GOOD MORNING, UPPER VALLEY!
Sunny, pleasant. High pressure continues to build in, though some clouds may linger to the northeast, thanks to a spit of low pressure up north. Mostly, though, we should see blue skies all day, temps getting into the low or mid 60s, breezes from the northwest. Mostly clear tonight, too, with lows in the upper 30s.A brand new fox family. Video of a mom and her kits in Grantham, from Kristina Nash.Claremont City Council votes, unanimously, to fire city manager. The 9-0 vote on Yoshi Manale came at a Monday-night executive session, reports Patrick O'Grady in the Valley News. The council cited four issues: "honesty, lack of information in council packets, lack of follow-up communication with the council, and lack of departmental control and accountability." Manale was hired in the fall of 2022, and his eventual replacement will become Claremont's fourth city manager since long-timer Guy Santagate left in 2016. O'Grady recaps the specific complaints in a statement released by the council.NH Supreme Court turns down Tulloch resentencing case. In what is essentially a victory for prosecutors, the justices have declined to weigh in on constitutional questions related to a resentencing bid by Tulloch, who is serving two life sentences for the 2001 murders of Half and Suzanne Zantop in Etna. Grafton Superior Court Judge Leonard MacLeod had asked them to rule on a defense argument that in this case, sentences without the possibility of parole were unconstitutional. Now, reports Jonathan Phelps in the Union Leader, the justices have ordered the lower court to rule before resentencing.Dartmouth announces that Sandra Oh will be its commencement speaker. The star or co-star of Grey's Anatomy, Killing Eve, The Chair, and other shows will take the graduation stage June 15, the college said in a press release yesterday. “I will finally fulfill my parents’ dream of me getting a(n honorary) university degree. I am the last in my family to do so, so phew,” Oh said. The Canadian-born daughter of Korean immigrants, she follows by 11 years the Dartmouth commencement speech by Shonda Rhimes, who cast her in Grey's. The college will announce other honorary degree recipients "soon," it says.SPONSORED: Eat what you love, because cooking ought to be fun. Join Sweetland Farm’s CSA and bring joy back to the kitchen! Our new choice-based CSA model gets you all the veggies you love. High summer crops in June without the fossil fuel guilt, thanks to our state-of-the-art biomass heated greenhouses. 32 weeks of the freshest veggies and fruits, plus recipes, extensive pick-your-own gardens, multiple pickup locations, and a store-wide discount in our full-diet farm stand. We’d love to be your farmers! Sponsored by Sweetland Farm.Tomorrow, Lebanon volunteers will create a new playground. Actually, it's a replacement for the play structure that used to anchor Civic Memorial Park on Seminary Hill but was dismantled for safety reasons in 2022. Now, reports Clare Shanahan in the VN, after raising over $200K, the Friends of Lebanon Recreation, Arts and Parks, along with the Rotary, are organizing the effort to install the new structure, with its bucket-swings, seated merry-go-round, bridge "with different pieces to climb," and slide. The "build" lasts from 8 am to 4 pm tomorrow, and you can email Rec & Parks director Paul Coats to join.Federal judge in Concord extends order letting Dartmouth student stay. You may remember that earlier this month, the college discovered that grad student Xiaotian Liu's student status had been revoked and he needed to return to China. In court yesterday, Judge Samantha Elliott called federal lawyers' arguments in the case "a bit Kafkaesque," reports NH Bulletin's Ethan DeWitt, as they said Liu’s entry visa has not been revoked and his F-1 student status is still active—but that his Homeland Security database entry has been deleted. Elliott extended a restraining order until Friday as she works on a decision.SPONSORED: Experience the power of arts education at LOH April 26. Join New England School of the Arts for Follow Your Art, a benefit concert April 26 at 7PM at the Lebanon Opera House. This moving performance honors beloved Ray School music teacher Becky Luce and features talented local performers including Arlo Philip, Julie Ness, and Broadway’s Kevin David Thomas. Enjoy a night of inspiring music and support scholarships and student programming at NESA. Silent auction includes signed Noah Kahan merch and a weekend getaway! Tickets here or at the burgundy link. Sponsored by NESA.The people behind the NH voices in your ear. It turns out that the state has a lot of podcasters, a decent number with national and international audiences. So in the new issue of New Hampshire mag, Kara McGrath introduces some of them. There's the team at Something Wild; the Dungeons & Dragons players at Knights of Roleplay; Ali Feller and her