Daybreak Wednesday, 8/19/26

Mostly sunny, into the 80s. We’ll have the usual end-of-summer fog to start and a comfortable day thanks to dry air aloft and high pressure to our south that’s keeping higher heat and humidity from barging in. Highs today in the low 80s, more sun than clouds, a very faint chance of showers in some areas late this afternoon as a decaying cold front whisps in from the northwest. Lows tonight in the upper 50s.

Wait, that’s not what we meant! Ever since the pandemic, Dan & Whit’s in Norwich has sported a “Wall of Kindness” where people could leave coats, hats, and other clothing that people might need. Just before Daybreak’s break, Jack Kruse came on a scene that… well, as he puts it, was a “mismatch.”

Coming Monday: Metered parking in WRJ. “The downtown parking meters installed late last year are set to power up on Aug. 24,” reports Sofia Langlois in the Valley News. As you probably remember, Hartford is aiming to keep people from parking all day in front of businesses—mostly on North and South Main streets—and to make it easier for visitors to find parking around the core downtown block. The cost will be $1 an hour, and Hartford police will enforce the regs from 9 am to 5 pm Monday-Friday. Langlois outlines where the new meters will be in play; free parking remains available at the South Main Street Lot, Maple Street Lot, and North Main Street Lot.

PFAS confirmed in Lebanon Airport’s groundwater. As Clare Shanahan writes in the VN, “PFAS are a group of thousands of manufactured chemicals that can be present in water, soil, air and food, take years to break down and can build up in people, animals and the environment.” Two water samples collected in February have been found to contain “multiple kinds of PFAS in amounts above state and federal standards,” she reports. The Leb City Council is slated to decide tonight on whether to allocate money for a study looking into where the contamination comes from (PFAS in airport, Dartmouth epidemiologist Megan Romero notes) and what to do about it.

SPONSORED: Still Time to Take the Good Citizen Challenge! Open to Vermont kids in grades K-8, the Challenge offers 25 fun and educational activities, from following the news to visiting the town clerk to attending a concert. Elijah from East Thetford went to see “Schoolhouse Rock” at Artistree. “My favorite song was ‘I’m Just a Bill.’” Enter by Sept. 7, Labor Day, to win prizes — including a trip to Washington, D.C.! Learn more and submit entries at the burgundy link or here. Sponsored by Seven Days.

VT State Police issue missing persons report on Tunbridge teen. Trinity Pelletier, 19, was last seen in Hartford on Aug. 8; she is described as “approximately 5’5” tall, 115 lbs, with brown eyes, pink dyed hair, and notable tattoos on her face and hands. At this time there are concerns for her well-being,” the VSP notes in its press release. WCAX has her photo. Police are asking anyone with information on her whereabouts to call the Royalton Barracks at 802-234-9933.

After 28 years in VT law enforcement, W. Windsor native notes changes to policing. Matthew Birmingham grew up in the town, went to Woodstock Union and then Trinity College in Hartford, CT—and joined the VSP as a trooper his senior year. He rose to become its head in 2015, serving 11 years as colonel before retiring recently. In the VT Standard, he talks to Tom Ayres about his career and about how policing has evolved: the advent of body cams and public pressure for transparency; how police deal with people with mental health and addiction issues—and rely on mental-health workers embedded in VSP barracks; and recruiting challengs.

These days, you can find heirloom Nordic barley, wheat, and rye at the Skinny Pancake in Quechee. Not in their crepes, though, but in beer. The chain has made space in its Quechee outpost for small brewer Mount Holly Beer (based in Belmont, which is part of Mt. Holly, VT), which began in 2020 and had been looking for a taproom. “This was a way to do it without doing our own,” Mount Holly owner Dan Tilly tells Melissa Pasanen in Seven Days. He uses that barley, wheat and rye in “simple recipes to let those ingredients give a purity of flavor,” he says. His brewery also makes traditional-method cider, Pasanen writes.

SPONSORED: Dig in for Woodstock Garden Day! On Saturday, Aug. 22 from 10 am to 5 pm, you’ll find garden tours, tastings, live music, and fun for all ages. Wander the Farmstead Gardens and Sunflower House at Billings Farm & Museum, stroll the historic landscape of the Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller National Historical Park, and sample delicious tomato varieties at the Woodstock Inn & Resort’s Kelly Way Gardens. To honor the Rockefeller family’s legacy of sustainability and community, VT and NH residents receive free admission to Billings Farm with a valid ID. Admission to Kelly Way Gardens and the National Park is free. Sponsored by Billings Farm & Museum.

In NH, it just got a bit easier to get a free state-issued photo ID for voting. As the Globe’s Steven Porter writes (no paywall), “A registered voter could already obtain a voucher for a free ID if their name appeared on the local voter checklist. But now someone can get a voucher before finishing the voter registration process if they have furnished proof of their local domicile.” Thanks to a small legislative tweak, people registering to vote can now get the ID from the state DMV without paying a $20 fee. The legislature’s move to bar the use of student IDs remains in court.

