A PLEASURE TO SEE YOU, UPPER VALLEY!
Even warmer! Though not at first. We start out with patches of freezing fog, but they will give way to full-on sun as temps rise quickly, especially as warm air starts arriving on gentle winds from the south. Highs edging into the mid-50s today, winds picking up in the afternoon. Even the higher summits are getting into the 40s. Down tonight only into the mid-30s. As the sun moves across the sky...
Here's daybreak in South Cornish, NH, from Brian Meyette;
Here's later in the day at the Middle Creek Wildlife Management Area in Lancaster County, PA, where thousands of snow geese are hanging out on their way toward us—they feed in the cornfields nearby then rest on the lake in the evening, writes photographer Ed Stemmler;
And then there's dusk at the Keene airport, where Sunapee's Bo Hopkins and a few other hardy souls have been bundling up to watch for two short-eared owls that have been hunting over the airstrip. "I was positioned near the grounds with the setting sun to my left. As the owl passed by, his eyes would light up in the day’s last moments," Bo writes. "This exposure, with the owl in a level glide, was near the last I was able to get before it was too dark to continue to shoot."
Leb voters ask to discontinue school resource officer by 5 votes; Liot Hill re-elected, Wilkie leads. Plus, Canaan rejects zoning ordinance, Enfield retains town manager system (and selectboard Chair Kate Stewart), Sunapee nixes school bond, Grantham rejects playground renovations, Dorchester unseats its selectboard chair 29-21, Lyme approves senior housing zoning change... and lots more as the Valley News rounds up yesterday's voting in NH, at the link. Results from most, though not all, towns are in.Dartmouth golf teams, cut loose from home course, eye alternatives. The men's and women's teams may have been reinstated by the college, but the Hanover Country Club has not, notes The Dartmouth's Vikram Strander. So the golf teams have been looking at various area courses, and men's head coach Rich Parker says they'll probably end up at Montcalm, in Enfield, the course built by former Champion International CEO Andrew Sigler of Norwich after the Hanover course was shut for renovations in 2001. (Thanks, BC!)Times publisher looking for a replacement as she steps back. Jen MacMillen took over the Quechee Times in 1995, started the Norwich Times two years later and the Lebanon Times in 2013, and for all but five of the last 26 years has overseen—and often done—everything it took to get those papers into townspeople's mailboxes four times a year. Now, with an aging mother needing attention, she's hoping to put aside day-to-day responsibility and is looking for a replacement to train. In the Daybreak interview at the link, she talks about the Timeses and where they're headed.Claremont's insurance company pays out $75K to settle lawsuit against former police officers. The suit stems from 2018, when officers Ian Kibbe and Mark Burch arrested Christopher Ratcliffe. Kibbe and Burch then lied about seeing weapons in plain sight, reports Damien Fisher for InDepthNH. Ratcliffe brought suit against them in federal court for violating his civil rights; the suit was settled, Fisher writes, with the $75K payment to Ratcliffe. More than 30 criminal cases were dropped by Claremont Police and the Sullivan County Attorney’s Office after the officers' false statements were revealed.Despite federal watchdog report, VA says no need to reopen WRJ whistleblower case. The Union Leader's Mark Hayward reports that in the wake of the Office of Special Counsel's report criticizing the investigation of allegations raised by four women employees at the VA hospital, the Veterans Health Administration says it sees "no reason to disturb" the findings of its original investigation. The OSC contends those findings appear to have ignored a pattern of violent behavior toward colleagues by a former chief anesthesiologist. "It opens up the worlds of performance and visual art, both of which can be exclusive, to truly anyone passing by on the street.” Ellen Smith Ahern is a dancer, and she recently moved to Lebanon. On Friday, she'll be on the inside of AVA Gallery's large, street-facing windows, performing for an audience outside. The event is in lieu of an opening reception for the gallery's women's history month exhibitions of work by women sculptors. Susan Apel asked Ahern about the challenges of performing for an audience separated by glass."The ice just kept breaking underneath me." On Sunday, tech school teacher William Rogers was skating on the Salmon Falls River in Somersworth, NH, when he fell through. He couldn't get out, he couldn't reach his phone, and hypothermia was coming on fast. Then he remembered his Apple Watch. He called 911. "I probably had 10 minutes before I was not gonna be able to respond anymore,” he told them. Firefighters got there in half that time, threw him a line, and pulled him to safety. WMUR has the story.NH community power bill takes a step forward with advocates' support. As