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This tractor-trailer went off the road on Interstate 93 in Woodstock. No injuries were reported, according to New Hampshire State Police.
Some parts of New Hampshire saw their first snow of the season overnight and their first crashes.
New Hampshire State Police shared a picture of a cruiser parked on Connor Brook Road in Shelburne in a seemingly celebratory Twitter post, but it wasn't all good news. Between 5 and 10 a.m. Wednesday morning, New Hampshire State Police responded to 35 calls of cars and trucks off the road -- including a tractor-trailer off Interstate 93 in Woodstock.
At the higher elevations found in the North Country, a winter weather advisory remains in effect until 6 p.m. Wednesday with a forecast of mixed precipitation. Some areas are expected to receive 2 to 4 inches of snow.
"Plan on slippery road conditions due to snow covered roads," the state police advisory reads. "The hazardous conditions could impact the Wednesday evening commute."
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2022-11-16T18:15:39Z
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www.unionleader.com
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Snow arrives leading to crashes on NH roads | Weather | unionleader.com
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https://www.unionleader.com/news/weather/snow-arrives-leading-to-crashes-on-nh-roads/article_b2e8d120-22bc-572a-a7f5-4a2ce446528b.html
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https://www.unionleader.com/news/weather/snow-arrives-leading-to-crashes-on-nh-roads/article_b2e8d120-22bc-572a-a7f5-4a2ce446528b.html
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Joint Chiefs Chairman Army General Mark Milley speaks during a news briefing after participating a virtual Ukraine Defense Contact Group meeting at the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia, U.S., November 16, 2022. REUTERS/Tom Brenner
The United States will support Ukraine in its efforts to defend itself against invading Russian forces for as long as it takes, the top Milley said, adding it was up to Kyiv to determine when and how to negotiate with Moscow.
"Ukraine will continue to endure. Ukraine is not going to back down," said Milley, adding Ukraine was free, "and they want to remain free."
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2022-11-16T20:17:36Z
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www.unionleader.com
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U.S. general plays down odds of near-term military victory in Ukraine | Military | unionleader.com
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https://www.unionleader.com/news/military/u-s-general-plays-down-odds-of-near-term-military-victory-in-ukraine/article_a16a30d7-7cd4-58fc-ac71-325febba5d72.html
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https://www.unionleader.com/news/military/u-s-general-plays-down-odds-of-near-term-military-victory-in-ukraine/article_a16a30d7-7cd4-58fc-ac71-325febba5d72.html
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NATO see no intentional Russian strike as crisis is defused
NATO and Poland's leaders said there is no indication that a missile that struck Polish territory late Tuesday was an intentional Russian attack as governments in the military alliance moved to defuse the incident.
"Our preliminary analysis suggests that the incident was likely caused by a Ukrainian air defense missile fired to defend Ukrainian territory against Russian cruise missile attacks," Jens Stoltenberg, the secretary general of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, told reporters after a meeting in Brussels.
The assessment matched that of U.S. President Joe Biden, who told allies on the sidelines of a Group of 20 summit in Indonesia that the explosion near the Ukrainian border was caused by Kyiv's air defenses, according to two officials familiar with the matter. The American leader still said the strike was ultimately sparked by the Russian missile barrage on Ukraine.
The findings defuse what looked to be a significant escalation in the conflict, with U.S. and European leaders grappling with a potential response if Russia's nine-month invasion of Ukraine were to spill over to the 30-member military alliance. Ukraine was hit by the biggest barrage of missile attacks since the invasion began in February on Tuesday, knocking out power to a broad swathe of the country, including the capital Kyiv.
"Most likely, this was an unfortunate accident," Duda told reporters in Warsaw on Wednesday. Still, "practically the entire territory of Ukraine was under bombardment, in particular the areas near the border."
"That's why the Russian side is definitely to blame for what happened yesterday," he said.
The emerging theory among US officials is that the projectile was likely a Ukrainian missile - initial indications point to a Russian-made S300 - fired in response to the Kremlin's missile attack, according to one person familiar with the investigation. The person cautioned that it's early and not certain -- and that things could change as the investigation continues.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy disputed the claim that the missile was from his military - and that he wanted to have representatives in the investigating team.
"I believe it's a Russian missile -- I believe so according to my trust in the report by the military," Zelenskiy told reporters in Kyiv, referring to a report that he received from his commanders.
Poland's zloty earlier rebounded from a three-week low on Biden's remarks.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov praised the U.S. for what he called its "restrained" and "professional" reaction to the blast in Poland, dismissing allegations that it was caused by a Russian missile as "hysterical."
Utility services are gradually resuming in Ukraine's regions and major cities after damage inflicted by the missile attacks. Water and heating are being supplied to customers, while power has been restored in the country's capital Kyiv after almost half of its inhabitants were cut off, local military authorities said.
Since Russia invaded Ukraine, members of the military alliance have repeatedly aired concerns about being pulled directly into the conflict. While they have supported Ukraine with weapons and financial aid, Europe and the U.S. have drawn the line at dispatching the longest range missile systems and advanced fighter jets and rebuffed Ukraine's calls to set up an air defense zone over its airspace.
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2022-11-16T20:17:42Z
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www.unionleader.com
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NATO see no intentional Russian strike as crisis is defused | National | unionleader.com
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https://www.unionleader.com/news/national/nato-see-no-intentional-russian-strike-as-crisis-is-defused/article_9e3f9d9a-3ffe-5cf4-856e-b323b9b3e372.html
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https://www.unionleader.com/news/national/nato-see-no-intentional-russian-strike-as-crisis-is-defused/article_9e3f9d9a-3ffe-5cf4-856e-b323b9b3e372.html
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U.S. Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell walks to his office at the U.S. Capitol building in Washington, U.S., November 15, 2022.
By John Wagner and Mariana Alfaro The Washington Post
Senate Republicans voted Wednesday to retain Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) as minority leader, turning back a challenge from Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) after the party failed to pick up seats in the chamber in the midterm elections. Some senators sought unsuccessfully to delay the vote to give them more time to assess the GOP's dismal performance. McConnell has led Senate Republicans since 2007. Scott helmed the campaign committee tasked with electing more Republicans.
The machinations come a day after Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) survived a GOP leadership challenge in the House. He won reelection as the chamber's party leader, but remains short of the votes he will need to be speaker, if Republicans control the chamber in January. Republicans need to win just one of the uncalled races to flip the House, but they will have a very slim majority.
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2022-11-16T20:17:48Z
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www.unionleader.com
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McConnell reelected GOP Senate leader, turning back challenge from Rick Scott | National | unionleader.com
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https://www.unionleader.com/news/politics/national/mcconnell-reelected-gop-senate-leader-turning-back-challenge-from-rick-scott/article_a99a5930-e433-5a7d-9751-9f40cef04014.html
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https://www.unionleader.com/news/politics/national/mcconnell-reelected-gop-senate-leader-turning-back-challenge-from-rick-scott/article_a99a5930-e433-5a7d-9751-9f40cef04014.html
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First Sgt. Martin Swirko, right, receives the Meritorious Service Medal.
Submitted by Mary Swirko
Retired Army First Sgt. Martin Swirko, a Manchester resident, was awarded the Meritorious Service Medal for his 30 years of service. He served 31 years in the Army. The ceremony was Oct. 15 at Joint Base Cape Cod at Fort Devens in Massachusetts.
First Sgt. Swirko is a combat veteran of Iraq and also served 28 years with the Manchester Police Department.
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2022-11-16T20:18:00Z
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www.unionleader.com
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Manchester vet gets meritorious service medal | Veterans | unionleader.com
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https://www.unionleader.com/news/veterans/manchester-vet-gets-meritorious-service-medal/article_ffe4284c-69a9-513e-a61a-5acd9b0d85b6.html
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https://www.unionleader.com/news/veterans/manchester-vet-gets-meritorious-service-medal/article_ffe4284c-69a9-513e-a61a-5acd9b0d85b6.html
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Manchester’s tax rate for fiscal year 2023 has been set at $18.24 per $1,000, up 56 cents — or 3.16% — from the previous year’s $17.68 per $1,000, according to City Finance Director Sharon Wickens.
The $18.24 is 6 cents less than the $18.30 figure aldermen were working with when they approved a $378 million FY '23 budget in mid-May.
“That’s mostly because there was more valuation that came in,” said Wickens.
Aldermen used about $70 million in additional property valuation when crafting their FY’23 budget, over and above the figure Mayor Joyce Craig used to write her budget proposal. “Valuations actually came in at about $135 million, including new construction,” said Wickens. “It was pretty big.”
The city also received a “pleasant surprise” when it came to the Hillsborough County tax bill.
“We got a letter saying it was going to go up, but it’s based on the equalized assessed valuation of a community,” Wickens said. “Manchester’s actually went down. I thought it was wrong.”
Wickens said by dropping the tax rate from $18.30 per $1,000 to $18.24, makes a the difference in taxes for the average homeowner.
“It is a difference,” said Wickens. “The difference between last year’s rate and this year’s rate is about $170 on the whole bill.”
Manchester operates under a cap on property taxes established by a voter-approved amendment to the city charter. Generally referred to as a tax cap, the charter provision limits the total amount of money raised from property taxes rather than the tax rate itself.
The cap limits the city’s tax revenue to the average increase in the federal consumer price index, or CPI, during the three previous calendar years, plus the value of new construction.
This year’s tax cap allowed for a 3.57% increase, but the actual tax rate comes in at 3.16%.
The new tax rate will be reflected in the first tax bill of FY 2023 in April.
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2022-11-16T22:11:04Z
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www.unionleader.com
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Manchester's tax rate set at $18.24 for FY'23 | Human Interest | unionleader.com
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https://www.unionleader.com/news/human_interest/manchesters-tax-rate-set-at-18-24-for-fy23/article_03938dd7-a98d-5dbc-9de8-c64aadc29473.html
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https://www.unionleader.com/news/human_interest/manchesters-tax-rate-set-at-18-24-for-fy23/article_03938dd7-a98d-5dbc-9de8-c64aadc29473.html
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Sen. Joni Ernst (R-IA) speaks during a news conference following Senate Republican leadership elections that included the re-election of U.S. Senator Mitch McConnell (R-KY) as minority leader and Ernst as policy chair at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, U.S., November 16, 2022. REUTERS/Elizabeth Frantz
By Gram Slattery and David Morgan Reuters
In the Senate, a group of staunch Trump allies led by Sen. Rick Scott mounted the first challenge against Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell in his 15-year reign as party chief, contending that the "D.C. swamp" was to blame for the party's inability to win a Senate majority.
Republican Sen. Mike Braun, a conservative who backed Scott, criticized McConnell's decision not to put forward an agenda for voters during the midterm campaign.
"President Trump has lost three (elections) in a row. And if we want to start winning, we need a new leader," Sen. Mitt Romney told reporters.
"Minority Leader McCarthy still doesn't have the votes to become the next House speaker. Yesterday's vote shows there is increasing frustration with the status quo," Rep. Andy Biggs, who challenged the California Republican but lost in a 188-31 vote, wrote on Twitter on Wednesday.
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2022-11-16T22:11:16Z
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www.unionleader.com
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Trump allies turn on top congressional Republican after dismal midterms | National | unionleader.com
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https://www.unionleader.com/news/national/trump-allies-turn-on-top-congressional-republican-after-dismal-midterms/article_735fe164-36d6-53bd-b90b-528598532ce5.html
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https://www.unionleader.com/news/national/trump-allies-turn-on-top-congressional-republican-after-dismal-midterms/article_735fe164-36d6-53bd-b90b-528598532ce5.html
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Assistant Manchester Police Chief Steve Mangone
Manchester Assistant Police Chief Steve Mangone has notified city officials of his plans to retire early next year after 25 years of service to the Queen City.
In a memo to Police Chief Allen Aldenberg dated Nov. 15, Mangone writes he intends to retire Jan. 4, 2023.
“I have been personally enriched by a wide array of experiences and knowledge thanks to the Manchester Police Department,” writes Mangone. “More importantly, I have been enriched by lifelong friendships with so many men and women that make up its ranks, both sworn and civilian. The citizens of Manchester are incredibly fortunate to have such extraordinary men and women behind those badges. Many will never fully understand the sacrifices these dedicated and brave individuals make for this community, for their families, and for each other.”
“I consider myself truly blessed to have been able to serve alongside such an exceptional group of people.”
Mangone began his career in the Queen City as a patrol officer in 1998, working his way up the chain of command. He served as a detective in the domestic violence unit and arraignment prosecutor before being promoted to sergeant of the patrol division in 2012.
Mangone was promoted to lieutenant in 2015, serving as the midnight shift commander before becoming commander of the traffic unit. He served 18 months as captain of the department’s legal division before becoming assistant police chief in 2020.
Mangone volunteers his time to help run Honor Flight New England, which over the past 12 years has sent over 2,100 veterans on more than 50 missions to the nation’s capital for a daylong trip to visit the war memorials built in their honor. The nonprofit’s mission is to “honor local war veterans, one mission at a time.”
In an email to city aldermen, Aldenberg said he hopes to conduct interviews for the vacant position during the first full week of December, and identify a new assistant chief of police by Dec. 12, with that person taking on the title as of Jan. 4, 2023.
"I am grateful to Assistant Chief Mangone for his 25 years of faithful and loyal service to the Manchester Police Department and the City of Manchester," said Aldenberg on Wednesday. "I also want to thank his immediate and extended family for their support of Steve throughout the course of his career. I wish them all the best as they enter the next chapter of their lives. "
In his retirement letter, Mangone thanks Aldenberg for their years together at the department.
“Police work has evolved tenfold since we joined the ranks, and especially over the last few years,” writes Mangone. “Thank you for your dedication and steadfast leadership during these trying times for our profession. I truly appreciate the confidence and trust you placed in me.”
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2022-11-16T22:11:28Z
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www.unionleader.com
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Manchester Asst. Police Chief Steve Mangone to retire | Public Safety | unionleader.com
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https://www.unionleader.com/news/safety/manchester-asst-police-chief-steve-mangone-to-retire/article_00bf1383-8d08-533b-a17b-61ce22296c49.html
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https://www.unionleader.com/news/safety/manchester-asst-police-chief-steve-mangone-to-retire/article_00bf1383-8d08-533b-a17b-61ce22296c49.html
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Gary Singer is seen in his office at Merchants Auto in Hooksett in this file photo from 2018.
Gary Singer, second left, is seen in a 2018 photo with the then-co-owners of Merchants Auto. From left are Michael Sydney, Singer and his brothers Jeffrey and Bob.
Gary Singer, whose family owned Merchants Automotive Group for 60 years and who chaired its board, is being remembered as part of a generous family who gave often to their Manchester-area community.
“He was a great giver of everything: time, money, accolades, support,” said former Mayor Ted Gatsas, a close friend who recalled playing Little League with him and his brothers.
Singer, a lifelong Manchester resident, died Tuesday at 67 after battling cancer.
For more than a half century, Singer was part of the Merchants Automotive Group, which became a nationwide player in the fleet vehicle business.
The family car business started at the corner of Valley and Willow streets in Manchester in 1962 and moved to Hooksett later that decade.
This year, the family sold Merchants to two investment firms, Bain Capital and the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority.
After the family learned it was to receive a Granite State Legacy Award in 2018, Gary Singer told the New Hampshire Union Leader that “my parents very strongly believed in giving back to the community.”
The annual Gail Singer Memorial Blood Drive in Manchester is named after Gary’s wife, Gail.
During the 1990s, the family donated about $600,000 to help fund Singer Family Park, which hosted concerts and soccer games along the Merrimack River. The property later became the site of a city ballpark that carried the Merchants name during several years of sponsorship.
The family also donated $250,000 for a pedestrian bridge over the Merrimack River and funded part of the Irving and Bernice Singer Pedestrian Bridge, which spans the Piscataquog River.
"I don't think there's a better example of a family that could be more deserving of this award," former Manchester Mayor Bob Baines said in 2018. "They have set an example for others to follow."
Gary Singer is survived by five brothers -- Stephen, Alan, Robert, Jeffrey and Stewart -- and his sister, Joy.
Shiva will be at Chabad, 1234 River Road, Manchester, Thursday 8 a.m.-noon and 3:30 p.m.-7:30 p.m.; Friday 8 a.m.-noon; Saturday 6 p.m.-9 p.m.; Sunday 8 a.m.-noon and 3:30 p.m.-7:30 p.m.; and Monday 8 a.m.-noon and 3:30 p.m.-7:30 p.m.
In lieu of flowers, remembrances may be made in Gary’s memory to support Dr. Richardson's Myeloma Research Fund at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, P.O. Box 849168 Boston, MA 02284, or Chabad of New Hampshire, designated for the Gary Singer Memorial Fund.
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2022-11-16T22:11:40Z
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www.unionleader.com
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Gary Singer, of car dealer family, remembered as generous | People | unionleader.com
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https://www.unionleader.com/nh/people/gary-singer-of-car-dealer-family-remembered-as-generous/article_8f177ea3-ab2b-5734-891e-49d4d69a7eff.html
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https://www.unionleader.com/nh/people/gary-singer-of-car-dealer-family-remembered-as-generous/article_8f177ea3-ab2b-5734-891e-49d4d69a7eff.html
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Artemis I, NASA’s Space Launch System rocket with the unmanned Orion spacecraft aboard, blasts off from Launch Pad 39B on Wednesday from Cape Canaveral, Florida.
Jonathan Newton/Washington Post photo
But in the wee hours on Wednesday, NASA’s Space Launch System rocket put on a spectacular show, quieting critics, at least for the moment, with a gush of fire that lit up Florida’s Space Coast as the rocket thundered through the clouds and propelled the first spacecraft designed to fly humans to the moon since the Apollo era.
Hordes of onlookers cheered a mission the agency hopes will become a new chapter in the history of human exploration, and NASA’s leaders, after years of frustrating setbacks and delays, finally reveled in a moment of triumph and relief that had eluded them for the better part of a decade.
Lifting off at 1:47 a.m., the flight marked the first launch of the SLS rocket, a 322-foot-tall beast, as part of NASA’s Artemis program. Because the mission is a test flight — a rehearsal for future missions — no astronauts were onboard, and the spacecraft won’t land on the moon. Rather, Orion is to stay in lunar orbit in a flight that is expected to last up to 25 1/2 days and demonstrate, NASA hopes, that the rocket and spacecraft are capable of flying safely.
More than 12 hours after lifting off, Orion was well on its way to the moon, careening through deep space some 75,000 miles from Earth.
At a news briefing that started at 5 a.m., NASA leaders were beaming with pride, despite the hour.
“The rocket performed outstandingly,” said John Honeycutt, NASA’s SLS program manager.
If all goes well, NASA plans another flight, called Artemis II, with astronauts that will orbit the moon in 2024. A lunar landing is scheduled for 2025, but many say it will be later. To get astronauts to the surface, NASA intends to use a separate spacecraft being developed by Elon Musk’s SpaceX.
While a lunar landing may still be years away, the successful launch of Artemis I marked a significant milestone for the space agency. NASA has not sent an astronaut beyond low Earth orbit since the last of the Apollo missions, in 1972, when astronaut Eugene Cernan promised “we shall return” in a short speech before he climbed back into the lunar module for the trip back to Earth.
In the 50 years since, NASA’s on-and-off attempts to fulfill that pledge have been unsuccessful, and its human spaceflight missions have been confined to the neighborhood just outside of Earth’s atmosphere, where the International Space Station flies, 240 miles up.
NASA has struggled for years to get its SLS rocket off the ground, and briefly during the countdown to Wednesday’s launch, there was concern about another setback when NASA detected a leak of liquid hydrogen, the same kind of malfunction that had scuttled two previous launch attempts. But NASA dispatched a pair of engineers, along with a safety officer, to the launchpad to tighten some bolts, which successfully stopped the leak and allowed the countdown to continue.
After the launch, Artemis I launch director Charlie Blackwell-Thompson congratulated her team.
“You have earned your place in this room,” she told them. “You have earned this moment. You have earned your place in history. You are part of a first. It doesn’t come along very often. The first step in returning our country to the moon and on to Mars. What you have done today will inspire generations to come. So thank you. Thank you for your resilience.”
Born from a compromise with Congress in 2010, the SLS rocket has been in development for years and suffered so many technical delays and management challenges that some wondered whether it would ever fly. It had been derided by critics as the “Senate Launch System” for doing more to provide jobs in key congressional districts than explore space and has been the subject of scathing reports by government watchdogs who criticized NASA’s poor management and the lackluster performance of Boeing, the rocket’s prime contractor.
The launch comes as a number of companies are building rockets that fly back to Earth so that they can be reused. The booster stage of the SLS, by contrast, is ditched in the ocean after launch, never to be used again.
In recent years, however, NASA and Boeing made a concerted effort to get the program back on track, and the launch Wednesday was a major milestone — and a relief for NASA’s leadership. The liftoff sent a deafening roar across Florida as the rocket climbed higher and higher. A couple of minutes after liftoff, its side-mounted solid rocket boosters separated. Then the core stage fell away. Then the rocket’s second stage fired its engines for nearly 18 minutes, putting Orion on course for the moon.
“It was a long time coming to get here,” Nelson said after the launch. “And we still have a long way to go.”
He said NASA is focused on putting the vehicles through their paces to prepare for what’s to come. “We are stressing it and testing it in ways we would not do to a rocket that has a human crew on it,” he said. “That’s the purpose — to make it as safe as possible, as reliable as possible for when our astronauts crawl onboard and go back to the moon.”
The spacecraft is expected to reach the moon in several days, then spend a couple of weeks in orbit around the moon before returning home. Splashdown in the Pacific Ocean is expected on Dec. 11 near San Diego.
Bob Cabana, NASA’s associate administrator and a former astronaut, stressed this year that the mission was a test flight designed to ferret out problems before NASA puts humans onboard. The mission could encounter some challenges, he said, “that can cause us to come home early, and that’s okay. We have contingencies in place.”
One of the biggest challenges will be testing Orion’s heat shield. As it returns from the moon, it will be traveling 24,500 mph, or Mach 32, and generate temperatures, a NASA official said, that will reach “half as high as the sun.”
Mike Sarafin, the Artemis I mission manager, told reporters that “there’s definitely relief that we’re underway.”
But he added, “I personally am not going to rest well until we get safely to splashdown and recovery.”
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2022-11-17T00:00:00Z
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www.unionleader.com
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Relief and pride as NASA's huge SLS rocket finally flies | Back Page | unionleader.com
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https://www.unionleader.com/news/back_page/relief-and-pride-as-nasas-huge-sls-rocket-finally-flies/article_4a5d7edf-ae0c-5507-9f57-c075c216cfa2.html
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https://www.unionleader.com/news/back_page/relief-and-pride-as-nasas-huge-sls-rocket-finally-flies/article_4a5d7edf-ae0c-5507-9f57-c075c216cfa2.html
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Christian Cumnings stands with his lawyers during his trial at Hillsborough County Superior Court in Manchester on Nov. 16, 2022.
The negligent homicide trial of Christian Cummings enters its fourth day on Thursday with a doctor from the state's largest health care corporation expected to explain whether lice are dangerous or not.
Dr. Resmiye Oral, the head of Dartmouth Health Child Advocacy and Protection Program, will likely be asked to address the organization's guidance on lice.
During her testimony, Cummings defense attorney Ted Lothstein introduced as evidence the Dartmouth Health post-care instructions involving lice. The instructions state that lice are not dangerous, don't spread disease and have nothing to do with how clean a child is.
"I had no internal explanation for blood loss, just the external source of lice," said James, whose work has been criticized by her boss, New Hampshire Medical Examiner Jennie Duval. James now lives in Kansas.
"I don't even know how you would start testing for nutritional deficiency," she said.
The state has said the toddler died of dehydration, electrolyte imbalance and/or a blood infection that started with an untreated infection of the girl's urinary tract.
In her testimony, James said she is certain of her diagnosis of the cause of death -- probable urosepsis.
"I am certain of the diagnosis," James said.
Also expected to testify Thursday is Dr. Thomas Andrew, the retired chief New Hampshire medical examiner. Andrew, who held the post for 20 years, is expected to attribute the child's death to Sudden Unexplained Death in Childhood.
The child was found dead around 1 a.m. on Feb. 14, 2019, in the Cummings family home on Colby Road in Weare. Both Cummings and the child's mother, Mikayla Cochran, face a charge of negligent homicide, child endangerment and reckless conduct.
Cochran isn't expected to go to trial until next year.
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2022-11-17T00:00:03Z
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www.unionleader.com
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Forensic doctor explains her lice-related diagnosis | Courts | unionleader.com
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https://www.unionleader.com/news/courts/forensic-doctor-explains-her-lice-related-diagnosis/article_ba18aa2c-a160-5df8-9eb6-7a86f2bef191.html
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https://www.unionleader.com/news/courts/forensic-doctor-explains-her-lice-related-diagnosis/article_ba18aa2c-a160-5df8-9eb6-7a86f2bef191.html
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Aaron Muller
City honors mystery man who helped save city fire captain honored
Steve DesRuisseaux always felt another soul was present the night he almost died fighting a fatal fire in Manchester a year ago -- a shadowy memory of a man helping to free him after his gear got snagged on a ladder.
Aaron Muller, the neighbor who rushed to help firefighters responding to a fatal blaze on Dutton Street on Nov. 6, 2021, was honored Tuesday night at City Hall before a large crowd of firefighters, friends and family.
DesRuisseaux read aloud Tuesday a resolution honoring Muller for his actions. The firefighter was visibly overcome with emotion as he described the events of the night he received third-degree burns on more than a third of his body.
Muller received a standing ovation.
“Thank you for your generosity, but the truth of the matter is those are the real heroes,” said Muller, pointing at firefighters behind him. “I have a firefighter brother, and when I saw what was happening and that they needed some help, all I could see was my brother up there, so I did what I had to do. But these folks run into fires every single day of their lives, and they never know if they're going to make it.”
DesRuisseaux vaguely recalled another person being there, a man not in firefighter's gear, working to help him.
He said that as state fire officials began investigating the incident, body camera footage from first responders confirmed his memory. But it wasn’t until this past September, when Muller stopped by Central Fire Station, that the two met.
Muller said, “If I had to, I would do it again.”
“These guys deserve all the help they can get and they need more support,” Muller said. “It wasn’t just me out there. I’m actually proud of our whole neighborhood, everybody went out there to save those people. Unfortunately one person lost their life that day. Without a doubt you risk your lives every single day, and I for one will never forget it.”
In a social media post Wednesday, Mayor Joyce Craig said Muller risked his life to save DesRuisseaux, “and for that, we are eternally grateful.”
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2022-11-17T00:00:04Z
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www.unionleader.com
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City honors mystery man who helped save city fire captain honored | Human Interest | unionleader.com
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https://www.unionleader.com/news/human_interest/city-honors-mystery-man-who-helped-save-city-fire-captain-honored/article_34d5c2a2-2b4f-5dd4-aa6b-5f9ba23918bf.html
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https://www.unionleader.com/news/human_interest/city-honors-mystery-man-who-helped-save-city-fire-captain-honored/article_34d5c2a2-2b4f-5dd4-aa6b-5f9ba23918bf.html
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The United States returns to its pre-2021 power-sharing in Washington, with voters tugged in opposite directions by two main issues during the midterm election campaigns: high inflation and abortion.
Eyes of the presidential race
While the midterms were all about elections for Congress, state governors, and other local offices, hovering over it all was the 2024 U.S. presidential race.
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2022-11-17T01:44:43Z
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www.unionleader.com
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Republicans win U.S. House majority, setting stage for divided government | National | unionleader.com
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https://www.unionleader.com/news/national/republicans-win-u-s-house-majority-setting-stage-for-divided-government/article_3732ebd0-7dc0-51ff-b64e-8c9f757c2e75.html
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https://www.unionleader.com/news/national/republicans-win-u-s-house-majority-setting-stage-for-divided-government/article_3732ebd0-7dc0-51ff-b64e-8c9f757c2e75.html
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Fee the Evolutionist, aka Nashua hip-hop artist Bill Fee, at center, celebrates a win in the “Rising Star: New Hampshire” category Sunday at the New England Music Awards at Six String Grill & Stage in Foxborough, Mass., with fellow members and collaborators of the Hellhound Publishing collective and record label.
Provided by Bill Fee
Nashua hip-hop artist Fee the Evolutionist notches big New England honors
Fee the Evolutionist, aka Nashua’s Bill Fee, is giving old-school hip-hop vibes a fresh take, and it’s getting noticed.
“I’m floating on a cloud this morning,” he posted on social media the day after winning a New England Music Award in the “Rising Star: New Hampshire” category this past Sunday at Six String Grill & Stage in Foxborough, Mass.
He also was a featured performer at the event, taking the stage with fellow members of the collective Hellhounds Publishing company and record label.
“We did five or six songs. I didn’t know how it would be received, because there were so many genres (being represented at the ceremony) — country, rock, folk … I didn’t know what to expect but it went over great. I’m super happy,” he told the Union Leader on Tuesday.
That honor comes on the heels of having won first place in the 2022 New England Songwriting Competition for Best R&B/Hip Hop song for “Ain’t No Love” (featuring Ruby Shabazz).
Fee, who spent his early years in Chelmsford, Mass., before his family made Nashua their home, said he’s inspired by hip-hop of the 1980s and 1990s.
“I miss the fun time of melodic harmonies and soul samples of the golden era of hip-hop, when people were original and fun,” he says, using DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince (Jeff Townes and Will Smith, who had hits with “Parents Just Don’t Understand” and “Summertime”) as an example. “I hark back to that.”
Growing up, Fee tended to be more class clown than deliberate trouble maker. One congratulatory post on the artist’s Facebook page came from a classmate who joked that with the accolades, perhaps a former high school teacher who once reacted very angrily to Fee’s wise-guy antics would give him a pass now.
“I was a class clown. I couldn’t stop talking,” Fee said with a laugh. “One of my teachers kind of reprimanded me. The second half of the story is that I went home and told my parents and they went, ‘Oh, that’s good. You need to be reprimanded now and then.”
These days he’s using his voice to layer original rhymes, call-and-response action and some socially conscious lyricism.
“It’s been great. I just found out a song I just released went No. 1 on college radio charts — ‘Back in the Dayz,’ (featuring Shabazz and Professor Lyrical),” he said.
