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Darrell Regular, 62, of New York, and Chuck Genoa, 34 of Altamonte Springs, Fla., were arrested on Tuesday after Nashua police were alerted by Connecticut State Police of an ongoing credit card scam at retail stores.
In a news release, Nashua police said investigators learned that Regular and Genoa had opened several credit card accounts at the TJ Maxx store on Amherst Street, using false information, and had purchased merchandise and prepaid cash cards using the fraudulent cards.
Police officers responded to the area and located the two men.
The pair were seen on surveillance video in the TJ Maxx, HomeGoods and Marshalls stores on Amherst Street in Nashua, the release said.
Regular was charged with three felony counts of identity fraud (posing as another); and two counts of theft by deception.
Genoa was also charged with felony identity fraud (posing as another) and theft by deception.
Police said Genoa had active arrest warrants from other jurisdictions, and was held as a fugitive from justice. Regular was held on $2,000 cash bail. | 2022-12-07T19:26:16Z | www.unionleader.com | Two arrested for credit card scam at Nashua stores | Crime | unionleader.com | https://www.unionleader.com/news/crime/two-arrested-for-credit-card-scam-at-nashua-stores/article_546db78b-6f5d-5edd-a49c-5ce706878b54.html | https://www.unionleader.com/news/crime/two-arrested-for-credit-card-scam-at-nashua-stores/article_546db78b-6f5d-5edd-a49c-5ce706878b54.html |
Buttermilk Bacon is one of the unique flavors offered at Jack’s Crackers.
Photo Provided by Jack’s Crackers
Lemon Pistachio is a popular seller at Jack’s Crackers in Keene during the holiday season.
By Robert Levey Special to the Union Leader
Jack's Crackers - pic2
“It may be simple, but it doesn’t have to be boring,” noted owner Kevin Dremel, who said they make their crackers with wine, olive oil, and other simple ingredients without preservatives or artificial flavors.
Cut by hand and slow baked, Dremel said their crackers taste great on their own but also support and enhance other foods with which they are paired.
“We are inspired by the idea that something as simple as a cracker can have a depth of flavor that both stands on its own yet also complements other foods,” he said.
Noting most crackers are made in factories by machines and considered a commodity product, Dremel said they bring craft into a simple product and elevate it into something unique.
“Our goal is to create crackers that can have their own flavor, but also pair well with other foods and create something that tastes great,” he said. “It takes time to make our crackers by hand, but the results are really worth it.”
According to Dremel, their most popular flavors are Red Wine Crackers, Garlic Herb Crackers, and White Wine Crackers. Other unique flavors include Tomato Basil, Buttermilk Bacon, Dill, and Lavender Rosemary.
“We also do seasonal flavors as limited-edition offerings like Cranberry Cornbread, Maple Apple, Lemon Pistachio, and Strawberry,” he said.
Regarding their business name and why there is a cat on the label, Dremel said he and his family were adopted by three cats during a visit to a local animal shelter years ago. One of the cats was named Jack.
“He and his siblings took over the house — and we figured that if they’re running the house that they may as well run the business, too,” he said. “We have always referred to our cats as the Management Team. We have an option with our gift certificates to have management send a letter to the recipients that says the gift was recommended by the recipients’ household pets.”
Although Jack passed away a couple years ago, Dremel acknowledged that many folks call him by that name, to which he happily answers.
“We now have two additional cats that we refer to as junior management that are equally skilled in letting the humans know who’s really in charge,” he laughed.
Jack’s Crackers are sold at a number of different stores across the area and available for purchase online at jackscrackers.com. This year, Jack’s Crackers is also offering gift cards.
“Folks who purchase gift cards will receive a 15% off coupon to use for their own orders as a thank you for sharing the cracker love,” Dremel said.
To learn more, or place an order for the holidays, visit jackscrackers.com. | 2022-12-07T19:26:38Z | www.unionleader.com | Jack's Crackers: This season try the Cranberry Cornbread, Maple Apple and Lemon Pistachio | Holiday | unionleader.com | https://www.unionleader.com/nh/lifestyles/holiday/jacks-crackers-this-season-try-the-cranberry-cornbread-maple-apple-and-lemon-pistachio/article_31e1c672-de5e-5eff-b6ce-eb8ef111171d.html | https://www.unionleader.com/nh/lifestyles/holiday/jacks-crackers-this-season-try-the-cranberry-cornbread-maple-apple-and-lemon-pistachio/article_31e1c672-de5e-5eff-b6ce-eb8ef111171d.html |
The dessert charcuterie board from Mystic Sugar Bakery in North Conway is a decadent and delicious offering at holiday parties.
Photo Provided by Mystic Sugar Bakery
Mystic Sugar Bakery superfans Michele Marks and Mike Nicholaou surprised bakery owner Christy Skinner by showing up to the store wearing “Official Taste Tester” T-shirts.
Photo Provided by Michele Marks
By Emily Reily Special to the Union Leader
Mystic Sugar - pic1
A former preschool teacher for 26 years, Christy Skinner always made pastries and cakes on the side and for special occasions.
“I was always the one baking the cakes,” she said about get-togethers with family and friends.
With encouragement from her husband, Jason, she realized she could keep her job and still go to culinary school. So Skinner decided to pursue her passion.
“Once I had my pastry arts degree, I said, ‘now we got to do something with it.’ So we jumped right in and bought the trailer and started there.”
Mystic Sugar Bakery began in a trailer in a resort parking lot in North Conway. From the beginning, Skinner baked a glittery gala of treats like jumbo cupcakes, salty-sweet cookies and pies, though the options weren’t as many as there are today.
Eventually they found a building with more kitchen space in North Conway Village, where she makes cookies the size of your hand (so say her customers), jumbo cupcakes with various whimsical frostings piled on top, pies, and macarons, when the weather is right.
Skinner, originally from Virginia Beach, thought it would be fun to name the cupcakes after various fairy tales because it “made it easier to name the cupcakes.”
The theme went hand-in-hand with her background as a preschool teacher. “It just came natural,” she said.
And the flavors match the names, somehow. “Wicked Stepmother” is chocolate cake filled with raspberry jam and fudge buttercream. “This Little Piggy” is maple-soaked blueberry cake, maple buttercream, a wedge of waffle and candied bacon. “True Love’s Kiss,” includes “moscato-scented cake filled with moscato-soaked peaches, moscato buttercream and sprinkles.”
They’re not all fairytale names, though — there’s also Pixie Kisses, Mystic Unicorn, and The Three Lemons — vanilla cake with lemon curd, lemon buttercream and sour lemon candy.One elusive item is her macarons, which she calls her “unicorn,” because it takes extra time and skill to put together.
“They’re super finicky. If it’s raining outside, they don’t work ... if it’s too hot, if it’s too cold ... . It’s a meringue-based cookie and slight humidity differences will (affect) them.”
There’s also a dash of decadent mystery in Mystic Sugar’s treats. The “Dark Magic” cupcake is devil’s food cake with fudge buttercream and a “sprinkling of magic.”
It’s unclear what the ‘magic’ is, but the mystery has helped the locally popular store continue to grow in reputation.
New Hampshire has noticed her handiwork. In honor of National Chocolate Chip Cookie Day on Aug. 4, Skinner’s Brown Butter Chocolate Chip cookie was nominated the best in the state by Yelp, and was listed in Bake magazine.
“Our claim to fame right now is our chocolate chip cookie. We’re really proud of that one.”
She said its special ingredient is browning the butter before using it in the recipe.
“We’ve got a few little secret ingredients in there. They’re very rich. And they’re huge. And they’re loaded with really good chocolate. But the brown butter is what makes a difference,” she said.
Superfans testimonial
Michele Marks and Mike Nicholaou of Chicago often stop by when visiting with family in the area. They got hooked on her chocolate chip cookies, and from there tore through the list of fairy tale cupcakes and other treats.
It was easy for the two to name the cupcakes, but difficult to choose their favorites.
Nicholaou is a big fan of the brown butter chocolate chip cookie; Marks’ favorites were many. They included Pixie Kisses, Dark Magic, Fairy Godmother, Mystic Unicorn, and Wicked Stepmother, “a chocolate cake with a big swirl of chocolate icing, with all the glitter on it, and a raspberry on top,” Marks said.
And she’s partial to the “Everything But the Kitchen Sink” cookie — a buttered popcorn cookie with pretzels, potato chips, butterscotch and white chocolate chips.
Her top choice was the Big Bad Wolf: chocolate cake filled with cannoli cream, vanilla butter cream with chocolate chips and a cannoli chip.
One day, the two surprised Skinner by walking into the store wearing homemade T-shirts with the store’s logo and the words “Official Taste Testers” on it.
Giant and overboard
Forget dainty and delicate things like petite fours — Skinner goes big and bold.
“Instead of going really tiny and cute, we just go giant and overboard. People have come to expect that that’s where you come when you need a lot of big things.”
How much bigger?
“The cupcakes are bigger than the ones that you can get in the store. Ours are the size of the jumbo muffins.”
Marks put it another way.
“If you sat a cookie in your hand, it would take up from the heel of your hand to your fingertip, easily.”
“The cupcakes are bigger than a baseball. The cookies are like a thick coaster. She gives generous portions,” said Nicholaou.
Skinner also makes sure to use a generous helping of sparkly, edible glitter.
“Everything has glitter on it (and) a lot of sparkle. They’re just as pretty as they are good,” she said.
According to Marks, Skinner’s black Kitchenaid mixer is “all blinged out,” and covered with gold, glittery stickers.
This holiday season, Skinner is planning pies, dessert charcuterie boards, cookie tins, cinnamon roll trays, peppermint bark (with sprinkles and glitter) and truffle boxes. Other signature items include eggnog cheesecake with a gingersnap crust and buttermilk biscuits,
The cinnamon roll tray features four flavors, “cinnamon rolls with cream cheese frosting, we have a blueberry streusel cinnamon roll, a caramel apple pie cinnamon roll and drunken monkey bread.”
There are new jumbo cupcakes for the season, too.
The “Jack Frost” is chocolate cake with peppermint ganache and peppermint buttercream. The “Gingerbread Man” cupcake has gingerbread cake, cinnamon cream cheese buttercream, and has a little gingerbread man on top. A “Humpty Dumpty” cupcake is vanilla cake, eggnog custard and a bourbon buttercream.
Her dessert charcuterie trays feature pieces of waffles, cookies and other treats with four different buttercream frostings for dipping. “We’ve got the cookie wedges, brownie bites, Rice Krispie treats, and our Belgian waffles. It’s like a little cookies and dip situation. A group of 10 could very easily nibble on those,” she said.
Skinner appreciates her local customers who have followed her to new locations as she’s moved around.
“It’s just that kind of town ...we have a lot of local, loyal customers that come in all the time,” she said.
And she likes to try out different recipes with her customers
“I love experimenting with different flavors. We have a butterscotch Chinese five spice cookie that took a little while to catch on. Once they tasted it they realized it was really good.”
Another welcome addition is a peppermint chocolate shortbread. “That one was really well received because you don’t see chocolate shortbread very often,” she said.
“Our customers do not hesitate to let us know if it’s something that they really enjoy. We try to keep those in rotation; we’ll take requests,” she added.
She advises people to check their Facebook page, call ahead, or come into the store to place holiday orders. The Friday before Christmas is the last day to pick up orders.
Call 603-383-3067 or visit mysticsugarbakery.com for more information. | 2022-12-07T19:26:50Z | www.unionleader.com | Mystic Sugar Bakery: Holiday cupcakes: 'Jack Frost,' 'Gingerbread Man' and 'Humpty Dumpty' | Holiday | unionleader.com | https://www.unionleader.com/nh/lifestyles/holiday/mystic-sugar-bakery-holiday-cupcakes-jack-frost-gingerbread-man-and-humpty-dumpty/article_3b49289a-abe0-5eff-9a6f-8dc914249f43.html | https://www.unionleader.com/nh/lifestyles/holiday/mystic-sugar-bakery-holiday-cupcakes-jack-frost-gingerbread-man-and-humpty-dumpty/article_3b49289a-abe0-5eff-9a6f-8dc914249f43.html |
McElveen is correct
To the Editor: Just finished reading Josh McElveen’s op-ed, “DC wants to be first in the nation” in Tuesday’s Union Leader, Dec. 6 edition.
I believe Mr. McElveen hit the nail right on the head in this one. The third paragraph in says it all. Biden (to editor, please don’t add “president” before his name, I do NOT have any respect for the man who single handedly plunged this country into an abysmal economy!) is still upset he came in 5th in NH Primary. It is SO OBVIOUS he is doing everything he can (legally or not) to “fix” it, pun intended. Mr. McElveen explains very clearly how and why the DNC is pursuing this course of action which totally supports his conclusion that the DNC is trying very hard to buy the next presidential election.
This op-ed should be required reading for NH’s delegation of democratic “mis-representatives” so maybe, just maybe, they can remove their “I’m a democrat” hats and put on their “I represent NH” hats. So far they have said they are for our first in the nation primary, but they are NOT showing it. They SAY they support the people of NH, time for them to show it!
PAUL PHANEUF
Cranwell Drive, Manchester
Cranwell Dr., Manchester | 2022-12-08T11:41:24Z | www.unionleader.com | Letter: McElveen is correct | Letters to the Editor | unionleader.com | https://www.unionleader.com/opinion/letters_to_editor/letter-mcelveen-is-correct/article_667d33ad-9761-5aba-b616-576646c7c3c0.html | https://www.unionleader.com/opinion/letters_to_editor/letter-mcelveen-is-correct/article_667d33ad-9761-5aba-b616-576646c7c3c0.html |
DAIGLE
Rebecca Daigle, 23, of Fitchburg, was charged with theft by unauthorized taking.
Police said Daigle, an Amazon Flex driver, picked up a load of packages at an Amazon distribution center on Aug. 29 and failed to deliver them. Police on Sept. 30 responded to the Amazon center for the call of a reported theft, according to authorities.
Daigle faces up to seven years in prison if convicted.
Daigle was released on personal recognizance bail with an arraignment date of Jan. 12. | 2022-12-08T17:55:53Z | www.unionleader.com | Amazon driver accused of taking packages | Crime | unionleader.com | https://www.unionleader.com/news/crime/amazon-driver-accused-of-taking-packages/article_a412a1ba-52ef-5bbe-87e2-da6dcc36b003.html | https://www.unionleader.com/news/crime/amazon-driver-accused-of-taking-packages/article_a412a1ba-52ef-5bbe-87e2-da6dcc36b003.html |
MANCHESTER — The state’s largest electricity utility said a competitive auction likely contributed to bids for wholesale power that could reduce the average customer's monthly bill by 7% over the next six months.
Eversource executives said that on Tuesday it received 13 bids for small customers and one for large users for the period from Feb. 1 through Aug. 1.
Company officials believe this slight decline in prices, if approved by the state Public Utilities Commission, is not the start of a downward trend.
“Our customers in New Hampshire have already faced the unprecedented impact of all-time high energy supply costs earlier than most this year, and we know how frustrated they are as rising costs for other basic, daily needs persist throughout the economy as well,” said Penni Conner, Eversource Executive Vice President, Customer Experience and Energy Strategy, in a statement.
The proposed rate would reduce the power supply charge for residential and small business customers from 22.6 cents per kilowatt hour (kWh) to 20.2 cents.
This would translate to a cut of roughly $14 a month for the average residential customer who uses 600 kilowatts of power, officials said.
Six months ago, Eversource and the state’s other major utilities all received PUC approval to nearly double the wholesale purchase power charge that appears on all monthly bills.
From February through July 2022, the Eversource power charge was only 10.7 kWh.
The utility is asking the PUC to act on its request by Dec. 15.
It’s warned that rejecting these bids could “destabilize the expectations” of suppliers and risk even fewer offers being made in the future.
Last month, company officials had warned state regulators they feared this auction would generate either few bids or ones that were "extraordinarily high."
As evidence, they pointed to wholesale power offers in Massachusetts and Connecticut that already have yielded higher default charges of $26 and $24 kWh in those two states, respectively.
Threat may have lowered bids
In testimony filed Thursday with the PUC, Parker Littlehale, Eversource Energy’s manager of wholesale power supply, said the utility’s threat to reject too-expensive offers and to buy power on the spot market if necessary might have produced some pencil-sharpening by the bidders.
“Currently, the only market trend is persistent volatility,” Littlehale concluded.
All Eversource customers have the option to buy their power from state-approved third-party suppliers or to receive this Default Service Rate.
In New Hampshire, 84% of residential customers pay the default rate, along with 31% of commercial customers and 7% of the large industrial market.
Eversource officials said the utility did not receive a satisfactory bid for part of the large customer base.
It is asking the PUC to permit an additional round of bids to come in next Jan. 12 to serve these customers.
The utility urges all customers to enroll in one of its payment plans or assistance programs if they need help with their energy bill.
The firm also offers energy efficiency solutions to help customers use less energy and better manage costs.
If approved, the utility would make its next power charge filing June 15 to cover the period of August 2023 through January 2024.
Default Service | 2022-12-08T23:13:46Z | www.unionleader.com | Power rate auction yields slightly lower Eversource rates | Energy | unionleader.com | https://www.unionleader.com/news/business/energy/power-rate-auction-yields-slightly-lower-eversource-rates/article_830d61a6-50d3-5ffe-be74-a31e662ed30c.html | https://www.unionleader.com/news/business/energy/power-rate-auction-yields-slightly-lower-eversource-rates/article_830d61a6-50d3-5ffe-be74-a31e662ed30c.html |
Schools in several communities around the state went into lockdown Thursday after reports of an active shooter in the area, leading to emotional moments outside St. John Regional School in Concord. Authorities said they believed the reports were a hoax.
Parents wait to pick up their children following the lockdown at St. John Regional School in Concord on Dec. 8, 2022.
Parents wait for their children get reunited following the lockdown at St. John Regional School in Concord on Dec. 8, 2022.
Police assemble at St. John Regional School in Concord on Dec. 8, 2022.
A Concord police officer with a long gun patrols St John Regional School in Concord during Thursday’s lockdown.
A student leaves St. John Regional School in Concord with an adult on Thursday after a lockdown prompted by what was determined to be a hoax call about an active-shooter incident.
and Shawne K. Wickham Union Leader Staff
Scores of children from St. John Regional School in Concord were in church Thursday morning, waiting for Mass to wrap up, when a stranger approached the priest.
“I was sitting with my eyes closed getting ready to say the closing prayer and felt someone touch my knee and opened my eyes with an officer kneeling on one knee telling me in a quiet voice we may have an active shooter,” recalled the Rev. Richard Roberge from Christ the King Parish.
What Roberge didn’t know at the time was that the threat of an active shooter at the school next door was one of a string of similar reports across the state Thursday morning.
“It’s a very, very sad commentary on the state of mind of some people,” Roberge said in a phone interview. “They don’t realize they put everyone in danger.”
The priest announced there was an “emergency” at the school. Students spent the time in church singing Christmas carols even as numerous police officers, some with weapons drawn, searched the campus.
“There were hugs, obviously,” Roberge said. “The kids are doing fantastic.”
“Police had to break down a couple doors to get into the school,” Roberge said.
“The Department of Safety is aware of multiple active shooter threats that have been made at schools throughout the state,” tweeted New Hampshire Homeland Security and Emergency Management.
The state Department of Safety said that “other jurisdictions across the country have reported receiving hoax calls.”
“Investigating hoax threats drains law enforcement resources and diverts us from responding to an actual crisis. Hoax threats can shut down schools, cause undue stress and fear to the public, and cost taxpayers a lot of money,” Setera said.
“Unfortunately, this disrupts schools all over the state,” Concord Deputy Police Chief John Thomas told reporters. “It disrupts public services.”
The Department of Safety said “all threats will be taken seriously until such time as their validity is determined. Everyone is encouraged to report any suspicious activity to their local law enforcement agency.”
Portsmouth Police at 9:57 a.m. received a call that “an active shooter incident” had occurred at Portsmouth High School.
“In addition to the high school, all schools in Portsmouth were swept by law enforcement and determined to be safe,” the statement said.
“Lebanon Police will have an increased presence throughout the day at all Lebanon Schools to ensure they are safe and secure,” the police department said in a morning statement.
“Out of an abundance of caution, Manchester Police will have additional resources monitoring all of our schools,” the district said.
“Students are SAFE,” the tweet added. | 2022-12-08T23:13:53Z | www.unionleader.com | Authorities say report of active shooter was hoax | Crime | unionleader.com | https://www.unionleader.com/news/crime/authorities-say-report-of-active-shooter-was-hoax/article_29d6dbda-373b-54a5-80c2-130010777da9.html | https://www.unionleader.com/news/crime/authorities-say-report-of-active-shooter-was-hoax/article_29d6dbda-373b-54a5-80c2-130010777da9.html |
Dangerous driving habits rise in the Northeast
By Alvin Buyinza masslive.com (TNS)
After years of progress, it seems as if those living in the Northeast are reverting back to their old dangerous driving habits. A new report from AAA shows that speeding, red-light running, drowsy driving and driving under the influence increased in the Northeast region from 2020 to 2021.
Manchester VA Medical Center will host a PACT Act Week of Action event Tuesday, Dec. 13 to inform veterans, their families, caregivers, and survivors about the PACT Act and encourage them to apply for the toxic exposure-related health care and benefits they have earned. | 2022-12-08T23:14:17Z | www.unionleader.com | Dangerous driving habits rise in the Northeast | Wire | unionleader.com | https://www.unionleader.com/wire/region/dangerous-driving-habits-rise-in-the-northeast/article_09b3a2dc-b86f-52bb-a963-46c2fa52cf01.html | https://www.unionleader.com/wire/region/dangerous-driving-habits-rise-in-the-northeast/article_09b3a2dc-b86f-52bb-a963-46c2fa52cf01.html |
Former U.S. Marine Paul Whelan stands inside a defendants’ cage during his verdict hearing in Moscow, Russia on June 15, 2020.
WASHINGTON — Detained American in Russia Paul Whelan on Thursday expressed disappointment more had not been done for his release and urged President Joe Biden to act quickly, after a prisoner swap releasing basketball star Brittney Griner was announced.
Griner was released in exchange for arms dealer Viktor Bout, a transaction that may leave the United States little leverage to negotiate for Whelan, a former U.S. Marine serving 16 years on espionage charges which he denies.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken said at a news conference: “This was not a choice of which American to bring home. The choice was one or none.” | 2022-12-09T03:44:18Z | www.unionleader.com | Detained American Whelan: I'm disappointed more hasn't been done to release me | National | unionleader.com | https://www.unionleader.com/news/national/detained-american-whelan-im-disappointed-more-hasnt-been-done-to-release-me/article_5d914f68-74d7-5c85-ac25-314549e9cddd.html | https://www.unionleader.com/news/national/detained-american-whelan-im-disappointed-more-hasnt-been-done-to-release-me/article_5d914f68-74d7-5c85-ac25-314549e9cddd.html |
DEAR HELOISE:: The recent hint from Robert A. Lip correctly pointed out the problems with gasoline with ethanol. The easiest way to solve this problem is to buy non-ethanol gasoline, which is available at many gasoline stations for a slightly higher price. I usually keep non-ethanol gasoline for over a year without any issues.
-- Betsy, Colorado Springs, Colorado
DEAR HELOISE:: Recent news reports tell us we will have a cold winter in a lot of regions throughout the country. And fuel prices will be higher. To help people stay warmer at night, I recommend purchasing fleece bedsheets. | 2022-12-09T07:38:36Z | www.unionleader.com | Heloise: Fire department checks fire alarms | Human Interest | unionleader.com | https://www.unionleader.com/news/human_interest/heloise-fire-department-checks-fire-alarms/article_a587759e-c110-5a1f-a0e2-40e551a7c9ea.html | https://www.unionleader.com/news/human_interest/heloise-fire-department-checks-fire-alarms/article_a587759e-c110-5a1f-a0e2-40e551a7c9ea.html |
New Hampshire’s new legislators did two smart things besides their choices for House Speaker and Senate President this week. They went with competence and non-partisanship in the office that needs those qualities and decided to let voters in Rochester vote.
Despite transparent attempts by some in the Democratic Party to foul decades of keeping politics away from the Secretary of State’s office, enough individual legislators from both parties voted to give incumbent David Scanlan his own first full term in the post.
Kudos to longtime Democrat state Sen. Lou D’Allesandro for his nomination of Scanlan. The latter was once a Republican legislator but now bleeds red, white, and blue in the handling of his duties. It is vital that the secretary have both the appearance and reality of playing fair with all political sides, especially in this dangerously hyper-partisan age.
It was also good that enough House Republicans voted with Democrats to ask that Rochester voters be allowed to have a second chance at a state representative race that ended in a tie last month.
We can understand the GOP wishes to try to protect its razor-thin majority in the House for the new term. But having just successfully stopped a Democratic effort to shut down a recount in another race, allowing a re-vote is the best course. | 2022-12-09T07:38:54Z | www.unionleader.com | Two for two: Scanlan, Rochester | Editorials | unionleader.com | https://www.unionleader.com/opinion/editorials/two-for-two-scanlan-rochester/article_62027571-3399-5de5-9a79-e58aaf4e8da0.html | https://www.unionleader.com/opinion/editorials/two-for-two-scanlan-rochester/article_62027571-3399-5de5-9a79-e58aaf4e8da0.html |
Against fur trapping
To the Editor: ‘Tis the season for those involved in the business of selling animal fur to entice holiday shoppers into purchasing their products of cruelty. While great progress has been made to end the sale of fur — almost all major fashion brands have phased out its use, including Macy’s, Bloomingdales, and Nordstrom— those who torture and kill animals for their pelts can still find buyers in less progressive parts of the world.
NH trappers take advantage of these markets and continue to trap, torture, and kill NH animals to earn a few bucks. Sometimes they don’t even make a profit, but trap and kill anyhow for recreation.
Fewer than 500 trappers in New Hampshire are allowed to kill as many foxes, opossums, raccoons, skunks, beavers, muskrats, minks, weasels, and coyotes as they can get their traps on. (Trapping fishers and otters is also allowed, but with limits.)
Each of these animals plays an important role in a balanced ecosystem, including keeping mice populations in check. Even though many of the predator numbers in NH are in decline, and experts point to limitless trapping as one of the reasons, NH Fish and Game refuses to impose limits on the numbers of these animals that can be trapped.
This holiday season, you can help prevent animal suffering and the disappearance of creatures from our fields and forests by never buying fur, educating friends and family, and joining with other compassionate citizens who speak out against trapping.
LINDA DIONNE | 2022-12-09T07:39:07Z | www.unionleader.com | Letter: Against fur trapping | Letters to the Editor | unionleader.com | https://www.unionleader.com/opinion/letters_to_editor/letter-against-fur-trapping/article_98bb3951-533a-59a7-ab65-99e7cd8b30c0.html | https://www.unionleader.com/opinion/letters_to_editor/letter-against-fur-trapping/article_98bb3951-533a-59a7-ab65-99e7cd8b30c0.html |
The New York Stock Exchange in New York on June 27, 2022.
By Bailey Lipschultz Bloomberg
Investment portfolios belonging to retail traders suffered a $350 billion blow this year as big bets on risky stocks and former high-fliers like Tesla backfired for the mom-and-pop set.
The average active amateur investor's portfolio is down about 30% in 2022, according to data compiled by Vanda Research, which studies self-directed retail traders globally. By contrast, the S&P 500 Index has lost 17%.
Of course, this group isn't about the boring S&P 500. It tends to be concentrated in high-profile stocks like Elon Musk's electric-vehicle company, which wiped out about $78 billion for retail traders alone as its shares plunged, according to Vanda.
Individual investors have had an outsize influence on the market since the start of pandemic lockdowns, when cooped-up 20- and 30-somethings flocked to no-cost trading to relieve boredom and make an easy buck buying almost any stock during a bull-market boom. Now, as equities head toward their worst year since the 2008 financial crisis, retail traders have suffered even sharper drops and their share of U.S. equity market volume has slipped since the start of 2021.
"The losses this year were unprecedented, especially for the younger generation of investors," said Giacomo Pierantoni, the head of data at Vanda in Singapore. Whether they keep plowing money into the market -- buying the dip, as they say -- or lose faith in investing and give up altogether could help determine their ability to retire in the coming decades.
Another sharp selloff for Tesla, which accounts for about 10% of the average self-directed global retail trader's portfolio, or Apple could determine sentiment, according to Pierantoni.
Retail-trader portfolios have also seen big losses from chipmakers Advanced Micro Devices and Nvidia, each of which are down more than 40% this year. Those who concentrated investments in index-tracking exchange-traded funds like the SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust and the tech-heavy Invesco QQQ Trust Series 1, which follows the Nasdaq 100 Index, suffered too as major averages head to their worst years in more than a decade.
That said, there are signs that some retail investors took fairly defensive positions that paid off this year. Their portfolios were overweight energy companies like Chevron and Enphase Energy and drugmakers including AbbVie, which broadly outperformed the broader markets.
"Investors have learned to be a little more nimble in this environment," said Callie Cox, an investment analyst at eToro Group Ltd. "When everything isn't going up, you need to be more strategic."
Of those stocks, 11 have crashed more than 70%, with companies like Newegg Commerce and Bed Bath & Beyond seeing some of the worst drops, data compiled by Bloomberg show. GameStop, which helped spark the meme movement, has erased one-third of its value in 2022, while AMC Entertainment Holdings, another meme poster-child, is down 64%.
"Going forward, investors will take this year as a lesson learned and will become more sophisticated," Cox said. "Retail traders will probably stick in this longer than people expected because the traders that have been hit really, really hard this year are younger investors with higher risk tolerance."
Bloomberg's Denitsa Tsekova contributed to this report. | 2022-12-09T18:40:08Z | www.unionleader.com | Retail traders lose $350 billion in brutal year for taking risks | Human Interest | unionleader.com | https://www.unionleader.com/news/human_interest/retail-traders-lose-350-billion-in-brutal-year-for-taking-risks/article_84ee7a97-ef8d-585a-ba95-fee66579e55a.html | https://www.unionleader.com/news/human_interest/retail-traders-lose-350-billion-in-brutal-year-for-taking-risks/article_84ee7a97-ef8d-585a-ba95-fee66579e55a.html |
Det. Rochelle Jones dressed as her favorite superhero, Wonder Woman.
provided by Rochelle Jones
Laurel Fisher worked as a paramedic prior to becoming a police officer. She is also a falconer and is seen on her card holding Ziggy the hawk and donning a fake mustache.
Chief Mark Newport posed in front of a Portsmouth Police Badge sign for his first card since becoming Chief.
Rochelle Jones
Lt. Seth Tondreault is dressed in his honor guard uniform and shares an endearing moment with his two children during a service.
PPD card: Det. Rochelle Jones
And one lucky person will win a set of cards, display case, ride in a police car, and get a tour of the station.
