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“Secluded Cabin Sleeps Six” by Lisa Unger.
By Colette Bancroft Tampa Bay Times (TNS)
Unger, an internationally bestselling thriller author, knows just how to put us on the knife’s edge from the start. In the first paragraph of her 20th novel, “Secluded Cabin Sleeps Six,” the turkey’s “carcass is splayed in the middle of the table. Carved, flesh torn away, eaten, ribs exposed.” Red stains mark the empty wineglasses; maroon lipstick smears a napkin.
Just as important is Mako’s promise that, although it’s 20 miles from the nearest town, the cabin is guaranteed to have Wi-Fi. Mako has made a fortune running a company that develops video games, and a new one is about to drop.
Bruce, as Mako says, is a “whisperer ... he lives inside the code,” with extraordinary skills. He works for Mako part time but preserves his freelance business, too, which sometimes involves government contracts and the like that he can’t talk about, even to Hannah.
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2022-11-26T19:12:15Z
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www.unionleader.com
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Don’t expect to relax at "Secluded Cabin Sleeps Six" | A&E | unionleader.com
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https://www.unionleader.com/nh/arts_and_ent/don-t-expect-to-relax-at-secluded-cabin-sleeps-six/article_bb33784e-1bfc-5aad-9514-d6d7575a59dc.html
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https://www.unionleader.com/nh/arts_and_ent/don-t-expect-to-relax-at-secluded-cabin-sleeps-six/article_bb33784e-1bfc-5aad-9514-d6d7575a59dc.html
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DADO RUVIC/REUTERS/Illustration//File Photo
WASHINGTON -- Twitter's ban on then-President Donald Trump after the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol by his supporters was a "grave mistake" that had to be corrected, Chief Executive Elon Musk said on Friday, although he also stated that incitement to violence would continue to be prohibited on Twitter.
Trump, a Republican who 10 days ago announced he was running for election again in 2024, was banned on Jan. 8, 2021, from Twitter under its previous owners.
Replying to a tweet, Musk said it was "very concerning" that Twitter had taken no action earlier to remove some accounts related to the far-left Antifa movement. In response to another tweet asking if Musk considered the statement "trans people deserve to die" as worthy of suspension from the platform, the billionaire said: "Absolutely."
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2022-11-26T23:46:33Z
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www.unionleader.com
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Elon Musk says Twitter's ban on Trump after Capitol attack was 'grave mistake' | Business | unionleader.com
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https://www.unionleader.com/news/business/elon-musk-says-twitters-ban-on-trump-after-capitol-attack-was-grave-mistake/article_68b8a85c-696a-567d-aeed-00a0014a9e6f.html
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https://www.unionleader.com/news/business/elon-musk-says-twitters-ban-on-trump-after-capitol-attack-was-grave-mistake/article_68b8a85c-696a-567d-aeed-00a0014a9e6f.html
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From left: Brookfield Ladies Karen Servacek, Joanne Dolbear, Harriet Wilson and Rose Zacher gather outside the Brookfield Town House.
Leah Gage
Brookfield Ladies aim to bring people together
By Leah Gage Special to the Union Leader
BROOKFIELD — When Karen Servacek took over as town clerk last year, she noticed a lot of people came by the Town House just to chat.
“Especially with COVID, a lot of people were isolated and lonely, or they’re new to town, and haven’t been able to meet many people yet,” Servacek said. “They kept saying how they’d love a way to get everyone together.”
So Servacek and several other women in town found a way to bring them together.
More than 50 women gathered on a Saturday in September for the first meeting of the Brookfield Ladies, a new social group for women in the small town in southern Carroll County.
The sounds of laughter and pleasant chatter intermingled with the smell of coffee as women walked in the door that morning.
“Please fill out a name tag, so we know who you are, and don’t forget to fill out a survey slip, so we can learn more about you,” Servacek said as the group gathered. While some of the women already knew one another, the majority were meeting for the first time.
“This is so great!” Servacek said, addressing the women, “I didn’t think we’d have such a large turnout!”
A few days after the event, Servacek talked about the group’s formation. She was among the eight organizers.
“People need this, especially the women,” she said.
Brookfield native Judy Meakins is happy to see the formation of the group.
“I like meeting the newer people in town because there aren’t a lot of us originals left anymore,’’ she said.
Meakins, born in 1936, is one of an increasingly rare few to be born in her parents’ home in town rather than in a hospital.
“I was involved with the Brookfield Bloomers for years and I miss it. There’s nothing like that in town anymore, where people can come together and meet each other,” she said.
The Brookfield Bloomers, a gardening club, disbanded in 2014.
According to Servacek, there were a variety of other social groups and community events in Brookfield in the past, but they disbanded when COVID hit.
“There used to be a craft fair once or twice a year at the Town House,” she said. “A lot of the women have mentioned wanting to bring something like that back.”
Along with craft fairs and social groups like the Bloomers, there were special events at the Town House for residents, according to Meakins.
“When I was a girl in school, we’d always put on one or two plays a year for the town. There was always something going on, and different clubs and groups to join,” she said. “We don’t have anything like that anymore. That’s why it’s so great, what Karen (Servacek) and the other ladies are doing. I’m all for anything that brings the community together.”
Lois Hall, another longtime Brookfield resident who attended the Sept. 17 meeting, said she enjoyed the opportunity to meet new people.
“The women who had the foresight to get everyone together like this deserve much more credit than they’ve gotten,” Hall said.
Group co-founder Harriet Wilson was pleased with the turnout. “It was so exciting! We weren’t expecting more than 20 people, and we got over 50. It was great,” she said.
The Brookfield Ladies is still in the developmental stages, but the core mission of the group is camaraderie.
“The response has really been great,” Servacek said. “We’ve gotten a lot of good ideas since the first meeting. Some mentioned wanting to do community service projects, or ‘crafternoons,’ bird watching, or game nights.”
Wilson simply wants the opportunity to get together.
“Really, I just want people to meet each other, and find others with the same interests. I think (the Ladies) should grow organically, rather than choosing a specific mission for the group to concentrate on,” Wilson said.
The Brookfield Ladies was founded by Servacek, Wilson, Susan Raban, Jenn McKown, Joanne Dolbear, Rose Zacher, Maryanne Lynch and Cheryl Perry.
The next meeting will be held in January at the Brookfield Town House, 267 Wentworth Road. More information about the group can be found by emailing Karen Servacek at raservacek@twc.com or calling 301-471-3795.
KYIV — Ukraine accused the Kremlin on Saturday of reviving the “genocidal” tactics of Josef Stalin as Kyiv commemorated a Soviet-era famine that killed millions of Ukrainians in the winter of 1932-33.
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2022-11-27T01:52:51Z
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www.unionleader.com
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Brookfield Ladies aim to bring people together | | unionleader.com
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https://www.unionleader.com/brookfield-ladies-aim-to-bring-people-together/article_0e300f21-e71e-581a-97a7-81c8215e7d27.html
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https://www.unionleader.com/brookfield-ladies-aim-to-bring-people-together/article_0e300f21-e71e-581a-97a7-81c8215e7d27.html
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Special to the Union Leader
THE HOLIDAY SEASON means different things to people. For me, it’s a time of the year I look forward to very much. My schedule and priorities shift from going full throttle to spending time with family and friends, relaxing and reflecting on the prior year. It’s also one of my favorite times of the year, because it’s the start of ski season, which is one of my main passions.
The holiday season can also be an extremely busy time for people, depending on the type of business they are in. For many publicly traded companies, the holiday season marks the end of their fiscal year.
This period of time is crucial for most companies and a time where everyone is working extra hours and doing everything they can to close out the year strong. That is a major conflict when it comes to taking time off and enjoying the holidays with your family.
It’s even more challenging when you’re in a business where the holiday season is when most of your sales happen. If you work in any kind of retail business, the few months leading up to Christmas is when your sales spike and the chance of you getting time to relax and unwind is slim.
Another aspect of the holiday season I appreciate is that it reminds us what is most important in life. The stress we experience at work seems to have less of an impact on us during this time of the year. For most people, they get to see relatives and friends they don’t see on a regular basis, and that alone can help us decompress. I always remind myself that work will always be there.
The time I get to spend with people I care about is limited, and that’s easy to forget when we’re so intensely focused on our job throughout the year.
If you manage people, here are a few suggestions on things you can do to help people on your team enjoy the holiday season.
Put tough conversations on hold
In business, there are always situations that require you to have difficult conversations with people. Tough coaching conversations happen often, but there is a time and a place. Don’t create havoc and stress for someone the day before they are leaving for a holiday break. Put those conversations on hold and let people enjoy the holiday season without the intensity and level of stress they experience throughout the year.
No major changes
I’ll never forget the time a company I worked for laid off several people in the middle of December. It was appalling and ruined the holidays for everyone involved. We all know there are times when cuts are needed, but let’s be realistic. It’s never that bad that you can’t wait a few weeks and let people enjoy the holidays without worrying about how they will support their family.
Take care of people
There are people within every organization who work hard, but are on the lower end of the compensation range. These are often roles where people are living paycheck to paycheck and don’t have the financial security those further up in the organization have.
If the financial situation the company is in allows it, do what you can to give people some type of holiday bonus. It goes a long way and can often have a major impact to how people are able to enjoy this special time of the year.
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2022-11-27T01:52:57Z
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www.unionleader.com
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Closing the Deal: Conflicting priorities can make holidays a challenge | Business | unionleader.com
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https://www.unionleader.com/news/business/columns/closing-the-deal-conflicting-priorities-can-make-holidays-a-challenge/article_8d5a4a53-a23b-58aa-82e0-f74a21a0e88f.html
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https://www.unionleader.com/news/business/columns/closing-the-deal-conflicting-priorities-can-make-holidays-a-challenge/article_8d5a4a53-a23b-58aa-82e0-f74a21a0e88f.html
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THE HOLIDAY SEASON is a time for giving to charity.
It turns out that individuals make the greatest impact when it comes to charitable donations. In 2021, individuals contributed $326.87 billion to charity, accounting for 67.4% of total charitable contributions, according to Giving USA’s 2022 Annual Report on Philanthropy (tinyurl.com/3zw8n399).
Foundations accounted for $90.88 billion (18.7% of the total), bequests $46.01 billion (9.4%) and corporations $21.08 billion (4.3%).
If your family is new to charitable gifting, the Christmas holiday season offers the perfect opportunity to talk about causes, from helping war-torn communities in places such as Ukraine to cancer research, local hospitals and injured military personnel, just to name a few. To do some research, a useful tool might be Charity Navigator (charitynavigator.org), a charity evaluator.
Those discussions will prepare you and your family for Giving Tuesday, the Tuesday after Thanksgiving (Nov. 29 this year). Giving Tuesday “was created in 2012 as a simple idea: a day that encourages people to do good,” according to the nonprofit GivingTuesday (GivingTuesday.org).
Last year, 35 million adults took part in Giving Tuesday 2021, raising $2.7 billion for good causes, according to GivingTuesday Data Commons, a research collaboration between 300-plus organizations and 50-plus global data labs focused on uncovering new trends and insights on giving and generosity (tinyurl.com/452ar6xf).
Donations are not only beneficial to charities, but may help the donor taxwise as well if the recipient is a “qualified charitable organization.”
Look at “Organizations That Qualify To Receive Deductible Contributions” in IRS Publication 526, “Charitable Contributions” (tinyurl.com/4maj2wdp), for definitions and examples (churches, nonprofit charitable organization, nonprofit hospitals and medical research organizations, and the like).
Use the IRS Tax Exempt Organization Search Tool (tinyurl.com/2p92rkjn) to search by an organization’s name or Employer Identification Number. The IRS does note that the tool doesn’t list some organizations that may be eligible for tax-deductible donations, such as churches and governmental entities. Also, donations to donor-advised funds, charitable remainder trusts and most private foundations are generally not tax-deductible.
To get a sense of how a contribution might affect your taxes, invest “12 minutes” in a tool called the IRS Interactive Tax Assistant at tinyurl.com/48ucx2pv. Although the tool is not updated for 2022 taxes just yet, running the 2021 tool is helpful to get a general sense of how deductions work.
However, be aware that you will need to rely on your tax lawyer or accountant for the 2022 bottom-line conclusion. That is, two items will need to be updated for 2022. The deduction for non-itemizers (9 out of 10 taxpayers don’t itemize deductions) was due to expire in 2021. That is, in 2021, non-itemizers could deduct $300 ($600 for married filing jointly), without itemizing. One question remains: will that deduction be available for 2022? In addition, will itemizers be able to deduct 100% (instead of 60%) for cash gifts to charity? Both of these deductions were created by the CARES (Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security) Act in 2020 and extended to the end of 2021 by the Taxpayer Certainty and Disaster Tax Relief Act of 2020 (tinyurl.com/5yw652mz).
If you are age 70 1/2 or older, you are eligible to make a qualified charitable distribution (QCD) from your individual retirement account (IRA). The distribution can count toward your required minimum distribution (which begins at age 72). The maximum amount that you can exclude from income for a QCD is $100,000 annually.
Be sure to consult with your tax adviser before doing a QCD, and read IRS Publication 590-B (tinyurl.com/494r227w).
While donating to charity is a good way to begin the holiday season, there are also non-financial ways to help others as well. GivingTuesday.org has a blog suggesting 50 ways to give — with a number of options involving family, friends and neighbors (tinyurl.com/4nk6mns2). That sounds like an ideal start to GIVING at Thanksgiving.
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2022-11-27T01:53:09Z
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www.unionleader.com
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'Your Money': The holiday season is a time for giving | Business | unionleader.com
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https://www.unionleader.com/news/business/columns/your-money-the-holiday-season-is-a-time-for-giving/article_9a8e5654-9b64-5315-8470-9bd8ec7d9b1c.html
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https://www.unionleader.com/news/business/columns/your-money-the-holiday-season-is-a-time-for-giving/article_9a8e5654-9b64-5315-8470-9bd8ec7d9b1c.html
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Kevin O’Brien retired from the Air Force after suffering a back injury while deployed. He struggled for years to find the appropriate help for his physical and mental health struggles.
OLIVIA FALCIGNO/SEACOASTONLINE.COM
Air Force veteran Kevin O’Brien has battled for years to get the physical and mental-health care he needed after being injured during his service.
Dr. Brett Rusch is a psychiatrist and executive director of the VA Hospital in White River Junction, Vermont.
New Hampshire State Trooper Seth Gahr, left, retired from the Army as a lieutenant colonel after serving in Operation Deserrt Storm and the Iraq war. Also a former New York City police officer, Gahr is coordinator of the State Police Peer Support Unit.
Psychologist Barbara Van Dahlen syas mental health stressors begin almost immediately upon enlistment in the military.
Altschiller, Howard
Retired state police Maj. Russell Conte is the agency’s mental health and wellness coordinator. He says trained first responders know to ask whether a person in crisis is a veteran, which can open up quick access to services.
“Suicide is a huge indicator of the bigger picture,” says Susan Stearns of NAMI-NH. “It really is about what kind of supports and care do our veterans need.”
Jamie Cummings is a service officer at the New Hampshire Office of Veterans Services.
By Howard Altschiller Portsmouth Herald | USAToday Network
Seth Gahr of Stratham is a New Hampshire State Police trooper and retired Army lieutenant colonel who served in Iraq during Operation Desert Storm in 1991 and the Iraq War following the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. He also was a New York City police officer and first responder to the World Trade Center on 9/11.
Today, as the coordinator of the State Police Peer Support Unit, he works every day to get military veterans and first responders the mental health care they need and the benefits they have earned.
Service members rely on each other during war, and veterans trust and understand each other. Many who serve together remain close for the rest of their lives. So when a New Hampshire veteran is in crisis, Gahr often is dispatched to help.
Kevin O’Brien of Merrimack, who retired from the Air Force, described the feelings of isolation as he transitioned from active duty to veteran status.
“You put on that uniform, and you almost feel like Superman,” he said. “You get this overwhelming sense that ‘I’m doing what a lot of people will never do.’
“And then you come back from overseas and you’re just getting out of the military and you’re coming back to a world that doesn’t understand you,” he said. “They don’t want to understand you. Some people are afraid of you. And we’re afraid to talk about what we’ve been through because no one is going to understand.”
O’Brien’s goal was a career in law enforcement, and he was well on his way working in military security forces at Lackland Air Force Base in Texas. While deployed, he blew out two discs in his back doing demolition work on a base in Pakistan. Several unsuccessful surgeries later, he was retired from the military and disabled, his hopes of a career in law enforcement gone forever.
As his career ended, his marriage fell apart, and he lost visitation rights with his son.
“So that pressure, on top of my surgeries, on top of my career, I’ve just lost my whole family, too,” O’Brien said. “I don’t get hooked up with the VA (Veterans Affairs) until 2012. And then I go through doctor after doctor after doctor, pill after pill.”
After a suicide attempt in 2013, he said, he wound up in the Veterans Affairs hospital in Brockton, Mass., a facility with conditions so poor at the time that they made national headlines.
“My time with the VA has been quite strained,” O’Brien said in an email he sent following an interview for this story. “While I am lucky now to have a solid team, that was not always the case. When I got out, I was only considered 30% disabled due to my spinal fusion. I was never prepped properly for separation/retirement.
“The past 10-11 years have been a battle for me to get the 100% disabled I am today. I have had to prove time and time again that my injuries are legitimate and should be attended to properly. It’s not an easy system, especially when you’re brand new and have no one to direct you properly.”
Suicides cause for alarm
While mental illness touches as many as one in four Americans, it hits our nation’s veterans harder. Rates for suicide, substance misuse, depression and anxiety among veterans are significantly higher than among non-veterans.
In 2022, the VA reported that the suicide rate for veterans, adjusted for population, age and sex differences, was 57.3% higher than for non-veteran U.S adults. In 2020, the VA reported, 6,146 veterans committed suicide, an average of about 17 a day.
New Hampshire’s veteran suicide rate in 2020 — 36 per 100,000 — is “significantly higher” than the national veteran suicide rate of 31.7, according to the VA.
In 2021, New Hampshire had 87,604 veterans, equal to 7.8% of the 18-and-over population, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
While not all suicides are mental health-related and not all veterans struggling with mental health challenges become suicidal, indications are that veterans and their families are struggling, said Susan Stearns, executive director of NAMI-NH (National Alliance on Mental Illness-NH).
Behind the trends
Dozens of organizations are committed to helping New Hampshire’s veterans receive the care they need, from the large VA hospitals in Manchester and White River Junction to newer nonprofits like Hero Pups in Stratham, which matches veterans with service dogs.
All those interviewed for this story point to recent improvements in the treatment and care of veterans, but they also acknowledge the state and nation have a long way to go in the treatment and care of men and women who served.
Help is available, but it is not always easy to access.
Goal: immediate response
Rusch also urged everyone to know and use the mental health crisis line, 988, which went into full effect in July. He encouraged those who love and support veterans to have that number in their phone contacts. Veterans who call should push “1” to be connected to help.
Because the Manchester VA does not have inpatient mental health beds, if a veteran needs inpatient or a higher level of care, Manchester will connect them with full-service VA hospitals in White River Junction, Boston or beyond.
No wrong door for help
“A lot of clients will feel more comfortable engaging with the vet center first and then going to a VA medical center or outpatient clinic to get in touch with a psychiatrist,” Cummings said.
“I look at it like a bridge where they can get good solid counseling and they have veterans on staff that are counselors there who may make someone feel comfortable about going to see a psychiatrist about medications.”
“The vets don’t need to be shy,” Gahr said. “They can just walk into a VA and say, ‘I’m a veteran and I have a problem,’ and they’ll be taken care of at the door. The vet centers and the VA, they’ll take care of you.”
Risk factors for veterans
“The journey begins when you sign on the dotted line and raise your hand and say, ‘I will serve my country,’” Van Dahlen said. “But the experience of being in the service and the challenges and the risks, they contribute to the risk factors for our veterans.”
“Perhaps as many as one in four — and maybe more — struggle with addiction, whether it’s to prescription pills or to alcohol or other substances” Rusch said. “And that’s before you even get to vulnerabilities for post traumatic stress disorder, for depression, for anxiety and other circumstances.”
Sexual assault in the military is an issue gaining greater attention, and the PACT Act just signed into law attempts to address the damage done by toxic burn pits, Agent Orange and other chemical exposures.
Combat vs. counseling
“In the military, we gut it out,” Gahr said. “Everybody guts it out. You can’t go to a medic if something bothers you. Because you’re a warrior. You have to fight. You don’t have time to say, ‘It’s time out, I injured myself.’ Everybody is hopped up on adrenaline. Nobody wants to go see the medic, to come off the line. ... Years later, it starts to hurt. Years later, these injuries start popping up.”
Merrimack’s O’Brien said he didn’t seek help until the pain became unbearable, because he thought it would take him away from the mission.
“They tell you that mental health support is there to help you,” O’Brien said. “I carried a gun. Do you think I want to go to mental health so they can take my gun away and so they can take my job away so I can sit at a desk? That’s not why I signed up. I’ve signed up to do a job that no one else will do. And if I have to suck it up and deal with my own then I’m going to suck it up and deal with my own.”
A difficult transition
The first year of transition from active duty to veteran is fraught with risk. To address this, VA and other federal agencies offer a specially designed Transition Assistance Program to help service members moving from military to civilian life.
First, the Defense Department’s electronic health records system is not linked to the VA medical records system, so each service member comes to the VA as a blank page. Often, at the end of service, members are eager to get home and are not focused on collecting documentation of physical or mental injuries. Accessing medical records is a challenge that often requires help from someone like Cummings at the New Hampshire Division of Veterans Services.
Dr. Alicia Semiatin, the chief of mental health services at the Manchester VA, said the “Military to VA” program is focused on addressing this challenge.
“It’s a very strong practice where we have intensive case managers whose entire role it is to outreach proactively to veterans who are discharging from service to try to get them engaged in the VA or to case manage them if they’re not eligible for VA to get them to the care that they can access in the community,” Semiatin said.
Help for vets in crisis
Not every veteran is going to look for help. The needs of some are going to be discovered only when they are in crisis. That’s where people like Gahr, and his supervisor, Russell Conte, of the state police, come in.
Conte retired as a major after 33 years with the state police. Now, as the state police mental health and wellness coordinator, he leads the state’s Crisis Intervention Training (CIT) program for first responders. He also is a longtime board member of NAMI-NH and chairs the state’s Suicide Prevention Council.
“About a third of state police are veterans,” Conte said. “And we also have a very high veteran population in New Hampshire. There’s a lot of people who served who may not be taking advantage of VA services.
“They may be homeless or have a substance misuse disorder or a mental health issue. When you have somebody that is either deemed suspicious or they may be homeless, whatever the case may be, many times their first interaction is not with somebody from mental health services. It’s usually the police.”
Conte and others interviewed for this story urge anyone coming in contact with someone struggling with mental health to “ask the question,” a reference to a program that trains first responders to ask “Have you or a family member ever served in the military?” to ensure veterans are identified and given the care they need.
“I’ve never met a first responder that didn’t want to help people,” Conte said. “Well, if you want to help people, you’ve got to do it right now. Because as soon as you drive away, if you don’t interact with that person and you don’t get them help, it’s not going to get better.”
Hope and purpose
“Everyone who signs up to serve our nation is writing a blank check to the U.S. government up to and including their lives,” said NAMI-NH’s Stearns.
“In New Hampshire, we have a higher population of veterans than most other states and we also have a slimmer VA medical system here in New Hampshire, which really calls upon us to do things the New Hampshire way and come together as a community … to ensure that our veteran service members and their families have access to all the services and health care they require to survive and thrive.
“I want to make sure that we frame this in terms of hope,” Stearns said. “The reality is the veterans crisis line fields about 300 calls a day. So that’s 300 folks who are reaching out for support on any given day. ... We need to remember that there are resources like the Veterans Crisis Line available. Call 988. Push 1. You’ll be connected with a veteran who can help.”
“Heads Up: A Year-Long Mental Health Awareness Journey” is financially supported in part by Dartmouth Health.
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2022-11-27T01:53:15Z
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www.unionleader.com
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Veterans' mental health: 'There is help and there is hope' | Health | unionleader.com
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https://www.unionleader.com/news/health/veterans-mental-health-there-is-help-and-there-is-hope/article_030d2607-0607-5e46-81b9-6a11049b1094.html
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https://www.unionleader.com/news/health/veterans-mental-health-there-is-help-and-there-is-hope/article_030d2607-0607-5e46-81b9-6a11049b1094.html
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Ohio State coach Ryan Day, left, a Manchester native, and Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh exchange pleasantries before Saturday’s game in Columbus, Ohio.
McCarthy followed that with a 15-play, 80-yard drive that took 7:51 off the clock by running in from the 3 with 13:10 remaining in the game.
A defensive pass interference call on the Buckeyes’ Zach Harrison on a third-and-10 from the Ohio State 13 kept the drive alive and put the ball on the 2-yard line.
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2022-11-27T01:53:49Z
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www.unionleader.com
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Big plays carry No. 3 Michigan past No. 2 Ohio State 45-23 | College Sports | unionleader.com
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https://www.unionleader.com/sports/college/big-plays-carry-no-3-michigan-past-no-2-ohio-state-45-23/article_e8dcef9a-7e5f-5e2e-8860-487a75a6a117.html
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https://www.unionleader.com/sports/college/big-plays-carry-no-3-michigan-past-no-2-ohio-state-45-23/article_e8dcef9a-7e5f-5e2e-8860-487a75a6a117.html
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Mikaela Shiffrin heads down the slope during the first run of the giant slalom race in the FIS Alpine World Cup at Killington (Vermont) Resort. Shiffrin, who spent formative years in Lyme, finished 13th after winning the World Cup season’s first two races in Finland. Story, Page C4.
Crowd favorite Shiffrin 12th at Killington
KILLINGTON, Vt. — A Swiss skier came from behind to win the giant slalom race on the first day of the Killington Women’s World Cup race, while an Italian skier, who has a history of first-place wins at the Vermont race, finished second.
Lara Gut-Behrami of Switzerland made up time on the final race to capture first place after finishing third in the qualifying run. Italian skier Marta Bassino finished second and Sara Hector of Sweden captured third place.
Mikaela Shiffrin, who spent formative years in Lyme, continued to draw huge applause although she finished Saturday’s race in 13th place.
Coming off back-to-back slalom wins at Levi, Finland, last week, Shiffrin said she felt like she skied the first run more like a slalom course than a giant slalom. “I have to switch gears,” she said.
But Shiffrin called the conditions, “a blast.” It drizzled on Friday but then temperatures dropped overnight causing the snow to firm up, which the racers like.
Shiffrin is expected to compete in the slalom on Sunday, which is a competition she has dominated, winning all six years the race has been held.
Saturday’s crowd attracted a record-breaking one-day crowd of 21,000 spectators, besting the 2019 total of 19,500. But one of the best things about the crowd is its enthusiasm that help gives skiers an energy boost. “The crowd is not only cheering for one person and booing everyone else. They are rooting for everyone and that makes me really proud to race here,” Shiffrin said.
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2022-11-27T01:54:01Z
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Crowd favorite Shiffrin 12th at Killington | Sports | unionleader.com
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https://www.unionleader.com/sports/crowd-favorite-shiffrin-12th-at-killington/article_1733b64e-d395-5c74-b17e-666e6f13bdcf.html
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https://www.unionleader.com/sports/crowd-favorite-shiffrin-12th-at-killington/article_1733b64e-d395-5c74-b17e-666e6f13bdcf.html
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Bedford quarterback Danny Black gets a hug from one of his coaches after leading the Bulldogs to a last-second victory over Londonderry.
JODIE ANDRUSKEVICH
Bedford QB Danny Black gets pressured by a Londonderry defender during Saturday's Division I final.
EXETER — Little did Danny Black know when he took over starting quarterback duties for Bedford in August that he would have the dream scenario that every high school quarterback dreams about, but that’s where the junior found himself in Saturday’s Division I championship game against Londonderry.
With his team trailing 14-12 and backed up at his own 11-yard line, Black stared down the challenge of a two-minute drill for a championship and excelled.
Black completed 6 of 13 passes for 60 yards to set up Colby Snow’s 27-yard field goal with 10.3 seconds left that lifted No. 10 Bedford to a 15-14 upset victory over top-seeded, defending champion Londonderry at Exeter High School. Black completed 18 of 33 passes for 201 yards with a touchdown and an interception on the day.
“It’s just so much adrenaline, you’ve just got to lock in and you’ve just got to trust your guys,” Black said. “We stayed in the moment. We’ve been working on a two-minute drill all year and it was muscle-memory I guess. We executed it very well.”
Black’s final drive capped off a stellar second half in which he completed 13 of 24 passes for 158 yards, which included a 7-yard touchdown pass to Dom Tagliaferro that brought Bedford within 14-6 with seven minutes left in the third quarter.
Tagliaferro (six catches, 69 yards) and Black also connected for a 26-yard completion down to Londonderry’s 16-yard line on fourth-and-4 that helped set up Logan Sfeir’s 4-yard scoring run. Black’s 2-point conversion completion to Dylan Soden was stuffed at the goal line, leaving Londonderry with a 14-12 lead with 5:25 left in the game.
“He played great. He just put it on the receivers and let us make plays, and that’s all we could ask for,” Tagliaferro said. “I had plenty of confidence, more than I think he thought we all did. We knew going down when he was hitting everybody in the chest, that I knew we were going to go down there and score.”
Black started the championship-winning drive by running for 9 yards and finding Tagliaferro for an 11-yard gain on third-and-1 to bring Bedford to its own 31. After a late hit call moved the ball to Londonderry’s 49, Black found Snow and Joel Poltroneri for back-to-back completions of 10 and 14 yards.
