Daybreak Wednesday, 3/25/26

More sun than clouds, getting warmer (for now). It’ll be mostly sunny for a good bit of the day, but clouds will build in ahead of an approaching warm front. Temps today will get into the mid or upper 40s, and as that front comes through tonight it brings a chance of rain and/or snow showers. Overnight lows in the low or mid 30s.

Don’t blink. In Norwich, Cynthia Crawford’s trail cam caught a fisher hightailing it through the snow. You can slow it down (shift <), but you know what’s even more fun? Keep it on normal speed and let it keep looping.

How a leaking roof in a trailer park changed a life. Rebecca Mathews moved to VT from California with her two kids in tow, and to make ends meet found herself working 80-hour weeks as a line cook. She was at a loss when her roof started leaking—until a friend recommended COVER, and she was so impressed by the volunteers that she started volunteering herself. Now she does home weatherization, and though she’s still in that trailer park (and desperate to leave), in the second “Tell Me a Story” podcast, she talks to Dartmouth senior Wynn Johnson about weatherproofing, the confidence her skills give her, finding her community, and struggling to overcome hardship.

Former assistant town clerk sues Norwich. Judy Trussell, who worked for years at the town’s transfer station and as a crossing guard before becoming assistant clerk, has sued the town “alleging workplace harassment, disability discrimination and whistleblower retaliation,” reports Chris Katucki on his Norwich Observer blog. In its response, the town mostly denies her allegations—but, Katucki writes, “the parties agree on one key point: in June 2025, federal ballots still subject to preservation requirements were mistakenly destroyed.” They differ on the aftermath. Town Manager Brennan Duffy: “The Town cannot discuss a matter that is in active litigation.”

District land use commission turns down Woodstock Inn on demolishing two historic homes. The decision by the District 3 Environmental Commission, part of VT’s Land Use Review Board, comes after considerable hue and cry in the town over the inn’s request to tear down the long-vacant homes—a request a village board approved last fall. But on Monday, reports Liz Sauchelli in the Valley News, the commission ruled the move “would have an undue adverse impact” on the village’s historic district. Commissioners held that their 2009 approval of the inn’s spa required the homes to be preserved and maintained. They also disputed the inn’s figures on renovation costs.

SPONSORED: Coming soon: Follow Your Art, an inspiring benefit concert from New England School of the Arts. On Saturday, April 11 at 7 PM at Lebanon Opera House, the private middle and high school will host an unforgettable evening celebrating the transformative power of the arts featuring musicians Matt Podd and Monik Walters, alongside NESA students, faculty, and guest artists. Proceeds support scholarships and programs for Upper Valley youth. Don’t miss our silent auction, another meaningful way to support NESA through wonderful items and experiences for all. Sponsored by New England School of the Arts.

Windsor’s SILO Distillery re-launches with a new owner. Though, as Jordan Barry writes in Seven Days, Erin Bell is a familiar presence: She worked there from 2013 to 2020, and was one of the developers of its signature version of amaro, Vermaro. Bell and her father bought the distillery’s assets last fall, and after waiting for renewed permits, she has redone the bar in Artisans Park and reintroduced SILO’s bottles to 802Spirits stores. She talks to Barry about what she’s doing, from her ideas (“I’ve got a long-ass note in my notes app of all the things I want to play with”) to her staffing (“It’s a big crew of women who are really kicking butt”).

A magic library with an infinite world of books that’s haunted by ghosts and overseen by the Book Dragon. At least, that’s what the Librarian in Kate Quinn’s The Astral Library would like to be called, but the Board’s ignored her for the past century. In this week’s Enthusiasms, the Norman Williams Public Library’s Liza Bernard writes, “Is this high literature? No. Does it make interesting observations about our lives and times? Yes. Was it an enjoyable way to spend a cold, grey afternoon and evening? Definitely!” And she’s got a soft spot for the library’s computer passcodes. Like, “Libraries are full of ideas—perhaps the most dangerous and powerful of all weapons.”

And speaking of books, this summer’s Bookstock is taking shape. In a press release yesterday, lead organizer Michael Stoner laid out what’s coming in mid-May. There’s a panel of Vermont Book Awards finalists and winners, a poetry festival organized along with Sundog Poetry, a range of bestselling authors (Katherine Arden, Patrick Bringley, Garrett Graff, Amity Gaige, and photographer Caleb Kenna), a “Cookstock” five-course meal prepped by chef, writer, and TV personality Gesine Bullock-Prado and Woodstock Inn executive chef Matthew McClure, a series of master classes, and, of course, the used book sale. You’ll find more details at the link.

