become Barre's police chief. Barre VT city manager Steve Mackenzie told the city council last night that he'd offered the job to Vail, who has "verbally agreed to accept the position," reports David Delcore in the Times Argus. Vail, who began his career in 1990 as a beat cop in Hardwick, VT, joined the Hartford force in 1993 as a patrol officer and has risen steadily through the ranks there, becoming deputy chief nine years ago. He also holds an MBA. His official start date is uncertain, Delcore writes, pending his acceptance of a formal employment offer and "whatever notice he provides to the Hartford Police Department."Norwich residents want to put the brakes on proposed solar array. In a letter to the selectboard, they argue that town officials should not have given the project on a ridge above Upper Loveland Road the go-ahead because, in part, the town did not consider the project's visual impact from the neighboring town forest. In his Norwich Observer blog, Chris Katucki lays out and considers the letter's arguments. You can find the letter itself at page 13 in the amended selectboard packet for tonight's SB meeting and acting town manager Rod Francis' response, with background docs, at the very end.Missing Bradford teen. VT State Police yesterday requested the public's help finding 16-year-old Guy Miller, who left a residence in Chelsea on Monday and has been missing since. "This case is not considered suspicious, but there are concerns for Miller's welfare," they write. He was last seen wearing a blue jean jacket with grey hoodie, grey sweatpants, black and white converse sneakers, and carrying a green camouflage backpack. SPONSORED: Looking for a musical community without a long-term commitment? Upper Valley Music Center hosts ongoing ensemble sessions with drop-in attendance options and pay-as-you-wish fees. Weekends@UVMC includes chamber music sight-reading and listening parties, traditional music jams, and online singing classes, with space for a range of instruments, voices, levels, and ages. Find the schedule and RSVP online to make new musical friends, learn something new, and have fun playing and singing together! Sponsored by Upper Valley Music Center.Dartmouth researcher finds rapid-test instructions may mislead users. In a study co-authored with colleagues at two other institutions, Geisel's Dr. Steven Woloshin found that current instructions may lead test users to take the wrong steps based on results, writes Nora Doyle-Burr in the VN. “Our findings suggest that many at-home COVID-19 self-test users will draw false reassurance from a negative result, ignoring conditions that pose a high risk of infection,” Woloshin says. “In other cases, they may quarantine unnecessarily because they misinterpret the implications of their test results.”“All love is made of insane hope.” That's a cross-stitch the Norwich Bookstore's Emma Nichols once made. It's also a quote from Fire Logic, the first in writer Laurie J. Marks' fantasy series about a place that's not Earth but not unlike it, except for some "elemental abilities" you might think of broadly as magic. "I love this book because it's captivating and immersive. It is a worn sweater I never want to take off," Emma writes in this week's Enthusiasms. "I think it’s a book a lot of readers need right now."NH Section 8 nondiscrimination bill takes a body blow. You may remember Ethan DeWitt's NH Bulletin story last week about how hard it's become for Section 8 tenants to find housing. Yesterday, he reports, a state House committee voted 11-10 to recommend killing a measure that would have made it illegal for landlords to discriminate against those with Section 8 vouchers. “It really just allows voucher holders to get their foot in the door," said its sponsor. GOPers argued it would create a burden for landlords who don't want to participate in the program. The measure next goes to the House floor. If you're older and have to give up driving in Vermont, life suddenly gets a lot tougher. VPR reporter Nina Keck's mom moved to Rutland last year to be closer to her. She can't drive, but they figured they'd find alternatives. "It’s been harder and more confusing than either of us thought, and a bigger issue than I had imagined," Keck reports. Cabs and rideshares are expensive, buses not an option... and while public transit agencies are trying to fill the need, funding doesn't meet demand and the options are hard to sort through. And this in a state considered a rural leader in helping seniors get around.Coming to the VT ballot in November: Should the state constitution guarantee abortion and reproductive care access? Yesterday, the state House moved to send what's known as Prop. 5 to voters, making VT the first state in the country to push forward on such a constitutional guarantee. “We can no longer rely on federal courts to uphold the protections for fundamental reproductive rights," one Democratic supporter argued. Countered a GOP opponent, “When we start putting a current belief in the constitution, I think we’re playing with fire.” Expect some debate in coming months.Scott broaches end to school mask mandates. Asked about the possibility at his weekly press conference yesterday, reports VTDigger's Erin Petenko, VT's governor responded, “We’re contemplating that. The sooner we can get people, kids in particular, back to normal—and that’s without masks—the better." He suggested possible benchmarks might be reaching an 80 percent vaccination threshold for kids aged 5-11 (the state's at 60 percent now) or a dropping hospitalization rate.