Fee next performs in Hellhound for the Holidays at 8 p.m. Friday, Nov. 25, at the Nashua Garden, 121 Main St. Tickets to the Done Booking and Hellhound Publishing show are $10.
The lineup also will feature Shabazz, Human Speakers, and the Hellhound Crew, which includes Cody Pope, Byron G, 8-BZA, Deja Solo, Even Tho, Trip Seat and Neek100.
Info: hellhoundpublishing.com.
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2022-11-17T01:44:50Z
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www.unionleader.com
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Nashua hip-hop artist Fee the Evolutionist notches big New England honors | A&E | unionleader.com
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https://www.unionleader.com/nh/arts_and_ent/nashua-hip-hop-artist-fee-the-evolutionist-notches-big-new-england-honors/article_444a01a2-6b33-50a2-90d5-7032e3183584.html
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https://www.unionleader.com/nh/arts_and_ent/nashua-hip-hop-artist-fee-the-evolutionist-notches-big-new-england-honors/article_444a01a2-6b33-50a2-90d5-7032e3183584.html
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Gladys Knight’s multi-decade career, including solo work and her famous stints with the Pips, is coming to the Capitol Center for the Arts in Concord for an 8 p.m. concert Friday.
Top picks: Get ready for Gladys Knight concert, a wintery wine tour, and a season-starting 'Nutcracker'
Music legend Gladys Knight at the Capitol Center
CONCORD — Seven-time Grammy Award winner Gladys Knight, who has hit the No. 1 spot on pop, gospel, R&B and adult contemporary charts over the decades, plays the Capitol Center for the Arts, 44 S. Main St., Concord, at 8 p.m. Friday.
Knight is the voice behind classic songs “Midnight Train to Georgia,” “Neither One of Us (Wants To Be the First To Say Goodbye)” and “That’s What Friends Are For” (with Dionne Warwick).
Plus, she’s been in a Lifetime holiday movie (“Seasons of Love”), competed on “Dancing with the Stars” (2012) and unmasked as the Bee in a standout stint on “The Masked Singer” in 2019.
Tickets to the Concord show are $75-$105.
Info: 603-225-1111 or ccanh.com.
NH Jingle Bells Winery Tour starts this weekend
Make merry with the fourth annual NH Jingle Bells Winery Tour, which takes place over the course of five weeks.
Starting this weekend, it runs Saturdays and Sundays through Dec. 18 at seven Granite State wineries.
They include: Averill House Vineyard, 21 Averill Road, Brookline; Flag Hill Distillery & Winery, 297 N. River Road/Route 155, Lee; LaBelle Winery, 345 Route 101, Amherst, and 14 Route 111, Derry; Seven Birches Winery: Riverwalk Resort or The Atrium, 22 S. Mountain Drive, Lincoln; Squamscott Winery, 70 Route 108, Newfields; Sweet Baby Vineyard, 260 Stage Road, Hampstead; and The Summit Winery, 719 Route 12, Westmoreland.
There will be light hors d’oeuvres and tastings at each winery or distillery, and visitors can pick up an ornament at each site.
Hours are 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tickets are $40 per person, or $75 per couple.
Info: eventbrite.
SNHU Orchestra visits ‘Other Worlds’
BOW — The music of Manchester composer and video game creator Toby Fox will be highlighted Friday night by the SNHU Orchestra.
Selections from Fox’s highly successful “Undertale” are included in “Other Worlds IV: Reboot,” which features music from video games, film and television.
The free concert, which includes synchronized video projection, is scheduled for 7 p.m. Friday, at Bow High School, 55 Falcon Way.
Joining the orchestra will be the SNHU wind symphony, the SNHU concert choir and Bow High School choir.
‘The Nutcracker’ returns to the Palace Theatre
MANCHESTER — The Southern New Hampshire Dance Theatre performs its timeless classic “The Nutcracker” at the Palace Theatre, 80 Hanover St., this weekend.
The 22nd annual production features more than 60 dancers and performers.
Southern NH Company Dancers will be joined by professional guest artists including Zack Betty, Nick Betty-Neagle, Nathan Duszy, Assaf Benchetrit, Fred Davis and Erika Davis.
Show times are 7:30 p.m. Friday; 11 a.m. and 4 and 7:30 p.m. Saturday; and noon and 4:30 p.m. Sunday.
Info: 603-668-5588 or www.palace theatre.org or www.snhdt.org.
Festival of Trees grows inside Urban Forestry Center
PORTSMOUTH — The 24th Festival of Trees takes over the Urban Forestry Center, 45 Elwyn Road, from 4 to 8 p.m. Friday through Sunday.
Local garden clubs, historic homes, businesses, garden centers, artisans and other groups from across the region will celebrate all things winter by decorating the center’s Forestry Learning Center and grounds with dozens of full-size and miniature trees, wreaths and more.
The festival is presented by Portsmouth Garden Club and the Forestry Center, which is part of the New Hampshire Division of Forests and Lands. Proceeds benefit the Garden Club’s Festival of Trees Scholarship Fund, environmental and local historical garden projects, and the conservation grant program.
Admission is $10; it’s free for ages 12 and under. Advance tickets aren’t available.
Info: portsmouthnhgardenclub.com or the Forestry Center at 603-431-6774.
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2022-11-17T01:44:56Z
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www.unionleader.com
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Top picks: Get ready for Gladys Knight concert, a wintery wine tour, and a season-starting 'Nutcracker' | A&E | unionleader.com
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https://www.unionleader.com/nh/arts_and_ent/top-picks-get-ready-for-gladys-knight-concert-a-wintery-wine-tour-and-a-season/article_f441fdb1-6e50-5234-b595-fd23b5012faa.html
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https://www.unionleader.com/nh/arts_and_ent/top-picks-get-ready-for-gladys-knight-concert-a-wintery-wine-tour-and-a-season/article_f441fdb1-6e50-5234-b595-fd23b5012faa.html
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Jeremy Swayman awaits a shot during the Bruins’ Oct. 15 game against the Arizona Coyotes.
Bruins' Swayman makes short work of rehab
Boston Bruins coach Jim Montgomery said he’s leaning toward giving Linus Ullmark the start on Thursday against the Philadelphia Flyers. But if the Bruins can extend their home record to 10-0, the goalie hugs will be back.
While Montgomery understandably is inclined to ride Ullmark with the way he’s playing, Jeremy Swayman will be back in uniform on Thursday, a little more than two weeks after he suffered what appeared to be a devastating left knee injury. But as has been the case for the charmed Bruins this year, Swayman is back a little earlier than expected and Keith Kinkaid was returned to Providence.
“Born ready, baby,” said the affable Alaskan.
The injury that occurred on Nov. 1 in Pittsburgh did not look pretty. Swayman had entered the game after Ullmark was yanked with the B’s down 5-2 to the Penguins. With the play in the Bruins’ end, Patrice Bergeron lost his footing and crashed into Swayman. His left leg hit the post and hyperextended rather unnaturally. As he needed help to get off the ice, it appeared that the netminder would be on shelf for a while. But 16 days later, Swayman, with two full practices under his belt, will be back in uniform on Thursday.
He knows he was fortunate. “I watched it afterwards. Yeah, just a freak play,” said Swayman. “That’s what happens in this game and I’m lucky it hasn’t happened before and I hope it never happens again, right? But luckily those posts release at a certain point and it definitely saved me. I’m lucky that it wasn’t worse.”
But in his start before he relieved Ullmark in Pittsburgh, he had what was easily his best performance of the season in a 5-1 win over Detroit when he stopped 28-of-29 shots. Unfortunately, the injury prevented him from building on that start.
When Swayman gets his next start is to be determined, but it should be soon. While Ullmark has earned more than 50% of the starts at this point, Montgomery doesn’t want to overwork him.
“It’s hard,” said Montgomery. “Linus has done such a good job playing minutes like a No. 1 and Swayman’s been out for a while and he’s had to carry the load.”
It’s nice to know that he can carry the load, We just don’t want him carrying that big of a load. And I wouldn’t want Swayman carrying the load like that either.”….
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2022-11-17T01:45:08Z
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www.unionleader.com
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Bruins' Swayman makes short work of rehab | Bruins | unionleader.com
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https://www.unionleader.com/sports/bruins/bruins-swayman-makes-short-work-of-rehab/article_77237eac-8471-5a04-8ab8-ec355264ce36.html
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https://www.unionleader.com/sports/bruins/bruins-swayman-makes-short-work-of-rehab/article_77237eac-8471-5a04-8ab8-ec355264ce36.html
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John Trisciani is seen during the 2021 football jamboree at Gill Stadium in Manchester.
High school coaches on the move: Bishop Guertin's Trisciani resigns
Add Bishop Guertin to the list of New Hampshire high schools looking to hire a varsity football coach.
John Trisciani resigned as BG’s head coach Wednesday, five days after the Cardinals lost to Pinkerton Academy, 14-12, in the Division I quarterfinals. Trisciani spent five seasons as BG’s head coach.
“It was a combination of things,” Trisciani said. “You just get burnt out.
“When you take over a position, there’s a lot of excitement. You come in really optimistic and aware of the things that you’re battling, but you feel good about tackling those things. Over the last couple years, I think that optimism went away. I think we made some strides — participation was up, we were able to win some games. There were some positives, but you have to be honest with yourself and realize that those challenges are still there and I don’t necessarily see us turning a corner here to get through some of those things.”
Tarek Rothe told his team on Monday that he was stepping down as Alvirne’s head coach, and Herb Hatich resigned last month after one season at Lebanon. The Raiders were winless this year.
Rothe spent six years at Alvirne and guided the Broncos to the 2018 Division II championship game, where the team dropped a 29-18 decision to Plymouth.
“When I took this job, I thought they’d have to drag me off the field,” Rothe said. “I just felt like that when I went to practice it wasn’t fun anymore. It was a tough decision. I agonized over it.
“I don’t want to stop coaching football. It’s in my blood, I just can’t put the time and effort in it takes to be a head coach.”
Trisciani is a Manchester Memorial graduate who teaches at Bishop Guertin. He spent three seasons as an assistant coach at BG, and also served as an assistant coach at Londonderry, Goffstown and Memorial.
“I think what the kids need right now is somebody to come in with a lot of energy, new ideas and some positivity,” Trisciani said. “We made some progress, maybe somebody who can hit the ground running and keep it moving forward.”
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2022-11-17T01:45:20Z
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www.unionleader.com
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High school coaches on the move: Bishop Guertin's Trisciani resigns | Sports | unionleader.com
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https://www.unionleader.com/sports/highschool/high-school-coaches-on-the-move-bishop-guertins-trisciani-resigns/article_1359e3db-b4ec-5f7e-a405-b8abfabc61ee.html
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https://www.unionleader.com/sports/highschool/high-school-coaches-on-the-move-bishop-guertins-trisciani-resigns/article_1359e3db-b4ec-5f7e-a405-b8abfabc61ee.html
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New England Patriots defensive end Lawrence Guy (93) celebrates a sack against the New York Jets with linebacker Matthew Judon (9) during the fourth quarter at MetLife Stadium on Oct. 30.
FOXBOROUGH, Mass. — Playoffs? Playoffs?
That means the Patriots’ upcoming matchup is make-or-break for this team. The hope is that coach Bill Belichick and his staff used their bye week wisely and head into this final stretch with an improved Patriots team.
When looking at the Patriots’ future schedule, it’s understandable why this matchup is so important. A win puts them at 6-4 and keeps them as a contender in the AFC East as well as the AFC playoff picture. A loss, however, drops them to 5-5 with the hardest part of their schedule on deck. After the Jets, the Patriots play the 8-1 Minnesota Vikings on four days’ notice and then take on the 6-3 Buffalo Bills.
If the Pats beat the Jets, they enter the final portion of their schedule with seven games left. They likely need four wins to cement a playoff spot. According to ESPN’s Football Power Index, teams with a projected 10 or more wins have over a 73% chance to make the playoffs.
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2022-11-17T01:45:38Z
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www.unionleader.com
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Why the Patriots playoff hopes rest on beating the New York Jets | Patriots | unionleader.com
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https://www.unionleader.com/sports/patriots/why-the-patriots-playoff-hopes-rest-on-beating-the-new-york-jets/article_09244ad5-2cbe-5bc1-bfde-e24f5c7a03f6.html
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https://www.unionleader.com/sports/patriots/why-the-patriots-playoff-hopes-rest-on-beating-the-new-york-jets/article_09244ad5-2cbe-5bc1-bfde-e24f5c7a03f6.html
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People can buy lobsters and other seafood products right off the boat on New Hampshire’s Seacoast.
Kimberly Haas/Union Leader Correspondent
Tangled in fishing gear and rope, this North Atlantic right whale was helped by a team of state and federal biologists off the coast of Daytona Beach, Florida, in 2010.
Whales' plight costs Maine lobsters their 'sustainable' label
By Dino Grandoni The Washington Post
“This is not a slap on the wrist,” Sen. Angus King of Maine, an independent who caucuses with Democrats, said in an interview of the Seafood Watch assessment. “They are literally trying to put these people out of business.”
WASHINGTON — The top U.S. general on Wednesday played down the odds of any near-term, outright military victory by Ukraine, cautioning that Russia still had significant combat power inside of Ukraine despite suffering military setbacks in its invasion.
Senate Republicans voted Wednesday to retain Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) as minority leader, turning back a challenge from Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) after the party failed to pick up seats in the chamber in the midterm elections. Some senators sought unsuccessfully to delay the vote to give …
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2022-11-17T01:45:45Z
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www.unionleader.com
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Whales' plight costs Maine lobsters their 'sustainable' label | | unionleader.com
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https://www.unionleader.com/whales-plight-costs-maine-lobsters-their-sustainable-label/article_b4d2b181-7652-5120-b580-71d1776d2a38.html
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https://www.unionleader.com/whales-plight-costs-maine-lobsters-their-sustainable-label/article_b4d2b181-7652-5120-b580-71d1776d2a38.html
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Aaron Murrell
Honored by city officials
Steve DesRuisseaux always felt another soul was present the night he almost died fighting a fatal fire in Manchester a year ago — a shadowy memory of a man helping to free him after his gear got snagged on a ladder.
Aaron Murrell, the neighbor who rushed to help firefighters responding to a fatal blaze on Dutton Street on Nov. 6, 2021, was honored Tuesday night at City Hall before a large crowd of firefighters, friends and family.
DesRuisseaux read aloud Tuesday a resolution honoring Murrell for his actions. The firefighter was visibly overcome with emotion as he described the events of the night he received hird-degree burns on more than a third of his body.
Murrell received a standing ovation.
“Thank you for your generosity, but the truth of the matter is those are the real heroes,” said Murrell, pointing at firefighters behind him. “I have a firefighter brother, and when I saw what was happening and that they needed some help, all I could see was my brother up there, so I did what I had to do. But these folks run into fires every single day of their lives, and they never know if they’re going to make it.”
DesRuisseaux vaguely recalled another person being there, a man not in firefighter’s gear, working to help him.
He said that as state fire officials began investigating the incident, body camera footage from first responders confirmed his memory. But it wasn’t until this past September, when Murrell stopped by Central Fire Station, that the two met.
Murrell said, “If I had to, I would do it again.”
“These guys deserve all the help they can get and they need more support,” Murrell said. “It wasn’t just me out there. I’m actually proud of our whole neighborhood. Everybody went out there to save those people. Unfortunately one person lost their life that day. Without a doubt you risk your lives every single day, and I for one will never forget it.”
In a social media post Wednesday, Mayor Joyce Craig said Murrell risked his life to save DesRuisseaux, “and for that, we are eternally grateful.”
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2022-11-17T03:24:58Z
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www.unionleader.com
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City honors mystery man who helped save fire captain | Human Interest | unionleader.com
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https://www.unionleader.com/news/human_interest/city-honors-mystery-man-who-helped-save-fire-captain/article_34d5c2a2-2b4f-5dd4-aa6b-5f9ba23918bf.html
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https://www.unionleader.com/news/human_interest/city-honors-mystery-man-who-helped-save-fire-captain/article_34d5c2a2-2b4f-5dd4-aa6b-5f9ba23918bf.html
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Proceeds from Swim With A Mission’s “Portraits of Sacrifice and Bravery” book will be used to support art therapy programs for veterans.
Swim With a Mission is hosting a stories and signings event from 6:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. Thursday at The Bookery, 844 Elm St., to promote “Portraits of Sacrifice and Bravery,” a book that features stories about New Hampshire veterans.
The coffee book-sized volume features photographs by Jeff Dachowski and stories from “an inspiring and diverse group who hail from every branch of the military, enlisted and officers, from World War I to Korea to Vietnam to the Cold War to the War on Terror,” according to the nonprofit.
Proceeds from the book, which includes letters from Gov. Chris Sununu and U.S. Sen. Shaheen, will fund art therapy programs for veterans, such as the Vet for the Arts program at the Currier Museum of Art.
Visit swam.org for more information about the book.
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2022-11-17T03:25:17Z
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www.unionleader.com
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Swim With a Mission hosts book-signing event Thursday | Veterans | unionleader.com
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https://www.unionleader.com/news/veterans/swim-with-a-mission-hosts-book-signing-event-thursday/article_a5db2a08-7b42-5631-9ce9-3a21092e073d.html
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https://www.unionleader.com/news/veterans/swim-with-a-mission-hosts-book-signing-event-thursday/article_a5db2a08-7b42-5631-9ce9-3a21092e073d.html
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By Patrick Connolly Orlando Sentinel (TNS)
Tucked in the woods of urban Orlando, Florida, there’s trouble afoot with enemy troops lurking and the scene of a plane crash in the trees.
Packages vary from the basic (starting at $299), which includes a safety briefing and two laps around a half-mile trail, to the “Ultimate Combat Experience,” which gives visitors the mud hole add-on, a chance to drive a tank “locked up” inside and the opportunity to crush a car. As the holidays approach, it’s helpful to know that Tank America also sells gift cards and provides group deals.
For more info: tankamerica.com.
Retired Army First Sgt. Martin Swirko, a Manchester resident, was awarded the Meritorious Service Medal for his 30 years of service.
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2022-11-17T03:25:23Z
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www.unionleader.com
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Tank America opens in Orlando with 17-ton tank driving experience | | unionleader.com
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https://www.unionleader.com/tank-america-opens-in-orlando-with-17-ton-tank-driving-experience/article_0d552653-bd00-5c60-9cc9-7de8c27601a2.html
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https://www.unionleader.com/tank-america-opens-in-orlando-with-17-ton-tank-driving-experience/article_0d552653-bd00-5c60-9cc9-7de8c27601a2.html
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To the Editor: There is interest in the Town of New Castle to install a sign at each end of the town’s entrance points announcing New Castle as the “Site of the First Shots the Revolution.” Motivation for the sign came from the recent discovery of a sworn deposition from the British Archives file C05-939, section 63. It describes how a patriot assault at Fort William and Mary on December 14, 1774, was met with cannon and musket shots fired by the King’s men four months prior to the battles of Lexington and Concord in April, 1775. The relevant section, sworn testimony from then Captain John Cochrane, reads in part:
Those interested in expressing their sentiments about the sign proposal can send them to the New Castle Select Board c/o the board secretary at adminasst@newcastlenh.org
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2022-11-17T06:45:40Z
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www.unionleader.com
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Letter: First shots of Revolution | Letters to the Editor | unionleader.com
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https://www.unionleader.com/opinion/letters_to_editor/letter-first-shots-of-revolution/article_99df700c-5022-56b6-9b25-beffa41b6ce4.html
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https://www.unionleader.com/opinion/letters_to_editor/letter-first-shots-of-revolution/article_99df700c-5022-56b6-9b25-beffa41b6ce4.html
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To the Editor: It’s crucial that we expand the Democratic majority in the Senate from 50 to 51! That way a defection by Sen. Joe Manchin or Sen. Krysten Sinema doesn’t derail appointment of diverse federal judges, who serve for life, or officials to fill top positions in the administration.
It’s imperative that Sen. Raphael Warnock, a dynamic progressive Democrat, beats Herschel Walker, who is unqualified, in the Dec. 6 Georgia runoff.
I made a generous contribution to the Warnock campaign (warnockforgeorgia.com) and hope you will, too. There’s just about 14 days before the election.
Warnock is one of only two Black Democratic senators. Together we can ensure his victory. As his fellow Georgian and legendary civil rights leader and congressman, John Lewis, said before he died: “Now it is your turn to let freedom ring.”
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2022-11-17T06:45:47Z
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www.unionleader.com
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Letter: No time for complacency | Letters to the Editor | unionleader.com
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https://www.unionleader.com/opinion/letters_to_editor/letter-no-time-for-complacency/article_2c1e1dc7-73b0-567c-a0bc-f51d7271d82d.html
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https://www.unionleader.com/opinion/letters_to_editor/letter-no-time-for-complacency/article_2c1e1dc7-73b0-567c-a0bc-f51d7271d82d.html
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Daniel C. Itse
I HAVE been in the energy industry my entire career. Primarily in the area of combustion and steam generation, but much of it is associated with electric power generation and air pollution control. Since beginning in 1980, I recall reading publications by the U.S. Department of Energy stating its goal as energy independence. Yet, for about 38 of my 42 years, that goal eluded us. How could we be so inept?
The truth was that for 36 of those 38 years energy independence was not the true goal. When we had an administration with the goal of energy independence — President Donald Trump — it took only two years to achieve. Within hours of Trump leaving the White House, President Joe Biden reversed the policies that gave us energy independence and we were again dependent on our enemies for the life’s blood of our economy.
I wish it stopped there. I hear repeatedly that rising energy costs reduce opportunity for the poor and middle class from pundits on both sides of the aisle. However, that is not the harsh reality. The harsh reality is that as propane reaches $7 a gallon, natural gas reaches $10 per therm and heating oil reaches $6 a gallon, anyone without an alternative heat source risks freezing.
That is pretty much anyone that lives in an apartment. Remember, if you don’t have an alternative source of electricity, your furnace and pellet stove won’t run. Even those with solar energy are at risk unless their systems are designed to supply the electric load, operate independently of the electric grid, and they have battery storage (it is coldest at night when daylight is the shortest).
I recently received a copy of a letter from the general manager of Groton Electric and Light Department (GELD) in Groton, Massachusetts, to customers. GELD is an electric power distribution company. Like all New Hampshire electric power distributors, it has no generating capacity. GELD informed customers that they are likely to experience rolling blackouts this winter if there is a cold snap.
The GELD letter said the cause is that New England states have eliminated their fuel diversity by shutting down coal, oil and nuclear power plants. That electric power in the region is comprised primarily of renewables (solar, wind, trash, and wood), natural gas and distillate oil. This has left the region 60% to 70% dependent on natural gas for electricity. Unfortunately, winter is when natural gas and distillate oil are in demand for heating and weather makes wind and solar less reliable.
When it comes to electric power, only New Hampshire has maintained a full spectrum of electric power sources: coal, oil, natural gas, wood, trash, nuclear, hydro, solar and wind. In fact, the Granite State would require only 10% to 30% natural gas to meet its average needs while leaving a reasonable reserve. Unfortunately, because we are part ISO-New England, we are not able to take advantage of our energy diversity. ISO-NE determines which power plants run and keeps the electric power rates (not including distribution) nearly uniform throughout the region. That means we are hostage to the poor energy policy of our neighboring states.
We did not arrive here by accident. We chose to join ISO-NE. This bottleneck of energy occurred by design. The other New England States intentionally closed all their coal plants. Only New Hampshire and Connecticut retain nuclear power. Only New Hampshire and Maine retain significant wood-fired power. All this leaves the region overly dependent on natural gas, which comes from either Texas or Canada. New Hampshire is last in line on both of those pipelines.
As the letter from GELD states, if there is a cold snap of more than three days near zero, there will be rolling blackouts. No electric power distribution company can control whether or where they have power. ISO-NE will determine where those blackouts are.
There are four cold snaps of four days or more predicted for this winter. During those times, if you are blacked out and you don’t have an alternative source of electricity, your furnace or pellet stove won’t run, even if you have fuel. Only if you have a conventional wood stove or your own electric power source will you have heat. Please be prepared.
Daniel C. Itse served 18 years as a Republican member of the New Hampshire House of Representatives. He lives in Fremont.
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2022-11-17T06:45:53Z
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Daniel C. Itse: No power is harsh reality of being last in line | Op-eds | unionleader.com
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Climate change refers to the long-term variations in the Earth’s temperatures and weather patterns. For billions of years, there has been climate change. At times, the temperatures have been warm enough to have crocodile-like reptiles living in the arctic circle. The causes of climate change can be natural, such as the changes in the solar cycle, or because of human activities, such as burning fossil fuels. Greenhouse gases are like a blanket placed around the planet to keep in the sun’s heat. If we do nothing to reduce the burning of fossil fuels, the Earth’s temperature will increase by 5 to 7 degrees Fahrenheit by the end of the century.
There is time for humans to adapt to the increased temperatures and rising sea levels.
The most accurate climate change data available comes from the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). Skeptics do not question the objective data from the IPCC. Skeptics question the exaggerated claims by the IPCC, the media, and climate alarmists.
There are countless such claims exaggerating the facts. For example, in 2010, the IPCC falsely claimed that climate change would result in the Himalayan glaciers melting by 2035. Shortly after publication, scientists discredited the IPCC’s assertion. In 2019, a U.S. IPCC representative stated that the world would end in 12 years.
Exaggerations do more harm than good for climate change awareness.
Approximately 51 billion tons of greenhouse gases are added to the atmosphere yearly. The goal is to decrease these gas emissions to zero by the end of the century. Getting to zero will be difficult in modern society, with virtually everything in modern-day life involving the release of greenhouse gases. The five major categories include: making things (cement, steel, and plastics), growing things (plants and animals), transportation (cars, planes, and ships), generating electricity, and keeping buildings warm or cool. Below is a breakdown of the percentage of global CO2 emissions from each category.
Making things: 31%
Plugging in (electricity): 27%
Growing things: 19%
Getting around: 16%
Keeping warm and cool: 7%
You can look on the internet for pictures of a city 100 years ago and a picture of the same city today. You can see the skyline of the new buildings, the roads, and the bridges. As nations develop, there will be an increased need for cement, steel, and plastics. The current method of creating cement produces copious amounts of CO2 emissions. The United States produces 96 million tons of cement yearly. To put into perspective how much cement is manufactured today by developing nations, from 1901 to 2000, the U.S. produced 4.3 billion tons of cement. From 2001 to 2016, China produced 25.8 billion tons of cement. China is still developing, and India, Africa, and South America want to follow.
Electricity in the U.S. is inexpensive and reliable. Fossil fuels make up two-thirds of the electricity generated in the world today. It will be hard to get off fossil fuels because they are cheap. A gallon of oil is cheaper than a gallon of milk. A barrel of oil sells for $88; divided by 42 gallons, a gallon of oil is $2.09. A generic brand gallon of milk is $3.48.
Transportation makes up 16% of greenhouse gases. Cars make up only 16% of the total transportation emissions. If every car in the world becomes electric, it will reduce the 51 billion tons of annual CO2 emissions by 2.5%. And for every thousand-pound battery required in this electric fleet of cars, you must excavate 500,000 pounds of materials from the ground. And you still need to burn fossil fuels to create electricity. Electric vehicles are not the answer to stopping climate change, but they help reduce CO2 from the air.
There is not a single solution to zero emissions by the end of the century. Innovations in technology will help us deal with climate change. Governments must create an environment that encourages and incentivizes innovation.
Some promising technologies currently being developed include direct carbon capture and small nuclear reactors. Direct carbon capture technology removes CO2 from the air permanently. This technology can theoretically reduce carbon levels to the time before the industrial revolution. Small nuclear reactors would provide clean, safe, and reliable energy that produces minimal nuclear waste and can actually consume the waste from traditional nuclear plants.
More than two billion people worldwide still burn wood for heating and cooking. Close to a billion people in the world do not have electricity. Providing low-cost reliable electricity to developing nations will lift billions of people out of poverty and eventually help reduce CO2 emissions. Wealthy developed nations that contributed the most to greenhouse gases have the moral obligation to assist these developing countries, not ask them to stop developing because of the CO2 that wealthy nations put into the atmosphere.
Lt. Col. Joao F. da Silva is presently attending the National War College in Washington, D.C.. He lives in Merrimack.
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2022-11-17T06:45:59Z
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Joao F. da Silva: Innovation is needed to reach zero emissions | Op-eds | unionleader.com
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By Marisa Iati The Washington Post
The minks - thousands of them - were on the loose.
"There's been a lot of activity that has gone on out there, and as they have gotten out, they're going to continue to move around," Van Wert County Sheriff Tom Riggenbach said Wednesday. "How far they're going to travel I think is difficult to say."
Officials are investigating the minks' release while trying to keep the rural county running smoothly as the ferret-like creatures run rampant. Although mink sightings are not uncommon in the area, Riggenbach said his office had gotten more calls than usual this week from residents trying to figure out how to handle a mink on their property or what to do with ones they've caught.
The creatures have also scrambled traffic, especially on U.S. Route 127, a highway less than a mile from Lion Farms USA. Law enforcement officers have been trying to get drivers off the road's shoulder as they stop to take pictures of the barn or a loose mink, Riggenbach said. Matt Bruning, a spokesman for the Ohio Department of Transportation, said he was unaware of major traffic disruptions in the county.
The highway has also been the site of many minks' demise. The number killed there, Riggenbach said, indicates that the animals have been on the move.
The exact number of animals that are unaccounted for is unclear. Lion Farms's owner initially estimated that the count could reach up to 40,000, before revising his estimate to about 10,000, the sheriff's office said. Many minks stayed on the property after the release.
In addition to being a nuisance, the missing creatures are also a potential danger to other animals in the largely agricultural county of about 29,000 people. Minks regularly hunt larger prey and have previously proved dangerous to poultry on the county's farms, and to fish in ornamental home ponds, Riggenbach said. The fact that they're probably hungry now that they're off the farm could make them more dangerous.
"Obviously, the instincts to need to eat for survival are going to play a part in what they do," Riggenbach said. "That's one of the components that puts people's animals, pets at risk as part of this."