After an 11-yard completion on third-and-10 brought the Bulldogs down to the 25, Black nearly connected for a 14-yard touchdown pass to Evan Cibottii, but it was knocked away by Londonderry’s Seth Doyon. Black rebounded with a crucial nine-yard completion to the 10 to Tagliaferro to set up Snow’s kick.
“We knew what we could do and we just had to go out there and execute. That was the best half of football we’ve played,” Black said. “I thought (Cibotti) was going to catch that touchdown pass, so that was a bit of a heartbreaker. Once the field goal unit came on, I felt pretty confident.”
Bedford coach Zach Matthews said Black has progressively improved after taking over for graduated standout quarterback Joe Mikol, and he thrived in staring down the challenge of facing the Londonderry’s Division I First-Team quarterback Drew Heenan.
“This is the type of game environment you want to be in,” Matthews said. “If you’re a quarterback and you can orchestrate a game-winning drive for a state championship, that’s a pretty special thing. That’s something he’ll never forget. He shouldn’t. It’s pretty special.
EXETER — Bedford High School’s Colby Snow is known best for his playmaking ability as a wide receiver, defensive back and kick returner, but y…
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2022-11-27T01:54:08Z
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Bedford QB Danny Black runs down a dream | Sports | unionleader.com
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https://www.unionleader.com/sports/highschool/bedford-qb-danny-black-runs-down-a-dream/article_103f64ab-17b8-5cea-bd65-bbd805fb9624.html
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https://www.unionleader.com/sports/highschool/bedford-qb-danny-black-runs-down-a-dream/article_103f64ab-17b8-5cea-bd65-bbd805fb9624.html
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JJ the mini goldendoodle, getting some TLC from owner Earl Wickline, is back home with his family after a harrowing encounter with what was believed to be a fisher at their Londonderry home.
Provided by Wickline family
JJ, left, and Faith snuggle up together after surviving a near-fatal encounter with a wild animal believed to be a fisher.
Earl Wickline feared the worst as he cradled his beloved pet in his arms, desperately pressing a towel against the horrific wound where the dog’s lifeblood was pouring out.
“I was convinced the dog was going to die right there in my arms,” he said. “You cannot believe how I was praying.”
This is a story about dogs and the humans who cherish them. It’s also a story about New Hampshire and the people who make this state such a special place to live.
Finally, it’s a story about faith and, perhaps, fate.
Wickline, 72, knows something about that.
Eight years ago, the Londonderry man was honored with a Union Leader Hero Award for the actions he took to save the life of a man whose vehicle had crashed and caught fire. Wickline had awakened before dawn that morning and left early for his job at the Nashua postal distribution center.
And that’s why he was on that road at that time.
The man’s 11-year-old Labrador retriever was also in the smoke-filled vehicle, and Wickline saved the dog’s life as well when he managed to pull open the passenger side door and drag the driver to safety.
Back then, Wickline told a reporter that he knew that God had put him in that place at that time. A moment of grace.
This time, Wickline’s family was on the receiving end of that grace.
Earl and his wife, Dianne, have two dogs. Jaydon, nicknamed JJ, a 3-year-old miniature goldendoodle, is “the heart and soul of the family,” he said.
About a month ago, they got a doodle puppy, and JJ at once became the little female’s protector.
Last Tuesday, Wickline had let the two dogs out for their nightly routine when JJ suddenly bolted into the backyard. As Wickline trained his flashlight in that direction, he glimpsed an animal he thought at first was a squirrel. He had just enough time to wonder why a squirrel was out at night when JJ began to scream.
The fisher, for that’s what it was, had slashed at the dog with its claws, opening a gash from ear to shoulder and slicing the carotid artery. “The blood was just shooting out of him,” he said.
Wickline grabbed a towel and tried to keep pressure on the gruesome wound. “I’m just trying to stop the bleeding as best as I can,” he said. “I just knew in my heart that the dog was going to die.”
That’s when Wickline’s neighbor, Josh Murray, pulled into his driveway next door and heard the screaming. He ran to help.
“This is an angel from God,” Wickline remembers thinking.
He and his wife go to church several times a week, and Wickline is active in Catholic men’s organizations. His faith has sustained him through the most difficult times, including triple bypass surgery in 2020, he said.
“I talk to God a lot,” he said.
Wickline’s neighbor drove him and JJ to the Veterinary Emergency Center of Manchester. “I sat in the front seat of his car, holding the dog and keeping the pressure on,” Wickline said.
He never stopped praying.
When they got to the emergency center, the medical team sprang into action, Wickline said. “They knew they didn’t have much time,” he said. “They said we literally had minutes to spare.”
It was the veterinary staff who told Wickline it was likely a fisher that wounded the dog. A fox or coyote would have left bite marks. “A fisher cat just slices and slashes,” he said.
All that long night, the staff gave Wickline updates every 15 minutes. “I can’t say enough how wonderful those people are,” he said.
Others were there to help that night as well. A kind police dispatcher contacted the emergency hospital to stand by. A police officer came to the house and stayed with Dianne and the puppy, who was still shaking in terror an hour after the attack.
At the emergency vet’s, Wickline’s neighbor stayed with him for hours, and the two men prayed together in the waiting room.
Someone once told Wickline that we collect “pearls” for our good deeds to earn our way to heaven, and suggested that Wickline’s past kindnesses had earned him his share.
That night, as his dog’s life hung in the balance, Wickline had a request for God: “I really need to call one in.”
“I think he heard me,” he said, his voice breaking.
JJ survived.
“I can’t tell you how many times I kissed my dog last night,” Wickline said.
The family brought him home on Thanksgiving and the two dogs were soon snuggled up together on a cozy quilt.
Wickline said he’s “beyond grateful” to everyone who helped save JJ’s life.
He wanted to remind the rest of us “that there are a lot of great people out there, doing the best they can,” he said.
Oh, and the puppy’s name?
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2022-11-27T03:50:27Z
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Londonderry family 'beyond grateful' to all who helped save their beloved dog | Animals | unionleader.com
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https://www.unionleader.com/news/animals/londonderry-family-beyond-grateful-to-all-who-helped-save-their-beloved-dog/article_cae3c2ac-b4c1-5d7d-b505-99c8106fa4b3.html
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https://www.unionleader.com/news/animals/londonderry-family-beyond-grateful-to-all-who-helped-save-their-beloved-dog/article_cae3c2ac-b4c1-5d7d-b505-99c8106fa4b3.html
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The management team from Spectacle Live poses for a photo Nov. 17 in front of the Colonial Theatre in downtown Laconia. From left, Melissa Glasper, Nicole Southworth, Rosie Romagnoli, Jake Crumb, Cassidy Blouin, Colleen Pentland Lally and Pete Lally.
Ellie Bolduc and her husband, Ernie, pose for a photo Nov. 17 during an open house at the Colonial Theatre in Laconia.
The Colonial Theatre in Laconia on Nov. 18.
GROWING UP IN Laconia in the 1940s, Ernie Bolduc liked going to the Colonial Theatre on Main Street, but he liked the Gardens Theatre on the west side of the street even more.
With the Gardens Theatre long since closed, Bolduc is one of the biggest boosters of the Colonial.
As municipal leaders hoped, the Colonial has become a catalyst for the economic revitalization of the downtown since the theater reopened as a performance venue in July 2021.
“Every time we come here, it’s plum full no matter what the program is,” said Bolduc, 89, who recently attended an open house at the Colonial with his wife, Elle.
The Colonial’s revival was a long time coming. The 1914 property, which includes commercial space on Main and Canal streets as well as apartments above it, had fallen into disrepair. City leaders targeted the theater as key to the improvement of downtown.
After several unsuccessful attempts to buy the theater, the city of Laconia partnered with the Belknap Economic Development Council to purchase and renovate it in June 2015 and contracted with Lexington, Mass.-based Spectacle Live to manage it.
After a nearly $15 million upgrade, the 750-seat theater opened with seven sold-out shows by comedian Bob Marley.
Those performances were followed by sellouts by Theresa Caputo, Whitney Cummings, Three Dog Night, the Lakes Region Symphony Orchestra, One Night of Queen, and the Powerhouse Theatre Collaborative, which is the Colonial’s resident theater company.
In all, the Colonial since it reopened, according to Spectacle Live, has hosted 96 performances – about eight of which the Bolducs attended.
“The acoustics here are like Symphony Hall, and there’s not a bad seat in the house,” Ellie Bolduc said.
Pete Lally, president of Spectacle Live, said his company is pleasantly surprised with how well the theater has been received. The company manages eight municipally owned venues in New England and will also be operating the Nashua Center for the Arts, scheduled to open next year.
Each of the communities where the venues are located hope those venues will drive new economic activity, but nowhere has that drive come as quickly as in Laconia, Lally said.
When the Colonial is hosting a major performance it alerts restaurants like Hector’s Fine Food & Spirits, which is about a quarter mile west of the Colonial, so they can plan accordingly.
While not taking direct credit, Lally said the Colonial has witnessed a surge of business activity around it since reopening. Wayfarer Coffee Roasters, across the street, has doubled in size, and Koung Sushi Mart and Innisfree Bookshop have opened nearby.
Spectacle Live initially believed that the Colonial would primarily serve the summer market of seasonal visitors to Laconia.
“But what I didn’t appreciate was how many people are here year-round,” Lally said.
Both Ernie Bolduc and Laconia Mayor Andrew Hosmer credit the success of the Colonial to Ed Engler, who was Laconia’s mayor from 2013 to 2019. Engler died of colon cancer on Nov. 5, 2021.
“God bless Ed Engler. Were it not for Ed Engler this would not have taken place,” Bolduc said.
The performance space in the theater is named the Edward J. Engler Auditorium.
Hosmer, who succeeded Engler as mayor, said Engler overcame “many impediments to get this project off the ground, and Ed believed in it.”
“Ed had a vision of investing in the Colonial Theatre and referred to it as a public amenity, that, like dropping a pebble in a pond, would have an economic ripple effect on Main Street,” Hosmer said.
From the city’s perspective, COVID-19 was a good thing for the redevelopment of the Colonial, Hosmer said, because it allowed work to continue — no artists were touring in the early days of the pandemic, he pointed out — and gave the city time to find a company to run it.
Spectacle Live has a five-year contract with Laconia to manage the Colonial, of which it is the primary tenant, with the city receiving a share of concession revenues. Hosmer and Lally said Spectacle Live is already nearing profitability on its investment in the Colonial. Show prices are in the $30 to $100 range.
The redevelopment of the Colonial prompted Rusty McLear, who created and later sold the Inn at Mills Falls complex in Meredith, to renovate and transform nine apartments in the Colonial building into condominiums, said Hosmer, who with his wife Donna, resides there.
The Colonial is acting as the economic driver that it was hoped it would be, said Hosmer, and that fact “is one of the reasons my wife and I decided to live in the downtown.”
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2022-11-27T03:50:33Z
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Comedy, drama, and music are driving the success of Laconia's reborn Colonial Theatre | Business | unionleader.com
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https://www.unionleader.com/news/business/comedy-drama-and-music-are-driving-the-success-of-laconias-reborn-colonial-theatre/article_68960ae9-f114-58af-8480-1eeee5eb8860.html
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https://www.unionleader.com/news/business/comedy-drama-and-music-are-driving-the-success-of-laconias-reborn-colonial-theatre/article_68960ae9-f114-58af-8480-1eeee5eb8860.html
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You might see that you are an early shopper and have already checked off most of the boxes for family, friends, and colleagues. Or you may be like many of us who still have a long list and little time left to complete it.
Either way, we hope your gift-giving will include a donation to the Union Leader Santa Fund for the Salvation Army. It may be the best gift you give this year and may give you the best of feelings.
The list of donors has already begun and will continue to be published in our pages throughout the next month. Some people choose to donate anonymously. Others use the fund as a sort of universal Christmas card greeting to the community. “In lieu of Christmas cards” often shows up along with a donor’s name. (It’s also easier than licking all those postage stamps.)
The Santa Fund helps children and families in need both at Christmas and year-round. A donation can help that individual or family. It also has a way of making the donor feel a bit more in the Christmas spirit. Some donors also give in memory of a loved one. And it’s tax-deductible. Talk about a gift that keeps on giving.
Donations can be made online at UnionLader.com/SantaFund. Or you can drop a check in the mail to Santa Fund, Union Leader, Box 9555, Manchester, NH, 03108-9555.
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2022-11-27T05:44:17Z
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Guess what’s coming: Here’s a great gift idea | Editorials | unionleader.com
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https://www.unionleader.com/opinion/editorials/guess-what-s-coming-here-s-a-great-gift-idea/article_dc562286-ad8d-5579-9d4d-5cb026cf73bc.html
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https://www.unionleader.com/opinion/editorials/guess-what-s-coming-here-s-a-great-gift-idea/article_dc562286-ad8d-5579-9d4d-5cb026cf73bc.html
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Raymond Wieczorek would have made a heck of a fine congressman.
We know this because he was a fine mayor of Manchester and a fine executive councilor. Both positions are best served by individuals who care for their constituents’ needs, including their pocketbooks, and who also maintain a positive, can-do attitude despite the burdens of office.
Wieczorek came from the insurance business, which also teaches one to look out for clients’ best interests if he or she expects to succeed. That is especially so if one is running his own agency, as Wieczorek did. He also served his city in various volunteer capacities and served his country during the Korean war.
Manchester voters elected him to five terms as their mayor. They were wise to do so. He managed to keep his temper with the antics of some aldermen and city departments, not always an easy task. He was a champion of the city’s efforts to revive the Millyard into the technology center it is today. He also spurred the revival of Manchester’s airport and pushed for the civic center that did so much to revitalize downtown.
He came up against the Sununu juggernaut and lost in his 1996 race for the Republican nomination for 1st District U.S. Representative to John E. Sununu. But Wieczorek kept on keeping on, later serving 10 years on the Executive Council.
To the political world, Wieczorek was often referred to as “The Wiz.” Friends called him “Ray.” That suits the man who died last week just shy of his 94th birthday. He was a Ray of sunshine in our sometimes gloomy world.
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2022-11-27T05:44:23Z
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Ray Wieczorek: Manchester mourns | Editorials | unionleader.com
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https://www.unionleader.com/opinion/editorials/ray-wieczorek-manchester-mourns/article_58021b44-044b-5585-ab01-6c8a0ac8eaf7.html
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https://www.unionleader.com/opinion/editorials/ray-wieczorek-manchester-mourns/article_58021b44-044b-5585-ab01-6c8a0ac8eaf7.html
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In last week’s ruling regarding a disputed state representative election result in Manchester, the judge cited New Hampshire’s Supreme Court. “The question to be decided is not whether some election officer has followed the requirements of the statute … The issue is: What was the legally expressed choice of the voters.”
Superior Court Judge Amy Ignatius rejected the efforts of state Democrats to block Secretary of State David Scanlan from honorably doing his duty once he realized that an error had likely been made in the Ward 6 recount. The Democrats, taking a page from Donald Trump, were attempting a stop-the-count effort by using the court. The judge wasn’t buying it.
She again cited the high court: “In resolving election difficulties of this nature, care must be taken that the matter is not decided on the basis of unwarranted technicalities. The goal must be the ascertainment of the legally expressed choice of the voters.”
Wisely, Scanlan had selected the Ward 6 race as one of 10 under a new law that requires a review of another (statewide) race in the same precinct. The review indicated that a stack of ballots had been overlooked in the local race recount. Scanlan rightly ordered that the recount be extended. The result? The Republican who had initially lost the recount by one vote was actually the winner by 26.
The judge noted that the statutes do not ordinarily give the secretary of state the authority to review a recount. But “this matter stands apart from ordinary circumstances.” Indeed it did. The legislature may want to tweak the relevant laws to address such circumstances.
Regrettably, the Democratic Party in New Hampshire will oppose any such reform, just as its members ran to court to try to stop Secretary of State Scanlan from counting votes. It wants a partisan political actor in that office. That would be disastrous for New Hampshire.
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2022-11-27T05:44:29Z
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The right ruling: Scanlan did his job | Editorials | unionleader.com
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https://www.unionleader.com/opinion/editorials/the-right-ruling-scanlan-did-his-job/article_708dda85-b104-5403-bcf4-257bcb70d87c.html
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https://www.unionleader.com/opinion/editorials/the-right-ruling-scanlan-did-his-job/article_708dda85-b104-5403-bcf4-257bcb70d87c.html
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To the Editor: We Democratic candidates for state representative offer a heartfelt, “Thank you.”
Thank you to the people and entities who contributed to our campaigns.
Thank you to all the people who worked tirelessly on our behalf.
Thank you to the public-spirited organizations who honored us with their endorsements.
Thank you to the Weare and Goffstown Democratic Committees, who provided us with every manner of support.
Thank you to our families and friends who stood by us through three stressful months.
And above all, thank you to the more than 1,500 voters in Weare and more than 3,300 in Goffstown who came out on a cold election day to cast their votes for a brighter future.
We ran a civil, respectful, fact-based campaign that we can all be proud of. We trust we have laid a foundation for forward-thinking candidates to build on starting in 2024.
WILLIAM POLITT
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2022-11-27T05:44:42Z
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Letter: Grateful for the support | Letters to the Editor | unionleader.com
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https://www.unionleader.com/opinion/letters_to_editor/letter-grateful-for-the-support/article_2bd7e4d3-a012-5a9b-a471-ceea5cfd8bda.html
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https://www.unionleader.com/opinion/letters_to_editor/letter-grateful-for-the-support/article_2bd7e4d3-a012-5a9b-a471-ceea5cfd8bda.html
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Doug McNutt
AFTER Thanksgiving, with families getting together fresh in mind, now is an appropriate time to discuss how our current long-term care system is failing many of us. Too often, older people and adults with physical disabilities cannot access the care they need due to the current system being fragmented, uncoordinated, and underfunded. To ensure that everyone has access to the timely delivery of long-term home and community-based services with a meaningful range of long-term care options, we must improve the existing infrastructure to establish a comprehensive and coordinated care system.
There have been several recent reports identifying problems with the long-term care system for older adults and those with physical disabilities. These include “Barriers to Health Care Transitions in New Hampshire: A Snapshot Review” by the New Hampshire Hospital Association and Foundation for Healthy Communities; the New Hampshire Fiscal Policy Institute’s “Long-Term Services and Supports in New Hampshire: A Review of the State’s Medicaid Funding for Older Adults and Adults with Physical Disabilities”; “Giving Care: A Strategic Plan to Expand and Support New Hampshire’s Health Care Workforce”; and the State Commission on Aging’s annual report.
To achieve the goal of healthy aging, the New Hampshire Alliance for Healthy Aging is proposing a piece of legislation with the goal of creating a more comprehensive, coordinated, cost-effective and better-funded system of long-term care that would enable healthy aging for all in any setting they choose.
This legislation seeks to create a methodology for estimating the Choices for Independence (CFI) waiver service delivery costs to aid in informing decisions regarding reimbursement rates to align future investments with cost changes. The CFI waiver provides services under Medicaid for those who are nursing home eligible and want to stay at home. To best support this program, we recommend that the Department of Health and Human Services budget request for all home and community-based waiver programs for adults to be funded, at a minimum, at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services’ home health agency market basket rate. This position is informed by NHFPI’s report, which shows that funding for CFI services is not matching current inflation rates.
There is no standardized method of identifying the costs for CFI services, which contributes to the underfunding of the CFI program. Implementing an agreed-upon rate methodology would assist in preventing CFI services from falling behind.
The New Hampshire Fiscal Policy Institute’s report interviewed many people who work with the long-term care system regularly. They uniformly felt that the system was too confusing and took too much time for people in crisis and in need of services to remain out of institutions. The Department of Health and Human Services has a median time frame of 45 days to process applications for assistance. Forty-five days is too long.
Families in crisis need and deserve an expedited eligibility process to establish eligibility in a shorter time frame. Other states (Washington and Ohio) do this with a low error rate. In addition, this expedited process would help hospitals, with the Hospital Association report indicating that 26% of individuals experiencing delays in discharge from hospitals were due to the Medicaid application process.
To make the eligibility process more streamlined and understandable for both consumers and providers, there needs to be support in place for navigating the system to track applications. This type of assistance could be provided by the current ServiceLink network, which already plays a role in the application process.
A designated space for consumers to raise concerns and complaints about the application process is also necessary. To do this would require the creation of additional positions in the Office of Long-Term Ombudsman, which focuses on addressing home care issues. Currently, the Ombudsman Office is centered around nursing home and assisted living complaints.
Implementing these recommendations would not only help stabilize the long-term care system but also provide more and better options for people needing long-term care services in New Hampshire.
Doug McNutt is a member of the state Commission on Aging and former advocacy director at AARP. He lives in Concord.
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2022-11-27T05:44:48Z
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Doug McNutt: A better system of care to ensure healthy aging for all | Op-eds | unionleader.com
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https://www.unionleader.com/opinion/op-eds/doug-mcnutt-a-better-system-of-care-to-ensure-healthy-aging-for-all/article_ce89a0b6-8177-5498-b35c-ff19c890196d.html
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https://www.unionleader.com/opinion/op-eds/doug-mcnutt-a-better-system-of-care-to-ensure-healthy-aging-for-all/article_ce89a0b6-8177-5498-b35c-ff19c890196d.html
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In a rescue United States Coast Guard officials are calling a "Thanksgiving miracle," a helicopter crew saved a 28-year-old man Thursday night after he went overboard a Carnival Cruise Line ship and spent a day floating in the Gulf of Mexico.
Coast Guard officers in New Orleans received a call about a missing passenger from the Carnival Valor at 2:30 p.m. Thursday, according to a news release from the Coast Guard's 8th District Public Affairs Office.
A rescue swimmer on an MH-60 Jayhawk helicopter secured him at 8:25 p.m. Thursday about 20 miles south of Southwest Pass. The man was last seen on the ship around 11 p.m. Wednesday, the Coast Guard said, meaning he could have been treading water through the night into Thanksgiving.
"This is an exceptionally rare case," Ryan Graves, a petty officer in public affairs with the 8th District, told The Washington Post. "It is really nothing short of a Thanksgiving miracle to be able to pick somebody up after that long in the water without any sort of flotation device."
"We are beyond grateful that this case ended with a positive outcome," Seth Gross, a Sector New Orleans search and rescue mission coordinator, said in a news release. "It took a total team effort from Coast Guard watch standers, response crews, and our professional maritime partners operating in the Gulf of Mexico to locate the missing individual and get him to safety."
"It is why we joined, really, is to do things like this," Graves said. "On a holiday like this, it's good to bring him back to his family." Representatives for Carnival Cruise Line declined to provide details about what the passenger was doing before he went overboard but expressed their gratitude for the rescue.
"We greatly appreciate the efforts of all, most especially the U.S. Coast Guard and the mariner who spotted the guest in the water," Matt Lupoli, a spokesman for Carnival Cruise Line, said in an email.
Chris Chiames, the chief communications officer, said in an email that cruise ship safety barriers are regulated by Coast Guard standards to prevent falls. "Guests should never ever climb up on the rails," Chiames said. "The only way to go overboard is to purposefully climb up and over the safety barriers."
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2022-11-27T20:58:25Z
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Coast Guard saves overboard cruise passenger in 'Thanksgiving miracle' | Back Page | unionleader.com
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https://www.unionleader.com/news/back_page/coast-guard-saves-overboard-cruise-passenger-in-thanksgiving-miracle/article_753c546a-9c5b-514a-8118-08f3b82654a0.html
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Last season, their defense suffered a crash landing from its No. 1 ranking in mid-December to producing the worst performance in NFL history during a 47-17 playoff loss. That drop expedited the team’s fall from a top seed in the AFC playoff picture to a Wild Card berth and first-round exit. Ahead of Thursday’s visit from the Bills, the division rivals’ first meeting since last January, Patriots linebackers coach Jerod Mayo admitted those defeats do feel personal.
Patriots defensive play-caller Steve Belichick said Allen has improved from last year, when he went 21-of-25 for 308 yards and five touchdowns in the Wild Card win. More recently, Allen’s MVP candidacy has cooled with a difficult stretch in November, though he’s still completed 63.9% of his passes for 3,183 yards, 23 touchdowns and 11 interceptions this year.
As for Diggs, the Patriots expect him to be featured again Thursday night. He’s averaged more than six catches and 84 yards per game against the Patriots over his career, with five touchdowns in six games, But, like the Vikings, Buffalo boasts a capable No. 2 wideout in Gabriel Davis, who’s caught 33 passes for 650 yards and five touchdowns, plus tight end Dawson Knox and multiple capable running backs.
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2022-11-27T20:58:50Z
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Patriots defense trying to move on from last year’s embarrassments against Bills | Patriots | unionleader.com
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The Bennington Battle Flag, by tradition believed to be the design of the flag carried by Brig. Gen. John Stark's troops during the Battle of Bennington in 1777.
It was the eighth day of their 3,200-mile cross-country hike which had started on the Atlantic Coast in Portland, Maine. The hikers’ purpose was to honor the Bicentennial of the American Revolution and the founding of the United States of America with one simple, sincere gesture — of walking across America to the Pacific Ocean.
It took the hikers three days, and a portion of a fourth day, to cross 46 miles over Route 9 through Vermont to reach the New York border. The men and their van driver, Chris Hurd (all members of the Meredith Jaycees which sponsored the walk), spent three nights in inns and motels along the way.
This leg of the journey was difficult, as the road passed through the hilly southern portion of the Green Mountains, but Hormell and King were up for the challenge. They even managed to climb two scenic mountains along the way.
On March 23, the two men made it to the top of Hogback Mountain, a popular downhill ski area in Marlboro, elevation 2,410 feet. Impressed by the museum at the mountain’s summit, Hormell wrote in his journal that he “found that Vermonters are just as proud of their heritage as New Hampshirites.” The Hogback ski facility closed in 1986, and now the mountain serves as a conservation and recreation area.
That night Hormell, King, and Chris Hurd spent the night in Wilmington, Vermont, where they were interviewed by a local newspaper reporter. George described the citizens of this tourist town as “very hospitable Yankee people.” On March 24 Hormell and King walked to Prospect Mountain, 13 miles west of Wilmington. They then climbed the 2,750-foot mountain, which had also been developed as a downhill ski area. This resort went out of business in 1992, and the facility currently serves as a cross-country ski center.
The team arrived in the town of Bennington later that day. This was an important moment on this commemorative journey, as the history of Bennington is linked to New Hampshire’s Revolutionary War history. It was in Bennington that Brig. Gen. John Stark of Derryfield (now Manchester), New Hampshire, assembled the 2,500 militiamen he had recruited. He planned to stop a British force invading from Canada which consisted primarily of Hessian mercenaries. The bloody encounter took place on Aug. 16, 1777, 12 miles from Bennington, in what is now Walloomsac, New York. The British force was defeated by Stark’s makeshift army, and the Battle of Bennington is today acknowledged as an important turning point in the war.
The three men spent that night of Wednesday, March 24 in Bennington. Hormell recorded the day’s activities in his journal: “Prospect Mountain. The very steep climb and descension added to our various array of blisters. As I’m taking my nightly soak in cider vinegar and hot water, I’m watching my first baseball game at the ‘New Englander.’” The men were hosted by the motel’s managers, Jim and Irene Schmidt, whom Hormell knew well, as the couple had previously operated the Squam Lakes Inn in Holderness, New Hampshire. Hormell was the co-owner of another Lakes Region tourist venue, the Mug restaurant in Center Harbor, eight miles from Holderness.
A fellow Jaycee, Jim Schmidt set up contacts with local officials and the town’s newspaper. On the morning of March 25, the Bennington Jaycees and Chamber of Commerce presented the hikers with a Bennington Battle Flag in front of the Bennington Battle Monument. The 1891 monument features an impressive 306-foot tall limestone obelisk. Hormell wrote that, while visiting the monument, they had “passed the spot where General Stark and the troops came the night before the battle. We noticed it was a perfect spot with at least one mile of view in all directions.”
That day the hikers continued on from Bennington, and soon crossed the state border at Hoosick, New York. It is unclear how far they walked that day. When evening approached, they couldn’t find a motel to accommodate them so, for the first time, they were forced to sleep in the van.
Next week: Onward to Albany, New York and beyond.
Aurore Eaton is a historian and writer in, Manchester, contact her at auroreeaton@aol.com or at www.facebook.com/AuroreEatonWriter
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2022-11-27T20:58:56Z
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The Bicentennial Hikers – crossing Vermont and climbing mountains | Looking Back | unionleader.com
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https://www.unionleader.com/voices/looking_back/the-bicentennial-hikers-crossing-vermont-and-climbing-mountains/article_0c1fb39d-20c1-5a1f-aeab-f02ac9d8e666.html
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St. Anselm men's basketball rolls past Franklin Pierce
Owen McGlashan scored 23 points and Zac Taylor added 20 as the Saint Anselm College men’s basketball team eased past Franklin Pierce, 94-78, on Sunday afternoon.
Saint Anselm (3-3 overall, 2-0 NE-10) led 52-31 at the half on its way to the victory.
Miles Tention (18 points), Tyler Arbuckle (13) and Keith Robinson (10) also scored in double figures for Saint Anselm.
Brandon Kolek (22 points) and Mohamed Traore (16) led Franklin Pierce (2-2, 0-1 NE-10).
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2022-11-27T22:47:26Z
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St. Anselm men's basketball rolls past Franklin Pierce | College Sports | unionleader.com
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https://www.unionleader.com/sports/college/st-anselm-mens-basketball-rolls-past-franklin-pierce/article_54f3bb2e-5a72-531a-8e3f-7ed4c8ea3b49.html
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Jon Batiste to headline Biden's first state dinner, serenade Macron
Batiste’s boundless energy and raucous performances are fitting for a White House that is back into social activities after two years of battling COVID, rising inflation and economic woes in a midterm election year — a background against which a glamorous dinner honoring a visiting head of state would have looked particularly inappropriate.