originally written, the measure was opposed by towns and community power advocates, who argued that it undermined communities' ability to cut costs and provide energy alternatives for residents. But with amendments that amount to "a complete replacement of the bill,” according to Lebanon assistant mayor Clifton Below, its former opponents have come on board. The house committee in charge has approved it; NHPR's Daniela Allee details the changes.The answer to what ails the internet? More services like Front Porch Forum. Maybe that's going a bit far. But in a long Atlantic think piece about how Facebook and other platforms have coarsened civic discourse, and how to rebuild a sense of community and deliver experience in consensus-building online, Anne Applebaum and Peter Pomerantsev point to Vermont's web-based counterpart to the Upper Valley's listservs. "Instead of encouraging users to interact as much and as fast as possible, Front Porch slows the conversation down," they note. "You interact with your actual neighbors, not online avatars."VT changes vaccine timeline for younger people with high-risk conditions and for people of color. Fewer people 55 and older with high-risk conditions have signed up than expected, so those under 55 will be eligible starting tomorrow, state officials say. And in a bid to improve vaccination rates among people of color, writes VTDigger's Erin Petenko, household members who wouldn't otherwise be eligible by age or health condition can accompany someone who is eligible and also get the vaccine.Make way, Bill Koch: Diggins clinches. Jessie Diggins, a Minnesota native who trains in Stratton, VT, has clinched the overall World Cup title in xc skiing, becoming the first American woman and second American ever—Vermont legend Bill Koch did it in 1982—to win the title. There are actually two races left, but because two other contests, including the finals, have been cancelled, Diggins's point lead is insurmountable. The Free Press's Austin Danforth rounds up her accomplishments."Vermonters love the spicy stuff. They clear your palate and wake you up a little." That's opposed to tourists, says pickle-maker Angela Gerace, who tend to go for pickles made with Heady Topper. Gerace runs The Tipsy Pickle—named that way because the pickles are flavored with beer and spirits from VT's breweries and distilleries. She got into it some years back after her garden produced an over-abundance, and, having grown up pickling and canning, she found herself wondering, "What happens if I put some beer in here?" she tells Seven Days' Jordan Barry. So, what do you do when the audience files in, sits down, and the instruments start...melting? Originally an ice sculptor, Tim Linhart moved from Colorado to Europe decades ago, entranced by making musical instruments out of ice. Since then he's carved hundreds of them, created 19 ice orchestras, and built 11 igloo-style ice music concert halls. He also founded Ice Music, based in Luleå, in Swedish Lapland. Violins, xylophones, cellos, guitars... Here's a video on how he makes them, how they sound and look, and how to deal when strings sag and xylophone keys melt...
And...
Dartmouth numbers drop to 57 active cases among students (down 18), but rise to 4 (up 1) among faculty/staff. Meanwhile, 47 students and 8 faculty/staff are in quarantine because of travel or exposure, while 53 students and 9 faculty/staff are in isolation awaiting results or because they tested positive.
NH reported 219 new cases yesterday for a cumulative total of 77,252. There was 1 additional death, which stand at 1,185. Meanwhile, 81 people are hospitalized (up 13). The current active caseload stands at 1,997 (down 39). The state reports 128 active cases in Grafton County (down 35), 39 in Sullivan (down 3), and 162 in Merrimack (down 1). In town-by-town numbers, the state says Hanover has 62 active cases (down 25), Plainfield has 10 (no change), Claremont has 9 (down 1), Lebanon has 6 (down 1), Newport has 5 (down 1), and Sunapee has 5 (no change). Haverhill, Piermont, Orford, Enfield, Grantham, Springfield, Wilmot, Cornish, Charlestown, and Newbury have 1-4 each. Grafton is off the list.
VT reported 87 new cases yesterday, bringing it to a total case count of 16,286. It reported 3 new deaths, which now stand at 211 all told. Meanwhile, 30 people with confirmed cases are hospitalized (up 3). Windsor County gained 2 cases to stand at 1,076 for the pandemic, with 57 over the past 14 days. Orange County added 2 new cases to reach 522 cumulatively, with 26 cases in the past 14 days.
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Yudum, Damla, and Tamara Şahin are sisters. They grew up in Turkey, of Georgian descent, and a few years back formed Samida ("three sisters" in Georgian), touring Turkey with both Georgian and Turkish melodies and building a devoted following in their home country and among the Georgian diaspora. They're effervescent and playful, and here they are on a hillside...somewhere...
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