The post-pandemic series features 28 new photos and includes introductions for several recent hires.
Each card features the officers’ name and photograph on the front and includes a biography and special message on the back.
After a 20-year hiatus, the police cards were brought back by Detective Rochelle Jones, the department’s community outreach coordinator, in 2016. Most city police officers carry them and will hand them out to those who request them.
Jones, who appears in this fifth edition, is pictured on her new card dressed as her favorite superhero, Wonder Woman.
Chief Mark Newport proudly posed in front of a Portsmouth Police Badge sign for his first card since becoming the chief.
Officer Will Mahoney has a big grin on his face, and on the back of his card appropriately quotes Buddy the Elf, “I just like smiling, smiling’s my favorite”.
Shown on her first trading card, Victim Advocate Brianne Deyermond is nearly overshadowed by her adorable Great Dane, Finn.
K-9 Patrol Officer Bill Werner and K-9 Frankie pose together in Prescott Park, but Frankie also has his own card, and in his biography shares how during his off-duty time, he enjoys playing fetch and spending time with his Dad (Officer Werner).
Originally from Buffalo, New York, Laurel Fisher worked as a paramedic prior to becoming a police officer. She is also a falconer and is seen on her card holding Ziggy the hawk and donning a fake mustache.
Husband and wife dynamic duo Cassidy and Rohde both share the same photo for their respective cards and are seen standing together in front of the station police patch sign displaying a noticeable height difference.
Officer Mark Dente’s card shows the Memorial Bridge in the background during a sunrise. He is also a member of the Army National Guard as a Black Hawk helicopter pilot.
The “Find the Mystery Officer’s Card” VIP package contest is geared toward children between the ages of 6-12 who are in the Portsmouth school system, but is open to anyone.
The contest to find the star on the back of the card of the “mystery officer” ends Saturday, Dec. 31, at midnight. To obtain a card from each officer, you can go to the police department, approach an officer on duty if the officer is not engaged in the course of their duties (responding to a call, during a motor vehicle stop, medical call, etc.) and ask the officer for their card.
You can also write a letter to the officer or email an officer requesting their card.
If you have any questions, contact community outreach coordinator detective Rochelle Jones at 603-610-7503 or email jonesr@portsmouthnhpd.gov. | 2022-12-10T02:00:25Z | www.unionleader.com | Portsmouth PD releases fifth edition of trading cards, launches contest | Public Safety | unionleader.com | https://www.unionleader.com/news/safety/portsmouth-pd-releases-fifth-edition-of-trading-cards-launches-contest/article_29fe1dfa-84df-5b80-9813-25fa67df9709.html | https://www.unionleader.com/news/safety/portsmouth-pd-releases-fifth-edition-of-trading-cards-launches-contest/article_29fe1dfa-84df-5b80-9813-25fa67df9709.html |
Senator Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona speaks during a Senate Homeland and Governmental Affairs Committee hearing in Washington, D.C., on Sept. 14, 2022. MUST CREDIT: Bloomberg photo by Al Drago.
Sinema leaves Democratic Party, becomes independent
WASHINGTON — Sen. Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona is leaving the Democratic Party to become an independent, she said on Friday, just days after Democrats won a Senate race in Georgia and secured 51 seats in the 100-member chamber riven by deep political divisions.
Sinema’s statements so far indicate she will continue working in the independent-minded way she demonstrated over the past two years: collaborating with Democrats and Republicans to enact legislation, while unafraid of erecting roadblocks that frustrate the White House, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and other fellow Democrats nationally and in her home state.
Sinema and Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin have kept Washington in suspense over the last two years as they repeatedly withheld needed votes for legislation sought by Biden.
With her close ties to the pharmaceutical industry, Sinema complicated Democrats’ efforts to force lower prescription drug prices before finally settling on a narrow version of a bill that became law.
Just this week, Sinema and Republican Sen. Thom Tillis unveiled an immigration reform plan that is getting bipartisan attention in the Senate.
Democrats have held the Senate with a 50-50 majority, as Vice President Kamala Harris has the power to cast tie-breaking votes. Sen. Raphael Warnock’s victory in Tuesday’s Georgia runoff election handed them their 51st seat.
Sinema will be up for reelection in 2024, and Democrats are likely to vie for her seat.
A possible Democratic challenger could be Rep. Ruben Gallego, who issued a statement on Friday saying, “We need senators who will put Arizonans ahead of big drug companies and Wall Street bankers.” | 2022-12-10T02:00:44Z | www.unionleader.com | Sinema leaves Democratic Party, becomes independent | National | unionleader.com | https://www.unionleader.com/wire/national/sinema-leaves-democratic-party-becomes-independent/article_f11dfe32-bcc6-5cb8-8433-5a91ade3f982.html | https://www.unionleader.com/wire/national/sinema-leaves-democratic-party-becomes-independent/article_f11dfe32-bcc6-5cb8-8433-5a91ade3f982.html |
A large group from the Pinkerton girls basketball team and the leadership council of athletics head for the water during the annual First Baptist Church Pantry Plunge at Beaver Lake in Derry.
Plungers rush in as others the first ones rush back from the cold water during the annual First Baptist Church Pantry Plunge at Beaver Lake in Derry.
Eileen Dusek, right, from Derry, is dressed as the Polar Bear Princess as she braves the cold water during the annual First Baptist Church Pantry Plunge at Beaver Lake in Derry.
The Francis family from Derry, from left are Sam, plunge organizer Nancy, and Bob, during the annual First Baptist Church Pantry Plunge at Beaver Lake in Derry.
221211-news-plunge_ROY1637.jpg
DERRY – “Are my toes still attached?”
A wet Bob Francis asked that as he scurried to his vehicle after he and 60 others dipped more than their toes into the freezing water of Beaver Lake on Saturday.
Francis, his wife and their adult son, Sam, chose a charity polar plunge to make their family photo – complete with Santa hats – for this year’s Christmas card, an annual tradition dating to 1996.
“This one will probably rise to the top of interesting cards,” said his wife, Nancy, who organized the annual “pantry plunge” to benefit the First Baptist Church Food Pantry.
Last year’s plunge raised $24,000. This year’s total should be known by Christmas.
The community need has grown this year with inflation walloping many family budgets.
The food pantry provided enough food to make 3,780 meals in October, nearly 14% ahead of last year. It helped 315 people, a similar percentage increase.
“Prices are so high they can’t afford to buy the food they need, so they come here,” said pantry director Margaret Isbell.
Before the plunge, Sam Francis removed a thin layer of ice near the shore but couldn’t do anything to warm the water.
Jenny Hiscox said her body felt a “shock” when she dove in with her Pinkerton Academy classmates.
“It was worse getting out,” Hiscox said after a couple minutes in freezing water and sub-freezing wind chills. “My toes are freezing.”
“It was way worse last year” in the rain, said Pinkerton’s Maddy Moore, 17 of Chester.
Another year featured six inches of ice on the lake that had to be broken up to produce a plunge area.
Eileen Dusek, 67, of Derry came dressed Saturday in a white tutu with a crown adorning her head – the crown’s points representing glaciers.
This was her fourth state doing a polar plunge.
“I have visited 'em all, but I’m not going to plunge in ‘em all,” Dusek said of the 50 states. “But you never know.”
Afterward, she called the plunge “fantastic. I’ll do it again.”
She said an ice fisherman tasked her with looking for fish in the lake.
“I didn’t find any,” she said.
Logan Hill, 22, joined about a half-dozen co-workers at the local Blue Seal feed store, including the event’s organizer.
After coming up from the water for air, “it took my breath away,” Hill said.
The Manchester resident saw Dusek decked out in a crown.
How was he planning to celebrate completing the plunge?
“With a different crown,” Hill said, confirming Crown Royal whiskey. | 2022-12-10T21:56:37Z | www.unionleader.com | Taking the plunge....Dozens do more than dip their toes in the water for charity | Human Interest | unionleader.com | https://www.unionleader.com/news/human_interest/taking-the-plunge-dozens-do-more-than-dip-their-toes-in-the-water-for-charity/article_ed2d1a5e-6637-5228-a9ad-a6ddca68bed1.html | https://www.unionleader.com/news/human_interest/taking-the-plunge-dozens-do-more-than-dip-their-toes-in-the-water-for-charity/article_ed2d1a5e-6637-5228-a9ad-a6ddca68bed1.html |
Concord Christian’s Brodie Frink battles to the hoop against Derryfield’s Zach Martin at Derryfield School in Manchester on Friday.
Concord Christian’s Mason Kerr drives to the basket against Derryfield’s Zach Martin on Friday.
Concord Christian’s Brodie Frink drives to the hoop against Derryfield’s Zach Martin at Derryfield School in Manchester on Friday.
Concord’s Brodie Frink, in blue, battles Derryfield’s Zach Martin under the basket on Friday night.
Derryfield’s Jack Krasnof tries to shootsover Concord Christian’s Austin Spurr during Friday night’s Division IV game in Manchester. Concord Christian prevailed, 68-66.
THOMAS ROY/
Derryfield’s Ethan Flanagan goes to the hoop against Concord Christian’s Owen Heizer at Derryfield School on Friday.
Derryfield’s Jack Krasnof shoots over Concord Christian’s Gavin Ross School on Friday.
Sophomore Frink's 38 points help Concord Christian to comeback victory at Derryfield.
MANCHESTER — When the goal is to win high school basketball games, it helps to have one of the best players in your division, and that appears to be what Concord Christian Academy has in sophomore Brodie Frink.
Concord Christian trailed Derryfield School by 22 points with 4:36 remaining in the third quarter Friday night, but Frink is one of the key reasons the Kingsmen were able to erase that deficit and pull out a 68-66 road victory.
Frink, a 6-foot-4 forward, scored a game-high 38 points and grabbed 12 rebounds in the win, which raised Concord Christian’s record to 2-0. Frink had 29 points, six rebounds and three steals when Concord Christian opened its season with an 82-62 victory at Portsmouth Christian.
“We got a couple turnovers and were able to convert and it kind of changed the momentum,” Concord Christian coach Eric Heizer said. “We got them into an up-tempo game and that led to more turnovers and some easy baskets for us. It started with our defense and basically just our effort. Our hustle definitely turned that tide and kept that momentum going.
“(Frink) always has a knack for getting around the rim, getting to the ball and finishing. It definitely helps to have him on our side.”
Frink made most of Concord Christian’s field goals, but he didn’t make the last one. Derryfield led 66-65 until Aidan Duffy sank a 3-pointer with 22 seconds to play. Derryfield (3-1) got one more look at the basket, but Zack Martin’s 3-point attempt hit the front rim as time expired.
Derryfield ended the second quarter on a 7-0 run and led 45-32 at halftime. The Cougars looked like they were going to breeze to victory when they began the third on an 8-0 spurt, but Concord Christian, a state finalist last season (losing to Woodsville in the championship), pulled itself back into the game with a 22-4 run that started in the third quarter and spilled into the fourth.
Jack Krasnof led Derryfield with 23 points. Ethan Flanagan tossed in 16 and Alex Comire finished with 14.
“We were playing free and easy in the first two-and-a-half quarters and everything was working,” Derryfield coach Ed Meade said. “They made a little bit of a run and we started to tighten up. We were being too cautious there in the fourth quarter, and give credit to Concord Christian. They have the best player (in Division IV) in Frink and he really took the game over. I didn’t think we had anyone in man-to-man who could match up with him, so we stayed in our zone.
“Based on what I saw tonight, I think we can play with anybody. They’re as good as advertised, so I think we can be there in the end. Absolutely.”
Frink, a Salisbury resident, scored a game-high 35 points in a 72-63 win over Derryfield last season.
“It looked really bad in the first half,” he said. “It was defense — not enough execution on defense. We’re gonna get everybody’s best shot. We have to come into games ready.
“Even though I stepped it up on offense, everybody else around me did too. We have a really good supporting cast. We can rely on everybody to get 10 to 15 (points) a game.”
Frink scored inside and outside (he made four 3-pointers), and 18 of his 38 points came in the fourth quarter. His final 3-pointer tied the game, 63-63, with 1:32 remaining.
“If I was on another team. I wouldn’t want to face him — I know that,” Heizer said. “He can shoot a 3. He gets to the basket. He has the potential to be one of the best (in Division IV). We know offensively he’s going to be there. We’re working on his defense and rebounding and becoming a complete player.”
Colton Martell registered 17 points and 10 rebounds as the Cougars opened their Division III season in Litchfield.
Tucker Matthews hit four 3-pointers and finished with 14 points, Austin McHugh added 13 points and seven rebounds and Jay Shawn Hawkins scored nine points, had five steals and played tough defense. | 2022-12-10T21:57:02Z | www.unionleader.com | Sophomore Frink's 38 points help Concord Christian to comeback victory at Derryfield. | Sports | unionleader.com | https://www.unionleader.com/sports/highschool/sophomore-frinks-38-points-help-concord-christian-to-comeback-victory-at-derryfield/article_d082555c-7d3c-5a15-9f7b-e49edd38fde5.html | https://www.unionleader.com/sports/highschool/sophomore-frinks-38-points-help-concord-christian-to-comeback-victory-at-derryfield/article_d082555c-7d3c-5a15-9f7b-e49edd38fde5.html |
By James Lileks Star-Tribune (TNS)
It couldn’t be fixed because the parts are no longer made. We ordered a new one. I asked the salesman if it could be controlled by an app on my phone, and he was apologetic: “Nope, they haven’t gotten around to that with this line. So sorry.” No, I said, that’s great! I don’t want to get out my phone, stare at it so it knows it’s me, swipe and swipe to find the app, punch it, push START. One nice, small remote will be fine.
One nice small simple remote.
Our TV remote is simple. Six small buttons. It replaced a remote that was the size of a cereal box and had 4,392 buttons, each the size of a grain of rice. Using it was like waking up in an Apollo lunar module, and you have to find the button that blasts you off the moon. This one? No, that dumped the fuel tanks. Drat.
So I was not particularly keen on a complex remote for the fireplace. Our needs are simple. There are two things we wish:
The presence of fire.
The absence of fire.
Well, friends, the new fireplace arrived, and the remote ... well, the manual has 12 pages. Yes, the remote turns it on and off, but no self-respecting modern remote leaves it at that.
There’s a mode button. You may ask: what modes may fire possess? None — it refers to the fan. There are five settings, from “heavy-breathing” to “that fan they drag out in public buildings when there’s water on the carpet” to “Boeing 757 lifting off a short runway.”
Still, now you can say, “Hon, do you feel like fan setting 3 or fan setting 4?” You get a sharp look and realize she always prefers 3, and really, it’s just typical how you can’t remember a simple thing like that, and what’s more, you always leave it on 4, so she has to turn it down.
Also, every time I pick up the remote to turn on the fire, the screen says “HI.” It took me three days to realize it’s the fan setting, not a salutation.
There is another set of buttons that control the temperature. I’m just a simple soul without any fancy science know-how, but I figure the temperature of the fire is basically “Hot.” While there’s a difference between a campfire, a steel mill and the sun, it’s not something I can discern.
But it turns out that the fireplace is reading the room temperature. I can set the fire to go up to make the room hotter. Does that mean I can use the remote to turn down the temp so the fireplace makes the room cooler?
Has anyone ever said, “it’s too hot in here, take a log off the fire”?
No, the temp mode just turns off the fireplace. The problem is that the screen constantly displays the word OFF to indicate that the temperature guide is nonfunctional, so even when your fire is ON, the screen has the word OFF. The fellow who installed the fireplace noted this function and advised that I never use it.
Another mode controls the light. The fireplace has a fixture that emits photons, like from a light bulb. I do not want or need this. Has anyone ever said, “I can’t see the fire, turn on the light”? But there are those cake-eaters out there in billion-dollar mansions who have to have all the options, and the remote must accommodate them.
There’s yet another mode for keeping the pilot light on all the time or using it only when needed. Because it’s buried in the Mode Menu, this means you’ll hit it by accident while scrolling through Fan and Temp and Light, just trying to get the damned thing to ignite, and the screen will say ILPL, or Intermittently Lit Pilot Light, and you’ll stare dumbly at it, trying to remember what it means. Is it a word? Ill-pill? Ilp-El? Eye-Lipple?
I now realize that it would be easier if it was controlled by my phone. There would be one screen with a big button that said ON and it would change into a big button that said OFF. All the other granular settings — your five-position fan, your nonexistent lights, your Eye-Lipple — would be tucked away on another page.
On the other hand, I’d hate to be on vacation somewhere, look at my phone at the end of the day and realize that the fire was set at 97 degrees in our empty house because the phone, moving around in my pocket, had activated the gas insert.
“Good news and bad news, hon. When we get home, all the candles will be melted because I butt-lit the fireplace. Good news is, the fan’s set on level 4, just how you like it.” | 2022-12-11T02:39:28Z | www.unionleader.com | A remote chance of figuring this thing out | Columns | unionleader.com | https://www.unionleader.com/columns/a-remote-chance-of-figuring-this-thing-out/article_85b0d9fa-c1e1-5d32-bce9-db8243118fa0.html | https://www.unionleader.com/columns/a-remote-chance-of-figuring-this-thing-out/article_85b0d9fa-c1e1-5d32-bce9-db8243118fa0.html |
Q: I saw your encouraging review of the Tribit StormBox Blast speaker in my local newspaper yesterday. However, the price is $199.99 minus a $20.00 discount for a total of $179.99, and not $50 off for $149.99. Am I doing something wrong or is your information out-of-date?
— J.H., Contra Costa, Calif.
I am still evaluating my test unit StormBox Blast and it continues to wow me with how easily it fills a room with beautiful, captivating sound. It may look like a boombox but it is a spectacularly good portable speaker independent of price, with sonic capabilities rivaling expensive high-end Bluetooth speakers and even quality component systems with bookshelf speakers.
HEADPHONE DEAL: This will be covered in more detail next week, but given the holiday season I wanted to share the news ASAP: Hifiman HE400se planar magnetic wired headphones are now only $109 from headphones.com.
Planar magnetic headphones use exotic driver technology, and many consider them to be the ultimate in sound quality. They are relatively rare in the marketplace as they tend to be expensive, starting at several hundred dollars and up to the stratosphere from there.
Hifiman is a highly regarded enthusiast headphone brand specializing in planar magnetic headphones, some costing $50,000 each including a dedicated amplifier. Hifiman has worked hard to make planar magnetic headphones affordable and arrived at a real milestone with the $149 HE400se. Discounted to $109, they rate as an impulse purchase and I am a bit surprised to be sitting here writing this. I never thought I would see quality planar magnetic headphones from an audiophile brand for just over $100, yet here we are.
Planar magnetic headphones sound magical, and with the HE499se at $109 that magic is now available to everyone. Include free shipping and the industry-leading 365-day return period from headphones.com, and this offer is sure to make a lot of people happy this year.
Q: I was all set to order an AOGNY skin tightening machine on Amazon, but found that it’s “currently unavailable” and “We don’t know when or if this item will be back in stock.” What a disappointment! Any idea what’s going on?
— S.K., Minneapolis
A: The machine is still available, but the AOGNY brand name has been discontinued. As good as the product is, it is pretty easy to see why the name AOGNY was not a great fit for English-speaking markets. It is hard to pronounce, sounds unappealing when spoken and resembles a word that means excruciating pain!
I never cared for the awkward name and hated typing it out, but given I have been delighted with the product and the results I was still happy to spread the word.
The AOGNY brand name has been retired and replaced by WarmDerm, and the machine is now the WarmDerm Professional Home Grooming Device for Face and Body. (I would say they have the brand name right with WarmDerm, though the rest could be shortened up a bit.) The device itself has not changed, and the WarmDerm uses radio-frequency energy to penetrate and warm deep in the skin, stimulating collagen production to improve skin quality, smooth over wrinkles and tighten up skin on the face, as well as remove stretch marks on the body.
It is available now for the same $339 after checkbox coupon, exclusively on Amazon. | 2022-12-11T02:40:17Z | www.unionleader.com | Sound Advice: Deals on speakers and headphones, and a beauty product rebrand | Lifestyles | unionleader.com | https://www.unionleader.com/nh/lifestyles/sound-advice-deals-on-speakers-and-headphones-and-a-beauty-product-rebrand/article_e7f018fe-3176-5c48-88b6-082647b152cd.html | https://www.unionleader.com/nh/lifestyles/sound-advice-deals-on-speakers-and-headphones-and-a-beauty-product-rebrand/article_e7f018fe-3176-5c48-88b6-082647b152cd.html |
DEAR HELOISE: Lucy was found alone trying to stay warm under the hood of a car. The gentleman who found her took her to the vet, who determined she was four weeks old; however, he couldn’t keep her, so I adopted her at six weeks weighing just a pound. She is doing well. — Kathy Ervin, via email Readers, to see Lucy and our other Pet Pals, go to Heloise.com and click on “Pet of the Week.” Do you have a furry friend to share with our readers? Send a photo and a brief description to Heloise@Heloise.com. — Heloise(tncms-asset)c6a1f07c-00f3-11e9-8090-00163ec2aa77[0](/tncms-asset)
DEAR HELOISE: My wife and I have been reading your column for decades in the (Manchester) New Hampshire Union Leader. (Thank you for all the helpful hints.) I took particular interest in the letters you recently published regarding folks who feel they’ve been “ripped off” by auto mechanics and their shops. Please do not “paint” all auto technicians (mechanics) with such a broad brush.
In response, I proffer the following:
DEAR HELOISE: Do not throw away soap chips. When you have several, spray the inside of a coffee cup, break the chips into pieces, microwave for two to three minutes, or however long it takes for the chips to blend together. I then put the cup into the refrigerator to harden. Voila! A new cake of soap.
— Billie Moore, The Villages, Florida | 2022-12-11T08:01:13Z | www.unionleader.com | Heloise: Not all auto technicians are bad | Human Interest | unionleader.com | https://www.unionleader.com/news/human_interest/heloise-not-all-auto-technicians-are-bad/article_0b9664a0-fedb-539f-af2d-72c5231b0697.html | https://www.unionleader.com/news/human_interest/heloise-not-all-auto-technicians-are-bad/article_0b9664a0-fedb-539f-af2d-72c5231b0697.html |
Regarding President Biden’s plan to destroy New Hampshire’s primary, just what are U.S. Sens. Jeanne Shaheen and Maggie Hassan and the state Demcratic Party going to do about it? We mean beyond skipping White House dances, that is.
The senators certainly don’t have the brass to actually withhold their votes in the closely-divided Senate unless and until the President changes his mind. They aren’t that independent. But what if they make sure that Biden still figures prominently into our 2024 primary and that the primary figures prominently in the national discussion?
Biden won’t allow his name to be put on the ballot here. He and his national party intend to punish any other Democrat who dares run here. But they can’t stop an organized write-in — or a write-out.
President Lyndon Johnson’s name wasn’t on the 1968 ballot but that didn’t stop loyal New Hampshire Democrats, including Sen. Tom McIntyre and Gov. John King, from organizing a write-in effort so that every Democrat in the state knew that they could and should vote for LBJ. Johnson won that primary on a write-in. But he lost the war because of the strength of anti-Vietnam war candidate Eugene McCarthy. LBJ got the message. Within weeks, he announced he wouldn’t seek reelection.
Do Shaheen and Hassan have the moxie to encourage New Hampshire primary voters to send Biden and the nation a write-in message? Just two words will do. “Go, Joe!” or “No, Joe!” | 2022-12-11T08:01:25Z | www.unionleader.com | A Biden write-in: ‘Go, Joe” or ’No, Joe' | Editorials | unionleader.com | https://www.unionleader.com/opinion/editorials/a-biden-write-in-go-joe-or-no-joe/article_4bc27acb-76c8-5e1b-9b36-2cabba0663f4.html | https://www.unionleader.com/opinion/editorials/a-biden-write-in-go-joe-or-no-joe/article_4bc27acb-76c8-5e1b-9b36-2cabba0663f4.html |
So what if New Hampshire’s first-in-the-nation presidential primary is spiked? The big-money players don’t spend much time here anyway. They don’t need New Hampshire.
We’ve been hearing that line from some quarters both before and since President Joe Biden told the Democratic Party that New Hampshire is out.
Biden has his own special reasons, of course. Even if he doesn’t run again, he is a card-carrying member of the Quota and Affirmative Action Club. Members dislike New Hampshire because it’s not quite multicultured enough for them and because independent-minded voters here don’t always do what big shot bosses tell them to do.
What these critics don’t understand is that the New Hampshire Primary, both Democrat and Republican, was never designed for their clubs or for the big-money candidates or the incumbents.
New Hampshire is made for the underdog. It is just the right size so that a man or woman who may have little recognition and little funding can, if their message is strong and compelling, catch lightning in a bottle here.
That’s what many past candidates have done here. They didn’t always win here but they made a difference here. Even if they didn’t always become their party nominee or president, they changed and shaped the issues because they ran here.
Think John McCain. Think Jimmy Carter. Think Pat Buchanan. Think Eugene McCarthy.
Such candidates get heard here. It takes time and grit and a strong handshake. But if they have all that, in New Hampshire they have an electorate that still takes seriously the voter responsibility of hearing what candidates have to say, in person, on a street corner or at a town hall or coffee shop.
Political pros don’t like that. They sense only danger in letting their candidates actually engage with voters and subject themselves to perhaps unsettling questions or issues. That is why they can’t stand New Hampshire. That is why New Hampshire is important. | 2022-12-11T08:01:38Z | www.unionleader.com | Primary importance: NH made for underdogs | Editorials | unionleader.com | https://www.unionleader.com/opinion/editorials/primary-importance-nh-made-for-underdogs/article_616b515d-fb3e-57f9-877a-9505f0349eff.html | https://www.unionleader.com/opinion/editorials/primary-importance-nh-made-for-underdogs/article_616b515d-fb3e-57f9-877a-9505f0349eff.html |
Rep. Matt Wilhelm
THE NEW term for New Hampshire’s House of Representatives has officially begun, with voters’ choices in November bringing palpable levels of enthusiasm and hope for a new era of bipartisan cooperation. Granite Staters have elected the most evenly split House in the 400-member chamber’s history, sending 201 Republicans and 198 Democrats to Concord.
Symbolic of the razor-thin margin in the full House, the race for the seat representing Rochester’s Ward 4 ended in a tie, triggering a rare but occasionally invoked right of the full legislature to settle the race itself.
While infrequent, tie House elections have occurred on a few occasions over the past century. New Hampshire’s Constitution affords the legislature wide latitude in deciding how to settle ties, including by simply picking which candidate to seat. But as New Hampshire’s House Clerk explained in a 2014 memo to Democratic and Republican leaders, “the legislature has never been willing to intrude upon the wishes of the voters in any particular instance such as this.”
When Rochester’s Ward 4 tie was confirmed via recount on Nov. 16, outgoing Democratic Leader David Cote immediately called on the legislature to settle the race through special run-off election, citing both precedent and the obvious belief that Rochester’s residents should determine Rochester’s representatives.
Republicans didn’t make any public comment at the time, but in the leadup to Organization Day this week there seemed to be bipartisan agreement to follow precedent and settle the issue fairly. In an early, seemingly sincere sign of bipartisanship, a resolution calling for a special run-off election was co-sponsored by myself and Majority Leader Jason Osborne.
In the week leading up to Organization Day, I had been cautioned that a member may make a motion to simply seat one of the candidates. On Organization Day itself, rumors grew that Republicans were lining up behind an attempt to seat their own party’s candidate, David Walker, who just happened to be in attendance at the State House.
The Republican scheme became fully unmasked rather humorously when, prior to Rochester’s election even coming up on the House floor, the NH GOP gleefully tweeted “Congratulations, Rep. David Walker!” from their official account before quickly deleting it.
Before Republicans could go through with their plan, I moved that the House take up the special election resolution. A Republican member moved to table it, using the ridiculous argument that an election likely to be held in February would negatively impact people’s holiday season.
Despite the prior agreement to co-sponsor the resolution, Republican leadership was absent when it came time to defend it. Not only did they fail to publicly back the call for a special election, every single Republican member of Speaker Packard’s leadership team voted to table it.
Fortunately, the tabling motion failed on a 187-193 vote, with a few Republicans joining all Democrats in opposition. After I spoke of the importance of adopting the resolution calling for a special election, Majority Leader Osborne got up and asked Republican members to do the same, and it was passed on a voice vote.
As the Union Leader’s Kevin Landrigan has pointed out, the failure of Republicans to override the will of Rochester’s voters came not from a sudden change of heart, but from too many of their members leaving session early after electing the Secretary of State.
For Democrats, it was never a question of attendance or political calculus — it was a matter of principle. As we stated from the start, ensuring the people of Rochester will determine who represents them in the New Hampshire House is simply a philosophical issue of fairness.
This episode made clear that despite all the overtures, when push comes to shove, brute partisanship is still the top priority for House Republicans. Even when the subject matter is the fundamental right of voters to choose their own representatives.
I remain optimistic that we can work with the GOP to accomplish great things for New Hampshire this term. It is clear, however, that we must approach our work with healthy skepticism and consistently verify that the best interests of Granite Staters are at heart.
New Hampshire voters expect and deserve better than they got from the GOP on Organization Day. In this closely divided legislative session, Granite Staters can count on House Democrats to fight for our shared values, which include fairness, democracy and opportunity for all — and against the kind of brazen political power grabs like we saw attempted last week.
Manchester’s Matt Wilhelm is a Democrat representing Hillsborough — District 42. He was recently elected Minority Leader of the New Hampshire House of Representatives. | 2022-12-11T08:01:44Z | www.unionleader.com | Matt Wilhelm: Skeptically trust and constantly verify | Op-eds | unionleader.com | https://www.unionleader.com/opinion/op-eds/matt-wilhelm-skeptically-trust-and-constantly-verify/article_a24cb9ff-a5c3-5ae9-ac71-9fadc1b78c1a.html | https://www.unionleader.com/opinion/op-eds/matt-wilhelm-skeptically-trust-and-constantly-verify/article_a24cb9ff-a5c3-5ae9-ac71-9fadc1b78c1a.html |
JOSEPH RIMKUS
By Joey Roulette and Steve Gorman Reuters
The gumdrop-shaped Orion capsule, carrying a simulated crew of three mannequins wired with sensors, was due to parachute into the Pacific at 9:39 a.m. near Guadalupe Island, off Mexico's Baja California peninsula.
Orion was nearing the end of its 25-day mission less than a week after passing about 79 miles above the moon in a lunar fly-by and about two weeks after reaching its farthest point in space, nearly 270,000 miles from Earth.
After jettisoning the service module housing its main rocket system, the capsule was expected to re-enter Earth's atmosphere at 24,500 miles per hour -- more than 30 times the speed of sound -- for a fiery, 20-minute plunge to the ocean.