Riggenbach urged residents not to approach the minks, which could bite. People can instead trap or hunt a mink that poses a threat on their own property or call licensed trappers publicized by the sheriff's office.
No one has been charged in the incident, which the sheriff's office is investigating as a break-in and instance of vandalism. A photo published by WANE showed "ALF" and "We'll be back" spray-painted on the side of the barn. Riggenbach declined to confirm the graffiti.
The acronym "ALF" may be a reference to the Animal Liberation Front, an extremist animal rights movement whose members have removed animals from farms and laboratories for decades. The North American Animal Liberation Press Office, which distributes information about the ALF, said it had not been told of its members' involvement but noted that the perpetrators left the movement's insignia on the building. The organization also pointed to two other mink releases by its members this month in northeast Ohio and northern Michigan.
Whatever the perpetrators' aims at Lion Farms, many minks are unlikely to survive their release. They lack survival skills, Riggenbach said, and many have already found themselves in harm's way.
"There's mink that have been killed just because of the traffic issues, not just on 127, but in other areas, as well," he said. "To expect or believe that all the mink that were released are going to be able to be re-caught and that no mink were going to die as a result of this incident, that's just not reality."
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2022-11-17T14:57:54Z
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What happens when 10,000 minks are set loose? An Ohio county is finding out. | Animals | unionleader.com
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By Ray Routhier Portland Press Herald, Maine
His last day on the air as an anchor at News Center Maine will be Dec. 9.
Colleagues and people he covered said this week that Callaghan, 66, brought intellectual curiosity, professionalism, an incredible memory and a quick wit to the job. Serious and even-keeled while reporting, he avoided the happy talk and false emotion of some national TV anchors, but could crack up co-workers with jokes, quips and songs.
"I have always been impressed with Pat's even-handed and analytical approach to political coverage, which made sure that viewers had a clear understanding of the facts," said William S. Cohen, the former U.S. senator from Maine and U.S. secretary of defense, who first met Callaghan in 1979. "Pat took his work seriously but did not take himself seriously, which is almost always a formula for success and happiness."
Off-camera, Callaghan is known to friends and co-workers as kind of a "walking trivia game," said Cindy Williams, his co-anchor from 1989 until her retirement last year. She and others said Callaghan has an encyclopedic knowledge of a wide range of topics he's become interested in over the years, from the space program and political history to sports and pop music.
Some personal news... After more than four decades with @newscentermaine I will be retiring early next month. I'll admit it's a bit hard for me to process! My thanks to everyone here and across Maine who have made this such a rewarding experience! https://t.co/Gs65Pwzasn
His record collection numbers more than 1,000 in his South Portland basement, which co-workers say looks like a museum. He has three bookcase shelves each of just Beach Boys and Beatles albums. His political memorabilia collection includes an empty sardine can used by Republican Charles Cragin during his unsuccessful run for governor of Maine against Democrat Joseph Brennan in 1982. The empty can's label said it contained all of Brennan's good ideas.
"He's like a walking encyclopedia when it comes to Maine news and politics. He's always quoting words to songs and his album collection would blow your mind," said Williams. "He's someone who can be so thoughtful and poignant but also crack you up. I always said I'd want him to do my eulogy, because he can make people laugh and cry."
Retired News Center Maine anchor and reporter Bill Green recalled singing and joking around with Callaghan when both worked at WLBZ in Bangor. At one point, they memorized every line of the early '80s hit "Rapper's Delight."
Callaghan grew up in Framingham, Massachusetts, and saw what being a TV journalist was like up close, thanks to his father. John Callaghan worked for WNAC TV in Boston, covering both news and sports. The senior Callaghan covered the Boston Red Sox, Celtics and Bruins during some glory years for each team, and also traveled to Ireland to cover President John F. Kennedy's trip there in 1963. He went back again later that year to report on the Irish people's reaction to Kennedy's assassination.
Callaghan grew up reading several newspapers and knew how much his father loved his job, so he decided to pursue broadcast journalism himself. After graduating from the University of New Hampshire in 1978 with a bachelor's degree in history and English, he worked for New Hampshire Public Television before landing a job with TV station WLBZ in Bangor in 1979. He worked there until transferring to sister station WCSH in Portland — now known as News Center Maine — in 1983. He became co-anchor of the station's main evening newscasts in 1989 and is currently anchoring weekdays at noon, 5 p.m. and 6 p.m.
CHALLENGER TRAGEDY
In 1986, Callaghan went to Cape Canaveral in Florida to report a "feel good story" about the launch of the Challenger space shuttle, which included New Hampshire teacher Christa McAuliffe among its passengers. But just a minute into the flight, the shuttle exploded and broke apart, killing all seven people aboard. Callaghan was on air for about a half hour after the explosion, before exactly what happened was known, trying to keep viewers up to date with very little information to go on. So he used his knowledge of the space program — something he'd been interested in since childhood — to talk about its history, including other accidents and fatalities.
During the 1988 presidential election, Bush, a longtime Kennebunkport summer resident, was running against Democrat Michael Dukakis. There was talk in Maine about the fact that the only home Bush owned was in Maine, though he was officially declared a resident of Texas. His legal residence was listed as a hotel room in Houston. Callaghan thought it would be interesting to see where Bush spent his time in Houston, so he found out the room was available when Bush was not there and booked it. He stayed overnight and reported what he saw. He said he slept "quite comfortably, as I recall."
"It was like a two-room suite. It was nice but nothing really special," said Callaghan. "I tried to figure out what movies (Bush and his wife, Barbara) liked to watch on Cinemax, but I couldn't."
Callaghan's anchor spot will be filled by Brian Yocono, a Maine native returning home. Yocono was most recently an anchor at WPRI in Providence, Rhode Island, where he worked since 2014, but also worked at News Center Maine from about 2006-11.
Callaghan said he's decided to retire mainly because "43 years is a long time to do anything" and because he and his wife, Karen, would like time to travel. He wants to stay active and joked about maybe opening his own radio station with all his records, but has no definite plans yet.
"I think I'll miss being plugged in right at the source of the information," said Callaghan. "And I'll miss the people. It's a special group, smart and funny, serious about work but not serious about themselves. And they're covering the news at a very difficult time."
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2022-11-17T14:58:01Z
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News Center Maine anchor Pat Callaghan retiring after 43 years | Back Page | unionleader.com
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The federal prison in Berlin has the capacity to house 1,700 male inmates and is the only federal prison in New Hampshire.
Lorna Colquhoun/Union Leader File Photo
By Joe Davidson The Washington Post
WASHINGTON - The Justice Department has ordered its Bureau of Prisons (BOP) to take "immediate actions" against the problem of federal employees who sexually abuse inmates.
A forceful Nov. 2 memo from Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco says she and BOP Director Colette Peters "embrace" recommendations from a working group of senior department officials. Monaco formed it because of her "grave concerns about instances of sexual misconduct involving employees."
The group's expedited 32-page report, released with the memo, included more than 50 recommendations meant to "better protect" inmates, Monaco said, and "better hold accountable those who abuse positions of trust, including by enhancing prevention, reporting, investigations, prosecutions, and employee discipline."
Monaco's language in the memo to a broad array of Justice officials, including all U.S. attorneys, indicated a strong personal and professional drive "to eradicate sexual misconduct by staff in federal prisons." Monaco instructed Peters to immediately implement the recommendations.
The report said prosecutors should seek more prison time, where appropriate, than federal guidelines suggest for employees convicted of sexual assault. Under the heading "Enhance Prosecutions of Sexual Misconduct Perpetrated by BOP Staff," the working group said that when prosecutors charge sexual abuse, they should consider a variety of statues that "carry higher maximum penalties" and "provide an alternative means to obtain more just sentences."
For abuse victims, the report urged sentence reductions, compassionate release and special "U-visas" for noncitizens, "where warranted," because of "the detrimental impact of sexual assault on victims." U-visas are available to certain crime victims who suffered mental or physical abuse and were helpful to law enforcement.
Shane Fausey, president of the American Federation of Government Employees' Council of Prison Locals, said in an email to me that the working group's recommendations were "somewhat created with good intentions, [but] lacking entirely of any input or perspective of the employees of the BOP." His email urged Justice to protect and support "the +99% of the honest and dedicated correctional professional [who] are subjected to the same type of horrid behavior and believe convening a similar workgroup is long overdue."
The BOP received "hundreds of complaints of sexual abuse perpetrated by its employees" in the past five years and 45 of those cases were prosecuted by the department, according to the working group, which said that "the recurrence of this egregious conduct across multiple facilities poses serious concerns."
In response to the working group report, Monaco told Peters to immediately "issue a Bureau-wide message reiterating the gravity and insidiousness of sexual misconduct." Monaco also said witness credibility determinations must be on a case-by-case basis, "without any prohibition against substantiating misconduct based on inmate testimony."
The last point was the subject of a recent Federal Insider column about an inspector general's finding that BOP policy "emboldens miscreant staff members" who believe they can "act without fear of disciplinary consequences." Not fully utilizing inmate witnesses bolsters the "serious insider threat potential, including the risk of serious harm to inmates," according to the inspector general. The warning about emboldening miscreants coincides with comments to the working group about "troubling allegations of a culture of permissiveness toward staff misconduct and retaliation against victims who report abuse."
Among the groups consulted by the working group was the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). Tammie Gregg, deputy director of the ACLU's National Prison Project, isn't satisfied with the product. Because of the significant number of sexual assault reports by BOP staff, "we are troubled by the fact that the recommendations don't go far enough," she said. She urged Congress to establish "a strong independent oversight body that is outside of BOP" to review sexual abuse allegations.
But it's better to prevent sexual abuse than deal with the allegations. "That begins with changing the culture and environment in BOP facilities," the working group wrote. Part of the culture is the "perception that wardens assigned to female facilities are less qualified than those assigned to male facilities." Federal facilities for women are rated low or medium security, which results in wardens with lower rank and pay than wardens at higher-rated male facilities. Working group members called for equitable compensation for the leaders of male and female facilities.
"While the majority of the BOP's 35,000 law enforcement professionals demonstrate our agency's core values, my message to those who do not is clear: I will fervently pursue accountability for those who, at any level of the agency, abuse their position of trust," a statement from Peters said. "Sexual misconduct by staff will not be tolerated, and I look forward to collaborating with our federal partners to eradicate sexual misconduct in the BOP."
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2022-11-17T14:58:13Z
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Prison staff who sexually assault inmates should face harsher sentences, DOJ says | Crime | unionleader.com
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FILE PHOTO: U.S. President Joe Biden shakes hands with Chinese President Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the G20 leaders' summit in Bali, Indonesia, November 14, 2022.
"We should follow a path of openness and inclusiveness," he said in the speech, which was provided by organizers, adding the region should not turn into "an arena for big power contest."
"Unilateralism and protectionism should be rejected by all; any attempt to politicize and weaponise economic and trade relations should also be rejected by all."
Host Thailand on Thursday said leaders gathering for the APEC forum should "rise above differences."
His meeting comes a day after tensions simmered in Bali, where Xi criticized Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in person over alleged leaks of their closed-door meeting, a rare public display of annoyance by the Chinese leader. Trudeau is also in Bangkok.
On Thursday, as leaders prepared for the APEC meeting, the junta in neighboring Myanmar announced an amnesty for 5,774 political prisoners, among them a Japanese filmmaker, a former British ambassador and an Australian economist and former adviser to deposed leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
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2022-11-17T14:58:37Z
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China's Xi says Asia should not become arena for 'big power contest' | World | unionleader.com
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President Emmanuel Macron of France arrives ahead of an emergency meeting of leaders at the G20 summit following the overnight missile strike by a Russian-made rocket on Poland, in Nusa Dua, Indonesia November 16, 2022 . The G20 meetings are being held in Bali from November 15-16.
POOL/VIA REUTERS
Asked about France's offer to supply diesel-powered submarines to Australia, Macron said: "It is known, it is still on the table," adding that talks were ongoing on the modalities of a potential deal.
The deal, which according to media reports could lead to the delivery of four submarines, is seen as a possible consolation prize for France's defense industry after Canberra walked away from a much larger agreement on more advanced, and more strategically sensitive, nuclear-powered vessels.
Relations between the two Western allies reached a low last year when Australia canceled the multibillion-dollar deal and opted for nuclear submarines to be built with U.S. and British technology instead as part of a military pact known as AUKUS.
This summer, Macron agreed with newly elected Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese to move on and focus on "new projects," potentially including strategic partnerships on energy policy and defense cooperation.
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2022-11-17T16:55:44Z
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Macron: Conventional submarine deal with Australia 'still on the table' | Military | unionleader.com
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The charging port of a Volkswagen ID.4 electric sports utility vehicle (SUV) at the 2022 New York International Auto Show in New York on April 14, 2022.
Automakers have long relied on incentives to bolster the electric-vehicle market. With Republicans now set to take control of the U.S. House of Representatives next year, the industry isn't so sure it can count on those perks much longer.
The Republican takeover of the House could potentially imperil initiatives from EV credits to funding for charging stations passed in recent years by Democrats, who retained control of the U.S. Senate in last week's elections. Even if lawmakers don't actively undo incentives, they could still let some programs phase out.
Prominent conservative lawmakers who are likely to play outsized roles in national debates under the coming Republican-led House like Georgia Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene have derided the Biden administration's push to accelerate the transition to electric cars. In an October campaign appearance in Michigan, Greene accused Democrats of wanting to "emasculate the way we drive and force all of you to rely on electric vehicles."
Automakers are bracing for changes under a GOP-led House but aren't likely to overhaul their positions, industry leaders say, particularly as new EV plants and jobs garner increasing support from lawmakers on both sides of the aisle.
"I've been around long enough to know that elections can mean a shift in policy priorities in Washington and state capitals, but it won't fundamentally change the top automaker priorities: electrification, automation and connectivity," said John Bozzella, chief executive officer of the Alliance for Automotive Innovation, which represents companies such as Ford Motor Co., General Motors Co. and Honda Motor Co.
Charging stations. Since President Joe Biden took office, Congress has appropriated $7.5 billion for electric-car charging stations, down from an initial request of $15 billion. Carmakers argue more is likely to be needed to convince consumers to go electric, but the prospects of more money from a GOP Congress are unclear.
Consumer tax credits. Automakers have been pushing the federal government to ease restrictions that limit the $7,500 credits for consumer purchases. Under a new law, the credits are only applicable to cars where the battery materials are sourced from the U.S. and certain countries. Since China is a key provider of these materials, the industry is concerned that many of their U.S. car models won't qualify. Republicans have historically opposed the tax credits, arguing they're a giveaway for rich Tesla Inc. car buyers.
Used car incentives. Under a new law, used EVs -- at least cheap ones -- will qualify for the tax credit for the first time. A $4,000 credit for some cars will become available after Dec. 31 for buyers with income under certain thresholds. Also for the first time, starting in 2024, consumers who buy new or used clean vehicles at registered dealers would be allowed to receive discounts at the point of sale equal to the value of their credits. The tax credits are set to last for 10 years, unless new congressional leaders move to repeal them early.
EV cap. Under an old policy, only the first 200,000 EVs sold by a given manufacturer qualified for tax credits -- irking companies such as GM and Tesla, which had surpassed the limit. Beginning next year, their vehicles will be eligible again -- as long as they meet the new sourcing requirements. That could be undone if all or some of the Inflation Reduction Act is repealed.
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2022-11-17T22:22:47Z
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Automakers brace for GOP-led House to try to erode EV incentives | Business | unionleader.com
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By Will Dunham Reuters
Clary, who played strudel-baking French Cpl. Louis Lebeau on "Hogan's Heroes" during its six seasons from 1965 to 1971, died on Wednesday at his home in Los Angeles, his granddaughter told The Hollywood Reporter.
His character was one of the prisoners of war who outwitted their dimwitted German jailers and conducted espionage and sabotage to aid the Allied cause.
"Hogan's Heroes" starred Bob Crane as American Col. Robert Hogan, with Richard Dawson, Larry Hovis and Ivan Dixon playing other POWs. The main German characters were bumbling camp commandant Col. Klink, played by Werner Klemperer, and pliant guard Sgt. Schultz, played by John Banner. Both actors were Jews and had fled Europe because of the Nazis.
Clary performed on stage, in small film roles and in guest spots on TV before being cast in "Hogan's Heroes." His biggest film role was in director Robert Wise's "The Hindenburg" (1975), starring George C. Scott.
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2022-11-18T00:03:01Z
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Robert Clary, Holocaust survivor who starred in TV's 'Hogan's Heroes', dies at 96 | Back Page | unionleader.com
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City police are investigating an apparent stabbing that occurred Wednesday night in the area of Manchester and Lincoln streets.
The victim’s injuries were minor, and she was taken to a local hospital for treatment, police said.
“The victim was uncooperative and did not provide many details about the incident or the suspect,” Manchester police said in a statement.
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2022-11-18T00:03:07Z
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Manchester police investigate reported stabbing | Crime | unionleader.com
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New Hampshire House Democrats picked State Rep. Matt Wilhelm, D-Manchester, as their leader Thursday. He chaired the PAC that supported House Democratic candidates.
CONCORD — Manchester Democrat Matt Wilhelm became the House Democratic leader Thursday and called on Gov. Chris Sununu and Republican legislative leaders to treat his caucus as an equal partner.
During a closed-door caucus and secret ballot, Wilhelm defeated former House Speaker Stephen Shurtleff, D-Pembroke, by a vote of 108-85.
On Nov. 8, Wilhelm won his third term in the House. He now represents Wards 1, 3, 10, 11 and 12.
In 2022, Wilhelm chaired the Democratic Victory Campaign Committee, which raised a record $1.6 million in support of Democratic candidates.
Wilhelm ran with State Rep. Alexis Simpson, D-Exeter, who now will replace Wilhelm as chair of the Democratic political action committee.
Wilhelm said the House caucus would keep working on its policy agenda and prepare Democrats, whether they are in the minority or hold the majority after all House recounts are completed.
The current House makeup is 200 Republicans, 199 Democrats and one House recount that ended in a tie.
“We don’t know what the balance is going to be, but I think it is very clear Democrats are going to be taken seriously in the House,” Wilhelm told reporters after the vote.
“We are going to be the blockade for many extreme (pieces of) Republican legislation that’s coming through the State House.”
Wilhelm said he was optimistic the two parties could work together with the House almost equally divided.
Shurtleff said he spoke with Wilhelm after the vote and pledged his complete support.
“Matt is a good friend and I know he’ll do a great job as our Democratic leader,” Shurtleff said.
“He did a wonderful job as leader of our re-election effort. I know he’ll do as great as Democratic leader or as speaker, whatever it turns out to be.”
The friendly competition for this post was a generational one between Wilhelm, a relatively new Democrat, and Shurtleff, who won his 10th term and has been a leader in the party when Democrats were in the majority and the minority.
“I think there are barriers that exist for young people at the State House to serve. I am really grateful for this opportunity,” Wilhelm said.
House Republicans chose Speaker Sherman Packard, R-Londonderry, as their nominee for speaker during a closed caucus on Wednesday afternoon. No Republican opposed Sherman.
The full House will meet Dec. 7 on Organization Day and will select the speaker to preside for the next two years.
The House picked Sherman as its speaker in January 2021 after Speaker Dick Hinch, R-Merrimack, died a short time after being chosen.
Democratic leadership backed Wilhelm
Simpson said this will be an historic session.
“So many challenges lie before us, and, with them, so many opportunities to improve the lives of hardworking Granite Staters,” Simpson said in her own statement.
“I am filled with optimism and resolve at the work ahead, and a deep well of gratitude for those who helped get us to where we are today.”
Many in the existing House Democratic leadership went with Wilhelm in this race, including former Democratic Leader David Cote of Nashua, Deputy Democratic Leader Mary Jane Wallner of Concord and Democratic Leader Pro Tem Karen Ebel of Newbury.
On the eve of the vote, U.S. Rep. Chris Pappas, D-N.H., signaled his own support for the Wilhelm-Simpson ticket.
Democratic Party Chairman Raymond Buckley said the new leadership is prepared for the job.
“These are unprecedented times in the New Hampshire House, and they call for unprecedented leadership. I have no doubt that is exactly what Reps. Wilhelm and Simpson will bring to the table in their new roles,” Buckley said in a statement.
Wilhelm grew up in Nashua, graduated with a B.A. at Plymouth State and a Master’s degree from the University of New Hampshire’s Carsey School of Public Policy.
He spent a decade in the non-profit sector, joining City Year New Hampshire as an AmeriCorps team leader.
He and his wife, Jody have two young children, Ben and Rosie.
Wilhelm urged Sununu to work with Democrats when he prepares his next, two-year state budget plan in February.
In this campaign, House Democratic candidates ran aggressively against many provisions in the last state budget, including a ban on third-trimester abortions, taxpayer-paid tuition support for parents of parochial and religious school students and a ban on teaching about discrimination in public schools.
Stephen Shurtleff
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2022-11-18T00:03:13Z
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Manchester's Wilhelm to lead House Democrats | Voters First | unionleader.com
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https://www.unionleader.com/news/politics/voters/manchesters-wilhelm-to-lead-house-democrats/article_9ad85d19-d57d-5236-a913-c6326d24a55d.html
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House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., announces that she will remain in Congress but will not run for re-election to House leadership.
Pelosi stepping down from historic run of House leadership
WASHINGTON -- Nancy Pelosi is stepping down from her historic leadership position in the House of Representatives.
The only woman to serve as Speaker of the House, Pelosi showed an ability to pass major legislation, unite fractious fellow Democrats and challenge some of the world's most powerful men.
She presided over the House as it twice impeached Trump -- although he was acquitted by the Senate both times -- and warned of the imminent threat she said the businessman-turned-politician posed to American democracy. In 2020, Pelosi publicly ripped up a copy of Trump's final State of the Union address as she sat behind him in the House chamber.
"Health care under President Obama became our big issue and that will be the biggest thing that I've ever done in Congress," Pelosi told a small group of reporters after announcing her decision, referring to the 2010 Affordable Care Act, a law dubbed Obamacare.
Her successes led to years of villainization by conservatives, including when Trump supporters trying to overturn his 2020 election defeat stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, roaring "We want Nancy" and looting her office.
A politically motivated assailant echoed the "Where's Nancy?" chant as he entered her San Francisco home on Oct. 28 and used a hammer to attack her 82-year-old husband, Paul, who is expected to fully recover from a skull fracture.
A Capitol fixture
Pelosi has been a prominent figure in Congress over a tenure spanning seven presidential administrations. She first served as House speaker from 2007 to 2011, then regained the job in 2019 after her party took back control of the chamber in the 2018 midterm elections.
Many Republican candidates heading into the midterm elections ran ads attacking her and linking other Democrats to her. Her decision to step aside -- and that of Maryland Rep. Stenny Hoyer, who also announced his plans Thursday -- paved the way for a potential new generation of Democratic House leadership.
Man hit by truck suffers life-threatening; driver may have fled to NH, police say
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2022-11-18T00:03:25Z
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Pelosi stepping down from historic run of House leadership | National | unionleader.com
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Inside the new air cargo facility at Manchester-Boston Regional Airport are, from left, Vince Dugan, president, Traci Dugan, vice president of air cargo and Debra Mendonca, vice president of human resources for Trego-Dugan Aviation Cargo, as they talk about the new facility for Amazon deliveries at the Manchester-Boston Regional Airport.
Traci Dugan, vice president of air cargo for Trego-Dugan Aviation Cargo, talks about the new facility for Amazon deliveries at the Manchester-Boston Regional Airport. Trego-Dugan handles ground operations for Amazon at six other airports.
Amazon’s Prime Air Boeing 767s like this one will be delivering the packages to be processed at the new cargo facility at Manchester-Boston Regional Airport.
Vincent Dugan, president of Trego-Dugan Aviation Cargo, talks about the new facility for Amazon deliveries at the Manchester-Boston Regional Airport. Each Amazon Boeing 767-300 can carry 39 of the cargo containers to Dugan’s left.
An Amazon trailer sits at the loading dock at the new cargo facility at Manchester-Boston Regional Airport. Packages flown into MHT by Amazon's jets will be distributed to fulfillment centers around the state.
Amazon is the latest company to fly cargo to and from Manchester-Boston Regional Airport after leasing space in a new cargo building right off the runway.
The e-commerce giant — under the name Amazon Air — joins FedEx and UPS as major air cargo presences at the airport.
Amazon’s first Boeing 767-300 branded as “Prime Air” landed just after 12:30 a.m. Thursday from a hub at Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport. The plane arrived empty but left with a small amount of cargo as part of a test flight.
The plane, which will land daily around the same time, needs to be unloaded and loaded in two hours and 19 minutes, according to Traci Dugan, vice president of flight operations and cargo logistics for Trego-Dugan Aviation, a company hired for ground handling.
Amazon has two widebody aircraft parking spaces to load cargo in and out of the 55,000-square-foot leased building, according to Airport Director Ted Kitchens. Another 10,000 square feet remains vacant and can be leased to another operator. A third aircraft parking position is open, and another could be added.
“The planes pull right up to the building,” he said. The Amazon planes are operated by Atlas Air.
The Manchester airport announced in February 2021 it had signed a ground lease with Maryland-based Aeroterm to build the cargo facility, which will nearly double the airport’s cargo capacity. Amazon Air is the first tenant.
The building took the place of two “decrepit” hangars and an abandoned long-term parking lot, Kitchens said.
“It was costing us money,” he said. “It is now making us money.”
The building was completed in about 14 months, even with supply chain and construction delays, Kitchens said. The finishing touches are still being put on the building.
A $7.9 million federal grant and other funds helped build the new concrete apron around the building.
The only other airport at which Amazon Air operates in New England is Bradley International in Connecticut. Amazon Air launched in 2016 and operates in 35 airports across the U.S., “making two-day shipping possible almost anywhere in the country,” according to its website.
Other tenants have shown interest, but nothing has materialized, Kitchens said.
The building shows growth at the Manchester airport with older such distribution centers being built 20 or 30 years ago.
Dugan, along with her husband, company president Vincent Dugan, offered a tour of the space Thursday afternoon. The company has been in business for 50 years and increased its number of employees from 800 to 2,300 during the pandemic, she said.
Trego-Dugan operates at six other airports for Amazon in a partnership that started 18 months ago.
Vincent Dugan said the company invested $2 million in equipment.
The workers unload uniform loading devices — or “cans” for short — designed to fit perfectly within the fuselage of the 767. The planes hold 39 of them. The cargo needs to be loaded precisely to distribute the weight evenly, Traci Dugan said.
The company hired 125 people and expects to hire 25% to 45% more in the first quarter. About 60% are from Manchester.
The increased jobs will fuel the local economy, with workers living and shopping locally, Kitchens said.
Taylor Caswell, the state Business and Economic Affairs Commissioner, said the facility will allow New Hampshire to tie into a global e-commerce economy, which is expected to grow to $2.1 trillion in 2023, with 80% of cross-border e-commerce being transported by air.
The building can be expanded by about 36,000 square feet for a total of 100,000 in the future.
Increased cargo at the airport can help reduce operating costs at the airport and draw commercial carriers to operate out of the airport.
In 2020, the airport brought in a record number of cargo shipments totaling about 211.8 million pounds. The number dipped to about 206.9 million pounds in 2021.
As of September, the airport so far this year has processed about 143 million pounds, according to its website.
Amazon said the building will allow the company to deliver packages quickly and efficiently across New England.
“I think it is the location,” Kitchens said. “If you look at our location in New England, we provide easy access to Boston and also easy access up to northern New England and the Seacoast.”
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2022-11-18T01:43:39Z
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Amazon Air lands at MHT; new cargo facility has room to grow | Business | unionleader.com
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LOS ANGELES/WASHINGTON — Ticketmaster canceled ticket sales for Friday for singer Taylor Swift’s U.S. tour as fans complained about website crashes earlier in the week and a U.S. senator raised questions about the company’s dominance.
Ticket presales for Swift’s Eras tour in the United States — her first tour in five years — opened Tuesday. Fans who rushed to buy on the Ticketmaster website encountered long wait times and site outages, with many unable to obtain tickets.
Ticketmaster said in a tweet Thursday afternoon that it was canceling Friday’s public ticket sales due to “extraordinarily high demands on ticketing systems and insufficient remaining ticket inventory.” It was not immediately clear whether any more tickets would be sold.
In a letter to Ticketmaster parent Live Nation Entertainment Inc., Sen. Amy Klobuchar, chair of the Senate antitrust panel, voiced “serious concern about the state of competition in the ticketing industry and its harmful impact on consumers.”
“The biggest venues and artists turn to us because we have the leading ticketing technology in the world – that doesn’t mean it’s perfect, and clearly for Taylor’s ... it wasn’t,” the statement said. “But we’re always working to improve the ticket buying experience.”
Live Nation and Ticketmaster merged in a 2010 deal approved by the Justice Department. The government can challenge a completed merger but rarely does so. Klobuchar said she had been skeptical of the combination at the time.
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2022-11-18T01:43:45Z
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Taylor Swift ticket sales canceled as Ticketmaster faces scrutiny | Business | unionleader.com
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https://www.unionleader.com/news/business/taylor-swift-ticket-sales-canceled-as-ticketmaster-faces-scrutiny/article_a81259dc-c568-5a70-89fb-e5ba558670b5.html
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By Steve Gorman and Tyler Clifford Reuters
The white gunman accused of killing 10 Black people at a Buffalo, New York, supermarket in May intends to plead guilty to murder and all other state charges at a court hearing set for next week, a lawyer for some of the victims’ families said.
Connors said that there was no “plea agreement” with prosecutors. Instead, defense counsel notified Connors, a second victims’ attorney and the district attorney’s office three weeks ago that their client had decided to plead guilty, then met with a judge to set a change-of-plea hearing, according to Connors.
All parties to the case were precluded from discussing it until the hearing was posted on the court docket Thursday.
Daniel Dubois Connors, who represents Gendron, did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Reuters. The Erie County Prosecutor’s office would not comment about Monday’s hearing.
Gendron, who was 18 at the time of the killings, faces 25 state charges in total, including 10 counts of first-degree murder, 10 counts of second-degree murder as a hate crime and three counts of attempted murder as a hate crime. He initially pleaded not guilty to all counts in June.
