Daybreak Wednesday 4/29/20

IT'S A PLEASURE TO SEE YOU, UPPER VALLEY!

We should not waste this day, okay? That high pressure we saw asserting itself yesterday has shifted to the east, and there's a low that's strengthening to our west. Here in the middle, we get plenty of sunshine and winds from the south bringing us a warm front. Which in practical terms means we should leave this morning's chilly temps pretty quickly, and eventually get up toward 60 this afternoon. Along with that low, clouds will approach late in the day, and there's a chance of rain overnight. And let's just take a look...

The NYT data team is out with a robust new set of graphs and metrics. It goes beyond the new case/death trends, to look at metro areas where the outbreak is worst now, places that are trending upward (cities in Iowa, Wisconsin, Arkansas...), where new cases are decreasing the most, and the metro areas that have been hit hardest overall. Down at the bottom you can go state by state, which lets you look, once you click into a state, at the case growth rate county by county.Miracle Mile, Claremont medical practices begin antibody testing. The ClearChoiceMD urgent care center in Leb and Keady Family Practice in Claremont are now offering serology testing for coronavirus antibodies, reports the VN's Nora Doyle-Burr. The tests are not completely accurate, and only determine whether someone has developed antibodies—not the extent of any immunity. So far, says ClearChoiceMD's CEO, the test has found just a "handful" of cases across its sites in NH, VT, and ME.Speaking of Nora Doyle-Burr... She's looking to talk to recovered Covid patients about their experiences. Contact info at the link if you're willing.Time to get Nikki Grimes that purple hair she thought was just a joke. Grimes is the executive director of the Upper Valley Humane Society, which like other area organizations has seen its revenues drop sharply—when the pandemic started, they moved most of their animals into foster homes as they could, meaning that adoptions aren't happening. Trying to think of a fun fundraiser, she laughingly suggested to the staff that she could dye her hair purple, the UVHS's "branded color." Now she's on the hook. Susan Apel has the whole story on her Artful blog."This pandemic for me kind of opened my eyes to see how much everything is intertwined." That's Greg Nalette, who owns Grandstand Apparel, the small WRJ company that makes sports tees and other paraphernalia for area teams. As you may remember, Grandstand is selling "Here for Good" t-shirts with half the proceeds going to the small business of the buyer's choice, and WCAX has a profile of Nalette and the business. Which he started after trying to pick up his AAU basketball team's uniforms a decade ago, only to discover they weren't ready.Will the Hanover Country Club reopen? It's all speculation, but the VN's Greg Fennell talks to several people who think it unlikely. The college, says assistant professional Dustin Ribolini, has “wanted to get rid of us for a couple of years. [Closing the course is] consistent with what Dartmouth has been doing and they may try to open next year, but I don’t foresee a situation where enough members would come back to make it worthwhile." Senior lecturer Charles Whelan thinks the siting of a new heating plant and a new college master plan may ultimately decide the club's fate. (VN sub reqd)Norwich lands new community nurse as UV effort expands. The nonprofit organization that's been looking to build on the model already in place in Thetford, Lyme, Lebanon, and other towns has announced its first hire. Mary Young, RN, will help town residents find health-related services in Vermont, connect with medical providers, and navigate the healthcare system. Right now she can be reached by phone or email (no link yet) 10 hours a week: 802.281.2722 or [email protected]. For a look at the wider Upper Valley effort, here's a recent VN story.SPONSORED: Looking for ways to "bend the curve" so we can all feel better? It’s not just the coronavirus we need to flatten. Rising carbon emissions have given the whole planet a fever. The good news is we’ve already got a vaccine for global warming: solar power! Norwich-based Solaflect Energy is making (socially-distanced) house calls for customers who want to remedy their carbon fever with backyard Solar Trackers. Solaflect believes the coronavirus will hasten demand for energy solutions that are safer, cleaner and closer to home: The prescription is affordable solar power and home battery storage.In case you were frustrated yesterday trying to figure out how to get access to today's Dartmouth "Community Conversation"... The college has now put up actual details: There's a phone number for call-ins at the link, and they'll update the page at 3:30 today to provide the broadcast link. Now, on top of the summer camps and fairs, comes this: Bike Week postponed. No June hordes of bikers on the roads headed to Laconia... The city council there voted on Monday to shift the event that draws hundreds of thousands of bikers and visitors to late August. And even then, Charlie St. Clair, executive director of the Laconia Motorcycle Week Association, tells WCAX, if the situation doesn't improve by early August, they may have to reassess."Public service note: You can NOT house-train a chicken." That word comes from Julie's Happy Hens, a family-owned egg operation in Mont Vernon, NH, in a long post on their FB page (thanks to the Granite Geek blog for the pointer). Farmers of all sorts who produce for mass distribution are suffering because "the pandemic is crippling the distribution and packaging parts of the supply chain." But direct-to-customer places like theirs "are doing the business they always dreamed of," they write. "We can’t make enough product." Oh, and yes, they're turning down the people calling who want to buy a hen.Chris Sununu talks reopening. In a conversation with NHPR's Rick Ganley yesterday, the NH guv said the state will re-open in phases because he wants to make sure "we don't open ourselves up to enticing folks from Massachusetts to come up here, spread the virus unintentionally, and create a bigger problem for ourselves in the long run." That may mean hospitals first, and things like hair salons that can let in only a few people at a time. He added that Vermont is "kind of catching up to where we already are... You know, they had a real epidemic issue with New Yorkers."Flaws in federal PPP program become obvious on the ground in NH. Bob Sanders of NH Business Review takes a look at the experience in the state: banks unable to get second-round loans approved because the SBA's system crashed; chains that applied for each of their locations in the first round, meaning that Zagg, which sells mobile accessories and has a kiosk at the Mall of New Hampshire, landed a $9.4 million loan despite over $500 million in revenues nationwide. Even so, NH banks were able to process 11,682 loans for businesses in the state.VT state colleges chancellor to resign. In a press release yesterday, Chancellor Jeb Spaulding said he plans to submit his resignation to the board of trustees tonight. Spaulding became the center of a firestorm of criticism and outrage last week after proposing to close three state college campuses, including the Vermont Technical College campus in Randolph. "I realize that a fresh perspective and new leadership is necessary to move the VSCS forward in its mission," he wrote. He's been chancellor for five years.VT hopes to test up to 10 percent of population to see if they’ve already had the virus. That's according to VTDigger reporter Katie Jickling, in a wide-ranging "Deeper Dig" conversation about her interview with state health commissioner Mark Levine. They talked about the mix of testing for illness and testing for antibodies that the state will need to carry out if it wants to contain any further Covid outbreaks as it re-opens. Even though VT is one of the few states with excess virus-testing capacity, Levine says widespread testing, especially of people with no symptoms, is unlikely. Ducks take advantage of police checkpoint. Okay, I admit it: I'm a sucker for this stuff, no matter how far afield. Police in Krasnodar, Russia, had set up a checkpoint to enforce restrictions on movement. Then this family of ducks decided to cross nearby, so the police—all wearing face masks, by the way—stopped traffic. Keep your eye on the left side of the screen. (Thanks, NS!) 