Re-entry marks the single most critical phase of Orion's journey, testing whether its newly designed heat shield will withstand atmospheric friction expected to raise temperatures outside the capsule to nearly 5,000 degrees Fahrenheit.
In yet another new twist, Orion is programmed to employ a novel "skip entry" descent in which the capsule briefly dips into the top of the atmosphere, flies back out and re-enters -- a braking maneuver that also provides more control in steering the vehicle closer to its intended splashdown target.
Six die as vintage planes collide at Texas air show | 2022-12-11T22:05:10Z | www.unionleader.com | NASA's Orion capsule heads for splashdown after Artemis I flight around moon | National | unionleader.com | https://www.unionleader.com/news/national/nasas-orion-capsule-heads-for-splashdown-after-artemis-i-flight-around-moon/article_f25f8564-ea05-5975-8712-1772b7c9f39b.html | https://www.unionleader.com/news/national/nasas-orion-capsule-heads-for-splashdown-after-artemis-i-flight-around-moon/article_f25f8564-ea05-5975-8712-1772b7c9f39b.html |
Dec 10, 2022; San Francisco, California, USA; Boston Celtics forward Jayson Tatum (0) controls the ball against Golden State Warriors forward Draymond Green (left) in the second quarter at the Chase Center. Mandatory Credit: Cary Edmondson-USA TODAY Sports
Dec 10, 2022; San Francisco, California, USA; Boston Celtics forward Jayson Tatum (0) reacts after a foul call in the second quarter against the Golden State Warriors at the Chase Center. Mandatory Credit: Cary Edmondson-USA TODAY Sports
By Steve Hewitt Boston Herald (TNS)
NBA: Boston Celtics at Golden State Warriors
SAN FRANCISCO -- On one sequence late in the fourth quarter, the Celtics trailing by double digits, Jayson Tatum found himself wide open for a 3-pointer. It clanked off the back of the rim. Following his own miss, Tatum grabbed the long rebound, made one dribble to his left and rose for a layup over Draymond Green.
Tatum’s night was painfully familiar. In last season’s NBA Finals, he didn’t perform his best -- capped by a woeful 13-point effort in the Celtics’ Game 6 loss that clinched the Warriors’ championship. That defeat fueled a drive to get back to the Finals and a motivation to get over the hump this season, which he has shown as an MVP frontrunner for the league-leading Celtics.
But on a rare night in San Francisco, against the same team that gave him fits six months ago, Tatum looked mortal again. It happens to the best -– especially when facing a dynasty on its home floor -– but it proved as yet another reminder for Tatum and the Celtics that they’re not untouchable, and their star still has room to grow.
Even in the midst of an MVP campaign to start this season, Tatum has had some off nights. But while the nature of Saturday’s performance -– with the national spotlight back on and underperforming again in the rematch -– will create more attention, Tatum isn’t treating it any differently than one of his typical monster efforts. No sense in getting worked up over a game in December, even if it felt like more than a regular game. | 2022-12-11T22:05:34Z | www.unionleader.com | Celtics’ Jayson Tatum reacts to another poor performance vs. Warriors: ‘Got to be better’ | Celtics | unionleader.com | https://www.unionleader.com/sports/celtics/celtics-jayson-tatum-reacts-to-another-poor-performance-vs-warriors-got-to-be-better/article_08586979-a3e5-5e08-b8ce-8d546de2ce6c.html | https://www.unionleader.com/sports/celtics/celtics-jayson-tatum-reacts-to-another-poor-performance-vs-warriors-got-to-be-better/article_08586979-a3e5-5e08-b8ce-8d546de2ce6c.html |
Nov 20, 2022; Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA; New England Patriots quarterback Mac Jones (10) in action against the Minnesota Vikings at U.S. Bank Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Jeffrey Becker-USA TODAY Sports
For Patriots, it's crunch time
By Andrew Callahan Boston Herald (TNS)
Even at 6-6, while they reel from bad losses and doubt swirls around them, you can say this for the Patriots.
A two-game losing streak dropped the Patriots out of the AFC playoff picture entering Week 14. If they lose their next two at Arizona and Las Vegas, they’ll fall out of the frame all together.
According to FiveThirtyEight’s NFL projections, going 0-2 on their upcoming West Coast road trip would drop the Patriots’ playoff odds to 4%. Entering Week 14 they sat at 28%, odds worse than the Chargers’, despite the fact the Pats hold a tiebreaker over Los Angeles, which is also 6-6.
The Patriots will face Hopkins without starting cornerback Jalen Mills, who has been ruled out of Monday night’s game. His teammates in the secondary realize that with our without Mills, how well they limit Hopkins -- and then Davante Adams in Las Vegas -- could decide their season.
"There's no weeks where we'll come in and say, 'This guy's just OK,'" Pats captain Devin McCourty said this week. "For the rest of the season, we've got all really good wide receiver groups." | 2022-12-12T00:59:32Z | www.unionleader.com | For Patriots, it's crunch time | Patriots | unionleader.com | https://www.unionleader.com/sports/patriots/for-patriots-its-crunch-time/article_dad1dee8-10ff-554c-82e2-24829da71e4b.html | https://www.unionleader.com/sports/patriots/for-patriots-its-crunch-time/article_dad1dee8-10ff-554c-82e2-24829da71e4b.html |
The Delta Airlines ticket counter at Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport, May 27, 2022. Service costs, such as airfares, continue to be inflationary.
John Spink/The Atlanta Journal-Constitution/TNS
Gasoline is cheaper than a year ago. Home price gains have slowed. And used car prices have leveled out. This has helped push down the annual inflation rate from its June peak. And that has given the Federal Reserve confidence to consider relaxing its pace of rate hikes ever-so-slightly.
Yet, inflation has not slowed in the category where most consumer spending occurs — services.
While the headline Consumer Price Index measurement of inflation has slowed four months in a row through October, the inflation gauge for services has continued hitting 40-year highs this fall. The November data will be released on Tuesday in the week ahead.
“Services less energy services” is the econo-speak label for what is the biggest component of the inflation barometer. This category captures all kinds of expenses — monthly housing costs, such as rent or mortgages, airfares, pet care, car repair, and trips to the dentist.
Energy and food costs justifiably get the bulk of attention from consumers. These prices jump around quite a bit — how much were those hot dogs last month? — so we tend to notice them more and overweight their influence. They certainly shape consumers’ expectations about inflation, which influence spending behaviors and the Federal Reserve’s open mouth and Open Market efforts.
Central bankers have been sending explicit messages for weeks in speeches and interviews that they have been growing more comfortable with the inflation trends while reassuring markets they are far from done raising interest rates. After hiking its target short-term rate by three-quarters of a percentage point four meetings in a row, the Fed is expected to increase its rate by a half of a percentage point when it announces its latest decision on Wednesday.
While a less aggressive boost to borrowing costs has been expected, it will mean the agency has increased rates by more than four percentage points this year. That’s the fastest pace of monetary tightening since 1980, when the Fed raised rates 10 percentage points in six months. And Fed Chairman Jerome Powell can be expected to continue his steely talk about efforts to conquer inflation during his press conference after the group’s decision.
Investor expectations are captive to the Fed’s commitment to slow down still-high inflation while easing the pace of rate hikes. | 2022-12-12T03:36:04Z | www.unionleader.com | The Week Ahead: Where inflation is not slowing down even as the Fed may ease up (a little) | Business | unionleader.com | https://www.unionleader.com/news/business/columns/the-week-ahead-where-inflation-is-not-slowing-down-even-as-the-fed-may-ease/article_e5042908-dfc2-5919-893f-fef48132747b.html | https://www.unionleader.com/news/business/columns/the-week-ahead-where-inflation-is-not-slowing-down-even-as-the-fed-may-ease/article_e5042908-dfc2-5919-893f-fef48132747b.html |
An Alexandria, Virginia-based nonprofit has announced it will intervene on behalf of parents in a lawsuit by a New Hampshire teachers’ union to stop the popular Education Freedom Account program.
The Institute for Justice (IJ) said Friday it intends to intervene in the lawsuit on behalf of parents currently using the EFAs to fund the education they choose for their children.
“Halfway through the school year, opponents of Education Freedom Accounts are trying to take away parents’ educational options,” said IJ Educational Choice Attorney David Hodges.
“The New Hampshire Legislature’s mechanism for funding the accounts is constitutional and the Institute for Justice is ready to defend it.”
Deb Howes, president of the American Federation of Teachers-NH (AFT), filed the lawsuit last Thursday in Merrimack County Superior Court in Concord against state Education Commissioner Frank Edelblut, claiming his department is violating the New Hampshire Constitution and state law by using state lottery dollars and money from the Education Trust Fund to fund the state’s private-school voucher program.
On Friday, Senate President Jeb Bradley, R-Wolfeboro, called the lawsuit “unfortunate.”
“It’s unfortunate that AFT has sued to block New Hampshire’s very successful Education Freedom Account program that has given 3,000 students of families of modest means the opportunities they need to get the best education possible,” said Bradley in a statement. “AFT’s targeting of low-income students is inappropriate and counterproductive.”
Karl and Ellen Jackson of Pembroke, whose children participate in the EFA program, are two of the parents represented by IJ.
Megan Ebbam, a parent of three EFA students, called the program a “huge blessing” for her family.
“The EFA program really catapulted us into being able to access that which we could not afford for our children,” said Ebba. “Our kids are thriving under the EFA program. New Hampshire cares about its students, and the EFA program is proof of that.”
Kate Baker Demers is executive director of the Children’s Scholarship Fund New Hampshire, which administers the EFA program for the state.
She said her organization operates the EFA program in accordance with the law and “significant oversight” from the DOE. She also said her organization has heard from parents fearful the lawsuit will impact or interrupt their children’s education.
“Justice will prevail, and their children’s education will not be disrupted,” Demers said.
In 2020, IJ challenged the New Hampshire tuitioning program’s restrictions on parents choosing religious schools. The lawsuit resulted in the Legislature eliminating the unconstitutional restrictions last year. And in 2014, IJ successfully defended New Hampshire’s tax credit scholarship program at the state Supreme Court. | 2022-12-12T03:36:16Z | www.unionleader.com | Institute for Justice to intervene on behalf of parents in voucher program lawsuit | Courts | unionleader.com | https://www.unionleader.com/news/courts/institute-for-justice-to-intervene-on-behalf-of-parents-in-voucher-program-lawsuit/article_29d4fabe-f830-5bcc-9ca3-684437226a7f.html | https://www.unionleader.com/news/courts/institute-for-justice-to-intervene-on-behalf-of-parents-in-voucher-program-lawsuit/article_29d4fabe-f830-5bcc-9ca3-684437226a7f.html |
Fatal crash closes part of Spaulding Turnpike in Dover
According to McShane, a tractor-trailer unit traveling southbound on the Spaulding Turnpike crossed into northbound traffic, colliding with three vehicles.
One occupant from a separate vehicle was taken to Portsmouth Regional Hospital with non-life-threatening injuries, McShane said. The tractor-trailer driver was taken to Portsmouth Regional Hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.
“The sole occupant and driver of the third passenger vehicle succumbed to their injuries,” McShane said in a release.
Spaulding Turnpike northbound was expected to remain closed for several hours Monday evening as the New Hampshire State Police Accident Reconstruction Team investigates the accident. | 2022-12-12T23:54:26Z | www.unionleader.com | Fatal crash closes part of Spaulding Turnpike in Dover | Public Safety | unionleader.com | https://www.unionleader.com/news/safety/fatal-crash-closes-part-of-spaulding-turnpike-in-dover/article_557d9f47-630a-5fc6-94d4-4a3bd8985d70.html | https://www.unionleader.com/news/safety/fatal-crash-closes-part-of-spaulding-turnpike-in-dover/article_557d9f47-630a-5fc6-94d4-4a3bd8985d70.html |
Leaders from both parties in the New Hampshire House have signed onto legislation that would legalize marijuana in the Granite State, advocates for legalization announced on Monday.
Republican Majority Leader Jason Osborne of Auburn will sponsor the legislation, which will allow adults over 21 to possess and give away up to four ounces of cannabis, according to a statement issued by the ACLU-New Hampshire. Democratic Minority Leader Matt Wilhelm of Manchester will co-sponsor the bill.
The ACLU listed other supporters: the free market-leaning Americans for Prosperity-New Hampshire and marijuana-advocacy organizations such as New Hampshire Cannabis Association, Prime ATC and the Marijuana Policy Project.
“New Hampshire’s war on marijuana does not make us safer, wastes taxpayer dollars, is enforced with a staggering racial bias, and ruins lives — it’s time for it to end,” said Frank Knaack, policy director for the ACLU-New Hampshire.
The legislation has yet to be printed, but the ACLU provided several details:
Past marijuana possession convictions would be annulled automatically.
• Local government would be able to regulate cannabis licenses in their area.
• Possession of more than four ounces outside the home would fall under current law, which could result in a misdemeanor conviction.
• People over 21 could possess more than four ounces in their own home or any amount produced from their own plants at that secure location.
• Those 18 to 20 years old would face a civil fine of up to $100 if caught with marijuana.
• Minors arrested with marijuana would have to appear in juvenile court, where a judge would be expected to order a substance abuse evaluation.
• Any sale of cannabis would remain illegal, except for state-licensed stores.
The New Hampshire House has repeatedly voted to legalize marijuana, but the 24-member Senate has consistently blocked the measure.
During this year’s campaign, Gov. Chris Sununu told WMUR-TV that he’s always said now is not the time to legalize, given the fentanyl crisis.
“You’ve got to make sure you’re dealing with the crisis first before you take other aggressive steps,” he said.
In an email on Monday, his office stressed that he signed the state’s decriminalization law after years of inaction by Democratic governors.
“Should (the House and Senate) reach consensus and compromise, the governor would review any such legislation and determine whether it’s in the best interests of New Hampshire’s citizens,” said Sununu spokesman Ben Vihstadt.
In statements distributed by the ACLU, both Osborne and Wilhelm noted the additional revenues that would come from marijuana taxation.
“This bill brings a solution to pay off our pension liability, reduce property taxes, provide additional resources for law enforcement, while restricting minors from accessing cannabis,” Osborne said.
Wilhelm said New Hampshire has failed by not legalizing the drug.
“By legalizing cannabis, New Hampshire can stop squandering tax dollars and instead provide a significant source of new revenue to fund critical health and law enforcement programs while lowering local property taxes,” he said.
Cannabis sales begin in Vermont, leaving New Hampshire an island in a sea of green
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State monopoly to sell pot hits Senate roadblock
CONCORD — A key Senate committee voted unanimously Wednesday to recommend killing a House-passed bill to make New Hampshire the first state to…
ACLU: Despite decriminalization, New Hampshire numbered 1,500 pot arrests in 2020
Despite the decriminalization of marijuana five years ago, New Hampshire police made nearly 1,500 marijuana arrests in 2020, and Black people …
Legalizing pot for adults survives final House test
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Aclu-nh | 2022-12-13T01:52:11Z | www.unionleader.com | Democrat, GOP leaders in NH House back weed legalization | State | unionleader.com | https://www.unionleader.com/news/politics/state/democrat-gop-leaders-in-nh-house-back-weed-legalization/article_96657b8e-b5c0-5dda-9834-53cd839c6e56.html | https://www.unionleader.com/news/politics/state/democrat-gop-leaders-in-nh-house-back-weed-legalization/article_96657b8e-b5c0-5dda-9834-53cd839c6e56.html |
Bruins left wing Jake DeBrusk (74) celebrates along his bench after scoring a goal against the Vegas Golden Knights on Sunday night.
DeBrusk gets some payback in Bruins’ 3-1 win in Vegas
Jake DeBrusk had his chances to stick it to old coach Bruce Cassidy when the Vegas Golden Knights handed the Boston Bruins a shootout loss at TD Garden a week ago.
The Bruins winger would not let a second opportunity slip through his fingers.
DeBrusk, who famously butted heads with the former Bruins coach to the point that he requested a trade, scored Boston’s go-ahead goal early in the third period and it held up as the game-winner in their 3-1 victory over the Knights in Vegas. And, oh, DeBrusk doled out a half-dozen hits, too.
The Bruins took their first lead of the two-game season series at 2:10 of the third period on a beautiful play.
Taylor Hall nudged the puck into the offensive zone for Pavel Zacha. The centerman took it deep before making a sweet saucer pass to DeBrusk, who lifted it over goalie Logan Thompson, setting off one of DeBrusk’s patented arm-pumping celebrations.
“(It meant) a lot. It was pure emotion and it felt really good. It was awesome,” DeBrusk told NESN. “Obviously it was a special play by (Zacha) and a special play by Hallsy to get it in the zone. It was a whole line effort and I was just the beneficiary.”
Much like the first encounter between the two teams, it was a highly entertaining affair that suggests the two teams could put on a great Stanley Cup Final. Linus Ullmark continued to make a case for the Vezina Trophy by stopping 30 of 31 shots — including a couple of breakaways — to improve to 16-1 on the season.
“I think if we had 10 more minutes against them last time, we would have scored two more goals — or even one more minute of overtime,” said DeBrusk. “Obviously, it’s a good team over there. They’ve been a good team since they came in the league and they added some pieces that weren’t playing tonight. But they know how to play and they know how to play the right way. And they’re an offensive team so we knew we just had to stick to our game plan and find ways to make the most of opportunities. And it felt great to do it.”
After the DeBrusk goal, Brad Marchand had a chance to put the Bruins up by two when David Pastrnak sprung him for a breakaway, but Thompson came up with a twisting pad save.
Both teams were down some firepower. The Bruins were playing without David Krejci, who was termed day-to-day with a lower body injury.
but Vegas was not shedding any tears for them. The Knights were missing defensemen Alex Pietrangelo (personal) and Shea Theodore (lower body) and, in a late scratch, center Jack Eichel (lower body) was back on the shelf. | 2022-12-13T01:52:29Z | www.unionleader.com | DeBrusk gets some payback in Bruins’ 3-1 win in Vegas | Bruins | unionleader.com | https://www.unionleader.com/sports/bruins/debrusk-gets-some-payback-in-bruins-3-1-win-in-vegas/article_5a6679c0-6712-5a68-9a8f-a83b302303d2.html | https://www.unionleader.com/sports/bruins/debrusk-gets-some-payback-in-bruins-3-1-win-in-vegas/article_5a6679c0-6712-5a68-9a8f-a83b302303d2.html |
High school hockey: Jeremy Baker set to coach hometown team
Before Jeremy Baker could accept the position, he had to talk to his son, Zach.
Baker turned down offers to join other NHIAA coaching staffs before but could not pass up the opportunity to apply for the head coach position for the Manchester co-op boys hockey team.
Zach is a sophomore at Pinkerton Academy and plays for the Astros boys hockey team, which competes in Division I against Manchester. The two talked during the hiring process about being on opposite benches and Baker having to miss some of Zach’s games if he took the job.
Zach did not hesitate. He told Baker to take the job.
Coaching is Baker’s passion and the Manchester native’s heart is set on his hometown.
“Once I knew (the position) was open, it was definitely something I wanted,” Baker said.
Baker takes over a Manchester team that went 9-9-0 and qualified for the Division I playoffs in its first year as a co-op last season. The program has about 27 players this season between its JV and varsity teams who attend Manchester Central, Memorial, West, Manchester School of Technology and The Founders Academy.
Baker’s coaching staff features names familiar to Manchester’s players and with the glory days of high school hockey in the Queen City.
Baker played three seasons at Memorial under legendary coach Wally Tafe Jr. and won the 1989 state championship as a sophomore assistant captain for the Crusaders. He then played at Lawrence (Mass.) Academy, Elmira College and in the ECHL and now-defunct United Hockey League before beginning his coaching career with the Manchester Flames around 1999.
Baker coaches the Manchester Flames U18 team during the NHIAA offseason. His Flames U16 team won the New Hampshire state championship last season.
Manchester’s assistant coaches are Kenny Roberge, who played for Memorial’s 1978 state championship team and Tafe Jr.’s son and former assistant coach, Matt. Eric Fischer, who was Manchester’s co-coach last year and previously led Central, also helps coach the team.
Roberge’s 1978 Memorial team was the first Manchester public school to win a state championship.
Junior forward Joey Velez is Manchester’s captain. Junior forward Lukas Tafe, who is Matt’s son, junior defenseman Mack Tripp and senior forward Owen Kelley will serve as assistant captains.
With the five or six freshmen who joined the varsity team this year, Baker said he thinks Manchester will have a little more depth than it did last year.
Baker said his goal is to at least keep Manchester around .500 this season and that the program’s future looks promising with a bigger influx of freshmen coming in next year.
“I just want them to be hard-working, to be honest with you,” Baker said of his players. “Work ethic is everything.”
Baker said he hopes his involvement with the Flames will lead to more Manchester players joining the program when they reach high school instead of attending other schools or playing for club teams.
“What it gives me, No. 1, is an opportunity to see them coming through because most of the Manchester kids do play for the Manchester Flames,” Baker said. “If they have aspirations of maybe trying to do something after high school, whether it’s prep school or juniors, or they have aspirations of playing college hockey, then they have a coach that knows what he’s doing and I think that’s a huge factor.”
Manchester has scrimmaged Trinity and played in a jamboree with Trinity and Division II Merrimack so far but Baker said that players are buying into his vision.
Baker, who loves structure and discipline as a coach, said one of his biggest focuses right now is for his players to come together as a team and play as one.
Manchester opens its season at Nashua South/Pelham on Wednesday at 7:10 p.m.
“My theme to them is I don’t really care where you go to school,” Baker said. “We’re not playing for Central, Memorial, West. We’re playing for Manchester and you need to act like a team and be a team so that means, when you come here, we’re all together.
“That’s something I’m preaching to them is teams don’t divide. Teams stay together.” | 2022-12-13T01:52:35Z | www.unionleader.com | High school hockey: Jeremy Baker set to coach hometown team | Sports | unionleader.com | https://www.unionleader.com/sports/highschool/high-school-hockey-jeremy-baker-set-to-coach-hometown-team/article_621be181-5fb0-5b9c-ba98-d5d81f99981b.html | https://www.unionleader.com/sports/highschool/high-school-hockey-jeremy-baker-set-to-coach-hometown-team/article_621be181-5fb0-5b9c-ba98-d5d81f99981b.html |
FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried poses for a picture, in an unspecified location, in this undated handout picture, obtained by Reuters on July 5, 2022.
FTX/VIA REUTERS
Former FTX CEO arrested in Bahamas, U.S. to unveil charges
The attorney general’s office for The Bahamas said it proceeded with the arrest after receiving formal confirmation of charges against Bankman-Fried, adding that it expects he will be extradited to the United States. | 2022-12-13T01:52:48Z | www.unionleader.com | Former FTX CEO arrested in Bahamas, U.S. to unveil charges | Wire | unionleader.com | https://www.unionleader.com/wire/international/former-ftx-ceo-arrested-in-bahamas-u-s-to-unveil-charges/article_009c177f-4bce-566a-8e47-fca723e319f2.html | https://www.unionleader.com/wire/international/former-ftx-ceo-arrested-in-bahamas-u-s-to-unveil-charges/article_009c177f-4bce-566a-8e47-fca723e319f2.html |
DEAR HELOISE: Yesterday, our HOA Board of Directors took a tour of our local wastewater plant.
Let me tell you, it was quite an eye-opener. Flushable wipes should not be flushed down the toilet. They should be thrown in the trash, as they do not break down and can cause havoc in the sewer system.
Clogged pipes can cause costly backups in your neighborhood and even in your home.
Do not put bacon grease, cooking oil, shortening, lard, butter or margarine, gravy, mayonnaise, salad dressing, sour cream or meat drippings down the drain, as it too clogs the sewage system.
The proper way to dispose of used cooking oil is by letting it cool and pouring it into a sealable container (such as an empty water jug or mayonnaise jar) and placing the sealed container in the trash.
These are just a few things you can do to prevent sewage backup.
I read your column in the Houston Chronicle.
— Patricia Roberts, Bellaire, Texas
DEAR HELOISE: I would like to add a few ideas you missed for old blankets and comforters that could provide humanitarian support or support to animal shelters.
Use old blankets or comforters to cover a homeless person laying on the ground, or just offer it to them. Remember that unhoused people are someone’s loved one.
Drop a load of blankets, comforters and towels off at your local animal shelter. Most dogs are housed on cement or sling beds and aren’t provided any comfort or warmth.
I hope you’ll post these additional ideas. Thank you.
— Gaye S., via email
DEAR HELOISE: I live in the New Orleans area, and many people are just now having their roof replaced because of the damage from Hurricane Ida last year.
Unfortunately, some roofers have accidentally disconnected the exhaust pipe of central heating units that vent carbon monoxide outside (usually through the roof).
Most people have no idea this happened until their HVAC technician tells them. Not everyone has carbon monoxide detectors. This could kill everyone in the house!
Please check your vent and get a detector!
— Vicki Frame, Kenner, Louisiana
DEAR HELOISE: Someone recently suggested using a trash bag on the car seat to make it easier to turn and get out of the car.
I didn’t have a trash bag handy, but I did have one of those vinyl cover grocery tote bags you can buy from the store. It’s more durable and won’t bunch up either.
— Marcy Menifee, California | 2022-12-13T05:33:53Z | www.unionleader.com | Heloise: Disposing of waste properly | Human Interest | unionleader.com | https://www.unionleader.com/news/human_interest/heloise-disposing-of-waste-properly/article_7c00517d-69e0-520a-9874-7720a0f12b67.html | https://www.unionleader.com/news/human_interest/heloise-disposing-of-waste-properly/article_7c00517d-69e0-520a-9874-7720a0f12b67.html |
Democrat delegation failed to protect our NH primary status
To the Editor: Sen. Jeanne Shaheen has announced that she is going to protect New Hampshire’s first-in-the-nation primary status. The voters of New Hampshire need to be aware of political rhetoric vs what she actually does.
Are we led to believe that she knew nothing about this before the recent election? It is also interesting, but not surprising, that recently elected Sen. Maggie Hassan has nothing to say as she is now in office for six more years.
Would the issue of changing the primary date have been an issue for Senator Hassan?
Senator Shaheen and Senator Hassan should be in contact with the Democratic National Committee now. They should be in contact with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer. This should be a team effort similar to when they posted both their faces on the same political billboard not too long ago. Platitudes will serve absolutely no purpose for the residents of New Hampshire.
It will be interesting to watch this play out, however it does not look too promising. Republican Governor Chris Sununu is probably the last line of defense. Has the governor been contacted by our U.S. senators with a pledge of support? This is a simple question that requires an answer now. | 2022-12-13T05:34:12Z | www.unionleader.com | Letter: Our Democrat delegation has some explaining to do | Letters to the Editor | unionleader.com | https://www.unionleader.com/opinion/letters_to_editor/letter-our-democrat-delegation-has-some-explaining-to-do/article_aa96788f-29ff-58eb-ad44-d784985ff7ad.html | https://www.unionleader.com/opinion/letters_to_editor/letter-our-democrat-delegation-has-some-explaining-to-do/article_aa96788f-29ff-58eb-ad44-d784985ff7ad.html |
There is a common sense way to better protect our schools
To the Editor: Recently, I have given more thought to the school shootings tragedy. I want to share a solution I think may help the readers put thought into the issue.
Having no kids in school of my own, I can only imagine the frustration of parents with children in school. Collaboratively we can stop the senseless madness of children being killed attending our schools.
The way to stop more of these senseless acts of violence on our children is to build our police stations out in front of our schools. Simple, the way it once was and the way it should be. | 2022-12-13T05:34:18Z | www.unionleader.com | Letter: There is a common sense way to better protect schools | Letters to the Editor | unionleader.com | https://www.unionleader.com/opinion/letters_to_editor/letter-there-is-a-common-sense-way-to-better-protect-schools/article_62b33693-843d-5b0d-a77f-017ccd250027.html | https://www.unionleader.com/opinion/letters_to_editor/letter-there-is-a-common-sense-way-to-better-protect-schools/article_62b33693-843d-5b0d-a77f-017ccd250027.html |
Politics seems to be supplanting religion as our basis for morality, character, and purpose. Less than half of the American population now claim church membership. A majority still claim belief in God, though the attendant knowledge and intensity varies widely. But we sure do get riled up by elections, election controversies, and legislation.
This trend manifests itself in some curious ways.
For instance, have you noticed how seldom morality is mentioned when discussing societal problems? Gun violence and abortion, to name two prominent issues, are cast as legal matters, not as moral concerns. And the proposed solution to most contemporary problems is that there should be an attendant law.
A society owns a proliferation of laws when the spiritual dynamic is lost. The United States possesses more civil rights laws than any nation on earth. Yet bigots persist, in all races and all classes. That’s not a political problem, but a spiritual challenge.
Politics has come to dominate our neverending news cycle. Increasingly news reporting and commentary resemble sports talk, though sports talk is certainly more reliable and less biased. More based upon facts, too.
There was a time in which religious belief could be a significant factor in relationships. It still may be, but less so. Marrying across a religious divide, probably because religion is not important, is quite common. Some 27% of the population with no ultimate and assured belief beyond this mortal coil. Yet conflicting political outlooks are increasingly a red flag in personal relationships and family gatherings. How many public warnings were issued about Thanksgiving dinner?
And the major events of life — births, marriages and deaths — always and certainly own their legal components, but now less often their spiritual aspects. One that is rather noticeable is that many funerals are now “Celebrations of Life.” Nothing wrong with that in and of itself. But left out is any notion of the resurrection of the dead, the afterlife. There is the implicit suggestion that this world is all there is, and the troubling inference that attendant contemporary politics are the ultimate importance.
Actual anti-theists, those ardently opposed to the concept of God, are relatively few. Oh, they can be noisy, usually about the separation of church and state. Somewhat humorous in the discussion is the wide ignorance that Thomas Jefferson actually employed those words to ensure a clergyman that the church would not be harmed by the state, not the other way around.
Mine is not any lament for some good old days that never actually existed in Norman Rockwell’s artistic world. Nor is it a plea for quietism in citizenship. I spent my professional life defending this great country of ours and would proudly do so again. Rather it is a concern about where we place our ultimate hope and trust.
Our passing political affairs are just that. Passing. And to be all wound up for certain people in politics and causes is ultimately a losing proposition. Yes, we have had our Abraham Lincoln, George C. Marshall and Colin Powell. But I expect most of us could name a large number of supposedly public servants whom we would trust as far as we could throw a piano.
Robert Louis Stevenson once wrote satirically about the hope of utopians and electioneering: “Be ye our conscience, make laws so wise, and continue from year to year to administer them wisely, that they will save us from ourselves and make us righteous and happy, world without end. Amen.” He then put forth some caustic opinions about the parliament of his day.
The Psalmist wrote “Put not your trust in princes, nor in any child of man.....” (Psalm 146:3). Good advice for the Advent and Christmas season.