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2022-11-18T01:43:52Z
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Suspect in Buffalo grocery shooting that killed 10 expected to plead guilty | Crime | unionleader.com
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https://www.unionleader.com/news/crime/suspect-in-buffalo-grocery-shooting-that-killed-10-expected-to-plead-guilty/article_3e2f7025-9efa-5b52-9bd5-bcf3063d547b.html
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Investigators from the New Hampshire State Police at the scene of a double-homicide in Gorham on April 27.
LANCASTER — A former Berlin man who is accused of shooting and killing two people in Gorham earlier this year will go on trial for their murders next fall.
Following a WebEx hearing Thursday morning in Coos County Superior Court, Judge Peter Bornstein issued an order for the trial of Craig Keville, 33, to begin after jury selection in September 2023.
Keville was indicted last month by a Coos County grand jury on two counts of first-degree murder for purposely causing the deaths of Holly Banks and Keith LaBelle by allegedly shooting them with a firearm and on two alternative counts of second-degree murder for recklessly causing their deaths. He waived arraignment Thursday.
Keville has until March 5 to file a notice of defense.
The grand jury also indicted Keville on three counts of allegedly falsifying physical evidence for disposing of a Ruger pistol, a soft handgun case, and a bill of sale; and on three misdemeanor charges of simple assault for allegedly causing unprivileged physical contact to Banks on April 26, 2022.
Banks, 28, was a mother of three children, while LaBelle was a father of four, according to their obituaries.
Associate Attorney General Jeffery A. Strelzin has said that Gorham police were notified of the situation and upon arriving at Banks’s residence in a multi-unit building at 623 Main St., discovered her and LaBelle dead inside.
At the time, Strelzin said Banks and LaBelle were not strangers, but he did not elaborate upon how they knew each other.
Documents that might answer that and other questions — foremost among them a one-page arrest warrant and a 19-page supplemental affidavit for arrest warrant — are sealed.
During an Oct. 18 evidentiary bail hearing before Bornstein, the state said it has a photo of Banks and LaBelle “sitting at the bar,” at an unnamed location and time, as well as photos of Keville with his hands “on the back of Holly Banks’ neck;” and of Keville “attempting to take Holly Banks’ phone from her.”
Additional photos, the document said, show Keville attempting to take Banks’s phone “from the bar top,” and of Banks’s hand “on Defendant’s chest holding him back.” There were photos of a “soft gun case,” and of a sale’s receipt for a Ruger 9E, of an instruction manual for Ruger SR pistols; and, finally, of a “9mm full metal jacket” bullet.
The state also said it had a male witness.
Citing the above, Bornstein in his subsequent order wrote that the state had met its burden of “providing by clear and convincing evidence that the defendant’s release will endanger the safety of the public. Accordingly, the defendant’s motion to modify bail is denied.”
The denial means that Keville will be continue to be held in pre-trial confinement at the Coos County House of Corrections.
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2022-11-18T01:43:58Z
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Suspect in Gorham double-murder scheduled for trial next fall | Crime | unionleader.com
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By Lindsey DeDario and Rich McKay Reuters
“The heavy stuff is expected to start by 10 p.m. (Thursday),” Jurkowski said. “It will be hard for the snow plows to even keep up with. It’s potentially paralyzing snow.”
While the storm isn’t expected to be one for the weather history books, Jurkowski said it could rank in the top five snow accumulations over the last 20 years.
In November 2014, a barrage of lake-effect snow deposited more than 5 feet of powder east of Buffalo but dropped just a few inches of snow a few miles to the north, according to the NWS, illustrating the highly localized nature of the phenomenon.
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul on Wednesday issued a state of emergency for the region in anticipation of the heavy snowfall. With blinding conditions expected, motorists were advised to stay off the roads starting late Thursday afternoon.
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2022-11-18T01:44:10Z
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Up to 4 feet of lake-effect snow may fall on Western New York, parts of Ohio | National | unionleader.com
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https://www.unionleader.com/news/national/up-to-4-feet-of-lake-effect-snow-may-fall-on-western-new-york-parts/article_c46f50bb-067b-52cc-b568-3f370804d2c8.html
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House Democratic Caucus Chair Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) speaks to reporters following a House Democratic Caucus meeting at the Capitol in Washington on Nov. 2, 2021. Jeffries is favorite to become the next leader of the House Democrats after Speaker Nancy Pelosi stepped down Thursday.
and Moira Warburton Reuters
WASHINGTON — House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s decision to step down from her leadership role after her fellow Democrats lost their majority in last week’s midterm elections positions Hakeem Jeffries — a liberal congressman from New York — as a likely top contender to lead the party for the next two years.
Jeffries, who has held the leadership post of House Democratic Caucus chairman since 2019, also would represent a stylistic contrast to Pelosi, who made her announcement Thursday. She has proven in two stints as speaker to be hard-charging whereas he is generally considered more reserved.
The post of minority leader wields far less clout than the speaker. The Democratic leadership team’s duty in the minority will be deciding if and when to help Republicans get essential legislation passed such as government funding bills, amid potential revolts from far-right Republicans.
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2022-11-18T01:44:16Z
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Hakeem Jeffries favored to lead U.S. House Democrats after Pelosi exit | National | unionleader.com
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https://www.unionleader.com/news/politics/national/hakeem-jeffries-favored-to-lead-u-s-house-democrats-after-pelosi-exit/article_165ab0a5-2010-5dd5-9b7b-4757c94cf97d.html
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“Our goal is to get it completed soon so we can get it to the printer,” Rep. Bennie Thompson told reporters. “We plan to have our product out sometime in December.”
Thompson has also appointed a subcommittee to investigate unanswered subpoenas for Trump and others, and whether to send transcripts of interviews to the Department of Justice.
The committee’s public hearings in which it questioned former Republican aides and key White House staff about the lead up to the riot shed light on Trump’s role in provoking the unprecedented assault on the Capitol. The riot was intended to stop Congress from certifying President Joe Biden’s 2020 win, which Trump falsely claims was the result of widespread fraud.
Trump this week launched a run for the White House in 2024.
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2022-11-18T01:44:22Z
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House probe of Jan. 6 U.S. Capitol riot releasing report next month | National | unionleader.com
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https://www.unionleader.com/news/politics/national/house-probe-of-jan-6-u-s-capitol-riot-releasing-report-next-month/article_f63523e7-bb4b-57a1-b652-eec47836a135.html
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https://www.unionleader.com/news/politics/national/house-probe-of-jan-6-u-s-capitol-riot-releasing-report-next-month/article_f63523e7-bb4b-57a1-b652-eec47836a135.html
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Mass. sports betting applications due Monday
At the end of an hours-long meeting Thursday where members of the Massachusetts Gaming Commission sifted through a mountain of sports betting regulations, Investigations and Enforcement Bureau Director Loretta Lillios said “all eyes” were focused on the Monday deadline.
The responses will be highly scrutinized by both commissioners and staff, and the commission’s Investigations and Enforcement Bureau will help lead commissioners through an effort to determine which applicants are suitable to establish themselves in Massachusetts’s brand-new market.
The three casinos — MGM Springfield, Plainridge Park Casino and Encore Boston Harbor — are expected to apply for a category one sports betting license, which, if they are approved, will allow them to offer in-person betting at their brick-and-mortar establishments.
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2022-11-18T01:44:53Z
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Mass. sports betting applications due Monday | Wire | unionleader.com
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https://www.unionleader.com/wire/region/mass-sports-betting-applications-due-monday/article_96f75d00-7344-55ef-8a1e-06d6e51ec846.html
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https://www.unionleader.com/wire/region/mass-sports-betting-applications-due-monday/article_96f75d00-7344-55ef-8a1e-06d6e51ec846.html
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Bedford at Timberlane (7 p.m.)
How well Timberlane can move the ball through the air will likely be the key factor in this game. If Timberlane quarterback Dom Coppeta has time to throw, it could be the end of the road for Bedford. Of course, the Owls will be facing the best defense in the state, and the Bulldogs haven’t allowed a point in their two playoff games. Bedford, 14-13.
Pinkerton at Londonderry (1 p.m.)
Londonderry was fortunate to get past Merrimack last weekend. Pinkerton, meanwhile, may have turned in its best performance of the season when it beat Bishop Guertin 14-12 on Friday night. There’s danger in putting too much emphasis on recent performance, but if the Astros play well, they should be in position to pull off the upset. Pinkerton, 20-17.
Souhegan vs. Pelham (1 p.m.)
It’s easy to make an argument for either team in this matchup. When in doubt, go with defense. Pelham, 21-14.
Last week: 4-4; 2022 record: 215-42
PELHAM HIGH SCHOOL defeated Souhegan 28-21 during the regular season. A rematch will take place Saturday (1 p.m.), when the Pythons and Sabers…
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2022-11-18T03:19:26Z
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Grid Picks: Taking Bedford, Pinkerton and Pelham | Sports | unionleader.com
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https://www.unionleader.com/sports/highschool/grid-picks-taking-bedford-pinkerton-and-pelham/article_6aa22d16-8455-56bc-90e9-eca14f6d1f2b.html
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https://www.unionleader.com/sports/highschool/grid-picks-taking-bedford-pinkerton-and-pelham/article_6aa22d16-8455-56bc-90e9-eca14f6d1f2b.html
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Souhegan quarterback Romy Jain passes during the Queen City Jamboree last season.
PELHAM HIGH SCHOOL defeated Souhegan 28-21 during the regular season. A rematch will take place Saturday (1 p.m.), when the Pythons and Sabers will compete in the Division II championship game at Bedford High School.
Scan the box score from the first game between these teams and one thing jumps out: Souhegan’s inability to move the ball on the ground.
Souhegan ran the ball 10 times for minus-6 yards that night. Souhegan’s JJ Bright, a 1,000-yard rusher, was held to 4 yards on five rushing attempts.
“I was certainly surprised at how ineffective we were at running the football,” Souhegan coach Robin Bowkett said. “I thought we’d be able to run the ball more.
“That’s what you need to do in New Hampshire football, and really football anywhere. Can you stop the run, can you run the football and can you win the turnover battle? We didn’t do any of those three the first time we played them.”
Top-seeded Pelham (11-0) ran for 217 yards on 51 carries in that first meeting, but also hurt the Sabers through the air. Pelham quarterback Jake Travis tossed two touchdown passes in the first half, a 26-yarder to Alex Carroll and a 40-yarder to Jake Cawthron.
Fourth-seeded Souhegan (10-1) made it a 21-21 game on a 40-yard TD pass from quarterback Romy Jain to Connor Cassidy plus Joe Bernasconi’s point-after kick, but Travis regained the lead for Pelham when he scored on a 3-yard run with 32 seconds to play.
“What I was impressed by was how dominant they were up front, especially on the defensive line,” Bowkett said. “They do such a great job of getting off the ball, getting off blocks and just being violent. You can make a case that’s how their defense is from the front seven to the back end. They were everything as advertised as far as what you saw on film.
“If we can establish the run a little bit more and stop the run a little bit better — especially on first down — that’s going to help us out a ton. And then just eliminate big plays. I think we’ve given up three, maybe four passing TDs all year, and two of them were in that first game against Pelham.”
Souhegan receiver Madux McGrath and Pelham fullback Ethan Demmons were the other offensive stars in that game. McGrath caught eight passes for 119 yards, and Demmons rushed for 119 yards on 24 carries.
Pelham, which won the Division III championship in 2020 and 2021, enters Saturday’s game with the state’s longest winning streak (29 games).
“Can we match their physicality in all three phases of the game?” Bowkett said. “I think if we can do that, then we have a great shot at winning the football game.”
Londonderry ended a 22-game losing streak against Pinkerton Academy in 2019, and the Lancers haven’t lost to the Astros since then. Londonderry has prevailed in the last six meetings, including a 31-6 victory in Londonderry earlier this season.
Pinkerton will have a chance to end that streak when it meets Londonderry in Saturday’s Division I semifinals in Londonderry.
Pinkerton coach Brian O’Reilly said turnovers have been a problem for the Astros in recent meetings between the teams. Fourth-seeded Pinkerton (10-1) turned the ball over three times (two fumbles) during their regular-season loss to top-seeded Londonderry (10-1) this year.
“And they all came at inopportune times,” O’Reilly said. “We have to stop turning the ball over when we play them. We also allowed a kickoff return for a touchdown, which feels like a turnover.”
The game features the No. 1 team (Londonderry) and No. 2 team (Pinkerton) in the Union Leader Power Poll.
“I thought we did some good things defensively in that game to cause them some problems,” Londonderry coach Jimmy Lauzon said. “At the same time, they did have some self-inflicted wounds. We had short fields and capitalized on it.
“I remember that feeling well. That’s how it used to be for us when (the series) was flipped.”
Pinkerton leads the overall series 35-14-0.
“They’re the defending state champs because they’re the complete package,” O’Reilly said. “Offense, defense, special teams. We’ll have to play well in all three phases.”
Sixth-seeded Timberlane (9-2) and 10th-seeded Bedford (8-3) will meet in the other Division I semifinal, which will be played tonight (7) in Plaistow.
Although the Owls are not a one-man team, Bedford coach Zach Matthews said the Bulldogs will have to do a good job defending Timberlane quarterback Dom Coppeta. In addition to being one of the state’s top passers, Coppeta is Timberlane’s leading rusher (134 carries for 659 yards).
Coppeta rallied his team from a 14-point deficit with seven minutes to play in last week’s 29-28 upset of Exeter. He scored from a yard away to pull the Owls within a point with 37.8 seconds remaining and then added the two-point conversion to complete the scoring.
He completed 8 of 11 passes for 193 yards and two touchdowns and also ran for 59 yards in the win.
“He’s willing to put that team on his back, and I would say that’s the biggest thing that impresses me when I watch him on film,” Matthews said. “The arm strength is evident. Sometimes when plays break down, it may not look traditional, but he makes it work and he makes a play for his team. He’s definitely the head of the snake.”
Timberlane wideout Jaden Mwangi has caught a team-high seven TD passes this season, including two in the quarterfinal victory over Exeter.
If Timberlane and Londonderry each prevail this weekend, the Division I championship game will feature last year’s Division II champion (Timberlane) and last year’s Division I champion (Londonderry).
“The thing that stands out about them is their resiliency,” Matthews said. “They believe in each other. You can tell they believe in their quarterback. They’re in situations where a lot of other teams would probably pack it in and call it a season and they just keep grinding and keep battling. You have to make sure you put them away because they’re not going to quit.”
The Joe Yukica Foundation’s annual Jeff Francoeur Huddle will be held Dec. 1 at the Falls Event Center, La Quinta Inn & Suites, 21 Front St. in Manchester. All NHIAA football coaches (all levels) and football officials are invited. You can register on the Yukica Foundation web site: https://www.joeyukicafootballfoundation.org/
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2022-11-18T03:19:32Z
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www.unionleader.com
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High School Football: Pelham, Souhegan will battle for Division II crown | Sports | unionleader.com
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https://www.unionleader.com/sports/highschool/high-school-football-pelham-souhegan-will-battle-for-division-ii-crown/article_bd590104-3762-59db-b6b0-ec0e59609767.html
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https://www.unionleader.com/sports/highschool/high-school-football-pelham-souhegan-will-battle-for-division-ii-crown/article_bd590104-3762-59db-b6b0-ec0e59609767.html
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— Ruth A., La Verne, California
DEAR HELOISE: We’ll be having overnight guests in December, so in the morning, I’ve planned a special breakfast that includes omelettes. Here is what I do:
— J.R.W., Dallas
DEAR HELOISE: : My husband died eight months ago, and to my surprise, he had no life insurance. We didn’t have much in our bank account, and I didn’t have a high paying job. I found a better job, which paid more, but it’s not like we’re getting rich.Now, whenever I make a purchase, I ask myself a few questions: How will this improve my life or that of my son? Is this purchase really necessary? Can I get it cheaper somewhere else? Can this purchase wait, or does it meet a current need? By turning my thinking to the practical side, I have saved us from making useless purchases and to celebrate Christmas more for what it signifies rather than gifts. We now avoid clutter and have learned how to make do. I believe we are better off for it.
— Lori T., Sioux Falls, SouthDakota
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2022-11-18T07:15:10Z
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www.unionleader.com
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Heloise: Coffee cans keep cookies fresh | Human Interest | unionleader.com
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https://www.unionleader.com/news/human_interest/heloise-coffee-cans-keep-cookies-fresh/article_9ef1e549-f399-57dd-a234-8aec35723492.html
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https://www.unionleader.com/news/human_interest/heloise-coffee-cans-keep-cookies-fresh/article_9ef1e549-f399-57dd-a234-8aec35723492.html
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Wallace, who was a Trump precursor, had a precursor. Huey Long, architect of a Louisiana police state, was America’s first dangerous demagogue of the era of mass communication, which dawned before television and social media: on radio. Long was Willie Stark in Robert Penn Warren’s 1946 roman à clef, “All the King’s Men.” In it, Warren’s protagonist is advised: “Make ’em cry, or make ’em laugh ... Or make ’em mad. Even mad at you. Just stir ’em up ... and they’ll love you and come back for more.”
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2022-11-18T07:15:16Z
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www.unionleader.com
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George F. Will: Now the GOP can repent for the Trump era by denying him the nomination | Columnists | unionleader.com
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https://www.unionleader.com/opinion/columnists/george-f-will-now-the-gop-can-repent-for-the-trump-era-by-denying-him/article_181cf309-7aaf-5832-af96-534b0834045a.html
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https://www.unionleader.com/opinion/columnists/george-f-will-now-the-gop-can-repent-for-the-trump-era-by-denying-him/article_181cf309-7aaf-5832-af96-534b0834045a.html
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To the Editor: I would like to share my thoughts about Don Bolduc and Robert Burns and the 2022 election results.
Mr. Bolduc’s message about no room for compromise on life would have been more appropriate coming from a priest rather than from a man who has spent his life in the military ... killing people. If he chooses to run again in the future, he might want to try a different message.
As for U.S. House candidate Robert Burns, he ran and he lost, now it is time for him to get over it.
RUDY BOURGET
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2022-11-18T07:15:47Z
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www.unionleader.com
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Letter: Post-election advice for Republicans who lost | Letters to the Editor | unionleader.com
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https://www.unionleader.com/opinion/letters_to_editor/letter-post-election-advice-for-republicans-who-lost/article_86840025-3807-5335-93a3-6fa07e462a13.html
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https://www.unionleader.com/opinion/letters_to_editor/letter-post-election-advice-for-republicans-who-lost/article_86840025-3807-5335-93a3-6fa07e462a13.html
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Christopher Nicolopoulos
Beyond the human cost, the number of insurance claims filed continues to rise, topping more than 622,000 claims reported as of last week, and estimated insured losses stand at more than $8.7 billion, according to our colleagues at the Florida Office of Insurance Regulation. By some estimates, Hurricane Ian is projected to cause more than $67 billion in insured losses. Without question, Florida’s property and casualty insurance market will take several years to recover.
However, while Hurricane Ian’s physical impact might be limited to Florida and other southern states, there are large and critically important lessons that Granite Staters should note as it relates to insurance.
Tip 1: This point may sound the simplest, but it is often the one most missed and truly the most important. Take the time to read and understand your insurance coverage when buying or renewing a policy. Start by making a list of the valuable assets in and around your home like large appliances, jewelry, fences, pools and patios. Many may assume all of these items are protected under their homeowners coverage, but some may not be covered.
Personally, we have received multiple inquiries from friends and family who own property in Florida who are reading their policies for the first time. They are understandably under great duress — in some cases having lost everything — and trying to understand what is and is not covered and how to go about the claims process.
Dedicating just a few minutes to reading your policies and working with your insurance agent can answer questions and help you to understand what your coverage provides and what it does not. It can inform decisions about your financial obligations and determine if any additional protections are needed.
It’s also important to understand what exclusions (a loss that your insurance company will not cover) are outlined in your policy. For instance, be sure to check what weather-related damage is or is not covered. In Florida, many residents were shocked to discover that their homeowners policy excluded damage from wind or damage to a roof. Similarly, homeowners policies will not provide coverage for flooding caused by natural disasters. Flood coverage for natural disasters is sold as a separate policy. Others found that their policy’s deductibles required them to first pay out out-of-pocket costs that far exceed their savings or rainy-day funds.
Tip 2: Ensure that you, your family and/or your business is adequately insured and that you are not cutting corners. In too many cases, residents of Florida gambled and went without flood insurance. When Hurricane Ian delivered record storm surges, that gamble led to tragedy.
Paying for adequate insurance can feel burdensome, but the cost of not having the needed coverage is simply not worth the risk.
Other residents had a basic homeowners policy but lacked coverage for exterior features not attached to the home, such as decks, screened-in patios, fences, sheds, porches or docks. When buying a policy, be sure that you extend coverage or get a separate policy to ensure those pricey structures are paid for if damaged.
Tip 3: Have a plan in place to properly file a claim prior to any incident. Calling your insurance company may not be the first thing you think to do after a fire, flood, or other unfortunate incident. However, it’s important to do so quickly, both for safety reasons and to get started on the claim process.
Be sure to document all damage and anything else that will form the basis of the claim. Take photos and/or videos detailing damage. This is especially important if immediate repairs are necessary to make the impacted area safe and habitable. Compile a list of damaged or destroyed possessions, along with their approximate value. This will be a lot faster if you’ve made a detailed home inventory of your possessions ahead of time.
The coming months will be a challenge for southwest Florida; we hope that out of their struggle will come lessons that can help Granite Staters be more comfortable with the terms of their insurance and ensure they are properly protected. Insurance is not a substitute for preparedness.
Christopher Nicolopoulos of Bow is commissioner of the state Department of Insurance. D.J. Bettencourt of Salem is the department’s deputy commissioner.
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2022-11-18T07:15:59Z
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www.unionleader.com
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Christopher Nicolopoulos & D.J. Bettencourt: Be prepared for disaster | Op-eds | unionleader.com
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https://www.unionleader.com/opinion/op-eds/christopher-nicolopoulos-d-j-bettencourt-be-prepared-for-disaster/article_dc345c29-8806-5e4b-a040-cbf993f5f1f7.html
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https://www.unionleader.com/opinion/op-eds/christopher-nicolopoulos-d-j-bettencourt-be-prepared-for-disaster/article_dc345c29-8806-5e4b-a040-cbf993f5f1f7.html
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WASHINGTON - Closing arguments are set to begin Friday morning in the seditious conspiracy trial of Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes and four other associates of the extremist group, capping the highest-profile prosecution to arise from the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.
The trial of Rhodes - a former Army paratrooper and Yale Law graduate who has become one of the most visible figures of the far-right anti-government movement - poses a major test of the Biden Justice Department's strategy of countering domestic terrorism and Attorney General Merrick Garland's vow to hold "all January 6th perpetrators, at any level, accountable under law."
Rhodes did not enter the Capitol that day. But prosecutors over a seven-week trial at a federal courthouse blocks from the riot scene accused him of plotting an "armed rebellion" to prevent the lawful transition of presidential power after the 2020 election, organizing followers to come to the Washington area prepared for violence and ready to die if President Donald Trump called on private military groups to help him hold power.
Rhodes and four co-defendants that day staged an "arsenal" of firearms in nearby Virginia and several seized the opportunity to forcibly breach the Capitol with a mob to prevent Congress from confirming President Biden's 2020 election victory "by any means necessary," Assistant U.S. Attorney Jeffrey S. Nestler said during the trial.
The defense accused prosecutors of treating Rhodes's "rhetorical" and "bombastic" statements as criminal. Rhodes himself testified that his only goal was to lawfully lobby Trump to invoke the Insurrection Act. He argued the president could legally call on the military and private military groups, overturn the election and keep power.
"All my effort was [aimed] at what Trump was going to do," Rhodes testified, adding that the group brought firearms as part of Oath Keepers' "standard operating procedure" for defensive purposes, or to be prepared for Trump to take lawful action.
Rhodes called it "stupid" and "off-mission" for co-defendants to enter the building. He said he had "nothing to do with" stockpiling of weapons, and asserted that his calls to resist federal authority were meant to apply after Biden took office, not to keep Trump in power.
Evidence at trial left unanswered whether Rhodes and accused co-conspirators acted independently of political actors. Rhodes and several charged followers were in contact with Trump post-election advisers who spent weeks making unfounded allegations of election fraud. Some served as security guards for longtime Trump political confidant Roger Stone, "Stop the Steal" organizer Ali Alexander, and former national security aide Michael Flynn, witnesses testified.
On the day networks declared the election for Biden, Nov. 7, 2020, Rhodes allegedly shared a text with Stone and others asking, "What's the plan?" He then shared an action plan with the same "Friends of Stone" group as well as with an Oath Keepers leadership group chat that included bullet-points from an anti-government uprising in Serbia that suggested storming its parliament.
"We aren't getting through this without a civil war. Too late for that. Prepare your mind, body, spirit," Rhodes told Oath Keepers at the time. He repeated the message in encrypted chats and open letters to Trump with mounting urgency. Even four days after Jan. 6, 2021, he told an alarmed intermediary, who recorded Rhodes and later assisted the FBI, that it was not too late to use paramilitary groups to stay in power by force.
On trial with Rhodes are Kelly Meggs, 53, an auto dealership manager from Dunnellon, Fla., who prosecutors described as the "Florida state lead" on Jan. 6; Kenneth Harrelson, 42, a medically discharged former Army sergeant and father of two from Titusville, Fla., who prosecutors called the "ground team lead"; Jessica Watkins, 39, another Army veteran and bartender and organizer from Woodstock, Ohio; and Thomas Caldwell, 68, a retired Navy intelligence officer from Berryville, Va.
All are accused of conspiring to engage in sedition, to obstruct Congress's affirmation of President Biden's victory and to impede lawmakers from performing their official duties on Jan. 6. The first two charges are punishable by up to 20 years in prison. Meggs, Harrelson and Watkins, who went into the Capitol, are also accused of damaging property, and all but Watkins are charged with destroying evidence. Four additional defendants indicted with the same group in January face a second trial next month.
All were among the first 11 defendants hit with the historically rare charge of seditious conspiracy in connection with the Capitol riot in January, punishable by up to 20 years in prison. Two co-defendants have pleaded guilty but did not testify in Rhodes's case. Five leaders of the right-wing group Proud Boys, including Henry "Enrique" Tarrio, were also charged with seditious conspiracy in connection with the Capitol breach in June and are scheduled for trial in December.
Meggs and Harrelson did not testify, but their attorneys argued that they helped police inside. Watkins on the stand apologized for interfering with police by yelling "Push!" with a mob trying to break through a line of officers blocking a hallway to the Senate, but said there was no plot to block a vote certification she thought was already completed or to oppose federal authority.
Caldwell testified that charges against him were a "great exaggeration." He likened his role to that of a "tour guide" for Oath Keepers and asserted that messages by him about staging and transporting "heavy weapons" across the Potomac River by boat were "creative writing." He said his statements on Jan. 6 were a "play-by-play" describing actions by others, not himself.
Watkins said she recruited her five-person Ohio State Regular Militia to join the Oath Keepers in late 2020 not to keep Trump in power by force but to protect Americans from "enforced vaccination" under President Biden and U.N. forces, or a Chinese invasion through Canada.
"There was talk of the Insurrection Act, but no one was taking it seriously. I would put it below the Chinese invading," said Watkins, explaining why immediately after Jan. 6 she texted co-conspirators about having a "bug-out" plan for Oath Keepers to retreat to the Kentucky hills to fight like the "NVA," or North Vietnamese Army.
Those two - former Florida Oath Keepers members Jason Dolan and Graydon Young - each admitted conspiring to obstruct Congress. They testified that they had a "common-sense" understanding or awareness that it was Rhodes's "commander's intent" to stop Congress from confirming Biden's election victory through armed combat if necessary, knowing that doing so would be treasonous.
"I participated in a conspiracy to obstruct Congress," Young said. "We were going to disrupt Congress, wherever they were meeting."
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2022-11-18T15:36:17Z
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www.unionleader.com
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Closing arguments to begin in Oath Keepers Jan. 6 seditious conspiracy trial | Crime | unionleader.com
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https://www.unionleader.com/news/crime/closing-arguments-to-begin-in-oath-keepers-jan-6-seditious-conspiracy-trial/article_94d54879-ac82-55f0-ad59-e6b5e9b2914e.html
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https://www.unionleader.com/news/crime/closing-arguments-to-begin-in-oath-keepers-jan-6-seditious-conspiracy-trial/article_94d54879-ac82-55f0-ad59-e6b5e9b2914e.html
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Members of the Newport News, Va., Police Department carry Newport News Officer Katie Thyne’s casket out of Immaculate Conception Church in Lowell, Mass., after the funeral Saturday, Feb. 1, 2020. Thyne, 24, a graduate of Alvirne High School in Hudson, was killed during a traffic stop.
Hudson memorial
A candlelight vigil was held at Alvirne High School’s athletic field Thursday evening in honor of Katie Thyne and Ryan Phaneuf.
Ryan Lessard/Union Leader Correspondent
Katie Thyne’s 2-year-old daughter, Raegan, kisses her mother’s coffin.
Katherine “Katie” Thyne joined the Newport News Police Department in 2018 after serving in the Navy.
A jury found Vernon Green II guilty of second-degree murder in the death of Katie Thyne, a Lowell, Massachusetts, native and a police officer with the Newport News, Virginia, Police Department, who was killed in the line of duty in January 2020.
Thyne's aunt, Cassie Thyne-Fenlon, of Lowell, was on hand throughout the trial, which started with jury selection on Tuesday. She described enduring an emotional roller coaster in the courtroom, which included feelings of anger, as well as tears.
Thyne-Fenlon said Green took the stand on Thursday in his own defense, which she described as his "last ditch effort" to sway the jury.
"He sat up there and he showed no remorse, and he actually chuckled a few times during questioning," Thyne-Fenlon said. "That was hard to watch."
"Yes, we're happy, but it doesn't bring Katie back," Thyne-Fenlon said. "We still have to deal with that every day for the rest of our lives."
"She was all the things we try to teach people in the academy," Newport News Police Chief Steve Drew said outside Thyne's wake at the Immaculate Conception Church in Lowell, days after her death. "You can't teach people how to care, empathy, understanding, compassion. But she had all that. She was raised right. She got it, and she cared about her community."
Hundreds of police officers from across the country came to Lowell to pay their respects during Thyne's funeral. She was buried in Lowell Cemetery, next to her father.
