GOOD MORNING, UPPER VALLEY!
Partly sunny to start, wintry mix late. There's a messy weather system headed our way, but it's not due to start arriving until later this afternoon; before then, we get a mix of sun and clouds, with temps climbing toward the mid 40s. Once it does arrive, it most likely starts as rain then tosses in snow, sleet, and freezing rain overnight, before turning to rain again tomorrow. Tonight's weather could produce a light glaze to a fraction of an inch of ice, so roadways may be slick tomorrow first thing, and there could be some outages.So these ice photos from the weekend don't seem out of keeping at all! Though it's unlikely we'll see such extensive ice tonight.
"I can’t decide if the birches look like feathers or clouds," writes Nancie Severs from Lebanon. "Whichever, it was an otherworldly ice day!"
"I was out running Sunday morning and came across a live downed power line, sizzling away in the ice/slush," writes Jim Smith from Norwich. "And yes, I was using zoom [for this video], but I was probably closer than I should have been." He went back yesterday morning and discovered that some of the sand had turned to glass from the intense heat.
Here's what you can only call an ice tangle in Etna, from Lisa Silbert.
And finally, a sleet-bedraggled goldfinch in Hanover, from Doug Donaldson.
DHMC opening new adolescent psychiatry unit. The six-bed unit will take patients ages 12 to 17 with everything from depression to bipolar disorder—and, because of its location at DHMC, will be able to handle additional medical needs like diabetes as well, reports WCAX's Adam Sullivan. “We obviously don’t want to take kids out of behavior health treatment, move them to a hospital, then bring them back. So for us here, we are going to be able to manage both,” says DHMC’s Lorene Zammuto. The unit opens Monday.CT River hydro dams up for recertification. You can weigh in. The Wilder Dam, along with the Bellows Falls Dam and the Vernon Dam are all owned by Great River Hydro, and as NHPR's Mara Hoplamazian notes, they need water quality certifications from NH's Department of Environmental Services aimed at protecting water for recreation and wildlife. The certifications outline how dams can operate, require them to create management plans for invasive plant species, and more. NH DES is taking public comment until April 11. You can find the Wilder Dam info and instructions for submitting comments here.SPONSORED: Ever heard Sardinian folk music? Cantu a tenore, known for its guttural singing and rhythmic precision, has been declared a UNESCO Masterpiece. Tenores de Aterúe, a New England-based quartet, is the only group outside Sardinia dedicated to this rich musical tradition. See them live thanks to the Hop on April 29 and get transported to the heart of the ancient Mediterranean island. Get tickets today at the burgundy link or here! Sponsored by the Hopkins Center for the Arts at Dartmouth.What if the 1910 American Hippo Bill had actually passed? That was a real piece of legislation aimed at boosting hippo farming along the Gulf Coast. It didn't pass (by a single vote), but in Sarah Gailey's American Hippo—two novellas—it did. And, of course, the hippos have turned feral. The result, writes Still North Books' H Rooker in this week's Enthusiasms, is "a delightfully silly adventure story that I adore," which follows "a group of hippo-cowboys" on those adventures. "If you love a caper story, morally grey characters, and creative adventuring," H writes, "this is the book for you."“Don’t delay; now is the time to go woodcocking!” The birds are arriving back in VT from the south, writes the team at the Vermont Center for Ecostudies in their Field Guide to April. Male woodcocks put on a show, sky dancing at up to 300 feet in the air, wind whistling through wing feathers. Other reasons to get out in the mud: a variety of frogs, starting with wood frogs and their “raspy quack” in March. Also bumble bees, moths, and spring ephemeral wildflowers, which “sprout from the ground early, bloom fast, and then go to seed—all before the canopy trees leaf out overhead.”With the arrival of skunk cabbage, spring is here and so are black bears. At least, that's what Mary Holland writes on her latest Naturally Curious post. Turns out, while most animals avoid the Northeast's first flowering springtime plant (Canada geese and squirrels are also exceptions), black bears are big fans. According to a Canadian research project, she writes, even if there's a plentiful supply of acorns left over from the fall, "more than half a Black Bear’s diet consist[s] of Skunk Cabbage"—even though acorns have much more fat.