Biden continues to face some criticism, however, for declaring in September that the “pandemic is over” even though hundreds continue to die each day and the public is growing weary of being vigilant against COVID.
The couple is coming off hosting the pre-Thanksgiving wedding of their granddaughter, Naomi Biden, and fielding consternation from the White House press corps, which was excluded from covering it while Vogue was given an exclusive article and photo shoot.
During flusher times, former president Bill Clinton and first lady Hillary Clinton hosted 12 state dinners during his first term, and 29 overall, with musical guests such as Whitney Houston, Elton John and Stevie Wonder, Liza Minnelli and Earth, Wind & Fire.
The Bushes followed with four in his first term (including one for Mexican President Vicente Fox just days before Sept. 11, 2001), and 13 overall, with acts such as country singer Kenny Chesney, violinist Itzhak Perlman and the cast of “The Lion King.”
It feels like a law of journalism that this story must begin with a bad pun riffing on the title of a Bob Dylan song. His fans thought twice, and it wasn’t all right? He could use some shelter from the storm? Maybe if he’d only had one more cup of coffee before ... oh, maybe we should just b…
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2022-11-28T00:31:53Z
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Jon Batiste to headline Biden's first state dinner, serenade Macron | | unionleader.com
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By Travis M. Andrews The Washington Post
It feels like a law of journalism that this story must begin with a bad pun riffing on the title of a Bob Dylan song. His fans thought twice, and it wasn’t all right? He could use some shelter from the storm? Maybe if he’d only had one more cup of coffee before ... oh, maybe we should just break this law.
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2022-11-28T00:31:59Z
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Bob Dylan apologizes for book controversy in rare public statement | Back Page | unionleader.com
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Above, a portion of the far side of the moon looms large just beyond the Orion spacecraft in this image taken on the sixth day of the Artemis I mission by a camera on the tip of one of Orion’s solar arrays. Below, Artemis blasts off from Launch Pad 39B at Kennedy Space Center on Nov. 16.
Orion’s thrusters fired at 4:52 p.m. Eastern time for a minute and a half, putting the craft into an orbit some 40,000 to 50,000 miles above the lunar surface. That orbit will place Orion on a path to break the record for the farthest distance from Earth traveled by “a spacecraft designed to carry humans to deep space and safely return to Earth.” The current record of 248,655 miles was set by Apollo 13 in 1970, NASA said in a statement.
Orion surpassed that at 7:42 a.m. Eastern time on Saturday. The spacecraft is expected to reach its maximum distance of more than 270,000 miles from Earth at 4:13 p.m. Eastern time on Monday, NASA said.
The flight, without any astronauts on board, is the first step in NASA’s Artemis program, which seeks to return astronauts to the lunar surface for the first time since the Apollo missions of the late 1960s and early ‘70s.
Using cameras mounted on the outside of the spacecraft, Orion has been beaming back dramatic images and live video from its journey, including spectacular images of Earth, seen hanging in the distance, more than 200,000 miles away, in the vast, inky darkness of space.
“The mission continues to proceed as we had planned, and the ground systems, our operations teams and the Orion spacecraft continue to exceed expectations,” Mike Sarafin, NASA’s Artemis I mission manager said earlier this week. “And we continue to learn along the way about this new deep spacecraft.”
He said the Space Launch System rocket, even more powerful than the Apollo-era Saturn V, performed so well that the results were “eye-watering.” Its massive thrust, however, caused some damage to its mobile launch tower, including blowing the doors off the tower’s elevator. But, on the whole, “the structure itself held up well,” Sarafin said.
One of the main tests will come as the spacecraft re-renters Earth’s atmosphere, traveling at about 25,000 m.p.h. The friction with the thickening air will produce temperatures as high as 5,000 degrees Fahrenheit.
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2022-11-28T00:32:05Z
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NASA's Orion spacecraft is about to set a new record for distance from Earth | Back Page | unionleader.com
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The secretary of state’s office reported that at least 70,000 people voted Saturday. The first Saturday of early voting for the general election drew 79,682 people, more than double the 2018 number. Early voting will continue through Friday.
Democrats, led by Warnock’s campaign, sued the state, arguing that the policies in question didn’t apply to runoff elections.
A judge in Fulton county sided with Warnock, the state Democratic Party and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee in the case.
The state’s Republican attorney general, as well as the state and national Republican parties, lost their appeals in state courts.
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2022-11-28T00:32:17Z
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Early voters in Georgia head to the polls Saturday for Senate runoff | News | unionleader.com
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https://www.unionleader.com/news/early-voters-in-georgia-head-to-the-polls-saturday-for-senate-runoff/article_88be3f61-d693-55c7-9c6c-ad06226a7ac1.html
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Irene Cara, singer who hit stardom with 'Fame' and 'Flashdance,' dies at 63
A statement from her publicist, Judith A. Moose, said the cause of Cara’s death was not immediately known. The Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office confirmed it responded to a call to an address in Largo, which is listed in public records as Cara’s residence. The District Six Medical Examiner’s Office, which serves Pinellas County, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Cara’s imprint on pop culture has lived on through the decades as “Fame” (1980) and “Flashdance” (1983) became touchstones for the 1980s with their music and style, including the urban chic of New York teens in “Fame” and the free-form moves, leg warmers (and, of course, the famous wet-and-wild shower scene) of “Flashdance.”
Cara’s “Flashdance . . . What a Feeling” still ranks No. 38 on Billboard’s All-Time Hot 100 Songs nearly 40 years later. And it seems to keep finding new audiences through reboots, social media retro clips and spoofs.
Cara then won her own Oscar for “Flashdance . . . What a Feeling,” which she co-wrote in an afternoon session after being asked to sing some of the tracks on the film starring Jennifer Beals as a welder by day and erotic dancer by night who dreams of the ballet stage.
Cara never regained such heights, however. In 1985, she opened a legal action seeking $10 million from a record company executive, Al Coury, claiming he took advantage of her trust with “unjust and oppressive” contracts for movie and recording deals that cut her out of significant royalty income.
Cara originally signed a six-year recording deal in 1980 with RSO Records Inc. when Coury was its president. He left in early 1981 to form his own company, Network Records Inc., and persuaded Cara to give him exclusive control over her career. What happened next became a combination of flawed management, bad choices and Cara’s inability to recapture the magic of her two hit projects.
An album, “Carasmatic,” was originally shelved and finally released in 1987. By the early 1990s, she was a celebrity footnote and a trivia question. “Remember Irene Cara?” wrote syndicated gossip columnist Liz Smith in a 1993 column that claimed Cara earned just $183 in royalties in her four years under Coury.
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2022-11-28T00:32:23Z
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Irene Cara, singer who hit stardom with 'Fame' and 'Flashdance,' dies at 63 | News | unionleader.com
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SNHU men's basketball team topped by Dominican
The Southern New Hampshire University men’s basketball team fell to 3-3 with a 78-75 home loss against Dominican on Sunday.
SNHU led 73-72 with 48 seconds remaining but was outscored 6-2 the rest of the way.
Evan Guillory scored 22 points to lead SNHU, while Matt Becht (14 points), Ethan Okwuosa (12) and Derrick Grant (10) also scored in double figures.
Johnson Wahaad had a game-high 27 points for Dominican (6-1).
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2022-11-28T00:32:47Z
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SNHU men's basketball team topped by Dominican | College Sports | unionleader.com
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https://www.unionleader.com/sports/college/snhu-mens-basketball-team-topped-by-dominican/article_f3790211-a6c7-5886-8808-8031fafef4a1.html
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https://www.unionleader.com/sports/college/snhu-mens-basketball-team-topped-by-dominican/article_f3790211-a6c7-5886-8808-8031fafef4a1.html
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Tenggren
NHTI selects its next president
The trustees of the Community College System of New Hampshire selected Patrick Tompkins to be the next president of NHTI-Concord’s Community College.
Tompkins, currently with the Virginia Community College System, was chosen from a pool of more than 60 applicants and will assume his new role on Feb. 1.
Tompkins serves as vice president for academic, student and workforce education at Eastern Shore Community College in Melfa, Virginia. He previously served as provost and acting dean of science, engineering and technology and dean of communications, humanities and social sciences at Thomas Nelson Community College in Williamsburg, Virginia, and he was a faculty member and department head at Brightpoint Community College in central Virginia.
Tompkins holds a Ph.D. in community college leadership from Old Dominion University, an MA in English from Iowa State University, an MFA in creative writing from Virginia Commonwealth University, and a BA from Villanova University.
Gunter named NHLC wine marketing and sales specialist
The New Hampshire Liquor Commission recently promoted Justin Gunter to the role of wine marketing and sales specialist. Gunter oversees all aspects of wine sales, including purchasing and promotions across the 67 NH Liquor & Wine Outlet locations throughout the Granite State. Gunter takes over from Lisa Gosselin, who served in the position for six years and worked with NHLC for 27 years before retiring.
Gunter joined the NHLC team in 2014, beginning as a part-time sales clerk at the Stratham NH Liquor & Wine Outlet. Over the years he has advanced from retail store leader, store lead manager, lead manager, retail store supervisor and regional stores supervisor.
Grappone Ford technician appointed to national review panel
Grappone Ford’s senior master technician Brian Tuttle was named by Ford Motor Company to this year’s National Technician Review Panel.
After attending the Ford ASSET Program in 1992, Tuttle joined the Grappone Ford team in 2003. When Amanda Grappone Osmer, fourth generation steward of Grappone Automotive Group, told staff that she wanted to see Grappone Ford represented on the panel, Tuttle was ready to apply. His role as technical expert on New Hampshire’s Motor Vehicle Arbitration Board had just ended, and he was looking for a new challenge.
Northeast Credit Union promotes Traci Tenggren
Northeast Credit Union promoted Traci Tenggren to senior vice president, chief human resources officer.
Tenggren, who has more than 20 years of experience in the finance industry, will oversee programs and departments that shape the internal culture of the credit union while growing membership, enhancing operational efficiencies and contributing to sustainable profitable growth.
Additionally, she serves as chapter president of the Seacoast Human Resources Association.
Dartmouth Hitchcock clinics welcome new doctor
Neurologist Rohit K. Reddy, M.D., joined Dartmouth Hitchcock Clinics Manchester and Concord.
Reddy’s area of focus in neurology is headache, epilepsy and general neurology.
Reddy earned his doctor of medicine degree from Rutgers New Jersey Medical School in 2017. He completed his residency at Montefiore Medical Center, where he was chief resident, in the Bronx, New York, in 2021. He also completed an epilepsy fellowship at Montefiore Medical Center in 2022.
NH Bar Association elects Mahan vice president
Following a recent special election, Kathleen Mahan was elected vice president of the New Hampshire Bar Association. She succeeds Paul Chant, who was named president-elect.
Mahan is a litigation partner at Hinckley Allen, where she practices in several intellectual property matters, including trade secrets, trademarks and copyrights. She also handles business disputes in relation to corporate governance, non-compete conflicts, contract actions and other professional disagreements.
Merchants Fleet appoints regional sales manager
Merchants Fleet, a national fleet management company, hired Sarah DaDalt as regional sales manager.
DaDalt will oversee services for Merchants clients throughout the Mid-Atlantic region. DaDalt’s previous roles include director of business rental sales at Enterprise Rent-A-Car and a salesperson for Wheels Donlen.
The UNH graduate received her bachelor’s degree in sociology and political science, and currently lives with her family in Enfield, Connecticut.
FSB promotes Rankins, Price
Franklin Savings Bank promoted Amy Rankins to vice president and human resources officer, along with Jessica Price to vice president and controller.
Rankins joined the bank in 2017 as an executive/HR assistant and was later promoted to human resources officer followed by AVP, human resources officer. She has an MBA in human resources management from SNHU and is a certified professional in human resources from the HR Certification Institute. In addition, she is a 2021 graduate of the Northern New England School of Banking.
Price joined the bank in 2008 as a part-time teller in the Tilton office. She has advanced into several positions in retail, deposit operations and finance. In her elevated position, she will provide oversight and support for the accounting and finance operations. She is a licensed CPA in New Hampshire, and is pursuing an MBA from SNHU. She is a graduate of the Northern New England School of Banking and is an accredited ACH Professional and National Check Professional.
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2022-11-28T02:12:10Z
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Newsmakers: NHTI selects next president | Business | unionleader.com
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https://www.unionleader.com/news/business/newsmakers-nhti-selects-next-president/article_b6e1fdab-860d-56cf-9705-ecefa22b2be6.html
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Kelly Murphy, who, with her husband, Will, owns and operates the Granite Grind coffee shop and eatery in Lancaster, poses for a photo Saturday during the return of the Shop Hop, the town’s version of Small Business Saturday.
Ruby Berryman, who owns and operates the Lancaster Motel with her husband, Brian, poses with a display case in the motel’s Waypoint Cigar Lounge on Saturday during the Shop Hop event in Lancaster.
LANCASTER — Dedicated to the late Greg Cloutier, Saturday’s Shop Hop was intended to highlight the efforts of 14 local businesses to bring patrons to this small, North Country town along the Connecticut River.
A return to Lancaster of the national Small Business Saturday campaign after a two-year COVID-19 hiatus, the Shop Hop accomplished that goal in spades, said participating business owners, but even more importantly, provided many powerful reasons why Lancaster is a place on the rise and a cool place to be and to visit.
Sponsored by the Coos Economic Development Corporation, a nonprofit organization that supports Coos County small businesses and fosters economic growth, the Shop Hop included store discounts, giveaways, live music, free movies and a raffle.
Businesses that took park were Annie’s on Main, Dalton Mountain Motor Sports, Fuller Sugarhouse, Granite Grind, Lancaster Motel, Lancaster House of Pizza, Lancaster Antiques, Moments, Northwoods on Main Gifts, Polish Princess bakery, Rialto Theatre, Ritz Fit, Taproot Marketplace, T Shea Pottery, and William Rugh Gallery.
Even though he was not there, Cloutier, who died on Sept. 5, had a big hand in the Shop Hop.
According to his obituary, Cloutier “loved Lancaster and dedicated himself to keeping Main Street vital and alive, which led to the purchase of the Rialto Movie Theatre in 2011. Additionally, he purchased and restored a burned out building in 2014 where the Polish Princess now resides. In 2017, he purchased the old Lancaster National Bank building. It reopened with the Copper Pig Brewery and an Art Gallery.”
Additionally, said Ericka Canales, the executive director of the CEDC, Cloutier “helped so many businesses with affordable spaces and supportive business advice over the years.”
Dave Fuller Jr., who is co-owner of the Rialto with Cloutier’s wife, Rita, said some 200 people turned out Saturday for a free showing of the 2018 version of “The Grinch.”
The son of Dave Fuller Sr., of Fuller Sugarhouse fame, he said his father called him during the Shop Hop to report that the event was so successful, that “It took him 10 minutes to get through town — that’s summer traffic.”
“I have a memory of walking into town as a kid and seeing all of the different shops,” recalled Fuller, adding that businesses are coming back into the downtown.
Overall, “I’m excited about the revitalization” of the area, he said, noting that events like the Shop Hop “get people onto Main Street.”
Ann Corthell, of Annie’s on Main Street, said her business seeks to “honor the building” that it’s in, a structure that from 1857 until 1957 was home to a pharmacy and then to other enterprises.
Originally from the North Shore of Massachusetts, Corthell said “Lancaster is the place to be.”
“When you drive in, you feel like it’s bustling now,” she said, pointing out that a large part of that bustle is thanks to the revitalization of the former P.J. Noyes building, the home of the Taproot Marketplace.
The Noyes building is on the east side of Main Street, and it, along with the former Chesley Block, where Simon the Tanner, a footwear and clothing store, had been a longtime anchor are being brought back to life as mixed retail and residential use, said Canales.
Kelly Murphy, who with her husband, Will, have owned and operated The Granite Grind coffee and sandwich shop for six years, said Lancaster has been very receptive to its offerings.
“We make everything from scratch, and our sourdough (starter) is 21 years old,” said Murphy, who was dressed in Ohio State football apparel and was following Saturday’s Ohio State/University of Michigan clash with tremendous interest.
Murphy was also paying close attention to the duo of electric organ and guitar that was playing Warren Zevon’s “Werewolves of London,” briefly excusing herself from an interview to howl along because “this is my favorite part” of the song.
She said that she and her husband came to Lancaster “because there wasn’t a real coffee shop in town and because I like to bake.”
On Saturday, which was National Cake Day, the Murphys donated proceeds from the sale of peppermint chocolate cake with cream-cheese frosting to the Greg Cloutier Scholarship Fund.
Cloutier, said Murphy, was “the shaker of Main Street.”
When she and her husband arrived, downtown Lancaster “was a little downtrodden,” said Murphy, but that has changed, pointing out that “since we opened, four, five businesses have opened.”
“There’s just a lot of cool stuff happening” in Lancaster, she said, and that coolness is attracting people — “a lot of Littleton people are coming here,” said Murphy, because Littleton, which is prospering in its own renaissance, has gotten too busy for some of them.
Melissa Grella, a Lancaster native and the founder and executive director of the nonprofit Taproot Farm & Environmental Education Center, said the Marketplace wears “many hats,” including as a place to buy locally-grown foods and products and as an education center that happens to have a commercial kitchen inside.
Ruby Berryman, a playwright and writer and her husband, Brian, an airline pilot, said when they moved to Lancaster 16 years ago, it immediately became home.
The couple have owned and operated the Lancaster Motel, which has a distinct, art-deco feel, for three years. The motel is decorated with art purchased by the Berrymans from the William Rugh Gallery, and has within its walls both the upscale Compass Rose Cocktail Bar and the Waypoint Cigar Lounge.
Lancaster “used to be called ‘Snowmobile City,’” said Ruby Berryman, and the motel is “an historic place… Ground Zero for snowmobiling.”
Lancaster is a good place to live and run a business, she said, agreeing that the town is developing “a funky, cool vibe.”
As an artist, Berryman hopes that the changes going on in Lancaster will attract more artistically-oriented businesses, and they have, such as T Shea Pottery, whose owner Toni Koval came back to New Hampshire during the pandemic after deciding it was a safer place to be than New York City.
A self-taught potter, Koval makes kitchen ware that is attractive, and oven, microwave and dishwasher-safe, too. After making those wares at home, she is currently remodeling the former Christian Science Church into a store, gallery, and multi-use venue.
“People are happy to see it used for art,” Koval said, adding that “Lancaster’s taking off and to be a part of that is exciting.”
Business owners in Lancaster help each other, she said, “No thunder, just supporting people.”
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2022-11-28T02:12:11Z
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www.unionleader.com
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Small Business Saturday event showcases Lancaster's increasingly funky, groovy, artistic side | Business | unionleader.com
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https://www.unionleader.com/news/business/small-business-saturday-event-showcases-lancasters-increasingly-funky-groovy-artistic-side/article_ded41d2e-bebf-5ceb-bb64-360933f50393.html
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https://www.unionleader.com/news/business/small-business-saturday-event-showcases-lancasters-increasingly-funky-groovy-artistic-side/article_ded41d2e-bebf-5ceb-bb64-360933f50393.html
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The industry followed, and now weaning the masses off free returns will be difficult.
The practice of buying several items online to try at home — now known as bracketing — increased during the pandemic when fitting rooms were closed. About two-thirds of US shoppers engage in the practice, according to a survey this year by Narvar.
Return fraud, with tactics like returning a counterfeit item, is also rising. In the U.S., about 10% of the $761 billion in returns made on all purchases last year were fraudulent, according to research by the National Retail Federation, an industry group. And online purchases have a higher rate of return at nearly 21%, up from 18.1% in 2020.
Chains are employing a slew of tactics to reduce the financial hit. Some are shortening how long a shopper has to bring back an item. Bath & Body Works said it will not allow the return or exchange of products that show “excessive wear and tear,” a notable switch from the brand that has famously let customers return used products.
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2022-11-28T02:12:11Z
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www.unionleader.com
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Why you’re going to pay for the online return mess | Business | unionleader.com
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https://www.unionleader.com/news/business/why-you-re-going-to-pay-for-the-online-return-mess/article_fe4e736b-d44d-51d7-85e6-4c0d6849fa06.html
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https://www.unionleader.com/news/business/why-you-re-going-to-pay-for-the-online-return-mess/article_fe4e736b-d44d-51d7-85e6-4c0d6849fa06.html
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The Manchester Board of School Committee Teaching and Learning Committee voted 3-2 last week to recommend the catalog to the full board for approval, after hearing from students and administrators speaking both for and against doing away with leveling.
Manchester School District Chief Equity Officer Tina Philibotte said she understands some of the concerns raised, but said statistics show minority students are given lower expectations more often than White students.
“I think any teacher worth their salt understands differentiated learning,” Philibotte said.
Leveling — when students are separated into different classrooms based on past performance — has proven a controversial topic in recent years. The school board voted in 2010 to introduce leveling to the middle schools, in part as a way to give high-achieving students more opportunities to excel.
City school administrators raised concerns about the fairness and logistics of leveling in the middle schools from the outset.
The topic resurfaced in the spring of 2014, when the district was faulted by the federal Office for Civil Rights for consistent disparities between White and minority students in the district due to the small percentage of minority students enrolling in advanced classes. In 2010-11, just nine of the almost 600 Hispanic or Latino students in the district took an AP course.
A preliminary proposal to try a deleveling pilot program at one of the middle schools was mothballed after meeting resistance from parents and several school board members.
Manchester school board members voted to do away with leveling at city schools in 2019, and as of fall 2021, middle schools no longer offered low-, medium- or high-level options for courses.
Nolan Adams, a Manchester student, spoke out against deleveling at last week’s Teaching and Learning Committee meeting.
“My classmates and I are strongly against this,” said Adams. “The leveling system works. Grouping us all in together would be counterintuitive. If you were to de-level it would negatively impact students.”
James McKim, president of the Manchester branch of the NAACP, said he supports the policy.
We recognize that there are challenges with this current program, but there are advantages as well,” McKim said. “The program does not take away learning opportunities from anyone…the same standards of learning still apply. The program makes improvements to access for students of color.”
“This is really about our students having a standard that they need to live up to…all of our students,” said West High Principal Richard Dichard.
Philibotte said she would like to see the program go “a little further.”
“I think the program is a step in the right direction.”
Teaching and Learning Committee members voted 3-2 to send the catalog to the full board for discussion and approval. In favor were Karen Soule, Julie Turner and Peter Argeropoulos. Opposed were Ken Tassey and Ben Dion.
The school board will meet Monday at 6:30 p.m. at City Hall.
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2022-11-28T02:12:11Z
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www.unionleader.com
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Manchester school board to debate course catalog, as de-leveling policies spark debate | Education | unionleader.com
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https://www.unionleader.com/news/education/manchester-school-board-to-debate-course-catalog-as-de-leveling-policies-spark-debate/article_3e7ca423-b261-515a-8201-a40cc11baa33.html
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https://www.unionleader.com/news/education/manchester-school-board-to-debate-course-catalog-as-de-leveling-policies-spark-debate/article_3e7ca423-b261-515a-8201-a40cc11baa33.html
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Maj. Colin DeVault, the new corps commanding officer for the Salvation Army in Manchester on Wednesday.
Maj. Colin DeVault, the new corps commanding officer for the Salvation Army in Manchester speaks to a reporter, on Wednesday.
Major Colin DeVault
Veteran Salvation Army commander's last hurrah will be in Manchester
Colin DeVault came to the rescue in Manchester this past summer.
DeVault, who has spent a career operating Salvation Army corps in the eastern United States, was parachuted into the Manchester location when the last commander unexpectedly died.
Scott McNeil, who had led the Manchester Salvation Army Corps through the COVID-19 pandemic, had died in early June, about two weeks before he was to transfer to another post.
McNeil had been doing two jobs, that of post commander and business manager, another vacant post.
“Both offices looked like the occupant clearly intended to come in the next day,” said DeVault, a major in the military-like Salvation Army rankings. “In the next two years, I’m just trying to stabilize everything and prepare for whoever’s going to follow me.”
One of his biggest tests started last week, when the Union Leader Santa Fund for the Salvation Army kicked off an entire month of fundraising efforts. Along with the traditional red kettles, it will raise thousands that help fund Salvation Army programs year round.
Such programs include Kids Cafe, summer camps and after-school education programs.
“This is chiefly a business appointment, heavy administration,” said DeVault, who shares the title co-commander with his wife of 45 years, Brenda, who is also a major.
He said the Manchester corps has a strong reputation within the Salvation Army for its youth-oriented programs, such as Kids Cafe.
One of his goals over the next two years is to implement Pathway of Hope, a national Salvation Army program designed to break the cycle of intergenerational poverty.
He has an end in sight. He is 64 and will reach full Social Security eligibility at 66 years and eight months, when the Salvation Army mandates retirement.
DeVault’s office features five, six-foot tall bookcases. He has a doctorate in theology, and three of the cases are crammed with theological works. Imperfectly, he can read the Bible in its original languages of Hebrew (Old Testament) and Greek (New Testament).
He’s the kind of guy who could speak for an hour about a lone Biblical phrase.
“We (the Salvation Army) will never leave basic social service,” DeVault said. “Jesus said there will always be the poor among you, and that’s what we’re called to do.”
The Salvation Army was the home church for both his grandmother and mother in his early years in eastern Ohio. The family moved to Delaware when he was 13, and within a few years the family was instrumental in establishing a Salvation Army in Dover, Delaware.
His career with the Salvation Army has taken him from a post in the isolated community of Houlton, Maine, to Mexico City, one of the world’s largest cities.
He’s held positions in several New York cities, and most of his other assignments have been in Pennsylvania. He was scheduled to take over the command in Oneonta, New York, when McNeil died and his superiors told him to head to Manchester.
A bonus: his daughter, her husband and their three children live in Keene and work at the Salvation Army there, so they are close by.
He would also like to increase the size of the Manchester congregation. On his first Sunday, there were only eight in attendance, and that included two of his relatives, the division commander and his wife.
Now he draws about 20.
“God called me to this,” he said about his profession. “It clearly is a calling. It’s a wonderful role, but if you’re not called, run for the hills.”
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2022-11-28T02:12:30Z
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www.unionleader.com
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Veteran Salvation Army commander's last hurrah will be in Manchester | Religion | unionleader.com
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https://www.unionleader.com/news/religion/veteran-salvation-army-commanders-last-hurrah-will-be-in-manchester/article_838df024-c33a-5767-a3d1-291c5d815bcf.html
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https://www.unionleader.com/news/religion/veteran-salvation-army-commanders-last-hurrah-will-be-in-manchester/article_838df024-c33a-5767-a3d1-291c5d815bcf.html
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DEAR LONG-DISTANCE: I wish you had mentioned whether your wife works outside the home. Does she have a career she doesn’t want to leave? If the answer is no, continue looking for schools in the new community.
Then contact a real estate agent to help you find a suitable place for your family to live. Once you have narrowed it down to a few, invite your wife to look at them with you and choose what she thinks would be most suitable.
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2022-11-28T06:20:19Z
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www.unionleader.com
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Dear Abby: Couple's marriage has become a partnership of convenience | Human Interest | unionleader.com
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https://www.unionleader.com/news/human_interest/dear-abby-couples-marriage-has-become-a-partnership-of-convenience/article_4ab9bc1e-5669-5911-b85a-9ad7059a51cc.html
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https://www.unionleader.com/news/human_interest/dear-abby-couples-marriage-has-become-a-partnership-of-convenience/article_4ab9bc1e-5669-5911-b85a-9ad7059a51cc.html
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— Susan B., Houston
• Use the funny papers.
DEAR HELOISE: I live on a rural post office route. Because it’s so hard to reach the mail that is put too far back in the mailbox when you’re in your car or when it’s dark late at night, I put a stiff place mat in my mailbox. Now when I want to get my mail, I simply slide out the stiff mat, and it makes getting the mail so much easier. I’ve been doing this for about five years now.
— Jean H., Bessemer City, North Carolina
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2022-11-28T06:20:25Z
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www.unionleader.com
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Heloise: Black Friday rush gets too crazy | Human Interest | unionleader.com
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https://www.unionleader.com/news/human_interest/heloise-black-friday-rush-gets-too-crazy/article_28a6378f-ef2d-5e18-9883-1f75d440feb5.html
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https://www.unionleader.com/news/human_interest/heloise-black-friday-rush-gets-too-crazy/article_28a6378f-ef2d-5e18-9883-1f75d440feb5.html
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IN HER recent contribution to New Hampshire Voices, Representative Nutting-Wong insisted that those who are proud of the “extreme” pro-life platform have “no place in the State House” but I would argue that those who either don’t read the laws we write or don’t understand them have no place in the State House.
It is apparent that Representative Nutting-Wong’s knowledge about the Fetal Life Protection Act (the law restricting some abortions after six months) is either misguided, uninformed or intentionally misleading. As one of the so-called “radical Republicans” whom she referred to with such disdain, I thought it was fitting to write a response and help my misguided colleague actually understand the law that she rails against.
Nutting-Wong misrepresented too many things to address them all here. However, allow me to at least address her description of miscarriage, i.e., spontaneous abortion. She uses this description, as an emotional appeal, and falsely and reprehensively insinuates that Republicans, such as myself, would rather watch her bleed out and die than allow her to receive medical treatment for the tragic, natural death of her child. Nothing could be further from the truth. In fact, spontaneous abortions are not even considered abortions under state law. Why? Because, unlike Rep. Nutting-Wong, reasonable Republicans avoid conflating the tragedy of natural death with the radical, intentional killing of children.