Katie Thyne left behind a daughter, Raegan, who Thyne-Fenlon said will be turning 5 in January. Thyne's large family lives in the Lowell and Nashua, N.H. area, including her mother, Tracy Maher, and brothers Tim, Jon and Braedyn Thyne.
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2022-11-18T15:36:23Z
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www.unionleader.com
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Man guilty in Va. death of rookie police officer Katie Thyne, who grew up in Hudson | Crime | unionleader.com
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https://www.unionleader.com/news/crime/man-guilty-in-va-death-of-rookie-police-officer-katie-thyne-who-grew-up-in/article_170e77ba-c271-5d5f-b453-415668108500.html
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https://www.unionleader.com/news/crime/man-guilty-in-va-death-of-rookie-police-officer-katie-thyne-who-grew-up-in/article_170e77ba-c271-5d5f-b453-415668108500.html
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Kayla Montgomery pleaded guilty to two counts of perjury on Friday afternoon and was sentenced to a year and a half in the state prison.
Montgomery, stepmother to Harmony Montgomery, the little girl presumed dead after going missing in 2019, acknowledged that she gave false testimony to a grand jury in May.
The grand jury was convened to further the investigation into Harmony’s disappearance.
When Montgomery testified, she said that she last saw Harmony when her husband Adam Montgomery, Harmony’s father, dropped her off at work for a 6 a.m. shift at a Dunkin’ Donuts in Goffstown two days after Thanksgiving in 2019 — Nov. 30.
But investigators later found that while Montgomery had previously worked at a Goffstown Dunkin Donuts, in November 2019 she was working at a Hooksett location, and her last day there had been Nov. 23, 2019.
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2022-11-18T20:41:29Z
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www.unionleader.com
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Kayla Montgomery pleads guilty to 2 counts of perjury | Courts | unionleader.com
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https://www.unionleader.com/news/courts/kayla-montgomery-pleads-guilty-to-2-counts-of-perjury/article_a576c269-79b4-5c2b-bbd8-39b02dfac416.html
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https://www.unionleader.com/news/courts/kayla-montgomery-pleads-guilty-to-2-counts-of-perjury/article_a576c269-79b4-5c2b-bbd8-39b02dfac416.html
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CONCORD -- A federal judge has sentenced Lisbon resident Dennis Michael Bousquet, 32, to 17 1/2 years in prison for production and distribution of images depicting child sexual abuse, federal prosecutors said.
“The sentence imposed on the defendant demonstrates the grievousness of his criminal conduct. Those who engage in such depraved actions will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law," said U.S. Attorney Jane Young, the top federal prosecutor in New Hampshire.
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2022-11-18T20:41:35Z
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www.unionleader.com
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Lisbon man sentenced to 17 1/2 years for child sexual abuse images | Courts | unionleader.com
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https://www.unionleader.com/news/courts/lisbon-man-sentenced-to-17-1-2-years-for-child-sexual-abuse-images/article_27b6783a-4d39-50b6-bb6a-84471b8edc08.html
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https://www.unionleader.com/news/courts/lisbon-man-sentenced-to-17-1-2-years-for-child-sexual-abuse-images/article_27b6783a-4d39-50b6-bb6a-84471b8edc08.html
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By Greg Farrell and Patricia Hurtado Bloomberg
Companies under criminal investigation often cut deals to lessen or avoid prosecution in exchange for paying a penalty and changing their conduct. But because the two Trump business units would have had to say their employees knowingly committed tax fraud, the boss wouldn't let them strike a plea deal with prosecutors, according to a person familiar with the decision who asked not to be named discussing a private matter.
The Manhattan district attorney's office alleges the two Trump companies ran a tax evasion scheme for more than a decade, showering executives including longtime chief financial officer Allen Weisselberg with perks -- like luxury apartments and private school tuition -- as compensation hidden from the government.
The defense says Weisselberg went rogue and the companies didn't benefit from his acts. Trump, who isn't charged, has called the case a baseless vendetta.
In opting to fight it out, the Trump companies risk conviction on the strongest charges the DA's office could muster -- and the public airing of the Trump Organization's inner workings in open court. And Trump runs those risks even as he runs for president, having entered the race on Tuesday.
But rolling the dice on a trial holds the possibility of a triumphant acquittal, an attractive prospect for the self-described fighter who calls the probes facing him and his business political maneuvers. The case is being prosecuted jointly by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg and New York Attorney General Letitia James. Trump, the Republican Party's most powerful figure, has branded it as "another witch hunt" by James, who like Bragg is a Democrat.
Trump spokesperson Taylor Budowich didn't respond to a text and phone call seeking comment on the case. Trump Organization lawyer Alan Garten didn't respond to an email. A spokesperson for Bragg had no comment.
"This is no small potatoes prosecution," given the claim that the defendants have flouted the law for years, said Bennett Gershman, a professor at Pace University's law school. If they are found guilty, he said, the Trump Organization itself could face "a host of intangibles."
"The parent company, as a felon, could be barred from having contracts with government agencies," Gershman said, "and it could make it more difficult to do business with banks."
"This is a big deal," he said.
If the jury does return a guilty verdict, the Trump Organization is likely to argue that it can't be held criminally accountable, as a whole, for the acts of the two subsidiaries.
And the fallout of a conviction might not be so severe, said Daniel R. Alonso, who was a chief assistant in the Manhattan DA's office and is now a partner at Buckley LLP. State law is weak in holding corporations criminally accountable, Alonso said.
Some convicted companies have been sentenced to meet a "conditional discharge," a series of requirements such as cleaning up compliance programs or accepting the imposition of a court-appointed monitor, Alonso said.
Trump has a decades-long history of legal combat. He began fighting the case when the DA's office issued a subpoena for his tax returns in 2019, and fought that information demand right up to the U.S. Supreme Court, where he lost.
The case has changed substantially since Bragg inherited it from his predecessor, Cyrus Vance Jr. The two lead prosecutors in the matter were planning to secure an indictment against Trump himself early this year. Bragg didn't believe they had a strong enough case against the former president. The two prosecutors resigned.
Graver threats hover over Trump. Aside from criminal probes over the Mar-a-Lago papers and efforts to overturn the 2020 election, the trial comes amid a $250 million civil suit against the Trump Organization by James. The AG claims Trump and three of his children inflated the value of the firm's assets and is seeking penalties including a permanent ban on the four running companies in the state.
As for reputation, marketing expert Allen Adamson sees no disadvantage to Trump's doing battle in front of a jury in Bragg's case. Quite the contrary.
"It's strengthening his brand to go through with the trial -- win, lose or draw," Adamson said. "There's no downside to fighting. Even if he loses, he pays a small fine, versus being put in an orange jumpsuit." Considering the larger legal threat Trump might have faced over the alleged activity, he said, "this is not even a blip."
One unusual aspect of the trial is the loyalty that some prosecution witnesses may feel to the Trump Organization. Weisselberg, the DA's star witness, pleaded guilty in August and agreed to testify truthfully in exchange for serving as few as 100 days in jail. But he is still drawing his full $640,000 salary and has worked for the family since 1973, starting with Trump's father, Fred Trump.
The controller's testimony occasioned a little drama earlier in the trial as well, when a prosecutor showed the jury a lease on an apartment for Weisselberg that the firm covered.
"Whose signature is that?" the prosecutor asked.
"President Trump," McConney said.
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2022-11-18T20:41:41Z
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www.unionleader.com
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Trump ordered his companies to fight criminal tax fraud case | Courts | unionleader.com
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https://www.unionleader.com/news/courts/trump-ordered-his-companies-to-fight-criminal-tax-fraud-case/article_1846f23e-321a-5ef3-8219-1ea579d800d5.html
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https://www.unionleader.com/news/courts/trump-ordered-his-companies-to-fight-criminal-tax-fraud-case/article_1846f23e-321a-5ef3-8219-1ea579d800d5.html
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Oath Keepers militia founder Stewart Rhodes poses during an interview session in Eureka, Montana, U.S. June 20, 2016. Picture taken June 20, 2016.
"Our democracy is fragile," Kathryn Rakoczy said. "It cannot exist without the rule of law, and it cannot survive if people who are dissatisfied with the result of an election can use force and violence to change the outcome. That is what these defendants attempted to do."
Her closing argument capped the highest-profile prosecution to arise from the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.
"Please do not become numb to these statements," she said. "This wasn't ranting and raving; this was deadly serious."
The trial of Rhodes - a former Army paratrooper and a Yale Law graduate who has become one of the most visible figures of the far-right anti-government movement - poses a major test of the Biden Justice Department's strategy of countering domestic terrorism and Attorney General Merrick Garland's vow to hold "all January 6th perpetrators, at any level, accountable under law."
Rhodes did not enter the Capitol that day. But at a federal courthouse blocks from the riot scene, prosecutors accused him of plotting an "armed rebellion" to prevent the lawful transition of presidential power after the 2020 election, organizing followers to come to the Washington area prepared for violence and ready to die if President Donald Trump called on private military groups to help him hold power.
"There were lawful ways to deal with election. There were protests. There were lawsuits," Rakoczy said. "But for these defendants, they felt that they were above the law."
The conspiracy was born of a "sense of entitlement, that led to frustration, followed by rage and then violence," she said.
Rhodes and four co-defendants that day staged an "arsenal" of firearms in nearby Virginia, and several seized the opportunity to forcibly breach the Capitol, Rakoczy said.
"There were riots, looting, arson, all over our country, the entirety of 2020," he said. The Oath Keepers "saw their country burning."
There were thousands of racial justice protests in the summer of 2020, and most were peaceful, but Bright focused on destructive incidents in Portland, Seattle and Washington, D.C. He said Rhodes "saw the White House being attacked" when Trump was taken to a basement bunker after a group of protesters hopped over barricades near the grounds.
Bright attributed the "inappropriate ... bombast" of the defendants to the stress of that year, frustrations that drive them into the "wormhole" of right-wing media.
"All my effort was [aimed] at what Trump was going to do," Rhodes testified, adding that the group brought firearms as part of Oath Keepers' "standard operating procedure" for defensive purposes, or to be prepared for Trump to take what they believed would be lawful action.
Rhodes called it "stupid" and "off-mission" for co-defendants to enter the building. He said that his calls to resist federal authority by force were intended to apply only if Trump left the White House without a fight.
"Mr. Rhodes told you in his own words that he was prepared to start a rebellion the day President Biden took office," she said.
Prosecutors urged jurors to view defendants' participation in the Capitol breach not as a spontaneous, stand-alone event, but as illegal action to further a wider plot proposed by Rhodes.
Rakoczy said defense claims that Rhodes didn't speak with those who entered the building before they moved up the Capitol steps contradicted each other. Noting that the group was filled with veterans and modeled on the military, she added: "Does it make sense that any of these people would go into the Capitol, breach the building, without first checking with the commander?"
Evidence at trial left unanswered whether Rhodes and accused co-conspirators acted independently of political actors. Rhodes and several charged followers were in contact with Trump post-election advisers who spent weeks making unfounded allegations of election fraud. Some served as security guards for longtime Trump political confidant Roger Stone, "Stop the Steal" organizer Ali Alexander and former national security aide Michael Flynn, witnesses testified, while Trump attorney Sidney Powell's nonprofit raised funds for their defense.
On the day networks declared the election for Biden, Nov. 7, 2020, Rhodes allegedly shared a text with Stone and others asking, "What's the plan?" He then shared an action plan with the same "Friends of Stone" group as well as with an Oath Keepers leadership group chat that suggested storming government buildings.
Rhodes sent the "civil war" text to Oath Keepers the same day. He repeated the message with mounting urgency in both encrypted chats and open letters to Trump. Even four days after Jan. 6, 2021, he told an alarmed intermediary - who recorded Rhodes and later assisted the FBI - that it was not too late to use paramilitary groups to stay in power by force.
On trial with Rhodes are Kelly Meggs, 53, an auto dealership manager from Dunnellon, Fla., who prosecutors described as the "Florida state lead" on Jan. 6; Kenneth Harrelson, 42, a former Army sergeant from Titusville, Fla., whom prosecutors called the "ground team lead"; Jessica Watkins, 39, another Army veteran and a bartender from Woodstock, Ohio; and Thomas Caldwell, 68, a retired Navy intelligence officer from Berryville, Va.
All are accused of conspiring to engage in sedition against the government and to obstruct Congress's affirmation of Biden's victory on Jan. 6. Those two charges are both punishable by up to 20 years in prison. Meggs, Harrelson and Watkins, who went into the Capitol, are also accused of damaging property, and all but Watkins are charged with destroying evidence. Four additional defendants indicted with the same group in January face a second trial next month.
All were among the first defendants hit with the historically rare charge of seditious conspiracy in connection with the Capitol riot in January. Two co-defendants have pleaded guilty but did not testify in Rhodes's case. Five leaders of the right-wing group Proud Boys, including Henry "Enrique" Tarrio, are also charged with seditious conspiracy in connection with the Capitol breach and scheduled for trial in December.
Meggs and Harrelson did not testify, but their attorneys argued that they helped police inside. Watkins on the stand apologized for interfering with police by yelling "Push!" with a mob trying to break through a line of officers blocking a hallway to the Senate, but said there was no plot to block a vote certification she thought was already completed. She said she joined the Oath Keepers in late 2020 not to keep Trump in power by force but to protect Americans from "enforced vaccination" or a Chinese invasion through Canada.
"There was talk of the Insurrection Act, but no one was taking it seriously," she testified. "I would put it below the Chinese invading."
Caldwell testified that charges against him were a "great exaggeration" and asserted that messages he sent about transporting and using firearms at the Capitol were "creative writing."
In her closing, Rakoczy called that testimony "patently absurd."
And she said it didn't matter that many of Rhodes's own statements echoed words of America's founders, including in the Declaration of Independence.
That was, she said, "a revolution against the government" - even if it was "a revolution that worked out well for us."
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2022-11-18T20:41:48Z
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www.unionleader.com
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'Democracy is fragile,' prosecutor says at close of Oath Keepers trial | Crime | unionleader.com
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https://www.unionleader.com/news/crime/democracy-is-fragile-prosecutor-says-at-close-of-oath-keepers-trial/article_94d54879-ac82-55f0-ad59-e6b5e9b2914e.html
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https://www.unionleader.com/news/crime/democracy-is-fragile-prosecutor-says-at-close-of-oath-keepers-trial/article_94d54879-ac82-55f0-ad59-e6b5e9b2914e.html
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U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland speaks about the FBI’s search warrant served at former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida during a statement at the U.S. Justice Department in Washington on August 11.
Attorney General Merrick Garland has named a special counsel to oversee the criminal investigation into former president Donald Trump's possible mishandling of classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago Club and residence, as well as key aspects of the Jan. 6 investigation, according to a senior Justice Department official.
The decision is expected to be announced Friday afternoon and comes just days after Trump formally declared himself a 2024 candidate for president.
Well before Trump's announcement, Justice Department officials discussed the possibility of appointing a special counsel to take over investigations involving Trump - such as the Mar-a-Lago case or the attempts to prevent Joe Biden from ascending to the presidency after the 2020 election - if Trump formally declared himself a candidate, people familiar with the matter have said.
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2022-11-18T20:42:00Z
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www.unionleader.com
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Garland to name special counsel for Trump Mar-a-Lago, 2020 election probes | National | unionleader.com
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https://www.unionleader.com/news/politics/national/garland-to-name-special-counsel-for-trump-mar-a-lago-2020-election-probes/article_6f7ae1ec-a921-57c4-a77c-c198ca4efbb0.html
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https://www.unionleader.com/news/politics/national/garland-to-name-special-counsel-for-trump-mar-a-lago-2020-election-probes/article_6f7ae1ec-a921-57c4-a77c-c198ca4efbb0.html
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By Babak Dehghanpisheh Special to The Washington Post
Hundreds of mourners gathered in southwest Iran on Friday for the funeral of 9-year-old Kian Pirfalak, whose family says he was killed by state security forces on Wednesday. He is believed to be the youngest victim of the bloody crackdown by Iran's government during two months of nationwide protests.
Iranian authorities have denied responsibility for Pirfalak's death, saying he was among seven people killed Wednesday by unidentified gunmen on motorcycles who opened fire on a bazaar in the city of Izeh.
"They shouldn't say it was terrorists, they're lying," Pirfalak's mother, Zeinab Molairad, told the crowd at his funeral. "The plainclothes [government] forces themselves shot my child."
The crowd responded with chants of "Death to Khamenei," a reference to Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran's supreme leader.
The killing of Pirfalak has added further fuel to a public uprising that has raged since mid-September, following the death of Mahsa Amini, a young Kurdish woman, in the custody of Iran's "morality police." As news of Pirfalak's death spread Thursday, a Farsi hashtag that translates to #child_killing_government began spreading across social media. Petitions were circulated online calling for nationwide protests on Friday.
Anti-government protests started in Izeh on Tuesday and continued into Wednesday, sparked by an online call to commemorate a previous round of demonstrations in 2019. One video on Wednesday showed protesters chanting, "This is the year of blood, seyed Ali will be overthrown," a reference to Khamenei. In another video overlooking the city, gunfire can clearly be heard.
" 'Dad, this time trust the police and go back, they want what's good for us,' " Molairad recalled Pirfalak telling his father. As they drove back toward the police, plainclothes officers opened fire, Molairad said: "They riddled the car with bullets!"
"I told the kids to get under the seats," she continued. "If I got shot myself it won't matter. My little one was underneath the dashboard. I don't know why [Kian] didn't go. He was chubby. He didn't go under the seat."
In a video from the scene Wednesday, Pirfalak's lifeless body is laid out on the ground as a woman screams and a man shouts, "This is the result of the Islamic Republic! This is the result of the Islamic Republic!"
The Washington Post could not independently confirm the family's version of events, though it was corroborated by activists and other media outlets. Another child, 14-year old Sepehr Maghsoudi, was also killed by government security forces that night, activists said.
"[The government's] only way is to unleash maximum violence," said Hadi Ghaemi, executive director of the Center for Human Rights in Iran, a New York-based advocacy group. "They still hope that there is enough intimidation to push people back."
Abdol Reza Saifi, the deputy governor of Khuzestan province, where Izeh is located, told the Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) on Thursday that military and police forces do not use "war weapons" and rely only on riot control techniques. But investigations by The Post, as well as other media and rights groups, have documented the apparent use of live ammunition by Iran's security forces.
Earlier this week, three protesters were sentenced to death in Tehran, Iran's judiciary reported on Wednesday. An additional protester was sentenced to death last weekend.
"The government is just refusing to understand the problem they're facing," said Tara Sepehri Far, an Iran researcher at Human Rights Watch.
Video clips showing a fire at the ancestral home in Iran of the Islamic Republic's late founder, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, have appeared on…
DUBAI, Nov 16 () - Iran's judiciary has sentenced three anti-government protesters in Tehran to death on various charges such as "corruption o…
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2022-11-18T20:42:06Z
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The killing of a 9-year-old boy further ignites Iran's anti-government protests | World | unionleader.com
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https://www.unionleader.com/news/world/the-killing-of-a-9-year-old-boy-further-ignites-irans-anti-government-protests/article_361e6bdc-b89c-52eb-a18f-419832c8ed8f.html
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https://www.unionleader.com/news/world/the-killing-of-a-9-year-old-boy-further-ignites-irans-anti-government-protests/article_361e6bdc-b89c-52eb-a18f-419832c8ed8f.html
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Tucked away in Lincoln, New Hampshire is an acre-sized Ice Castle. The castle is open for a few weeks in the winter and is illuminated at night, turning the ice into a light show. The castle features a small and large slides, a fountain, tunnels, towers and frozen thrones.
Michelle Williams/MassLive
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2022-11-18T20:42:12Z
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www.unionleader.com
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Ice Castles in New Hampshire to open with ice bar, snow tubing | Attractions | unionleader.com
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https://www.unionleader.com/nh/travel/attractions/ice-castles-in-new-hampshire-to-open-with-ice-bar-snow-tubing/article_baf9831c-69b5-501e-8118-961ebe68b64f.html
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https://www.unionleader.com/nh/travel/attractions/ice-castles-in-new-hampshire-to-open-with-ice-bar-snow-tubing/article_baf9831c-69b5-501e-8118-961ebe68b64f.html
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Homes in an Atlanta subdivision on Nov. 13, 2022.
Elijah Nouvelage/Bloomberg
Home sales have fallen every month since February, marking the longest string of declines in data back to 1999. The Federal Reserve's efforts to combat inflation through interest rates have fueled a rapid run-up in borrowing costs, crushing demand and pushing homeownership out of reach for many families.
"More potential homebuyers were squeezed out from qualifying for a mortgage in October as mortgage rates climbed higher," Lawrence Yun, NAR's chief economist said in a statement. "Mortgage rates have come down since peaking in mid-November, so home sales may be close to reaching the bottom in the current housing cycle."
Properties remained on the market for longer in October but are still moving at a swift pace when compared to the pre-pandemic housing market. Some 64% of homes sold were on the market for less than a month. Digging deeper:
First-time buyers made up 28% of purchases in October, a depressed level and down from a month earlier.
Cash sales represented 26% of total sales. Investors, who often purchase with cash and are therefore less sensitive to mortgage rates, made up 16% of the market.
Sales of single-family homes dropped 6.4% from a month earlier to the lowest level since May 2020, while existing condominium and co-op sales fell 2%.
Existing-home sales account for about 90% of U.S. housing and are calculated when a contract closes. New-home sales, which make up the remainder, are based on contract signings, and will be released next week.
Bloomberg's Chris Middleton and Augusta Saraiva contributed to this report.
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2022-11-18T22:56:50Z
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Existing-home sales fall for a record ninth straight month | Business | unionleader.com
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https://www.unionleader.com/news/business/existing-home-sales-fall-for-a-record-ninth-straight-month/article_1f6d7449-6ada-5c70-9121-3e52af047a76.html
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https://www.unionleader.com/news/business/existing-home-sales-fall-for-a-record-ninth-straight-month/article_1f6d7449-6ada-5c70-9121-3e52af047a76.html
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Plastic bags filled with marijuana are seen piled up inside a building after Spanish police seized the largest amount of marijuana discovered so far in the country, in this picture released on Friday.
SPANISH POLICE/HANDOUT VIA REUTERS
MADRID -- Spanish police said on Friday they caught over 55 tons of marijuana, the largest amount of the drug ever seized in the country and weighing more than an adult humpback whale.
Eight farms have been dismantled in the northeastern region of Catalonia and 20 people were detained on suspected electricity fraud and offenses against public health, police said in an statement.
In total, agents seized 55 tons of marijuana, with more than 187,000 plants and almost 21 tons of buds between June and October.
In June, the Spanish Tax Agency said, in reference to a different drugs operation, that cannabis was worth "between 2,300 euros ($2,290.80) and 2,500 euros per kilogram."
At that rate, 55 tons could have an estimated total worth that could reach $125 million euros.
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2022-11-18T22:57:03Z
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Spanish police make largest ever marijuana bust, seize 55 tons | Crime | unionleader.com
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https://www.unionleader.com/news/crime/spanish-police-make-largest-ever-marijuana-bust-seize-55-tons/article_d62fdfea-2688-52a9-ac94-67a845fbe8d0.html
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https://www.unionleader.com/news/crime/spanish-police-make-largest-ever-marijuana-bust-seize-55-tons/article_d62fdfea-2688-52a9-ac94-67a845fbe8d0.html
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Attorney General Merrick Garland has named a special counsel to oversee the criminal investigation into former president Donald Trump's possible mishandling of classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago Club and residence, as well as key aspects of the Jan. 6 investigation.
"Based on recent developments, including the former president's announcement that he is a candidate for president in the next election, and the sitting president's stated intention to be a candidate as well, I have concluded that it is in the public interest to appoint a special counsel," Garland said at a news conference at the Justice Department.
A special counsel appointment "is the right thing to do," the attorney general said. "The extraordinary circumstances presented here demand it. Mr. Smith is the right choice to complete these matters in an even-handed and urgent manner."
Well before Friday's announcement, Justice Department officials discussed the possibility of appointing a special counsel to take over investigations involving Trump -- such as the Mar-a-Lago case or the attempts to prevent Joe Biden from ascending to the presidency after the 2020 election -- if Trump formally declared himself a candidate, according to people familiar with the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss private deliberations.
Many other political candidates have been investigated while they ran for office without the appointment of a special counsel -- including Hillary Clinton, Trump's Democratic opponent in 2016. The FBI investigation into Clinton's use of a private email server for government matters was opened in mid-2015, continued throughout the primaries, was closed just before the nominating convention and then publicly reopened less than two weeks before Election Day.
Justice Department regulations say the attorney general "will" appoint a special counsel, essentially a prosecutor handpicked to tackle a particularly criminal investigation, if a case meets several criteria, specifically: that an investigation is warranted in a way that presents a conflict of interest for the Justice Department "or other extraordinary circumstances," and that under those circumstances "it would be in the public interest" to appoint a special counsel to handle the case.
Garland made that point earlier this year when asked at a Senate hearing why he had not appointed a special counsel to investigate Hunter Biden, the president's son, who is the focus of a long-running probe involving his business dealings and taxes.
"This is a fact and law determination in each case," Garland told the lawmakers, adding that special counsels "are also employees of the Justice Department" - meaning they still report to the attorney general.
Garland's decision to appoint a special counsel was first reported by the Wall Street Journal.
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2022-11-18T22:57:21Z
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www.unionleader.com
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AG Garland names special counsel for Trump Mar-a-Lago, 2020 election probes | National | unionleader.com
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https://www.unionleader.com/wire/national/ag-garland-names-special-counsel-for-trump-mar-a-lago-2020-election-probes/article_b43e1387-6ab9-5f28-b150-dc01c6da6e2a.html
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https://www.unionleader.com/wire/national/ag-garland-names-special-counsel-for-trump-mar-a-lago-2020-election-probes/article_b43e1387-6ab9-5f28-b150-dc01c6da6e2a.html
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William Emanuel, 54, and Teri Kneeland, 56, both of 28 Highland Ave., Hinsdale, were arrested by members of the state police SWAT team and the Attorney General’s Drug Task Force, according to a news release from the Attorney General’s Office.
After executing a search warrant of the home and a vehicle on the premises, officers found crack cocaine, marijuana, pills and cash, as well as knives, a machete and a sword, officials said.
Emanuel was charged with three counts of sale of a controlled drug (crack cocaine) and possession of a deadly weapon by a convicted felon.
Kneeland was charged with conspiracy to commit the sale of a controlled drug (crack cocaine) and possession of the same drug.
All the charges are felonies.
The arrest came after a three-month investigation by the Drug Task Force into alleged drug trafficking at that address, police said.
Both Emanuel and Kneeland were arraigned in Cheshire County Superior Court on Friday. Emanuel was ordered held on $5,000 cash bail, and Kneeland on $3,000 cash bail.
Police said additional charges in the case are expected.
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2022-11-19T01:02:55Z
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www.unionleader.com
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Police: SWAT raid finds drugs, cash and a machete in Hinsdale | Crime | unionleader.com
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https://www.unionleader.com/news/crime/police-swat-raid-finds-drugs-cash-and-a-machete-in-hinsdale/article_6f7afa95-f80c-53bd-80c3-8f1d6979079d.html
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https://www.unionleader.com/news/crime/police-swat-raid-finds-drugs-cash-and-a-machete-in-hinsdale/article_6f7afa95-f80c-53bd-80c3-8f1d6979079d.html
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North Korean leader Kim Jong Un pledged to counter U.S. nuclear threats with nuclear weapons as he inspected a test of the country's new intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), state media KCNA said on Saturday.
The missile flew nearly 621 miles for about 69 minutes and reached a maximum altitude of more than 3,700 miles, KCNA said. Japanese Defense Minister Yasukazu Hamada said the weapon could travel as far as 9,320 miles, enough to reach the continental United States.
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2022-11-19T01:03:01Z
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www.unionleader.com
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North Korea's Kim oversees ICBM test, vows more nuclear weapons | Wire | unionleader.com
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https://www.unionleader.com/wire/international/north-koreas-kim-oversees-icbm-test-vows-more-nuclear-weapons/article_fe645295-7469-57ae-b12d-3d2ce3a1c204.html
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https://www.unionleader.com/wire/international/north-koreas-kim-oversees-icbm-test-vows-more-nuclear-weapons/article_fe645295-7469-57ae-b12d-3d2ce3a1c204.html
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Christian Cummings was found guilty on Friday of negligent homicide in the death of his 1½-year-old daughter Kamryn.
DAVID LANE/UNION LEADER/file
Ted Lothstein, Cummings’s defense attorney, argued Kamryn Cummings died suddenly, attributing her death to the SIDS-like Sudden Unexplained Death in Childhood. He also cautioned that Hillsborough County prosecutors and medical experts can’t pinpoint what caused her death.
But in Hillsborough County Superior Court in Manchester, jurors sided with prosecutors, who argued Kamryn’s death was the result of a severe urinary tract infection and neglect.
“We’re disappointed in the verdict,” Lothstein said.
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2022-11-19T03:00:45Z
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www.unionleader.com
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Father found guilty of negligent homicide in death of daughter | Courts | unionleader.com
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https://www.unionleader.com/news/courts/father-found-guilty-of-negligent-homicide-in-death-of-daughter/article_83296354-968a-55a8-ac90-dc574aea25c9.html
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https://www.unionleader.com/news/courts/father-found-guilty-of-negligent-homicide-in-death-of-daughter/article_83296354-968a-55a8-ac90-dc574aea25c9.html
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DURHAM — NH GRANIT, a mapping agency for the state based at the University of New Hampshire, is receiving close to a million dollars from the N.H. Department of Business and Economic Affairs (BEA) to inventory and map statewide broadband coverage that is currently available as well as what is proposed for the state’s businesses, educators and citizens.
"Accurate and available mapping of where broadband exists in our state is crucial for the well-being of our citizens and businesses," said Taylor Caswell, BEA commissioner. "As the state continues to allocate resources toward these important projects, showing where broadband exists and, more importantly, where it needs to go, will guide us in future decisions and provide enhanced communication opportunities to our stakeholders."
NH GRANIT System is located at UNH’s Earth Systems Research Center and serves as the state geographic information system clearinghouse — creating, managing, analyzing and mapping all types of data.