Army Corps looks to "isolate" CRREL drainage system that allowed oil leak. Engineers are starting to “evaluate the labyrinth of drains” that run under the Cold Regions lab in Hanover after a new boiler leaked oil over the weekend into a central line that carries groundwater used for refrigeration and air conditioning into the Connecticut. “A facility like the CRREL should never have floor drains connected directly to a surface water source,” Andy Fisk, director of the Connecticut River Conservancy, tells the VN's Tim Camerato. “That’s really surprising and problematic.” Leb family visitation center to stop serving NH families, remain open for Vermonters. Waypoint's supervised visitation center in Lebanon is one of three in New Hampshire that provides supervised visits for kids to see their non-custodial parents. Without state funding in NH, the centers have relied on charitable donations, but Waypoint had been hoping for state support this year; that hasn't come through, so it's closing its services to NH families. Vermont does provide funding, so the Leb center will remain open to families from that state.So just how do you make teriyaki venison meatballs? Well, New Hampshire's Wild Eats will tell you. Also, how to cook trout, groundhog, porcupine, beaver, bear, moose, and game birds, all thanks to the state's Dept. of Fish and Game. It's one of three NH-based cookbooks reviewed in NH Mag. There's also Black Trumpet: A Chef's Journey Through Eight New England Seasons (starts with early winter, ends with late fall), by the chef behind Portsmouth's Black Trumpet restaurant; and The Farmers Dinner: Over 150 Seasonal Recipes, by the chefs behind the farm-to-table Greenleaf, in Milford. "It's a wonder that the kids didn't play with it." That's Germaine Morse of Roxbury, VT, talking yesterday with VPR's Mitch Wertlieb about the old hockey stick that had been sitting for years in their crock-turned-umbrella-stand that's now been appraised at $3.5 million and is up for auction. Germaine and her husband, Gary, started looking into it a few years back, after she realized it looked a lot like an 1850s hockey stick that had sold for $4 million. It was made between the 1850s and 1870s, Seven Days' Sasha Goldstein writes, from a single branch of a hornbeam tree.  "Humans aren't good for much, but you sure know your condiments." That's Backpacker magazine's Ask-A-Bear columnist waxing rhapsodic about maple syrup in response to a question about whether bears eat it. Turns out that Lyme's Ben Kilham was once walking a pair of cubs through the sugar bush he also runs when they discovered sap leaking from a line. After he put them back in their enclosure, he reported, they bit a maple tree to get it to run sap.

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Let's launch this day in style: Jordi Savall, the viola da gamba virtuoso and his kids, Arianna and Ferran Savall, master musicians all,

from around 1550.

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