Additionally, Nutting-Wong would have been protected by other exceptions in our laws. Doctors in New Hampshire do not have to determine whether a woman is going to die before deciding to provide medical care. They can consider whether continuation of the pregnancy will simply put at risk the long-term physical health of any of her body’s major functions. These are important considerations, so Republicans wrote them into law.
In fact, we made sure that even during an emergency caesarean section, performed to save the life or preserve the physical health of the mother, the unintentional death of a child could not be considered an abortion. Why? Because in our laws, in order for the death of a child to be considered an abortion the child’s death has to be the intended outcome. This requirement of intentionality to define abortion is a keystone to the Fetal Life Protection Act. Tell me, while trying to save a mother’s life, when would a doctor need to increase the risk to the mother, by intentionally killing a fully formed child that would otherwise live? There is a difference between being unable to save a child and intentionally killing him or her. State law reflects that reality, thanks to reasonable Republicans.
Finally, Representative Nutting-Wong demonstrates that her logic of abortion goes well beyond a woman making choices about her own life and body. She states that some women seek abortions because they are unable to financially support or emotionally care for their children; both of which are the natural consequences and responsibilities of raising any child. These primarily apply to children after they have been born and increase as the child matures. According to her abortion logic, shouldn’t a woman be able to choose to kill her child, even after birth, if she is an unwanted burden to her mother’s life and body?
Now, hold on “radical” Republicans, nobody is talking about killing babies who are already born are they? If not, then maybe Rep. Nutting-Wong could explain why her Democrat caucus fled the House Chambers last year in an attempt to stop a vote on giving life-saving, medically necessary attention to children who had already been born alive? Are newly born baby girls still not women enough for State House Democrats to defend and protect their lives and bodies?
If Rep. Nutting-Wong believes that New Hampshire’s modest six-month abortion ban is extreme, no reasonable person agrees with her. Almost no country in the world has abortion restrictions as lenient as New Hampshire has, even with the Fetal Life Protection Act. The only countries that allow abortion up to birth are China, North Korea, and Vietnam. Is Nutting-Wong suggesting these are the only rational, compassionate countries that truly respect and understand the needs of women, and accurately weigh the value of our lives before we are born?
I find it laughable when Rep. Nutting-Wong calls others “radical” and says they have no place in elected office, when her own abortion rhetoric and voting record align with such nations. These are not New Hampshire values! Some may call it radical, but I say, only those who truly represent our values and actually understand New Hampshire laws should be at the State House.
Rep. Matthew Simon (R) lives in Littleton.
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2022-11-28T06:20:37Z
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www.unionleader.com
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Rep. Matthew Simon: Pro-life Republicans are reasonable, not radical | Op-eds | unionleader.com
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https://www.unionleader.com/opinion/op-eds/rep-matthew-simon-pro-life-republicans-are-reasonable-not-radical/article_cd06d9cf-d588-567d-9530-883cc67e647a.html
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https://www.unionleader.com/opinion/op-eds/rep-matthew-simon-pro-life-republicans-are-reasonable-not-radical/article_cd06d9cf-d588-567d-9530-883cc67e647a.html
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Windy. Mostly cloudy skies will become partly cloudy this afternoon. High 46F. Winds NW at 20 to 30 mph..
Guests stand for the National Anthem during the Progressive Insurance 10th annual Keys to Progress vehicle giveaway at Liberty House in Manchester on Nov. 10. Catholic Charities New Hampshire hopes to raise $5,000 through Giving Tuesday this year for a food pantry at Liberty House, which offers shelter and services for veterans.
CATHOLIC CHARITIES New Hampshire hopes to raise $30,000 to deliver groceries to seniors.
Granite United Way seeks $10,000 so it can double the dollars, thanks to Eversource.
NH Audubon is asking nature lovers to support its 39 wildlife sanctuaries.
For the past decade, nonprofits have looked to Giving Tuesday to boost fundraising.
The movement has gone global since it was founded in 2012 by the 92nd Street Y and its Belfer Center for Innovation & Social Impact in New York City.
The GivingTuesday organization (givingtuesday.org) promotes the event but leaves fundraising to local charities, which keep 100% of the money they raise on the Tuesday after Thanksgiving campaign.
For the past few years, Catholic Charities New Hampshire (cc-nh.org) has used the event to raise money for services that support the state’s aging population.
This year, the nonprofit is targeting a program that provides monthly grocery deliveries to low-income seniors in Manchester and Nashua.
“These seniors live on fixed income. Their incomes really are not scaling in the way that inflation is,” said Michael McDonough, executive director of marketing and communications.
With $30,000, Catholic Charities can provide monthly grocery delivery to 125 seniors for a year.
“It not only feeds them, it provides them some flexibility to better manage daily life, better manage their affordability when it comes to essential needs,” McDonough said.
Catholic Charities is also promoting fundraising efforts for two organizations it acquired over the past couple of years, Liberty House, which provides transitional housing for homeless veterans, and New Generation, a program in Greenfield that provides shelter and other services to pregnant women, single mothers and their children.
The nonprofit hopes to raise $5,000 to support Liberty House’s food pantry and $15,000 for after-care services offered by New Generation to families placed in permanent housing.
Double the gift
Granite United Way (graniteuw.org) received a pledge from Eversource to match donations made on Giving Tuesday up to a total of $10,000.
The nonprofit, which began its annual fundraising campaign last summer, supports about 85% of New Hampshire, and Windsor County, Vermont. Giving Tuesday augments that annual drive, said Patrick Tufts, president and CEO.
“It’s really important for fundraising for all the nonprofits in New Hampshire. It’s just a good way to diversify the way we’re able to raise funds,” Tufts said.
This year, inflationary pressures are impacting both the programs Granite United Way supports and its donors.
“Rising prices in everything from food to rent to child care to utilities are putting a lot of pressure on people so we are seeing that in our campaign,” Tufts said. “People who may have had the confidence and the extra dollars to support us in the past have to think about that a little bit this year, and we understand that.”
While conditions are tough, Tuft remains optimistic.
“I’m always overwhelmed with the generosity of the people of New Hampshire. We are having a lot of campaigns that are outperforming our expectations,” he said. “When people know that it’s tough on their neighbors they tend to do everything they can to help out.”
Giving Tuesday has become a strategic part of NH Audubon’s fundraising, said Doug Bechtel, president.
Money for nature
NH Audubon (nhaudubon.org) is not affiliated with the National Audubon Society, he noted. The independent nonprofit relies on memberships and fundraising to support its education programs, lobbying efforts and costs associated with managing its 39 wildlife sanctuaries.
“Giving Tuesday is a wonderful program that has grown over the years and has actually provided sort of a growth trend in giving for New Hampshire Audubon,” he said.
A major way NH Audubon connects people with nature is through its system of trails, such as those around its 49-acre sanctuary in Auburn around Lake Massabesic.
“It costs a lot of money to make sure our trails and our parking at our trailheads are in good shape,” Bechtel said. “So that’s another way of Giving Tuesday benefits how we interact with the public and how we provide a public benefit.”
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2022-11-28T15:07:39Z
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www.unionleader.com
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NH Business: Giving Tuesday provides a fundraising boost for NH nonprofits | NH Business | unionleader.com
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https://www.unionleader.com/news/business/nh_business/nh-business-giving-tuesday-provides-a-fundraising-boost-for-nh-nonprofits/article_62c41080-9c5e-516c-8ba0-100b4232b063.html
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https://www.unionleader.com/news/business/nh_business/nh-business-giving-tuesday-provides-a-fundraising-boost-for-nh-nonprofits/article_62c41080-9c5e-516c-8ba0-100b4232b063.html
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A man was stabbed in the hand during an argument at the Goat Bar and Grill in Manchester and sought treatment at a local argument, authorities said Monday.
Police said they responded to Catholic Medical Center at 1:45 a.m. on Thanksgiving.
The man, who wasn’t identified, said he got into an argument with another man earlier in the night at the bar at 50 Old Granite St., police said.
Anyone with information should call Manchester Police at 603-668-8711. You can also remain anonymous and call the Manchester Crimeline at 603-624-4040.
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2022-11-28T17:48:53Z
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www.unionleader.com
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Man stabbed in downtown Manchester bar | Crime | unionleader.com
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https://www.unionleader.com/news/crime/man-stabbed-in-downtown-manchester-bar/article_963165f8-9835-53ce-bc8d-fabcf46ade30.html
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https://www.unionleader.com/news/crime/man-stabbed-in-downtown-manchester-bar/article_963165f8-9835-53ce-bc8d-fabcf46ade30.html
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The State House in Concord.
The $9,873,605.40 approved comes on the heels of $3.9 million allocated earlier this year, and approximately $43.9 million since 2017.
“New Hampshire is not immune to the tragedies we have seen unfold across the country,” Gov. Chris Sununu said in a statement. “This additional $10 million in school safety funding approved today follows $3.9 million approved earlier this year -- a clear sign that New Hampshire remains as committed as ever to providing as many resources as possible to ensure schools are equipped with the resources and training to be prepared.”
Funding for 335 projects at 249 schools -- 231 public and 18 non-public -- has been authorized as part of the Security Action for Education (SAFE) grant application process.
“School safety is an absolute priority in New Hampshire, and this latest round of SAFE grants will work to ensure that schools are supplied with new technology and other advancements to enhance school safety and the protection of our children,” Education Commissioner Frank Edelblut said in a statement.
Schools across New Hampshire submitted applications to the Public School Infrastructure Commission (PSIC) through the Homeland Security and Emergency Management’s (HSEM) Resource Center. HSEM officials then reviewed the applications to assess potential risk based on a scoring rubric approved by the PSIC.
Some districts plan to use the funds for security items such as electronic door locks, new cameras and panic buzzers. Others want to create secure entrances where visitors are screened.
Manchester is in line to receive $482,184 for work at 20 schools. Nashua would receive $160,000 for eight school projects.
Derry is in line for $228,924, with Bedford receiving $41,160.
All of the projects approved are aimed to improve access control capabilities at schools statewide, the Department of Education said in a release.
“We continue to work to make our schools safer so that children, staff members and parents can have peace of mind,” said HSEM Director Robert Buxton in a statement. “This round of funding will help to create more security through access control.”
The $9.8 million marks the second round of SAFE grants approved in recent months.
Early decision awards were previously handed out to 92 public schools, totaling $3.9 million in state funds.
This second round of awards total nearly $9.9 million in funds through the Governor’s Office for Emergency Relief and Recovery, and will be granted to 249 schools.
Awards were capped at $100,000 per school. The money is awarded based on three security risks and safety priorities: surveillance, access control and emergency alerting.
Bow High School library to keep sexually explicit graphic novel "Gender Queer," most challenged book in 2021
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2022-11-28T22:32:32Z
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www.unionleader.com
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$9.8 million approved for school safety projects across NH | Education | unionleader.com
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https://www.unionleader.com/news/education/9-8-million-approved-for-school-safety-projects-across-nh/article_8d9dd20a-ebf3-56ad-a4cf-67ae8824f765.html
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https://www.unionleader.com/news/education/9-8-million-approved-for-school-safety-projects-across-nh/article_8d9dd20a-ebf3-56ad-a4cf-67ae8824f765.html
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The on ramp from Wellington Road in Manchester to Interstate 93 south is scheduled to re-open this week.
A long-closed highway entrance in east Manchester was supposed to reopen on Wednesday, but the state Department of Transportation said on Monday that motorists will have to wait another nine days.
The Wellington Road entrance to southbound lanes of Interstate-93, closed since early April, will reopen on Friday, Dec. 9, said DOT spokesman Richard Arcand. Barriers had been slated to come down Wednesday.
"Unfortunately, that's not going to make a lot of people happy," Arcand said.
Officials have closed the ramp because of preservation work on the highway bridge over Wellington Road. The work has pinched the southbound travel lanes down to two, and mergers from the ramp would have been too dangerous.
Arcand said weather delays and supply chain issues have slowed the $8.4 million project. The contractor, R.S. Audley, recently hired an additional crew, and workers are now concentrating on the bridge six days a week. Work was suspended during the Thanksgiving holiday weekend because of anticipated heavy holiday travel.
The bridge work is supposed to be completed in mid-April 2023.
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2022-11-28T22:32:51Z
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www.unionleader.com
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Wellington Road entrance ramp reopening delayed 9 days by DOT | Public Safety | unionleader.com
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https://www.unionleader.com/news/safety/wellington-road-entrance-ramp-reopening-delayed-9-days-by-dot/article_fbf3875c-fc1c-573f-94d6-a908bb16a114.html
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https://www.unionleader.com/news/safety/wellington-road-entrance-ramp-reopening-delayed-9-days-by-dot/article_fbf3875c-fc1c-573f-94d6-a908bb16a114.html
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WPI’s Emily Raynowska, of Brentwood, looks for a teammate during recent action.
WPI ATHLETICS
WPI’s Melanie Presseau, of Manchester, gets off a 3-pointer during recent action.
Granite Staters Presseau, Raynowska fueling WPI women
As the Worcester Polytechnic Institute women’s basketball team looks to build off of a 19-win season from a year ago, the Engineers lean on a pair of Granite Staters to help lead the way.
Manchester’s Melanie Presseau, a grad student, and Brentwood’s Emily Raynowska, a senior, play key roles for the Engineers and are part of the team’s veteran core.
“I think we use our experience to our advantage,” said Presseau, a Manchester Memorial graduate. “I know there’s a lot of teams that graduated a lot of veteran players so we have to use our experience and how we know the ins and outs of each other and our system to compete and do whatever we can to win.”
Presseau, a 5-foot-5 guard, was the leading scorer on the team last year and is averaging 7.3 points per game through WPI’s 3-1 start (before Sunday’s action). She had 10 points in WPI’s win over Clark to secure the Worcester City Title at the start of the season.
Presseau, in her fifth season at WPI, has grown on the court each year. In the team’s 60-57 loss to nationally ranked Tufts on Nov. 18, Presseau scored her 500th career point.
Presseau credits Memorial coach Greg Cotreau with preparing her to become a starter for a program at the top end of Division III.
“When he came to the program, he really pushed and actually taught us how to compete,” Presseau said. “I think it’s because of him, honestly.”
Raynowska, a 6-foot-3 center out of Brewster Academy, is a jack-of-all-trades off the bench. She’s averaging three points and three rebounds in 11 minutes of action per game in the early season.
“Emily obviously brings a different dimension to the team and how we can play with her length and ability to finish,” said WPI coach Cherise Galasso. “She can also step out and shoot. We run a lot of the offense through her and her decision making.”
Raynowska played one year at Exeter High before transferring to Brewster, where she played for three years. It was a hard decision for Raynowska, who played at Exeter alongside her sister Lia, but the opportunity was too good to pass up. Lia is now a senior playing at Colby-Sawyer.
“Brewster was a great experience for me,” Raynowska said. “It gave me some insight on how to live away from home and play basketball at the same time. Same thing down here. We also had the same game days, Wednesdays and Saturdays, as we do here so that’s great for me.”
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2022-11-28T22:33:09Z
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www.unionleader.com
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Granite Staters Presseau, Raynowska fueling WPI women | College Sports | unionleader.com
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https://www.unionleader.com/sports/college/granite-staters-presseau-raynowska-fueling-wpi-women/article_fccd47c2-fb94-551a-9447-2832250eb56f.html
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“READY IN THREE 1/2 MINUTES” declares the packaging for Velveeta’s microwaveable mac and cheese cups. But that’s simply not true, according to one allegedly inconvenienced South Florida woman, who points out that the figure accounts for just the microwave time. It does not include other time-consuming steps such as tearing off the lid, adding water and stirring in cheese sauce, she argues.
Amanda Ramirez might not have bothered buying the Shells & Cheese product “had she known the truth,” says a proposed class-action lawsuit in which she is the lead plaintiff.
The suit, filed in U.S. District Court in Miami, seeks more than $5 million in damages on behalf of the Hialeah woman and other purportedly hoodwinked customers. It accuses the Kraft Heinz Co., the maker of the cheesy cups, of deceptive and unfair trade practices.
“Consumers seeing ‘ready in 3 1 / 2 minutes’ will believe it represents the total amount of time it takes to prepare the Product, meaning from the moment it is unopened to the moment it is ready for consumption,” the complaint argues.
The lawsuit, previously covered by the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, was filed this month by William Wright of the Wright Law Office in West Palm Beach and Spencer Sheehan of Sheehan & Associates in Great Neck, N.Y.
The attorneys did not immediately respond to requests for comment Sunday afternoon.
He went after Kellogg, arguing that the company’s strawberry Pop-Tart marketing is deceptive because the pastries contain additional fruits. He said Keebler and Betty Crocker were wrong to call their cookie and cake mixes fudge because they contained no milk fat. And he took on Keurig Dr Pepper over the words that appear on A & W Root Beer cans: “MADE WITH AGED VANILLA.” That was among about 120 lawsuits over companies’ assertions that their products contain vanilla, NPR reported.
In the mac-and-cheese case, the complaint alleges that the Kraft Heinz Co. has been able to charge a premium price — $10.99 for eight 2.39 oz cups — by claiming the snack takes only 3 1 / 2 minutes to make. It lays out the steps on the back of the package:
“Next, they must ‘ADD water to fill line in cup. STIR.’ Third, ‘MICROWAVE, uncovered, on HIGH 3-1/2 min. DO NOT DRAIN.’
Those directions, the complaint says, “show that 3-and-a-half minutes is just the length of time to complete one of several steps.” A truthful label would have stated that the product takes 3 1 / 2 minutes to cook in the microwave, it adds.
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2022-11-29T00:38:22Z
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www.unionleader.com
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Her mac and cheese took more than 3.5 minutes to make, so now she's suing | Back Page | unionleader.com
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A Manchester man is claiming his superiors at Market Basket promoted younger workers instead of him in an age discrimination suit moved from state to federal court earlier this month.
An attorney for The DeMoulas Supermarkets Inc., owners of the popular Market Basket chain of supermarkets, denies the claims in court documents.
Rodney Martinez was 62 when he filed a claim with the state’s Human Rights Commission on Jan. 10, 2020. According to the complaint, Martinez says he was 55 when he was hired in 2012 to work part-time in the produce department at store #67 in Manchester (DeMoulas claims in separate court paperwork that Martinez was working in a produce department in their Londonderry store.)
In the complaint, Martinez claims even though he was a part-time employee, he was consistently scheduled to work the equivalent of a full-time employee, approximately 40 hours a week, in 2018, 2019 and into 2020, without receiving full-time benefits like paid time off, sick leave, dental insurance and profit sharing.
Martinez claims on several occasions he asked about being promoted to full-time, only to see younger part-time workers in their 20s be promoted instead.
When one of these younger workers was terminated, Martinez claims he again approached a manager about being promoted to full-time.
“What are you, about 60?” Martinez claims his manager asked him, before saying there was a move in the company towards promoting young people. Martinez claims a manager then asked him if would agree to drop back to part-time status when he got too old.
In separate court documents, attorneys for The DeMoulas Supermarkets Inc. claim the conversation never took place.
In its decision, the Human Rights Commission found 32 of 37 employees promoted between 2017 and 2019 were under the age of 38.
“Complainant offered sufficient evidence to demonstrate Respondent treated him differently based on his age,” Human Rights Commission investigators Dan Deyermond and Nancy LeRoy write in a decision dated August 29.
Dona Feeney, attorney for DeMoulas, requested the complaint be moved to state court on Oct. 22. A request to move it to federal court came on Nov. 9.
In response to the complaint, DeMoulas claims in court documents that “while initially a good performer, Plaintiff (Martinez) performed less well when he felt that someone else should not have received a promotion.”
The company also claims Martinez did not express interest in full-time until late 2019 when another employee was in training.
DeMoulas is seeking dismissal of the complaint, with interest and costs.
Court documents show Martinez is represented by Chad Hansen, of the Employee Rights Group out of Portland, Maine.
Attempts to reach attorneys for both sides for comment Monday were unsuccessful.
Market Basket lawsuit
Market Basket response
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2022-11-29T00:38:40Z
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www.unionleader.com
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Manchester man claims age discrimination in suit against Market Basket | Courts | unionleader.com
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https://www.unionleader.com/news/courts/manchester-man-claims-age-discrimination-in-suit-against-market-basket/article_2cbf7b95-3187-5727-b996-bec9d4093159.html
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"Gender Queer" has achieved notoriety as the most-challenged book of 2021, according to the American Library Association.
Facebook posts by conservatives, most notably Manchester Alderman Joe Kelly Levasseur, have drawn attention to the Bow High library and the availability of the 2019 work "Gender Queer: A Memoir," written and illustrated by Maia Kobabe. The work focuses on a teen dealing with gender identity issues.
Its drawings feature male genitals and two people engaged in oral sex. The American Library Association said it was the most challenged book of 2021.
Bow High Principal Brian O'Connell said he reviewed the book after receiving an email from a parent who was concerned about the images.
"My initial reaction was I could see the concern," O'Connell said. He read it over a weekend and came away with a different outlook. It takes on a different feeling when the story is placed in context, he said.
"At this point, I'm comfortable with it in the library," O'Connell said. The school has a process to challenge library material, and he informed the parent of the steps to take.
He has not received a formal challenge.
Two days after the Nov. 8 election, Levasseur posted some of the explicit content on his Facebook page.
"As an elected city official I feel I have an obligation to show this. If it can be in a library I don’t know why it can’t be here (in his feed) for people to see," he said. In his post, he said he did not know if the book was in the library of Manchester city schools.
An internet search earlier this month showed the book was not in the online catalog of the three Manchester public high schools, or those of Concord, Bedford, Londonderry, Merrimack or Pinkerton Academy in Derry.
The Goffstown High School library catalog is not available online. The book is available at the Manchester City Library and just about all town libraries in the area.
"This book is in the High School here in Bow," said Bow resident Ryan Johnston, who posted the explicit content on his Facebook page. "This is porn. The school is grooming."
He said he posted about it in a town group, and no one was concerned about it.
At Bow High School, the book has been checked out fewer than 10 times in the three years it has been in the collection, O'Connell said. He said he is aware of the Internet chatter.
"Interestingly, it hasn't drawn much attention in the school," O'Connell said.
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2022-11-29T00:38:46Z
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www.unionleader.com
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Explicit graphic novel to stay put in Bow High School library | Education | unionleader.com
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https://www.unionleader.com/news/education/explicit-graphic-novel-to-stay-put-in-bow-high-school-library/article_50eee315-2c92-5ca2-9a6f-9ae0521fb284.html
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John Y. Brown Jr., a onetime owner of Kentucky Fried Chicken who parlayed his fast-food fortune into a dramatic rise in Kentucky politics, winning one term as governor shortly after marrying sportscaster and former Miss America Phyllis George, died Nov. 21 at a hospital in Lexington, Kentucky. He was 88.
The son of a one-term congressman who longed for higher office, Brown entered politics after a business career in which he helped build Kentucky Fried Chicken into one of the state’s most famous exports and one of the largest fast-food chains in the world. He was also an owner of three professional basketball teams, among them the Boston Celtics.
Brown was 30 in 1964 when he and a co-investor purchased Kentucky Fried Chicken from founder Harland Sanders, better known as Colonel Sanders, for $2 million. They kept the colonel — the title was honorary — as their spokesman as the chicken chain grew to include 3,500 locations around the globe, eclipsing even McDonald’s for a period.
Brown and his partner sold the business to Heublein in 1971, with Brown’s share of the deal reportedly reaching $35 million. He had already purchased the Kentucky Colonels, a team in the now-defunct American Basketball Association, and later became owner of the Buffalo Braves and then the Celtics. He toyed with the idea of running for the U.S. Senate or for governor before jumping into the 1979 Democratic gubernatorial primary less than three months before the election.
In the primary, Brown defeated several other more experienced candidates, including former Louisville mayor Harvey Sloane, state commerce commissioner Terry McBrayer, U.S. Rep. Carroll Hubbard Jr. and Lt. Gov. Thelma Stovall. Brown then easily beat former Republican governor Louie B. Nunn in the general election. He drew heavily on his own wealth to blanket Kentucky in television commercials, spending $2 million on his winning campaign, according to the Almanac of American Politics.
His “campaign for the Democratic nomination for governor destroyed the notion that candidates had to invest years of painstaking preparation before seeking the office,” Brown’s obituary in the Louisville Courier-Journal said.
“He demonstrated that a quick thrust, built on modern campaign techniques, could overwhelm organizational politics.”
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2022-11-29T00:38:52Z
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www.unionleader.com
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John Y. Brown Jr., former Kentucky governor and KFC owner, dies at 88 | News | unionleader.com
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https://www.unionleader.com/news/john-y-brown-jr-former-kentucky-governor-and-kfc-owner-dies-at-88/article_947e45cf-7eca-50ee-8bb5-ba41f74660a7.html
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Nashua police are asking for the public’s help as they continue to investigate a hit-and-run crash that left three people injured on Thanksgiving Eve.
Nashua police responded to 119 Main Street around 11:40 p.m. on Wednesday, Nov. 23, for a report of a crash involving pedestrians hit by a car.
Police said three people were struck by the vehicle and taken to local hospitals. One person sustained serious but non-life threatening injuries. The other two were treated for minor injuries, police said.
The vehicle believed to be involved is described by police as a dark colored Toyota RAV4, model years 2006-2012.
It was last seen turning onto West Pearl Street from Main Street, officials said.
Anyone with information is asked to contact Detective Corey Gobbi at the Nashua
Police Department 603-594-3500 or the Crime Line 603-589-1665.
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2022-11-29T00:38:58Z
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www.unionleader.com
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Nashua police investigating Thanksgiving Eve hit-and-run | Public Safety | unionleader.com
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https://www.unionleader.com/news/safety/nashua-police-investigating-thanksgiving-eve-hit-and-run/article_235786f5-1b97-5d52-a6f5-b04d5fac567f.html
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City school board members voted Monday to approve the proposed high school course catalog for the 2023-2024 school year, after once again hearing from supporters and detractors how the offerings relate to de-leveling across the district.
The vote to approve was 14-1, after Board of School Committee members heard comments from students and administrators speaking both for and against de-leveling.
The lone vote in opposition came from Ken Tassey.
Leveling -- when students are separated into different classrooms based on past performance -- has proven a controversial topic in recent years.
Superintendent of Schools Jenn Gillis agreed the concept is a complex topic, because “we’re not just talking about our high school course offerings; we’re also talking about eliminating a system that has been shown to limit access to higher level learning opportunities for students from historically underserved communities.”
“We believe this program of studies is a step toward opening doors, unlocking opportunities and improving outcomes for all of our students,” said Gillis. “I want to begin by making one thing clear -- the proposed program of studies does not eliminate higher level learning opportunities for students. In fact, at last count, there are 58 higher-level courses, including honors, advanced placement and Running Start. The district will ensure equitable access to rigorous standards/competencies and quality curriculum, instruction and assessments for all students.”
Gillis said the policy approved Monday aligns with policy 119 -- Equitable access to high standards, which passed in May of 2021.
“The term de-leveling gives the impression that there is just one level -- that is not what we have done with this program of studies,” said Gillis. “There are still multiple levels of learning with different entry points for students.”
“The intention of the work we’ve done is simple -- we are taking steps to ensure all students have the same access to higher level learning opportunities, and ultimately improve student outcomes for all students,” said Gillis. “In short, options remain for our students. What we are doing is taking steps to eliminate the practice of tracking -- in which students end up locked in a particular academic track based on past performance.”
The school board voted in 2010 to introduce leveling to the middle schools, in part as a way to give high-achieving students more opportunities to excel.
City school administrators raised concerns about the fairness and logistics of leveling in the middle schools from the outset. The topic resurfaced in the spring of 2014, when the district was faulted by the federal Office for Civil Rights for consistent disparities between White and minority students in the district due to the small percentage of minority students enrolling in advanced classes. In 2010-11, just nine of the almost 600 Hispanic or Latino students in the district took an AP course.
A preliminary proposal to try a de-leveling pilot program at one of the middle schools was mothballed after meeting resistance from parents and several school board members.
Manchester school board members voted to de-level city schools in 2021, and as of fall 2021 local middle schools no longer offered low-, medium- or high-level options for courses.
While school officials say leveling will not impact advanced placement classes, those opposed to the concept believe grouping students of various skill levels together can have a detrimental impact on education.
Students performing at higher levels grouped with those performing at lower levels may feel the coursework is moving too slowly, and vice versa.
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2022-11-29T02:40:19Z
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www.unionleader.com
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Manchester school board approves course catalog, as de-leveling debate continues | Education | unionleader.com
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https://www.unionleader.com/news/education/manchester-school-board-approves-course-catalog-as-de-leveling-debate-continues/article_5e0c59ac-35db-5a7d-b535-61532a60b838.html
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Police officers salute as pall bearers carry the remains of Mayor Ray Wieczorek to his funeral at St. Catherine of Siena Parish in Manchester on Nov. 28, 2022.
The hearse carrying the remains of former Manchester Mayor Ray Wieczorek pauses for city employees and elected officials to pay their respects on Monday.
Pallbearers carry the casket of former Mayor Ray Wieczorek to his funeral at St. Catherine of Siena Parish in Manchester on Monday.
Manchester Mayor Joyce Craig and former mayors Ted Gatsas and Bob Baines pay their respects to former Mayor Ray Wieczorek as his funeral procession paused in front of City Hall.
Manchester police officers salute as pallbearers carry the remains of former Mayor Ray Wieczorek to his funeral at St. Catherine of Siena Parish on Monday.
Manchester firefighters unfurl a flag over Elm Street before the hearse carrying the remains of former Manchester Mayor Ray Wieczorek paused at City Hall.