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2022-11-19T03:00:51Z
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www.unionleader.com
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UNH to map current and planned broadband to improve coverage in Granite State | Education | unionleader.com
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https://www.unionleader.com/news/education/unh-to-map-current-and-planned-broadband-to-improve-coverage-in-granite-state/article_5ef29151-2c89-5fd1-9ac6-7513562c65f4.html
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https://www.unionleader.com/news/education/unh-to-map-current-and-planned-broadband-to-improve-coverage-in-granite-state/article_5ef29151-2c89-5fd1-9ac6-7513562c65f4.html
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Attorney General Merrick Garland speaks about the FBI’s search warrant served at former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida during a statement at the U.S. Justice Department in Washington on Aug. 11.
By Perry Stein and
Devlin Barrett The Washington Post
A special counsel appointment “is the right thing to do,” the attorney general said. “The extraordinary circumstances presented here demand it. Mr. Smith is the right choice to complete these matters in an even-handed and urgent manner.”
Justice Department regulations say the attorney general “will” appoint a special counsel, essentially a prosecutor handpicked to tackle a particular criminal investigation, if a case meets several criteria, specifically: that an investigation is warranted in a way that presents a conflict of interest for the Justice Department “or other extraordinary circumstances,” and that under those circumstances “it would be in the public interest” to appoint a special counsel to handle the case.
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2022-11-19T04:53:50Z
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www.unionleader.com
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AG Garland names special counsel for Trump Mar-a-Lago, 2020 election probes | National | unionleader.com
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https://www.unionleader.com/news/politics/national/ag-garland-names-special-counsel-for-trump-mar-a-lago-2020-election-probes/article_b43e1387-6ab9-5f28-b150-dc01c6da6e2a.html
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https://www.unionleader.com/news/politics/national/ag-garland-names-special-counsel-for-trump-mar-a-lago-2020-election-probes/article_b43e1387-6ab9-5f28-b150-dc01c6da6e2a.html
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The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved use of the drug, branded as Tzield, late on Thursday for delaying the onset of insulin-dependent type 1 diabetes, which is less common than type 2 of the disease, for people aged 8 years and more.
(Reporting by Raghav Mahobe and Nandhini Srinivasan in Bengaluru; Editing by Vinay Dwivedi)
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2022-11-19T11:04:14Z
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www.unionleader.com
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Provention Bio diabetes drug to cost $13,850 a vial | Health | unionleader.com
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https://www.unionleader.com/news/health/provention-bio-diabetes-drug-to-cost-13-850-a-vial/article_16d99b55-85b9-5fc2-b2cb-a4a7156a27f8.html
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https://www.unionleader.com/news/health/provention-bio-diabetes-drug-to-cost-13-850-a-vial/article_16d99b55-85b9-5fc2-b2cb-a4a7156a27f8.html
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By Heather Kelly and Chris Velazco The Washington Post
You're on an early winter hike with friends, following an unkempt "moderate" path you found on the AllTrails app. There's a dusting of snow on the ground, just enough to throw you off, and your group ends up lost. It's getting late, you aren't packed for an overnight stay and there's no cellular reception on anyone's phones.
If one person in your crew has an iPhone 14, there's a new way to call for help when off the grid. Starting Tuesday, a feature called Emergency SOS via satellite will allow users in trouble to send their location - plus short, explanatory messages - to emergency responders.
"There are people who think, 'Now I'm connected, now it doesn't matter where I go, how I go,' " says Sheriff Kevin Rambosk of Collier County, FL. "We still want you to have a plan, to let someone know what your plan it, and when you need this, use this."
More recently, satellite connectivity has come into vogue for smartphone software providers and wireless carriers. Over the summer, T-Mobile announced a partnership with SpaceX that would see the latter's next-generation Starlink satellites act as orbiting cell towers, allowing stranded customers to fire off emergency texts when needed. And days before Apple unveiled its satellite-friendly iPhones, Google senior vice president Hiroshi Lockheimer also confirmed that a future version of Android would support similar features.
Apple's new service is made possible by dozens of satellites in low Earth orbit, whizzing around the planet at around 15,000 miles per hour. Apple didn't actually put them there, though - it instead poured millions into Globalstar, a Louisiana-based communications company that launched its first satellites in the late 1990s.
If you have a compatible iPhone and you attempt to call 911 in an area without WiFi or cellular service, you'll see an option to send an "Emergency Text via Satellite" appear on-screen. Tap that, and the phone will ask you questions such as "What's the emergency?" and "Is anyone injured?"
Your answers - along with your precise location and your medical ID, if you've added one - are plucked from the ether by a Globalstar satellite and relayed to a ground station. If the appropriate emergency responders are equipped to receive calls for help via text message, they'll be alerted directly. But if they aren't, Apple routes the calls to third-party relay centers that include Apple employees. They collect your responses - and sometimes ask clarifying questions - and liaise with emergency services on your behalf.
For this process to work, you need a clear, unobstructed view of the sky, or as close to it as you can get (clouds are okay). Because those satellites are flying around at such high speeds, you will also occasionally need to point the iPhone at different parts of the sky to send or receive those emergency messages. The phone will tell you which way to position it. Rather than the seconds it usually takes to conduct a conversation via text message, messages sent via satellite can take many minutes to reach their destination.
Don't rely on Apple to save you
"It's providing an inflated sense of safety and security because you have this, even a little bit of hubris," says Chris Boyer, executive director for the National Association for Search and Rescue. "When you've got something in your pocket like this, I think people rely on it heavily and get a flawed risk assessment. That overconfidence can end in tragedy."
Boyer has worked in search and rescue operations, including being on teams in the field, since 1996. He applauds Apple adding the feature but thinks consumer education will be key to making sure it's making people safer. He also worries that suddenly expanding access could lead to an uptick in unnecessary calls. "Search and rescue is already pretty overwhelmed," he says.
"This is one of those features you're never going to think about or use until the one moment you need it." said Michael Martin, CEO of RapidSOS, which connects Apple's SOS data to nearby 911 centers.
RapidSOS's technology acts as a sort of translator for these types of private emergency calls and the public 911 hubs that answer them. It's been a long slog to update 911 infrastructure in the United States, and while advances have been made in recent years, many dispatch centers still cannot receive text messages directly from people in distress. Meanwhile, companies like Uber, SimpliSafe and Google are adding built-in buttons for reporting emergencies or using sensors and relying on RapidSOS.
Collier County's Sheriff Rambosk says private companies such as Apple investing in emergency technology can help advance public infrastructure. He thinks Apple's SOS feature could help his own department get more calls from people lost in the Everglades or stranded after hurricanes.
Apple is selling a promise of safety. It's also the latest tech company to tap into fear to market a product. Google's Nest, Amazon's Ring and other home security cameras have exploded in popularity, while neighbors use apps such as Nextdoor and Neighbors to trade information about the latest crimes or "suspicious" people. Citizen, a crowdsourced app for monitoring nearby crime and emergencies, has a $20 a month service called Protect that includes immediate access to an agent. (The Washington Post is owned by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos.)
Emergency SOS joins a line of Apple safety features that include the Apple Watch's fall detection and the iPhone 14's Crash Detection, which can tell when you've been in a car accident.
Satellite SOS could be more than another selling point for iPhones in the future. The chances of an iPhone user actually needing satellite SOS may be slim, but Apple hasn't publicly ruled out the idea of charging customers for that peace of mind. The company says the feature will be free for the first two years, and has not said what - or if - it could cost after that.
Whether or not Apple charges, the service could cost users. Garmin's InReach devices - satellite-equipped communication gadgets that can hold a charge for days, even up to a month - start at $14.95 a month for service. The company also offers insurance for $40 a year, to cover up to $100,000 in rescue costs.
"I've seen search and rescue helicopter invoices for $40,000, for fuel, rotary miles, crew, specialized equipment," said Kevin Stamps, a senior manager at Garmin Response. "It varies instant to instant."
How to try Apple's satellite SOS feature
Here's a way to try the satellite SOS feature without actually summoning emergency responders. For now, the feature can only be used by people in the United States and Canada with an iPhone 14 or 14 Pro model running the iOS 16.1 software.
Scroll down and select the "Demo mode" option.
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2022-11-19T11:04:20Z
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www.unionleader.com
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iPhone 14s now can send SOS via satellite. Use it carefully. | Science & Technology | unionleader.com
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https://www.unionleader.com/news/scitech/iphone-14s-now-can-send-sos-via-satellite-use-it-carefully/article_ed894898-254f-538d-9d01-2fd0c16767ca.html
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A tropical kingbird was found at Great Bay Farm in Greenland on Nov. 13. It was relocated in the early morning of the 14th, but has not been seen since then.
A cave swallow was seen at Woodmont Orchard in Hollis on Nov. 13.
Two black vultures were seen flying over Swasey Parkway in Exeter on Nov. 10, and about 15 turkey vultures were seen in scattered locations during the past week.
A golden eagle was seen flying south over Pack Monadnock on Nov. 11, and one was seen there on the 12th.
Six razorbills and two great shearwaters were seen offshore at Jeffrey’s Ledge on Nov. 9, and three razorbills and two great shearwaters were seen there on the 13th.
A male Eurasian wigeon continues to be seen in the southeast section of Great Bay and was last reported on Nov. 11.
A male American wigeon continues to be seen at Horseshoe Pond in Concord and was last reported in Nov. 13, and a female Northern pintail was seen there on the 11th.
A brant was seen in coastal Rye on Nov. 11.
A glaucous gull was seen at the Rochester Wastewater Plant on Nov. 14, and a lesser yellowlegs was seen there on the 10th. The treatment plant is gated and the hours of operation are 7:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. on weekdays. If you visit, please check in at the office and be out of the plant by 1:45 p.m. so that plant personnel do not have to ask birders to leave. Do not drive on the dikes and do not block the road. The Trails at Pickering Ponds, located east of the plant, are not gated, and are always open during daylight hours.
A yellow-breasted chat was seen at Odiorne Point State Park in Rye on Nov. 11.
An orange-crowned warbler was seen at Great Bay Wildlife Management Area in Greenland on Nov. 13.
A dickcissel was seen in Wildwood Cemetery in Seabrook on Nov. 13.
Six evening grosbeaks were seen in Holderness on Nov. 10; two were reported from Strafford on the 9th; and one was reported from Winchester on the 10th.
Four red crossbills were reported from Woodmont Orchard in Hollis on Nov. 8, and single birds were reported from Gilsum and Laconia during the past week.
A yellow-bellied flycatcher continued to be seen at a private residence in Portsmouth during the past week and was last reported on Nov. 9.
A lingering osprey was seen at Horseshoe Pond in Concord on Nov. 11.
A great egret was seen at Great Bay on Nov. 11.
Migrants are on the move and there have been several reports during the past week of: blue-headed vireo, ruby-crowned kinglet, yellow-bellied sapsucker, yellow warbler, nashville warbler, black-throated blue warbler, common yellowthroat, blackpoll warbler, palm warbler, pine warbler, yellow-rumped warbler, rose-breasted grosbeak, Baltimore oriole, gray catbird, marsh wren, hermit thrush, fox sparrow, Lincoln’s sparrow, white-crowned sparrow, and chipping sparrow.
There was an unconfirmed report of a snowy owl in Bethlehem on Nov. 9, and there was an unconfirmed report of two red-headed woodpeckers in Gilford on Nov. 10.
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2022-11-19T11:04:32Z
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Rare Bird Alert | Outdoors | unionleader.com
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https://www.unionleader.com/nh/outdoors/rare-bird-alert/article_9ec3627e-474d-567c-8a45-19f3bb092f7e.html
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https://www.unionleader.com/nh/outdoors/rare-bird-alert/article_9ec3627e-474d-567c-8a45-19f3bb092f7e.html
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By Carey L. Biron Thomson Reuters Foundation
"I felt it was computer-generated. And of course, computers – they're faulty," she told the Thomson Reuters Foundation, asking to be identified by only her first name.
City lawmakers are taking note. In September, they debated legislation to ban "discrimination by algorithms," including in housing – one of several efforts nationwide.
There are hundreds of tenant-screening tools available in the United States, supplanting a process traditionally undertaken by landlords, said Cynthia Khoo, a senior associate with Georgetown University's Center on Privacy & Technology.
Often data such as credit scores that seems objective is actually the result of decades of racism or marginalization – thus baking bias into the math, she said.
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2022-11-19T13:28:07Z
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U.S. renters fall foul of algorithms in search for a home | Homes & Garden | unionleader.com
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https://www.unionleader.com/news/homes/u-s-renters-fall-foul-of-algorithms-in-search-for-a-home/article_f18da6fc-c7d7-5363-babf-62fa6857dab5.html
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https://www.unionleader.com/news/homes/u-s-renters-fall-foul-of-algorithms-in-search-for-a-home/article_f18da6fc-c7d7-5363-babf-62fa6857dab5.html
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Bedford's Colby Snow, shown earlier this season against Windham, scored four touchdowns in the Bulldogs' 32-0 victory over Timberlane in a Division I semifinal on Friday night in Plaistow.
PLAISTOW -- If it wasn’t Bedford High School finest performance of the season, it certainly had to be close.
Timberlane has 19 seniors on its roster and Fitzgerald credited the senior class for playing a large role in turning the program around. After struggling in Division I, the Owls spent two years in Division II -- they won the Division II championship last season -- before returning to Division I this year.
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2022-11-19T15:38:51Z
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High school football: Bedford blanks Timberlane, rolls into Division I final | Sports | unionleader.com
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https://www.unionleader.com/sports/highschool/high-school-football-bedford-rolls-into-division-i-final/article_11c49bec-d03a-5b90-ad0b-d8f586ddf694.html
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https://www.unionleader.com/sports/highschool/high-school-football-bedford-rolls-into-division-i-final/article_11c49bec-d03a-5b90-ad0b-d8f586ddf694.html
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What defines Rock 'n Roll - and who still cares?
AS THINGS BECOME less important, they begin to lose their meaning. The qualities that define an idea or institution don’t really matter so much when the people who used to be passionate about it are too old and tired to even argue.
I’m talking about “The 2022 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony” (8 p.m. Saturday, HBO, TV-14). This year’s inductees include Pat Benatar, Duran Duran, Eminem, Eurythmics, Dolly Parton, Lionel Richie and Carly Simon.
Now, everybody loves Dolly Parton. Jeff Bezos loves her so much he just gave her $100 million to distribute to the charities of her choice, part of a message that he’s out to give most of his wealth away (and perhaps distract the world from the fact that he’s laying off more than 10,000 employees right around the holidays). But I digress.
What is Parton — or Lionel Richie, for that matter — doing in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame? They are both superstars and long-reigning hitmakers — but in different musical genres. Who could really define their music as rock ‘n’ roll? Does anybody still care about the definition of rock ‘n’ roll? Apparently not, and that’s the problem.
The mere fact that I raise this issue every year is a ghastly admission that I am old enough to care, or at least finicky enough to distinguish between a ceremony dedicated to a particular musical genre and a big corporate nothing-burger like “The 2022 American Music Awards” (8 p.m. Sunday, ABC, TV-14).
On the other hand, the notion that “real” rock ‘n’ roll only matters to cranky geezers may be why HBO broadcasts this ceremony, (held on Nov. 5) on a Saturday, the night that broadcasters have long consigned to an elderly audience.
• Speaking of vintage acts, Disney+ streams “Elton John Live: Farewell From Dodger Stadium.” The three-hour concert event will be livestreamed on Sunday at 11 p.m. EST. Hope some of Reggie’s East Coast fans can stay awake!
British-born John has a strong connection to Los Angeles. He secured his reputation as an arena rock superstar with a Dodger Stadium concert in 1975 and performed in that city’s clubs (most notably the Troubadour) before becoming a household name.
• Speaking of milestones, “Family Guy” (9:30 p.m. Sunday, Fox, TV-14) airs its 400th episode. And it remains true to form, sacrificing character consistency on the altar of cheap jokes about pop culture and adolescent asides about sex and body parts.
In this chapter, Peter addresses his weight with a radical surgical procedure that leaves him thinner, but with a grotesque amount of excess flesh, which he flaunts and flaps in his usual oblivious fashion. Meanwhile, Stewie learns a hard lesson about worshiping pop idols and the dark side of social media. This allows him and Brian the Dog to sermonize about the decline of popular culture, the same kind of jeremiads that used to be aimed at “Family Guy.”
• A new episode of “Bob’s Burgers” (9 p.m. Sunday, Fox, TV-PG) deserves some credit for actually paying attention to Thanksgiving, that speedbump of a holiday between Halloween and Christmas. And it doesn’t just focus on the big day, but explores the unstated truth that Thanksgiving largely consists of idle hours waiting for the big meal or recovering from eating too much food while surrounded by family in ways that may not always be comfortable.
In this episode, the Belchers take advantage of a coupon on its final day of redeemability and go to the local miniature golf range on the one day they can have the place to themselves. In addition to exploring the goofy visuals of the putt-putt paradise, the episode does a good job of showing how family members can be consumed with their own thoughts, worries and misgivings even while strenuously enduring “together time.”
Every time I watch “Burgers,” I am struck by how smart and generally genial it can be. But I don’t find myself laughing. Its characters are given to talking all the time, often over each other. Is this Altmanesque use of overlapping dialogue sophisticated, or is it just trying too hard?
• “Gabby Giffords Won’t Back Down” (9 p.m. Sunday, CNN) profiles the former Arizona congresswoman who survived an assassination attempt in 2011 to become a vocal activist for saner gun policies.
• The voices of Anna Kendrick and Justin Timberlake animate the 2016 musical “Trolls” (8 p.m., NBC, TV-PG).
• A jaded party planner rediscovers the spirit of the holidays when the Claus come out in the 2022 romantic comedy “Santa Bootcamp” (8 p.m., Lifetime, TV-G).
• A family emergency forces three brothers to care for an infant over the holidays in the 2022 romantic comedy “Three Wise Men and a Baby” (8 p.m., Hallmark, TV-G).
• Scheduled on “60 Minutes” (7:30 p.m., CBS): Protecting Ukraine’s vulnerable nuclear plant; soccer’s “Panini Sticker” phenomenon; prison inmates who train wild horses.
• The search for Coco continues on the series finale of “The Walking Dead” (8 p.m., AMC, TV-14).
• Beth has business in Salt Lake City on “Yellowstone” (8 p.m., CMT, Paramount, TV-MA).
• Camille enlists Valmont’s help on “Dangerous Liaisons” (8 p.m., Starz, TV-MA).
• A boy’s arrival challenges the family in unexpected ways on “The Waltons Thanksgiving” (8 p.m., CW, TV-PG). We are now far more removed in time from the original “Waltons” movie “The Homecoming: A Christmas Story” (1971) than it was from its Depression-era setting.
• The Los Angeles Chargers host the Kansas City Chiefs in NFL action (8:15 p.m., NBC).
• “Spector” (9 p.m., Showtime, TV-MA) explores the victim’s story.
• The missing chapter emerges on the finale of “Magpie Murders” on “Masterpiece” (9 p.m., PBS, TV-14, check local listings).
• Evidence points to infidelity on “The White Lotus” (9 p.m., HBO, TV-MA).
• An aging mob boss (Sylvester Stallone) has a difficult adjustment in “Tulsa King” (9:10 p.m., Paramount, TV-MA).
Catherine confronts a particularly grim case on “CSI: Vegas” (8 p.m., CBS, r, TV-14) ... “48 Hours” (9 p.m., CBS, r) ... A vintage helping of “Saturday Night Live” (10 p.m., NBC, r, TV-14).
Homer resents Grandpa’s change of attitude on “The Simpsons” (8 p.m., Fox, TV-PG) ... An overdose death sparks a vigilante spree on “The Equalizer” (8:30 p.m., CBS, TV-14) ... Beef gets a job with a tycoon on “The Great North” (8:30 p.m., Fox, TV-14).
An epidemic of overdoses on “East New York” (9:30 p.m., CBS, TV-14) ... The shallow end of the gene pool on “NCIS: Los Angeles” (10:30 p.m., CBS, TV-PG).
We asked readers to share their horrific and hilarious stories of Thanksgiving meals gone awry - and the results were as delicious as a golden-brown turkey (unlike the charred birds that featured in some readers' tales). From exploding oven doors to critter encounters (raccoons, squirrels an…
You're on an early winter hike with friends, following an unkempt "moderate" path you found on the AllTrails app. There's a dusting of snow on the ground, just enough to throw you off, and your group ends up lost. It's getting late, you aren't packed for an overnight stay and there's no cell…
DEAR ABBY: My strongest “love language” is physical touch. For 23 years, my husband gave hugs galore to any and every woman, but never to me. The word “never” is not an exaggeration. He has recently begun to change and try to be better. Now he does hug me as much as I want. But when he hugs …
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2022-11-19T15:38:57Z
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What defines Rock 'n Roll - and who still cares? | | unionleader.com
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https://www.unionleader.com/what-defines-rock-n-roll---and-who-still-cares/article_0729b9ca-cd91-590d-b9f7-f3f9a9d7cbde.html
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https://www.unionleader.com/what-defines-rock-n-roll---and-who-still-cares/article_0729b9ca-cd91-590d-b9f7-f3f9a9d7cbde.html
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UNH’s Ryan Black carries the puck during the Wildcats’ home opener against Boston College. Black scored a goal in UNH’s 4-2 loss to UMass on Friday night in Durham.
College hockey: As winless stretch continues, UNH stays optimistic
DURHAM — The University of New Hampshire men’s hockey team has more than a few reasons to play the could’ve, would’ve, should’ve game.
UNH (3-10-1, 0-9-1 Hockey East) would not have played four games in eight days last month, over which it went 1-3-0, if its original schedule did not change.
The Wildcats should have won their 2-2 home tie with then-No. 13 Providence College on Oct. 28 if officials ruled a near-goal shot in front made it into the net in the final seconds of regulation. Instead, officials ruled the other way.
UNH could have defeated No. 15 UMass at the Whittemore Center on Friday night if it maintained the pace and pressure it put on the Minutemen over the opening 20 minutes. UMass (6-5-1, 2-5-0 Hockey East) came back from a 2-0 first-intermission deficit to earn a 4-2 road win over the Wildcats, ending its five-game losing streak.
UNH coach Mike Souza said the team has resisted the temptation to feel sorry for itself and he has been pleased with its leaders over its current 0-8-1 stretch.
“I think losers have a tendency to conjugate in groups and that hasn’t been the case,” Souza said after Friday’s loss to UMass. “It’s been the complete opposite of that. These guys have (been) playing for each other. They practice hard. They want to win so bad and you want them to win so bad. It just hasn’t gone our way.
“As long as we stay together, I’m optimistic we can turn this around.”
The Minutemen notched three goals over the opening 6:24 of the second period and capped the game’s scoring with 4:14 left on a Ryan Lautenbach one-timer. David Fessenden made 21 saves for the Wildcats.
Four of UNH’s past six losses have been by two or fewer goals, including a 2-1 overtime loss at Vermont on Nov. 11.
The Wildcats have not scored more than two goals in a game since their 3-1 home non-conference triumph over Army West Point on Oct. 21.
Senior transfer Ryan Black, one of 12 new UNH players this season, said the Wildcats are not down and know what they are capable of.
“I just think it’s a long year and it’s a learning curve for all of us as a team,” said Black, who previously played at Division III Babson College, “and, hopefully, we can keep working, keep pounding the stone and turn it around. And then this will be experience for down the stretch — we get in those one-goal, two-goal games and we have a 2-0 lead. We know what we’ve done to let that slip and just need to make sure that we don’t let that happen again.”
Black, a forward, built UNH’s 2-0 lead over the Minutemen with 2:08 left in the first period, when he scored from the slot after a Nick Cafarelli offensive-zone faceoff win.
Wildcats freshman Cy LeClerc, a forward from Brentwood, opened the game’s scoring with 6:53 left in the first period with his top-shelf, power-play goal from the left wing side. Kalle Eriksson and Colton Huard assisted on the goal.
UNH is 2-for-16 on the power play over its last four games. The Wildcats went 0-for-6 on the man advantage in their 3-1 loss at No. 10 Harvard last Tuesday and 1-for-3 with 12 shots on goal against the Minutemen.
UNH created good movement and pestered UMass goaltender Luke Pavicich (35 saves) on its first power-play chance that came 5:04 into Friday’s game. With UNH trailing 3-2 with 7:15 remaining, Wildcats senior captain and forward Chase Stevenson hit the far post from the right circle on a power-play opportunity.
“The point of emphasis was function, not fashion,” Souza said of UNH’s power-play approach on Friday. “Went a little old school — kind of an umbrella, moved Cy and Colton onto their forehands so they’re attacking downhill to shoot. That’s how we scored Cy’s goal.”
Souza said he thought UNH showed its potential in the first period on Friday, calling it one of the team’s better periods in a long time.
The Wildcats outshot UMass, 20-5, had long offensive-zone possessions and created several scoring chances in the frame before LeClerc’s power-play tally.
“When we talked about it in the locker room, it was probably our best period of the year,” Black said. “I think going back and watching that, that’s something to build on — see what we did well in that period and try to emulate that and build off that.”
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2022-11-19T17:45:07Z
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www.unionleader.com
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College hockey: As winless stretch continues, UNH stays optimistic | College Sports | unionleader.com
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https://www.unionleader.com/sports/college/college-hockey-as-winless-stretch-continues-unh-stays-optimistic/article_79d9ac16-372a-5e6e-a651-581d1c945400.html
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https://www.unionleader.com/sports/college/college-hockey-as-winless-stretch-continues-unh-stays-optimistic/article_79d9ac16-372a-5e6e-a651-581d1c945400.html
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MANCHESTER — Kayla Montgomery will serve a year and a half in state prison after pleading guilty to two counts of perjury.
Montgomery, 32, is stepmother to Harmony Montgomery, the little girl presumed dead after going missing in 2019.
In pleading guilty at Hillsborough County Superior Court in Manchester on Friday, Montgomery acknowledged that prosecutors could have shown she gave false testimony to a grand jury in May about the details of when and where she last saw Harmony.
When Montgomery testified, she said she last saw Harmony when her husband, Adam Montgomery — Harmony’s father — dropped her off at work for a 6 a.m. shift at a Dunkin’ Donuts in Goffstown on Nov. 30, 2019, two days after Thanksgiving.
Kayla Montgomery had given the same account to Manchester police when she was interviewed on Dec. 28, 2021, just as Manchester police were opening the investigation into Harmony’s disappearance.
But investigators later found that while Kayla Montgomery had worked at a Goffstown Dunkin’ Donuts through September 2019, in November 2019 she was working at a Hooksett location and her last day there had been Nov. 23, 2019.
The plea agreement, negotiated over weeks between prosecutors and the attorney representing Montgomery, will see Montgomery serving a prison sentence for perjury charges while other charges related to alleged welfare fraud and receiving stolen property were dropped.
Since her arrest in January 2022, Montgomery has been caught between prosecutors’ intense interest in the fate of Harmony Montgomery, public vilification, and her private struggle with substance use.
Montgomery was released on bail over the summer, but jailed again after missing a September court date. Prosecutors said she had violated conditions of her release, after police found her with people who were using drugs. Police also said they received a report that she suffered an overdose while released on bail.
On Friday, Montgomery said she has been receiving medication-assisted treatment while in Valley Street jail.
The official sentence for perjury is between 3½ and 7 years in the New Hampshire State Prison, but Montgomery will receive time-served credit for the months she has spent in jail waiting for her trial, and other credits that mean she will end up serving about a year and a half in prison.
“She recognized the situation she was in,” said Montgomery’s defense attorney, Paul Garrity, speaking to reporters as a crush of television cameras pressed him against a mural in the courthouse hallway.
“She’s glad to put this part of the case behind her.”
Garrity declined to discuss what Montgomery’s role will be in the trial of Adam Montgomery, only saying that her plea agreement will require her to cooperate with prosecutors in her estranged husband’s case.
Garrity said it was not yet clear to him if the date when Kayla Montgomery said she was working and which Dunkin’ location she worked at when she last saw Harmony were material in the case of the girl’s disappearance and death.
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2022-11-19T19:38:46Z
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www.unionleader.com
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Kayla Montgomery pleads guilty to 2 counts of perjury | Courts | unionleader.com
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https://www.unionleader.com/news/courts/kayla-montgomery-pleads-guilty-to-2-counts-of-perjury/article_7bb06ae8-e2a7-5a1f-8524-1e7f27839fd5.html
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https://www.unionleader.com/news/courts/kayla-montgomery-pleads-guilty-to-2-counts-of-perjury/article_7bb06ae8-e2a7-5a1f-8524-1e7f27839fd5.html
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Climate activists take part in a protest, during the COP27 climate summit, in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, on Saturday.
By Kate Abnett, Shadia Nasralla and Gloria Dickie Reuters
SHARM EL-SHEIKH, Egypt -- Negotiators at the COP27 climate summit in Egypt neared a breakthrough deal on Saturday for a fund to help poor countries being ravaged by the impacts of global warming, but remained locked over how to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions driving them.
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2022-11-19T21:36:18Z
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www.unionleader.com
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COP27 nears breakthrough on climate finance in scramble for final deal | Politics | unionleader.com
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https://www.unionleader.com/news/politics/cop27-nears-breakthrough-on-climate-finance-in-scramble-for-final-deal/article_e5804635-61ff-59eb-8205-ba9cf2360aff.html
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https://www.unionleader.com/news/politics/cop27-nears-breakthrough-on-climate-finance-in-scramble-for-final-deal/article_e5804635-61ff-59eb-8205-ba9cf2360aff.html
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Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes, center, arrives Friday with her family and partner Billy Evans to be sentenced on her convictions for defrauding investors.
By Jody Godoy and Dan Levine Reuters
SAN JOSE, Calif. -- A federal judge on Friday sentenced Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes to 11 years and three months in prison for defrauding investors in her now-defunct blood-testing startup that was once valued at $9 billion.