Ray Brown lives in Londonderry. | 2022-12-13T05:34:30Z | www.unionleader.com | Ray Brown: 'Put not your trust in princes, nor in any child of man' | Op-eds | unionleader.com | https://www.unionleader.com/opinion/op-eds/ray-brown-put-not-your-trust-in-princes-nor-in-any-child-of-man/article_fbfab971-034f-5137-be9b-7f6cf95c3f29.html | https://www.unionleader.com/opinion/op-eds/ray-brown-put-not-your-trust-in-princes-nor-in-any-child-of-man/article_fbfab971-034f-5137-be9b-7f6cf95c3f29.html |
FILE PHOTO: A 3D printed Twitter logo is seen in front of a displayed photo of Elon Musk in this illustration taken October 27, 2022.
By Joseph Menn The Washington Post
Elon Musk escalated his battle of words with previous managers of Twitter into risky new territory over the weekend, allying himself with far-right crusaders against a purported epidemic of child sex abuse and implying that the company's former head of trust and safety had a permissive view of sexual activity by minors.
In follow-up tweets Saturday, he misrepresented a section of a graduate dissertation from recently departed safety chief Yoel Roth. "Looks like Yoel is arguing in favor of children being able to access adult Internet services in his PhD thesis," he wrote.
Musk also commented on an old tweet in which Roth wrote, "Can high school students ever meaningfully consent to sex with their teachers?" Roth did not answer his own question, merely linking to an article about a Washington Supreme Court ruling that found a teacher in the state could be convicted of a crime for having sex with a student who was over the age of 18. The age of consent in Washington is 16, but a majority of the court ruled that Washington state lawmakers intended to criminalize teacher-student sexual contact for all students, even those over 18. Twenty-one is the age limit for high school in the state.
"This explains a lot," Musk wrote to his more than 100 million followers. Roth's two-year-old tweet about students then drew new replies calling for him to be jailed.
Several internet safety experts said that Musk's comments put Roth at grave risk. Roth, who is openly gay, worked past Musk's October takeover. He then resigned and said Musk's hands-off approach to moderation was increasing danger to users.
"He's putting Yoel's life in danger and he knows it," tweeted Alejandra Caraballo, an instructor at Harvard Law School. Roth did not respond to a request for comment.
In imputing nefarious motives to Twitter's former managers and saying a crime had been committed, Musk adopted techniques used by the QAnon conspiracy movement, which falsely claims that Democrats and elites are running child sex abuse networks. Promoted by Alex Jones and other far-right operatives, claims of Democratic involvement in child abuse, QAnon's precursor, inspired a shooting at Comet Pizza in Northwest Washington when a follower of the theory searched the restaurant intending to rescue any children trapped in a basement that did not exist. The incident became known as "Pizzagate."
In the past year, right-wing activists have harnessed some of the fervor of that theory to tar drag queens, transgender people, gay teachers, and others as "groomers," or adults bent on seducing children. This has fed into threats and real-world violence: A recent five-fatality shooting at a gay bar in Colorado with transgender victims is being charged as a hate crime.
Musk has accused critics of pedophilia in the past, most notably Vernon Unsworth, who helped rescue children from a Thailand cave and faulted Musk's much-hyped contribution to the effort. Unsworth sued Musk for tweeting that he was a "pedo guy," but lost the case after Musk testified that he only meant to insult Unsworth and did not mean to accuse him literally of pedophilia.
Musk's weekend statements appeared intended to counter criticism of his early stewardship of Twitter. The number of moderators who are on the lookout for inappropriate content on the social media site has been slashed, and just a few experts on child exploitation remain, according to media reports.
Three members of Twitter's long-standing Trust and Safety Council advisory board resigned last week, citing a rise in tweets with hate speech against Black Americans, gay men and Jews. Over the weekend, Musk fans accused the three of responsibility for child exploitation.
But experts more frequently cite other platforms as hunting grounds for child sex abuse victims. A report last year by Thorn, a nonprofit founded by actors Ashton Kutcher and Demi Moore to combat child sexual abuse, said minors it surveyed reported more "potentially harmful online experiences" of all kinds on Snapchat, Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, and Messenger than on Twitter.
Musk and his allies have said that since Musk's takeover, the company has suspended many more accounts for abusive material than it had before, but the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, a congressionally chartered nonprofit, told The Post that it "has seen no noticeable changes on the reporting front compared to previous months."
Musk's criticism of Twitter's allegedly inadequate child protection actions came as Twitter continued to release internal emails and chats that Musk and others claim show the company intentionally censored conservative voices and stories.
In the Spaces session late Friday, Musk seemed to agree with a host known as Eliza Bleu that Roth and his staff had been too busy censoring conservatives to provide resources to identify and block abusive child sex material. Bleu is an activist podcaster who wrote three columns this year on conspiracy promoter Glenn Beck's website the Blaze. One of those columns cited a child sexual abuse case that Oklahoma police credit Twitter with reporting.
Bleu, who last year tweeted a photo of herself with Pizzagate promoter and alt-right provocateur Mike Cernovich, was joined on the Spaces session by Ella Irwin, who was hired by Twitter in June and was promoted to trust and safety head after Roth's departure.
"As these folks like Ella are out here begging for the resources and funding to remove child sexual abuse material, the platform prioritized the removal of words, non-illegal words, thoughts and ideas, and the censorship of innocent citizens," Bleu said.
When Musk called in, she repeated: "Twitter was censoring innocent citizen's speech, words, thoughts, ideas while refusing to remove the human rights violation of child sexual abuse, material exploitation at scale. You know?"
"Yeah. I mean, that's unbelievable," Musk responded. "Frankly, it's terrible."
Bleu later quote-tweeted the old Roth tweet about teachers and students that drew Musk's response.
In response Sunday to questions she said she'd received about her own claim of having been trafficked, which she has not detailed, Bleu tweeted that she had reluctantly come forward as a public advocate in 2020 by speaking to conservative Ben Shapiro's Daily Wire.
She has helped raise money for Operation Underground Railroad, which performs stings against suspected traffickers in other countries. Some police departments have declined to accept donations from the group amid questions about its fundraising and its appeals to QAnon followers. Bleu also spoke at a fundraiser and rally of hundreds of Tesla owners in Atlanta two years ago and told the blog Teslarati that Tesla could end child trafficking if its programmers adapted artificial intelligence programs and designed better ways to filter child sexual images on the internet. Musk is Tesla's CEO.
On the Spaces, Bleu said: "Twitter will lead the way, and the rest of the internet will have to level up as a result. One of the ways that you can help Twitter is by using the platform. The more we use the platform, the more advertisers will come back, the more money they'll have to throw into these issues."
Bleu's fellow Spaces speakers included Irwin and Italian security researcher Andrea Stroppa, who recently reported hundreds of Twitter accounts spreading child sex abuse material. Irwin tweeted that she had not been able to replace staff working on child exploitation before Musk's takeover.
Neither Irwin nor Twitter's communications staff responded to emails seeking comment Sunday. | 2022-12-13T12:18:22Z | www.unionleader.com | Elon Musk uses QAnon tactic in criticizing former Twitter safety chief | Business | unionleader.com | https://www.unionleader.com/news/business/elon-musk-uses-qanon-tactic-in-criticizing-former-twitter-safety-chief/article_70eaa499-ee47-503f-ba27-fe89cd4af009.html | https://www.unionleader.com/news/business/elon-musk-uses-qanon-tactic-in-criticizing-former-twitter-safety-chief/article_70eaa499-ee47-503f-ba27-fe89cd4af009.html |
KOSTIANTYNIVKA, Ukraine - Russia and Ukraine pounded each other's forces in heavy fighting in the eastern region of Donetsk on Tuesday as Kyiv's allies meeting in Paris pledged just over 1 billion euros ($1.05 billion) to help Ukrainians survive the freezing winter.
Russian forces are battling to take full control of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, two of four territories the Kremlin claims to have annexed in votes rejected by most countries as illegal.
Air raid sirens wailed across the country on Tuesday afternoon, but there were no immediate reports of new attacks.
Zelenskiy had said Ukraine needed at least 800 million euros ($840 million). "It's a lot, but the price is less than the cost of blackout," Zelenskiy told the meeting via video link.
As he arrived at the meeting, French President Emmanuel Macron said there was an agreement on removing heavy weapons from Ukraine's Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant and that talks were under way on the way to do this.
Denis Pushilin, Russian-installed administrator of the portion of Donetsk controlled by Moscow, told Russian media that just over half of the Donetsk People's Republic had been "liberated." The self-styled republic is a breakaway Russian-backed entity that has been fighting Ukrainian forces since 2014.
Three civilians were killed in the Donetsk region over the past 24 hours, regional Governor Pavlo Kyrylenko said on his Telegram channel, while in the southern Kherson region, regional governor Yaroslav Yanushevych reported three people were killed and 15 wounded in Russian artillery attacks.
Russia's sustained shelling of the frontline in Donetsk has destroyed the city of Bakhmut and heavily damaged the city of Avdiivka, which lies in the region's center, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Friday.
It was the latest in a flurry of military actions that have raised fears Russia may mount an attack on Ukraine from Belarusian territory in coming months.
The Group of Seven on Monday promised to "meet Ukraine's urgent requirements" after Zelenskiy appealed for modern tanks, artillery and long-range weapons. Zelenskiy also urged G7 leaders at a virtual meeting to support his idea of convening a special Global Peace Summit.
Russia on Tuesday dismissed a peace proposal from Zelenskiy that would involve a pullout of Russian troops and demanded Kyiv accept new territorial "realities" which included Russia's addition of four Ukrainian regions as its "new subjects."
"Without taking these new realities into account, no kind of progress is possible," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said, adding there could be "no question" of Russia starting to withdraw troops by the end of the year.
U.S. President Joe Biden told Zelenskiy on Sunday that Washington's priority was to boost Ukraine's air defenses. The United States also shipped the first batch of power equipment to Ukraine under an aid package agreed last month.
Britain on Tuesday sanctioned 12 Russian military commanders implicated in missile strikes on Ukrainian cities as well as Iranian businessmen involved in the production and supply of military drones used in the attacks.
(Reporting by Nick Starkov and Pavel Polityuk in Kyiv and Reuters bureaux; Additional reporting by Oleksandr Kozhukhar, Writing by Michael Perry, William Maclean; Editing by Stephen Coates and Nick Macfie)
Chinese threat to Japan and Okinawa bases behind F-15 phaseout, expert says
Members of Little Rock Nine mark milestone for new Virginia-class submarine Arkansas | 2022-12-13T14:29:08Z | www.unionleader.com | Ukraine battles Russian push in east as Kyiv allies pledge $1 bln in energy aid | Military | unionleader.com | https://www.unionleader.com/news/military/ukraine-battles-russian-push-in-east-as-kyiv-allies-pledge-1-bln-in-energy-aid/article_aca4269e-0a08-5893-b92e-a6f61fe61ab7.html | https://www.unionleader.com/news/military/ukraine-battles-russian-push-in-east-as-kyiv-allies-pledge-1-bln-in-energy-aid/article_aca4269e-0a08-5893-b92e-a6f61fe61ab7.html |
I SAW the phrase “friendship recession” in a headline last week, which has a musical swing to it but refers to growing social isolation, particularly among men, due to people working from home, avoiding crowded places, being reluctant joiners, and then I stopped reading because sociology has always bored me ever since I was nineteen and sat in Dr. Cooperman’s class and looked around at the girls in the room and tried to imagine how I might strike up a conversation with one of them. Talking about sociology did not seem like the way to begin.
I grew up in a family of eight who belonged to a tight group of devout evangelicals, half of them relatives, who believed in holding the secular world at arm’s length, so my parents didn’t associate much with neighbors, but of course we children did and we went to school with non-evangelical kids and so we lived in two worlds and had to keep them separate. I knew the words to “Great Balls of Fire” but didn’t sing it around my parents and I didn’t talk to my classmates about the Second Coming. I had cousins who lived on farms and used an outhouse and cooked on a wood-burning stove and I had city cousins who had flush toilets and rode the streetcar. A lot of sociology going on around me.
And now I feel friendship recession in the form of people dying off who share my history. More and more I’m with people who don’t know “Minnesota, Hats Off To Thee,” who never drove a stick-shift car, who never went ice-fishing or worked in a newspaper city room, writing on a Remington typewriter, the copy coming back from the Linotype operator on a long galley sheet for you to correct, and a couple hours later you felt the presses rolling in the basement and you got a fresh warm paper with your story about a famous celebrity who very few people you know now would remember.
To me, this seems like a privileged life. I feel slightly sorry for anyone who never waited for the school bus in a cave you’d dug out in a snowdrift, you and Eloise and Diane and Corinne huddled together. I’m sorry you didn’t listen to a gospel preacher talk about death awaiting us, we know not when or where. I’m sorry you didn’t meet my city editor Mr. Streightiff in his starched shirt and suspenders; the man had a bark to him that you don’t hear anymore. I miss the evenings we played hockey until our feet were numb and then sat in a warming shack with a woodstove until feeling returned. And now I live in New York among people who know nothing of any of this. Isn’t it sad?
No, not really. Open your eyes, the world invites our attention. Last week in New York, musicians hauled instrument cases off to Christmas gigs, and in the 42nd Street subway station a wild-haired old man pounded out “Winter Wonderland” on an electric organ as two battery-powered Santas danced. Nearby, a trumpeter was giving “O Holy Night” a good workout and then the doors closed and we racketed uptown as an old man came into the car and wished us all a Merry Christmas and launched into “Chestnuts roasting on an open fire” as he came up the aisle, jingling his Styrofoam cup. It wasn’t glories streaming from heaven afar and heavenly hosts singing Alleluia, but in the grimness of urban hustle, Christmas is all the sweeter.
I stood in line at a coffee shop that smelled of fresh pine boughs and the tall dark-haired woman ahead of me ordered a venti mocha latte with 2%, and the smell of chocolate and pine and then an orange she bought and started to peel it and that was enough. Oranges were essential to our Christmases. An orange sat in the toe of your stocking and you ate it in the dark Christmas morning, the lights on the tree, your parents upstairs asleep.
A few smells bring the blessed day to mind, when the city conspires to cheer itself up. Joy is too much to expect. Cheerfulness is what we need: put yesterday out the back door and seize this day and blessings on your house, and Lord, if you possibly can, please send us a few inches of snow. | 2022-12-14T06:30:58Z | www.unionleader.com | Garrison Keillor: A rainy December day, long thoughts therein | Columnists | unionleader.com | https://www.unionleader.com/opinion/columnists/garrison-keillor-a-rainy-december-day-long-thoughts-therein/article_21c686b3-1e97-550c-ab29-cd65416e4c1d.html | https://www.unionleader.com/opinion/columnists/garrison-keillor-a-rainy-december-day-long-thoughts-therein/article_21c686b3-1e97-550c-ab29-cd65416e4c1d.html |
Republican House Majority Leader Jason Osborne says the money to be made from marijuana taxation will do all of the following:
Pay off the state’s pension liability, provide additional resources for law enforcement; and, of course, reduce property taxes.
That last item has become a mandatory promise in every scheme legislators dream up. Trouble is few local politicians get the message. They keep finding ways to increase local taxes.
Democratic House leader Matt Wilhelm says but wait, there’s more to be done with this amazing pot of gold. According to him, it will provide a significant source of new revenue to fund critical health and law enforcement programs and, wait for it, also lower those property taxes!
Is there anything that this magic marijuana plan can’t solve?
Here’s a new slogan for the House: No taxation without misrepresentation. | 2022-12-14T06:31:10Z | www.unionleader.com | A toke tax: Money for everything! | Editorials | unionleader.com | https://www.unionleader.com/opinion/editorials/a-toke-tax-money-for-everything/article_e00b878d-8e9a-5da6-8e53-2ec35a31c42a.html | https://www.unionleader.com/opinion/editorials/a-toke-tax-money-for-everything/article_e00b878d-8e9a-5da6-8e53-2ec35a31c42a.html |
Writing in the News and Sentinel of Colebrook recently, editor and publisher Karen Harrigan noted that she had read of outer space being considered a “hostile environment.”
True, she wrote, but so too are “water bodies, the woods or the desert.”
She noted the recent death of a young woman hiker who had attempted to climb three lofty peaks above Franconia Notch in wintry conditions.
That was a very formidable challenge, but “It doesn’t take much,” Harrigan wrote, noting that even a misstep on a short solo trek in the woods can end badly, which is why, “it’s still a good idea to have a few basics in a small pack: water, a headlamp, a thermal blanket, dry socks and other warm clothing.”
Indeed, it appears a simple loss of his footing sent a longtime North Country man to a fatal fall on Mount Willard in Crawford Notch over the weekend. Joseph Eggleston wasn’t a tourist but a veteran engineer from the nearby Cog Railway. His loss is a shock, a shame, and another sad example of the dangers that lurk beneath our state’s beauty. | 2022-12-14T06:31:16Z | www.unionleader.com | Be careful: Beneath the beauty | Editorials | unionleader.com | https://www.unionleader.com/opinion/editorials/be-careful-beneath-the-beauty/article_2264bed2-e94a-54ff-8c73-bcb4215b42ae.html | https://www.unionleader.com/opinion/editorials/be-careful-beneath-the-beauty/article_2264bed2-e94a-54ff-8c73-bcb4215b42ae.html |
We must face our toxic past to heal our nation
To the Editor: The ugly, dark, messy parts to America’s history are that the White power base stole the land from the Native Americans and robbed the African and many Asian Americans of their labor. Since this reality has and still remains denied, the wounds of the past remain unhealed to poison the present.
The word reparation means to make amends for wrongs done, to repair the damage, to compensate those harmed, i.e. to be accountable for one’s problematic behavior.
My dad’s family, the Beebes, came from England in 1640 and many owned land and businesses. My grandmother’s family, the Coffins, were ship captains and whalers out of Newburyport, Mass. Thus as White people my family no doubt was involved directly and indirectly with exploiting others perceived as “less thans.”
I can’t press rewind on this harmful history but I can choose to break with this legacy in the present. The only way out of festering wounds is to muster the courage to accept, then move through the healing process without adding more harm, such as voter suppression.
As an addiction therapist for 37 years I help addicts heal themselves and others by being accountable. Recovery was based on the 12 Steps of AA, similar to the wisdom of Jesus. Thus acknowledging harm done validates those harmed. Saying “I’m sorry!” proclaims ownership rather than justifying/blaming. Accepting responsibility motives positive change. Honest story telling and listening, thus validating, heals.
Americans must face our harmful past, then clean house to become stronger, wiser, more compassionate.
MIKE BEEBE
Lyndeborough | 2022-12-14T06:31:35Z | www.unionleader.com | Letter: We must face our toxic past to heal our nation | Letters to the Editor | unionleader.com | https://www.unionleader.com/opinion/letters_to_editor/letter-we-must-face-our-toxic-past-to-heal-our-nation/article_ce711dc4-ca0e-53ce-af3d-ed132fcc0b58.html | https://www.unionleader.com/opinion/letters_to_editor/letter-we-must-face-our-toxic-past-to-heal-our-nation/article_ce711dc4-ca0e-53ce-af3d-ed132fcc0b58.html |
EVEN Hotels moved into the former Quality Inn on Devine Drive in Manchester in 2021. The hotel is one of several challenging its property tax valuation based on business lost when the state restricted hotel stays during the COVID-19 pandemic.
A lawyer representing nine New Hampshire hotels told the state Supreme Court that the hotels should not be forced to pay local property taxes when Gov. Chris Sununu effectively shut them down during the COVID-19 pandemic.
But the cities of Manchester, Keene and Laconia and the town of Bedford said the pandemic and resulting shutdown are not what lawmakers had in mind when they exempted buildings from taxation during natural disasters.
The hotels have asked the Supreme Court to decide whether the pandemic was a natural disaster that resulted in damages — in this case the loss of business revenue — to their property.
The hotels included the DoubleTree by Hilton, the Comfort Inn and the EVEN Hotel in Manchester. Those three hotels alone have withheld $309,000 in property tax payments.
Hotels and other businesses across the state had to close or significantly reduce operations in late March 2020 under Sununu’s executive order. Hotels were not allowed to fully reopen until June 2020. Restaurants couldn’t seat their normal crowds until August 2020.
Roy Tilsley, representing the hotels, said the law in question gives no definition for natural disaster or damages. If the disaster prevented the hotel from operating, it should not be expected to have to pay taxes, he said.
Laura Spector-Morgan, representing the municipalities, said COVID-19 did not qualify as a natural disaster. She also noted that hotels could rent rooms to essential workers and vulnerable populations throughout the pandemmic.
The arguments provided lively debates before the court:
“It was the order (by Sununu) that caused the damage, not the virus,” said Justice Gary Hicks. “The virus caused the order, which caused the shutdown,” Tilsley responded.
What if, Justice Anna Hantz Marconi asked, the virus turns out to be technology-caused disaster and not a natural disaster? Tilsley said that would be up to a trial judge to decide, but no city has made that argument.
Justice James Bassett noted that the hotels received Payroll Protection Plan loans of $80,000 to $1.1 million. “Your clients could get a tax break and money from PPP. They’d be better off than if COVID never happened.” Tilsely said that would be an issue at trial.
Bassett noted that the law provides for a tax abatement in only two circumstances: a natural disaster and an unintended fire. What if a hotel was closed because of a raging, climate-change-induced forest fire such as out West? If the hotel isn’t damaged by fire, can it still get an abatement? Only if smoke from the fire damaged the property, Spector-Morgan said.
A Supreme Court decision won’t end the issue. The appeal is in the middle of a case that the hotels have brought challenging their valuations. Once the court rules on whether the pandemic is a natural disaster, the case returns to its initial venue in Superior Court.
Nh Supreme Court | 2022-12-14T13:54:50Z | www.unionleader.com | NH Supreme Court to decide: COVID-19 a natural disaster or not | Courts | unionleader.com | https://www.unionleader.com/news/courts/nh-supreme-court-to-decide-covid-19-a-natural-disaster-or-not/article_8fb012b5-9024-567d-ab2a-63cbb41c4802.html | https://www.unionleader.com/news/courts/nh-supreme-court-to-decide-covid-19-a-natural-disaster-or-not/article_8fb012b5-9024-567d-ab2a-63cbb41c4802.html |
Yerushalmi Kugel is a noodle dish made with an ungodly amount of sugar and oil, and aggressively seasoned with black pepper.
By Olga Massov The Washington Post
While Hanukkah, which begins at sunset on Dec. 18 this year, is the celebration of the miracle of light, the ability of a few humble ingredients to transform into something delicious feels like my own small miracle in the kitchen, one I get to share with family and friends.
Traditionally, Yerushalmi kugel is made with thin egg noodles, but you can substitute with angel hair pasta; feel free to use the entire package of angel hair pasta, if that’s what you have on hand, which normally comes in 1-pound packages.
12-ounce package thin egg noodles or angel hair pasta
1/3 cup vegetable oil, plus more for greasing the pan
Pour the oily mixture over the cooled noodles and, using tongs, carefully toss to distribute and separate the lumps (some will remain and that’s OK; the solidified caramel will melt again during baking).
Let the mixture cool until just warm, about 15 minutes, before adding the eggs. | 2022-12-14T13:55:08Z | www.unionleader.com | Spice up Hanukkah with a crisp, peppery and sweet Yerushalmi kugel | Dining & Food | unionleader.com | https://www.unionleader.com/nh/food/spice-up-hanukkah-with-a-crisp-peppery-and-sweet-yerushalmi-kugel/article_f620426a-ad48-5d16-9cac-f70181473d90.html | https://www.unionleader.com/nh/food/spice-up-hanukkah-with-a-crisp-peppery-and-sweet-yerushalmi-kugel/article_f620426a-ad48-5d16-9cac-f70181473d90.html |
Elon Musk, chief executive officer of Tesla Inc., waves while departing court during the SolarCity trial in Wilmington, Del., on July 13, 2021.
As of early Wednesday morning in New York, the @elonjet page showed a message that read "account suspended" with an explanation that Twitter suspends accounts that violate the platform's rules. Musk bought Twitter for $44 billion in late October.
Jack Sweeney, who has run the account since June 2020, told Bloomberg News that, upon logging on to the account, his Twitter platform stated: "Your account is permanently suspended. After careful review we determined your account broke the Twitter rules. Your account is permanently in read-only mode."
Sweeney, a student at the University of Central Florida, said he hasn't received any other notices from Twitter via email or other mediums.
The account tracks the movements of Musk's private jet using publicly available flight data and gives automated alerts.
Last month, Musk said in a tweet that his commitment to free speech "extends even to not banning the account following my plane, even though that is a direct personal safety risk." | 2022-12-14T19:47:36Z | www.unionleader.com | Twitter suspends the account that tracked Elon Musk's private jet | Back Page | unionleader.com | https://www.unionleader.com/news/back_page/twitter-suspends-the-account-that-tracked-elon-musks-private-jet/article_aea3c180-543f-51d6-ae24-fd892cd19ef2.html | https://www.unionleader.com/news/back_page/twitter-suspends-the-account-that-tracked-elon-musks-private-jet/article_aea3c180-543f-51d6-ae24-fd892cd19ef2.html |
CONCORD -- New Hampshire will receive $15.5 million from Walmart to resolve the retail giant's role in the opioid epidemic in the Granite State, New Hampshire Attorney General John Formella announced.
The payment, to be received over a year, comes after the state signed onto a national settlement that Walmart has reached with state attorneys general over the way it handled opioid prescriptions.
Nationally, Walmart has agreed to pay $3.1 billion and improve its business practices, which includes tighter monitoring, reporting, and data sharing.
Authorities have said that pharmacy companies could have done more to track and report unusual opioid prescriptions, as required by law. When Walmart announced the settlement in November, the company admitted no liability but said the company would improve efforts to fight the opioid crisis.
The company said it would concentrate on educating pharmacists, reducing the opioids it dispenses, increasing access to overdose reversal medicine and advocating for policies that curb opioid abuse.
The Walmart payment will add to a New Hampshire opioid-settlement trust fund that has a balance of about $40 million. It could grow by another $40 million once a bankruptcy court approves settlements with Oxycontin manufacturer Purdue Pharma, said Deputy Attorney General James Boffetti.
"There are more to come," he said.
The state is considering whether to join national settlements reached with two opioid manufacturers, Teva and Allergan, and two pharmacy corporations, CVS and Walgreens.
Boffetti said some doctors and health care providers have been prosecuted over opioid-related crimes, and a federal task force located out of U.S. Attorney Jane Young's office is investigating providers.
He said New Hampshire physicians, nurses and pharmacists have lost their licenses in New Hampshire because of their actions regarding opioids.
Feds to target doctors for overprescribing; Medical Society cries foul
CONCORD — The leader of a New Hampshire physicians organization warned that a crackdown on doctors who prescribe opioids — announced on Wednes…
State accepts $46M Purdue Pharma settlement after years of litigation
After six years of investigation and court battles, New Hampshire is among the states accepting a proposed settlement from OxyContin maker Pur… | 2022-12-14T19:47:39Z | www.unionleader.com | Walmart to pay NH $15.5 million to settle opioid lawsuit | Business | unionleader.com | https://www.unionleader.com/news/business/walmart-to-pay-nh-15-5-million-to-settle-opioid-lawsuit/article_db481c61-e12c-5073-bf38-b1f7f50c4911.html | https://www.unionleader.com/news/business/walmart-to-pay-nh-15-5-million-to-settle-opioid-lawsuit/article_db481c61-e12c-5073-bf38-b1f7f50c4911.html |
By Frances Stead Sellers The Washington Post
"A lot of people think of long covid as associated with long-term illness," said Farida Ahmad, a health scientist at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and lead author of the study. "This shows it can be a cause of death."
"This is yet another piece of evidence that long covid can be fatal," said Ziyad Al-Aly, a clinical epidemiologist at Washington University and chief of research and development at VA St. Louis Health Care System. "Let's not trivialize it or say it's all in people's heads."
The deaths were identified from information entered on death certificates in the National Vital Statistics System - a methodology that experts, including the study's authors, cautioned could result in a large undercount.
"Death certificate data is fraught with uncertainty and ambiguity, something acknowledged by the CDC," said Francesca Beaudoin, head of the Brown University School of Public Health's Long Covid Initiative. In the case of long covid, those problems are compounded by varied definitions and terminology as well as clinicians' familiarity with the condition, she said. There was no diagnostic code for long covid until October 2021.
Benjamin Abramoff, director of the Post-COVID Assessment and Recovery Clinic at Penn Medicine, cautioned that it is difficult to draw conclusions from the study without additional details about the patients' medical histories and the severity of their covid infections.
"A death at weeks following severe infection leading to covid pneumonia and hospitalization paints a different picture than deaths in non-hospitalized patients months following infection," Abramoff said.
"I doubt most coroners are even familiar with the definition of long covid, let alone the coding," said Diana Güthe, who founded Survivor Corps. "Not a week goes by that I don't hear of another suicide due to long covid, but I have yet to hear of a single one of those deaths labeled long covid."
"This communicates that the risk of long covid and deaths from long covid will increase as long as infections continue," Davis said. | 2022-12-14T19:47:40Z | www.unionleader.com | Long covid can be deadly, CDC study finds | Coronavirus | unionleader.com | https://www.unionleader.com/news/health/coronavirus/long-covid-can-be-deadly-cdc-study-finds/article_e315f911-1374-5677-83d6-5c49b55c1323.html | https://www.unionleader.com/news/health/coronavirus/long-covid-can-be-deadly-cdc-study-finds/article_e315f911-1374-5677-83d6-5c49b55c1323.html |
Gov. Chris Sununu greets his supporters Nov. 8 at Pinz in Portsmouth after his victory over Democratic challenger Dr. Tom Sherman. Sununu will be featured at 10 p.m. Friday on CNN interviewed by anchor Dana Bash.
Speculation about whether Chris Sununu plans a bid for the White House in 2024 will likely heat up Friday when he appears in an interview with CNN anchor and Chief Political Correspondent Dana Bash.
“With the Republican Party at a crossroads, could GOP Governor Chris Sununu have a winning formula for his party?” reads a CNN promo for the 10 p.m. program.
In “Being …Chris Sunnunu,” the New Hampshire governor talks about his vision for the Republican Party and his dealings with former President Donald Trump.
“In their in-depth interview, Sununu also opens up about his experience growing up in a political family, navigating fatherhood and politics, a life-threatening health scare, and what he really thinks about all of the 2024 speculation around him,” CNN said. | 2022-12-14T19:48:13Z | www.unionleader.com | Sununu to be featured Friday on CNN interview series | Voters First | unionleader.com | https://www.unionleader.com/news/politics/voters/sununu-to-be-featured-friday-on-cnn-interview-series/article_737f3af9-e52a-5a9e-8b1b-91b9b6deaf07.html | https://www.unionleader.com/news/politics/voters/sununu-to-be-featured-friday-on-cnn-interview-series/article_737f3af9-e52a-5a9e-8b1b-91b9b6deaf07.html |
It said the consul general had returned to China under a "normal rotation of Chinese consular officials."