Raymond Wieczorek grew up as a farm boy in New Britain, Connecticut, and he never forgot his roots even as he rose to become mayor of New Hampshire’s largest city.
“His family is what matters most to him and we felt his presence in our lives, but never in an interfering way,” his son Rob said at Wieczorek’s funeral Mass at St. Catherine of Siena Parish Monday afternoon where friends and family gathered to celebrate his life.
Wieczorek, 93, who served as mayor from 1990 to 2000, died on Nov. 22.
The Republican mayor later served on the Executive Council for about a decade before deciding not to seek another term in 2012.
Several Manchester police officers stood at attention and saluted as Wieczorek’s casket was carried into the church. A church bell tolled at the start of the Mass.
The more than 150 people at the funeral included Gov. Chris Sununu, Executive Councilor Ted Gatsas, Senate President Chuck Morse, Catholic Medical Center CEO Alex Walker and Manchester Fire Chief Ryan Cashin. Manchester Mayor Joyce Craig and other former city mayors were also in attendance.
Rob Wieczorek broke down as he shared the “private side of a very public man.”
“He grew up during the Depression era when times were tough, and learned to do a lot with little,” Wieczorek said.
He loved animals and would often gather black walnuts in a pail from his insurance agency’s office and bring them home for the squirrels. He often fed the stray cats around the office.
Rob Wieczorek and his brother, James, worked alongside their father at the family’s insurance agency. Working with family is a blessing and a curse, he said.
“One day, I had enough and I asked him to meet me at the office,” Rob Wieczorek said. “And I said, ‘It has become clear to me that we can’t live together and work together.’ Immediately, he said to me, ‘Well, I own the house and the business so that leaves you in a tough spot.’”
Being a politician wasn’t easy when it came to making tough decisions. “He never wavered from doing what he believed was right,” Rob Wieczorek said.
One time, Wieczorek received a letter in the mail over a divisive issue.
“The writer said he was stupid, out of touch, uneducated, a dinosaur, and many other critiques,” Rob Wieczorek said. “He finished with the quote, ‘Even your mustache sucks.’”
The father of three seemed most concerned about the looks of his mustache. But he never took political attacks personally.
“Dad loved people and he would talk to everyone, everywhere from Dunkin’ Donuts to Concord to Florida and everywhere in between,” Rob Wieczorek said. “He didn’t care who you were. He just liked people.”
The Rev. Chris Martel offered comfort during the Mass and encouraged everyone to think about how Wieczorek touched their lives.
“Over the last several days, we’ve been sharing the stories of who Raymond was and how he allowed the light of Christ to shine,” Martel said.
After the funeral, Morse said Wieczorek helped shape a whole generation of leadership.
“He had such a sense of humor and had an ability to communicate with others,” he said. “You don’t accomplish things like building an arena and everything without having that ability to communicate.”
He called Wieczorek “a legend,” someone everyone wanted to be around.
“I don’t think anyone here is leaving here with sadness,” Morse said. “I think it brings back a lot of memories. One gentleman jumped out of his car and said all the stories yesterday were all happy stories, and that’s the way it should be. He has earned our trust.”
Wieczorek knew he was nearing the end of his life, but never complained and rarely talked about it, his son said.
His daughter, Lee Anne McCarthy, asked him if he was scared.
“He said, ‘No, I’m not. I had a great life and I have faith,’” Rob Wieczorek said.
He thanked everyone for the outpouring of support the past week.
“When we remember Ray Wieczorek we will remember his quick wit, reliable nature and caring of people,” he said.
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2022-11-29T02:40:25Z
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www.unionleader.com
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Friends and family remember the life of Raymond Wieczorek | Human Interest | unionleader.com
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https://www.unionleader.com/news/human_interest/friends-and-family-remember-the-life-of-raymond-wieczorek/article_f43020e3-e81c-5b0d-90fc-e0a4b7803c86.html
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House Speaker Sherman Packard, R-Londonderry, led the effort during the 2022 session to use $35 million in state budget surplus to build a new legislators’ parking garage. Ultimately, lawmakers spent $9.3 million to plan for the project, to be built on the parcel currently occupied by the state Department of Justice.
CONCORD — The state has approved a 20-year, $70 million lease with a politically prominent developer to provide a new home for the Department of Justice and perhaps for other state departments.
The Legislature had already approved a plan to demolish the existing Department of Justice building at 33 Capitol St. and build a new legislative parking garage on the property. The building is across the street from the State House.
The Executive Council unanimously approved the no-bid lease at its meeting last week.
The DOJ, often referred to as the Attorney General’s Office, will move into 65,000 square feet of space in what’s known as the South Building at 1 Granite Place in Concord, about a mile and a half north of the State House. This is part of a complex originally built to serve as state headquarters for Lincoln Financial Group, an insurance company.
The lease covers the entire 106,000-square-foot building, and state officials said other state agencies could be moved there as well.
The lease is with the real estate management firm led by Steve Duprey, a former Republican state chairman who owns a lot of commercial property in the Concord area.
The deal is a “triple net” lease that makes the state responsible for paying monthly rent, the cost to upgrade the space, and other expenses of the landlord including parking, maintenance and taxes as well as all finance costs over the life of the lease.
Administrative Services Commissioner Charles Arlinghaus said the AG’s Office should remain in the capital city.
“There just aren’t many options out there,” Arlinghaus said.
The new legislative parking garage would replace a Storrs Street garage that’s two blocks from the State House.
The circa-1976 parking structure is so badly corroded that steel nets were installed to catch falling concrete before it crashed onto cars or pedestrians below.
Why not buy?
This lease agreement with Duprey’s limited liability company gives the state an option to buy the South Building at 1 Granite Place outright for $15 million between Aug. 1, 2023 and July 1, 2024.
“I don’t like long-term leases,” said Executive Councilor Joe Kenney, R-Wakefield, who said the council should consider writing a letter to legislative leaders urging them to buy the building.
Arlinghaus agreed the buy option was a good one.
“The $15 million purchase price is a really good deal for 100,000 square feet of space,” Arlinghaus said.
In March 2021, the Brady Sullivan development group in Manchester bought the South Building at 1 Granite Place and 107 vacant acres near to it for $3.4 million.
Last June, Duprey bought both parcels for $7.4 million, according to real estate records.
Duprey already has an option to buy the North Building that makes up the rest of the original Lincoln Financial complex. The state Administrative Office of the Courts leases space in that building.
Last spring, Arlinghaus told legislative leaders that paying $20 million for a new home for the DOJ would be a good deal.
The state bought 33 Capitol St. from Laconia Savings Bank years ago after seven of the state’s largest banks collapsed and were sold as a group. The AG’s Office moved in to occupy nearly all of the building. Before long, the agency ran out of space and stored massive paper files in the basement.
Garage plan
As for the parking garage concept, the House of Representatives embraced legislation to build it with $35 million in state budget surplus.
Senate President Chuck Morse, R-Salem, said a final decision should come when the Legislature adopts a two-year budget of public works projects in the spring of 2023.
Among past estimates were $3.5 million to raze the DOJ building, $1.3 million to move staff to another location, $1.5 million to tear down the Storrs Garage and $24 million to build a new above-ground parking garage for legislators.
Ultimately, the Legislature decided to spend upfront $9.3 million for engineering of the new garage, demolishing the AG’s office and moving that agency into new quarters.
The money got into a catch-all bill (HB 1661) passed at the close of the 2022 session that critics called a “Christmas tree” because it was laden with many pet state projects.
Morse and other legislators said it would make sense to delay any purchase until what had been a white-hot real estate market had cooled off.
They also questioned whether it would make more sense for the state to issue bonds to carry out the purchase rather than pay cash for all of it.
Some conservative lawmakers called the project a boondoggle and last spring unsuccessfully tried to derail it.
According to published reports, the developers pay more than $200,000 in property taxes to the city on the South Building.
In the past, the building has been assessed as high as $9.4 million.
Arlinghaus told the council if the state ended up with a purchase, it would have to include a payment in lieu of taxes to Concord.
Legislative Parking Garage
Charles Arlinghaus
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2022-11-29T02:40:31Z
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www.unionleader.com
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State approves long-term lease to move AG's office | State | unionleader.com
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https://www.unionleader.com/news/politics/state/state-approves-long-term-lease-to-move-ags-office/article_1e2d32e1-e287-5e27-9199-1cbb502f74bb.html
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https://www.unionleader.com/news/politics/state/state-approves-long-term-lease-to-move-ags-office/article_1e2d32e1-e287-5e27-9199-1cbb502f74bb.html
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Bruins head coach Jim Montgomery talks with his team during the third period of an NHL game on Oct. 17.
Matt Stone/MEDIA NEWS GROUP/BOSTON HERALD
Bruins notebook: Challenging part of schedule is upon Bruins
With the Boston Bruins sitting at an NHL-best 18-3, it is hard to argue that they are not an elite team. But by the time the next couple of weeks are done, we should have a better idea if they are just one of a handful of top Stanley Cup contenders or if they are in an even more exclusive class.
On Tuesday, the Bruins have their return match against the Tampa Bay Lightning, whom they were able to dispatch with one excellent second period last week. Then on Saturday, they face the defending Stanley Cup champion Colorado Avalanche, predictably starting to make their move in the Western Conference.
Next Monday, they will finish off the homestand by locking horns with former coach Bruce Cassidy’s Vegas Golden Knights, who have been sitting atop the West all season.
The tour of murderer’s row began last week when they faced the Bolts, the Panthers (just their third L of the season) and, finally the Carolina Hurricanes, a game that produced one of their more gratifying victories of the season when they overcame a two-goal deficit.
While some in the Bruins’ locker room eschew the term “measuring stick game,” everyone knows who is on the schedule.
But while the Bruins have reached an attention-getting portion of the schedule, the lofty status that they’ve created for themselves should put them on high alert every time they step on the ice these days.
“I think just for us and where our game is at, we’ve been on a little bit of a roll. Now we’ve had some breaks in-between games, so can you stay hot and in the same mindset?” said the Bruins’ Nick Foligno. “I’m proud of the guys with the way we’ve handled it. There are good teams and we’re going to get every team’s best. And it doesn’t matter how we’ve played before. We should expect to get every team’s best just because of the type of team we are.
“I don’t think it changes just because of the record we have. I think we need to understand that we’re the Boston Bruins and we’re going to get the best from everybody. I remember playing against this team and you had to play your best just because of the way this team has carried itself. I take pride in that and I think guys should understand that it shouldn’t matter how we prepare for games. We should always expect the other team’s best.”
While the quality of opponent has jumped up a notch since the Bruins were beating up on the likes of Vancouver and Chicago, the schedule has been kind in another way. They’ve had three days off since beating Carolina and, after hosting Tampa on Tuesday, they will have another three-day break before Colorado arrives.
“There’s a give and take. When you’re rolling, you just want to keep going. But I think there’s also a benefit to staying sharp on things that may slip because you’re just rolling sometimes,” said Foligno. “You get to catch yourself a little bit in practice and see what you need to improve and the coaches get a little more time to break down the film and show us, ‘OK, we can get a little bit better there.’ I think that’s really the exciting part. We still feel like there’s so much room for our game to grow.”
With Derek Forbort close to returning off Long-Term IR, the Bruins placed veteran defenseman Anton Stralman on waivers on Monday in an effort to become cap compliant. Stralman was a training camp tryout and signed a one-year, $1 million contract on the eve of the season opener. After having visa issus that kept him out of the lineup at the start of the season, Stralman has played in eight games, but he got the nod over Jakub Zboril in the Bruins’ win over Carolina. Stralman had not gotten on the scoreboard and was minus-3 in his eight games, but is steady and savvy.
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2022-11-29T02:40:37Z
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www.unionleader.com
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Bruins notebook: Challenging part of schedule is upon Bruins | Bruins | unionleader.com
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https://www.unionleader.com/sports/bruins/bruins-notebook-challenging-part-of-schedule-is-upon-bruins/article_44e6fa61-1819-5e50-b530-967950bde7ca.html
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https://www.unionleader.com/sports/bruins/bruins-notebook-challenging-part-of-schedule-is-upon-bruins/article_44e6fa61-1819-5e50-b530-967950bde7ca.html
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Rory McIlroy, left, and Tiger Woods share a laugh at the Celebration of Champions four-hole tournament at St. Andrews, Scotland, in July.
The Match will be played at Pelican Golf Club in Belleair, Florida, and Woods will partner with World No. 1 Rory McIlroy against Justin Thomas and Jordan Spieth.
The elder Woods returned to competitive golf at the 2021 PNC Championship, just 10 months following a serious car crash. He played a limited 2022 schedule and hasn't competed since the British Open in July.
MORE GOLF VIDEOS
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2022-11-29T02:40:43Z
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Tiger Woods (foot) to skip Hero World Challenge | Golf | unionleader.com
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https://www.unionleader.com/sports/golf/tiger-woods-foot-to-skip-hero-world-challenge/article_0ab690ab-9e16-5c2e-a4a9-075155b6048f.html
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https://www.unionleader.com/sports/golf/tiger-woods-foot-to-skip-hero-world-challenge/article_0ab690ab-9e16-5c2e-a4a9-075155b6048f.html
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Bedford High’s Ledger Russell, bottom, and Dylan Soden celebrate their win over Londonderry in Saturday’s Division I state final.
Bedford finishes No. 1 in Union Leader Power Poll
“Defense travels” is a phrase that gets a lot of use within the sports world, and that was certainly true for this year’s Bedford High School football team.
Because the Division I playoffs were expanded from eight to 13 teams this year, Bedford became the first NHIAA team to win four playoff games in one season — and all four victories came away from home. The 10th-seeded Bulldogs won three road playoff games and then beat top-seeded Londonderry 15-14 at a neutral site (Exeter High School) in Saturday’s Division I championship game.
Bedford posted three shutouts in the postseason (seven overall) and outscored its four playoff opponents 82-14. That strong playoff run vaulted the Bulldogs (10-3) to the top spot in the final Union Leader Power Poll.
“We weren’t the front-runner by any stretch of the imagination going into the playoffs,” Bedford coach Zach Matthews said following Saturday’s victory. “You enter as a 10th seed. We have an up-and-down regular season. The kids just kept working. They believed in each other and they believed in what we were coaching and what we were teaching them to do, and then you go on a crazy playoff run as a result of that.”
Bedford overcame a 14-point second-half deficit against Londonderry, which finished No. 2 in the poll. The Lancers, who beat Winnacunnet in last year’s Division I championship game, had been in the top spot since the first poll of 2022.
“I think in the first half, we were on our heels a little bit (defensively), which is the first time we’ve seen that,” Matthews said. “Granted, our offense put our defense in bad situations. We were catching blocks instead of attacking coming downhill. To be honest, the 14-point deficit might have been the best thing to happen to us because we got into halftime and we said to the kids, “We’re gonna have to go out and attack in the second half. We have nothing to lose.’ I think they (the Lancers) were just trying to hold on and we were attacking, and I think we all know anytime you’re in a situation where you’re just trying to hold on to a victory it becomes very tough to win those types of football games.”
This was the 12th-consecutive season the No. 1 and No. 2 teams in the Power Poll met in the Division I championship game.
“To me, Bedford’s Division I playoff run has to be one of the most memorable in recent history,” said Union Leader staff writer Alex Hall, one of seven Power Poll voters. “The Bulldogs came in as the No. 10 seed and shut out both Windham and last year’s Division II champion in Timberlane and also knocked off the top two seeds in Nashua North (7-0) and last year’s Division I champion in Londonderry.”
“The defensive adjustments made by Bedford in the second half to spend whatever resources defensively needed to shut down the (Londonderry quarterback) Drew Heenan running attack was a brilliant move,” added voter Steve Beals of Friday Night Lights New Hampshire. “Up until (Saturday) I haven’t seen it done as effectively all year.”
Nine of the 10 teams in the final poll are from Division I. Pelham, this year’s Division II champion, came in at No. 8.
“I know this: Bedford and Londonderry are the two best teams in the state, with two great head coaches and staff,” said Union Leader Sports Editor Chris Duffy, another one of the seven voters. “I don’t know this: Where to place the unbeaten Division II-champion Pelham Pythons. I’ll keep them sixth, where I had them last week, ahead of many fine Division I clubs. And I’m the only voter who saw them in a close game.”
Only one non-Division I team has ended the year as the state’s No. 1 team since the poll’s inception in 2008. An undefeated Bishop Guertin team finished the 2009 season at No. 1. BG competed in Division II that year.
The 2012 Winnacunnet team, which won the Division II championship, also had a strong case to be No. 1. Winnacunnet beat Exeter, the Division I champion that year, but was upset by Keene during the regular season. No final poll was more controversial than that one.
Bedford also finished as the No. 1 team in the poll following the 2016 and 2018 seasons.
“Londonderry was the standard all season, but in one of the best championship games in recent memory, Bedford was able to wrestle away the top spot in the final seconds,” said voter Nick Anastos of Friday Night Lights New Hampshire. “What a season; with a ton of parity in Division I, the return of out-of-state opponents, and an expanded playoff schedule. It all added up to a truly exciting and suspenseful year.”
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2022-11-29T02:40:49Z
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www.unionleader.com
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Bedford finishes No. 1 in Union Leader Power Poll | Sports | unionleader.com
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https://www.unionleader.com/sports/highschool/bedford-finishes-no-1-in-union-leader-power-poll/article_b6517cac-ef71-519b-a76e-09dd2e0148f5.html
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https://www.unionleader.com/sports/highschool/bedford-finishes-no-1-in-union-leader-power-poll/article_b6517cac-ef71-519b-a76e-09dd2e0148f5.html
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Nick DeMayo
IT HAS finally come to pass and fate works in mysteriously wonderful ways. We learned Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi is stepping down on the same night Donald Trump announced his intention to run again for president.
In January 2023, Pelosi will no longer be Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives and will no longer be third in line to be president. Bye, bye, Nancy! Au revoir, Nancy! Arrivederci, Nancy! Zaijian, Nancy! Sayonara, Nancy! Aloha, Nancy!
Nancy Pelosi has been speaker since 2019, and previously from 2007 to 2011. She has represented California’s 12th Congressional District since 1987. That equates to 35 years. Look at California’s demise over that time, with higher and higher taxes, residents departing for more livable states, higher and higher crime rates, and prolific drug use. Has she improved the lives of members of her dysfunctional district in all those years?
We know Pelosi’s life has certainly improved in that time, with reports of insider trading in the stock market (her husband’s too-timely investments). ”It may not be illegal - but it sure looks scummy!” (The New York Post, July 23, 2022).
Pelosi and her husband claim the ownership of various vineyards in Napa Valley and surrounding lucrative areas of the wine-growing country of California. The list goes on, according to Open Secrets, following the money in politics found the Pelosi’s hold 48 assets totaling $54,474,051 to $256,266.000, with assets in industries such as real estate, finance, lodging, tourism, internet, entertainment, food & beverage, securities and investment, telecom services, publishing, trucking, energy, electronics manufacturing and equipment, among others. Quite a portfolio on the speaker’s salary of $223,500.00 a year, don’t you think?
Pelosi was born into a prominent Baltimore political family with her father serving as a Democrat congressman from Maryland who then became Mayor of Baltimore seven years later. Pelosi’s brother, Thomas D’Alesandro III became mayor of Baltimore in 1967, and served in that position until 1971 after serving as Baltimore City Council president. Nancy is most noteworthy for being the only speaker to unilaterally and disgracefully destroy a president’s State of the Union Address in front of a worldwide audience on February 5, 2020. The legal scholars are still debating whether that unprecedented and dastardly act by Speaker Pelosi was legal.
The Republicans have taken the majority in the House with 218 GOP representatives, and perhaps even more as counting is still ongoing. Pelosi will have to turn over her gavel, leadership, and power in the House to Rep. Kevin McCarthy, R-California, it is believed.
Will she follow the cowardly exit of the defeated British General Lord Charles Cornwallis, who was defeated by General George Washington at the Battle of Yorktown in Virginia on Oct. 19, 1781, thus culminating in the eventual end of the Revolutionary War. In disgrace and embarrassment, Cornwallis feigned illness and refused to attend the surrendering ceremony. Instead, he ordered a subordinate, General Charles O’Hara, to surrender his sword to Washington. In turn, General Washington ordered American General Benjamin Lincoln to accept the British Empire’s sword of surrender.
The new Republican-controlled House of Representatives should curb abusive actions like Insider Trading by those serving in our government in Washington, D.C., that only serve to promote personal power grabs and conflicts of interest.
Nick De Mayo lives in Sugar Hill.
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2022-11-29T06:22:36Z
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www.unionleader.com
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Nick De Mayo: Good riddance to Pelosi, her greed won't be missed | Op-eds | unionleader.com
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https://www.unionleader.com/opinion/op-eds/nick-de-mayo-good-riddance-to-pelosi-her-greed-wont-be-missed/article_86885559-a1be-543a-9ddf-10997781b02c.html
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https://www.unionleader.com/opinion/op-eds/nick-de-mayo-good-riddance-to-pelosi-her-greed-wont-be-missed/article_86885559-a1be-543a-9ddf-10997781b02c.html
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Medvedev, who once cast himself as a liberal modernizer as president from 2008 to 2012, has increasingly emerged as one of the most hawkish proponents of Russia's war in Ukraine, posting scathing denunciations of the West on his social media channels.
"The civilized world does not need this organization. It must repent to humanity and be dissolved as a criminal entity," he wrote in an earlier post.
Ukraine has asked its Western partners for air defenses, including U.S.-made Patriot systems, to protect it from Russian attacks on its energy infrastructure.
NATO ministers have condemned what they call Russia's "persistent and unconscionable attacks on Ukrainian civilian and energy infrastructure," and pledged to step up their support for Kyiv.
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2022-11-29T21:46:10Z
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Russia's Medvedev warns NATO over supplying Ukraine with Patriot systems | Military | unionleader.com
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https://www.unionleader.com/news/military/russias-medvedev-warns-nato-over-supplying-ukraine-with-patriot-systems/article_74479e39-e5ba-51f0-88ea-156963131d95.html
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https://www.unionleader.com/news/military/russias-medvedev-warns-nato-over-supplying-ukraine-with-patriot-systems/article_74479e39-e5ba-51f0-88ea-156963131d95.html
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'Phantom of the Opera' extends its record Broadway run to April
Tickets for the remaining shows will go on sale Wednesday at 10 a.m.
Ticket sales were no longer offsetting the show’s costs, the New York Times reported in September, citing the show’s producer, Cameron Mackintosh. In the weeks after the news that the show was set to close, ticket sales grossed $1.2 million, $1.5 million, and $1.8 million, compared to $867,997 the week before the announcement, the Times said Tuesday. During the Thanksgiving holiday week the show had its highest-grossing week ever, bringing in $2.2 million.
Sales are apparently getting a boost from those who had seen the show and wanted to catch the music of the night once more before the final curtain call.
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2022-11-30T02:33:32Z
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'Phantom of the Opera' extends its record Broadway run to April | Back Page | unionleader.com
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https://www.unionleader.com/news/back_page/phantom-of-the-opera-extends-its-record-broadway-run-to-april/article_f46e649c-06f3-55b6-96f2-b582ad343104.html
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Senior Assistant Attorney General Peter Hinckley describes the shooting scene in a photo from a police dashboard camera as he gives a presentation on the fatal shooting incident that happened on April 9 in Derry.
Senior Assistant Attorney General Peter Hinckley gives a presentation on the fatal shooting incident that happened on April 9 in Derry.
Three Derry police officers and a private citizen were justified in their use of deadly force during a fatal officer-involved shooting earlier this year, the Attorney General’s Office says.
According to the AG Office’s final report on the incident, released Tuesday, Derry police responded around 2:17 p.m. when a 911 caller said a person with a shotgun had approached Watson’s home and fired at a resident.
Officials said Watson, 31, had returned to his house after driving to pick up food for his 2-year-old daughter’s birthday party. His wife and daughter were inside the house.
As Watson sat in his pickup truck, parked facing the street in his driveway, he saw a man he didn’t recognize walking down the street toward his home.
“As Mr. Coppola neared Mr. Watson’s house, Mr. Watson saw that Mr. Coppola was holding a shotgun,” the report reads. “In response, Mr. Watson called 911 to report in substance that an armed man was walking down his street. Mr. Watson also retrieved his legally-owned semiautomatic pistol, which he lawfully stored in the truck, but remained in the vehicle as he spoke to 911.”
“In response, Mr. Watson left his vehicle and fired his pistol at Mr. Coppola, who was running towards him and on his property,” the report states. “Mr. Coppola fired his shotgun at Mr. Watson again, and Mr. Watson fired additional shots from his pistol at Mr. Coppola.”
Watson told officials he thought he wounded Coppola, as the man went over and sat down against a tree on Watson’s front lawn, still holding the shotgun. Watson repeatedly yelled at Coppola to drop his gun and show his hands, but the man did not comply, officials said.
“For several minutes, the police spoke with Mr. Coppola,” the report says, telling him to drop his shotgun.
According to the report, Coppola “expressed concern that he was going to go to jail, and repeatedly told the police to shoot him.”
An autopsy performed by Deputy Chief Medical Examiner Mitchell Weinberg showed Coppola suffered three gunshot wounds: one to his forearm, likely from Watson’s handgun, and two others, to his upper back and chest, from the police officers’ high-velocity rifles.
A toxicology report also showed high levels of fentanyl in Coppola’s system.
The attorney general’s report concludes the use of deadly force by Watson and the three Derry officers was legally justified given the circumstances of the encounter, and the fact that each fired their weapon only after Coppola shot at them.
“Like Mr. Watson before, at that time, unlawful deadly force by Mr. Coppola was not just possible or even imminent, it was active and ongoing.”
Muncey has been a police officer for 23 years, Kidd approximately 11 years, and Underhill approximately four years, the AG’s Office said in a news release.
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2022-11-30T02:33:48Z
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www.unionleader.com
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AG: Derry officers, private citizen justified in fatal shooting | Crime | unionleader.com
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https://www.unionleader.com/news/crime/ag-derry-officers-private-citizen-justified-in-fatal-shooting/article_19538284-784b-5ef3-889c-b446285b0f71.html
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Christopher Barry, 33, of Hampton pleaded guilty to breaking into a car during the daytime for a felony and misdemeanor breaking and entering during his appearance Nov. 21 in Newburyport (Mass.) District Court.
During the same court appearance, Barry was sentenced to two years of probation for a drugged driving charge related to an arrest in Salisbury, Mass., in February.
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2022-11-30T02:33:52Z
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www.unionleader.com
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NH man gets jail time for Mass. car break-ins | Crime | unionleader.com
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https://www.unionleader.com/news/crime/nh-man-gets-jail-time-for-mass-car-break-ins/article_e9bf44e2-3236-5827-8838-1375b186fc77.html
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https://www.unionleader.com/news/crime/nh-man-gets-jail-time-for-mass-car-break-ins/article_e9bf44e2-3236-5827-8838-1375b186fc77.html
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Finalists to compete in NH Social Venture Innovation Challenge on Dec.1
DURHAM — Ten teams of college students from across the state were selected to advance to the final round of the 10th annual New Hampshire Social Venture Innovation Challenge (SVIC).
The finalists will compete Thursday, Dec. 1, beginning at 9 a.m. The winners will be announced immediately following the 2022 Social Innovator of the Year Award and keynote address. Both events are free and open to the public; registration is required.
A signature program of the University of New Hampshire, the SVIC engages aspiring and practicing student social entrepreneurs in designing novel solutions to some of society’s most pressing sustainability challenges, as defined by the United Nations’ 17 Sustainable Development Goals.
The SVIC is an idea-stage competition with the goal of inspiring innovative, solution-orientated thinking and providing a forum to shine a light on these ideas. Over the last 10 years, the program has engaged over 500 teams and more than 1,200 individuals as competitors, as well as hundreds more as judges, mentors and sponsors, and has awarded over $200,000 in prize money.
The challenge is a powerful demonstration that college students are not only deeply aware of the complex issues facing their generation, but they are also committed to being the changemakers capable of bringing innovative solutions. The 2022 finalist teams propose to address a range of sustainability issues with ideas including a renewable jet fuel, a smart-ring date rape drug detector, an improved oil spill cleaning method, a supplement to reduce methane production in cows, smart home technologies to lower residential energy use and emissions, use of oyster mushrooms to produce a more sustainable transportation fuel, a reinvented car sunshade charger, aquaponics implementation at the state’s fish hatcheries, budget-friendly recycled glasses frames, and a more sustainable tire material.
This year the finalists will compete for a total of 10 prizes valued at more than $20,000 — the most in the history of the competition — including $17,000 in cash prizes and in-kind prizes totaling $3,500. They will be judged by a panel of social venture and sustainability experts, including notable leaders from New Hampshire and outside the state.
The keynote address will be delivered by the 2022 Social Innovator of the Year, alumnus Alex Freid ‘13, founder of the nonprofit Post-Landfill Action Network. Freid returns to campus 10 years after winning the inaugural SVIC.
The program is a collaborative, interdisciplinary event organized by the UNH Changemaker Collaborative and co-hosted by the Carsey School of Public Policy, the Peter T. Paul College of Business & Economics and the UNH Sustainability Institute.
After renewed debate over ending “leveling” — separating students based on past performance — Manchester school board members voted Monday to approve a high school course catalog for the coming school year that basically ends the practice.