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2022-11-19T23:25:02Z
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www.unionleader.com
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Elizabeth Holmes sentenced to more than 11 years in prison for Theranos fraud | Business | unionleader.com
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https://www.unionleader.com/news/business/elizabeth-holmes-sentenced-to-more-than-11-years-in-prison-for-theranos-fraud/article_40827e30-1d76-5f6a-b9a4-9da5997ef306.html
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The U.S. Supreme Court building in Washington is seen on June 26.
and Laura Sanicola Reuters
WASHINGTON — A New York Times report of a former anti-abortion leader’s claim that he was told in advance about the outcome of a major 2014 U.S. Supreme Court case involving contraceptives triggered calls on Saturday for an investigation of a court still reeling from the leak of a landmark abortion rights ruling.
“Today’s well-sourced NY Times article strongly suggests Justice Alito leaked the 2014 opinion in Hobby Lobby, and describes a conspiracy by the far-right donor class to influence the Supreme Court Justices,” U.S. Rep. Mondaire Jones, a Democrat from New York, wrote on Twitter. “The House Judiciary Committee must investigate this while we still can.”
“The first step to recovery is to admit you have a problem. At SCOTUS, the problems run deep,” Democratic U.S. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island wrote on Twitter.
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2022-11-19T23:25:14Z
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Report of second major U.S. Supreme Court leak draws calls for probe | Courts | unionleader.com
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https://www.unionleader.com/news/courts/report-of-second-major-u-s-supreme-court-leak-draws-calls-for-probe/article_cc14228f-5a48-592d-82e9-6d3872eee960.html
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North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, along with his daughter, walks away from an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) in this undated photo released on Saturday by North Korea’s Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).
The isolated country tested the Hwasong-17 ICBM on Friday a day after warning of “fiercer military responses” to Washington beefing up its regional security presence, including nuclear assets.
The launch of the Hwasong-17 was part of the North’s “top-priority defense-building strategy” aimed at establishing “the most powerful and absolute nuclear deterrence,” KCNA said, calling it “the strongest strategic weapon in the world.”
The missile flew nearly 621 miles for about 69 minutes and reached a maximum altitude of 3753 miles, KCNA said. Japanese Defense Minister Yasukazu Hamada said the weapon could travel as far as 9,320 miles, enough to reach the continental United States.
“The more the U.S. imperialists make a military bluffing ... while being engrossed in ‘strengthened offer of extended deterrence’ to their allies and war exercises, the more offensive the DPRK’s military counteraction will be.”
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2022-11-19T23:25:20Z
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North Korea's Kim oversees ICBM test, vows more nuclear weapons | Military | unionleader.com
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https://www.unionleader.com/news/military/north-koreas-kim-oversees-icbm-test-vows-more-nuclear-weapons/article_fe645295-7469-57ae-b12d-3d2ce3a1c204.html
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Attorney General Merrick Garland announces that he is appointing Jack Smith as a special counsel for the investigations of former President Donald Trump, while speaking to the news media in the briefing room of the Justice Department in Washington on Friday.
WASHINGTON -- Attorney General Merrick Garland on Friday named Jack Smith, a war crimes prosecutor, to serve as special counsel to oversee Justice Department investigations related to Donald Trump including the former president's handling of sensitive documents and efforts to overturn the 2020 election.
Garland's announcement came three days after Trump, a Republican, announced he would run for president again in 2024. Garland said Trump's candidacy, as well as Democratic President Biden's stated intention to run for reelection, made the appointment of a special counsel necessary.
"This horrendous abuse of power is the latest in a long series of witch hunts that started a long time ago," he told a crowd of supporters at a black-tie event at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida.
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2022-11-19T23:25:26Z
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Justice Dept. names war crimes expert as special counsel for Trump probes | National | unionleader.com
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https://www.unionleader.com/news/politics/national/justice-dept-names-war-crimes-expert-as-special-counsel-for-trump-probes/article_ac979e98-66ad-5c87-aa9a-05421aa451a7.html
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https://www.unionleader.com/news/politics/national/justice-dept-names-war-crimes-expert-as-special-counsel-for-trump-probes/article_ac979e98-66ad-5c87-aa9a-05421aa451a7.html
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UNH head coach Rick Santos, shown getting the crowd pumped up during the Oct. 22 Elon game in Durham, has his Wildcats on the cusp of an FCS playoff berth. The selection show is Sunday at 12:30 p.m.
The University of New Hampshire has been playing meaningful football in November, and it appears the Wildcats will be playing postseason football in November as well.
UNH wrapped up its regular season with a 42-41 road victory over rival Maine in overtime Saturday, and likely earned a bid to the FCS playoffs by doing so.
The game ended when the Wildcats stopped Maine when the Black Bears elected to go for two points — and the victory — following their touchdown in overtime.
It was 35-35 at the end of regulation, but UNH (8-3 overall, 7-1 Colonial Athletic Association) took a 42-35 lead when tight end Kyle Lepkowski caught a 4-yard pass from quarterback Max Brosmer and Nick Mazzie added the point-after kick.
Maine (2-9, 2-6) pulled within a point on a 19-yard TD pass from quarterback Joe Fagnano to Rohan Jones. Fagnano’s pass on the conversion attempt was intercepted by linebacker Bryce Shaw.
“First and foremost I think it’s a great call by Jordan (Maine coach Jordan Stevens) to go for two in that situation,” UNH coach Rick Santos said. “Had the momentum. I would have done the same thing. … That was the right call by him.
“Cardiac ‘Cats. Find a way to get it done at the end. We talked about our core values this year being effort, accountability and toughness. Obviously the physical aspect of it, but I think more importantly what we’ve shown the last three games is mental toughness. When the game’s on the line we find a way to make big plays. That’s what I’m most proud of.”
UNH and William & Mary finished as CAA co-champions, but William & Mary will receive the CAA’s automatic bid to the FCS playoffs because it won the tiebreaker against UNH, which is point differential in conference games. The teams did not meet in the regular season.
The victory over Maine put UNH in good position to receive an at-large bid, however. The FCS playoff selection show will air today (12:30 p.m.) on ESPNU.
UNH led 7-0 after one quarter, 21-14 at halftime and 28-21 entering the fourth. Maine tied the game, 35-35, on Elijah’s Barnwell’s 2-yard TD run plus Cole Baker’s PAT with 3:11 to play.
UNH running back Dylan Laube ran for 190 yards and three touchdowns on 30 carries. Quarterback Max Brosmer completed 14 of 23 passes for 247 yards and three TDs. D.J. Linkins and Adam Deese had the other TD receptions.
“I gotta thank the (offensive) line,” Laube said. “It was a great game. It was fun to play in.”
“I thought the offensive line did a phenomenal job all game,” Santos added. “We had a lot of confidence going into that overtime setting.”
Maine rushed for 336 yards in the loss. Barnwell ran for 143 yards and five touchdowns on 20 attempts.
UNH linebacker Ryan Toscano of Bedford recorded a game-high 14 tackles, six of which were solo stops. Defensive end Dylan Ruiz made 11 tackles.
UNH will now play the waiting game regarding its postseason plans.
“All year I think we’ve practiced extremely well,” Santos said. “There’s no secret sauce. If we win Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday we have an opportunity to play well on Saturday.
“At the end of the day it’s all about making the big plays in the biggest moments, and they were able to get that done.”
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2022-11-20T01:09:36Z
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College football: UNH beats Maine in overtime, awaits FCS selection | College Sports | unionleader.com
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https://www.unionleader.com/sports/college/college-football-unh-beats-maine-in-overtime-awaits-fcs-selection/article_3465d6fd-e4a0-5746-bdae-49af347a523e.html
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https://www.unionleader.com/sports/college/college-football-unh-beats-maine-in-overtime-awaits-fcs-selection/article_3465d6fd-e4a0-5746-bdae-49af347a523e.html
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Closing the Deal: People come and go, so be prepared
According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the average person stays in their job for 4.1 years. The days of people staying with the same company for their entire career are long gone. People are always looking for new opportunities and ways to grow. And when those opportunities present themselves, most will at least explore it.
Early in my career, the manager who hired me for a technology sales role took me under his wing and helped me navigate the politics, people and processes within a large company. He helped me position myself for growth and promotions, and I credit him with helping me launch a successful career in sales. But then something I didn’t expect to ever happen, happened. He left the company.
I remember feeling concerned about my future with the company. I wondered if my professional reputation and future opportunities within the company would be negatively impacted by his departure. After all, he was my biggest advocate, put his name on me, and now he was no longer there. I was on my own.
I realized quickly that I had depended heavily on him and hadn’t really done a good job exposing myself to other people and teams within the company. This was a powerful lesson that taught me the importance of building relationships and selling yourself internally. Whenever I see people falling into this trap, I ask a simple question. If your boss left the company today, who would be your greatest advocate within the organization? In most cases, people struggle to answer that question.
You never want to be in a position where your career is dependent on one person. Here are a few suggestions on how you can market yourself internally and be in a position to prosper, regardless of who comes and goes.
Sell up
How much interaction do you have with the leadership team above your direct manager? If the answer is none, you should be concerned. Don’t get blocked and stuck funneling everything through your direct manager. There is a reporting structure and chain of command for a reason. However, that doesn’t mean you can’t get exposure to higher levels of leadership in other ways. Look for opportunities to include upper management in discussions and find ways to get your name in front of people you don’t interact with on a regular basis.
Engage other departments
It’s common to get siloed and only focus on what is happening within your specific department or team. Make sure you are finding ways to interact with other departments and build relationships with people who you may not have exposure to. I always take the approach of reaching out to learn about what people do and offer to help with challenges you may be aware of. Think of it like you’re selling to multiple people who may not be decision makers, but are part of a broader consensus team.
Regardless of how many relationships you have within your organization and how well respected you are, someone new could take over tomorrow, get rid of the existing team you’re on and bring in their own people. That’s the harsh reality of business and trust me, I’ve seen it happen many times. It’s a concerning thought, but something we should all be prepared for. Always remember, nobody looks out for you better than you.
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2022-11-20T02:50:02Z
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www.unionleader.com
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Closing the Deal: People come and go, so be prepared | Business | unionleader.com
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https://www.unionleader.com/news/business/columns/closing-the-deal-people-come-and-go-so-be-prepared/article_92795780-562e-5c3a-999d-0dc4a12eeaf1.html
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https://www.unionleader.com/news/business/columns/closing-the-deal-people-come-and-go-so-be-prepared/article_92795780-562e-5c3a-999d-0dc4a12eeaf1.html
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'Your Money': Estate tax exemption increases, but for how long?
THE THRESHOLD FOR federal estate taxes is increasing for 2023. As a reminder, the IRS states that an estate tax is “a tax on your right to transfer property at your death. It consists of an accounting of everything you own or have certain interests in at the date of death” (tinyurl.com/emrfa5jv).
According to the IRS, the estates of those who die in 2023 will have a basic exclusion amount (BEA) of $12.92 million (also known as the filing threshold). That means those estates whose value is below $12.92 million are free from estate taxes. The BEA is up from $12.06 million for deaths occurring in calendar year 2022.
To see what we might expect in the future, we need to go back in history for a moment, to the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) of 2017.
TCJA increased the exemption amount in tax year 2018 from $5.49 million to $11.18 million. Each year since, this amount has been increasing with inflation, but the exemption amounts won’t extend past 2025.
“(I)n 2026, the BEA is due to revert to its pre-2018 level of $5 million, as adjusted for inflation,” quoting the IRS Estate and Gift Tax FAQs (tinyurl.com/yc4ahmva). The inflation-adjusted exemption for 2026 would be around $7 million. That’s a far cry from the close to $13 million exemption going into effect in 2023.
Unless new legislation is passed to continue the TCJA adjustments, more taxpayers will need to rethink their estate tax planning.
There may be opportunities to take advantage of today’s higher exclusion amounts through gifting (usually to family members or causes). That means giving away money permanently to reduce your estate — something only the high-net-worth would consider doing.
In case you’re giving that some thought, one issue is whether you would lose the benefit of current exclusion amounts if the threshold decreases after 2025.
According to the Estate and Gift Tax FAQs: “(P)eople planning to make large gifts between 2018 and 2025 can do so without being concerned that they will lose the tax benefit of the higher exclusion level once it decreases.” Final regulations were released by the IRS on Nov. 26, 2019 (tinyurl.com/yrccwacp).
I asked lawyer David Lehn, a partner in the private client and tax team of Withersworldwide, to share his experiences with gifting under these circumstances:
“Once the gifts are made, all future appreciation/income on the gifts also avoids estate tax. With the power of compounding and assuming there are several years between the gift and the individual’s death, this can provide an enormous estate tax savings. Further, if the gift is made to a trust, it is possible that the individual may continue to pay future income tax concerning income/capital gains generated by the gifted items. This further ‘super charges’ the gifts made by potentially greatly reducing an individual’s estate tax. It is a combination that anyone with significant wealth should seriously consider.”
There are three important points I’d like you to come away with.
First, the good news is that fewer estates will be subject to federal estate taxes. For deaths in 2023, estates below roughly $13 million will pass to heirs free of federal estate taxes.
Second, if you are wealthy and have the capacity to make irrevocable gifts to lower your potential estate tax liability, it’s worth your time to call your estate attorney.
Third, since family situations and laws are in flux, I recommend periodic consultations with your trusts and estates attorneys. If the financial “adviser” you work with specializes in the more complex high-net-worth family situations, be sure to include him or her in your review as well.
Finally, on another note, this year’s market decline may have you bailing on your 401(k) — not a good idea. Take a few minutes to tell us why you should stick to your 401(k), even more so at times like this. Do that by applying for the 401(k)Champion Competition, which is a pro bono initiative I sponsor for those who value their 401(k)s and inspire others to save for retirement. Three 401(k) Champions(R) will receive cash awards of $1,000 each. The deadline for applications is Nov. 17. Go to 401kchampion.com for more details.
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2022-11-20T02:50:09Z
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'Your Money': Estate tax exemption increases, but for how long? | Business | unionleader.com
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https://www.unionleader.com/news/business/columns/your-money-estate-tax-exemption-increases-but-for-how-long/article_2d836180-3040-505c-8707-c5e8531b9430.html
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https://www.unionleader.com/news/business/columns/your-money-estate-tax-exemption-increases-but-for-how-long/article_2d836180-3040-505c-8707-c5e8531b9430.html
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Aaron Bagshaw, with his wife Adria, right, speaks during a ribbon-cutting event at the Walter Bat Company and Training Facility in Nashua.
11/18/2022 Thomas Roy/Union Leader Adria Bagshaw, owner with her husband Aaron, as she speaks duirng a ribbon cutting event at the Walter Bat Company and Training Facility in Nashua.
Fred Osterholtz, sales engineer for WH Bagshaw Company, explains how rounded maple wood becomes a baseball bat for the Walter Bat Company in Nashua.
Joe Hebert, a Bishop Guertin freshman, takes a swing with help from Nashua South baseball coach Doug Howard.
NH Business: In love and business, 'copreneur' couples face a special set of challenges
AS PARTNERS in marriage and business, Adria and Aaron Bagshaw have a hard time keeping work out of their conversation. So when it’s time to take a break, they recruit friends.
“We learned if we go out to dinner we’re either talking about the kids or the business so we’ve had a lot of success when our date night involves another couple. We end up sharing a lot more in a more meaningful way,” said Adria, vice president of W.H. Bagshaw Company.
The Bagshaws were among 20 people gathered Wednesday at the Derryfield Country Club to listen to Rye family business consultant Everett Moitoza talk about “copreneurial” couples – brave souls who add running a business to the challenges of cultivating a successful romantic relationship.
Last year, the Bagshaws expanded the Nashua machine shop to manufacture baseball bats and on Friday celebrated the opening of the Walter Bat Training Center, a separate business that offers practice space for baseball and softball players.
Eighteen years ago, Adria joined the company founded in 1870 by Walter Henry Bagshaw, her husband’s great-great-grandfather.
“I came on board after our first child was born. The company was at a crossroads. I had skills that could help in the business so I jumped in,” Adria said Wednesday morning following the presentation in Manchester by the UNH CEO and Family Enterprise Center.
About 30 percent of family owned businesses nationwide are run by couples, said Moitoza, which in New Hampshire equates to about 40 companies. He laced much of his talk with responses from married couples to a survey about running a business together.
Among the biggest challenges: maintaining boundaries between work and home life, balancing the workload between the partners and knowing when to ask for outside help.
For the business – and the relationship — to thrive, the partners need mutual respect, a shared vision, clear communication and distinct responsibilities that take advantage of their complementary skills, Moitoza said.
During the talk, Adria Bagshaw told the group there can be an issue if there is a perceived imbalance of duties, responsibilities and workload.
Aaron chimed in to agree, emphasizing the word “perceived.” And eliciting some laughter from the group.
“We’ve gotten really, really good at communicating,” Adria said after the talk.
Peggy Ames and Patrick Brown also know what it’s like to have a spouse join a legacy business.
In 2011, Ames and her father took over the family company, the Ames Farm Inn, a Gilford resort on Lake Winnipesaukee founded in 1890. Brown, who still works full-time in IT for a health care company, joined in 2015.
Ames is the fifth generation to run her family’s business, whose roots stretch to 1777, when the property operated as a farm. She said Moitoza’s talk reinforced her optimism about running the company with her husband.
“It made me feel good that we’re already going in the right direction of separating responsibilities, and I feel like we do respect each other’s skill sets,” she said.
Brown, who is transitioning into the business, spends most of his time on the company’s finances and is also picking up HR duties. Ames focus primarily on guest relations.
“The emphasis on communication and respect I think resonated,” Brown said of Moitoza’ presentation.
The couple, who moved to New Hampshire in 2015 from Massachusetts, have a daughter but she’s in college now. That’s a good thing, since her parents work 24/7 during the peak tourist season until it ends in October.
“We were very excited about the future for our business. Our guests come back for generations, so we’re keeping that experience for them,” Ames said.
The CEO & Family Enterprise Center — based at the Peter T. Paul College of Business and Economics at the University of New Hampshire in Durham — works with business owners in New Hampshire, Maine and northern Massachusetts.
“Family businesses want to be surrounded and elbow-to-elbow with other family businesses because they have situations that are unique but yet at some point they all go through it,” said Michelline Dufort, who joined the center as director five years ago.
“Being in the room and listening to experts is one thing. The other thing is that they form relationships with the other family businesses so that they can start to learn peer to peer — ‘How did you deal with this? What did you do?’”
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2022-11-20T02:50:27Z
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NH Business: In love and business, 'copreneur' couples face a special set of challenges | NH Business | unionleader.com
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https://www.unionleader.com/news/business/nh_business/nh-business-in-love-and-business-copreneur-couples-face-a-special-set-of-challenges/article_cec62d06-8226-5d4b-ae5c-06ff9899af60.html
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https://www.unionleader.com/news/business/nh_business/nh-business-in-love-and-business-copreneur-couples-face-a-special-set-of-challenges/article_cec62d06-8226-5d4b-ae5c-06ff9899af60.html
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Travelers wait to check in at Los Angeles International Airport in California on July 1.
By Mary Schlangenstein
and Alan Levin Bloomberg
“It’s very expensive now,” said the 55-year-old Dallas real estate agent, whose trip comes with an inconvenient, late-night connection in Mexico City. “If I didn’t need to go, I wouldn’t.”
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2022-11-20T02:50:33Z
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www.unionleader.com
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Thanksgiving holiday travel surge brings higher fares and fewer flights | Transportation | unionleader.com
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https://www.unionleader.com/news/business/transportation/thanksgiving-holiday-travel-surge-brings-higher-fares-and-fewer-flights/article_d5e6628d-7df8-5dd4-b3b7-f1623c4dd565.html
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https://www.unionleader.com/news/business/transportation/thanksgiving-holiday-travel-surge-brings-higher-fares-and-fewer-flights/article_d5e6628d-7df8-5dd4-b3b7-f1623c4dd565.html
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Brandon Kimball, left, a junior, and Matt Roussus, a sophomore, put on firefighting gear during their college-level Fire Safety class at Concord Regional Technical Center.
Ryan Redman, a senior, works on a tire in an automotive class at the Concord Regional Technical Center. Concord High and the Tecnhical Center participate in Running Start, a program that allows students to enroll in community college classes at their high school.
Sidrah Khan, a Concord High junior, talks about her college credit classes with fellow Running Start students Will Richards and Ryder Fisk, both seniors.
Concord High senior Rosima Darjee, foreground, talks about her college credit classes in a conversation with, from left, senior Will Richards, senior Ryder Fiske and junior Marcus Jordanhazy.
Sharon Bean teaches a college-level nursing class in the Running Start program at Concord High School.
CONCORD — Because no one else in her family has been to college, Concord High senior Rosima Darjee wasn’t sure if college was for her — or if she was college material. But getting college credit for classes she takes in high school, through a program called Running Start, has convinced her she wants to continue her education.
Now, Darjee said, she knows more about what to expect from a college class and about the benefits of a four-year degree. Getting low-cost college credits is helping too.
An aspiring accountant, Darjee had run the numbers — it was hard to make the debt load of college make sense. But Running Start courses are $150 each — less for students from low-income families. And New Hampshire students can take some courses in science, technology, engineering and math, as well as career-preparation classes for free through a state-funded program.
“Learning this year about what college can do is moving me more toward college,” Darjee said. She’s even dreaming about a Harvard MBA one day.
Running Start lets high school students get community college credit for certain courses at their high schools. The program has been around for more than 20 years, but as schools and students recalibrate their educational needs after COVID-19, the federal government is urging states to expand such dual-enrollment programs that help students get college credit while they’re still in high school.
New Hampshire’s community college system is hoping the state Legislature will provide funding to help more students take advantage of the program.
Nationally, more white students than students of color take dual-enrollment courses, and students from wealthier families are more likely to be in dual-enrollment programs than their peers from poorer families.
In New Hampshire, students’ access to the lowest-cost, most convenient form of dual enrollment depends entirely on where a student goes to high school.
Running Start is in about 100 New Hampshire high schools, said Beth Doiron, college access programs director for the Community College System of New Hampshire.
Public, charter and private high schools are able to offer college credit through partnerships with the state’s community colleges. Each community college has a person on staff to coordinate with high school teachers, making sure their curriculum lines up with what’s being taught at community college. Students who sign up for the class and sign up for Running Start can get college credit if they pass with a C+ or better.
The program makes it easy for students to get college credit without the hassle of traveling to the college a few times a week and without the entire credit riding on a single exam, as in the Advanced Placement program.
The drawback? What’s available depends entirely on where you happen to go to high school. While some schools like Concord High have dozens of Running Start classes, smaller schools might offer just one. And though the community college system offers some online classes in partnership with the Virtual Learning Academy Charter School, students have to buy their own textbooks.
Running Start has seen significant growth since it started in 1999.
In the 2004-05 school year, just under 3,000 students were enrolled in 397 Running Start courses. Last school year, almost 7,000 students took Running Start courses. This semester, she said, more than 6,000 students were enrolled in about 8,000 classes.
Teachers limited
Although the program has become widespread, it has yet to become the universally accessible launching pad for postsecondary education that it was meant to be.
One significant bottleneck, Doiron said, is teachers with the kind of qualifications needed to teach at the college level.
“We don’t want to water down the courses,” she said.
While more than half of New Hampshire’s teachers have master’s degrees, the community college system requires Running Start instructors to have graduate-school credits in the subject area they will teach, or better yet, a master’s in that subject area.
So while Fowler, the Concord Regional Technical Center principal, could teach a business course because she has a master’s in business and once taught in the business department at Nashua Community College, a teacher with a master’s in education can’t lead a Running Start class.
Concord Regional Technical Center has made a concerted effort to recruit teachers with the qualifications to teach at the college level, both those with advanced degrees and with significant experience in technical fields.
Fowler introduced visitors to the school last week to an automotive technician with 20 years experience, a longtime nurse, a graphic design teacher who spent years running a firm, and a computer science and engineering teacher with advanced degrees in those fields.
But not every school can recruit that kind of faculty, Doiron said.
The U.S. Department of Education recommended states consider using funding from ESSER (the Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Fund) to make dual-enrollment programs more accessible to students — and teachers.
New Hampshire’s community college system has been using a grant from a foundation to help pay for graduate school for teachers who want to teach Running Start courses, but last week the U.S. Department of Education suggested states think bigger — and consider using the tens of millions of dollars in COVID-19 relief to help teachers pay for graduate education.
The U.S. Department of Education posits that fees and lack of transportation are significant barriers, along with exclusionary prerequisites and the simple fact that not every student knows there’s an opportunity to get college credit.
The state Legislature has been paying the fees for New Hampshire students to take up to two courses per year in certain subjects. Instead of the regular $150 per course fee, students can get the college-level class and the college credit for free, as long as they’re taking a course in science, technology, engineering or math, or a class to prepare them for a specific career. But students who want to get college credit for classes in world languages, history, social studies, English and the arts have to pay or seek out a scholarship.
Mark Rubinstein, chancellor of the Community College System of New Hampshire, said he hopes the Legislature will make a greater investment in Running Start.
“This has a real benefit to students and families,” he said. Last school year, New Hampshire high school students earned 35,000 community college credits through Running Start, he said.
At full tuition, that’s $75 million worth of college credits, Rubinstein said, with the state taking on almost all of the cost.
“We can help families have more access to postsecondary education. We can lessen the risk of incurring debt,” Rubinstein said. “This is probably one of the best returns-on-investment the state can make.”
Middle achievers
Research has shown that students considered “high achieving” by their teachers aren’t the only ones who benefit from dual enrollment. “Middle achieving” students saw the most marked improvements from dual-enrollment courses, from better grades in high school to a higher chance of enrolling in college or community college.
“I have had students who have taken a Running Start and become more confident in their abilities,” said Rachel Hedge, a guidance counselor at Central High School in Manchester. “It has been beneficial for students looking ahead and building confidence in themselves.”
That’s what Running Start was designed to do, Doiron said. But she said the program has come to be dominated by high-achieving students. Most Running Start participants are in the top 20% of their classes, she said.
“We are trying to reach down to students who may not be as high on the academic standings in their high schools,” Doiron said. But more often than not, Running Start is used by students already in Advanced Placement or other honors classes — with some Advanced Placement courses also qualifying students for Running Start credit.
Students like Concord’s Ryder Fiske and Will Richards, both seniors, said they had long planned to go to college, and Running Start will help them get ahead on credits. Fiske said he is hoping the head start will give him enough credits in his intended major — criminal justice — to think about double-majoring in music. Richards said he hopes to apply to colleges as a transfer student, and hopes he can get into more competitive schools if he’s not starting as a freshman.
But the program’s leaders say Running Start can deliver even more of a benefit to students like Darjee — students who are now on the path to postsecondary education. The question now, Doiron said, is figuring out how to bring more of those students into the program.
Making the Grade is a reporting effort dedicated to covering education in New Hampshire, with a special emphasis on Manchester and the challenges students face in the state’s largest school district. It is sponsored by the New Hampshire Solutions Journalism Lab at the Nackey S. Loeb School of Communications and is funded by the New Hampshire Charitable Foundation, Northeast Delta Dental, the Education Writers Association and the Institute for Citizens & Scholars.
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2022-11-20T02:50:45Z
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www.unionleader.com
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A head start and a peek into college, NH's dual enrollment program wants to expand scope | Education | unionleader.com
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City Hall: Realtor to market Manchester Transportation Center, school sports hope for more funds
CITY ALDERMEN last week approved entering into an agreement with Stebbins Commercial Properties to market the Manchester Transportation Center at 119 Canal St. in hopes of leasing it.
The site is a transit facility previously operated by Boston Express until the company vacated the property shortly before the pandemic. City officials say the company hasn’t communicated any intention of returning to staff the facility.
Boston Express offers one route to Boston Logan International Airport on weekdays from the location, departing at 5:40 a.m. and returning at 7 p.m.
On weekends, the bus departs at 8:10 a.m. and returns at 6:15 p.m.
The site also serves as a once-daily stop for Greyhound’s route between Montreal and Boston.
Concord Coach suspended service to the Manchester Transportation Center during COVID-19 and has not reinstated it.
City officials say they have confirmed with Mike Whitten, Executive Director of the Manchester Transit Authority, that each of these routes can be accommodated at Veterans Park in downtown between Central and Merrimack Streets.
“The building is located at the gateway to our City and has the opportunity to bring economic development to the area,” Mayor Joyce Craig wrote in a memo to aldermen.
If and when Stebbins identifies a tenant, aldermen will be asked to declare the property surplus, opening the door for it to be sold or leased.
Increase asked for athletics
The Manchester School District’s athletic director says she needs nearly an additional $1 million a year in the department’s budget to level the playing field for local athletes.
In a presentation to school board members, Kristine Pariseau-Telge said the money is needed to increase the number of sports offered to city athletes and make city schools more competitive.
The current athletics department budget is $2.1 million — 1.08% of the total Manchester School Budget of $197 million. The district has 300 to 500 elementary school athletes, 700 to 1,000 middle school athletes and 1,200 to 2,000 high school athletes.
Pariseau-Telge is asking for $3.09 million, an increase or more than 40%.
The $885,000 hike would bring the athletics budget to 1.53% of the district’s overall total. If approved, the athletics budget would need to be adjusted annually to take into account the anticipated annual increases in line items such as cost of goods sold, transportation, gas and electricity, as well as to provide incentives to retain coaches.
Athletic revenues are generated from admission fees at football and basketball games and credited to the general fund.
“Taking into consideration the high amount of free and reduced lunch students we currently have in our district, charging an admission fee for students should come to an end,” Pariseau-Telge recommended.
School officials report 105 teams at the city’s public high schools, many of which have limited rosters because of a lack of interest among students.
The city’s four middle schools have 32 teams, with low participation blamed in part on a lack of feeder programs.
Middle school club sports include soccer and flag football for both boys and girls. These teams play against other Manchester middle schools, and the league is run by the athletics department on Saturdays and Sundays during the spring months. All costs incurred by the two sports over the past four years have been paid from the current athletic budget.
Participation numbers for soccer and flag football continue to increase, with over 350 athletes participating this past spring, Pariseau-Telge said.
In the past four years, the athletic department has established a rotating schedule for uniforms that allows new uniforms for most teams every 3-5 years. The annual budgeted amount for athletics uniforms, equipment and supplies is $89,000, which must cover requests from 137 district teams.
According to Pariseau-Telge, the budget for supplies, uniforms and equipment has not been adjusted since the 2000.
