Daybreak Wednesday 6/3/20

GOOD MORNING, UPPER VALLEY!

Mostly cloudy, getting warmer, chance of rain. But first: The weather folks write that "a series of impulses" will bring occasional chances of showers today; there's a technical definition, but don't you think that pretty much defines New England weather? Anyway, chance of rain all day but there may be some blue, too; winds from the west, and temps rising to the around 70. Only mid-50s tonight.Maybe they're just really into Verdi? Peter French was whistling while he headed up the outside stairs to his office in Norwich a couple of years ago when he noticed four tiny robin fledglings in a nest on the top step. They seemed to be responding "with rhythm and intensity," he reports. So he got out his iPhone and tried an experiment. "I considered rewarding them with a worm," he says, "but chose to leave that to mom." The robins are back, building their nest, which prompted him to send in the video. This year, Uptown Funk?Meanwhile, back here on the ground...

Salt Hill Pub closes Hanover location. Owners Josh and Joe Tuohy announced on Facebook yesterday that "given the well-documented challenges associated with COVID-19," they won't be reopening their pub there. They cited Dartmouth College Real Estate, their landlord, as being "patient and helpful throughout this uncertain time period," and say they'll try to hire Hanover staff at one of their locations in downtown Leb, W. Leb, Newport, or Newbury. This is the second major blow from a downtown Hanover food hub: Last month, of course, Morano Gelato announced it won't re-open.Cornish Fair, Quechee Balloon Festival cancelled. Cornish Fair organizers decided Monday night that "there were just too many open and unknown issues in order to have a fair this year,” fair Secretary Glenn Thornton said in a statement. All but three of NH's 11 agricultural fairs have cancelled, the VN's John Gregg reports. Yesterday, the Hartford Area Chamber of Commerce also made it official: Rather than postpone the balloon fest until September, as they'd initially tried to do, they're cancelling outright. "We believe it is not possible to run our event in a safe manner this year," said director PJ Skehan.Antibody tests overall have a 50/50 chance of being right, say D-H doc. Antonia Altomare, an infectious disease specialist and epidemiologist who's been one of the public faces of DHMC's coronavirus response, spoke yesterday to NHPR's Rick Ganley. It's hard to know what to make of antibody-test results right now, she told him, because they're wrong so often. Though research into whether the presence of antibodies signals immunity is advancing: "I would say that probably in the next week to month, we'll have a better sense of what that antibody presence means," she said.Thetford floats town forest as location for cell tower. As you know, townspeople are riled up by AT&T's proposal to put a 190-foot tower off Sawnee Bean Road in Thetford Ctr. “The town forest location is just under a mile back from Route 113, and there’s another small ridge or hill in front of it. It’s not nearly as visually impactful,” SB chair Nick Clark tells the VN's Anna Merriman. Town officials have asked AT&T to delay a hearing before the state Public Utilities Commission so the company's engineers can assess the idea.Lebanon Housing Authority floats affordable housing for Heater Road. The 44-unit apartment building would go up across from Leb High School's softball fields; housing officials pitched the idea to the city's Zoning Board Monday night. It would be aimed at retail and service workers. “We’re targeting these folks that really are the backbone of the community,” Ditha Alonso, the housing authority's director, tells the VN's Tim Camerato. “These are the folks that we get to enjoy when we go to our favorite restaurant and to shopping.”Manchester crowd gets unruly; at least 10 arrested. Earlier in the evening, a peaceful candlelight vigil organized by Black Lives Matter in memory of George Floyd drew some 700 people to Stark Park. Late last night, though, a different crowd gathered on South Willow Street and began launching fireworks into traffic and throwing things at police cars. Manchester police, firemen, state police, Nashua police, NH National Guard, and the FBI all showed up, and the crowd dispersed by about 1:30 this morning.The Black Lives Matter movement in NH. Today at 9 am and again at 7 pm, NHPR's The Exchange will talk to organizers about protests against brutal policing, the larger movement, and how they're navigating activism during the pandemic. Guests are Tyrell Whitted, one of the organizers of last weekend's Manchester rally, and James McKim, president of the Manchester NAACP.Meanwhile, at 1 pm... VPR's Vermont Edition will be taking up race, racism. anti-racism, and "ways Vermonters can support change amid a national crisis." Guests will include Xusana Davis, the state's first racial equity director; Erin Maguire, director of equity in the Essex school district; Tabitha Moore, director of the Rutland NAACP; Mark Hughes, a member of Burlington's police commission; and South Burlington social studies teacher Christie Nold.NH, VT fare okay in Save the Children study, but with real disparities. The global nonprofit yesterday released its first-ever rankings of US counties, looking at four measures "that cut childhood short": hunger, poor education, teenage pregnancy, and early death due to ill health, accident, murder, or suicide. Overall, the report notes that "one child can be exponentially more likely than another to succeed in life based solely on the county where they grow up." NH overall ranks 3rd in the country, with children in Grafton County best off and in Sullivan worst off. VT ranks 6th. Explore at the link.

“It’s a matter of weeks, not months.” That was Marc Sherman, owner of Stowe Mercantile, describing his cash flow in a Zoom press conference yesterday aimed at state legislators. The coalition of business people—restaurant owners, retailers, cheesemakers, and construction firms—that called the event is urging lawmakers to act quickly on Gov. Phil Scott's proposed $400 million in stimulus funding. “As we go into later June, I have no other source of funds to keep the business going,” Sherman said. “I can save 15 jobs supporting 15 families if I get funding quickly enough.” So how would you explain this one to your boss? VT state police on Monday responded to a report of an assault on an Agency of Transportation employee monitoring the state line down in Pownal. There, they learned that a passenger in a southbound car "threw an object out the window, later determined to be a large pickle, which struck the victim and caused him pain," according to the VSP press release. With help from Williamstown, MA police, troopers found the suspect, Christoph Herrmannsdoerfer, and issued a citation to appear in court in Bennington next month.“The local community basically took the opportunity to let every second homeowner know that their diseased New York entitled bodies were no longer welcome in the state." An Upper East Side consultant sheltering at her second home in Londonderry, VT (it's near Magic Mountain Ski Area) told the NY Post, in a story about NYers being shunned all over, that she was afraid to leave her house over the Memorial Day weekend after a friend told her that a hostile resident openly carried a pistol around town.“There are a lot of pissed-off people — I’m afraid of these people,” she said. VT Senate approves bill to remove governor from mail-in ballot decision. On a largely party-line vote, senators gave the authority for expanding mail-in voting during the pandemic exclusively to Secy of State Jim Condos. Under Condos' plan, all registered voters would receive mail-in ballots, though they could still opt to vote in person. Republicans and one Democrat argued that given current absentee-ballot rules, the measure is unnecessary. It would “let loose potentially 300,000 to 500,000 live ballots and expect it all to work perfectly," said Senate Minority Leader Joe Benning.And now, on top of everything else... Remember that Outside/In podcast a couple of weeks ago about coronal mass ejections and how they could knock out satellites and potentially the electrical grid? So ahem. The sun's been quiet of late, but scientists on May 29 spotted the most powerful solar flare in three years, and they're wondering if it signals the start of a new active cycle. It'll be a while before we know for sure, though... if our devices are working at all.

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