“We have decades and decades and decades of underbuilding in Vermont to make up for.” Yes, VT's housing crisis—high prices, low supply—is due in part to newcomers moving in. But more fundamentally, VPR's Mikaela Lefrak finds in the latest episode of Brave Little State, it's been a long time coming. In the 1980s, she reports, VT was building more than 3,000 homes each year; recently, it's been closer to 400. State and local policy makers are focused on the problem, touting more building and loosening zoning restrictions. But there are other issues, too, like businesses buying VT housing as an investment. Moxie soda shortage leaves tens of people thirsty for answers. Mainers have begun to panic: their beloved hometown tonic with the bright orange label is out of stock. The AP reports that the Coca Cola-owned beverage is just the latest to feel the pinch of the global supply chain crisis. They’re having trouble getting some of Moxie’s key ingredients, naturally leading one to wonder: which ingredients are those? The same that make you go, “What’s in this stuff"? All jokes-in-poor-taste aside, Moxie lovers can be assured that the soda isn’t going away, and the annual Moxie Festival is on for July.Meteorites for sale: A marketplace as shady as you’d imagine. Assuming the rock you’re examining actually fell from space—and isn’t a hunk of concrete—there is something to be said about how it was found. Lit Hub has an excerpt from a new book by Greg Brennecka, who draws back the curtain on the little-known meteorite trade. And it begins promisingly: in Antarctica, with volunteer expeditions combing glacial valleys for the extra-terrestrial treasure. But after NASA catalogs the specimen, a meteorite can easily wind up…in a motel room in Tucson, where a rare gem dealer might unload it for a cool $150K.Kleptoparrot! New Zealand's alpine parrot, the Kea, is a curious bird—as in, it likes to check stuff out. Like tourists' wallets, jewelry, lunches... and it turns out, the occasional GoPro. A family staying at a hiking hut put theirs out to catch some Kea shots, only to watch as one swiped it and took off, capturing some very scenic aerial footage before landing to try to take the thing apart. All captured by the GoPro, which the family miraculously managed to recover.Daybreak doesn't get to exist without your support. Help it keep going by hitting the maroon button:
At 12:30 today, the Hood Museum hosts an in-person conversation between Native American photographer Cara Romero and curator of Indigenous art Jami Powell. Romero, a member of California's Chemehuevi Indian Tribe, has three powerful pieces in various Hood exhibitions. Here's more on Romero in The Dartmouth.
At 5 pm, the Dartmouth Political Union hosts an online conversation with SF State sociologist and Asian-American Studies prof Russell Jeung. Jeung is a co-founder of the group Stop AAPI Hate, which tracks and reports anti-Asian violence and discrimination, both of which saw startling increases during the pandemic. Register at the link.
Also at 5, Dartmouth's Rockefeller Center hosts an online conversation, "Julian Assange: Visionary or Villain?" between English prof and journalist Alexis Jetter and free speech attorney and investigative journalism exec Nabiha Syed. Syed is president of The Markup, a nonprofit, data-focused investigative journalism organization based in NYC. She and Jetter will talk over US efforts to prosecute Assange and whether the arguments prosecutors are using could endanger investigative journalism in general.
At 5:30, the Hop and Upper Valley Music Center jointly host a workshop (Hop Garage, Room 130) with Cherokee fiddler Nokosee Fields, drawing from the North American fiddle repertoire. Ideal for advanced beginner and intermediate-level fiddlers, but anyone's welcome—though tix are getting scarce.
At 6 this evening, the Montpelier-based North Branch Nature Center hosts a Zoom presentation by Melody Mackin & Rich Holschuh of the Atowi Project, which is based in Brattleboro and is an Elnu Abenaki community initiative to "affirm Native relationships to the Land and its inhabitants." They'll be talking about people's relationship with plants from an Indigenous perspective.
Also at 6, Northshire Books hosts young adujlt author and novelist Kekla Magoon for a discussion about her recent book, Revolution In Our Time: The Black Panther Party's Promise to the People–a history of the Panthers. She'll be in conversation with YA history writer Steve Sheinkin.
At 7, if you happen to have a fiction manuscript sitting in your desk drawer and are trying to figure out how to get it out in the world, the St. J Athenaeum presents the second in its online series on the resources you'll need to navigate the publishing world. Tonight, it's author Bill Schubart advising fiction writers on what comes next.
Also at 7 and also online, the Hop presents Nigerian-American playwright Funmilola Fagbamila's The Intersection: Woke Black Folk, her one-woman play exploring the complexities of Black identity through the eyes of an Afrocentric cultural nationalist, a radical Black feminist academic, a grassroots community organizer, and a woman grounded in Christian faith. No charge, but you'll need to register.
So hey, why not? Let's go with a neoceltic pagan folk band based in the Netherlands that sings in English, French, Breton, Latin (really? Latin?), Finnish, German, Dutch, Swedish, and Hindi...though not usually all at once...performing for a hyped-up German audience. Here's Omnia (their catchphrase "Omnia chaos est," or "All is chaos") with "Fee Ra Huri," which they originally wanted to call "the Bilbo Boogie" but, they say, ran into copyright issues. Now there's a start to your day!See you tomorrow.
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.
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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