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2022-11-30T02:33:58Z
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www.unionleader.com
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Finalists to compete in NH Social Venture Innovation Challenge on Dec.1 | Education | unionleader.com
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https://www.unionleader.com/news/education/finalists-to-compete-in-nh-social-venture-innovation-challenge-on-dec-1/article_c8437289-c0e4-56c8-a939-b6cebafd2281.html
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https://www.unionleader.com/news/education/finalists-to-compete-in-nh-social-venture-innovation-challenge-on-dec-1/article_c8437289-c0e4-56c8-a939-b6cebafd2281.html
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Sen. Tammy Baldwin, D-WI, is trailed by reporters as she arrives for the weekly Democratic caucus luncheon at the U.S. Capitol in Washington on Tuesday.
“Today the long but inexorable march towards greater equality advances forward,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said in a statement.
“By passing this bill, the Senate is sending a message that every American needs to hear: no matter who you are or who you love, you too deserve dignity and equal treatment under the law.”
The bill was passed 61 to 36, with 60 votes needed for passage. Twelve Republicans joined 49 Democrats in supporting the bill. One Democrat, Georgia’s Raphael Warnock, was absent, as were two Republican senators.
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2022-11-30T02:34:10Z
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www.unionleader.com
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U.S. Senate passes same-sex marriage protection bill | National | unionleader.com
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https://www.unionleader.com/news/national/u-s-senate-passes-same-sex-marriage-protection-bill/article_a59fff4b-612d-51be-96f9-cce228eda0de.html
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https://www.unionleader.com/news/national/u-s-senate-passes-same-sex-marriage-protection-bill/article_a59fff4b-612d-51be-96f9-cce228eda0de.html
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Interstate 89 ramps will be intermittently closed at night for 3 days
The I-89 Exit 19 northbound on-/off-ramp as well as the I-89 southbound on-ramp will be temporarily closed starting the night of Monday, Dec. 5, to make drainage improvements on the ramps, according to NH DOT.
Construction is anticipated to be completed over three nights. The northbound off-ramp is scheduled for closure on Monday, Dec. 5, the northbound on-ramp on Tuesday, Dec. 6, and the southbound off-ramp on Wednesday, Dec. 7, between the hours of 8 p.m. and 6 a.m.
The work schedule is weather dependent and may start or finish later in the week.
Motorists should be aware that at no time will more than one of the on-/off-ramps be closed at a time. A detour utilizing temporary construction signs will be put in place directing traffic to use either I-89 northbound/southbound Exit 18 or 20 to reverse directions to access one of the open ramps at Exit 19. In the event work progresses more rapidly than expected it may be possible to close a second ramp at night to minimize the number of nights the crew is on-site.
Crews have finished the reconstruction of the Exit 19 northbound on- and off-ramps and have also completed the rehabilitation work on the I-89 northbound bridge over the Mascoma River. Work will resume on the I-89 northbound bridge over Route 4 and will continue into the summer of 2023. Traffic will remain in the current configuration until the work on the bridge over Route 4 is complete.
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2022-11-30T02:34:23Z
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www.unionleader.com
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Interstate 89 ramps will be intermittently closed at night for 3 days | Public Safety | unionleader.com
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https://www.unionleader.com/news/safety/interstate-89-ramps-will-be-intermittently-closed-at-night-for-3-days/article_ab3f1460-9f71-5b4a-916e-b8201cb0f9fc.html
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https://www.unionleader.com/news/safety/interstate-89-ramps-will-be-intermittently-closed-at-night-for-3-days/article_ab3f1460-9f71-5b4a-916e-b8201cb0f9fc.html
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Curtis Harris-Lopez led Nashua North to a Division I title in 2020, and is now starring at free safety for unbeaten Holy Cross, which hosts UNH on Saturday in an FCS playoff game.
JOSH GIBNEY/UNION LEADER file photo
Jared Dyer, seen in 2019, was a three-time All-State player at Merrimack High School. He is a junior defensive lineman at Holy Cross.
State of Sports: Three NH players key Holy Cross' success
Curtis Harris (copy)
IF YOU’RE a serious fan of football in New Hampshire, it’s hard to hear the name Holy Cross without thinking about the three who got away.
Why mention Holy Cross? Because the University of New Hampshire (9-3) will go on the road to face the Crusaders (11-0) on Saturday in the second round of the FCS playoffs, and Holy Cross has three New Hampshire residents on its roster: sophomore running back Jordan Fuller (North Hampton), sophomore free safety Curtis Harris-Lopez (Nashua) and junior defensive lineman Jared Dyer (Merrimack).
As you may have guessed, all three had outstanding NHIAA football careers.
Holy Cross coach Bob Chesney knows the New Hampshire football landscape well, having served as an assistant coach at Norwich (Vt.) and as the head coach at Salve Regina (Newport, R.I.) and Assumption (Worcester, Mass.) before he took over at Holy Cross.
“He’s a great evaluator of talent,” UNH coach Rick Santos said when he was asked about Chesney. “You look at that roster (and) it’s not a typical FCS roster. They have some Group of Five talent guys on there. Some guys we went head-to-head recruiting the last three or four years and they beat us on a lot of really good recruits, so I have the utmost respect for him. I’ve listened to him clinic and talk in the offseason. I think he’s as good as there is at what he does. He’s the best (college) coach in New England right now.”
• Fuller (No. 23) helped Winnacunnet cap an undefeated season by beating Pinkerton Academy 41-21 in the 2017 Division I championship game. He was a sophomore that year and set school records for rushing yards and rushing touchdowns. He transferred to Governor’s Academy after his junior season.
Fuller, whose father played for Holy Cross, has run for 785 yards and five touchdowns on 107 carries (6.1 yards per carry) this season, and will enter Saturday’s game as Holy Cross’ No. 2 rusher. He also has seven receptions for 49 yards.
“They’re all phenomenal football players,” Chesney said. “As you watch Jordan Fuller … just a complete running back. He’s quick, he’s fast, he’s powerful. He can block. He can catch out of the backfield. He can do it all.”
• Harris-Lopez (No. 29) was named New Hampshire’s Gatorade Player of the Year following the 2020 season, when he led Nashua North to the Division I championship as a quarterback/defensive back.
He has 10 tackles (nine solo), including two tackles for loss, and two forced fumbles in 10 games this season.
“Curtis is really coming into his own,” Chesney said. “On special teams, where it started, and then the last two games he played a whole lot more on defense. He’s explosive. He’s fast. He’s physical. He’s tough. All those things.”
• Dyer (No. 99) was a captain at Merrimack High School during his junior and senior seasons. He was a three-time All-State selection, and finished his high school career with 175 tackles, 23 sacks and 35 touchdowns.
He’s been limited to three games this season because of a shoulder injury.
“Jared had some shoulder issues and is still working his way back, but he’s a big, physical, tough kid,” Chesney said. “All three of them very, very tough. All three of them very, very physical. All three of them just great young men.”
It seems like UNH is facing one of the top quarterbacks in the country in every game it plays. This week it’s junior Matthew Sluka, who completed 135 of his 224 pass attempts for 2,301 yards and 25 touchdowns (three interceptions) this season, and also ran for a team-high 918 yards and eight TDs. He’s run for more than 100 yards in four of Holy Cross’ 11 games.
Santos on Sluka: “If we weren’t going against him, he’s so fun to watch. He’s so dynamic. He runs around back there. He can make the routine throws (and) he can make the big throws down the field, but what gives you fits and keeps you up at night is his ability on those unscripted plays where everything’s covered perfectly and he finds a way to escape (and) eludes you. He can make people miss in space, so he’s got short-range quickness, but he has top-end speed as well. He can score from anywhere on the field. I think he does a great job in the zone-read game, when to give the ball, when to pull it. … I think he’s a complete player.”
Chesney on Santos helping UNH’s Max Brosmer develop as a quarterback: “You watch that young man (Brosmer), he is so efficient. Always on time. He understands the full offense. He understands where to go with the ball based on coverages, and if he gets in a little bit of trouble he finds that running back (Dylan Laube) pretty quick. The number of times over the year he’s been sacked is minimal. They just don’t get to the kid. The offensive line is phenomenal, the receivers are great and the running back, Dylan, he sticks out as dynamic as they come. Ricky certainly understands the strengths of his team and plays to them really, really well.”
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2022-11-30T02:34:47Z
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State of Sports: Three NH players key Holy Cross' success | College Sports | unionleader.com
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https://www.unionleader.com/sports/college/state-of-sports-three-nh-players-key-holy-cross-success/article_fef6a08f-3b64-5332-b0f7-aba6b84a0991.html
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https://www.unionleader.com/sports/college/state-of-sports-three-nh-players-key-holy-cross-success/article_fef6a08f-3b64-5332-b0f7-aba6b84a0991.html
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Rashford started the scoring for England with a free kick in the 50th minute, and Foden doubled the goal tally a minute later. Rashford scored the match’s final goal when his shot went through the legs of Wales goalkeeper Danny Ward in the 68th minute.
Gakpo scored in the 26th minute followed by Frenkie de Jong’s goal in the 49th minute to cruise past the hosts.
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2022-11-30T02:35:05Z
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World Cup roundup: England, Netherlands, Senegal advance to knockout | Sports | unionleader.com
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https://www.unionleader.com/sports/world-cup-roundup-england-netherlands-senegal-advance-to-knockout/article_c80b346d-1a79-5620-a18d-a0982126bf2a.html
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https://www.unionleader.com/sports/world-cup-roundup-england-netherlands-senegal-advance-to-knockout/article_c80b346d-1a79-5620-a18d-a0982126bf2a.html
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I DECIDED not to spend $700 for a seat at “Music Man” on Broadway though I love the musical and know most of “Ya Got Trouble” by heart and sometimes “Gary, Indiana” comes spontaneously to mind or “Lida Rose” or “Goodnight, My Someone,” so it’d be $700 well spent, but Broadway theater seats are too small for a tall person, and two hours of physical discomfort and possible knee damage is two hours too many. I have given up suffering in my old age. I don’t go to loud restaurants. I avoid political rallies. I don’t hang out with boring people or conspiracy hobbyists or people who use obscenities as punctuation. I don’t pay a large sum of money to be crammed into a space designed for children.
Aversion to misery is one aspect of aging and another is feeling oppressed by material possessions. Too many books, pictures, shirts, souvenirs, gadgets, and gizmos. I could go through my closet and dispose of two-thirds of it. All I need are some jeans, black T-shirts, a few white shirts, and about six suits. I’m from the Sixties generation that rebelled against the suit, trying out leather fringed vests, paisley cloaks and capes, psychedelic scarves, ethnic things, a cowboy look, hobo styles, but it was way too much trouble planning the right look every day — way way too much — and so I started to appreciate the suit, a simple dignified uniform that requires no thought about your current identity, you just step into it and go about your business, and if someone wants to read something corporate into it, that’s their problem.
Back in my leather fringed vest days, I assumed I would die young and become immortal like Buddy Holly or James Dean, but I was too poor to afford a fast sports car or a chartered airplane, and soon I was too old to die young. I survived absurd self-consciousness, cold winters, hard labor for no money, a fondness for whiskey — and now on Sunday mornings when I’m in town, I go to church, a traditional one that offers extensive moments of silence. “Be still and know that I am God,” it says in Scripture, and we do. God often speaks in the stillness. We confess to ourselves that we are not in charge of our lives and we believe that a Greater Power is in charge who loves us and we shake hands with the people around us and walk home.
Back in the day, I went to public schools and so did everyone else and we sat in a classroom with all sorts of kids, there were no special tracks for the gifted and brilliant, they had to sit next to us dummies. We all sang out of the same songbook, we loved the one about the E-ri-e is a-rising and the gin is getting low and Dinah in the kitchen and the spacious skies and the grasshopper picking his teeth with a carpet tack. People my age know these songs by heart. I spoke at a college convocation once for Parents’ Weekend and realized when I got there that the speech I’d written was crappy, a Dare-To-Be-Different message they’d heard often enough, so I said, “Let’s just sing some songs that we all know,” and I led them in those old songs and I saw kids holding up cellphones, googling “I’ve Been Working On The Railroad” because they’d been assigned to the Gifted Track back in fourth grade, which encouraged creativity and Daring To Be Different. The parents in the audience sang about Dinah and the land where my fathers died and “His truth is marching on” and roses love sunshine, violets love dew, and apparently enjoyed a sense of commonality that was denied to the gifted.
It’s a beautiful aspect of old age that you become more like other people than you wanted to be back when you were uniquely gifted. There is something about physical decrepitude and loss of acuity and a long memory and a sense of history that draws you together with kindred spirits. I often think of Leeds, Barry, Frankie, Corinne, my friends who died young, and wish they could’ve enjoyed old age. It’s worth the trouble.
I was the oldest person at our Thanksgiving table and I didn’t say much because the kids were so lively and funny and why bring them down with a lecture about the wonders of old age, including the fact that every morning is an occasion of gratitude. I’ll let them discover that for themselves, Lord willing.
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2022-11-30T06:42:11Z
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www.unionleader.com
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Garrison Keillor: An old man thinking at the Thanksgiving table | Columnists | unionleader.com
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https://www.unionleader.com/opinion/columnists/garrison-keillor-an-old-man-thinking-at-the-thanksgiving-table/article_2dd40dec-2e75-55a8-9896-030e9562ce7f.html
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https://www.unionleader.com/opinion/columnists/garrison-keillor-an-old-man-thinking-at-the-thanksgiving-table/article_2dd40dec-2e75-55a8-9896-030e9562ce7f.html
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One star of this story was Indiana minister Bill Breeden, who described his trauma from the execution of Corey Johnson in 2021. “So I prayed for Corey and for all of us. And I ended the prayer by saying, I believe Cory, if he could, would say the same that Jesus said — Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.”
This 12-minute report on NPR couldn’t find the time to describe why Corey Johnson was given the death penalty. According to the Justice Department, Johnson went on a killing spree in early 1992, shooting and killing seven people “for perceived slights or rivalry in the drug trade.” In one case, Johnson shot and killed one victim at the victim’s home when he failed to pay for crack cocaine — and he also murdered the victim’s sister and a male acquaintance.
NPR feels passionately that executing a murderer of seven is somehow more immoral than dismembering a baby. One haunts your sleep, and the other comes with hugs and hot cocoa. On 825 NPR affiliates across America, leftist ideology is the only consistency.
Tim Graham is director of media analysis at the Media Research Center and executive editor of the blog NewsBusters.org.
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2022-11-30T06:42:17Z
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www.unionleader.com
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Tim Graham: Traumatic executions vs. therapeutic abortions | Columnists | unionleader.com
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https://www.unionleader.com/opinion/columnists/tim-graham-traumatic-executions-vs-therapeutic-abortions/article_98116e1f-d343-558a-a0f7-d1b7e26a056e.html
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https://www.unionleader.com/opinion/columnists/tim-graham-traumatic-executions-vs-therapeutic-abortions/article_98116e1f-d343-558a-a0f7-d1b7e26a056e.html
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“In memory of” Santa Fund traditions
It happens every Christmas. A person dies and someone chooses to remember them with a donation to the Union Leader Santa Fund for the Salvation Army.
Sometimes the donor is a friend or loved one or a work colleague or someone in the same civic or social circle. Many of these donations go on year after year and we look forward to seeing them in the published Santa Fund lists.
Sometimes, the donation is in the memory of someone who themselves possessed a particularly generous heart and a soft spot for those less fortunate. In many of these cases, the donation “in memory of” is repeated by others.
This year, that is happening with Gary Singer, a bigger-than-life man whose loss is keenly felt in the Greater Manchester community. Singer and his own family have been longtime supporters of the Salvation Army, among other groups. It figures that some who knew him would find a way to continue that help even after his passing.
We would bet a candy cane and a Christmas stocking that another big-hearted city gentleman, Ray Wieczorek, will be remembered in similar fashion this year. The late mayor was all about fighting for the little guy. We expect he still is.
Tax-deductible donations may be made online at UnionLeader.com/Santa Fund or by mail to Santa Fund, the Union Leader, PO Box 9555, Manchester, N.H., 03108
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2022-11-30T06:42:23Z
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www.unionleader.com
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“In memory of” Santa Fund traditions | Editorials | unionleader.com
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https://www.unionleader.com/opinion/editorials/in-memory-of-santa-fund-traditions/article_d7e1b096-f847-51c7-b2fe-6ed07080ef2b.html
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https://www.unionleader.com/opinion/editorials/in-memory-of-santa-fund-traditions/article_d7e1b096-f847-51c7-b2fe-6ed07080ef2b.html
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Palace present: Christmas Carol is tops
If you are now or at some point soon may be in need of a little boost to get you into the proper Christmas spirit, go to Manchester’s Palace Theatre to see “A Christmas Carol.”
It runs through Dec. 23.
If you are stumped for a Christmas gift for that hard-to-please person, get him or her or them tickets to this show.
If you want to treat the kids or the grandparents or Uncle Joe or just yourself to a truly professional presentation of an age-old story that never grows old, this is it.
The cast is comprised of some remarkable Broadway-caliber performers, some of whom have appeared in regional theater or in off-Broadway shows. There are also local faces, including youngsters, in the cast.
We should never take for granted that we have the Palace Theatre. It is a gem for the Queen City, offering top-notch productions and a comfortable ambience as well as programs for adolescents and teenagers.
Tickets are reasonably priced but watch out for scams. As our Sunday News story noted this week, some third-party outfits scoop up tickets and re-sell them to the unsuspecting at outrageous markups. Go through the Palace box office.
And pay no attention to Mr. Scrooge with his “bah, humbug!” attitude. The Palace is worthy of your support.
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2022-11-30T06:42:29Z
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www.unionleader.com
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Palace present: Christmas Carol is tops | Editorials | unionleader.com
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https://www.unionleader.com/opinion/editorials/palace-present-christmas-carol-is-tops/article_84990074-8e0e-5ac8-a552-fa30e6d780ca.html
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https://www.unionleader.com/opinion/editorials/palace-present-christmas-carol-is-tops/article_84990074-8e0e-5ac8-a552-fa30e6d780ca.html
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Ask God to enlighten the political leaders
To the Editor: It seems pretty clear that those that will suffer most from the election results are the most innocent and vulnerable — preborn babies.
Instead of standing up for their principles, the Republican party chose to ignore the real crux of the debate — the value of human life — and instead allow their opponents to focus on “women’s rights.”
They chose to ignore the plight of the preborn child, the rights of fathers, our country’s commitment to the protection of life, and the pain and suffering endured by these little ones being ripped from their mother’s womb. Had they stood proud for their pro-life position and spoke the truth, perhaps more voters would have responded, instead of being convinced by the lies and half-truths being put forward in the name of “women’s rights.”
Who else might share some responsibility for this outcome? What about the Church? Sure, the congregations were encouraged to ask God to enlighten the political leaders. Did not God ask US to go out and spread the gospel — the gospel of life?
KATHLEEN SOUZA
Belmont Street, Manchester
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2022-11-30T06:42:39Z
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www.unionleader.com
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Letter: Ask God to enlighten the political leaders | Letters to the Editor | unionleader.com
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https://www.unionleader.com/opinion/letters_to_editor/letter-ask-god-to-enlighten-the-political-leaders/article_fb26c5c6-db26-5762-9366-f51f619c8c68.html
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https://www.unionleader.com/opinion/letters_to_editor/letter-ask-god-to-enlighten-the-political-leaders/article_fb26c5c6-db26-5762-9366-f51f619c8c68.html
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‘If You See Something, Say Something’
To the Editor: Anyone who has used public transportation has seen the Homeland Security signs that advise travelers “If You See Something, Say Something.” DHS goes on to explain “We all play a role in keeping our communities safe.”
While the genesis for these signs was initially aimed at international terrorists, terrorism and terrorism-related crime, we are only too aware of domestic threats of terrorism — including threats to individual state and national legislators and legislative bodies, threats to educators and educational institutions, and particularly threats of a racial nature. These threats can take the form of legislation enacted in our own state of New Hampshire. They can appear in letters, on building walls, in conversation and social media.
It is not always comfortable to speak up. At times, it may mean speaking up to a family member, friend or colleague. However, there is a danger if we as individuals do not speak up and counter these hateful acts and language. Silence is often interpreted as complicity.
So, if you see or hear or read something, please say something.
HARRIET DICICCO
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2022-11-30T06:42:51Z
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Letter: 'If You See Something, Say Something' | Letters to the Editor | unionleader.com
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https://www.unionleader.com/opinion/letters_to_editor/letter-if-you-see-something-say-something/article_b2e59018-f89d-5826-adc7-762cd590a09d.html
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https://www.unionleader.com/opinion/letters_to_editor/letter-if-you-see-something-say-something/article_b2e59018-f89d-5826-adc7-762cd590a09d.html
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Mike Reopel
Mike Reopel: After the Election: The truth and the economy
DURING THE midterm elections we had points and counterpoints on who caused inflation and who was best to guide our economy going forward. It was interesting rhetoric with little understanding demonstrated.
Three observations may help guide our understanding on the future of the economy. First, the post-pandemic world has fundamentally restructured. Second, we are at a tipping point where actions by the Federal Reserve and Washington can either accelerate or reduce the prospects and duration of a recession. Finally, the market will give us an early warning of which way the economy is tipping but unfortunately, in any case, lower paid workers, who spend the largest portion of their pay on essentials, will bear the brunt of the pain.
We have had a post-pandemic restructuring of the economy. Let me count the ways. Government spending to ease the effects of the pandemic was both too large — $920 billion during the Trump administration and $1.9 trillion during the Biden administration — and much too late and became the major driver of inflation.
Supply chains, which stretch across the continents, were unable to address adequately the risks of pandemic induced labor issues, logistics constraints, business shutdowns, and part shortages. Bad shocks to the system, especially in energy, thanks to the Ukrainian-Russian conflict, that are not transitory nor will they go away on their own. The unavailability of labor after the pandemic is becoming structural as fewer workers have re-entered the workplace and probably never will. Finally, international growth has slowed down as China, facing a meltdown of its property sector and a variety of other economic issues and Europe, who is already in recession, cannot be the engines of global growth. The future is much different than the recent pre-pandemic past.
Now we are at a tipping point. The Federal Reserve, which is responsible for monetary policy, needs to simultaneously worry about inflation and a recession. Rarely has it needed to address both at the same time. Washington, which is responsible for fiscal policy, will need to address growth to mitigate the effects of a recession and address federal debt simultaneously. This is a very difficult situation and over-reaction on any one of these levers can be detrimental.
Inflation is currently at 7.75% ,slightly down over the last two months, but is everywhere from goods to services, to food and energy. Note that wage gains this year of 4.75%, which is not keeping up with inflation. It is interesting to look at the components of inflation. Autos and energy which led the spike earlier in the year are down significantly from their highs. Food prices are continuing to rise month by month. And shelter costs and services are still rising. All of which means that the Feds will continue to be aggressive but the window to get it right before driving the economy into a recession is quite small. Already the housing boom has ended.
Washington politics which drive fiscal policy would benefit from a more conservative approach. Adding more stimulus to the economy will act cross-purpose to the Fed controlling inflation and add to the debt burden for future generations. However, relieving the pain facing those on the lower rungs of the economy maybe compelling for the party in power. Just wondering what school loan forgiveness will do — will it fuel more consumer spending and add to inflation?
If monetary and fiscal policies fail, what does a recession look like. Typically, the GDP contracts two to five percent. Unemployment and corporate bankruptcies rise significantly and business investments drop considerably. But there are current buffers against a recession. Job growth has been steady — over 260,000 last month. Unemployment is still historically low at 3.7% today. Consumers are still spending. Wage growth is rising and consumer debt as a percent of disposable personal income is historically low as well as corporate debt. On the downside consumer sentiment is terrible as expectations of a pending recession rise. The global economy is in decline and not being bailed out by China.
So, what does all this mean for the near future? If the Feds act less aggressively and Washington avoids fiscal stimulus the prospects for a deep recession would be quite low and may even be avoided altogether. But if inflation is not controlled and becomes self-perpetuating as wages increase, raising prices for goods and services and contracts become indexed to inflation, recession is quite likely. What is the best predictor of the future—the market. Note, equity markets begin to rise in advance of an economic recovery. In fact, about six months prior to the beginning of a recovery, the market returns around 20% to 30% from the S&P bottom to the first GDP rise. Has the market already turned? Probably not. But my advice to the Feds and Washington — go slow and do not overreact.
Mike Reopel is a Army veteran, former professor of politics and economics at West Point and current business owner residing in Bedford.
WE. What a great word! Defined as “used by a speaker to refer to himself or herself and one or more other people considered together.” In fact, it is one of the best two-letter words in our language. It is non-discriminatory, non-racial, selfless and inclusive. It can refer to two, two hundr…
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2022-11-30T06:43:03Z
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www.unionleader.com
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Mike Reopel: After the Election: The truth and the economy | Op-eds | unionleader.com
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https://www.unionleader.com/opinion/op-eds/mike-reopel-after-the-election-the-truth-and-the-economy/article_766695e6-a179-5b10-ade6-da20d7c57cf3.html
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https://www.unionleader.com/opinion/op-eds/mike-reopel-after-the-election-the-truth-and-the-economy/article_766695e6-a179-5b10-ade6-da20d7c57cf3.html
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Molly Harper, owner of Soul Pine Pottery, says her best-selling items are “Mugs, mugs, mugs!”
Photo Provided by Soul Pine Pottery
A rustic lamp from Soul Pine Pottery is the finishing touch for winter decor.
Soul Pine Pottery: Handmade with a distinctive New Hampshire touch
Soul Pine - pic1
WHEN MOLLY HARPER lived in North Carolina, she found herself missing her native New Hampshire. The young potter decided to express her feelings through art and focused on the stately birch trees of her home state.
Harper’s creations are now available for anyone who misses the 603, or still lives here and wants to revel in these iconic images. Through her business, Soul Pine Pottery, she creates pieces that reflect the birch tree in all its glory.
While Harper had always dabbled in art, she didn’t major in it, choosing instead to study Environmental Policy. Then she pursued her second love — books — working at the Gilford Public Library. She started working in clay in her spare time, “and I fell in love with the wheel and kiln,” she said. Other people admired her work, and she was able to become a full-time potter about five years ago.
Harper’s birch tree designs are the centerpiece of her work. She does everything from bowls and mugs to on-the-go tumblers. All her work is functional and can be used on a daily basis, according to Harper. It’s functional stoneware and microwave- and dishwasher-safe. Her resume includes work as a chef, and she knows the value of dishware that “holds up really well.”
Her Christmas tree ornaments are also popular, she said. Buyers can choose from a bear, moose, snowflake, star or a Christmas tree. “The snowmen are some of my favorites,” she said. “It’s fun to paint on the faces.”
But her top seller, at the holidays and year-round, is, “Mugs, mugs, mugs.”
Harper also does custom work, especially with her vases. It’s not uncommon for her to field a request for a special message or set of initials on a vessel. She will always remember a custom piece she did for an 87-year-old New Hampshire man.
“He wanted to order a piece for his wife,” Harper recalled. “He wanted the dates of the day they met, the day he proposed, their wedding day — and the day he first said, ‘I love you.’”
Harper and the client settled on a wide, low centerpiece which also included the birthdates of each of their children.
When it was done, Harper said, “I cried. I enjoyed being able to make a piece like that, that has meaning for people.”
Harper will continue to work her birch designs, but hopes to expand to more sculptural pieces. She had an idea for a centerpiece that looks like a log, with clay mushrooms, and she’s also looking at mossy stone walls and branches against the sky for motifs.
Harper is a juried member of the League of New Hampshire Craftsmen and her work is available at League shops in Meredith, North Conway, Littleton, Nashua and Hooksett. She’s also featured at Riverview Artisans in Bristol, and at craft shows and other events.
And she’ll continue to experience the joy of clay. “I love to get my hands in it, to play with texture,” she said, adding, “it’s my happy place.”
For more information, visit www.soulpinepottery.com.
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2022-11-30T10:19:56Z
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www.unionleader.com
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Soul Pine Pottery: Handmade with a distinctive New Hampshire touch | Holiday | unionleader.com
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https://www.unionleader.com/nh/lifestyles/holiday/soul-pine-pottery-handmade-with-a-distinctive-new-hampshire-touch/article_4a579517-c89d-5f04-a1ee-cea4ab27673d.html
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https://www.unionleader.com/nh/lifestyles/holiday/soul-pine-pottery-handmade-with-a-distinctive-new-hampshire-touch/article_4a579517-c89d-5f04-a1ee-cea4ab27673d.html
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Delicious treats for sale in Cidery Company Market.
Photo Provided by White Mountain Cider Co.
Food is sourced locally as much as possible at White Mountain Cider Co. in Glen.
White Mountain Cider Co.: Go north for a great meal and gift ideas
WMC - pic1
ASIDE FROM THE natural beauty of the surrounding White Mountain National Forest, another reason to visit the town of Glen this holiday season would be White Mountain Cider Company. Owned by Executive Chef Miles Williams, born and raised in nearby Gorham and a graduate of New England Culinary Institute in Montpelier, Vermont, White Mountain Cider Company features everything from breakfast hand pies to Roasted Thai Cod.
“We aim to be a destination restaurant,” said Williams, who said they also feature the Cider Company Market, which offers gourmet and specialty foods, sandwiches, meals-to-go, fresh-pressed cider, cider donuts, and unique gift items. “You can get breakfast or lunch at the Market, too.”
With a business philosophy to he buy local as much as possible, Williams said he took ownership of the property, which had operated as a restaurant for 18 years, in 2021.
“I was chef here six years, so it was a bit like riding an old bike,” he said. “My first priority was to get the level of food up to the same caliber at both restaurants. We have great clientele, so it was not as hard as I thought it would be.”
Describing White Mountain Cider Company as “a scratch restaurant,” Williams said he grew up cooking in restaurants his entire life.