A look at who’s leaving NH and why. As UNH researchers Kristine Bundschuh and Kenneth Johnson write, migration trends are critical to the state’s future, since its growth depends on people moving in. Nearly a quarter of Granite Staters in a recent survey reported they’re likely to leave in the next five years—a smaller percentage than in VT (42 percent) or MA (34 percent), but still enough to spur Bundschuh and Johnson to look into why. Potential leavers tend to be young (18-34) and cite several spurs, including seeking cheaper housing, a different political or social environment, and a different climate. Lots of numbers at the link.

Behind the mic with Brave Little State. VT Public’s popular “listener-powered” show debuted 10 years ago this month (with a show about the Vermont accent), and a couple of months ago, to celebrate, the BLS team—Josh Crane, Sabine Poux, Burgess Brown, and executive producer Angela Evancie—gathered at Northern Stage in WRJ to talk about its history, how they put it together, all-time favorite episodes, bloopers, and lots more, including, of course, questions from the audience. If nothing else, you’ll come away with a deep appreciation for the thought, research, and sheer stick-to-it-iveness that go into making a radio episode that’s an entertaining listen.

Little people everywhere! Or, at least in the minds of folks in China and the Philippines who eat a specific type of mushroom, writes Matthew Phelan in Gizmodo. Researchers at the University of Utah went looking for a link between the fungus Lanmaoa asiatica and reports of hallucinations involving dozens or hundreds of little people. Sequencing the mushroom’s DNA, weirdly, turned up none of the “usual suspects among known psychedelic compounds.” These aren’t your typical hallucinations, either. These little people are “falling off the edge of tables, walking around objects … jumping off their spoon into the bowl and swimming around.” 

Today's Wordbreak. With a word from yesterday’s Daybreak.

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HEADS UP
Low Lily at the John Hay Estate at the Fells in Newbury, NH. Continuing The Fells’ summer concert series, the trio of Liz Simmons, Flynn Cohen, and Lily Sexton (founding members Simmons and Cohen are from Brattleboro, Sexton—who replaced original fiddler Lissa Schneckenburger—is from Turners Falls, MA) bring their folk, bluegrass, Americana, and harmonies to the Fells pavilion. 6 pm.

The Sidewinders at Artistree. Doug Perkins, Eric Bessette, Glendon Ingalls, and Nick Aloi, bring “exceptional musicianship, soulful vocals, and plenty of spontaneous energy” to their blend of jazz, blues, funk, and occasional bluegrass as part of Artistree’s regular Wednesday Music on the Hill summer concert series. 6:30 pm.

Choral Arts Foundation Summer Sing. The weekly August gatherings bring together anyone who wants to sing with a variety of Upper Valley choral directors. Tonight, Hartford High’s Andrea Nardone leads a session of songs devoted to “Reflections on Inner Light.” 6:30 pm at the Unitarian Universalist Congregation on Route 5 in Norwich.

“The Perils and Promises of Artificial Intelligence” in Brookfield. Sponsored by the Brookfield Community Partnership, a five-member panel will talk about “the emerging role of AI in our lives.” Panelists include Marc Natanagara of aiVermont, Gifford Medical Center’s Tayo Kirchhoff, and others. 6:30 pm, Brookfield Old Town Hall.

Poets Polly Giantonio and Ina Anderson at the Norwich Bookstore. Giantonio is out with a debut collection, Remember the Sweetness, that focuses on “the beauty of the invisible and the language of the heart.” Anderson, a former editor of scientific journals, will be reading from her 2024 collection, Sky Furniture. 7 pm.

The New London Barn Playhouse opens its production of Ken Ludwig’s Baskerville: A Sherlock Holmes Mystery. As a reviewer once put it, the play “takes our idea of the Holmes mystery and flips it on its head, resulting in a fast-moving, self-aware, quick-change comedy thriller that thrives on invention. It is a show built on speed, precision, and theatrical playfulness.” Or as the Barn writes, “Think Sherlock Holmes by way of the Marx Brothers.” 7:30 pm tonight, runs through Aug. 30.

And for today...

The Austin-based band The Animeros has only been around for a couple of years. They describe themselves as creating “a genre-blending sound that drifts between the lush jungles of Colombia, the palm-lined streets of 1960s coastal Mexico, and the dusty cantinas of West Texas.” Their second-ever gig happened to be on a rooftop during the SXSW Festival, and down below, The Black Keys’ Dan Auerbach was passing by. As you may know, Auerbach is also the moving force behind the record label Easy Eye Sound—and, after he managed to track them down, the result is their debut album, coming out next week. Here are guitarist Mauro Lopez, bassist Nicolas Sánchez, and drummer/percussionist Nick Tozzo with “Descarga Royal,” the tune they use as their set opener:

See you tomorrow.

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