Thetford teen develops AI model to prevent medical billing errors. After family members got turned down on health insurance claims, Elijah Renner tells WCAX’s Sophia Thomas, he dug into it, and discovered that many billing errors happen because of mistaken procedure codes. “It ends up falling back on the patient, and then it’s also a burden for providers to go and chase down these patients and recover that lost revenue that insurance companies should have paid,” he says. With a crew of mentors, he’s developed an AI system that he contends is 96 percent accurate. His project tied for first at last week’s Vermont STEM Fair; he’s headed to a national version in May.

Just in case you’re thinking of heading to the Presidentials today… The Mt. Washington Avalanche Center yesterday issued a warning of “Considerable” avalanche danger: “You could trigger a large avalanche on north, east, and south-facing slopes above 3000 feet… naturally occurring avalanches are possible as increasing winds build deep drifts on top of a weak snowpack. Conservative decision making that minimizes your exposure to steep avalanche terrain is essential for safe travel.” They go on to explain that wind slabs from three recent weather events “are now stacked on top of each other and multiple weak layers of snow exist below the surface.”

ICE agent was chasing the wrong man in S. Burlington. In a new court filing yesterday, agent Colton Riley wrote that he had believed that a Mexican man he was seeking, Deyvi Daniel Corona-Sanchez, was in the car agents followed to a S. Burlington home they later raided, but that he was mistaken. “That’s because Christian Jerez Andrade, a Honduran man who ICE arrested inside the Dorset Street home, admitted that he was the driver during an interview with the Federal Bureau of Investigation,” reports VT Public’s Derek Brouwer. All three people taken from the home have been ordered released. Corona-Sanchez still hasn’t been found.

Some straight talk on VT’s education spending dilemma. David Tyler, who’s got two kids in school in Norwich, will quickly tell you that he’s not an ed expert, but he is “a technologist who can read data and build visualizations.” Spurred by a VT Joint Fiscal Office analysis of Act 73’s potential impact on towns’ school funding, he built himself a dashboard to understand it better. Then he expanded it. And now he figures the big picture—with detailed info on high taxes, expensive housing and healthcare, “and a school system that costs the most in the country but produces middling results”—might be helpful to others. Burgundy link goes to his explanation; here’s the dashboard.

It all started with Chunk… At first, it was man (Jeff) vs. groundhog. One groundhog, lots of half-eaten vegetables. What to do? Fight back, of course. But then Jeff set up cameras and a star was born. The critter, dubbed Chunk, had “so much swagger” that Jeff set up a website. Then: “I decided that I’m going to have to build them their own garden.” In his YouTube video, Jeff tells the story of the next seven years, documenting Chunk’s new family, setting up a mini picnic table, installing a water feature, and peacefully coexisting with Chunk and all the local wildlife. Thanks, JM!

Today's Wordbreak. With a word from yesterday’s Daybreak.

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HEADS UP
At Sunapee’s Abbott Library, “African American Soldiers and Sailors of New Hampshire During the American Revolution”. Independent scholar and author Glenn Knoblock, who was the main military contributor to Harvard and Oxford University's African American National Biography, will talk about the history of both free and enslaved African-American soldiers' service during the war, “including how and why they enlisted, their interaction with white soldiers, service on the battlefields, how they were perceived by the enemy and the officers under whom they served, and their treatment after the war.” 6 pm.

At the Howe Library, Dartmouth anthropologist Laura Ogden on “Darwin, Colonialism, and the Lost Tribes of the Fuegian Archipelago”. Ogden, who focuses on “understanding the politics of environmental change and conservation” and has spent decades studying southernmost Chile in work with ranchers, conservation organizations, and the Yagán Indigenous community, will talk about Darwin’s legacy there and how his depictions of Indigenous people there still shape the present. 6:30 pm in the Mayer Room and online.

The Children opens at Northern Stage. Lucy Kirkwood’s three-person drama centers around a pair of retired nuclear physicists whose peaceful lives in a remote coastal cottage (albeit in the wake of a local nuclear disaster) is upended when a former work colleague shows up. They share tangled personal and professional relationships, which slowly come to take center stage, along with the big issues they raise. Previews tonight thru Friday at 7:30 pm, opening night Saturday at 6:30 pm, runs through April 12.

And for today...

“Gypsy Jazz” guitarist Adrien Moignard, who taught himself to play and discovered the music of Django Reinhardt when he was 16, with fellow guitarists Benji Winterstein and Julien Cattiaux and bassist Fabricio Nicolas Garcia on Moignard’s “Yalo Swing”.

See you tomorrow.

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