GOOD MORNING, UPPER VALLEY!
Um... But hey, at least we start out partly sunny today before rain becomes likely this afternoon, as low pressure sits overhead and a cold front comes through from the northwest. Otherwise it's going to be a decent day out there: with highs in the mid or upper 60s, lows tonight down around 50.One thing you can say about our recent weather: It makes for dramatic photos.
Here's a view down the Connecticut after a thunderstorm the other day, from Amanda DeRoy;
And here's Mt. Ascutney kissing a lowering bank of clouds, taken from across the river in Plainfield by Lissa Malloy.
Yesterday morning a bit after 7, the Ontario-based driver of a tractor-trailer hauling lumber took Exit 1 off the northbound highway too fast, lost control, jumped the median, went airborne, and then crashed into a ditch on the on-ramp side. The driver was uninjured, reports Eric Francis for Daybreak, but the recovery effort took about seven hours, as a crew from Hartford-based Sabil & Sons grappled with the lumber and the truck. Eric's story, including photos of both the crash site and the recovery efforts, is at the link.
Speaking of closed roads: Beavers shut down Route 4 in Orange, NH. Well, technically, it was flooding that caused the daylong closure, after a beaver dam inside a box culvert under the road caused rainwater to back up. Burgundy link goes to Dorothy Heinrichs' photo of the impromptu pond. According to WMUR, crews spent the day dismantling the dam to lower the water level; Route 4 reopened around 4 pm.Oh, right, and also speaking of closed roads... Today's the day that Lebanon shuts down a section of Court Street and the parking alongside Salt Hill Pub downtown to make way for outdoor seating at Three Tomatoes and Salt Hill. The closures will be in effect until mid-October, the city says. Details at the link.
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That school and others were placed on lockdown while police investigated. "After a thorough safety assessment, and with no injuries reported," the lockdown was lifted, the dept. says. "At this time there is no ongoing threat to public safety."Frank Sanville gets 24 years to life for wife's murder. A judge on Monday sentenced Sanville for the 2018 shooting of his wife, Wanda, in front of their South Royalton home. Delivering the sentence, reports John Lippman in the Valley News, Judge Heather Gray "emphasized that [Frank Sanville] 'made a conscious decision to take' Wanda Sanville’s life, an act itself that also 'forever changed the lives of the many family and friends of Wanda.'" At the time of the killing, Lippman notes, Sanville was fresh out of prison on furlough after being convicted of assaulting his wife; the killing put a spotlight on VT's parole team.SPONSORED: Great teachers and leaders are the heart of great schools. The Upper Valley Educators Institute is accepting applications from current and aspiring educators who want to work towards state licensure in teaching, school leadership, or literacy education. New cohorts start in August! Attend an information session or contact us to learn more. Sponsored by UVEI.A 12-year-old WWII spy—with a spirit on each shoulder. Somehow, Max—born in Germany and shipped off to London by his parents as Hitler takes power—comes to carry the short but mighty dybbuk of Yiddish folklore and a kobold, its German counterpart, around with him. But then, as Liza Bernard notes in this week's Enthusiasms, Adam Gidwitz's middle grade thriller Max in the House of Spies is both rooted in history and "plausibly fantastic." It's "an odd yet pleasing combination," she writes, as Max, desperate to get back to his parents and Germany, sets out to become a spy.May: “A charismatic month with blockbuster treasures.” So says the team at the VT Center for Ecostudies in their new Field Guide to May. Rather than looking down to catch a glimpse of pollinators on blooming flowers, look up into the trees, where you’ll find mining, cellophane, and mason bees abuzz in the blossoms. Blackpoll Warblers are arriving in numbers from South America, sticking to lower elevations this spring because the cool weather means food is scarce higher up. Also, how to spot—and report—signs of devastating diseases in the new leaves emerging on beech, pine, and ash trees."By far the greatest environmental achievement in the Upper Valley, ever." That's how Steve Taylor, who's been paying attention to such things for a long time, describes the cleanup of the Connecticut River in the VN. What Katharine Hepburn in 1965 called “the world’s most beautifully landscaped cesspool" was fed by raw sewage, commercial and industrial waste, dyes, chemicals, sawdust, manure... Then came the Clean Water Act, wastewater treatment plants, and new environmental laws. The result? "A river that today over much of its reaches is boatable, fishable and swimmable."In new study, Dartmouth team argues it can tie "climate liability" to individual companies. With court challenges to the make-polluters-pay approach pursued by