Previous to this venture and after culinary school, he worked for famed chef Lee Richardson at Capital Hotel in Little Rock, Arkansas, before returning to his roots in New England. Stops in New England have included Le Languedoc Bistro (Nantucket, Mass.), 118 Main (Montpelier, VT), and Craigie on Main (Cambridge, Mass.) to name a few. Williams returned home to the Mount Washington Valley area in 2018 where one of his local stops included working as head chef at SAaLT & Libby’s Bistro in Gorham.
After two years of searching for the right restaurant to purchase, this property came up for sale during COVID. “It was a match made in heaven,” said Williams, who expressed gratitude for his staff and guests. “They have made this transition seamless.”
Regarding the future, White Mountain Cider Company will enter the hard cider market in 2023 with “one-off” cider and experimental batches.
“These will be trial-and-error batches,” said Williams. “We look forward to experimenting.”
There is no reason to wait, however, to visit the White Mountain Cider Company or the area.
“The White Mountain National Forest is probably the most beautiful spot in all of New England, and we are a four-season town here,” said Williams. “If you want to ski, snowmobile, or go hiking, you have it here — and the foliage speaks for itself … Stop by one of our restaurants while you are here, and I guarantee you will get one of the best meals of your life.”
To learn more about White Mountain Cider company, visit ciderconh.com.
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2022-11-30T10:20:08Z
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www.unionleader.com
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White Mountain Cider Co.: Go north for a great meal and gift ideas | Holiday | unionleader.com
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https://www.unionleader.com/nh/lifestyles/holiday/white-mountain-cider-co-go-north-for-a-great-meal-and-gift-ideas/article_6ea56749-7086-5e21-b4c1-84ddf7c16479.html
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https://www.unionleader.com/nh/lifestyles/holiday/white-mountain-cider-co-go-north-for-a-great-meal-and-gift-ideas/article_6ea56749-7086-5e21-b4c1-84ddf7c16479.html
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David Dionne
David Dionne remains at Valley Street jail, earning $48 an hour on a part-time basis
David Dionne, the Manchester resident with more than eight years of experience running the Valley Street jail, remains a part-time employee at the county-run jail, the existing superintendent confirmed on Wednesday.
Dionne left the top job in July 2020; he returned to the superintendent job in June to on an interim basis while Hillsborough County officials sought a permanent replacement for Willie Scurry, who stepped down unexpectedly as superintendent.
Once a superintendent was hired, Dionne returned to his job as part-time head of standards and compliance at the Hillsborough County Department of Corrections, said Superintendent Joe Costanzo. Dionne earns $48 an hour.
"David Dionne is a wealth of knowledge. He has 39 years of corrections experience," said Costanzo, who became superintendent in August. Costanzo said Dionne reports directly to him and works on whatever project needs attention.
Currently, he is working on projects involved with American Rescue Plan Act funding, Costanzo said.
When Dionne retired in July 2020, he told the New Hampshire Union Leader that he had purchased a motor home and was going to spend his time between Arizona and New Hampshire.
But in 2021, he took on the part-time position under then-Superintendent Scurry, Costanzo said.
County officials never announced his employment for the part-time job, even when he was elevated to the interim position earlier this year.
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2022-11-30T22:28:03Z
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David Dionne remains at Valley Street jail, earning $48 an hour on a part-time basis | | unionleader.com
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https://www.unionleader.com/david-dionne-remains-at-valley-street-jail-earning-48-an-hour-on-a-part-time/article_86439da9-243e-590c-a56d-76223b945216.html
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https://www.unionleader.com/david-dionne-remains-at-valley-street-jail-earning-48-an-hour-on-a-part-time/article_86439da9-243e-590c-a56d-76223b945216.html
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French freshly-baked baguettes are seen at "Armand" bakery in Nice, France, Monday. REUTERS/Eric Gaillard/File Photo
PARIS -- The humble baguette, France's staple bread, made it onto the United Nation's cultural heritage list Wednesday, drawing delighted responses from French bakers and non-bakers alike.
"Ladies and gentlemen, that's it, we're in the UNESCO (World Cultural Heritage list), it's been recognized," Moussu said, to cheers from his students. "I'm very happy."
A baguette - which means "wand" or "baton" - is sold for around $1.04 each.
Although baguette consumption has declined over the last decades, France still makes around 16 million of the loaves per day -- that's nearly 6 billion baguettes a year -- according to a 2019 Fiducial estimate.
Made only with flour, water, salt and yeast, baguette dough must rest 15 to 20 hours at a temperature between 39 to 43 degrees Fahrenheit, according to the French Bakers Confederation, which fights to protect its market from industrial bakeries.
Myths abound over the origins of the baguette. One legend has it that the bakers of Napoleon Bonaparte came up with the elongated shape to make it easier for his troops to carry, while another posits that it was actually an Austrian baker named August Zang who invented the baguette.
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2022-11-30T22:28:15Z
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www.unionleader.com
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French baguette gains place on World Cultural Heritage list to bakers' delight | Back Page | unionleader.com
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https://www.unionleader.com/news/back_page/french-baguette-gains-place-on-world-cultural-heritage-list-to-bakers-delight/article_53674493-b1fe-5486-8a94-377f177fdb4a.html
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https://www.unionleader.com/news/back_page/french-baguette-gains-place-on-world-cultural-heritage-list-to-bakers-delight/article_53674493-b1fe-5486-8a94-377f177fdb4a.html
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Ye has courted controversy in recent months by publicly ending major corporate sponsorships and making outbursts on social media against other celebrities. His Twitter and Instagram accounts were restricted, with the social media platforms removing some of his posts that users condemned as anti-semitic.
The children will not be allowed to move more than 60 miles from Kardashian's home in Hidden Hills near Los Angeles before they finish high school or turn 19 years old, the Post reported. Each parent will have access to the children on their birthdays and other special occasions, the Post said.
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2022-11-30T22:28:21Z
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www.unionleader.com
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Kim Kardashian gets $200,000 monthly child support settlement from Ye | Back Page | unionleader.com
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https://www.unionleader.com/news/back_page/kim-kardashian-gets-200-000-monthly-child-support-settlement-from-ye/article_4037da5b-3286-56ca-a71a-a26a0948dd80.html
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Kurt DelBene during a Bloomberg Television interview in Seattle ON Oct. 11, 2017.
Daniel Berman/Bloomberg
For the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, the mass layoffs in Silicon Valley present a rare shot to snag top talent. With a chronic shortage of tech workers, hundreds of open roles and extra money from Congress in last year's budget, the agency is keen to seize the opportunity.
Kurt DelBene, the VA's chief information officer, came to the federal government after roughly 30 years at Microsoft to help fix Healthcare.gov after the site's infamous crash during the Obama administration. DelBene's on an ambitious mission to recruit top designers and engineers for the agency, which he intends to make the "absolute best place" for IT in the federal government. Much like any software development or IT company, the agency is looking to fill a variety of roles: engineering leads, product managers, user-experience designers, and customer-support professionals, among others.
Historically, the U.S. government has long trailed the private sector's pay, driving much of the staffing shortfalls. The tech industry's bull run widened the gap even further. According to research by Revelio Labs, a workforce intelligence firm, the nearly 2.5 million private tech workers in the U.S. earn an average annual base salary of almost $110,000 - not counting bonuses and equity-based compensation - while the roughly 135,000 tech workers employed by the U.S. government and all its agencies make little more than $80,000 on average. But with the boom turning into a bust, employers from government to finance to automakers are more than ready to scoop up some of the roughly 60,000 tech workers laid off so far this year as recorded by recruiting firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas Inc.
Andy Challenger, the recruiter's senior vice president, said that the VA is far from alone in its thinking; he's talked to people in just about every industry that have the same idea about tapping the talent pool. "They're in the highest-paying industry, with the most favorable conditions, and the best benefits. If they have to go into an office, it's this half a billion dollar playground, with foosball tables and the best food in the world," Challenger said of the plush perks tech workers are used to. "It's really hard to compete, for any industry, so I think government has a particularly difficult task ahead of them."
Acutely aware of the pressing need for higher pay, DelBene said the VA is working to bring VA salaries more in line with market rates by the beginning of next year. Beyond boosting compensation, the VA is working on streamlining the hiring process, so an official offer doesn't take six months to deliver. And with the adoption of remote work, the agency no longer has to convince new recruits to move to the nation's capital.
Enticing enough workers to jump ship from the private sector to close the gap in government will be a daunting task. Last year, just over 1,300 tech workers made the leap, according to Revelio Labs. That's little more than a rounding error when spread over dozens of agencies across the federal government, which employs more than 2 million people. The agency, which will be hosting hiring affairs and other recruiting events, created a website to answer common questions about working for the government and to call for those interested to submit their resumes directly to oitcareers@va.gov.
Salaries aside, DelBene wants to dispel some of the other myths about what it's like to work in government. One he says is misguided: That the government is a sleepy backwater running on ancient systems (or none at all, in the stunning case of the Internal Revenue Service), the last place to go for cutting-edge innovation. "You might think you'd come to the federal government and say, oh my gosh, they're all running COBOL," he said. That's the antiquated programming language underlying some government systems that crashed famously during the Covid-19 lockdown while distributing millions in relief payments. While some old systems are still running, the VA has a clear plan for modernization, said DelBene, who also serves as the department's assistant secretary for technology and information.
"The idea that government is bad at innovation applies to a subset of problems - bad at web apps, maybe," said Charles Worthington, the VA's chief technology officer. "But innovation is actually something the government is really pretty good at." The VA has been especially cutting-edge in health care, he said, with the first liver transplants and cardiac pacemakers pioneered by VA surgeons and researchers.
Worthington initially came to Washington in 2013 for a one-year assignment with the Presidential Innovation Fellows Program. Then, halfway through his fellowship, the Healthcare.gov site crashed - fueling his commitment to the idea that the federal government should have a public service-oriented corps to build most important citizen-facing sites.
"The tech industry, compared to other professions in the country, has not historically had a public-service tradition," Worthington said. "The most prestigious thing you can do after law school is clerk for the Supreme Court. There isn't, though, the idea that the equivalent of the most prestigious thing you can do as a top computer scientist or top designer is come work at SSA to deliver a great citizen-facing service."
Too much of the tech industry is focused on solving problems that simply aren't that important, such as maximizing the amount time users spend in an app, Worthington said. Joining the government meant abandoning his own startup idea, a live-music app to help people find concerts in their city. He's had a few "twangs of regret,'' and knows his friends in the tech industry have more money to show for their efforts. "But when I think about that product, at the end of the day - who cares, right? You're helping relatively rich people have a cooler weekend,'' he said.
DelBene and Worthington hope some of the laid-off tech workers will see value in considering the VA - and federal government as a whole - for their next venture.
"We're talking about both the largest integrated health-care provider in the United States and one of the largest financial services institutions in the United States, all combined into one," DelBene said. "If there are tech folks that are out there that want a challenge, there's no greater challenge, I assure you, than coming to the VA and helping us with this kind of transformation.''
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2022-11-30T22:28:46Z
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www.unionleader.com
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Tech layoffs create rare chance for federal recruiters to snag talent | Business | unionleader.com
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https://www.unionleader.com/news/business/tech-layoffs-create-rare-chance-for-federal-recruiters-to-snag-talent/article_bc457af6-ca6d-5f8f-a0ca-65642d438a91.html
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By Jacqueline Thomsen Reuters
Here is a look at the seditious conspiracy charge.
It is defined by U.S. law as attempting "to overthrow, put down or to destroy by force the government of the United States." The charge is part of a statute that dates back to the Civil War. It carries a sentence of up to 20 years in prison and an unspecified fine.
In the Oath Keepers trial in Washington, the prosecution used various types of messages sent by Rhodes and other members of the group to try to show that they planned to use force to stop the formal congressional certification of President Joe Biden's 2020 election victory over Trump.
Rhodes in a Nov. 5, 2020, text message presented to the jury urged other Oath Keepers "to refuse to accept, acknowledge, respect, or obey any of these imposters or their pretend legislation ... and get your gear squared away and ready to fight."
The defendants denied that they plotted to storm the Capitol or block Congress from certifying the election results.
Federal District Court Judge Amit Mehta has not set a sentencing date. Mehta will sentence the defendants based on the combination of convictions, the seriousness of those crimes and other factors.
How commonly brought is the charge?
Seditious conspiracy is rarely prosecuted.
A jury in New York in 1995 found Omar Abdel-Rahman, the Muslim cleric known as "the blind sheik," and several of his followers guilty of 48 charges, including seditious conspiracy. They were accused of planning bombings of major landmarks and assassinations in the United States.
Members of a Christian militia called the Hutaree were charged in 2010 with seditious conspiracy. A federal judge dismissed those counts in 2012, citing a lack of evidence.
Jurors in the Capitol attack trial on Wednesday convicted Rhodes and Kelly Meggs, who heads the Oath Keepers' Florida chapter, of seditious conspiracy. But the jury acquitted three co-defendants -- Kenneth Harrelson, Jessica Watkins and Thomas Caldwell -- of that charge while it convicted them on other charges.
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2022-11-30T22:28:58Z
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What exactly is seditious conspiracy? | Courts | unionleader.com
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https://www.unionleader.com/news/courts/what-exactly-is-seditious-conspiracy/article_a78dd1c1-f7b4-517e-a95e-f2c7929cfc5b.html
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https://www.unionleader.com/news/courts/what-exactly-is-seditious-conspiracy/article_a78dd1c1-f7b4-517e-a95e-f2c7929cfc5b.html
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New London man shot, killed woman before killing himself, autopsies show
A New London man shot and killed a woman with whom he lived before killing himself Tuesday, the Attorney General’s Office said Wednesday.
Douglas Lyon, 78, shot and killed Peggy Brown, 73, at their home on Shaker Street before shooting and killing himself, officials said in a news release.
Police responded to the Shaker Street home where the pair lived together at 1:38 p.m. after receiving a call from Lyon on Tuesday afternoon, officials said.
Lyon's body was found outside the home, while Brown's body was inside, investigators said. An autopsy performed by Deputy Chief Medical Examiner Dr. Mitchell Weinberg determined Brown had been shot three times, officials said. Her manner of death was ruled homicide.
Lyon’s cause of death was a single gunshot wound, and his manner of death is suicide, the release stated.
Officials said the two were domestic partners.
A spokesman for the Attorney General's Office said the investigation is ongoing, but no additional information is expected to be released.
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2022-11-30T22:29:04Z
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www.unionleader.com
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New London man shot, killed woman before killing himself, autopsies show | Crime | unionleader.com
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https://www.unionleader.com/news/crime/new-london-man-shot-killed-woman-before-killing-himself-autopsies-show/article_a08cbeca-2711-54e8-95db-743663f6be7a.html
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https://www.unionleader.com/news/crime/new-london-man-shot-killed-woman-before-killing-himself-autopsies-show/article_a08cbeca-2711-54e8-95db-743663f6be7a.html
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Paving, striping, and guardrail work is taking place and will require several daytime lane closures and traffic shifts over the next two weeks.
The Exit 8 on-ramp to I-93 southbound from Wellington Road will be reopened on Friday, Dec. 9.
Weather permitting, lane closures will be in use several times over the next two weeks between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m.
Slower traffic will be encountered through the work area. Motorists should remain alert while traveling through the construction zone and obey all posted signs.
This $8.4 million bridge preservation project is being constructed by R.S. Audley, Inc. from Bow.
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2022-11-30T22:29:35Z
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www.unionleader.com
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I-93 bridgework in Manchester is in final stages | Public Safety | unionleader.com
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https://www.unionleader.com/news/safety/i-93-bridgework-in-manchester-is-in-final-stages/article_3366d8f5-9181-5c6f-9edd-a81f7b010ec1.html
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https://www.unionleader.com/news/safety/i-93-bridgework-in-manchester-is-in-final-stages/article_3366d8f5-9181-5c6f-9edd-a81f7b010ec1.html
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Freddy Morocho-Carchi, 25, of Milford, Mass., also was charged with reckless operation, operating without a valid license and an open container violation.
A state trooper who was monitoring traffic on the interstate shortly before 11 p.m., saw a vehicle approaching her cruiser "at an extremely high rate of speed," and clocked it on radar going 116 mph, according to a news release from state police.
The driver, later identified as Morocho-Carchi, was arrested and taken to the Tilton police department, where he was released on personal recognizance bail, police said.
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2022-11-30T22:29:41Z
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Police: Bay State man was going 116 mph - while drunk | Public Safety | unionleader.com
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https://www.unionleader.com/news/safety/police-bay-state-man-was-going-116-mph---while-drunk/article_3f104193-a9da-58ae-862c-630ca7bcafd9.html
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https://www.unionleader.com/news/safety/police-bay-state-man-was-going-116-mph---while-drunk/article_3f104193-a9da-58ae-862c-630ca7bcafd9.html
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WASHINGTON -- The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) said it screened 2.56 million air passengers on Sunday, the highest number since December 2019 and the busiest day since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The number was, however, below the 2.88 million screened on the same day in 2019 at the end of the busy Thanksgiving travel period.
Between Nov. 18 and Sunday, Nov. 27, airlines carried 22.2 million U.S. passengers compared with 23.5 million in the same period in 2019, down by about 5.5%.
U.S. airlines reported very few cancellations over the holiday travel period, including 177 on Sunday and 56 on Monday, according to FlightAware.
Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said Monday on Twitter that "the system did well. Sunday's weather led to an elevated but not extreme level of delays (5.3%) & overall cancellation rates held below 1.0%."
United Airlines said Sunday was its third-busiest travel day of 2022, with more than 476,000 customers traveling and it completed 99.8% of flights over the week.
U.S. airlines had planned to operate 13% fewer domestic flights during the eight-day Thanksgiving travel period compared with 2019, data by Cirium showed, but often with larger planes.
Airlines and Buttigieg clashed for months over summer problems that led to tens of thousands of flight disruptions and prompted the department to pressure airlines to do more to boost customer service to passengers.
In September, President Joe Biden said his administration had cracked down on U.S. airlines to improve treatment of passengers, a claim rejected by the carriers.
"My administration is also cracking down on the airlines to get passengers fairer treatment," Biden said. "Secretary Buttigieg, at my request, called them out."
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2022-11-30T22:32:27Z
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www.unionleader.com
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U.S. screened 2.56 million air passengers Sunday, highest since 2019 | Transportation | unionleader.com
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https://www.unionleader.com/news/business/transportation/u-s-screened-2-56-million-air-passengers-sunday-highest-since-2019/article_c0bc4f64-fc6f-5a2a-8de5-c41b4f41263b.html
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https://www.unionleader.com/news/business/transportation/u-s-screened-2-56-million-air-passengers-sunday-highest-since-2019/article_c0bc4f64-fc6f-5a2a-8de5-c41b4f41263b.html
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Lynne Geddes-Morin was indicted on two counts of arson at her residence 276 Second New Hampshire Turnpike in Hillsborough, which she knew was an occupied structure, on Aug. 18.
She was also charged with reckless conduct in the indictment released by Hillsborough County Superior Court.
Geddes-Morin “recklessly engaged in conduct that placed or may have placed another in danger of serious bodily injury or death when she started a fire near the building at 276 Second New Hampshire Turnpike, a residential building with people inside,” according to the indictment.
If convicted, Geddes-Morin faces 3 ½ to 7 years in prison.
Katon Lang was charged with first-degree assault and attempted murder after a stabbing that took place on June 15, according to another indictment released by the court.
Police were called to Elliot Hospital around 1:15 a.m. after a man walked into the emergency room with a stab wound. An argument took place behind 241 Pine St. and Pericles Club. The man’s injuries were non-life threatening.
At the time of the stabbing, Lang was out on bail for a domestic violence charge, so he faced a bail violation, according to a Manchester police press release.
If convicted, Lang could spend life in prison.
Michael Lovejoy, of Hillsborough, was indicted on seven charges of aggravated felonious sexual assault to a female under the age of 16. The alleged acts occurred between Sept. 1, 2021 and August 2022 in Deering.
He was also indicted on 15 charges of felon in possession of a dangerous weapon.
If convicted, Lovejoy could spend 10 to 20 years in prison for the sexual assault and 3½ to 7 years for the weapons charges.
Jerome Thompson, of Manchester, was indicted on 10 charges of possession of child sexual abuse images.
Nashua woman charged with threatening woman with firearm
Man indicted in connection with deadly stabbing in Manchester
Pair charged after car reported stolen in Concord recovered in Weare
3-vehicle crash leads to DUI arrest in Pelham
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2022-12-01T02:06:16Z
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Hillsborough county indictments | Crime | unionleader.com
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https://www.unionleader.com/news/crime/hillsborough-county-indictments/article_08f39581-5167-57db-9a9b-31d83367222c.html
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https://www.unionleader.com/news/crime/hillsborough-county-indictments/article_08f39581-5167-57db-9a9b-31d83367222c.html
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A rendering of Dartmouth-Hitchcock Clinic’s proposed new Bedford building, which is in limbo after the town voted for a new zoning amendment limiting the size of buildings in the Performance Zone.
D-H Clinic persists in battle with Bedford over taxes
Dartmouth-Hitchcock Clinic continues to fight the town of Bedford over its request to be exempt from property taxes as a charitable organization.
A lawsuit was filed in September in Hillsborough County Superior Court, following others filed the past two years.
In April, the clinic applied for a property tax exemption for its property at 25 South River Road. The town assessor’s office denied the request, according to the suit.
The clinic, which has been incorporated as a nonprofit since 1983, seeks a reversal of the town’s decision and asks a judge to declare the clinic a charitable organization. The Bedford location was built in 1984.
The clinic provides “comprehensive health care services” to patients in Bedford. “Since its formation, D-H has continuously advanced the purpose of providing a full range of medical services to treat sick and disabled people regardless of their financial or social circumstances,” the suit reads.
The lawsuit says that between 2018 and 2020, Dartmouth-Hitchcock has provided more than $2.68 million of free, subsidized or other uncompensated health care services for Bedford residents.
“Undeniably, DHC’s Bedford property has substantially contributed to the provision of low- or no-cost medical treatment to individuals within Bedford and the surrounding communities,” the lawsuit reads.
The three lawsuits will likely be consolidated into one case, according to court documents.
Russell Hilliard, a lawyer representing the town, said the case will likely head to trial next year. He did not comment further.
On June 22, 2020, then-Assessor William Ingalls wrote to Dartmouth-Hitchcock: “There is nothing in the application that would compel this office to grant exempt status as a charitable institution.”
He said the clinic doesn’t meet the state’s definition of charitable because the purpose is not to provide services at no cost and doesn’t have a history as a free clinic.
“It does not appear that services provided regardless of the ability to pay, is a priority,” the letter reads. “It appears that after exhausting multiple avenues and methods of payment including budgeting with said client/patient, some portion of services may be provided at no or discounted cost to client/patient.”
Ingalls said there is likely a minimal need for no-cost medical services in Bedford with the town’s median family income of approximately $127,000.
According to tax records, Dartmouth-Hitchcock Clinic owed $28,668.36 in property taxes in 2021.
In March, Bedford residents approved a zoning amendment to limit the expansion of large medical centers in a part of the town. The amendment appeared to be aimed at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Health, which owns 14 acres in the town’s Performance Zone and is looking to expand its services.
That new zoning amendment limits buildings to 20,000 square feet. D-H hopes to build a 49,000-square-foot building on Kilton Road. Plans filed with the town have been tabled at the request of Dartmouth.
Under the amendment, property owners can ask for waivers, which the planning board can grant if it agrees it’s in the district’s best interest — which petition supporters say likely means agreeing to pay full taxes.
Petitioners for the amendment said the clinic always has paid property taxes and wants to avoid paying for the larger facility.
D-H still wants 49,000-square-foot clinic despite new Bedford zoning restriction
Earlier this month, Bedford residents overwhelmingly approved a zoning amendment to limit the expansion of large medical centers in the town’s Performance Zone to no more than two stories, with a total building size not to exceed 20,000 square feet.
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2022-12-01T02:06:22Z
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D-H Clinic persists in battle with Bedford over taxes | Health | unionleader.com
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https://www.unionleader.com/news/health/d-h-clinic-persists-in-battle-with-bedford-over-taxes/article_c509c7fb-ef8b-5d46-9015-cb065cd94005.html
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https://www.unionleader.com/news/health/d-h-clinic-persists-in-battle-with-bedford-over-taxes/article_c509c7fb-ef8b-5d46-9015-cb065cd94005.html
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Honoree Christine McVie of the group Fleetwood Mac performs during the 2018 MusiCares Person of the Year show honoring Fleetwood Mac at Radio City Music Hall in New York City on Jan. 26, 2018.
and Dan Whitcomb Reuters
It was two of Christine McVie’s songs, “Over My Head” and “Say You Love Me,” that first saw the band, which started as a blues outfit, getting featured on U.S. radio stations.
The band relocated to California and added two new members — Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham. Their 1977 album “Rumours,” sold more than 40 million copies and became one of the best-selling albums of all time.
Dear Abby: Man's opinions on women spark reader rebuttals
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2022-12-01T02:06:28Z
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Fleetwood Mac singer-songwriter Christine McVie dies at 79 | Human Interest | unionleader.com
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https://www.unionleader.com/news/human_interest/fleetwood-mac-singer-songwriter-christine-mcvie-dies-at-79/article_1b2e8cde-2241-5ef6-aa70-aeae5efe7dbc.html
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David Dionne, the Manchester resident with more than eight years of experience running the Valley Street jail, remains a part-time employee at the county-run jail, the existing superintendent confirmed on Wednesday.
Dionne left the top job in July 2020; he returned to the superintendent job in June on an interim basis while Hillsborough County officials sought a permanent replacement for Willie Scurry, who stepped down unexpectedly as superintendent.
Once a superintendent was hired, Dionne returned to his job as part-time head of standards and compliance at the Hillsborough County Department of Corrections, said Superintendent Joe Costanzo. Dionne earns $48 an hour.
“David Dionne is a wealth of knowledge. He has 39 years of corrections experience,” said Costanzo, who became superintendent in August. Costanzo said Dionne reports directly to him and works on whatever project needs attention.
Currently, he is working on projects involved with American Rescue Plan Act funding, Costanzo said.
When Dionne retired in July 2020, he told the New Hampshire Union Leader that he had purchased a motor home and was going to spend his time between Arizona and New Hampshire. But in 2021, he took on the part-time position under then-Superintendent Scurry, Costanzo said.
County officials never announced his employment for the part-time job, even when he was elevated to the interim position earlier this year.
Officials: Revised Mount Washington Master Plan prioritizes the environment
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2022-12-01T02:06:38Z
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David Dionne remains at Valley Street jail, earning $48 an hour on a part-time basis | Local News | unionleader.com
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https://www.unionleader.com/news/local/david-dionne-remains-at-valley-street-jail-earning-48-an-hour-on-a-part-time/article_86439da9-243e-590c-a56d-76223b945216.html
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https://www.unionleader.com/news/local/david-dionne-remains-at-valley-street-jail-earning-48-an-hour-on-a-part-time/article_86439da9-243e-590c-a56d-76223b945216.html
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There’s a new memorial in front of Liberty House in Manchester.
Submitted by Liberty House
The Armed Services Memorial includes five stones, each honoring different a branch of the military (Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines and Coast Guard). It is aligned with Liberty House’s mission to remember, honor and support veterans and was made possible through the support of Performance Business Solutions LLC, Northpoint Roofing LLC, Swim With a Mission, Integrated Realty Resources LLC and Northpoint Construction Management LLC.
“New Hampshire consistently ranks as having one of the highest veteran populations per capita in the nation, and we are privileged to honor these men and women with this fitting Memorial in tribute to all who have served,” said Jeff Nelson, executive director of Liberty House.
The unveiling included a special ribbon-cutting and remarks from Liberty House Executive Director Jeff Nelson and donors Chuck Thibedeau and Phil Taub.
The presentation of colors was conducted by the Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps.
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2022-12-01T02:07:02Z
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www.unionleader.com
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Memorial Honoring Local NH Veterans Unveiled in Manchester | Veterans | unionleader.com
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https://www.unionleader.com/news/veterans/memorial-honoring-local-nh-veterans-unveiled-in-manchester/article_eaa42ae4-8633-521d-878c-b08e021e3e7b.html
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https://www.unionleader.com/news/veterans/memorial-honoring-local-nh-veterans-unveiled-in-manchester/article_eaa42ae4-8633-521d-878c-b08e021e3e7b.html
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The $2,500 scholarships are part of the Orphans of Veterans program that helps war orphans offset the cost of college for items such as books and supplies.
Routhier of Somersworth is a senior at the University of New Hampshire majoring in justice studies with a minor in forensic science. Milton is a freshman at the University of New Hampshire studying health sciences.
Routhier’s mother, Ronda Routhier, was an Army veteran of the War on Terror and passed away due to a service-related illness in 2018.
“This extra money helps me feel a bit more secure in my ability to attend college, and I am very grateful,” said Routhier.
Evan’s father, James Milton, was an airman in the U.S. Air Force who passed away in 2014 from a service-related illness.
“This scholarship will really help with covering some fees and getting me through the next few years of school. It means a lot that my father’s service will have a direct, positive impact on me years after he passed away,” said Milton.
“We are pleased to recognize and assist these two students, as their parents gave the ultimate sacrifice. It is our hope that they will both achieve their educational and career goals, and that these scholarships will provide a small amount of financial assistance and support,” said Frank Edelblut, state education commissioner.
The Orphans of Veterans program is able to issue four $2,500 grants each year.
For more information, contact Jeffrey Newman at the Division of Higher Education at Jeffrey.Newman@doe.nh.gov.