SPONSORED: Join the New Hampshire Academy of Science for authentic research experiences! Our 3-week Applied Scientific Research is an intensive program for students entering grades 8-12 to conduct authentic, advanced research under the mentorship of PhD faculty at our STEM Center in Lyme in biology, tissue culture, chemistry, computer science, and engineering. There are no residency or academic requirements for our programs. Need-based financial aid is available at registration. Register soon, as spots are filling fast! Visitors welcome by appointment. Sponsored by NHAS.Concord police arrest three for vandalism of Satanic Temple holiday display. You probably remember the repeated instances of vandalism directed at the statue of a goat-headed deity, Baphomet, outside the NH State House last December. Last week, reports the Monitor's Sruthi Gopalakrishnan, city police charged three men—two from Concord, one from Weare—with misdemeanor counts of criminal mischief in the case. All three are out on personal recognizance and will be arraigned at the end of April.NH county jail superintendent charged with wildlife poaching. After an eight-month investigation by NH Fish & Game, reports NHPR's Todd Bookman, Merrimack County corrections Supt. Travis Cushman, of Gilmanton, was arrested March 25 on charges of illegal baiting and night hunting; he's been placed on leave. According to court paperwork, Bookman reports, authorities say Cushman illegally hunted deer outside of approved hours in November, 2023. He faces a series of misdemeanor and "violation-level" charges.In NH, cutting business taxes has led to between $795 million and $1.17 billion less in state revenues. That's the conclusion of a report released yesterday by the NH Fiscal Policy Institute, and as Amanda Gokee writes in the Globe's Morning Report newsletter, it contradicts a popular argument among legislators that cutting business taxes boosts the economy and, hence, revenues. “The research clearly shows that business tax rate reductions did not generate enough economic activity to offset the revenue shortfalls they generated,” says Phil Sletten, NHFPI's research director. Full study here.In NH legislature, a bill moves forward to study leaving the regional electric grid operator. ISO-New England manages the high-voltage lines that bring electricity to the six New England states—and operates a wholesale electricity marketplace. Now, however, GOP legislators want to know whether the costs of relying on the grid operator outweigh the benefits, reports NHPR's Mara Hoplamazian, and a bill to study the issue has passed the House and is currently in the Senate. Backers also argue that NH ratepayers have taken a hit for "outrageous climate bills" passed in other states."It's not that...there will be no food in schools. It's just Tyson will have 100 percent of the contracts." Up until early March, VT's farmers were gearing up to expand contracts with schools, thanks to a federal grant program helping school cafeterias source locally grown meat and vegetables. But that program has been cut by USDA—even as, ten days later, Ag Secy. Brooke Rollins announced $10 billion in aid to farmers of commodity grains, cotton, legumes and oilseeds. In Seven Days, Melissa Pasanen explores the "serious threat [it all poses] to the momentum of Vermont's vibrant local foods movement."A VT public education bright spot: career and tech centers. Overall high school enrollment in the state may just be bumping along, but VT Public's Lola Duffort reports that many of the state's 17 career and technical education centers "are beating the odds—and seeing an increase in applicants." In fact, several have had so many applicants for relatively few spaces that, as Duffort puts it, getting into one central VT automotive program "is now more competitive than receiving admission" to UVM. One big issue: Finding teachers, who can make more money practicing their trades than teaching them.As spring arrives, what's ahead in VT. On her Happy Vermont blog, Erica Houskeeper notes that Billings' opening day is on Friday (and the Baby Farm Animal Celebration is April 26-27), Simon Pearce is opening a new store in Stowe, VINS' Owl Festival is April 26, Mad River Glen's got pond skimming April 12... And her monthly VT-town spotlight is Norwich, with shout-outs to Dan & Whit's, King Arthur and Norwich Knits, the town's 63 miles of dirt roads, and its ghost hamlets of Lewiston and Pattersonville, which grew around a sawmill on the Ompompanoosuc (scroll to p. 6)."It's like he undoes gravity." Fair to say that figure-skating great and NBC commentator Tara Lipinski was impressed by Ilya Malinin's winning skate at the world championships in Boston Saturday: He landed six quads—a flip, axel (the only guy who's ever done one), lutz, loop, toe loop and salchow. But he wasn't the only American skater to come out on top: earlier that day, Madison Chock and Evan Bates won the dance title, and the evening before, Alysa Liu won the women's competition—despite retiring at age 16 three years ago. Just for a dose of awe, here are all three free skates: Malinin; Liu; and Chock and Bates.This week's Throughlines. It's back!!! The game starts with a grid of 16 words. Your job is to link three different sets of four words, each set connected to a different item in today's Daybreak. But beware: those extra four words are decoys, so don't get faked out.The Wednesday Wordbreak. With a word from yesterday's Daybreak. If you're new to Daybreak, this is a puzzle along the lines of the NYT's Wordle—only different, because it's not just some random word snatched out of the ether, but a word that actually appeared here yesterday.
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For the first time since the pandemic, Book Buzz returns to Norwich's Marion Cross School. You may be familiar with "Pages in the Pub", the library fundraiser in which a panel of luminaries offers up reading suggestions. This is the kids' version: 4th, 5th, and 6th grade students (along with the Norwich Bookstore's Emma Kaas, children's librarian Erin Davison, and Marion Cross teachers Becky French and Mike Janerico), present 90-second reviews of their favorite books to read and recommend. It's open to the entire Upper Valley, and the Norwich Bookstore will have the books available to buy, with a portion of the proceeds donated to the school. Admission is free. 5:30 pm in the MCS multi-purpose room (enter through the main doors). (No link.)
A day after massive layoffs at his former employer, Dr. Martin Cedron, a physician and epidemiologist who was director of Global Migration and Quarantine at the CDC when he retired in 2022, will talk about how the CDC has handled public health emergencies in the past, from anthrax bioterrorism and the Japan tsunami radiation emergency to MPox, Zika, and Covid. 7 pm in the Draper Room.
One two three one two three...
The Finnish folk band Frigg was at Woodstock Town Hall last month, and though it's impossible to do a concert that's nothing but standouts, they came pretty darn close. So just to help send you in the day with some spring in your step, here's one of them:
Oh, and yes: that "Cotton Exchange" item in yesterday's Daybreak from El Paso? It was April 1. Be on guard next year!
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.
The Enthusiasms Archives. A list of book recommendations by Daybreak's rotating crew of local booksellers, writers, and librarians who think you should read. this. book. now!
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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