"Images carried on social media showed what appeared to be completely unacceptable behavior by a number of individuals near the entrance to the consular premises," said Cleverly, who summoned the acting ambassador over the incident.
The Chinese embassy said the protest was a "violent, disruptive provocation," adding Britain had failed to fulfill its obligations to protect the consulate and its staff.
(Reporting by Alistair Smout and Kylie MacLellan; Editing by Angus MacSwan and Alex Richardson) | 2022-12-14T19:48:19Z | www.unionleader.com | China removes six officials after Manchester consulate incident, UK says | World | unionleader.com | https://www.unionleader.com/news/world/china-removes-six-officials-after-manchester-consulate-incident-uk-says/article_baf7c698-04d9-5a29-b3ab-942d6582ce91.html | https://www.unionleader.com/news/world/china-removes-six-officials-after-manchester-consulate-incident-uk-says/article_baf7c698-04d9-5a29-b3ab-942d6582ce91.html |
Gary Gensler, chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, speaks during a House Appropriation Subcommittee hearing in Washington, D.C., on May 18.
By Lydia Beyoud and Katherine Doherty Bloomberg
U.S. regulators will take the first step Wednesday toward the most widespread revamp in more than a decade of the way stocks are traded, a move that the agency says will spur better prices for investors and direct more business to traditional exchanges.
The Securities and Exchange Commission laid out four proposals that Chair Gary Gensler says would boost transparency and competition.
They delve into the guts of how the $43 trillion market works, and affect everything from order routing to pricing and disclosures that brokers must make to clients. The SEC’s plans, which will be debated by commissioners during an agency meeting, represent a direct response to many of the issues that were spotlighted by last year’s meme-stock-trading craze.
Over the past year, the contours of the effort have been a source of significant angst for the industry as Gensler signaled that major overhauls loomed.
Broadly, the plans could lead to more stock orders filled on exchanges like Nasdaq and the New York Stock Exchange.
Currently, a significant chunk of retail trades are handled by wholesale brokerages like Virtu Financial Inc. and Citadel Securities, which pay for the right to process customer trades from firms like Charles Schwab Corp. and Robinhood Markets Inc.
Virtu shares fell by as much as 6.3% in New York trading, the biggest intraday decline since Sept. 6, while Robinhood dropped by as much as 4.4% before rebounding.
Gensler has frequently criticized the arrangement, which is commonly known as payment for order flow, as creating conflicts of interest for brokers and had floated banning the practice. Meanwhile, wholesale brokerages like Virtu and Citadel have pushed back, arguing that it’s beneficial to retail traders and allows them to get the best price and have trades efficiently filled.
If implemented, the auctions could directly affect market-making firms that have built algorithms and technology to process trades quickly and provide what they say is the best deal for customers. The changes would also alter the exchange venue’s existing business models, which charge for data and access to trading on their venues.
Trading venues would also need to start allowing stocks to trade at smaller price increments on and off exchanges. The move, according to the SEC, would increase competition to fill orders and lower costs. The agency is also proposing to reduce other fees, which could drive more trading to the platforms.
Once a majority of the SEC’s five commissioners vote to propose the changes as expected on Wednesday, the agency will take comments on them through March. Staff will then take those recommendations into account and write a final version that the commissioners will have to approve for the regulations to take effect. | 2022-12-14T22:19:59Z | www.unionleader.com | Wall Street stock trading set for overhaul in new SEC plan | Business | unionleader.com | https://www.unionleader.com/news/business/wall-street-stock-trading-set-for-overhaul-in-new-sec-plan/article_afb24644-766a-516a-8e62-fa000406efe5.html | https://www.unionleader.com/news/business/wall-street-stock-trading-set-for-overhaul-in-new-sec-plan/article_afb24644-766a-516a-8e62-fa000406efe5.html |
New Hampshire’s attorney general has joined his counterparts across the nation in backing a federal proposal designed to protect consumers from scam text messages.
In a statement, AG John Formella said he supports “sensible” regulations similar to those in place to address illegal robocalls.
A proposal by the Federal Communications Commission would require mobile wireless providers to block unlawful text messages at the network level if they originate from fraudulent numbers. The agency also proposes blocking such text messages to numbers on a Do Not Originate list.
“In response to increasing enforcement and regulation of voice service providers to stop illegal robocalls, bad actors appear to be shifting tactics to scam text messages,” Formella said in the statement.
He noted that scam text messages sometimes include links to “phishing” websites that appear identical to the website of a legitimate company, “thus tricking the consumer to unwittingly provide personal and financial information.”
In 2021, the FCC received more than 15,000 consumer complaints about unwanted texts. The previous year, scammers stole more than $86 million through fraud carried out using scam text messages, according to the AG’s office.
A coalition of 51 state attorneys general also is asking the FCC to push the wireless industry to develop call authentication technology for text messages. That would help consumers know if they texts they receive are from scammers, and would help law enforcement investigate the origin of texting scams, the statement said. | 2022-12-14T22:20:19Z | www.unionleader.com | NH AG backs regulation to combat 'robotext' scams | Crime | unionleader.com | https://www.unionleader.com/news/crime/nh-ag-backs-regulation-to-combat-robotext-scams/article_f78da6bd-eaf5-5771-aa00-512489f96d33.html | https://www.unionleader.com/news/crime/nh-ag-backs-regulation-to-combat-robotext-scams/article_f78da6bd-eaf5-5771-aa00-512489f96d33.html |
By Tom Balmforth and Pavel Polityuk Reuters
KYIV -- Moscow on Wednesday said no "Christmas ceasefire" was in the cards after nearly 10 months of devastating war in Ukraine, even as the release of dozens more prisoners, including an American, showed that some contacts between the two sides remain.
Russia and Ukraine are not currently engaged in talks to end the fighting, which is raging in the east and south and reached Kyiv again on Wednesday. Tens of thousands of people have been killed, millions more displaced and cities reduced to rubble since Russia invaded its neighbor on Feb. 24.
"There is no calm on the front line," Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in a regular evening video address, describing Russia's destruction of towns in the east with artillery: "So that only bare ruins and craters" remain.
Zelensky said this week Russia should start withdrawing by Christmas as a step to end the conflict, Europe's biggest since World War II. Moscow rejected the proposal outright, saying Ukraine must accept the loss of territory to Russia before any progress can be made.
Despite the lack of peace talks, hundreds of detainees have been freed in swaps in recent weeks. The releases -- along with progress on talks to resume Russian exports of an ingredient in fertilizer and the extension of a grains deal -- have shown the two sides maintain at least limited contact on several levels.
The head of Ukraine's presidential administration Andriy Yermak identified the American as Suedi Murekezi, who he said had been "helping our people" before ending up in Russian custody. The Washington Post said Murekezi was a U.S. Air Force veteran born in Uganda.
"Just given what we're seeing in the air and on the ground in Ukraine, it's difficult to conclude that this war will be over by year's end," Kirby said in response to a question about the prospects for a negotiated peace with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
ICRC President Mirjana Spoljaric said a major swap could build confidence and that such exchanges had in the past constituted "the first step to a broader agreement."
Violence returned to Kyiv, with the first major drone attack on Ukraine's capital in weeks. Two administrative buildings were hit, but air defenses largely repelled the attack. Zelensky said 13 drones had been shot down.
Russia, which calls the war a "special military operation," has fired barrages of missiles on energy infrastructure since October. Ukraine's grid operator said energy facilities had not sustained damage in Wednesday's attack.
Ukraine wants to beef up its air defenses to fend off more attacks. U.S. officials told Reuters this week that an announcement on a decision on providing the Patriot missile defense system to Ukraine could come as soon as Thursday.
Zelensky said Ukraine was doing everything it could to obtain more modern and powerful anti-aircraft and anti-drone systems and had made important progress on the issue this week.
In the past 24 hours, Ukraine's military said, in the regions of Kharkiv, Donetsk and Zaporizhzhia "the enemy launched 1 air and 11 missile strikes, 3 of them on civilian infrastructure... (and) launched more than 60 attacks from multiple rocket launchers."
Ex-White House doctor Deborah Birx to highlight public health symposium | 2022-12-14T22:20:31Z | www.unionleader.com | No Christmas ceasefire in Ukraine, Russia says, as prisoner swap frees American | Politics | unionleader.com | https://www.unionleader.com/news/politics/no-christmas-ceasefire-in-ukraine-russia-says-as-prisoner-swap-frees-american/article_db8fbf16-96c2-5ca2-b836-7de7b3f2a06f.html | https://www.unionleader.com/news/politics/no-christmas-ceasefire-in-ukraine-russia-says-as-prisoner-swap-frees-american/article_db8fbf16-96c2-5ca2-b836-7de7b3f2a06f.html |
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-NY, speaks to reporters after the weekly Senate party caucus luncheons at the U.S. Capitol in Washington. REUTERS/Sarah Silbiger
Senate could pass temporary funding bill as soon as Thursday -Schumer
WASHINGTON -- The Senate could give final approval by Thursday to a one-week extension of federal government funding before the midnight Friday deadline, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said on Wednesday.
The House of Representatives was scheduled to hold a first procedural vote Wednesday on the one-week funding bill, which would clear the way for debate and a vote on passage.
Three men - two from New Hampshire and one from Connecticut - have pleaded guilty to weapon- and drug-related charges in separate federal cases, the U.S. Attorney’s office announced on Wednesday. | 2022-12-14T22:20:44Z | www.unionleader.com | Senate could pass temporary funding bill as soon as Thursday -Schumer | National | unionleader.com | https://www.unionleader.com/wire/national/senate-could-pass-temporary-funding-bill-as-soon-as-thursday--schumer/article_95971ea4-8055-54cf-979c-d407c5d3bec1.html | https://www.unionleader.com/wire/national/senate-could-pass-temporary-funding-bill-as-soon-as-thursday--schumer/article_95971ea4-8055-54cf-979c-d407c5d3bec1.html |
Some clouds. Low near 25F. Winds N at 10 to 15 mph..
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Manchester city officials are asking questions after a homeless woman from Sanford, Maine, was driven to the Queen City this week in a police vehicle and dropped off at the Families in Transition shelter with the promise a bed would be waiting for her.
But no bed was available.
Manchester Mayor Joyce Craig said the city’s welfare department and local non-profits helped get the woman safely back to Maine and into a Portland shelter, praising the efforts of local staff.
“In contrast, the behavior of the City of Sanford is, frankly, shameful,” Craig wrote in an email Tuesday to Sanford Mayor Anne-Marie Mastraccio and city manager Steven Buck.
Attempts to reach Mastraccio and Buck for comment Wednesday were unsuccessful. Mastraccio is out of the country through the end of the week, officials said, and Buck didn’t respond to an email.
According to Craig, the woman -- whose name was not released -- came to her office Tuesday and said she was driven to Manchester by the Sanford Police Department, which police confirmed.
She told staff in the mayor’s office that she had never been to Manchester before and was picked up from Southern Maine Health Care in Sanford by an unmarked police car and told that she had a bed at the Families in Transition shelter in Manchester, more than 60 miles and over an hour away.
The woman said Sanford police dropped her off at the FiT shelter in Manchester and left, Craig told city officials in an email.
“The FIT shelter did not have a bed for her,” Craig wrote. “It is full, and they have not had beds available for women for several days.”
Craig said staff in the Manchester welfare department directed the woman to a warming shelter for the night, researched the availability of shelter in Maine and made arrangements for her to obtain transportation “at Manchester’s expense” to the shelter in Portland Wednesday morning to secure a bed available there on a “first-come, first-served” basis.
“After being advised (Tuesday) that there were no shelter beds in Manchester, a fact that your city could easily have confirmed in a brief phone call before incorrectly informing the resident that she would have a shelter bed in Manchester and driving her here (Tuesday), the Sanford Police Department refused to return to Manchester to provide her with transportation back to Maine,” Craig wrote in an email to Sanford officials.
“I can think of no good reason why Sanford officials could not have done all of these things yesterday and spared this woman the ordeal of the last 24 hours,” Craig wrote.
“Homelessness is a complex issue, to be sure, but persons experiencing homelessness cannot be transported across state lines by law enforcement and abandoned in our city, as occurred in this instance,” Craig wrote. “It’s just not right. This cannot happen again.”
Craig went on to ask that Sanford officials investigate what happened and said the woman deserves a "sincere and contrite apology” from all the Sanford officials involved.
On Wednesday, Craig thanked all involved with helping the woman through her brief stay in the Queen City.
“I’m tremendously grateful for the staff at the welfare department and 1269 Cafe, who took this individual in, cared for her, and made the necessary arrangements for her to return home to Maine, safely and into housing,” Craig said.
Craig said while the woman contacted her office directly seeking help, instances of people coming to Manchester from other communities for help are not unusual.
“Many communities look to Manchester to provide services for their residents who are experiencing homelessness, but homelessness is a statewide issue that Manchester cannot solve alone,” Craig said. “The state of New Hampshire must step up and provide adequate services, shelter, and housing across the state so that individuals don’t have to leave their communities to get back on their feet.” | 2022-12-15T00:39:13Z | www.unionleader.com | Police drive homeless woman from Maine to Manchester, drop her at shelter without any beds | Public Safety | unionleader.com | https://www.unionleader.com/news/safety/police-drive-homeless-woman-from-maine-to-manchester-drop-her-at-shelter-without-any-beds/article_87d64cb7-23d8-5815-bb94-65806aea2126.html | https://www.unionleader.com/news/safety/police-drive-homeless-woman-from-maine-to-manchester-drop-her-at-shelter-without-any-beds/article_87d64cb7-23d8-5815-bb94-65806aea2126.html |
The post of a street sign is decorated outside of the Families in Transition adult shelter where the homeless encampment is expanding on Manchester Street in Manchester on Dec. 14, 2022
Tents surround the courtyard at the Families in Transition adult shelter on Manchester Street in Manchester.
Eva Galuska of Dunbarton gives away blankets to people in need at the Families in Transition adult shelter on Manchester Street in Manchester on Dec. 14, 2022
A key Manchester alderman said he thinks Families in Transition should do more to help the people living in tents next to the New Horizons homeless shelter.
Alderman Pat Long, whose Ward 3 includes the downtown, said he voiced his feelings to Families in Transition officials at a recent meeting, which included Mayor Joyce Craig and several other city officials.
“I think New Horizons should accommodate them however they can,” Long said. But he said FiT won't feed the people or let them use the bathroom.
“That’s kind of strange because they have the homeless niche in the city,” he said.
A spokesman for Craig did not return two emails seeking comment for this article.
An official with Families in Transition said the organization's resources are tapped out. The shelter is full most nights, and some nights FiT has only two people -- half the optimal number -- on staff to oversee the 138 people sleeping inside the shelter.
“It’s not just about the funding. At this point, we need to find other solutions. Our facility is maxed out,” said Stephanie Savard, chief of external relations for FiT.
The tents started going up on the sidewalk after aldermen this fall banned shopping carts, multiple bicycles and tarps from city parks. Officials have said the sidewalk tents are legal as long as pedestrians have enough space to pass.
Most tents are pitched outside a fenced-in courtyard of about a quarter acre, an area that used to hold a greenhouse.
“It’s not being used,” said Long, who favors use of the courtyard by those outside the fence. “At the very least, they should have a couple Porta Potties in there so they can use the bathroom,” he said.
Savard said FiT does not believe it is appropriate to have a homeless encampment on shelter property.
“We just don’t have the staff capacity to manage an encampment,” she said.
Savard said the sidewalk camps already put a strain on the shelter. Campers knock on the door seeking help, which requires the attention from the staff. Residents in wheelchairs find it difficult to pass, propane tanks create a fire risk, trash accumulates and fecal matter creates a health hazard.
She said the fence around the courtyard, which campers often use to hang wet clothes, bedding and other material, is at risk for damage.
“We have to set some limits, as difficult as they are,” she said.
Long said the city does not provide money to FiT for operation of its homeless shelter. It did provide $80,000 for transitional housing, which he said he will “take a look at” during budget deliberations next year.
He said most of the money for the shelter operation comes from the state. Long, also a state representative, said he doesn’t expect the state will pressure FiT to do more to address the homeless outside their gates.
Sweeney Todd, one of the sidewalk campers, said he wouldn’t mind camping in the courtyard. It would provide some distance from people who shout and take photographs as they drive by.
But others are supportive. For example, two people appeared with blankets and warm clothes in a 15-minute period when a Union Leader reporter and photographer visited.
“If they allowed (courtyard camping), it wouldn’t be a bad thing,” Todd said.
But a man who gave his name as Tyler said it would be a terrible idea.
Tyler, 27, has a bed in the shelter, which is full most nights. He said the courtyard would quickly fill up and likely be overrun.
Tyler said it’s difficult to find a bathroom when you live on the street. Businesses will only let a person use a bathroom if they buy something. Human excrement is present in a nearby alley, Tyler said.
"It’s disgusting,” he said. | 2022-12-15T00:39:20Z | www.unionleader.com | Alderman: Families in Transition should help homeless outside their gates | Social Issues | unionleader.com | https://www.unionleader.com/news/social_issues/alderman-families-in-transition-should-help-homeless-outside-their-gates/article_d776189b-9868-57cf-90c5-4d38dc53540a.html | https://www.unionleader.com/news/social_issues/alderman-families-in-transition-should-help-homeless-outside-their-gates/article_d776189b-9868-57cf-90c5-4d38dc53540a.html |
Turn lake property into village for homeless
To the Editor: Manchester is looking for a place to put its homeless residents and the state has 217 acres of surplus property in Laconia. This is serendipity.
Build a mental health care village, including hospital facilities and assisted care units, on a portion of the Laconia property. Police empowered with a vagrancy law could detain homeless individuals and take them before a judge for disposition to this village for evaluation and short-term care. Long-term care and residency would follow as required.
With all the money Democrats have printed, there must be enough slopping around in New Hampshire to make a pretty good down payment on the cost of getting the facilities built and the program running. Operational costs could be borne by a combination of state and federal money, such as Medicaid, Obamacare, Medicare, Social Security and VA funds.
What is the alternative? Rebrand Manchester as San Francisco East, or maybe Sanfransicko East? Widen all the sidewalks in the state to accommodate more tents? Declare that panhandling is New Hampshire’s official form of Tai chi? | 2022-12-15T06:49:37Z | www.unionleader.com | Letter: Turn lake property into village for state's homeless | Letters to the Editor | unionleader.com | https://www.unionleader.com/opinion/letters_to_editor/letter-turn-lake-property-into-village-for-states-homeless/article_7f5f9b24-6ce0-55ae-af1c-09a4e11864ae.html | https://www.unionleader.com/opinion/letters_to_editor/letter-turn-lake-property-into-village-for-states-homeless/article_7f5f9b24-6ce0-55ae-af1c-09a4e11864ae.html |
Liudmyla Tsybulska, 26, and her daughter Zlata, 5, at their balloon shop awaiting customers during a power outage in Dnipro, Ukraine, on Nov. 29.
Heidi Levine/Washington Post
An electricity worker fixes power lines in a residential neighborhood in Dnipro on Dec. 1.
Valentyn Nyzkovolosov at his catering business in Kyiv, Ukraine.
Serhiy Morgunov/Washington Post
Salt and Pepper catering personnel in the cellar that they use as a bomb shelter in Kyiv.
Damage from a recent Russian missile attack in Kyiv on Dec. 1.
A women’s clothing store stayed open for business at a shopping mall in Dnipro on Nov. 29, despite the electricity being cut off.
By Jeff Stein and David L. Stern The Washington Post
Two months of relentless missile and drone attacks by Russia have decimated Ukraine's critical infrastructure and blown a hole in previous economic forecasts. Before those strikes, Kyiv expected to need at least $55 billion in foreign assistance next year to meet basic expenses - more than the country's entire annual prewar spending.
At the meeting last week, central bank officials pondered what might happen if Russia's attacks intensify. People could flee Ukraine in droves, taking their money with them, potentially crashing the national currency as they seek to exchange their Ukrainian hryvnia for euros or dollars.
The Ukrainian government could be left without international reserves to pay for critical imports and unable to meet its foreign debt obligations - a doomsday scenario known as a balance-of-payments crisis.
One dire scenario predicted that Ukraine's economy could contract by another 5 percent next year, on top of the 33 percent contraction this year, according to a person familiar with the bankers' report who spoke on the condition of anonymity because it was not public.
As Russian President Vladimir Putin persists with his 10-month-old war, Ukraine's survival hinges as much on outside economic aid as on donated weapons, and Putin's goal now seems intent on making such help so costly that Kyiv's Western backers give up.
Now, with energy systems decimated, Kyiv and its partners face a head-splitting challenge. Key pillars of the economy - coal mining, industrial manufacturing, information technology - cannot function without electricity or internet service. The World Bank has warned that poverty could explode tenfold. Unemployment, already close to 30 percent, is likely to climb further.
The dire assessments reflect something Ukrainian officials and their Western supporters do not like to admit aloud: The Kremlin has made Ukraine's economy a pivotal theater of the war - one in which Moscow is arguably having far more success than on the front lines, where its troops have struggled.
"How does an economy function at all - while supporting the war effort - with this level of damage to civilian infrastructure? I don't think we've ever seen this," said Simon Johnson, an economist at MIT who is in communication with Ukrainian officials. "I can't think of any economy that's ever tried to do this."
Blackouts take up roughly half the workday. Valentyn Nyzkovolosov, co-owner of the Salt and Pepper catering service in Kyiv, and his partner, Andrii Boyarskyy, have their staff arrive at 5 a.m. - as early as possible under the wartime curfew in Kyiv. When the power goes out after sunset - before 4 p.m. these days - employees work with flashlights.
Mining and manufacturing - which make up roughly one-fifth of Ukraine's economy - are among the hardest-hit sectors. Two of the country's biggest steel plants, located in the industrial southeast, shut down last month because of blackouts. Dozens of coal miners had to be rescued after a power failure trapped them underground.
"For large industrial and metallurgical plants, these blackouts are very dangerous," said Dennis Sakva, an energy analyst at Dragon Capital, a Ukrainian investment firm, which recently downgraded its economic forecast for 2023 to a 6 percent contraction in economic output from 5 percent growth.
As the humanitarian needs grow, Ukrainian economic officials have sounded out Western officials about the potential for an income support program to provide roughly $50 per person per month - at a cost of $12 billion over six months, one person familiar with the matter said. | 2022-12-15T14:00:41Z | www.unionleader.com | Russia is destroying Ukraine's economy, raising costs for U.S. and allies | Military | unionleader.com | https://www.unionleader.com/news/military/russia-is-destroying-ukraines-economy-raising-costs-for-u-s-and-allies/article_a0ac76d1-536d-5148-b173-b6642a5f7b7c.html | https://www.unionleader.com/news/military/russia-is-destroying-ukraines-economy-raising-costs-for-u-s-and-allies/article_a0ac76d1-536d-5148-b173-b6642a5f7b7c.html |
Hillsborough Dept. of Corrections conducts contraband sweep
Provided by the Hillsborough County Department of Corrections
The Hillsborough County Department of Corrections conducted a targeted sweep in search of contraband following indications that drugs had been illegally smuggled into the inmate classification unit and booking department.
The sweep was an immediate response to suspected overdose incidents involving three inmates on Tuesday.
Superintendent Joseph Costanzo and his team ordered the rapid deployment of staff to search and sweep the identified areas to ensure the safety of inmates was not jeopardized. Costanzo stated: “Corrections and Medical staff performed heroically, directly recognizing the signs and symptoms of potential overdose and initiating care for the individuals by reacting to the rapid and acute distress that can occur. The investigation is ongoing.”
Superintendent Costanzo elicited the assistance of the Manchester Police Department’s canine unit to perform a follow-up sweep of the facility Wednesday.
The canine unit is specifically trained to detect illegal substances not ordinarily identified through human interaction.
Costanzo thanked Manchester Police Chief Allen Aldenberg for his assistance and both Costanzo and Aldenberg look forward to the positive collaboration and cooperation between the two departments to ensure the facility is a safe, clean and controlled environment for inmates and staff. | 2022-12-16T00:11:06Z | www.unionleader.com | Hillsborough Dept. of Corrections conducts contraband sweep | Public Safety | unionleader.com | https://www.unionleader.com/news/safety/hillsborough-dept-of-corrections-conducts-contraband-sweep/article_9c98c353-efbd-5577-b831-69e116dc5c3c.html | https://www.unionleader.com/news/safety/hillsborough-dept-of-corrections-conducts-contraband-sweep/article_9c98c353-efbd-5577-b831-69e116dc5c3c.html |
Jill Armstrong looks out toward Mount Moosilauke from the open ledges on Mount Cube’s north spur.
Provided by Jill Armstrong
Wearing microspikes, hiker Matt Marquis takes a brief pause on a thick patch of ice. If you are hiking in higher elevations, trails are likely covered from side to side with ice like this.
Jill Armstrong stands at the top of newly constructed stone steps on her ascent of Mount Cube.
Short and popular, the route to Mount Pemigewasset is a great place to start if you are new to winter hiking. It also offers fantastic views of Franconia Notch to the north.
Provided by Melissa Moher Roy
Hiker Melissa Moher Roy celebrates on the snow-packed summit of Mount Kearsarge North in Bartlett.
The fire tower on Mount Kearsarge North is a prime spot for lunch and a warm drink after a steep, challenging ascent.
From the outlook on the north spur summit of Mount Cube, hikers are provided with unobstructed views of Mount Moosilauke to the northeast.
NH Winter: Winter hiking offers stunning vistas but requires careful climbs
Summiting Mount Kearsarge
By Jill Armstrong
I love winter hiking — the invigorating bite of frosty morning air, waterfalls of ice cascading over trailside ledges, and the magical views of sprawling evergreens covered in snow. And while there isn’t much snow in the lower elevations — at least not yet — I ventured to the Upper Valley to enjoy some of this seasonal beauty.
With plans to summit the 2,909-foot Mount Cube, I started from a parking area off Route 25A in Orford, north of Hanover.
The 7.4-mile out-and-back trail coincides with the Appalachian Trail, leading to the south peak summit before detouring back toward the north spur.
Since Mount Cube is on the “52 With a View” hiking list, it’s no surprise that both peaks offer clear vistas: South Peak opens up toward mountain ranges in Vermont while North Spur provides unobstructed views of Mount Moosilauke to the northeast.
The trail starts out mostly flat, passing by old stone walls and a cellar hole. While there was only a light dusting of snow near the summit, patches of ice along the trail required me and my hiking partner, Matt, to slap on our microspikes for stability on slick surfaces.
With recent heavy rainfall followed by freezing temperatures, our crossing of Brackett Brook provided the biggest challenge of the day. Rushing water poured down and around obstacles while stepping stones coated with a thin layer of ice sparkled in the few rays of sun peeking through bare trees.
But don’t let Mother Nature’s beauty fool you.
After scoping out the safest crossing, we used our poles for stability and made sure our footing on each rock was solid before moving on to the next, working our way across the brook slowly and carefully to avoid getting wet.
After the crossing, the trail steepens, featuring a series of switchbacks that account for the majority of elevation gained. It was apparent that trail work had been done recently with new stone staircases and wooden ladders fashioned into the hillside, making the final push to the open summits easier on the lower body.
I first learned about this off-the-beaten-path peak from longtime hiker Kathy Veilleux, who has been exploring trails around New Hampshire since her late teens. I often communicate with Veilleux about trail recommendations and hiking wisdom, information she’s always elated to provide.
“Winter hiking is incredibly peaceful, and the landscape is gorgeous and pristine,” she said. “The quiet on a winter’s day in the woods is therapeutic.”
And this couldn’t have been more true about the hike to Mount Cube. We saw no other hikers until we reached the summit, and even then, that group had found its own haven away from the trail, eating a warm meal (I think I smelled curry wafting my way) and basking in the few hours of sunshine available this time of year.
Despite the bluebird sky, the temperatures were quite frigid, which is a reminder that winter hiking requires a distinct determination and skill set.
“Stepping into the mountains during this time of year should never be taken lightly,” Veilleux said. “For me to successfully navigate in, around, up and back down New Hampshire’s White Mountains takes fortitude, a sense of awareness, self confidence, and constant risk assessment and reassessment.”
When she first started winter hiking, Veilleux and her friend hiked Mount Kearsarge South in Warner for two seasons straight, learning about dressing in layers and becoming comfortable in an unpredictable and harsh landscape.
“The mountains are a beautiful sanctuary, but an unforgiving one,” she said. “They do not care who you are, what you do or how much money you make or have spent on gear. Respect them.”
Avid winter hiker Melissa Moher Roy reiterated Veilleux’s point, recommending that hikers check and double-check mountain weather forecasts. “The White Mountains are notorious for rapidly changing weather conditions. Pack for the worst.”
In summer, I always carry the 10 essentials, but winter hiking requires more gear to stay safe. If you’re just starting out, make sure to pack extra moisture wicking layers; warm gloves, a hat and a gaiter; a headlamp with extra batteries; a sleeping pad or bag to serve as a barrier between you and the ground; and traction devices such as microspikes or crampons.
“Most importantly,” Moher Roy advised, “never hesitate to turn back if it doesn’t feel right. Better to be safe than sorry.”
Three to get started
If you’re looking to gain more winter hiking experience, consider the following peaks from the “52 With a View” list.
Mount Pemigewasset: Beginning at the Flume Visitor Center in Lincoln, this popular 3.4-mile out-and-back trail provides a lot of bang for your buck with sweeping views of Franconia Notch. Snow-covered trails are often packed down on this popular hike, making it a good option for beginners.
Mount Starr King: The summit of Mount Starr King in Jefferson can be accessed in 2.6 miles from the parking lot. For those looking for an extra challenge, Mount Waumbek, one of New Hampshire’s 4,000-foot peaks, is a mile past Starr King’s summit. In the words of Veilleux, “that mile between the two is magical.”
Mount Kearsarge North: Off Hurricane Mountain Road in Bartlett, Kearsarge North offers a challenging 2,600-feet elevation gain in just over three miles. At the summit fire tower, hikers will be rewarded with 360-degree views, including the iconic Presidentials. | 2022-12-16T01:52:06Z | www.unionleader.com | NH Winter: Winter hiking offers stunning vistas but requires careful climbs | Winter Notes | unionleader.com | https://www.unionleader.com/nh/outdoors/winter_notes/nh-winter-winter-hiking-offers-stunning-vistas-but-requires-careful-climbs/article_dbd0b1d0-9a89-59a2-b7ac-220d6005a55d.html | https://www.unionleader.com/nh/outdoors/winter_notes/nh-winter-winter-hiking-offers-stunning-vistas-but-requires-careful-climbs/article_dbd0b1d0-9a89-59a2-b7ac-220d6005a55d.html |
Manchester West’s Aiden Scott-Beaulac goes up against tough defense from Campbell’s Dylan Rice in a game last season in Litchfield.
