A PLEASURE TO SEE YOU, UPPER VALLEY!
Probably rain, possibly thunder, maybe snow. Not really the whole nine yards, but close enough. There's a warm front ahead of some low pressure systems coming through, followed by a cold front. The upshot: any early snow changing to a showery, brisk day, highs only in the high 40s, winds from the south, afternoon chance of thunder. There will probably be snow during the day to the north and at higher elevations, but lower down it likely won't show up until sometime before midnight. Low around 30.In different light:
The clouds were rose-tinged, the sky bright blue, and the water calm and mirror-like early yesterday morning when Lyme's Jay Davis stopped by Post Pond.
And this barn in W. Fairlee was bright red on Monday afternoon when John Pietkiewicz caught it, as he's done repeatedly over the years. "I keep an eye on the sky in this region and then race on over to capture the bucolic scene," he writes.
DHMC launches first program in northern New England for Covid-19 "long-haulers." The effort, led by infectious disease specialist Dr. Jeffrey Parsonnet, brings together 10 D-H docs from different disciplines to work with people who still have Covid symptoms—from shortness of breath to fatigue and brain fog—more than 12 weeks after their initial infection. The syndrome, whose causes are unknown, shows up in 10-30 percent of Covid patients. "This virus will continue to present issues for years to come—and we’re already seeing it in many of our post-COVID-19 patients," says Parsonnet.Northern Stage, Jim Kenyon exchange words.
On Sunday, Valley News columnist Jim Kenyon published a piece on Northern Stage's purchase of a couple of houses near the theater to use for housing staff and visiting artists and crew. "I know it sounds out of character for the professional theater company...to be playing the bad guy. But I can’t put it any other way," he wrote, panning it for requiring three tenants of those buildings to move out without telling them that during the pandemic, "tenants can’t be forced to move." The company "could have spelled out the tenants’ right to stay put during the pandemic," he contended.
On Monday, the theater responded with a letter to the "Northern Stage community" from artistic and managing directors Carol Dunne and Irene Green, and in a letter to the VN from board chair David Grant. Kenyon "told a story that tried to paint a picture of Northern Stage as a bullying institution rather than the mission driven organization that it is," Dunne and Green's letter began. One tenant wasn't theirs, they wrote, and "we did not know the depth of her distress." In the other cases, they offered to help through the transition. "Did we try to do our best? Yes. Was the entire community good the goal of these purchases? Yes, absolutely. Can we do better? Always," they concluded. More at all the links.
So do Norwich Planning Commission, Chris Katucki. On Monday, Katucki noted on his Norwich Observer blog that the commission has opted to study extending sewer lines into its downtown, but that its approach "might undermine" school district efforts to solve a persistent septic issue on the green. Yesterday, commission chair Melissa Horwitz responded that Katucki's post "contains factual errors and is misleading." Katucki replied last night in detail, standing by his post and his contention that the commission's approach "may be at cross-purposes" with the school district. Full exchange at the link.SPONSORED: Make a Difference with Willing Hands. Nearly 1,000 Upper Valley community members have supported the Campaign for Willing Hands, an effort to build the infrastructure and staffing necessary to glean, grow, and recover more fresh food for local food shelves. This spring, we invite you to join us in finishing the Campaign strong. If we raise $80,000, a generous donor will contribute an additional $40,000 so that together, we can move mountains (of squash, apples, and lots of other healthy food)! Sponsored by Willing Hands.Dartmouth launches gender-equity review of inter-collegiate sports programs. In the wake of the controversy over the college's cancellation and reinstatement of five varsity sports teams, it has commissioned three studies of its programs, President Phil Hanlon and Athletic Director Peter Roby announced Monday. The gender-equity review will be carried out by attorneys with expertise in Title IX compliance from the firm Holland & Knight. In addition, the Ivy League will do an NCAA compliance review, and the accounting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers will review internal processes and controls."Some people are like, 'Well, we're not going to be alive to see it.' And we're like, well, it's my future. I should decide what's good for our future." That's nine-year-old Azalea Morgan of Andover, NH, talking to NHPR's Annie Ropeik about climate activism among kids and young people. She and her sister biked to the 2019 climate summit in NYC (with