“The dollar had an average inflation rate of 2.50% per year between 2000 and today, producing a cumulative price increase of 71.99%,” Pariseau-Telge wrote in a memo to school board members. “This means that today’s prices are 1.72 times higher than average prices since 2000, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics consumer price index.”
Items directly affected by the cost of goods increase include supplies, equipment and uniforms.
“Furthermore, shipping costs have not been included in past bidding but are now an important part of the discussion of purchasing and such should be included in budgetary increases,” Pariseau-Telge wrote. “Lastly, while our athletic trainers provide their services to the Manchester school district for free, the athletics department is required to purchase medical supplies needed for all teams at the middle and high school level.”
Pariseau-Telge said with the interest shown by city students for e-sports and the potential that this will become a recognized sport by the NHIAA, funding a program within all three high schools and all four middle schools will cost approximately $25,000 for coaching stipends and uniforms, though the initial startup cost would be high.
Pariseau-Telge also argued coach stipends need to be revamped and increased significantly. “Manchester is not competitive with other Division 1 schools,” she wrote. “Many coaches turn down positions, leave positions or do not apply due to the low stipends.”
Stipends have not been increased or revised for at least 17 years, Pariseau-Telge said. She recommended a 10% increase to the stipend amounts, with the district revisiting the issue every five years.
Athletics relies on game staff, paid a small amount to assist game functions, ranging from game manager and line crew, to scoreboard operator and announcer.
“We are having a difficult time filling these positions due to the low pay and increasing issues with spectators and players,” Pariseau-Telge wrote, adding she was unaware of the last time pay was increased for the positions.
Current pay ranges from $25 to $40, depending on the duties, and the athletics department believes a $5-10 increase in game pay would help attract qualified help.
The school board took no action on Pariseau-Telge’s report.
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2022-11-20T02:50:51Z
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www.unionleader.com
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City Hall: Realtor to market Manchester Transportation Center, school sports hope for more funds | City Hall | unionleader.com
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https://www.unionleader.com/news/politics/city_hall/city-hall-realtor-to-market-manchester-transportation-center-school-sports-hope-for-more-funds/article_650b2e51-6bd9-56f6-829d-f9e8c6d536f8.html
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https://www.unionleader.com/news/politics/city_hall/city-hall-realtor-to-market-manchester-transportation-center-school-sports-hope-for-more-funds/article_650b2e51-6bd9-56f6-829d-f9e8c6d536f8.html
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Adelaide Murphy Tyrol
By Susan Shea For Northern Woodlands
I hear the clamor of geese as they fly low over my house, preparing to land in the hayfield in our valley. Sometimes I spot the large, black-necked birds before they take off to continue their journey. Where are they coming from, I wonder, and where are they going?
The majority of Canada geese breed in Canada and Alaska, although they now nest in all of the lower 48 states. Geese that breed in the northernmost parts of their range migrate long distances to winter in the central and southern United States and as far south as Mexico. Those nesting in southern Canada and the northern U.S. migrate shorter distances.
In places where the water does not freeze and humans have created ideal goose habitat in the form of parks, golf courses, and agricultural fields, Canada geese find abundant food year-round and may not migrate at all.
Some of the Canada geese that migrate through the Northeast during the fall are part of the so-called Atlantic Population, made up of a smaller-bodied subspecies of Canada goose. These birds nest in northern Quebec and fly over Vermont and New York State west of the Connecticut River en route to their wintering grounds on the Atlantic Coast between New Jersey and North Carolina.
Chesapeake Bay and the Delmarva Peninsula in Delaware and the eastern shores of Maryland and Virginia host large concentrations of these geese. Other Canada geese migrating over our region are from the North Atlantic Population, breeding in eastern Labrador and Newfoundland. They generally follow the coastline, or Atlantic Flyway, on their journey to wintering grounds only as far south as the coast of New England.
Migrating Canada geese fly at relatively low altitudes, usually between 980 and 3,300 feet. They often travel at speeds of more than 30 miles per hour. Studies have shown that geese from the Atlantic Population complete the trip to their wintering range in less than a week, and some flocks make the journey in a single day. In fall, flocks often use the winds of incoming high-pressure weather systems to assist their flight. Researchers believe Canada geese use landmarks such as rivers, coastlines, and mountains to navigate, as well as the sun, stars, and the earth’s magnetic field. Juvenile geese learn migration routes by following their parents.
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2022-11-20T02:51:11Z
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The Canada Goose Migration: A Grand Spectacle of Nature | Lifestyles | unionleader.com
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https://www.unionleader.com/nh/lifestyles/the-canada-goose-migration-a-grand-spectacle-of-nature/article_5f871ba2-9f6d-56eb-9b4e-d0e63f0ce49d.html
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https://www.unionleader.com/nh/lifestyles/the-canada-goose-migration-a-grand-spectacle-of-nature/article_5f871ba2-9f6d-56eb-9b4e-d0e63f0ce49d.html
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When the Boston Celtics kept piling up wins while Jayson Tatum put up huge numbers, the MVP hype felt natural. But an off-night or two mixed in to an 82-game season is not a huge deal. That’s been the case for Tatum as he put up 19 points in back-to-back games on low efficiency.
Tatum’s subpar showings — at least for his standards — are what makes the Celtics so dangerous, though. The Celtics didn’t need Tatum to be at his otherworldly level to win. Boston downed two solid teams in the Hawks and Pelicans to extend its winning streak to nine games. That should put the NBA on notice that the C’s can beat anybody in all sorts of ways.
It’s been just the latest example of where the Celtics are scary deep, relying on any number of their role players. And even when they do stumble in-game, they’re more than talented enough to make up for it as they have a league-best 13-3 record. They showed that off again in a 117-109 win over the Pelicans on Friday.
“Our mentality is just one day at a time,” Brown said. “We can’t look too far ahead and forget about all the details that need to be taken care of that’s right in front of us. Sometimes, we get a lead and we get the game get away from us. And that’s the challenge to be mature, to be locked in, to be focused.”
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2022-11-20T02:51:23Z
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www.unionleader.com
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Why Celtics winning without Jayson Tatum putting up MVP numbers should put NBA on notice | Celtics | unionleader.com
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https://www.unionleader.com/sports/celtics/why-celtics-winning-without-jayson-tatum-putting-up-mvp-numbers-should-put-nba-on-notice/article_f3101fe3-82f2-50d7-a4ec-650853dc5977.html
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https://www.unionleader.com/sports/celtics/why-celtics-winning-without-jayson-tatum-putting-up-mvp-numbers-should-put-nba-on-notice/article_f3101fe3-82f2-50d7-a4ec-650853dc5977.html
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Concord’s Chris Pinkham moves past a defender during action earlier this season.
Home grown: Pinkham perseveres, leads UNH soccer team into second round
DURHAM — From being redshirted as freshman to having two season-ending injuries, Concord’s Chris Pinkham has had to overcome plenty of adversity to carve out his spot on the University of New Hampshire men’s soccer team.
Through all the hard work, Pinkham has not only excelled as a player, but also as a leader for a UNH team that’ll look to keep its hopes alive in the NCAA Division I tournament on Sunday night in Miami.
After a 2-1 over Seton Hall in Thursday night’s opening round of the tournament at Wildcat Stadium, UNH (15-4) will look to reach the round of 16 when it travels to face No. 10 Florida International (13-4-1) at 6 p.m. UNH defeated the Panthers, 3-0, in early September in Durham.
“I’ve been through all the ups and downs at this program and on this field,” Pinkham said. “I battled through season-ending injuries, COVID, now finally these past couple of years I’ve started to make an impact and have a voice in leadership when I can. It’s coming full circle for me in my last season. I’ve experienced everything you can experience.”
Pinkham is in his last year of eligibility as a graduate student pursuing his master’s degree in business administration. He completed his bachelor’s degree in international business and economics last year.
The injury bug first struck the 2017 Concord High School graduate when he broke an ankle in a preseason game in his freshman year. After playing through his sophomore season, Pinkham tore a tendon in his quad three games into his junior campaign.
With the injuries behind him, Pinkham has been an integral part of an America East champion UNH squad that has now won a tournament game two years in a row. The Wildcats advanced in the second round last year with a 4-1 win over North Carolina before they dropped a 1-0 decision at Oregon State.
“It’s just staying healthy and staying on the field,” Pinkham said. “It’s learning game-by-game, learning from my teammates and learning from anyone I can learn from, so I just grow day by day. That’s been my approach and it’s been paying off.”
UNH coach Marc Hubbard said it’s been special to see the way Pinkham has embraced playing for his home-state university and has set an example for his team, on and off the field. Pinkham is joined on the team by fellow Granite Staters freshman Taig Healy (South Hampton) and juniors Liam Bennett (Concord) and Adi Hicks (Derry).
“He’s just a warrior. He represents UNH and is the heart and soul of the team,” Hubbard said. “He sacrifices his body, he’s super athletic and he’s the guy you want there at the end when moments get tight.
“It’s special to be able to have guys from the state out there representing a top-25 program. That was my hope when I took over the program, and nice to see it come to fruition.”
Hubbard is in his eighth season as coach, leading the Wildcats to five wins in six straight tournament appearances.
“He had a tough go at it at first, redshirting and getting injured,” Hubbard said. “It shows the importance of hard work and dedication and having the right character, which most New Hampshire guys do.”
Pinkham has started 17 games for UNH this season and is fourth on the team in minutes played and second on the team in assists (six) behind Johan von Knebel (seven). The duo, along with Tola Showunmi, have helped direct an offensive attack led by Eli Goldman (nine goals), Bilal Kamal (five goals) and Paul Mayer (five goals).
“Chris is an amazing guy and an amazing player as well,” Kamal said. “He’s a leader on and off the pitch. His intensity is electric and I love playing with him. I feed off him, especially being on the same side. We have a good connection. He’s a hard worker, and that pushes me as well.”
Pinkham played all 90 minutes on Thursday and he picked up an assist when Kamal tapped in his throw-in to give UNH a 2-0 lead nine minutes into the game. Goldman opened the scoring with a goal 3:08 into the game.
“Chris is a massive part of this team,” Goldman said. “Obviously, you see what he does on the field. He’ll battle for everything, but it’s what he does in the locker room too. He’s the center of our culture and the most humble guy in the locker room. He leads by example. I have nothing but praise for Chris.”
Pinkham said he wants to play soccer professionally somewhere next year, but for now, the focus is helping lead UNH in a tournament run that resumes on Sunday night.
“We’re ready,” Pinkham said. “This year, we’re going to make an historic run and put New Hampshire on the map. Just wait and watch.”
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2022-11-20T02:51:29Z
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www.unionleader.com
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Home grown: Pinkham perseveres, leads UNH soccer team into second round | College Sports | unionleader.com
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https://www.unionleader.com/sports/college/home-grown-pinkham-perseveres-leads-unh-soccer-team-into-second-round/article_ef376479-1a2c-5dd5-aefe-05aac3e2974a.html
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https://www.unionleader.com/sports/college/home-grown-pinkham-perseveres-leads-unh-soccer-team-into-second-round/article_ef376479-1a2c-5dd5-aefe-05aac3e2974a.html
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The Plymouth State University football team capped its season in style, spotting Husson 20 points before rallying for a 21-20 victory in Saturday’s New England Bowl in Bangor, Maine.
Manny Sanchez’s 8-yard touchdown run with 5:55 remaining in the game, combined with Seth Disalvo’s point-after kick, was the different as the Panthers finished their season 8-2 overall. Husson finished 5-5.
PSU trailed 20-0 in the second quarter before the comeback started.
Quarterback Braden Lynn hit Hudson’s Jake Donahue with a 4-yard TD pass 30 seconds before halftime to cut the deficit to 20-7. Thanos Boulukos’s 1-yard TD run brought the Panthers to within 20-14 with 4:24 left in the third.
Sanchez finished with 138 yards rushing on 30 carries. Donahue caught six of Lynn’s 13 completions for 67 yards.
Dartmouth 30, Brown 7: In Hanover, the Big Green finished their season on an up note. Quarterback Nick Howard ran for two touchdowns, and Nick Roper rushed for 92 yards and a TD for the Big Green (3-7 overall and 2-5 in the Ivy League).
The University of New Hampshire has been playing meaningful football in November, and it appears the Wildcats will be playing postseason footb…
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2022-11-20T02:51:31Z
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NH college football: Plymouth State wins New England Bowl | College Sports | unionleader.com
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https://www.unionleader.com/sports/college/nh-college-football-plymouth-state-wins-new-england-bowl/article_0b576bb5-5ac7-5247-9c51-87d61899d771.html
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https://www.unionleader.com/sports/college/nh-college-football-plymouth-state-wins-new-england-bowl/article_0b576bb5-5ac7-5247-9c51-87d61899d771.html
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Londonderry defenders Conor Williams, top left, and Anthony Amaro tackle Pinkerton Academy’s Jacob Albert during the first half of their Division I semifinal at Londonderry High School Saturday.
Londonderry quarterback Drew Heenan (10) is tackled by Pinkerton Academy defenders Jamison Issac, left, and Patrick Waldron, during the first half of their Div. I semifinal game at Londondery High School Saturday.
Londonderry’s Andrew Soucy looks for running room as teammate Michael Thistle blocks Pinkerton’s John Langan during the first half of their Division I semifinal game at Londonderry on Saturday.
Pinkerton Academy's Jacob Albert, left, tries to get by Londonderry defender Andrew Soucy (5) during the first half of their Div. I semifinal game at Londonderry High School Saturday.
Londonderry's Trevor Weinmann, right, and Pinkerton Academy defender Matthew Morrison go up to a pass that was caught by Weinmann during the first half of their Div. I semfinal game at Londonderry High School Saturday.
LONDONDERRY — When you play the Londonderry High School football team, you don’t have to win the special teams battle, but you can’t lose it. Not if you want to be on the right side of the scoreboard.
The Lancers seem to get a touchdown on special teams every week. The one they scored Saturday came on a blocked punt, and helped top-seeded Londonderry earn a 21-7 victory over its rival, fourth-seeded Pinkerton Academy, and a spot in the Division I championship game.
The Astros were trailing 7-0 when Cam Brutus blocked a punt that Seth Doyon picked up and returned 7 yards into the end zone. Jack Drabik’s point-after kick gave the Lancers a 14-point lead with 8:03 remaining in the first half.
It remained 14-0 until Pinkerton (9-3) scored on fullback Cole Yennaco’s 1-yard run with 4:04 left in the third.
“Unfortunate they blocked a punt, which really put us in a hole, but offensively we were terrible in the first half,” Pinkerton coach Brian O’Reilly said. “As poor a performance as I’ve seen. Quite honestly, that 14-0 lead at halftime felt like 28-0 with the way we played.”
Londonderry (11-1) put together a 13-play scoring drive on its first possession, capped by Trevor Weinmann’s 2-yard run with 2:27 remaining in the first quarter. A Weinmann punt, which rolled to the Pinkerton 4-yard line, set up Londonderry’s final TD.
After losing 3 yards on three plays the Astros were forced to punt from their 1-yard line, and took possession on the Pinkerton 13 following a facemask penalty on the punt return. Two plays later, quarterback Drew Heenan scored on a 7-yard run that helped increase Londonderry’s lead to 21-7 with 9:32 to play.
Londonderry had a kickoff return for a touchdown in last week’s playoff victory over Merrimack, and returned the opening kickoff for a TD when it beat Pinkerton 31-6 during the regular season.
“Actually I grabbed Trevor after we scored and said, ‘Your punt is the reason we scored that touchdown,’” Londonderry coach Jimmy Lauzon said. “We’ve had some type of special teams touchdown or block in most games. Our kids really buy into it. Our kids really like special teams. They enjoy that preparation. Our coaches take it really seriously.”
Kyle McPhail intercepted a pass on Pinkerton’s first play from scrimmage following Heenan’s TD. Pinkerton turned the ball over on downs on each of its final two possessions.
“Their special teams got the best of it, as they usually do with some teams,” O’Reilly said. “They dominated the line of scrimmage. It’s really that simple. We didn’t really run the ball today. That’s what we do. That’s what they took away, and that’s why we’re going home.”
Londonderry will face 10th-seeded Bedford in Saturday’s championship game, which will be held at Exeter High School (1 p.m.). Londonderry will be seeking a second straight title and third in the last four years.
The Lancers and Bulldogs did not meet in the regular season. Bedford didn’t allow a point in its first three playoff games.
“We’re gonna have to score some points,” Lauzon said. “We don’t want to be the fourth team in a row they’ve shut out. They’re built a lot like us from a speed standpoint, so it should be an interesting matchup.”
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2022-11-20T02:51:49Z
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Something special: Blocked punt returned for TD boosts Londonderry past Pinkerton | Sports | unionleader.com
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https://www.unionleader.com/sports/highschool/something-special-blocked-punt-returned-for-td-boosts-londonderry-past-pinkerton/article_8d45328a-b49b-5e20-97e6-08a78b2fb5c9.html
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https://www.unionleader.com/sports/highschool/something-special-blocked-punt-returned-for-td-boosts-londonderry-past-pinkerton/article_8d45328a-b49b-5e20-97e6-08a78b2fb5c9.html
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Mikaela Shiffrin of the U.S.. middle, celebrates victory alongside runner-up Anna Swenn Larsson and third-place Petra Vlhova.
Mikaela Shiffrin won the first race of the Alpine ski season on Saturday in Levi, Finland, to secure the 75th World Cup victory of her career.
World Cup champion Shiffrin, who spent formative years living in Lyme, won the slalom in front of Sweden’s Anna Swenn Larsson (+0.16), with Petra Vlhova (+0.20) from Slovakia taking third place.
“It’s the first race of the season and I’m feeling good with my skiing, my skis felt amazing,” said Shiffrin, 27.
“It was a nice feeling on the first run, I felt pretty good, but I was holding back a little bit.
It was Shiffrin’s fifth victory on the Levi Black piste.
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2022-11-20T02:51:51Z
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Shiffrin starts the season with her 75th World Cup win | Sports | unionleader.com
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https://www.unionleader.com/sports/shiffrin-starts-the-season-with-her-75th-world-cup-win/article_012f034f-15ce-5989-bd12-9f75bbff05d8.html
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https://www.unionleader.com/sports/shiffrin-starts-the-season-with-her-75th-world-cup-win/article_012f034f-15ce-5989-bd12-9f75bbff05d8.html
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DEAR PULLING BACK: You have protected and enabled your daughter far too long. Tell her her dependence on you has become too much. She must overcome her driving phobia (or at least take advantage of public transportation) and her fear of travel without you. Unless you have provided for her financially in the event of your death, how do you think she will survive living as a virtual shut-in with no employment and life skills? There are psychotherapists who specialize in ridding people of phobias. While she’s there, your daughter should also get help to gain a degree of independence, even if it’s about 30 years late.
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2022-11-20T06:58:11Z
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Dear Abby: Middle-aged daughter hasn't left the nest | Human Interest | unionleader.com
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https://www.unionleader.com/news/human_interest/dear-abby-middle-aged-daughter-hasnt-left-the-nest/article_6c83f0d2-16d5-528d-ba78-092909da6a3f.html
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https://www.unionleader.com/news/human_interest/dear-abby-middle-aged-daughter-hasnt-left-the-nest/article_6c83f0d2-16d5-528d-ba78-092909da6a3f.html
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It doesn’t seem like an army of enraged women and young people flooded the polls to exact revenge on the court. If CNN’s exit polls are to be believed, Democrats lost support among women in 2022 compared with the last midterm in 2018. The Associated Press/Fox News exit poll found that 52% of voters were women in 2018, and 52% of all voters in 2022 were women. It is a myth that young people came out in droves. Democrats lost support among younger voters, as well.
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2022-11-20T06:58:17Z
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www.unionleader.com
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David Harsanyi: Contra conventional wisdom, there is little evidence abortion hurt republicans | Columnists | unionleader.com
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https://www.unionleader.com/opinion/columnists/david-harsanyi-contra-conventional-wisdom-there-is-little-evidence-abortion-hurt-republicans/article_1598ea7f-9575-530b-905f-2832ebedd4ff.html
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https://www.unionleader.com/opinion/columnists/david-harsanyi-contra-conventional-wisdom-there-is-little-evidence-abortion-hurt-republicans/article_1598ea7f-9575-530b-905f-2832ebedd4ff.html
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Forget about all the tight, competitive election contests that New Hampshire has just witnessed. Forget about the record-breaking number of voters who turned out for them. New Hampshire’s right to vote is “under attack” and one of the election losers is coming back to “protect” us, apparently from ourselves.
State Sen. Melanie Levesque has announced that she is running for Secretary of State David Scanlan’s job. This is very much in the tradition of many professional politicians. If the voters reject you from one position, you don’t take time to reflect on your shortcomings, you look for another gig.
Levesque thinks she has found hers in defending New Hampshire against what she says are “some of the most aggressive attacks on our democracy.”
We are guessing that includes the so-called “voter suppression” that Levesque’s Democrats have claimed, against all evidence, is running rampant across the country.
According to her thinking, Secretary Scanlan is part of the problem and Levesque is the solution.
This is at once laughable and serious. Our elections have been among the best-run in the country, thanks in part to Scanlan and the man he worked with for many years, former Secretary Bill Gardner.
The national Democratic Party appears poised to strip New Hampshire of its first-in-the-nation presidential primary. Undercutting our election integrity with wild claims is not helpful.
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2022-11-20T06:58:35Z
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www.unionleader.com
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She’s here to help: Is NH under attack? | Editorials | unionleader.com
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https://www.unionleader.com/opinion/editorials/she-s-here-to-help-is-nh-under-attack/article_c60beb72-9d3a-5ac6-8d16-8fc693442a9e.html
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https://www.unionleader.com/opinion/editorials/she-s-here-to-help-is-nh-under-attack/article_c60beb72-9d3a-5ac6-8d16-8fc693442a9e.html
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Piispanen, descendant of Finnish immigrants, owns Keene Auto Body. When a large insurance company refused to cough up the full cost for a proper car repair in his shop, Piispanen represented himself in taking the issue to small claims court seeking $1,093 and change. The court dismissed the case, ruling that the insurance company had not been consulted by the insured motorist in “assigning” the matter to Keene Auto Body.
So Piispanen appealed to the New Hampshire Supreme Court, acting ”pro se” as his own lawyer. He won. The high court ruled, 3-2, that he had a right to have his claims case heard.
According to the publication Claims Journal, he wrote his own legal briefs and personally appeared to make his oral argument before the state’s top justices. He has no legal training and “just winged it,” he told the Journal. And he has done this before.
Piispanen may still lose the claims case, but just seeing a fellow stand for what’s right as he sees it is better than cryptocurrency. It’s gold. The New Hampshire bar better take notice.
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2022-11-20T06:58:41Z
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www.unionleader.com
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Who invited him? Inspiring pro of pro se | Editorials | unionleader.com
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https://www.unionleader.com/opinion/editorials/who-invited-him-inspiring-pro-of-pro-se/article_e90dfe3b-dcee-5bdd-a3b4-6f7609fa4aac.html
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https://www.unionleader.com/opinion/editorials/who-invited-him-inspiring-pro-of-pro-se/article_e90dfe3b-dcee-5bdd-a3b4-6f7609fa4aac.html
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To the Editor: On Nov. 14, a front page, above the fold headline concerned a resident of Manchester, Mr. Patrick Murphy, whose front door was kicked in three times by vandals. The story was largely straightforward and descriptive of the problems he is having in pursuit of justice for the perpetrator. The perpetrator has been identified and located yet prosecution is problematic. That is not the point of my letter.
In the closing paragraphs, The Union Leader transformed the entire tone of this article into a naked, extremely liberally biased gun control screed with the perpetrator potentially becoming the victim.
Including the fact that Mr. Murphy, being an intelligent and respectable person, is also a championship marksman, you cast him as a potential murderer unable to control his emotions. The fact that he is an accomplished marksman has absolutely zero relevance to this incident whatsoever and exposed the writer and the editor as leftist rumor-mongers.
The mere mention of this fact negated any neutral credibility the author and the editor may have garnered to that point.
Furthermore, it is reprehensible that the statement “…where anyone can load the bullets of anger…and kill wantonly” was used in reference to Mr. Murphy. This type of garbage reporting exposes your agenda beyond that of a free press. This description was irrelevant to this article, dangerous, unnecessary, hurtful and potentially actionable.
This is an example of intellectual dishonesty that is not worthy of the Union Leader. You should be ashamed. You owe Mr. Murphy an apology.
GERRY ZANZALARI
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2022-11-20T06:58:47Z
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www.unionleader.com
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Letter: Gun control bias was apparent in column | Letters to the Editor | unionleader.com
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https://www.unionleader.com/opinion/letters_to_editor/letter-gun-control-bias-was-apparent-in-column/article_39bc1b01-a39a-53b4-b8fb-f4dcc33912db.html
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https://www.unionleader.com/opinion/letters_to_editor/letter-gun-control-bias-was-apparent-in-column/article_39bc1b01-a39a-53b4-b8fb-f4dcc33912db.html
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By Patricia Hurtado Bloomberg
John L. "Jack" Smith was part of a team that won the first death penalty case in a New York federal court in a half century, then went on to the International Criminal Court, where he prosecuted genocide and war crimes. As a federal prosecutor in Brooklyn, New York, he handled some of the city's most violent cases, former colleagues say.
Smith's next assignment is overseeing the probes into former President Donald Trump, one of the most challenging and significant Justice Department investigations in years. People who have worked with Smith throughout his career describe him as determined, impartial and up to the task.
"Jack's a prosecutor's prosecutor," said Morris Fodeman, Smith's former colleague and now a partner at Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati. "He's one of the best I've ever witnessed, an apolitical person who'll call it the way he sees it."
Smith began his legal career in the 1990s in the Manhattan District Attorney's office where he handled sex crimes and domestic violence cases. In 1999, he moved to the Eastern District of New York in Brooklyn, where he was part of a team that prosecuted an NYPD police officer accused of lying about torturing a Haitian immigrant in a precinct bathroom.
"Gangsters, cops and war criminals, these are the kinds of cases he's worked on during his career and those are some of the toughest cases to prosecute," said Alan Vinegrad, who was acting Brooklyn U.S. Attorney in 2002 and is now a partner at Covington & Burling.
Smith will oversee the investigations into the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the U.S. Capitol - including any role that Trump may have played - as well as the former president's handling of classified White House records after he left office.
When Smith ran the Public Integrity Section from 2010 to 2015, James Trusty, now a Trump attorney working on the Mar-a-Lago case, was chief of the Criminal Division's Organized Crime and Gang Section from late 2010 to early 2017. He did not immediately return a request for comment.
"He's done high-profile cases and has the skill set and judgment to make the charging decisions in a case and back them up in a courtroom," said Greg Andres, a former federal prosecutor in Brooklyn who was later on Special Counsel Robert Mueller's team that investigated foreign meddling in the 2016 presidential election.
Smith returned to the United States in 2010 and for five years ran the Justice Department's public integrity section, which investigates corruption allegations against public officials. While there, Smith oversaw the prosecution of former New York Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, who was convicted of taking nearly $4 million in illicit payments.
"He was one of the best investigators in the office, understanding what gaps needed to be filled in a case, giving clear instructions to investigating agents which is why they loved working with him," said Kelly Currie, who served as interim Brooklyn U.S. Attorney after Loretta Lynch became attorney general in 2015.
Currie, now a partner at Crowell & Moring, said after Smith became a supervisor he started a moot trial which allowed prosecutors to give their cases a dry run in a practice still in place today.
Smith left Washington for Tennessee in 2015, eventually serving as first assistant U.S. Attorney and then acting U.S. Attorney in Nashville until 2017. He briefly worked as a top lawyer for HCA Healthcare, returning to the Hague in 2018.
Upon departing Nashville, Smith said in a news release it was "one of the most difficult professional decisions that I have ever been faced with. I truly love representing the American people and seeking justice on their behalf."
A varsity football and baseball player who grew up in Clay, New York, he's a graduate of SUNY Oneonta and Harvard Law School. During his time as a Brooklyn prosecutor, he was known as an accomplished triathlete and an avid cyclist.
With assistance from Erik Larson and Zoe Tillman.
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2022-11-20T20:28:51Z
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www.unionleader.com
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New Trump special counsel impartial and tough, ex-colleagues say | National | unionleader.com
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https://www.unionleader.com/news/politics/national/new-trump-special-counsel-impartial-and-tough-ex-colleagues-say/article_be578cc3-a9dd-52c5-838e-8cc6265d8f10.html
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https://www.unionleader.com/news/politics/national/new-trump-special-counsel-impartial-and-tough-ex-colleagues-say/article_be578cc3-a9dd-52c5-838e-8cc6265d8f10.html
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By James Oliphant and Nathan Layne Reuters
Speaking at a Las Vegas meeting of the influential Republican Jewish Coalition, where party donors and fundraisers gathered to size up potential 2024 contenders including Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, former Vice President Mike Pence and former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley, Levine told Reuters the midterms showed Trump remains deeply unpopular with a majority of voters.
And Saturday, Twitter owner Elon Musk gave Trump access to the social media account that helped power his rise to the presidency and served as his main cudgel to bludgeon opponents.
He talked up his resounding reelection win earlier this month, where he beat his Democratic opponent by almost 20 points, arguing he can pull in nontraditional Republican voters.
Others, including former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, were more disparaging of the one-term president.
Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan, another potential presidential candidate, said a "course correction" was needed, while Mike Pompeo, who served as Trump's secretary of state, took a jab at Trump, a former reality TV star, when he said, "personalities and celebrity just aren’t going to get it done."
Some attendees were openly skeptical Trump could win the nomination. "It's not going to happen," said New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu. "He's at his weakest point now, and it ain't getting better."
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2022-11-20T20:28:54Z
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www.unionleader.com
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Reuters Analysis: As Republicans look to 2024, jockeying to take on Trump begins | Voters First | unionleader.com
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https://www.unionleader.com/news/politics/voters/reuters-analysis-as-republicans-look-to-2024-jockeying-to-take-on-trump-begins/article_e41faf4f-4c2d-5346-b525-654f795a4633.html
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https://www.unionleader.com/news/politics/voters/reuters-analysis-as-republicans-look-to-2024-jockeying-to-take-on-trump-begins/article_e41faf4f-4c2d-5346-b525-654f795a4633.html
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