High School Basketball: For Blue Knights, season looks promising
Despite Wednesday night’s season-opening loss to Laconia, there aren’t many NHIAA Division II boys basketball teams with a higher ceiling than Manchester West this season.
The Blue Knights returned three starters from last season and another player who received significant playing time. The returnees include forward Aiden Scott-Beaulac, a First-Team All-Division II selection who averaged 22.1 points per game last season.
Tevin Edmunds, a sophomore point guard, Eliel Chavez and Kayden Farrell are the other seasoned players returning. The Blue Knights also added transfers Angel Castro and Max Shosa. Castro, a guard, played for Manchester Central last season, and Shosa, a 6-foot-3 forward, helped Trinity win the 2021-22 Division I championship.
Injuries and illness derailed West’s season a year ago, when the Blue Knights finished 6-12 and failed to qualify for the Division II tournament. This year’s team has four players who stand 6-foot-3 or taller and have three players capable of playing point guard: Edmunds, Scott-Beaulac and Castro.
“I see tremendous potential,” West coach John Langlois said. “We’re working hard to get better defensively and right now it’s about putting all the pieces together. The two new guys — Shosa and Angel — are both very, very good, but they haven’t played with each other, they haven’t played with our players and they haven’t played in my system. There’s lots of growing situations that we have here.”
Laconia, Pelham, Pembroke Academy and Souhegan are among the other teams that could challenge for the top spot in the Division II standings this season. Laconia received 27 points from Kayden Roberts and 23 from Keaton Beck in its 84-76 triumph over West on Wednesday.
Castro led West with 27. Shosa finished with 21 and Scott-Beaulac added 15.
Langlois said he hopes the team’s strength will be mental toughness.
“I think we will get better defensively and rebounding as (the season) goes on,” he said. “It’s all about us being selfless, and not selfish. It’s all about us being givers not takers to the team. It’s all about us forming great chemistry.”
Notable changes
Like Casto and Shosa, here are some other NHIAA players who have changed teams since last season:
• Aidan O’Connell (Goffstown to Bedford)
• Mark Nyomah (Trinity to Central)
• Trevor Edmunds (Pinkerton to Londonderry)
• Jared Khalil (Sanborn to Winnacunnet)
• Tyson Khalil (Sanborn to Winnacunnet)
Brynn Rautiola scored a game-high 23 points to help Conant defeat Monadnock, 47-34, Tuesday in a matchup between girls programs that met in last year’s Division III championship game. Monadnock won that game, 50-31, to end Conant’s 58-game winning streak.
Senior Emma Tenters, last year’s Division III Player of the Year, added 15 points for Conant, which improved to 2-0. Monadnock, which played without Shaylee Brannon (illness), fell to 1-1.
Monadnock’s offseason included a coaching change late in the preseason. Rob Colbert has replaced Bobby Fortes as the team’s head coach.
Galanes to miss season
Point guard Stella Galanes, who helped Hanover win last season’s Division II championship, will miss the 2022-23 season after sustaining a knee injury during a preseason scrimmage that will require surgery. Galanes will play college basketball at Tufts University, a Division III school in Medford, Mass.
Top choices
Division I: Bedford — Were Anthony Chinn (hand) healthy, Pinkerton would be in this spot.
Division II: Souhegan — Last season’s Division II champs have a veteran backcourt.
Division III: Gilford — It helps when you have a 6-foot-6 All-State point guard (Jalen Reese).
Division IV: Concord Christian — Sophomore Brode Frink is the star, but the Kingsmen have a solid supporting cast.
Division I: Bishop Guertin — The Cardinals returned plenty from last year’s Division I championship team.
Division II: Kennett — The Eagles have plenty of experience, as all five starters return from last season.
Division III: Conant — The loss in last year’s championship game will likely keep the Orioles motivated this season.
Division IV: Newmarket — The Mules returned four seniors from a team that reached the quarterfinals last season and are off to a 4-0 start.
Ray Boulay (Keene), Chris Corey (Windham), Jaryd Piecuch (Londonderry) and Tim LaTorra (Concord) are the first-year head coaches in Division I boys basketball this season. LaTorra coached the Concord girls last season. Rob Darrell has replaced him as Concord’s girls coach. Jimmy Flynn (Dover), Cassie Turcotte (Windham), Sam Wuebbolt (Exeter) and Amanda Swiezenski (Exeter) are the other new Division I coaches on the girls side. Wuebbolt and Swiezenski will serve as co-head coaches. Turcotte was once the girls head coach at Winnacunnet. … Junior Jackson Marshall scored a career-high 41 points in 21 minutes to lead Pinkerton Academy to an 89-47 victory over Timberlane on Tuesday. He scored each of Pinkerton’s 23 points in the third quarter. … Nashua North at Trinity is among the top games on tonight’s menu. | 2022-12-16T03:35:34Z | www.unionleader.com | High School Basketball: For Blue Knights, season looks promising | Sports | unionleader.com | https://www.unionleader.com/sports/highschool/high-school-basketball-for-blue-knights-season-looks-promising/article_bde13610-56da-537a-9722-abd65a7b159b.html | https://www.unionleader.com/sports/highschool/high-school-basketball-for-blue-knights-season-looks-promising/article_bde13610-56da-537a-9722-abd65a7b159b.html |
We doubt that Biden is watching much New Hampshire television, however. The “Don’t Run, Joe” group may need to wait until the next New Hampshire Presidential Primary to get their message across.
This they can do with or without the consent of Biden and his national Democratic minions who have ordered that our primary go sit somewhere in the back of the bus. Ever obedient to his quota-mad party, Biden has decided that South Carolina voters should go first. If he runs, he can expect an easy win there.
But New Hampshire’s Democratic Party need not kowtow, although it seems to be doing so. Neither the party chair nor U.S. Senators Jeanne Shaheen and Maggie Hassan have done anything other than to talk tough since feeling Biden’s boot.
Despite this, the New Hampshire Primary will be first. If Biden hasn’t seen the light by then, other candidates may not want to challenge him here. But those who know he shouldn’t run can effectively deliver their message by writing it on their primary ballot. Sending messages is what our primary has always been about. | 2022-12-16T05:15:36Z | www.unionleader.com | Biden message: NH can send it | Editorials | unionleader.com | https://www.unionleader.com/opinion/editorials/biden-message-nh-can-send-it/article_e72d0a8d-31eb-5e87-b44a-4c2160c949fb.html | https://www.unionleader.com/opinion/editorials/biden-message-nh-can-send-it/article_e72d0a8d-31eb-5e87-b44a-4c2160c949fb.html |
More than half of injured drivers in the accident study were found to have drugs or alcohol in their systems. The most prevalent was not alcohol but THC, the active ingredient found in marijuana.
No one should be shocked. “Don’t drink and drive” has been preached for generations yet alcohol remains a huge factor in traffic deaths. Making another powerful intoxicant more socially acceptable and, in more states, legal, is not likely to help matters. In fact, traffic deaths are once again on the way up.
With both Republican and Democratic leaders in the House pushing pot legalization, it will take rank-and-file members to stand in the way.
It was encouraging to see state Sen. Regina Birdsell indicate that such a bill won’t have her vote. In repeating her opposition, she noted highway safety as one reason. She pointed the NH Journal to the 2021 death of State Police Sgt. Jesse Sherrill. He was killed, she said, by a trucker with THC in his blood. | 2022-12-16T05:15:40Z | www.unionleader.com | Pot on the roads: Sobering study | Editorials | unionleader.com | https://www.unionleader.com/opinion/editorials/pot-on-the-roads-sobering-study/article_6818cb0b-b006-5c6a-845a-56733f0e3cf5.html | https://www.unionleader.com/opinion/editorials/pot-on-the-roads-sobering-study/article_6818cb0b-b006-5c6a-845a-56733f0e3cf5.html |
Biden trampling graves of Granite State heroes
To the Editor: Gentlepersons, I read the recent article about the President Joe Biden-backed decision to replace New Hampshire — always a “free state” — with South Carolina, a former slave state, for the first presidential primary.
How ironic that our president conveniently seeks to involve people of color sooner in a state that is at least 65% Caucasian and many of whom are descendants of slave owners who fought against the Union.
Biden is trampling on the graves of Granite Staters who fought to preserve the nation and, in part, to abolish slavery.
ARTHUR DAVIS | 2022-12-16T05:15:46Z | www.unionleader.com | Letter: Biden trampling graves of Granite Staters | Letters to the Editor | unionleader.com | https://www.unionleader.com/opinion/letters_to_editor/letter-biden-trampling-graves-of-granite-staters/article_a6d25393-c47b-5530-85d0-f27e5eef17a9.html | https://www.unionleader.com/opinion/letters_to_editor/letter-biden-trampling-graves-of-granite-staters/article_a6d25393-c47b-5530-85d0-f27e5eef17a9.html |
No need to convert city’s bus terminal at this time
To the Editor: In Paul Feely’s “City Hall” column, he writes about converting the city’s bus terminal on Canal Street into commercial space. I believe this is unwise until Manchester has a new bus terminal. The current arrangement was designed in the 1980s, to mimic Lowell’s (Mass.) Gallagher Transportation Center. This was to accommodate local service, over-the-road buses, commuter parking and commuter rail. Based on its activity, it is successful. Please consider the disposal of city property, which someday may have a greater civic value than the commercial value now touted.
HERBERT PENCE
Steinmetz Drive, Manchester | 2022-12-16T05:15:53Z | www.unionleader.com | Letter: Don't convert bus terminal | Letters to the Editor | unionleader.com | https://www.unionleader.com/opinion/letters_to_editor/letter-dont-convert-bus-terminal/article_991eb744-97af-5336-8a14-f83fbbfd76c2.html | https://www.unionleader.com/opinion/letters_to_editor/letter-dont-convert-bus-terminal/article_991eb744-97af-5336-8a14-f83fbbfd76c2.html |
Starbucks workers react as they speak to the media after the union vote in Buffalo, N.Y., on Dec. 9, 2021. Baristas at a Starbucks-Amazon Go store in New York narrowly rejected union membership this week.
LINDSAY DEDARIO/file photo
The workers, who legally work for Starbucks Corp., requested a union election because they said the tie-up between the coffee chain and Amazon.com doubled their workload with no additional pay. The vote was very close, with 13 voting to join Starbucks Workers United, and 14 voting no, according to a spokesperson for the National Labor Relations Board, which oversees union elections.
"We are grateful for the continued trust our partners have placed in the company as we work side-by-side with them to reinvent Starbucks for the future," Starbucks spokesperson Andrew Trull said in an emailed statement.
Starbucks baristas at 50 locations throughout the U.S. started a three-day strike on Friday, saying the company isn't bargaining fairly with recently unionized stores.
The two companies launched the pilot retail partnership last year, with the aim of using Amazon's cashierless technology and Starbucks' mobile ordering to facilitate a fast and convenient experience for customers. There are now two "Starbucks Pickup with Amazon Go" stores, one near Times Square and another on Manhattan's east side. | 2022-12-16T18:14:58Z | www.unionleader.com | Workers at hybrid Starbucks-Amazon store reject union membership | Business | unionleader.com | https://www.unionleader.com/news/business/workers-at-hybrid-starbucks-amazon-store-reject-union-membership/article_eb7916b0-f4ea-565d-94c1-370e459a90ae.html | https://www.unionleader.com/news/business/workers-at-hybrid-starbucks-amazon-store-reject-union-membership/article_eb7916b0-f4ea-565d-94c1-370e459a90ae.html |
Huge German aquarium bursts, spilling 1,500 fish onto road
By Oliver Ellrodt and Tobias Schlie Reuters
BERLIN — A huge aquarium in Berlin burst early on Friday, spilling 264,172 gallons of water, around 1,500 exotic fish and debris onto a major road in the busy Mitte district, emergency services said.
Around 100 emergency responders rushed to the site, a leisure complex that houses a Radisson hotel and a museum as well as what Sea Life Berlin said was the world’s largest freestanding cylindrical aquarium at 46 feet in height.
“If this hadn’t happened at 5.45 a.m. but even just one hour later, then we would probably have had terrible human loss to report,” broadcaster RBB cited Giffey as saying.
Buses were sent to provide shelter for the hotel guests, police said, as outside temperatures in Berlin in the morning hovered around 19.4°F. | 2022-12-17T01:39:09Z | www.unionleader.com | Huge German aquarium bursts, spilling 1,500 fish onto road | Back Page | unionleader.com | https://www.unionleader.com/news/back_page/huge-german-aquarium-bursts-spilling-1-500-fish-onto-road/article_8f990da0-d92a-5cf2-be27-5b6b3cb97d28.html | https://www.unionleader.com/news/back_page/huge-german-aquarium-bursts-spilling-1-500-fish-onto-road/article_8f990da0-d92a-5cf2-be27-5b6b3cb97d28.html |
Judy Reardon, the Manchester Democrat who served a chief legal counsel, spokeswoman and fearless advocate for Jeanne Shaheen during her three terms as governor, died last week.
Friends of Reardon started posted memories on her Facebook page Friday evening, around the time that Shaheen announced her death Friday afternoon.
“Judy Reardon protected and cared for my mom,” wrote Shaheen’s daughter, Stefany, of Portsmouth. “Judy could always handle the pressure. She somehow made the pressure manageable.”
Colin Van Ostern, a former Democratic candidate for governor, said Reardon was one of the first persons he met after moving to New Hampshire, and her advice, both in the professional and dating realms, was honest and piercing.
“She delivered one of the single most memorable curses I’ve heard in my life,” he wrote.
Reardon was Shaheen’s legal counsel during her three terms as governor from 1997 to 2003. She went on to be the counsel, legislative director and senior advisor for Shaheen in the U.S. Senate.
In her statement, Shaheen said Reardon was at her side in New Hampshire when they expanded kindergarten and defended abortion rights. In Washington, Reardon fought off challenges to Obamacare and helped Shaheen through every election.
She also said that Reardon mentored countless staffers and activists.
“She was my confidante and she was my dear friend,” Shaheen wrote. “I am brokenhearten about her passing.”
Reardon was a favorite of reporters, given her talent to cut to the chase on issues throughout the Shaheen gubernatorial years: legalized gambling, broad-based taxes and school funding.
She pulled no punches. She once said the five Supreme Court justices were political beings who wanted a broad-based tax and were intellectually dishonest. Working for Planned Parenthood, she once equated pro-life marchers to Nazi sympathizers.
Conservatives called her Shaheen’s alter ego, and pressed Shaheen to fire Reardon following a 1998 DWI arrest. Shaheen refused.
Raymond Buckley, the chairman of the state Democratic Party, tweeted that he was devastated by Reardon’s passing.
“Judy Reardon was brilliant, fearless, compassionate with the biggest heart ever. So much of my life included Judy, such sadness,” he wrote.
As of Saturday, no funeral arrangements had been announced.
Shaheen said the Reardon leaves a sister, state Rep. Patricia Cornell, D-Manchester, and a brother-in-law, Rik. | 2022-12-17T20:56:41Z | www.unionleader.com | Shaheen confidante Judy Reardon dies | State | unionleader.com | https://www.unionleader.com/news/politics/state/shaheen-confidante-judy-reardon-dies/article_28a91e26-ed33-51ee-93b1-c2ad16d1ae29.html | https://www.unionleader.com/news/politics/state/shaheen-confidante-judy-reardon-dies/article_28a91e26-ed33-51ee-93b1-c2ad16d1ae29.html |
An Illinois prosecutor has filed felony charges against the father of the man accused of opening fire on a crowd watching a July Fourth parade in Chicago’s Highland Park suburb five months ago, killing seven people and injuring dozens.
Lake County State’s Attorney Eric Rinehart said the elder Crimo was criminally reckless when he sponsored his son’s application for a firearm owner identification (FOID) card, despite knowing his son was unfit to own a gun.
“He knew what he knew and he signed the form anyway,” Rinehart told a news conference. “This was criminally reckless and a contributing cause to the bodily harm suffered by victims on July Fourth.”
Rinehart declined to specify what knowledge the father had that should have dissuaded him from sponsoring his son’s application.
The son used the FOID card he later received to legally purchase five guns between 2020 and 2021, including the one police said he used to shoot his victims from a sniper’s perch on a rooftop above the parade route. By then he was 21.
The situation was reminiscent of involuntary manslaughter charges brought against the parents of a teenager who shot four classmates to death at a Detroit-area high school last year.
Prosecutors said the couple bought their son a gun despite signs he was disturbed. The parents have pleaded not guilty.
In the Illinois case, questions were also raised about how that state’s comparatively strict gun laws, including the FOID licensing requirements, failed to prevent the July Fourth massacre.
Highland Park police filed a “clear and present danger” report with state police regarding the younger Crimo on the day of the September 2019 call to his home over the alleged threat he made against relatives.
But a state police officer later disregarded that report as based on “second-hand” information, so it was not a factor when the Crimo FOID application was later reviewed by state police. | 2022-12-18T01:53:00Z | www.unionleader.com | Father of accused Illinois gunman faces charges in July 4 parade mass shooting | Crime | unionleader.com | https://www.unionleader.com/news/crime/father-of-accused-illinois-gunman-faces-charges-in-july-4-parade-mass-shooting/article_6f511147-6d72-529f-8f8f-31bcf08836c7.html | https://www.unionleader.com/news/crime/father-of-accused-illinois-gunman-faces-charges-in-july-4-parade-mass-shooting/article_6f511147-6d72-529f-8f8f-31bcf08836c7.html |
— Dorothy R., Terra Haute, Indiana
A: There’s a big difference between added sugars and those naturally found in fruits and grains. Added sugar is often engineered — for example, high fructose corn syrup, added to prepared foods and snacks, is nowhere in nature! It causes impaired muscle function with insulin resistance, inflammation, high triglycerides, nonalcoholic fatty liver disease, increases your appetite and promotes obesity. And all added sugars — sucrose, glucose, fructose — add up to health woes. So can processed foods that remove fiber, like orange juice. A whole orange has 10-13 grams of sugar and lots of fiber; a 16-ounce glass of orange juice delivers 48 grams of sugar with no moderating fiber.
Q: My belly gets really bloated, making me very uncomfortable and causing me to have pain, gas and sometimes constipation. What could cause this?
— Joellen P., Durham, North Carolina
A: Bloating is a very common problem. A new study published in Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology found that around 14% of U.S. adults experience it at least once a week. Most folks don’t seek medical help to identify the cause, and that’s too bad because it could be a symptom of a treatable disorder — from irritable bowel syndrome, celiac and Crohn’s disease to ulcerative colitis. Lactose intolerance or some other food sensitivity or allergy — say, to gluten or eggs — could also be the trigger. And for many folks without any particular condition, there are foods that make them a bit — or a lot — gassy: beans, broccoli, onions, sugar alcohols (used in sugar-free foods), fizzy drinks, beer and fatty foods. If those are among your favorites, take note.
For self-care, foods that might reduce your gassy feeling include apple cider vinegar, chamomile tea, fish, tomatoes, zucchini, grapes, melons, lettuce, rice and peppermint tea. Taking a probiotic daily may also help — I favor Tru-Biotics, Culturelle and Digestive Advantage, and another supplement that often works is bovine colostrum. Other ways to ease bloating include aerobic exercise, eating slowly and consuming smaller meals, chewing your food well, drinking beverages at room temperature, making sure you don’t gulp in air while eating or swallowing, and taking a walk after eating.
However, if bloating is a persistent or painful problem, talk to your doctor. You don’t want serious gastrointestinal disorders or cancers to go undetected and untreated. Potential causes include pancreatic insufficiency, prior gastroesophageal surgery (such as bariatric procedures), gynecological and gastrointestinal cancers, gastroparesis, fluid in your abdomen (ascites), hypothyroidism and small intestine diverticulosis.
Michael Roizen, M.D., is chief wellness officer emeritus at the Cleveland Clinic and author of four No. 1 New York Times bestsellers. His next book is “The Great Age Reboot: Cracking the Longevity Code for a Younger Tomorrow.” Do you have a topic Dr. Mike should cover in a future column? If so, please email questions@GreatAgeReboot.com. | 2022-12-18T01:53:12Z | www.unionleader.com | Don't sugarcoat added sugar's health risks; how to beat the bloat | Health | unionleader.com | https://www.unionleader.com/news/health/dont-sugarcoat-added-sugars-health-risks-how-to-beat-the-bloat/article_519bd8c1-e62b-5213-9c27-73db8b58a640.html | https://www.unionleader.com/news/health/dont-sugarcoat-added-sugars-health-risks-how-to-beat-the-bloat/article_519bd8c1-e62b-5213-9c27-73db8b58a640.html |
Forest Journal
Seven-year-old twins Evan and Jonah Berry get a lift from grandfather Chris Haigh as they search for the perfect tree at The Rocks in Bethlehem.
Anna Berry
Jonah Berry counts the rings on the tree he selected for his grandparents.
The one that got away: Evan Berry poses in front of “his” fir tree that the family promised to come back for next year after it grows taller.
Forest Journal: Lessons from the “Evergreen Advantage”
By Anna Berry Forest Society
By Anna Berry
I t was hard to summon holiday cheer on my family’s recent trip to The Rocks in Bethlehem for a Christmas tree.
My two 7-year-olds were fighting about whose turn it was to choose the tree for their grandparents, and that was making everyone grumpy.
When one twin pointed out a nice balsam fir, the other shouted: “Not good enough!”
When my well-meaning father tried reverse psychology — “This tree is much too nice to take home!” — that approach didn’t help either.
Eventually, we reached a compromise when we convinced the twins that one of the chosen trees needed more time to grow taller and we’d come back to the Forest Society’s Christmas tree farm for it next year.
Pulling our fresh-cut fir tree up the hill at The Rocks, I reveled in a moment of quiet of as the snow-covered Presidential range shone in the sunshine, overlooking the rows of trees at the farm. I was thankful for the fresh, crisp air.
But, after all of the hubbub, no one was in the mood for a forestry lesson on how that left-behind tree will grow over the next 12 months.
I tapped the Forest Society’s senior director of education, Dave Anderson, to share his knowledge on evergreens and he pointed me to a book that explains why evergreens have one interesting advantage over deciduous trees (which drop leaves every autumn and sprout new ones in spring).
After all, there’s a reason that western cultures have decorated with evergreens — and not, say, bare birch branches — during winter holidays over the centuries. The green needles have long symbolized life everlasting during darker, colder days.
In the book, called “North Woods: An Inside Look at the Nature of Forests in the Northeast,” author and professor of ecology Peter J. Marchand explained the ecological advantage by comparing plant growth to a manufacturing business: “The primary advantage of the evergreen leaf … may be related to nutrient conservation. In green plants, part of the investment capital used to construct photosynthetic machinery comes from the soil nutrient bank … (the evergreen leaf) gives a return over a period of years and thus gives back more for the amount of nutrients invested.”
In short, evergreens are the ultimate conservationists. Rather than restart from the ground up each year — as deciduous trees do — their “machinery,” backed by soil nutrients, can be reused over and over again to build green leaves.
That’s why evergreens, including the pine, spruce, and fir trees that we decorate for Christmas, can thrive in “nutrient-deficient” environments, as Marchand described.
While a conifer’s “photosynthetic apparatus” does shut down in cold months, it will get a jump start on deciduous trees when it starts growing again as early as mid-March.
Anderson compared conifers to “flinty, frugal Yankees, who make do with the same needles for several years” and “live a less capital-intensive lifestyle.”
Although I’m not a frugal Yankee by birth, I’ve been a New Hampshire resident long enough to appreciate the qualities that many people here share with those scrappy evergreen trees.
Outside and free
Making do with less is also a good resolution for the New Year, especially when it comes to getting outside.
There are many free or low cost opportunities to stay active in winter. And even small outings can keep your physical and mental health tuned up until springtime.
Here a few ways you can kick off 2023 outdoors:
• Ring in the new year at a NH State Park during a free First Day Hike on Sunday, Jan. 1. Participants of First Day Hikes can explore historic sites, state parks and even enjoy pet friendly hikes either on their own or discover and experience nature with a self-guided hike.
This year’s locations include Greenfield State Park, Odiorne Point State Park, White Lake State Park, Milan Hill State Park, Pisgah State Park, Frost Farm Historic Site and Monadnock State Park. Advance registration is required: www.nhstateparks.org/news-events/first-day-hike
• Enjoy the colder months by hiking, snowshoeing or just forest bathing at Forest Society reservations. You can use this list of 11 Forest Society reservations across New Hampshire that have parking spaces plowed regularly during the winter (and find safety tips too): forestsociety.org/winterhiking
• Take part in a guided walk or snowshoe. Organizations offering outdoor programs in the winter in addition to the Forest Society include New Hampshire Audubon in Concord and Auburn, Harris Center for Conservation Education in Hancock, Prescott Farm Environmental Education Center in Laconia, Alnoba in Kensington, and local land trusts across the state.
Anna Berry is the digital outreach manager for the Forest Society. Contact her at aberry@forestsociety.org. | 2022-12-18T01:53:48Z | www.unionleader.com | Forest Journal: Lessons from the “Evergreen Advantage” | Forest Journal | unionleader.com | https://www.unionleader.com/nh/outdoors/forest_journal/forest-journal-lessons-from-the-evergreen-advantage/article_90ca25af-531d-5b25-9d55-50ce987cc17b.html | https://www.unionleader.com/nh/outdoors/forest_journal/forest-journal-lessons-from-the-evergreen-advantage/article_90ca25af-531d-5b25-9d55-50ce987cc17b.html |
Bruins center Patrice Bergeron leans in for a faceoff during Saturday’s game against Columbus. Before the game, Bergeron was honored for reaching 1,000 career points.
Late surge seals win for Bruins against Blue Jackets
Columbus was 2-for-5 with the man advantage after entering the game with an NHL-worst 13.9% success rate.
The tie did not last long as Krejci’s power-play strike from the left circle put Boston in front with 2:10 left in the second period. | 2022-12-18T01:54:07Z | www.unionleader.com | Late surge seals win for Bruins against Blue Jackets | Bruins | unionleader.com | https://www.unionleader.com/sports/bruins/late-surge-seals-win-for-bruins-against-blue-jackets/article_7b8b1c2d-edb3-54dd-bc98-043fb79a6185.html | https://www.unionleader.com/sports/bruins/late-surge-seals-win-for-bruins-against-blue-jackets/article_7b8b1c2d-edb3-54dd-bc98-043fb79a6185.html |
Bedford’s Ryan Lobdell scores against Windham goalie Vito Mancini during Saturday afternoon’s Division I game at Sullivan Arena on the Saint Anselm College campus in Goffstown.
Bedford’s Javin Manfield, left, in white, celebrates his goal with Zachary Griffin during Saturday’s Division I contest at Sullivan Arena in Goffstown.
Bedford hockey team outscores Windham, 8-5
Lobdell
GOFFSTOWN — If your team scores five goals in a loss, it’s time to go back to the drawing board, Windham High School boys hockey coach Shawn Dunn said.
Those were Dunn’s sentiments after the Jaguars’ 8-5 NHIAA Division I loss to Bedford on Saturday at Sullivan Arena.
The Bulldogs (2-0) scored the game’s first three goals over the opening 2:28 to set the tone and recorded two late power-play goals in the second to secure the win.
Rocco Mancini (4-on-4), Andrew Sylvain and Casey Kramer each scored for Windham (0-2) in the third period but the Jaguars never pulled closer than three goals of tying the score over the final 15 minutes.
“A slow start obviously put us behind the 8-ball and it’s tough to dig out and then didn’t help ourselves with some untimely penalties,” Dunn said. “It seemed every time we got some momentum, we did something to undo it.”
Junior Ryan Lobdell, senior captain Brendan Thornton and senior Javin Manfield each scored over the opening 2:28 to build the Bulldogs’ 3-0 lead.
Lobdell put home a rebound goal in front following a Dom Tagliaferro shot 52 seconds in to open the game’s scoring. Thornton and Manfield then both scored on Bedford rushes 1:01 apart.
Bedford coach Jon Garrity said the quick three-goal outburst came after the Bulldogs started slow in two preseason scrimmages and in their 4-3 season-opening overtime win at Hanover.
“We came out with more energy — definitely more energy and we just shot the puck,” Thornton said of Bedford’s start on Saturday compared to previous games. “Whenever we got the puck, we shot the puck, tried to get a goal and it obviously worked.”
The Bulldogs peppered Windham senior goaltender Vito Mancini (31 saves) with seven shots on goal over the first four minutes and had a 15-4 shots-on-goal advantage in the first period.
The Jaguars pulled within two in the second period before Bedford scored twice in the final two minutes of the frame to give the Bulldogs a 6-2 lead. Bedford’s late-period goals came after Aiden Quaglietta received a five-minute major penalty that carried over into the opening 2:26 of the third.
Bedford senior captain Maddox Muir scored top shelf from the right circle with 1:46 left before the second intermission during a 5-on-3 Bulldogs advantage. Sophomore Parker O’Toole built the Bulldogs’ four-goal cushion with a power-play goal with 58 seconds remaining in the second period.
“It was an unnecessary penalty by us and they capitalized on it,” Dunn said. “That’s what good teams do. They punish you for the mistakes you make.”
Bedford went 3-for-5 on the power play and 3-for-4 on the penalty kill in what Garrity called the best performance from his special teams units so far.
Bedford also received a breakaway goal from Tagliaferro 2:40 into the second and third-period goals from O’Toole and Thornton (power play).
Windham won the second-period-opening faceoff and got on the board six seconds into the frame on a goal from junior forward Austin Mulrenan. Classmate Nate Crowley trimmed Bedford’s lead to 4-2 with his power-play goal that came with 4:15 left in the second.
Bedford junior goalie Tristan Kerr made 12 saves.
“We were able to crash the net early and we were able to really work hard, so we liked what we saw from the forwards — being creative, using our skill,” Garrity said. “Loved seeing that but I think we’re trying to stay even-keeled here because we realize that we did let them hang around way too long.” | 2022-12-18T01:54:13Z | www.unionleader.com | Bedford hockey team outscores Windham, 8-5 | Sports | unionleader.com | https://www.unionleader.com/sports/highschool/bedford-hockey-team-outscores-windham-8-5/article_e60d3ff6-e46a-5a26-8c1c-2d90ee7814a8.html | https://www.unionleader.com/sports/highschool/bedford-hockey-team-outscores-windham-8-5/article_e60d3ff6-e46a-5a26-8c1c-2d90ee7814a8.html |
Raiders wide receiver Davante Adams takes off after catching a pass against the Rams on Dec. 8. At left is Rams cornerback Jalen Ramsey. Adams was a key offseason acquisition by Las Vegas, which hosts the Patriots today.