their mom) and started a group at school that's raised money for solar panels. Ropeik also talks to Hanover's Lydia Hansberry, 15, who's joined up with the climate action group 350NH. "Like, how can we be so careless with our home?" she says."Wow! We can fix the roof now!" In the span of a week, Dartmouth English prof Joshua Bennett won two high-profile honors: a Guggenheim fellowship (along with Dartmouth colleagues Alexander Chee and Tarek El-Ariss) and, a few days later, a Whiting Award, given to 10 emerging authors. "I’ve been a poet for as long as I can remember," he tells the Boston Globe's Kate Tuttle. "My mom still has my poems when I was 4 years old, in a shoebox under the bed in our house in Yonkers, New York." Bennett plans to take the year off to work on a cultural history of spoken-word poetry. (Possible paywall.)Dartmouth engineering startup lands $225K grant for "smart" physical therapy band. The money comes from the National Institute on Aging and it goes to a team of medical and engineering researchers at the college whose company, SynchroHealth, aims to bridge the "disconnect" between what docs and physical therapists think their patients are doing at home, and what they're actually doing. The Bluetooth-enabled band is used to help providers work with people over 60 who are losing muscle mass and strength. If it's successful, they plan to expand to athletic rehab and general strength training.“I think a lot of people are looking for the state with the least restrictions." NH's tourism market is expected to end 2021 at pre-pandemic levels, writes New Hampshire Bulletin's Annmarie Timmins, in part because, as the president of the state lodging and restaurant association suggests in that quote, people from elsewhere are responding to the message that things are looser there. Each month, rooms and meals tax collections are going up, and bigger venues, feeling more confident, are announcing summer schedules. "I think this is going to be a very, very busy year," says one tavern owner.NH's court diversion program "largely inconsistent," offers unequal access. In a multi-part series, the NH News Collaborative looks at the state's restorative justice efforts. Some 43 percent of offenders re-offend after their release from prison, writes Jordyn Haime, "a rate 15 percent higher than those who completed a restorative justice program in Belknap county." But lack of funding has "led to constant shifts and changes to where and how diversion is accessible to adults," Haime reports, while inconsistent county approaches could mean a criminal record in one and a second chance in another.Not all is cordial in maple-ville. Producers in northern VT, reports Peter Gregg in The Maple News, are sitting on thousands of barrels of this year's syrup as they hold out for higher prices. “The packers had their best year ever, they sold 25 percent more than they ever sold,” says Highgate sugarer Jason Gagne. “But the producers have taken it on the chin the last two seasons.” The bulk packers let sugarmakers earn money quickly, which is why not every maple farmer is on board with the effort to keep syrup off the market. “If they don’t like the price they can jug it up themselves,” says one.VT cases dropping, led by 20-29 year-olds. Overall, reports Erin Petenko in VTDigger, cases have fallen 24 percent in the past week, with the biggest drops coming among people ages 20 to 29, followed by those 10 to 19. Even so, their case rates remain higher than the general population's. About 40 percent of people 16-29 have registered for the vaccine so far, after becoming eligible recently. Census data suggest that Vermonters lead the country in the percentage who say they will probably get vaccinated, finance commissioner Mike Pieciak told a press conference yesterday.66 miles, 26,600 feet in elevation, 8 mountain passes, skis, crampons, ice axes...and one rappel. In 26 hours, 21 minutes. Hillary Gerardi, who grew up in St. J and now lives outside Chamonix, France, is a skyrunner: "If you have to use your hands and scramble a bit at some point, then it's skyrunning instead of trail running," she tells VPR's Mitch Wertlieb. Gerardi and her French Army-doctor mountaineering companion, Valentine Fabre, recently became the first women to complete the route from Chamonix to Zermatt, Switzerland, in one go. She and Wertlieb talk over what it took.What if, on a day like today, you could just open up a window to someplace sunnier? You can, actually. Sort of. WindowSwap takes you, virtually, to the view out the windows of people all over the globe. It's the pandemic project of a couple in Singapore, filled with 10-minute videos submitted by anyone who wants to. Note: There's no link under the maroon type because the site can't handle Mailchimp's tracking code, so just copy and paste https://www.window-swap.com/Window into your browser; when you're tired of the view, hit the "Open a new window somewhere in the world" button.
And the numbers...