Vermont and a handful of other states, it seems a fair bet that the study, led by geography prof Justin Mankin and postdoc Christopher Callahan, is going to get some air time. In The Dartmouth, Joy Utech asks the pair about their findings, which assert that from 1991 to 2020, the emissions of 111 fossil fuel companies cost the global economy an estimated $28 trillion. Here's more on the specifics from Dartmouth News's Morgan Kelly.NH becomes first state to establish a crypto reserve. That news came via a tweet from Gov. Kelly Ayotte yesterday: "Just signed a new law allowing our state to invest in cryptocurrency and precious metals." The measure, which passed the legislature a few days ago, allows the state treasurer to invest up to 5 percent of the state's public funds in precious metals and digital assets with a market cap of over $500 billion—which at the moment, notes Business Insider's Filip De Mott, means Bitcoin. Similar legislation has faltered in other states. The law takes effect in 60 days.Some specifics on where federal cuts to NH health funding will fall. The NH Fiscal Policy Institute has just taken a look at new federal data on the $81.3 million in public and behavioral health grants cancelled by the feds, reports the Globe's Amanda Gokee (no paywall). The cuts will particularly affect lab and testing capacity, vaccines and immunization, community mental health services and substance use prevention and treatment, and programs aimed at health disparities. With the state legislature unlikely to make up the funding, state officials are pursuing an administrative appeal, Gokee writes.A chance to stand up for the Upper Valley. Every year, Seven Days runs a "Seven Daysies" best of Vermont competition with winners chosen by readers. It's just announced the finalists, and given which side of the mountains the bulk of the state's population inhabits, let's just say they tend not to be from around here. But there are some: the Lake Morey Skating Trail, VINS, JAM, The Underground in Randolph, Ali T and Noah Kahan for best vocalist, Avi Salloway for best folk artist or group, Randolph's wit and grit for best trivia night, the Montshire and the American Precision Museum... Voting begins May 27 here.On a not-so-remote hike to Everest base camp: luxury hotels, a North Face outlet, and cappuccinos. A couple of decades ago, when Ben Ayers first hiked up there, the trail was pretty much as you’d expect: remote, dotted with villages and traders peddling daggers. Now, Ayers writes in Outside, a booming tourist industry has fostered art galleries and stores selling fake Crocs, “Nepal’s version of Aspen or Chamonix.” The hike itself hasn’t changed: The 40-mile journey from Lukla, in the Himalayan foothills, to base camp more than 8,000 feet above, takes 10 or 11 days, passing rhododendron forests and swaying suspension bridges. Ayers details the route.This week's Throughlines. Did you follow along above (or below)? Test your knowledge of today's Daybreak by finding words that connect to one another through items in today's newsletter.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.
Daybreak doesn't get to exist without your support. Help it stick around by hitting the maroon button:
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!
Hosted by Fare Forward, "
an intentionally ecumenical Christian review of ideas,"
Davis was
an Episcopal priest for 25 years and a boarding school chaplain/teacher for 33 years—during which time he also earned an MFA from the VT College of Fine Arts. He'll be reading from his 2024 collection,
On the Way to Putnam: New, Selected, & Early Poems
. 5 pm, open to the public.
This Vermont Humanities talk by poet and novelist Elizabeth A.I. Powell will look at Glück's poetry and its connections to both the people and landscapes that surrounded her. 6 pm, both in-person and livestreamed.
Arafat, who grew up in DC as the daughter of Arab immigrants, teaches creative writing at Barnard and was the keynote speaker last night for Dartmouth's Asian American Pacific Islander Heritage Month. Her 2021 novel follows a young Palestinian-American woman "caught between cultural, religious, and sexual identities." 7 pm.
Years in the making, with music and lyrics by composer and performer Tommy Crawford, book by theater and tv producer Jessica Kahkoska, and directed by Northern Stage's Sarah Wansley, the musical "follows eight farmers from sunrise to sunset as they work on the land we call home. Inspired by three years of interviews and featuring a talented cast of actor-musicians, this world premiere indie-folk musical offers a heart-forward, toe-tapping look into the real stories, passions, and hopes of farmers across Vermont." Previews 7:30 tonight, tomorrow, and Friday, formal opening Saturday at 6:30 pm.
And for today...
Let's check back in on Ghost Hounds, the Pittsburgh-based rock—and most recently country-rock—band fronted by magnetic singer SAVNT.
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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