When Josh McDaniels packed up and flew from Foxborough, Mass., to Las Vegas last offseason, he brought more than the Patriots’ offensive system with him.
Everything traveled with McDaniels, right down to the finer points of team-building. McDaniels handed the keys to his front office to Dave Ziegler, who before becoming the Raiders’ GM was a high-ranking Patriots executive. The foundation of Ziegler’s work would similarly carry over from Foxborough.
Striking a deal that commits overwhelming draft capital and pays a receiver top dollar is nowhere in the Patriots’ front office playbook. Bill Belichick is willing to invest at the position, but historically prefers to spread the wealth and build depth with mid-tier veterans (see: Nelson Agholor and Kendrick Bourne free-agent signings in 2021). Not even Randy Moss or Wes Welker broke the bank in their prime as Patriots.
“Great ball skills, really smooth, very crafty runner, slick, good length, does a really good job of changing speeds. He’s just a really hard guy to cover,” he said.
Well, they’re 5-8 and all but guaranteed to miss the playoffs. Their glaring lack of talent at linebacker and in the secondary has allowed several opponents to stage improbable fourth-quarter comebacks. Las Vegas is 3-7 in one-score games.
As for the Patriots, they’ve lost two of their last three and seen their playoff odds fall below 50% because they can’t contain opposing No. 1 wideouts, even with one of the NFL’s better secondaries. Jones, hard as he tried, allowed Justin Jefferson to catch most of his nine balls for 139 yards and a touchdown in Minnesota on Thanksgiving. A week later, Stefon Diggs went off for seven catches, 92 yards and a touchdown in a Buffalo win.
Last Monday in Arizona, Cardinals wideout DeAndre Hopkins caught seven passes for 79 yards, mostly empty calories in a 14-point Patriots win. The key to “limiting” Hopkins was relinquishing the idea of playing 1-on-1. The Pats played zone on 83% of their coverage snaps, a season high.
“It was just a good switch-up and great game plan,” Jones said.
So what will Adams manage Sunday, with Jalen Mills already ruled out, and his replacement, Jack Jones, listed as questionable? Man or zone, Adams should dictate the game’s outcome as much as any player.
“Yeah, there’s a definite attention to him. Double (Adams)-type calls,” Belichick said. “Or you just see the awareness of teams like the Chargers or Denver that play him regularly ... and all that is all part of I would say just a general awareness of him. But you better have it, or he’ll kill you.”
And on Sunday, “you,” will be the Patriots, a team forever reluctant to make the type of gamble Zeigler took in March.
While the payoff won’t be enough to spring the Raiders into the postseason, it could let McDaniels drag his old team down with him on Sunday. | 2022-12-18T03:28:53Z | www.unionleader.com | Why Patriots-Raiders could come down to 2 offseason trades | Patriots | unionleader.com | https://www.unionleader.com/sports/patriots/why-patriots-raiders-could-come-down-to-2-offseason-trades/article_dd0c2250-21a5-567c-a78c-357b16c29ab3.html | https://www.unionleader.com/sports/patriots/why-patriots-raiders-could-come-down-to-2-offseason-trades/article_dd0c2250-21a5-567c-a78c-357b16c29ab3.html |
THE STORY of Elon Musk’s acquisition, transformation and public rehabilitation of Twitter is nothing short of remarkable. Here is that rarest of confluences: A right-leaning (or at least right-sympathetic) mega-billionaire privately acquires a disproportionately influential public company out of genuine public-spiritedness, perhaps even a hint of noblesse oblige and an earnest commitment to preserving open discourse in our modern digital public square, exposes grievous previous company wrongs for the whole world to see in a dramatic unveiling of the eponymous “Twitter Files,” makes decisive personnel decisions to toss out core leaders of the wretched and corrupt old regime, and begins to chart a promising new path forward. | 2022-12-18T07:18:57Z | www.unionleader.com | Josh Hammer: Celebrate Elon Musk, but don't lose sight of Big Tech's structural problems | Columnists | unionleader.com | https://www.unionleader.com/opinion/columnists/josh-hammer-celebrate-elon-musk-but-dont-lose-sight-of-big-techs-structural-problems/article_df5115e5-5f89-5d50-a55b-31d4874d12af.html | https://www.unionleader.com/opinion/columnists/josh-hammer-celebrate-elon-musk-but-dont-lose-sight-of-big-techs-structural-problems/article_df5115e5-5f89-5d50-a55b-31d4874d12af.html |
‘Climate of Corruption’ exposes jaded science
To the Editor: May I add a book to Kathy Sullivan’s suggested reading? “Climate of Corruption” by Larry Bell is a look at the special interest groups that have corrupted the climate change debate. One of the endorsers of the book is Joseph D’Aleo, a former weather director of meteorology. He states “Larry Bell’s ‘Climate of Corruption’ details a timely, compelling narrative concerning the hijacking of science and demonization of carbon by political power brokers and eco-evangelists.” Walter Cunningham, the Apollo 7 astronaut, comments on the book... “In the last 20 years I have watched the high standards of science being violated by a few influential climate scientists, including some at NASA, while special interest opportunists have dangerously abused our public trust.”
The book was published 11 years ago, but I am sure you will recognize the familiar cast of characters.
MARY ANN KOBBS
Pollard Road, Nashua | 2022-12-18T07:19:34Z | www.unionleader.com | Letter: 'Climate of Corruption' is a worthy read | Letters to the Editor | unionleader.com | https://www.unionleader.com/opinion/letters_to_editor/letter-climate-of-corruption-is-a-worthy-read/article_d99e10a0-0eef-5512-86f1-2e404e5eeeea.html | https://www.unionleader.com/opinion/letters_to_editor/letter-climate-of-corruption-is-a-worthy-read/article_d99e10a0-0eef-5512-86f1-2e404e5eeeea.html |
Chuck Douglas
USING THE Peru governance model, former President Donald Trump on Dec. 3 called for “the termination of all rules, regulations, and articles, even those found in the Constitution,” because his fragile ego cannot admit he lost an election. The Constitution Terminator might have inspired President Pedro Castillo of Peru three days later to address his country by telling Peruvians he would dissolve its Congress and then rule by decree until a new constitution was drafted.
Luckily, Peruvians declined the honor of a dictatorship and hours later Castillo was impeached by a vote of 101 to 29 and promptly removed from office.
Donald Trump’s plan for a coup to reinstall him by terminating the U.S. Constitution is all anyone with a three-digit I.Q. needs to see that he remains morbidly fixated on the 2020 election.
How is that 7,000,000-vote loss to Joe Biden going to motivate independents to vote for election denier GOP candidates? Apparently not at all. Senate candidates Don Bolduc, Mehmet Oz, Herschel Walker, etc., each won their primary because of Trump’s backing and then blew their election because most people in the country think Biden won, not stole, the 2020 election.
Republicans in New Hampshire need to move on once and for all from our self-proclaimed “greatest President.” The 40% of the voters here and nationally who are not enrolled in either major political party have clearly put him in their rearview mirrors. In Pennsylvania 58% of independents voted against election denier Oz and in our state 54% voted for Maggie Hassan to enable her to win over Bolduc.
What is amazing is how the Trump endorsed candidates here and around the country lost when only 44% of the electorate has a favorable opinion of the Democratic party, Biden is unpopular and we have 8% inflation. The dead weight? Donald Trump’s obsession with his loss forced his endorsed candidates to ride the Great Stolen Election bandwagon in the face of no evidence and over 60 court rulings against such fraud claims.
To broaden his appeal among White supremacists, and further alienate most of the rest of the country, is the famous dinner at Mar-A-Lago last month. “I like Hitler,” Kanye West and the “Holocaust-never-happened” Nick Fuentes were actually allowed to have dinner with a presidential candidate who should know better. Last spring, at a right-wing conference, Fuentes asked the crowd to give a round of applause for Putin and his invasion of Ukraine. In December, Fuentes said the Taliban represented “ideal” government with its policies toward women, who should not be able to vote here either according to Fuentes.
Can you think of any president since Jefferson Davis who would dine with such whackos?
To cap off his broad appeal to haters and rioters Trump told a group helping to pay for the Jan. 6 rioters’ legal defense that the country “was going communist” and that if re-elected he would issue pardons and apologies to those who beat the police and threatened harm to elected officials.
No wonder he does not believe in enforcing riot laws and that he should be re-installed as president after the constitution is suspended.
If Peru is not quite Trump’s model for governance we can reach back in time to Jean-Claude Duvalier of Haiti, who at age 19 became president for life in 1957. The plus for Baby Doc Duvalier was that you can’t lose elections if you never have them.
Trump should have “terminated” the constitution when he was still president, and then declared that he was president for life. Having missed that opportunity, the Republican Party should not give him the chance again to lose and rain havoc down on the ticket of Republicans like he did to the Senate this year.
The anti-Semitic and White nationalist stench of Mar-A-Lago is not the tradition of the Party of Lincoln, nor should it become one.
We are not losing elections because of RINO’s, but because of Donald Trump. It is time to move on to new faces who believe in our U.S. Constitution.
Chuck Douglas grew up in Philadelphia and is a former New Hampshire judge and 2nd District Republican congressman. He lives in Bow. | 2022-12-18T07:19:46Z | www.unionleader.com | Chuck Douglas: Why not President for Life Trump? | Op-eds | unionleader.com | https://www.unionleader.com/opinion/op-eds/chuck-douglas-why-not-president-for-life-trump/article_1b34c5e7-41fa-5d0c-8cd1-768f931c865b.html | https://www.unionleader.com/opinion/op-eds/chuck-douglas-why-not-president-for-life-trump/article_1b34c5e7-41fa-5d0c-8cd1-768f931c865b.html |
By Jonathan D. Silver The Tribune-Review, Greensburg
Across the country, miniaturized hidden cameras keep popping up in the most unseemly location: public restrooms, where latter-day peeping Toms record every zip, wipe and flush of unsuspecting victims.
This year alone, the unwanted intrusions have shaken locals at a Utah university, inside a New York state middle school, at businesses in a Michigan college town, on a Florida beach — and in the heart of Pittsburgh.
Over the summer, the cleaning staff discovered a tiny camera no bigger than a 50-cent piece hidden beneath a sink inside a unisex restroom on the campus of The Frick Pittsburgh in Point Breeze, home to an art museum and the Gilded Age chateau-style mansion known as Clayton.
Caught on tape: nearly two dozen children and 48 adults, including senior citizens.
By November, police had identified a suspect, Todd Bueschen, a 35-year-old engineer living with his family in Squirrel Hill.
Investigators, who charged Bueschen with dozens of counts of sexual abuse of children and invasion of privacy, said they retrieved videos and images from the device — including pictures of him planting the camera while accompanied by his toddler in a stroller.
Elizabeth E. Barker, the museum's executive director, said she takes pains to ensure that visitors to the "treasured oasis" feel warmly welcomed and safe. News that her staff found a hidden camera targeting visitors in such a vile manner left her in disbelief.
"I was completely stunned," Barker said last week.
The Bueschen case is only the latest in a cascade of unsettling instances of video voyeurism.
Occurring at the intersection of crime and technology, incidents involving hidden devices placed in restrooms have cropped up with disturbing regularity. It's an old-fashioned invasion of privacy, but conducted through a newfangled digital lens.
"We've come a long way since the days of the VCR," said Robert
D'Ovidio, a Drexel University professor who studies crime and technology. "You think about various places criminals are putting these hidden cameras — you have dressing rooms, you have bathrooms, you have house rentals."
Last month, police at the University of Utah charged a 32-year-old man with voyeurism by concealed equipment after a camera was found taped under a sink in an all-gender bathroom in the student life center. A second camera was found in another bathroom along with evidence of a third device in yet another restroom.
In Ann Arbor, Mich., a 35-year-old man was arrested in September for concealing cameras in the restrooms of local businesses.
In February, police arrested a middle school teacher in Colonie, N.Y., outside Albany, who hid a camera in a staff restroom and photographed 28 people. He pleaded guilty last month to two counts of unlawful surveillance.
And on Sanibel Island in Florida, police arrested a 58-year-old New Hampshire man on multiple counts of video voyeurism after a public works employee found two cameras disguised as square, red fire alarms with warning lights in a public family restroom. They were filled with nearly 300 videos.
The camera housings were homemade, according to a police affidavit. Using a real fire alarm box with a hole drilled into it, the camera — pointed directly at the toilet — was mounted inside and stuck to the wall with double-sided tape.
Police described the camera as looking like a vehicle key fob. It recorded in five-minute snippets and stored videos on a micro memory card.
Despite the steady stream of incidents, federal and state prosecutors' offices said they are unaware of any agency or group that tracks spyware crimes or collects any data, rendering it impossible to determine whether such behavior is on the rise — or how best to combat it. That's a problem, according to Drexel's D'Ovidio.
Data-driven solutions are critical to prompting lawmakers to take notice, especially when hidden-camera crimes are competing for attention with high-profile issues such as gun violence, D'Ovidio said. They're also necessary for countering the industry and its lobbyists.
"Without the data to make the case, it's hard to push back on these manufacturers that can cite legitimate alternative uses," he said.
One thing is certain, though: As cameras shrink, and as the definition of what constitutes privacy is redefined in an age when cellphones are ubiquitous, the potential paths to misbehavior only increase in number and variety.
A Google search for "hidden camera" turns up no shortage of merchandise, including a model similar to the one on Amazon.com that police allege Bueschen used: a HowKow
Wi-Fi-enabled device, which sells for as little as $19.99 online.
Pittsburgh police described it as black and circular, about an inch thick with a tiny camera in the middle. Hidden in a recess under the sink in a bathroom, the camera had an SD card slot, a USB port and a power pack taped to the basin.
On the day the camera was found, the tape's stickiness had apparently worn off, and it had fallen to the floor, according to Pittsburgh police Detective Douglas Butler, the lead investigator.
Not only did the camera capture images of strangers, it also contained pictures of Bueschen's wife, her sister and his brother-in-law showering and using the toilet, police said. They're the only victims who have been identified so far.
"The sister-in-law was very shocked," Butler said. "They're hurt. They feel violated."
Forget clunky Polaroids, first-gen digital cameras or even cellphones. Today's clandestine devices that take still photographs and video have shrunk dramatically and can be disguised as any household item — alarm clocks, lightbulbs, clothing hooks, pens, smoke detectors, even cans of shaving cream.
Invasive pictures can be viewed over wireless connections, stored on digital media and uploaded to the cloud.
In Bueschen's case, police would file hundreds more charges as investigators turned up roughly 3,000 graphic images and evidence of additional hidden cameras in as many as nine other bathrooms; the only one that has been identified so far is a facility at the Frick Environmental Center on Beechwood Boulevard.
When investigators — search warrant in hand — raided Bueschen's home in November, they confiscated five laptops, several digital cameras, iPads, a portable charger with tape residue and various hard drives.
Bueschen's attorney, David Shrager, said he still was gathering information about his client, who he said had no prior record.
The lawyer acknowledged that while peeping-Tom incidents have remained fundamentally the same throughout history, technology has changed how such crimes are carried out.
Voyeurism is an age-old activity, but scientific advances have granted peepers new nefarious tools.
While hidden cameras often are promoted in positive terms, such as a way for parents to make sure babysitters don't abuse their children or homeowners to prevent people from stealing packages from the porch, the imagery tells a different story.
An ad on Amazon promoting the type of camera retrieved from the Frick property features a picture of a scantily clad woman, leaving consumers to wonder about the camera's true use.
Sascha Meinrath, a Penn State University telecommunications professor who studies technology and public policy, sees society hurtling toward trouble.
"This will become a more pernicious problem in the future," Meinrath said. "Technology will get cheaper, storage will get larger, resolution will get higher, cameras will get smaller."
One thing not keeping pace with technology, according to Meinrath: the law. He fears that legislators are not keeping ahead of the curve as the digital age continues to give rise to novel — and disturbing — legal questions.
One example: Is child pornography created by artificial intelligence illegal? Meinrath said he has no idea.
Here's another: "What if I put cameras outside a bathroom and have AI develop skits of you peeing inside the bathroom?" Meinrath asked.
"These are questions that, however awkward, need to be asked because these technologies are coming now, not in some distant future," Meinrath said. "It's possible today and will be normalized over the next five to 10 years, and we have no rules of the road for how to address these things."
While photography and telephoto lenses have been around for more than a century, the phenomenon of living in a virtual panopticon is new, as drones, satellites and closed-circuit television create a permanent surveillance state.
"We've never had a moment in which the privacy invasiveness of all this has been this grand, this problematic," Meinrath said. | 2022-12-18T15:25:48Z | www.unionleader.com | Voyeurism takes disturbing turn as mini cameras become more accessible | Crime | unionleader.com | https://www.unionleader.com/news/crime/voyeurism-takes-disturbing-turn-as-mini-cameras-become-more-accessible/article_8a97824a-4182-53d2-9f39-9e9c3d78dfa3.html | https://www.unionleader.com/news/crime/voyeurism-takes-disturbing-turn-as-mini-cameras-become-more-accessible/article_8a97824a-4182-53d2-9f39-9e9c3d78dfa3.html |
NFL Roundup: Bengals rally past Buccaneers
Lions 20, Jets 17: Jared Goff threw a 51-yard touchdown pass to tight end Brock Wright on a fourth-down play for the go-ahead score to lift the Lions.
The Jets had a chance to tie it. Zach Wilson scrambled around and connected with Elijah Moore on a 20-yard gain. The Jets were granted a timeout with one second left but Greg Zuerlein's 58-yard field goal attempt sailed wide.
Jaguars 40, Cowbys 34 (OT): Rayshawn Jenkins' 51-yard interception return with 6:52 left in overtime lifted the Jaguars.
Chiefs 30, Texans 24 (OT): Jerick McKinnon's 26-yard touchdown run with 5:13 left in overtime helped the Chiefs clinch the AFC West title for the seventh straight season.
The Texans fell to a league-worst 1-12-1 with their ninth straight loss.
Eagles 25, Bears 20: Jalen Hurts rushed for 61 yards and three touchdowns while passing for 315 yards to lead the Eagles.
Steelers 24, Panthers 16: Najee Harris ran for a touchdown and racked up 86 yards on the ground as the Steelers counted on ball-control offense and a solid defense in the win.
Saints 21, Falcons 18: Andy Dalton threw two touchdown passes and Taysom Hill threw one for the Saints in the win.
Broncos 24, Cardinals 15: Latavius Murray rushed for 130 yards and a touchdown as the Broncos snapped a five-game losing streak.
Chargers 17, Titans 14: Justin Herbert passed for 313 yards and Cameron Dicker made a 43-yard field goal with four seconds remaining for the Chargers.
Tannehill was 15 of 22 for 165 yards and an interception while playing through a right ankle injury he sustained on the first offensive series of the game. Malik Willis played quarterback for one series. | 2022-12-19T01:30:22Z | www.unionleader.com | NFL Roundup: Bengals rally past Buccaneers | Sports | unionleader.com | https://www.unionleader.com/sports/nfl-roundup-bengals-rally-past-buccaneers/article_2e15a716-985d-5078-961b-d0bde966be19.html | https://www.unionleader.com/sports/nfl-roundup-bengals-rally-past-buccaneers/article_2e15a716-985d-5078-961b-d0bde966be19.html |
Looking Back with Aurora Eaton: The Bicentennial Hikers – Traversing Northern Ohio and Indiana
Hormell, King, and Hurd spent the night of April 30 in the town of Richvalley. Hormell’s family had its origins in Indiana, a fact that he had mentioned to Craig German, a member of the Decatur Jaycees, a few days earlier.
German was surprised to discover that he was Hormell’s second cousin. He arranged for other family members to show up in Richvalley on the morning of May 1 to meet Hormell, and to send him off with words of encouragement. After this happy gathering, Hormell walked from Richvalley to Logansport, a distance of around 27 miles. | 2022-12-19T03:06:56Z | www.unionleader.com | Looking Back with Aurora Eaton: The Bicentennial Hikers – Traversing Northern Ohio and Indiana | Looking Back | unionleader.com | https://www.unionleader.com/voices/looking_back/looking-back-with-aurora-eaton-the-bicentennial-hikers-traversing-northern-ohio-and-indiana/article_adee9a96-44a2-5c47-aec6-814000b594be.html | https://www.unionleader.com/voices/looking_back/looking-back-with-aurora-eaton-the-bicentennial-hikers-traversing-northern-ohio-and-indiana/article_adee9a96-44a2-5c47-aec6-814000b594be.html |
A mostly clear sky. Low around 25F. Winds NW at 10 to 15 mph.
They cost us our primary
To the Editor: If our Congressional delegation in D.C. (all Democrats) really wanted to preserve New Hampshire’s first-in-the-nation primary, they could take action to do so. Sen. Joe Manchin of W.Va. bargained for a pipeline in his state and got it. He was foiled by jealous Republicans but otherwise was successful with the Democrat Party.
We have four Democrat representatives in Washington, two senators and two representatives. You would think they could accomplish more than not going to a White House sponsored ball. They could as true representatives of New Hampshire, rather than representatives of the big government crowd. What would happen if Senators Jeanne Shaheen and Maggie Hassan said they would caucus with Republicans if their party continued to betray our state. They would be joining Senator Susan Collins from Maine (and a few others) as moderate senators, as they both advertised in their campaigns. Not only would this affect the primary situation, it might actually soften the extreme language and effort expended by both sides in Congress.
Perhaps our two representatives could perform the same way considering their campaign ads. If any of this happened, the Democrat Party would abandon its quest to run a Joe Biden basement campaign in 2024 and it would preserve the economic kick our state gets from showing the rest of the country the true character of the candidates in our rough and tumble retail primaries. What do you say senators?
BILL DiPROFIO | 2022-12-19T07:01:13Z | www.unionleader.com | Letter: They cost us our primary | Letters to the Editor | unionleader.com | https://www.unionleader.com/opinion/letters_to_editor/letter-they-cost-us-our-primary/article_13ddec88-41a2-52f3-82eb-ec2eccf605a2.html | https://www.unionleader.com/opinion/letters_to_editor/letter-they-cost-us-our-primary/article_13ddec88-41a2-52f3-82eb-ec2eccf605a2.html |
Sen. Jeanne Shaheen
THE Republican-controlled Executive Council, which determines how federal funds above $10,000 are spent, continues to show gross negligence and dereliction of duty around protecting New Hampshire’s public health. On issue after issue, Republican Councilors’ extreme ideology has blocked critical funding for Granite Staters — with votes to defund everything from family planning providers that offer essential reproductive health care to vaccination efforts during the height of the pandemic.
Most recently, the Executive Council’s GOP majority rejected $682,074 in federal assistance for evidence-based sex education programming that has supported Granite State communities for nearly a decade. This shameful decision will harm the communities and adolescents these programs serve and unravel the progress made in reducing teen birth rates and sexually transmitted diseases, thanks to the curriculum that is supported by these federal dollars.
For nearly 10 years, including during the Trump administration, Amoskeag Health in Manchester and TLC Resource Center in Claremont have received federal funding from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ (HHS) State Personal Responsibility Education Program (PREP) to deliver evidence-based sex education classes. These classes cover topics like prevention of sexually transmitted diseases, contraception, abstinence and the reproductive process and are targeted to serve particularly vulnerable populations, including youth up to age 21 living in homeless shelters and foster care. This commonsense program ensures vulnerable youth are healthy, safe and supported. And the results speak volumes. Over the last decade with these programs in place, Sullivan County and Manchester have seen teen birth rates drop by nearly 50 percent. That’s why PREP funding to support these evidence-based programs has enjoyed widespread bipartisan support for over a decade — until now.
Sadly, since September, Republicans on the Executive Council have reversed course and stood in the way of these federal dollars reaching Amoskeag Health and TLC Family Resource Center, allowing partisanship and misinformation to take hold to the detriment of our New Hampshire youth and young adults. This decision forced TLC Family Resource Center to shutter its program. Amoskeag Health, despite efforts to keep its program operational without the federal funds it relies on, faces a similar fate. Last month, the Executive Council maintained its anti-public health position and made the State’s refusal of the funding permanent, putting in jeopardy the survival of these programs and leaving hundreds of vulnerable adolescents without support.
Unfortunately, these extreme decisions, attacks on public health and intervention in Granite Staters’ personal decisions are not new for Republicans in Concord. It’s important to keep in mind that this sex education programming is optional for parents. The GOP should not be allowed to impose their extreme beliefs on parents and control these private decisions for their children. But this is a trend for the New Hampshire GOP. In recent years, we have seen the first abortion ban in modern history passed by the Republican-controlled legislature and signed into law by the governor. The Executive Council cut family planning funding for providers, like Planned Parenthood, Equality Health Center and Lovering Health Center, who relied on federal money to provide cancer screenings, maternal health care and treatment for sexually transmitted diseases for Granite Staters.
We are sounding the alarm on the Executive Council’s outrageous votes and are working to address this manufactured crisis by acquiring the funding to keep these essential sex education programs afloat. Between the both of us, in our respective federal and state-level capacities, we’ve called on HHS to award PREP funds directly to Amoskeag Health and TLC Family Resource Center, as well as consistently voted in support of these funds, fighting fiercely to support local public health initiatives in the face of Republican opposition.
As we combat pressing public health challenges, Republicans on the Executive Council are putting young Granite Staters at risk with their extreme ideology and have shown tremendous disregard for New Hampshire communities by blocking programs and services available in our state. For nearly a decade, Amoskeag Health and TLC Family Resource Center have proven to be indispensable and effective resources for adolescents to access reliable essential sex education — partisan ideology should not deny health care services to our youth, nor should it control the private family decisions parents make for their children. We are committed to doing all we can to get these funds to New Hampshire health care providers to allow them to continue serving young Granite Staters.
U.S. Senator Jeanne Shaheen lives in Madbury. Executive Councilor Cinde Warmington lives in Concord. Both are Democrats. | 2022-12-19T07:01:14Z | www.unionleader.com | Jeanne Shaheen and Cinde Warmington: More teen pregnancies and STDs are GOP policy | Op-eds | unionleader.com | https://www.unionleader.com/opinion/op-eds/jeanne-shaheen-and-cinde-warmington-more-teen-pregnancies-and-stds-are-gop-policy/article_31ecc88f-e093-5743-81fd-0ebf425b6d79.html | https://www.unionleader.com/opinion/op-eds/jeanne-shaheen-and-cinde-warmington-more-teen-pregnancies-and-stds-are-gop-policy/article_31ecc88f-e093-5743-81fd-0ebf425b6d79.html |
The shooting of the elderly woman took place during the first significant snowstorm of the season.
The incident prompted a massive police response. Hooksett police closed down Mammoth Road for hours and established a perimeter around 36 Alice Ave.. The regional SWAT team, the Southern New Hampshire Special Operations Unit, was also deployed.
Police said her wound was to the lower extremity was not life-threatening. | 2022-12-19T21:54:26Z | www.unionleader.com | Hooksett police confirm assault-suicide Friday night inside Alice Avenue home | Courts | unionleader.com | https://www.unionleader.com/news/courts/hooksett-police-confirm-assault-suicide-friday-night-inside-alice-avenue-home/article_f0fe8b8b-4eed-5744-b80c-687a796bdac5.html | https://www.unionleader.com/news/courts/hooksett-police-confirm-assault-suicide-friday-night-inside-alice-avenue-home/article_f0fe8b8b-4eed-5744-b80c-687a796bdac5.html |
A Concord man was arrested in Florida late last week on charges he allegedly fled a crash scene on foot, eluding police until he was found hiding in an outdoor utility closet.
Courtesy Cocoa Beach Police Department
Ian Carlos Maldonado
Cocoa Beach, Florida, police responded to Bali Road on Dec. 16 for a report of a vehicle that struck a stop sign and drove off. According to police, the driver abandoned the vehicle and ran off. Officers searched the area but were unable to locate the driver. The vehicle was later towed.
Just before 2 a.m., a resident of Bali Road called Cocoa Beach police to report noises coming from their backyard. Police responded, checked the perimeter, and found a man identified as Ian Carlos Maldonado, 30, of Concord, in an unlocked utility closet attached to the home.
According to police, officers determined Maldonado was allegedly involved in the earlier crash, fled, and was hiding in the closet to stay warm until he could safely leave the area.
Maldonado was taken into custody without incident and charged with burglary to an occupied dwelling and giving a false name to law enforcement. He was transported to county jail. | 2022-12-19T21:54:33Z | www.unionleader.com | Concord man charged with fleeing Florida crash scene, hiding in closet | Crime | unionleader.com | https://www.unionleader.com/news/crime/concord-man-charged-with-fleeing-florida-crash-scene-hiding-in-closet/article_e0f9e321-611e-5a8c-be6c-d6d6c2fbbbd8.html | https://www.unionleader.com/news/crime/concord-man-charged-with-fleeing-florida-crash-scene-hiding-in-closet/article_e0f9e321-611e-5a8c-be6c-d6d6c2fbbbd8.html |
With the Belknap Mill as the backdrop, rows of lit Christmas trees sparkle Friday afternoon in Rotary Park in downtown Laconia.
Mike Raymond of Bonneville and Son Chrysler Dodge Jeep Ram helps clear the snow in the lot during Friday’s storm in Manchester.
A wrecker rights a box truck which rolled onto its side on the southbound side of Interstate 89 near Exit 8 in Warner during Friday’s storm.
Snow falls Friday afternoon on Stewart Park, along the Winnipesaukee River, in downtown Laconia.
A couple heads north through Hesky Park in downtown Meredith on Friday afternoon.
Snow weighs heavily on trees on a back road in Meredith on Friday afternoon.
Rotary Park snow
A long-duration storm dropped nearly 2 feet of heavy, wet snow on some portions of New Hampshire throughout Friday and into Saturday.
The first significant storm of the season downed trees and powerlines, robbing thousands of businesses and homes of electricity. But it provided a boon to ski areas and snowmobilers, who eye the North Country for the Christmas holidays, weather permitting.
The hardest hit areas of the state were western portions of Hillsborough and Merrimack counties, eastern Cheshire County, Sullivan County and southern Carroll County, according to online power company outage maps and National Weather Service snowfall measurements.
Snow totals in a handful of towns in those regions exceeded 20 inches.
A National Weather Service spotter recorded 21 inches near Peterborough. By late Saturday morning, the storm had subsided but the town was experiencing widespread power outages, said Brad Winters, the deputy fire chief in Peterborough.
He said the heavy snow weighed down trees, which fell onto power lines.
Early Friday evening, a tractor-trailer jackknifed on Route 101 on Temple Mountain.
Still, Peterborough has seen such storms before.
“They’re doing well,” Winters said of townspeople.
As of 7 a.m. Saturday, more than 50,000 electricity customers were without power, state emergency management officials reported. Online maps for Eversource show power failures in a swath west of Milford and east of Keene, from the Massachusetts border up to New London.