Dartmouth has 6 active cases among students (down 1), with 2 among faculty/staff (down 1). There are 14 students and 2 faculty/staff in quarantine because of travel or exposure, while 6 students and 10 faculty/staff are in isolation awaiting results or because they tested positive.
NH reported 285 new cases yesterday for a cumulative total of 92,053. There was 1 new death, bringing the total to 1,271, while 129 people with confirmed cases are hospitalized (down 4). The current active caseload stands at 3,159 (down 170). The state reports 187 active cases in Grafton County (down 32), 60 in Sullivan (down 8), and 266 in Merrimack (down 4). In town-by-town numbers, the state says Claremont has 24 active cases (down 1), Haverhill has 20 (down 8), Newport has 14 (down 4), Lebanon has 9 (down 3), Hanover has 9 (down 2), Sunapee has 8 (no change), Charlestown has 6 (down 1), Newbury has 6 (no change), Enfield has 5 (down 1), and Piermont has 5 (no change). Orford, Wentworth, Rumney, Lyme, Dorchester, Canaan, Orange, Grafton, Grantham, Springfield, and Croydon have 1-4 each. New London is off the list.
VT had no numbers to report yesterday, as the health department worked on updating its Covid data system.
News that connects you. If you like Daybreak and want to help it keep going, here's how:
Today at 12:30, Dartmouth's Rockefeller Center and Harvard's Mahindra Humanities Center co-host a panel on building a multiracial democracy in the American West. A diverse range of panelists will talk about "the future of community building across lines of racial difference." They include Arizona state Rep. Charlene Fernandez, Las Vegas organizer Laura Martin, IllumiNative founder Crystal Echo Hawk, South LA-based community nonprofit exec Corey Matthews, and Harvard environmental historian Daniel Grant.
This evening at 7, the Fairbanks Museum hosts UVM prof and Vermont State Climatologist Lesley-Ann Dupigny-Giroux. She'll be talking about how climate change is affecting the state and its people.
Also at 7, Science Café-NH delves into the nitty-gritty of heat pumps, taking a look at how they work, how they work in a cold climate like NH (or VT), how technological advances have made them more effective—and what it takes to put one in your home. Panelists include an HVAC contractor, an HVAC manufacturer's sales engineer, and a researcher at Minnesota's Center for Energy and Environment. Via Facebook and YouTube.
Also at 7, Vermont Humanities presents a forum on "Re-Imagining Policing and Public Safety in Vermont." The Rev. Dr. Arnold Isidore Thomas, pastor of Good Shepherd Lutheran Church in Jericho, VT, moderates a panel discussion with Lt. Robert Lucas, Commander of the Williston State Police Barracks; Maroni Minter, campaign director for the VT ACLU; and Capt. Garry Scott, who directs the VT State Police's Fair and Impartial Policing efforts.
And just in case you want to get away from it all, you've got two opportunities... also at 7. First, the VT Center for Ecostudies offers "Birds of Southeast Arizona: a virtual tour." The "unique habitats in this corner of the Desert Southwest host an extraordinary variety of avian life," VCE writes, and Boston-area birder, photographer, and field-trip leader Jared Keyes will host a multimedia tour of the region's ecosystems and bird life.
And Gibson's bookstore in Concord is hosting author Sara Dykman talking about her new book, Bicycling with Butterflies: My 10,201-Mile Journey Following the Monarch Migration. Which pretty much explains it: Dykman rode solo alongside monarchs as they made their migration from Mexico to Canada and back, navigating the roads, searching ditches for milkweed, and always stopping along the way to talk to people about what she was doing and why.
Finally, at 8 pm the Hop offers up a virtual performance by 16 Dartmouth soloists—on flute, sax, cello, clarinet, French horn, and other instruments—as they performed 3-5 minute pieces as part of the Culley Concerto Competition. Excerpts from each student's work, and full performances by the winners.
Hania Rani grew up in Gdansk, Poland, studied classical piano for years in Warsaw and Berlin, and eventually began composing her own work. She came to international attention in 2019 with her first album and cemented it last year with her second,
Home,
about the places that become home by chance and by choice. She's been friends since childhood with cellist Dobrawa Czocher—also classically trained, also musically adventurous.
in a setting that may seem familiar to anyone who's spent time in Eastern Europe.
See you tomorrow.
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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