incredibly popular running podcast, Ali on the Run; Kim Varney Chandler's Covered Bridges of New Hampshire, which is about exactly what it says; the talented journalists behind NHPR's Document team, and more. McGrath talks to them all about what they do and why.With new hosts, more news and talk, and a range of views, WDEV revamps under new ownership. In VTDigger, Habib Sabet takes stock of the only-in-Vermont community radio station and its presence in central VT since its longtime owners, the Squier family, sold last year to Myers Mermel and two partners. Mermel, a former GOP candidate for US Senate, has brought in former Lt. Gov. David Zuckerman (a progressive) and Ross Connolly of the conservative/libertarian group Americans for Prosperity as hosts, amid other changes. Habib describes all the shifts and the controversy they've caused.VT legislature passes measure to erase medical debt. The measure, which now heads to Gov. Phil Scott's desk, "would use $1 million in funds appropriated to the Treasurer’s Office to erase $100 million in Vermonters’ medical debt," reports VTDigger's Peter D'Auria. It would also bar credit reporting agencies from using Vermonters’ medical debt when determining credit scores. “With medical debt, it often happens to you when you have no control,” state Treasurer Mike Pieciak told legislators in touting the bill.As Switchback launches a non-alc beer, a lesson in why it's so tough for VT breweries to make. Craft breweries in the state have been late to the game, writes Jordan Barry in Seven Days, with Switchback's new offering just the second to appear. What's most intriguing about Barry's piece is what it took for Switchback president Bill Cherry to get the taste he wanted: ultimately, a Colorado company with a highly proprietary process (Cherry's signed an NDA). Their closest setup is in Toronto, but Cherry's worried about tariffs and if the beer's a success, might take the multimillion-dollar plunge to buy a rig.In space, a blend of science and art. Astronaut/photographer Don Pettit has an extraordinary talent for both, and 220 days on the International Space Station yielded a gallery of masterpieces: Magellanic Clouds, galaxies, the Milky Way, satellites, and zodiacal light in astonishing colors. For PetaPixel, Matt Growcoot highlights a few mesmerizing photos from Pettit’s six months in orbit. At 70, he’s the oldest astronaut still flying; on his latest mission, the ISS circled the Earth 3,520 times, presenting him with the haunting green glow of Thai fishing boats and the aura of a New Year’s Day.This week's Throughlines. Did you follow along above? Test your memory (or reading ability) with a simple grid of 16 words.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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Daybreak tote bags! Thanks to a helpful reader's suggestion. Plus, of course, the usual: sweatshirts, head-warming beanies, t-shirts, long-sleeved tees, the Daybreak jigsaw, those perfect hand-fitting coffee/tea mugs, and as always, "We Make Our Own Fun" t-shirts and tote bags for proud Upper Valleyites. Check it all out at the link!
Former Washington Post editor David Herszenhorn on "From Dartmouth to Donbas: Stories From the Front Lines in the Global Fight for Democracy and Decency."
Herszenhorn, who among other things oversaw the paper's coverage of the war in Ukraine and wartime Russia (and back in his college days was editor in chief of
The Dartmouth
) will talk about it all thanks to the Rockefeller and Dickey centers. 5 pm in Filene Auditorium and online.
This is the last one there for a bit, as the venerable bar will close while it transitions to new ownership. Organizer Jakob Breitbach writes that the jam will move around the corner to the Vermont Room in the Coolidge after this, "6pm~8pm EVERY Wednesday until its inevitable return to THE FILLY! Rest assured, the Jams will continue, and your favorite towny bar will reemerge better than ever!"
The Etna Library hosts Erin E. Moulton, author of a book by the same title, for a NH Humanities talk about what cemetery iconography, abbreviations, epitaphs, and more can tell you. 6:30 pm.
The power of going viral...
About 15 months ago, French pianist Emil Reinert was noodling at a public piano when a girl approached him and asked if he knew Barbara Pravi's "Voilà" and whether she could sing along as he played. He did, they did, and Reinert—who's amassed a YouTube following for his public-piano interactions with audience members—uploaded it to his channel. As it turned out, the girl—who goes by Lucie—had competed in
The Voice Kids France
in 2023, singing "Voilà" in the finals, so she wasn't exactly new to the song. But the video enchanted millions, went viral, and she and Reinert joined forces. Now Reinert, who goes by Emilio Piano online,
.
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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