As of 10 a.m., nearly 9% of Eversource customers were without power.
More than 15% of New Hampshire Electric Coop customers were without power at 10 a.m. That included all 689 customers in the town of Canaan and all but one of the Coop’s 524 customers in Stewartstown.
The wet snow clung to roads, making accidents inevitable.
In Hollis on Friday, a police officer checking on a vehicle that had slid off the road was struck by another cruiser that was responding to the same crash. He was not seriously injured, officials said.
Nick King, program manager at the state’s Transportation Management Center, described the storm as long duration.
Cannon Mountain had 21 of 97 trails open. Its website reported 7 to 10 inches of new snow.
Mount Sunapee, which was closer to the snowbelt, reported more than 14 inches on Saturday morning and estimated another 1 to 3 inches during the day.
But only about 25% of its 67 trails were open.
Selected New Hampshire snowfall totals
from National Weather Service Albany 25
Claremont 21
Peterborough 21
New Durham 14
Hanover 10
Deerfield 9
Laconia 8
Rochester 5
Manchester airport 4 Concord airport 3 | 2022-12-19T22:38:10Z | www.unionleader.com | Power outages, slippery roads, New Hampshire survives first winter storm of the eason | Public Safety | unionleader.com | https://www.unionleader.com/news/safety/power-outages-slippery-roads-new-hampshire-survives-first-winter-storm-of-the-eason/article_e5d375f9-71c9-5a6a-9bf3-6f50ecd346be.html | https://www.unionleader.com/news/safety/power-outages-slippery-roads-new-hampshire-survives-first-winter-storm-of-the-eason/article_e5d375f9-71c9-5a6a-9bf3-6f50ecd346be.html |
The number of suspected fatal overdoses in New Hampshire’s two largest cities is up 30% over last year, officials said Monday.
According to American Medical Response (AMR), the ambulance service for Manchester and Nashua, the number of suspected opioid overdoses in Manchester increased in November and decreased in Nashua.
There were 63 suspected opioid overdoses between Nashua and Manchester during November, bringing the total for 2022 to 879.
AMR medics responded to 48 suspected opioid overdoses in Manchester and 15 in Nashua last month. Suspected opioid overdoses in Manchester increased by 14 from October numbers, while Nashua decreased by 7.
“Deaths continue to be a significant concern,” Chris Stawasz, regional director of American Medical Response. “People who use illicit drugs should bear in mind that it is highly likely there is some quantity of synthetic Fentanyl in virtually any substance that they are using and it can kill you the very first time you use it.”
Preliminary data shows that there were eight likely opioid related deaths in November, pending verification from the Office of the NH Chief Medical Examiner — five in Manchester and three in Nashua.
Preliminary data shows Nashua has experienced 39 suspected opioid related deaths through November, up 30% year over year. Preliminary reports show Manchester with 73 suspected opioid related deaths through November, also up over 30% year over year.
That’s a total of 112 suspected opioid overdose deaths through November in the two cities combined.
According to AMR, of the 879 suspected opioid overdoses reported this year in Manchester and Nashua, 41% occurred in a home or residence, 23% happened in a public building or area, and 18% in a vehicle or roadway.
Just 6% took place in a hotel or motel.
In 30% of the overdoses, a bystander or member of the public administered Narcan prior to EMS personnel arriving on scene.
Year to date, 35% of individuals involved in suspected opioid overdoses in both cities gave no fixed address or said they were homeless. Thirty-two percent gave Manchester as their home address, 18% said Nashua.
Of the 804 overdose victims, 75% were male, 25% female, with an average age of 41. Seventy-four percent of overdose victims reported their ethnicity as Caucasian, with 4% reporting as Black and 4% as Hispanic or Latino. Seventeen percent reported their ethnicity as ‘unknown.’
“AMR medics continue to see and listen to reports from suspected opioid overdose patients who believed they were not specifically using opioids and were surprised that they overdosed on an opioid,” said Stawasz. “Methamphetamine use, which is not currently tracked and not included in this report, continues to be seen mixed with opioid use. Meth is a particularly dangerous drug for both users and first responders as it can cause extreme excited delirium and alarmingly unpredictable behavior in users.”
Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid that is 50 times more potent than heroin and 100 times more potent than morphine.
“There is no safe illicit drug,” Stawasz said in an email. “Users should bear in mind that it is highly likely there is some quantity of synthetic Fentanyl in virtually any substance that they are using.”
Users should not use alone, should have Narcan readily available, and in New Hampshire they can seek addiction treatment to prevent death by accessing the N.H. Doorway program. The N.H. Doorway program can be accessed by calling 2-1-1 at any time of the day or night. | 2022-12-20T01:07:14Z | www.unionleader.com | Number of fatal overdoses in Manchester, Nashua up 30% over last year | Human Interest | unionleader.com | https://www.unionleader.com/news/human_interest/number-of-fatal-overdoses-in-manchester-nashua-up-30-over-last-year/article_93b62435-2a27-5d11-a82e-34b873d0794d.html | https://www.unionleader.com/news/human_interest/number-of-fatal-overdoses-in-manchester-nashua-up-30-over-last-year/article_93b62435-2a27-5d11-a82e-34b873d0794d.html |
By Justin Wm. Moyer The Washington Post
“[S]ome have resorted to clearing encampments without providing alternative housing options for the people living in them,” it said. “Unless encampment closures are conducted in a coordinated, humane, and solutions-oriented way that makes housing and supports adequately available, these ‘out of sight, out of mind’ policies can . . . set people back in their pathway to housing.” | 2022-12-20T01:07:20Z | www.unionleader.com | Biden aims to cut homelessness 25% by 2025 | National | unionleader.com | https://www.unionleader.com/news/politics/national/biden-aims-to-cut-homelessness-25-by-2025/article_4f88d3ee-8971-57bb-8cf0-d3d5a26befba.html | https://www.unionleader.com/news/politics/national/biden-aims-to-cut-homelessness-25-by-2025/article_4f88d3ee-8971-57bb-8cf0-d3d5a26befba.html |
Gov. Chris Sununu led a group of 25 Republican governors calling on President Biden to end the public health emergency due to COVID-19.
CONCORD — Gov. Chris Sununu led a group of 25 Republican governors who on Monday urged President Joe Biden to end the public health emergency for COVID-19.
Sununu said keeping the emergency in place is costing state taxpayers “hundreds of millions of dollars” to support Medicaid health coverage to families, including many who may no longer need it.
The public health emergency “is negatively affecting states, primarily by artificially growing our population covered under Medicaid (both traditional and expanded populations), regardless of whether individuals continue to be eligible under the program,” Sununu and the other governors wrote in their letter.
The current public health emergency expires Jan. 11, but Sununu said state governors are operating on the assumption that Biden will grant another 90-day extension, which would take it to April.
Medicaid is the federal-state health insurance program for low-income families, the disabled and senior citizens. The state splits the cost of the coverage with the federal government.
When COVID-19 hit, enrollment jumped as the state’s unemployment rate shot up from 2.5% to 17% in a few months.
Over an 18-month period through 2021, Medicaid rolls grew by nearly 43,000, a 25% increase.
Sununu said that nationwide, Medicaid rolls have grown by 20 million, roughly 30%, since the start of the pandemic.
In response, Congress approved in its first COVID relief law a 6.2% bonus payment from federal grants under Medicaid to help states deal with the soaring enrollments.
Through the end of 2021, New Hampshire’s share of the bonus was $350 million.
$10M a month for NH
Sununu said he believes as many as 30,000 on Medicaid may not need it and would be better served on other programs, such as the federally managed Obamacare health insurance program, which offers lower premiums.
The state hired a contractor to help the Department of Health and Human Services contact those on Medicaid and determine how many would not need the coverage once the federal COVID emergency ends.
Outgoing HHS Commissioner Lori Shibinette informed the Executive Council last week the agency has confirmed that 29,000 still on Medicaid are ineligible to remain in the program once the COVID emergency is over.
Another 35,000 have not complied with the state’s request that they verify that their current income still makes them eligible, Shibinette said in a request to amend the state’s existing Medicaid managed-care contracts with three vendors.
The cost of keeping 30,000 ineligible clients on the rolls is about $10.5 million a month.
“Making the situation worse, we know that a considerable number of individuals have returned to employer-sponsored coverage or are receiving coverage through the individual market, and yet states must still account and pay for their Medicaid enrollment in our non-federal share,” Sununu wrote.
“This is costing states hundreds of millions of dollars.”
In the letter, Sununu noted Biden had declared at one point that “the pandemic is over,” a statement that administration officials said soon afterward did not represent a change in policy.
On Nov. 15, the U.S. Senate voted 61-37 in favor of a resolution calling for an end to the national emergency.
According to the roll call vote, New Hampshire Sen. Jeanne Shaheen was one of 12 Senate Democrats who voted with all present Senate Republicans in support of the resolution. Sen. Maggie Hassan, D-N.H., opposed it.
“The governors argue that while the virus still exists, the country is no longer in a medical emergency,” Sununu wrote.
The three Republican governors who did not sign onto Sununu’s letter were Phil Scott of Vermont, Larry Hogan of Maryland and Jim Justice of West Virginia.
Hogan is actively exploring a 2024 presidential run.
Justice is governor of one of the poorest states in the nation, which receives much more federal support for Medicaid than New Hampshire.
Rebuild NH praised the letter, while noting it criticized many of the same steps Sununu took in response to the pandemic, including business lockdowns and months of remote learning in public schools.
“Interesting. We at RebuildNH certainly agree, but would like to add we were the first calling for an end to the NH COVID emergency because we don’t believe in an indefinite suspension of a constitutional form of government,” the group said in a statement.
The New Hampshire Democratic Party did not respond to a request for comment. | 2022-12-20T02:41:16Z | www.unionleader.com | Sununu leads GOP govs calling for end to COVID emergency | Coronavirus | unionleader.com | https://www.unionleader.com/news/health/coronavirus/sununu-leads-gop-govs-calling-for-end-to-covid-emergency/article_536ed6de-4a73-5171-a192-b560297f9e24.html | https://www.unionleader.com/news/health/coronavirus/sununu-leads-gop-govs-calling-for-end-to-covid-emergency/article_536ed6de-4a73-5171-a192-b560297f9e24.html |
To the Editor: I was pleased to read that the City of Manchester holds an annual remembrance ceremony for Pearl Harbor Day, which occurred 81 years ago on Dec. 7, 1941.
I remember that Sunday afternoon when I was on a ride with my parents when the radio program was interrupted with the tragic news that Pearl Harbor had been bombed by the Japanese.
A few years ago my late wife and I visited the Pearl Harbor Memorial in Hawaii. It was deeply moving and I can recall seeing the oil slick rising to the top from the ships still submerged in the harbor. It was indeed a Day of Infamy. Lest we never forget.
PETER L. POWERS
Alliance Way, Manchester | 2022-12-20T17:30:12Z | www.unionleader.com | Letter: Pearl Harbor remembered | Letters to the Editor | unionleader.com | https://www.unionleader.com/opinion/letters_to_editor/letter-pearl-harbor-remembered/article_a0a6d22d-0c16-5d49-81e4-9208e3ce0a4d.html | https://www.unionleader.com/opinion/letters_to_editor/letter-pearl-harbor-remembered/article_a0a6d22d-0c16-5d49-81e4-9208e3ce0a4d.html |
A sign outside Pinkerton Place shopping center in Derry advertising the "future site" of a Liquor & Wine Outlet.
A New Hampshire Liquor & Wine Outlet will return to Derry with a new location off Route 28.
The new 8,000-square-foot store will be located in part of a former Goodwill Store at Pinkerton Place shopping center, 19 Manchester Road. The store is expected to open next spring, according to a news release.
The store will replace the Derry Meadows Shoppes at 35 Manchester Road location, which closed last year.
The outlet is part of the Liquor Commission’s strategic renovations, relocations and new construction.
“The new outlet will feature an extensive product selection, an easy and comfortable shopping environment and the most competitive prices, enhancing the consumer experience for the growing Derry community and beyond,” Chairman Joseph Mollica said in a statement.
NHLC has opened new outlets in Manchester, Concord, Rindge, Claremont, New London and Littleton over the past year. A new Nashua location is under construction. | 2022-12-20T19:13:57Z | www.unionleader.com | New Liquor & Wine Outlet to open in Derry | Business | unionleader.com | https://www.unionleader.com/news/business/new-liquor-wine-outlet-to-open-in-derry/article_88ddeb4d-7e45-5284-a2d4-37c6e8612c5b.html | https://www.unionleader.com/news/business/new-liquor-wine-outlet-to-open-in-derry/article_88ddeb4d-7e45-5284-a2d4-37c6e8612c5b.html |
By Chris Prentice and Hannah Lang Reuters
WASHINGTON -- The U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau hit Wells Fargo & Co. with the watchdog's largest ever civil penalty on Tuesday as part of a $3.7 billion agreement to settle charges over widespread mismanagement of car loans, mortgages and bank accounts.
Wells Fargo has faced multiple enforcement actions taken by the CFPB and other banking regulators for violations across the bank's business lines. There are currently nine open consent orders against the company.
The litigation, customer remediation and regulatory matters "could result in significant additional expense in the coming quarters," Wells Fargo said in a third quarter earnings filing. It will report fourth quarter results on Jan. 13. | 2022-12-20T19:14:01Z | www.unionleader.com | Wells Fargo to pay $3.7B fine for 'widespread mismanagement' | Business | unionleader.com | https://www.unionleader.com/news/business/wells-fargo-to-pay-3-7b-fine-for-widespread-mismanagement/article_3486b5d0-6e0b-5c9d-8d74-4170fa4189fc.html | https://www.unionleader.com/news/business/wells-fargo-to-pay-3-7b-fine-for-widespread-mismanagement/article_3486b5d0-6e0b-5c9d-8d74-4170fa4189fc.html |
By Matthew Cappucci The Washington Post
The sheer size of this storm, which will stretch more than 1,000 miles across, is impressive in and of itself. Juxtaposed against a strong Arctic high pressure system to the west, however, the resulting contrast will be noteworthy. That extreme change in air pressure with distance will make for strong winds essentially over the eastern half of the Lower 48 on Thursday and into Friday. Gusts of 40 mph will be common, with some areas - especially near the Great Lakes - seeing gusts over 50 mph. Tree damage and power outages are probable in areas where it will be dangerously cold. | 2022-12-20T19:14:29Z | www.unionleader.com | Fierce 'bomb cyclone' to disrupt holiday travel, unleash Arctic outbreak | Weather | unionleader.com | https://www.unionleader.com/news/weather/fierce-bomb-cyclone-to-disrupt-holiday-travel-unleash-arctic-outbreak/article_cb9295c3-4a0d-5b08-9d47-808e4243c9ac.html | https://www.unionleader.com/news/weather/fierce-bomb-cyclone-to-disrupt-holiday-travel-unleash-arctic-outbreak/article_cb9295c3-4a0d-5b08-9d47-808e4243c9ac.html |
The $1.7 trillion spending bill to avert a federal government shutdown included provisions from Sen. Maggie Hassan, D-N.H., to expand access to opioid abuse treatment and cheaper prescription drug prices. Here, she questioned Biden administration officials during a Senate Veterans Committee hearing last month.
Screenshot from Senate Veterans committee stream
The $1.7 trillion federal spending bill to avoid a federal government shutdown includes bipartisan proposals from Sen. Maggie Hassan, D-NH, to expand access to treatment for opioid addicts and to lower-cost generic drugs for consumers.
Hassan said the Mainstreaming Addiction Treatment Act is long overdue as it ends an outdated requirement which limits how many health practitioners can prescribe medication assisted treatment for those suffering from opioid use disorder.
Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, co-authored that provision.
Hassan also co-wrote legislation contained in the compromise that will lead to 200 new medical residency positions including for addiction medicine that faces a national shortage.
“The opioid epidemic continues to devastate communities across New Hampshire, which is why I fought to ensure that the end-of-year funding bill includes measures I have long championed to increase access to treatment and expand the opioid workforce,” Hassan said.
“Importantly, this package includes my bill to expand access to medication-assisted treatment that has helped save countless lives.”
On prescription drugs, the spending bill improves the Food and Drug Administration’s review process that should more quickly bring cutting-edge drugs to the market for conditions such as diabetes, arthritis and cancer.
Another section requires drug makers to share with federal officials their intention to take drugs off the market to give doctors, patients and regulators information to help plan for potential drug shortages.
Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, co-authored with Hassan another section to block drug makers from making labeling changes that keep cheaper generic drugs from becoming available to consumers.
“For too long, Big Pharma has worked to make it harder for Americans to access generic drugs that are often cheaper than their brand-name counterparts,” Hassan said.
“The bipartisan measures I fought to include in the government funding bill will help us stand up to Big Pharma and lower health care costs for Americans by speeding up the FDA’s approval process for critical medications.”
The U.S. Senate is expected to vote on the measure by the end of this week. | 2022-12-20T22:35:27Z | www.unionleader.com | Hassan proposal would expand opioid abuse treatment | State | unionleader.com | https://www.unionleader.com/news/politics/state/hassan-proposal-would-expand-opioid-abuse-treatment/article_b65dcb33-d773-5ae0-b5e8-3923cf5d9549.html | https://www.unionleader.com/news/politics/state/hassan-proposal-would-expand-opioid-abuse-treatment/article_b65dcb33-d773-5ae0-b5e8-3923cf5d9549.html |
Economists say there is a 70% likelihood that the U.S. economy will sink into a recession next year, slashing demand forecasts and trimming inflation projections in the wake of massive interest-rate hikes by the Federal Reserve.
The probability of a downturn in 2023 is more than double what it was six months ago, according to the latest Bloomberg monthly survey of economists. The poll was conducted Dec. 12-16, with 38 economists responding about the chance of a recession.
“The U.S. economy is facing big headwinds from surging interest rates, high inflation, the end of fiscal stimulus, and weak export markets abroad,” said Bill Adams, chief economist at Comerica Bank. “Businesses have turned cautious about adding to inventories and hiring, and will likely delay construction and other capex (capital expenditure) plans with credit more expensive and order books shrinking.”
A key reason the Fed is likely to keep higher rates in place for an extended period is the resiliency of the job market. As the economy weakens, however, employment is seen succumbing.
Economists expect payrolls to decline in the second and third quarters, and by the first quarter of 2024 the jobless rate is expected to peak at an average 4.9%.
Less investment, weak household spending and a global economy on the brink of a recession will hit the nation’s manufacturers particularly hard. The Bloomberg survey shows economists downgraded their estimates of industrial production for every quarter next year.
Output is now seen averaging a 0.7% decline in 2023, much weaker than the 0.2% increase that was projected in November. | 2022-12-21T01:49:13Z | www.unionleader.com | Economists place 70% chance for U.S. recession in 2023 | Economy | unionleader.com | https://www.unionleader.com/news/business/economy/economists-place-70-chance-for-u-s-recession-in-2023/article_f4534257-3866-5701-b192-5410ce5a3af8.html | https://www.unionleader.com/news/business/economy/economists-place-70-chance-for-u-s-recession-in-2023/article_f4534257-3866-5701-b192-5410ce5a3af8.html |
Passengers make their way through a TSA security checkpoint at Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport. A coalition of state attorneys general are calling on the Department of Transportation to ...
Kate Patterson/The Washington Post/
New Hampshire Attorney General John Formella and 33 other state attorneys general are asking that the U.S. Department of Transportation improve protections for airline customers, including ticket refunds.
The AGs sent an eight-page letter on Monday urging Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg to strengthen proposed rules in response to a growing problem of flight cancellations and significant delays.
“We are aware of the frustrations experienced by countless consumers whose flights have been canceled or delayed and the inadequate remedies that have been offered to them,” the letter stated. “In fact, our offices have repeatedly brought to the USDOT’s attention complaints from airline passengers impacted by the airlines’ cancellation or significant delay of their flights.”
The letter highlighted Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser’s September 2020 complaint to former Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao concerning Denver-based Frontier Airlines’ alleged unfair or deceptive practices during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Airlines should take notice, and whether it is oversold flights or operational disruptions, they should no longer be able to simply shift their problems onto their passengers,” Formella said in a statement.
“I will continue to push the federal government to give attorneys general the authority to vigorously investigate and prosecute violations of the law that impact air traveling consumers.”
The AGs wrote of possible abuse of a proposed rule requiring refunds in cases of significant changes to flight itineraries.
Recommendations in the letter include:
• Requiring airlines to advertise and sell only flights that they have adequate personnel to fly and support, and to perform regular audits of airlines to ensure compliance and impose fines on airlines that do not comply.
• Making it clear that USDOT will impose significant fines for cancellations and extended delays that are not weather-related or otherwise unavoidable.
• Prohibiting airlines from canceling flights while upselling consumers more expensive alternative flights to the same destinations.
• Requiring that credits and vouchers for future travel that are provided by airlines in the event of cancellation can be used easily without inappropriate limitations.
Last month, the federal transportation department fined several airlines and ordered refunds to consumers who were treated unfairly during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. Formella said the New Hampshire Department of Justice Consumer Protection and Antitrust Bureau will continue actively monitoring concerns about airline carriers from consumers. | 2022-12-21T01:49:25Z | www.unionleader.com | Formella, coalition of attorneys general urges stronger protections for airline customers | Human Interest | unionleader.com | https://www.unionleader.com/news/human_interest/formella-coalition-of-attorneys-general-urges-stronger-protections-for-airline-customers/article_f300050d-7cce-5893-b702-0f4ab2448af2.html | https://www.unionleader.com/news/human_interest/formella-coalition-of-attorneys-general-urges-stronger-protections-for-airline-customers/article_f300050d-7cce-5893-b702-0f4ab2448af2.html |
CONCORD -- New Hampshire fishing and hunting licenses for 2023 are now available.
Purchase yours and be ready for a new year of outdoor adventure, from ice fishing this winter to harvesting your deer next fall.
Licenses are good for the calendar year, from Jan. 1 through Dec. 31, 2023.
Your annual hunting or fishing license — or, best of all, your “combo” license — is your year-round ticket to New Hampshire’s great outdoors. Seacoast anglers need a saltwater recreational fishing license to fish in coastal or estuarine waters.
For hunters and anglers concerned about maintaining access to pursue their sports, the $10 Wildlife Legacy donation provides an opportunity to support Fish and Game’s Landowner Relations Program, which works in partnership with hunters, anglers and landowners to maintain hunting and fishing access on private lands. Learn more at www.wildnh.com/landshare/donate.html.
Hikers, snowshoers, climbers, cross-country and back-country skiers, and other outdoor devotees are encouraged to purchase or renew their voluntary annual Hike Safe card for 2023. Card sales help defray the costs of training and rescue equipment for NH Fish and Game Law Enforcement Conservation Officers, preparing them to come to your aid if the unexpected happens. Those holding a current New Hampshire fishing or hunting license or off-highway recreational vehicle (OHRV) or boat registration are also covered if search and rescue efforts become necessary. Learn more at www.wildnh.com/safe.
Get your license at www.nhfishandgame.com; at New Hampshire Fish and Game Department (NHFG) Headquarters, 11 Hazen Drive, Concord; or from Fish and Game license agents across the state. Licenses can also be purchased at three NHFG regional offices: Keene, Lancaster and New Hampton. | 2022-12-21T01:49:49Z | www.unionleader.com | All 2023 New Hampshire fishing and hunting licenses are now on sale | Outdoors | unionleader.com | https://www.unionleader.com/nh/outdoors/all-2023-new-hampshire-fishing-and-hunting-licenses-are-now-on-sale/article_e7c2ccdf-0775-5021-a038-479d7a8a5769.html | https://www.unionleader.com/nh/outdoors/all-2023-new-hampshire-fishing-and-hunting-licenses-are-now-on-sale/article_e7c2ccdf-0775-5021-a038-479d7a8a5769.html |
“I’m worried that if Republicans win in the midterm elections, voting in this country as we know it will be gone,” Congressman Eric Swalwell (D - California) moaned to MSNBC. “This is not only the most important election, but if we don’t get it right, it could be the last election.”
President Biden accused “extreme MAGA Republicans” of harboring “appetites of autocracy.”
How bitterly ironic, then, that the Twitter Files unmask the Democrat Party as America’s biggest threat to democracy. The social-media giant’s internal records, recently released by new owner Elon Musk, are even worse than feared. Since at least 2016, pro-Democrat officials and their supporters at Twitter blindfolded, bound, and gagged democracy, like a hostage in a Mob basement. Consider this indictment of Democrat crimes against democracy.
Censorship: Twitter aggressively covered up the story of Hunter Biden’s Laptop from Hell. Twitter customers who promoted this tale of high-level corruption found this news unshared and their accounts sandbagged. The company also muted and concealed the Twitter posts of then-White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany, Turning Point USA’s Charlie Kirk, Fox News’ Dan Bongino, and other conservatives.
Stanford Medical School’s Dr. Jayanta Bhattacharya is among those whom Twitter blacklisted for being skeptical about COVID-19 lockdowns. The same Leftists who “trust science” despise the scientific method, which requires freedom to ask questions, debate openly, and attempt to duplicate results. Today’s gagging of researchers and physicians is as anti-science as the 17th Century persecution of heliocentrist Galileo Galilei.
Election interference: Twitter’s assault on the Post was odiously timed. It began on October 14, 2020, during widespread early voting and just 20 days before the November 3 election.
“Who the hell elected you and put you in charge of what the media are allowed to report and what the American people are allowed to hear?” Senator Ted Cruz (R - Texas) asked Twitter’s then-CEO Jack Dorsey at a Senate hearing. Cruz called Twitter “a Democratic Super PAC.”
According to a Media Research Center poll, 9.4% of Biden voters would not have supported him had they known about his son’s high-flying, ethics-bending influence peddling. Without these 7.6 million Biden votes, Donald J. Trump would be president. So, rather than place their collective thumb on the electoral scale, they plopped their left foot on it.
Democrats loudly proclaimed themselves bulwarks against the GOP’s clear and present danger to democracy. Meanwhile, Democrat officials, candidates, and their friends and donors at Twitter (whose contributions went 98.5% to Democrats in 2020 and 99.7% in 2022) perpetrated censorship, attacked the free press, corrupted an election, abused government power, lied to voters, and committed perjury.
If Democrats had any shame, they would rebrand themselves the Anti-Democrat Party. | 2022-12-21T07:20:43Z | www.unionleader.com | Deroy Murdock: Twitter Files unmask the Anti-Democrat Party | Columnists | unionleader.com | https://www.unionleader.com/opinion/columnists/deroy-murdock-twitter-files-unmask-the-anti-democrat-party/article_58b35c1c-a599-59b0-a7d1-371c11ba145d.html | https://www.unionleader.com/opinion/columnists/deroy-murdock-twitter-files-unmask-the-anti-democrat-party/article_58b35c1c-a599-59b0-a7d1-371c11ba145d.html |
Friend and foe alike admired Reardon for her ferocity and her fiery wit. Many said so when news spread of her passing last week.
She could have been a successful corporate lawyer but she was much more interested in causes and helping people than in big fees. She was a Manchester kid who went to Central High and whose mom had served on the school board. Mom was not shy in speaking out. Neither was daughter.
Reardon found her niche as legal counsel and policy expert for Jeanne Shaheen. She was indispensable to Shaheen’s successful runs for and time in office as governor and then U.S. senator. She was also a Shaheen family friend and confidante and our condolences go especially to that extended family.
New Hampshire mourns. | 2022-12-21T07:21:07Z | www.unionleader.com | Judy Reardon: Fierce, funny, formidable | Editorials | unionleader.com | https://www.unionleader.com/opinion/editorials/judy-reardon-fierce-funny-formidable/article_27248bf2-cbae-55ec-9019-ad499488d543.html | https://www.unionleader.com/opinion/editorials/judy-reardon-fierce-funny-formidable/article_27248bf2-cbae-55ec-9019-ad499488d543.html |
Provided by Phil Grandmaison
Grandmaison died last summer but his estate has established an annual scholarship to help a Gate City high school senior with higher education expenses.
Like fellow Democrat Judy Reardon, Grandmaison was a champion of the underdog. He grew up in Nashua and served there as an alderman at the start of a political and government career that would take him to the chair of the state Democratic Party and to key presidential campaign posts for several nominees. He served the public in New England and then national trade and financial posts.
He understood that not everybody gets dealt a fair hand, Phil Grandmaison said of his older brother. A scholarship that will help Nashua youth seeking a better life would please him greatly. | 2022-12-21T07:21:13Z | www.unionleader.com | Nashua help: A new scholarship | Editorials | unionleader.com | https://www.unionleader.com/opinion/editorials/nashua-help-a-new-scholarship/article_39a2bf73-f2ee-575b-af69-7eebda4ca9e0.html | https://www.unionleader.com/opinion/editorials/nashua-help-a-new-scholarship/article_39a2bf73-f2ee-575b-af69-7eebda4ca9e0.html |
Lighten up, Chuck
To the Editor: The only irrational obsession about Donald Trump is coming from Chuck Douglas (N.H. Sunday News, Dec. 18, 2022). It’s pretty sad that Mr. Douglas can’t seem to let go of his Trump Derangement Syndrome even during this festive season of goodwill to all men.
His delusional little scenario about a Peruvian dictator makes as much sense as having an ice cream cone in the middle of a New Hampshire winter, when comparing the disinformation and lies about Trump terminating the U.S. Constitution.
President Trump has no authority to “terminate” the Constitution. Mr. Douglas should know that, given his judicial background. Then again, facts tend to get in the way of clouded judgments. Trump was responding to the report of former Twitter officials, Big Tech, FBI, and their Democratic National Committee cohorts to limit the spread of posts about Hunter Biden’s laptop and collude to throw the 2020 election in favor of Biden.
Trump’s words were taken out of context and, as usual, manipulated by the usual “news” organizations forcing their opinionated and false narratives onto the uninformed public. The disinformation was hungrily absorbed by their liberal, Trump-hating devotees.
Don’t worry, Chuck, New Hampshire Republicans are moving on from your establishmentism, old-boy network style of politics. Just like another dinosaur, U.S. Senate Republican Minority Leader Mitch McConnell. There is no room for the old ways anymore.
McConnell and his ilk do not represent the NEW Republican Party of working-class American voters.
Change is coming.
DI LOTHROP
Althea Lane, Nashua | 2022-12-21T07:21:25Z | www.unionleader.com | Letter: Lighten up, Chuck | Letters to the Editor | unionleader.com | https://www.unionleader.com/opinion/letters_to_editor/letter-lighten-up-chuck/article_dc94c97f-3779-52ef-bd02-f92ae8815ee7.html | https://www.unionleader.com/opinion/letters_to_editor/letter-lighten-up-chuck/article_dc94c97f-3779-52ef-bd02-f92ae8815ee7.html |
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