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2022-12-01T02:07:08Z
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Orphans of veterans receive scholarships | Veterans | unionleader.com
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UNH’s Pierce DeVaughn, left, and Heron Maurisseau embrace after Saturday’s FCS playoff win over Fordham. The Wildcats will visit Holy Cross for round two of the playoffs on Saturday at noon.
Turnovers not on the menu for UNH, Holy Cross
Saying turnovers will determine the outcome is a lazy way to analyze a football game. Nevertheless, how well each team protects the football could prove crucial when the University of New Hampshire visits eighth-seeded Holy Cross in the second round of the FCS playoffs Saturday (noon).
UNH (9-3) has turned the ball over 13 times in 12 games this season (eight fumbles, five interceptions). The Wildcats are plus-one in turnover margin, but Holy Cross (11-0) is even better. The Crusaders have not lost a fumble this season and are tied for second among FCS teams in turnover margin at plus-15.
“It shows how well-coached they are,” UNH coach Rick Santos said. “When you take care of the football … Obviously they have really talented football players, but it’s evident that the coaching staff is harping on that on a daily basis. It shows up because they’re an elite team holding onto it.
“We have to play our cleanest game of the year. We have to take care of the football. We have to create some turnovers like we did last week.”
UNH intercepted two passes and recovered a fumble in last week’s 52-42 victory over Fordham in the opening round of the playoffs. Fordham finished second to Holy Cross in the Patriot League this season. The Crusaders were one of eight FCS playoff teams that received a bye in the first round.
“Fordham, as we know, it’s a high-powered offense … but (UNH) got turnovers,” Holy Cross coach Bob Chesney said. “That’s what I thought was great for them defensively against Fordham.
“This is going to be a great, tough, physical game to be part of. I think everybody involved with it understands that.”
Holy Cross quarterback Matthew Sluka is one of the key reasons the Crusaders have been so good in the turnover-margin category. Sluka, a junior from Locust Valley, New York, has not lost a fumble this season despite being the team’s leading rusher (165 carries for 918 yards and eight touchdowns). He’s completed 135 of 224 passes for 2,301 yards and 25 TDs, and has been intercepted three times.
“He’s strong,” Santos said. “They list him at 6-3, 215. He’s a rocked-up dude. … He runs downhill. He works to be the aggressor. He works to kind of bring the fight to the defense. If you weren’t going against him, you’d admire his play. He has the ability to take some punishment and not put the ball on the turf.
“From a play-calling standpoint, they take a lot of deep shots to the perimeter because they have some guys who can run. So they take a lot of one-on-one stuff where it limits the amount of guys in the middle of the field who could potentially tip it or get a hand on it. They do a great job protecting (the ball) with the scheme, and I think he’s a very smart football player, a cerebral guy who takes care of it as well.”
UNH hasn’t turned the ball over more than once in any of its last seven games. The Wildcats have four turnovers in that span.
Like Sluka, UNH quarterback Max Brosmer has made good decisions with the football for most of the season. Brosmer has 242 completions in 384 attempts for 2,915 yards and 25 TDs. He’s had five passes intercepted.
UNH defensive back Joe Eichman and Holy Cross free safety Walter Reynolds have each shown a knack for coming up with turnovers this season. Although he missed four games to injury, Eichman is tied with Randall Harris for the team lead in interceptions with three, and also has a fumble recovery. Reynolds also has three interceptions and a fumble recovery to go along with one forced fumble.
The UNH-Holy Cross winner will face the winner of Saturday’s game between Delaware (8-4) and top-seeded South Dakota State (10-1).
“I think turnovers in general, they’re just a blessing,” Eichman said. “You read your keys and you’re in the right spot, good things will happen.”
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2022-12-01T02:07:21Z
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Turnovers not on the menu for UNH, Holy Cross | College Sports | unionleader.com
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Patriots quarterback Mac Jones signals the team during action earlier this season.
Commentary: Patriots quarterback Jones needs to lead his first big-time upset
FOXBOROUGH, Mass. — At this stage in his NFL career, Patriots quarterback Mac Jones hasn’t had much success as an underdog.
He hasn’t been able to elevate the Patriots when necessary, which will be the case Thursday night against the favored Buffalo Bills (8:15 p.m., Fox 25, Amazon Prime). The Pats are 2-7 as underdogs with Jones starting.
One was at Buffalo last year in a wind storm. Jones threw only three passes in the game.
On Thanksgiving night against the Vikings, Jones produced his best game of the season. Only, he wasn’t able to do much with the game on the line in the fourth quarter. The Patriots went three-and-out, three-and-out and turned the ball over on downs before the clock ran out on a 33-26 defeat.
It’s not all on Jones, of course. But with the QB, that’s usually where it starts.
For Jones, a first-round pick and a national champion after working up the ranks at Alabama, it should be in his competitive DNA.
Winning with three passes in a monsoon doesn’t count. Barely losing to Brady’s Buccaneers and Dak Prescott’s Cowboys last season also doesn’t get him many style points.
“He’s doing a great job, man,” the Patriots tight end said of Jones earlier this week. “This year has been tough at times. Just going through an injury and battling his way back. It’s fun to see him have success and just the leader he is.
Jones’ fellow 2021 draft classmate Trevor Lawrence got the upset monkey off his back Sunday when he rallied the Jaguars from two fourth-quarter deficits to beat the favored Ravens.
Lawrence led a 10-play, 75-yard drive that ended with a 10-yard touchdown pass to Marvin Jones. Then he hit Zay Jones for the 2-point conversion with 14 seconds left to complete the Jaguars’ upset over the AFC North frontrunners.
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2022-12-01T02:07:33Z
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Commentary: Patriots quarterback Jones needs to lead his first big-time upset | Patriots | unionleader.com
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CSX Transportation freight trains sit parked in a railyard in Louisville on Sept. 14. A potential rail workers strike could throw the nation’s freight system into chaos.
Luke Sharrett for the wash
The House of Representatives voted Wednesday to force a contract between rail workers and carriers, a controversial move that lawmakers are considering to avert a rail strike.
The bill passed the House, but it remains unclear whether there is sufficient support in the Senate.
A walkout would be a major economic disruption during the busy holiday season. But it is back on the table after several rail unions rejected a White House-brokered contract offer.
Freight railroad companies and their affiliated unions had been locked in a dispute over pay and working conditions for months, but the threat of a strike eased in September after President Biden announced a “tentative” deal had been reached. But now several unions have rejected their contracts in recent weeks, bringing the fear of a strike to the forefront.
Biden called on Congress Monday to impose the tentative deal to avoid the strike. This plan already is facing pushback from some rail workers, who are pushing for a contract to include paid sick days.
“From a timing standpoint, what we need to do right now is avoid the strike,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said Tuesday after meeting with Biden and congressional leaders.
Here’s what you need to know about the dispute.
What is the rail strike about?
Rail union leaders and carriers agreed to a tentative deal in September that included pay raises for members. But many union workers voted against the deal, in part because they have been pushing for paid sick days, which they currently do not receive. There is also widespread dissatisfaction over a grueling scheduling model that they say has taken a toll on their mental and physical well-being.
One of the largest rail unions, SMART Transportation Division, announced earlier this month that its members had voted down the tentative deal. Three smaller unions also rejected the contract. Together, the four unions represent more than half of the unionized rail workers.
A strike could occur as soon as Dec. 9. If one union strikes, all are likely to walk out in solidarity.
The unions are in continuing negotiations with the carriers.
What do the rail workers want?
A crucial issue in the dispute is a points-based attendance policy adopted by some of the largest carriers earlier this year. Those policies penalize workers, up to termination, for going to routine doctor’s visits or tending to family emergencies. Conductors and engineers say they can be on call for 14 consecutive days without a break and that they do not receive a single sick day, paid or unpaid.
Rail carriers have said their employees can take time off when they are sick by using paid vacation days, but some unions have said their members are typically asked to schedule time off months in advance.
The tentative deal does not include any sick days. It does include one paid personal day that needs to be scheduled in advance, and some workers would have the ability to call out of work three times a year for doctor’s appointments, which would also need to be scheduled.
“The biggest thing we wanted is sick days,” Steve Sample, 54, a rail maintainer in northern Ohio who voted against the agreement told The Post. “We get one personal day.”
How could Congress intervene?
Congress can vote to force the rail carriers and unions to adopt the tentative deal. Under the Railway Labor Act of 1926, Congress can intervene in the case of a railway strike to impose a contract on the railroads to block or stop a rail strike.
The House approved two bills Wednesday: one to impose the proposed contract brokered by the White House; the other to give rail workers seven paid sick days. The first passed 290-137; the second 221-207.
The Senate currently does not have a timeline for voting on the bills, but the President has asked that they move swiftly.
What’s included in the tentative deal?
The contract offer included “better pay, improved working conditions,” Biden said in a statement, as well as peace of mind for workers around their health care costs.
Attendance policies that penalize workers for taking time off had become a sticking point for many workers. The tentative deal included some increased flexibility in this area but workers say much of a points-based attendance policy that could penalize them for missing work for family emergencies or doctor’s appointments was left in place.
It also included what would have been the biggest pay increases seen in decades. Wages were set to jump 24% by 2024 — which included an immediate 14% bump — bringing the average pay to $110,000 a year. They’d also get $1,000 bonuses annually for five years, and would not have to absorb higher health-care deductibles or co-pays.
Would a rail strike affect Amtrak?
In September, the threat of a strike prompted Amtrak to cancel service on some long-distance routes. After the deal was brokered, the company worked to restore trains and rebook customers.
A strike could be especially disruptive for commuter lines that run between major cities and suburbs because those routes often operate on freight tracks, which would not be available to passenger trains. Workers who rely on the Washington region’s commuter lines in Virginia and Maryland would possibly experience outages.
What would happen in a shutdown?
In addition to rattling commutes and spoiling cross-country travel for thousands of Americans, a walkout could deal a major blow to the economy. A strike would shut down nearly a third of the country’s freight, industry players have warned.
A freight railroad shutdown could “devastate” Amtrak operations, according to the Association of American Railroads. About half of commuter rail systems run at least partially on tracks or rights of way owned by freight railroads.
A stoppage also would have significant implications for retailers, which rely on freight trains to transport inventory from ports to warehouses and distribution centers. Such a scenario could have a domino effect — retailers would miss their shipping and pickup dates, leaving cargo in limbo without a place to go, according to Jonathan Gold, vice president of supply chains and customs policy at the National Retail Federation.
“It adds to the ongoing congestion that we’re facing within the supply chain,” he said. “And that all adds additional costs that folks haven’t planned for.”
While scrambling to strike a deal, the Biden administration was pursuing contingency plans to ensure key products carried by rail — including food, energy and health products — would reach their final destinations.
When was the last rail strike in the U.S.?
The last industry strike took place in 1992, when railroad workers with the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers walked off the job. In response, most of the country’s freight railroads shut down, forcing Congress to pass legislation imposing a new contract on workers. President George H.W. Bush at the time said that the strike “ought to end the day it begins.”
The ramifications of the shutdown were so severe that Congress intervened after just three days to ban strikes and lockouts.
Railroad strikes have long played a significant role in American history. A century ago, a railroad strike could effectively shut down the nation. Railroad strikes set the standard for such ubiquitous working conditions as the eight-hour workday, said Nelson Lichtenstein, a labor historian at the University of California at Santa Barbara.
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2022-12-01T02:07:39Z
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www.unionleader.com
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What you need to know about the threat of a rail strike and Congress | | unionleader.com
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https://www.unionleader.com/what-you-need-to-know-about-the-threat-of-a-rail-strike-and-congress/article_318379c8-30fa-558d-bf7b-b809433eaa07.html
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https://www.unionleader.com/what-you-need-to-know-about-the-threat-of-a-rail-strike-and-congress/article_318379c8-30fa-558d-bf7b-b809433eaa07.html
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'Willow' redux and 'Money Court'
PROOF THAT streaming will allow at least one more crack at every fantasy franchise, Disney+ debuts “Willow.”
A tale of dwarves, creatures, swordsmen and swordswomen, princesses and princes on an adventure in a fairy-tale realm, it’s based on a story and characters created by George Lucas for a 1988 blockbuster directed by Ron Howard. Released to much fanfare, it was met with middling reviews and box office.
As fantasies of the late 1980s go, it was probably overshadowed by “The Princess Bride,” a romantic comedy fable released the year before.
• A fish-out-of-water comedy, Peacock’s new series “Irreverent” takes its sweet time setting up its contrived plot. A bucolic beachside community on the north coast of Australia has a bad habit of having its ministers suddenly die. Meanwhile on the tough streets and gritty parking garages of Chicago, a mob payoff is about to go down, with smooth mediator Paulo (Colin Donnell) doing his best to smooth things over. When gunfire erupts, he finds himself killing the dimwitted eldest son of a crime boss and literally holding the bag, which contains more than a cool million.
This leads to a flight to Australia, where he coincidentally meets the dweeby Father McKenzie (P.J. Byrne) on his way to the unlucky seaside town. Even more contrivances ensue, and the mob fixer and the preacher appear to switch identities, setting up the brash American eye candy as a fast-talking pastor with a flock of misfits in a touristy locale.
If this plot sounds vaguely familiar, it’s because it closely follows that of “Impastor,” a 2015 TV Land comedy starring Michael Rosenbaum as a man on the run from the mob who bamboozles a Lutheran parish in Minnesota into believing he’s their new minister.
While “Impastor” kept it pretty light, “Irreverent” may have one mashup too many. Fish-out-of-water comedies are intended as light distraction. Kicking off the proceedings with silencers and assassinations tends to ruin the mood.
For those who like their hit-man dramas less complicated, there’s the new Netflix movie “My Name Is Vendetta,” imported from Italy.
• Does a pill deserve its own biographical profile? The Netflix documentary “Take Your Pills: Xanax” explores the anti-anxiety medication that has been a godsend for some but has had very bad side effects for others.
• People enter business partnerships and marriages with the best of intentions. But not every union lasts forever. Reconciliations are possible, but sometimes breaking up is hard to do.
Hosted by entrepreneurs Kevin O’Leary and Bethenny Frankel, “Money Court” (10 p.m., CNBC) arbitrates business disputes between partners, smooths out hurt feelings, untangles misunderstandings and even points some businesses toward dissolution.
In the first dispute, two sisters and partners bicker over intellectual property, the secret ingredients that make their recipes unique and valuable. Other partners battle over a contemporary dilemma: the decision to have their staff work in the office or remotely from home. And getting to the heart of things, an entrepreneur and his investor squabble over money.
• Savannah Guthrie, Hoda Kotb, Craig Melvin and Mario Lopez host the 90th Annual Christmas in Rockefeller Center special (8 p.m., NBC).
• A winner emerges on “The Masked Singer” (8 p.m., Fox, TV-PG).
• An informant’s woes follow him to Northern Ireland on “FBI International” (10 p.m., CBS, r, TV-14).
• A smokejumper’s last jump on “Big Sky” (10 p.m., ABC, TV-14).
A princess (Grace Kelly) resists an arranged marriage to a lazy cousin (Alec Guinness) and prefers a more dashing suitor (Louis Jordan) in the 1956 fantasy “The Swan” (10:15 p.m., TCM, TV-G). A remake of a silent classic, it was a box office failure released on the day of Kelly’s real-life marriage to Monaco’s Prince Rainier. The supporting cast includes a young Van Dyke Parks, a musical prodigy who collaborated with Beach Boy Brian Wilson.
“Survivor” (8 p.m., CBS, TV-PG) ... Darlene lays down the law on “The Conners” (8 p.m., ABC, TV-14) ... Adam seems too independent for Beverly on “The Goldbergs” (8:30 p.m., ABC, TV-PG).
“The Amazing Race” (9 p.m., CBS, TV-PG) ... Getting loud in the teacher’s lounge on “Abbott Elementary” (9 p.m., ABC, TV-PG) ... Tom’s success changes the pecking order on “Home Economics” (9:30 p.m., ABC, TV-14).
Janet Yellen and Rob Delaney are booked on “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert” (11:35 p.m., CBS) ... Jimmy Fallon welcomes Dolly Parton, Claire Foy, DOMi & JD Beck and Mac DeMarco on “The Tonight Show” (11:35 p.m., NBC) ... David Hourbour, Lisa Ann Walter and Thee Sacred Souls appear on “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” (11:35 p.m., ABC) ... Beth Behrs, Avril Lavigne and Yungblud appear on “The Late Late Show With James Corden” (12:35 a.m., CBS).
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2022-12-01T02:07:45Z
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www.unionleader.com
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'Willow' redux and 'Money Court' | | unionleader.com
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https://www.unionleader.com/willow-redux-and-money-court/article_b1b80099-b63d-5738-8a25-2c5be9d48151.html
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https://www.unionleader.com/willow-redux-and-money-court/article_b1b80099-b63d-5738-8a25-2c5be9d48151.html
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DEAR ABBY: I met my boyfriend online last year. He lives in the U.K.; I’m in the U.S.
I love him dearly and we talk about moving in together within the next year. The original plan was for him to emigrate, since I am closer to my family and have an established job. However, I’m a bit worried because he doesn’t drive. It’s not just because of the learning curve it will take to switch sides of the road, but he doesn’t drive in the U.K. either.
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2022-12-01T05:17:34Z
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www.unionleader.com
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Dear Abby: Cross-Atlantic romance hits snag over driving | Human Interest | unionleader.com
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https://www.unionleader.com/news/human_interest/dear-abby-cross-atlantic-romance-hits-snag-over-driving/article_ff8c12ab-1c99-5ab2-b8f3-5ab044a07d95.html
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Buddy (Steven Booth) leads a song and dance number in “Elf the Musical,” running through Dec. 18, at The Music Hall in Portsmouth. The magical set was designed by Emmy Award-winning Jason Sherwood, a top set designer on Broadway, TV and awards shows as well as for pop star Sam Smith’s world tour.
JULIA RUSSELL
Annabelle Woodrard, Christian Fary and Mark Nichols rehearse a scene for “A Christmas Carol,” which runs through Dec. 23 at the Palace Theatre in Manchester.
Rachel Pantazis, who plays the outspoken Scrooge critic Mrs. Cratchit, performs a sound check during a rehearsal for “A Christmas Carol” at the Palace Theatre in Manchester.
Trumpet player Kevin Tracy practices for the several-week run of “A Christmas Carol” at the Palace Theatre in Manchester.
Scenic Artist Abagail Taper and Master Carpenter Karter move a tower into place before on the set of “A Christmas Carol” at the Palace Theatre in Manchester.
The best way to spread Christmas cheer in NH: 'Elf the Musical' and 'A Christmas Carol'
'Elf the Musical'
Two historic New Hampshire theaters have opened their doors to the magic of the holiday season with big-scale musicals that both tug on the heartstrings and put the merry in Christmas.
One follows an endearingly over-enthused elf who really likes candy, Santa Claus and singing loud for all to hear and the other is a cheap, grouchy businessman who is about to find out that goodwill isn’t as reprehensible as it sounds.
Both are holiday gems with feel-good notes, especially set inside storied theaters with more than a century of their own traditions — the 108-year-old Palace Theatre in downtown Manchester and the 144-year-old Music Hall in downtown Portsmouth.
‘Elf the Musical’Reprising a 2018 collaboration with the Ogunquit Playhouse of Maine, The Music Hall in Portsmouth is hosting “Elf the Musical” with many of the cast members who made such an impression the first time around. That includes Broadway veteran Steven Booth and Diana Huey, who starred as Ariel in the U.S. tour of Disney’s “The Little Mermaid.”
Booth once again is the exuberant Buddy the Elf in a stage show based on the now classic 2003 movie starring comic actor Will Ferrell.
Those are big elf shoes to fill, but Booth is a standout as the earnest and childlike elf.
Still, it takes a lot of energy to spread that kind of Christmas joy.
“I didn’t think that four years down the road I’d be back. I was so happy to get the phone call. Although I did have to remind myself of the exhaustion that comes with playing Buddy,” he says laughing. “I’m four years older now, and we’ve added a child to the family, so I’m a father of two. But I think this body can still do it.”
Booth, who grew up in the Northern Idaho and now lives in Manhattan, performed lead roles in Broadway productions of “School of Rock,” “Glory Days” and “Avenue Q,” as well as national tours of “Kinky Boots” and “Happy Days.”
But Booth considers a certain over-sized elf who has trouble fitting into life at the North Pole the most fun to portray. He captures Buddy’s wide-eyed eagerness as he discovers some confusing but delightful truths.
“Buddy not trying to get laughs. He truly believes what he believes. He’s the bright-eyed, happy-go-lucky guy. He jumps on board with everything. I mean, Santa sends him off from the North Pole on an iceberg to find his dad in New York City, and he’s game for it all.”
Booth in real life doesn’t ascribe to Buddy’s concept of the main food groups — candy, candy canes, candy corns and syrup, but he does sing loud for all to hear and have a bit of that elf-at-heart optimism. The self-professed “goofball” likes making people laugh, and it shows in Booth’s enduringly earnest mannerisms and reactions on stage.
“Buddy is always kind of leaning forward, on his toes and ready to jump into whatever fun thing is next. He’s like a little puppy dog going for whatever is shiny.”
Another bright spot in the show is Huey, who grew up north of Seattle and lives in New York. She plays Buddy’s fellow Macy’s employee and would-be girlfriend, Jovie (played in the movie by Zooey Deschanel.)
In the musical version, Jovie is a sassier character.
“She’s darker in the musical. She lives in the East Village, wears a short skirt, tights and a leather jacket and works at Macy’s over the frenetic holiday season. She’s basically so over all the holiday cheer,” Huey said.
Huey gives the fleshed-out role an added arc about the importance of Christmas cheer.
“It’s silly and funny, but then so heartwarming,” she said.
Huey’s previous credits include the lead role of Ariel in the U.S. National Tour of Disney’s “The Little Mermaid,” and she’s been part of several world and U.S. premieres of Pasek and Paul’s “James And The Giant Peach,” Anchuli Felicia King’s “White Pearl” and Michael Arden’s production of “Maybe Happy Ending.”
On screen she has been featured in “Pokémon, Yu-Gi-Oh! Sevens,” Netflix’s “It’s Bruno,” and TNT’s “Leverage” and “The Glee Project.”
‘A Christmas Carol’Decked out in holiday finery, the Palace Theatre feels like a family reunion, blurring the line between longtime audience members who greet one another and look for familiar faces on stage.
The production is woven deep into the Queen City community, and especially dear to Carl Rajotte, the Palace Theatre’s artistic director, whose first job at the venue 20 years ago was to retool a conventional spoken-word version of Ebenezer Scrooge’s tale into a grand musical.
“The goal was to have everybody leaving happy and feeling the Christmas spirit,” he recalled. “But I had lost my mom at Christmas two years before, so I was really Scrooge when it came to Christmas. I didn’t want to celebrate it. This hit me like a brick wall.”
To work through some of that weight, he revisited some of his own memories of Christmases past.
“I went into my basement that August that I was hired and set up a Christmas tree in the corner and just went through photo albums of Christmas time when I was very, very little.”
Rajotte wound up writing the script from the perspective of a youth, since the holidays often bring out the inner child in people.
“That show changed my life from then. It brought back the Christmas spirit,” he said.
It’s been a November-December staple ever since, though pandemic-related issues led to the cancellation of 2020 shows and then a smaller-scale production in 2021.
This year’s “A Christmas Carol,” the theater’s 19th rendition, is a return to the large-scale format.
Mark Nichols and Mark Willis are splitting time as Scrooge in public and school performances.
“Both have played scrooge in the past. Mark Nichols was actually my first Scrooge 20 years ago. In the last five years he’s been playing the narrator, but I wanted to change some things up so he’s back as Scrooge and loving every second of it,” Rajotte said.
Overall, audiences tend to be a bit different than the usual theater crowd who may come to a variety of productions throughout the year.
“Our ‘Christmas Carol’ audiences come to the theater once or twice a year but that’s because it’s become a tradition for them. I love that idea, that the tradition continues and we welcome back that same family every single year,” he said.
Planning for “A Christmas Carol” starts in the summer months, when slight tweaks are made to the production.
They’re slight because longtime show-goers have a bit of a proprietary connection to the familiar dialogue, gestures and story line by heart. They appreciate an updated reference here or there but wouldn’t take kindly to major deviations.
“It’s like they are the director as well. They can pick out those improvements or changes we’ve made each year. But I can tell you if we changed it a lot they probably would be very upset.”
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2022-12-01T05:17:46Z
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www.unionleader.com
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The best way to spread Christmas cheer in NH: 'Elf the Musical' and 'A Christmas Carol' | A&E | unionleader.com
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https://www.unionleader.com/nh/arts_and_ent/the-best-way-to-spread-christmas-cheer-in-nh-elf-the-musical-and-a-christmas/article_c248ade0-e50b-58a7-a0f9-2fd3d0639b83.html
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https://www.unionleader.com/nh/arts_and_ent/the-best-way-to-spread-christmas-cheer-in-nh-elf-the-musical-and-a-christmas/article_c248ade0-e50b-58a7-a0f9-2fd3d0639b83.html
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Let them know you care about climate change
To the Editor: Following the election, it is important to let your congressional delegation know what your priorities are for the next Congress. With hurricanes, flooding, fires, and drought already wreaking havoc and no sufficient legislation in place to reduce carbon emissions fast enough for our safety, climate change should be a major priority.
There are policies that will help not only the climate but also people, businesses, and the economy, such as cash-back carbon pricing. Cash-back carbon pricing would put the country on a path to net zero carbon emissions by 2050, help households financially, and ensure the competitiveness of U.S. businesses in the global market. Lots of climate policies are being discussed in Congress, but it is important to ask our Congressmen to enact legislation that will take big enough action on climate change while protecting people and businesses. Please call your legislators or ask them to enact cash-back carbon pricing at cclusa.org/write-cfd. Thank you!
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2022-12-01T05:18:11Z
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www.unionleader.com
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Letter: Let elected officials know you care about climate change | Letters to the Editor | unionleader.com
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https://www.unionleader.com/opinion/letters_to_editor/letter-let-elected-officials-know-you-care-about-climate-change/article_8ceca28c-4a16-5afa-9196-43835292e3f5.html
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https://www.unionleader.com/opinion/letters_to_editor/letter-let-elected-officials-know-you-care-about-climate-change/article_8ceca28c-4a16-5afa-9196-43835292e3f5.html
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Harvey Feldman
I AM WRITING in response to Stephen Scaer’s November 15th op-ed, “Gender-affirming care harms NH children.’’ Mr. Scaer and I have something in common: both of our day jobs are focused on LGBTQAI+ youth. From there we diverge sharply. In my role as a licensed psychotherapist with clinical expertise in this area, I provide affirmation to LGBTQAI+ youth and their families. Every day I see the Lazarus effects of gender affirmation, which isn’t too surprising when you think about how affirmation impacts all of us when we receive it. (A question for the cisgender readers: Have you ever had to ‘prove’ to providers, teachers or family that you really are, in fact, cisgender?)
In his first sentence, Mr. Scaer uses the word ‘secret’ to describe the role teachers play in supporting LGBTQAI+ youth in schools, a notion that the New Hampshire state legislature rejected when they voted against HB1431 in May 2022. If passed, this bill would have required schools to disclose a minority sexual orientation and/or gender identity to caregivers. Ironically, his word choice reveals to the reader exactly where his concern lies: he is not interested in what best practice, scientific evidence, or basic common sense tells us about gender affirmative care, but instead believes what’s really at stake is (his) control over other people’s bodies and choices, particularly children.
In response to Mr. Scaer’s November 15th op-ed, I could cite the many peer reviewed studies that demonstrate the significant benefits of affirming care for LGBTQ+ youth. If I thought it would help, I would cite the NIH study presented at the World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH) Conference in September 2022. This study followed 316 transgender youth receiving gender affirming medical care, and results indicate improvements in anxiety, depression, positive affect, and life satisfaction over the two-year follow-up period.
I could also cite 16 other studies conducted between 2011 and 2022, all of which had outcomes that demonstrate significant reductions in anxiety and depression for gender diverse youth when they were able to access affirming medical care. I could reference the AMA, the AAP, the APA, the ACA, the ASCA, or the 29 other professional medical bodies all which endorse and advocate for LGBTQAI+ affirmative care because of its protective nature. I could remind readers that regardless of the specific medical issue, of which gender dysphoria is just one, youth and their families in New Hampshire have the right to access care free from misinformation, distraction, and bias. I could do all of this, and yet I suspect that’s beside the point for Mr. Scaer. I am convinced that for some people, there will never be enough studies, or enough evidence-because their real concern isn’t that there are two few happy LGBTQAI+ people, but that there are too many.
The way we talk about these issues matters — it is an issue of life or death. As a culture we left the territory of “just asking questions,” “just holding a sign”, “just funding a billboard” long ago. Mr. Scaer might say that my language here is extreme or dramatic, and yet as I was writing this, news broke of a shooting in Colorado Springs, Colorado, that killed five LGBTQAI+ people, two of whom were transgender. This massacre occurred hours before Transgender Day of Remembrance started, at a bar that had planned to host a drag story hour on the morning of November 20. The rhetoric used by Mr. Scaer and others actively contributes to a climate in which this is allowable — where anyone who is not the “approved category” of sexual orientation and/or gender identity is subject to dehumanization, violence, and ultimately death. If I take Mr. Scaer at his word that he wants to prevent harm, I invite him to strongly reconsider his strategy.
Harvey Feldman of Concord is a licensed clinical mental health counselor and the owner of Harvey Feldman Counseling LLC.
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2022-12-01T05:18:17Z
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www.unionleader.com
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Harvey Feldman: How we talk matters when it's life or death | Op-eds | unionleader.com
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https://www.unionleader.com/opinion/op-eds/harvey-feldman-how-we-talk-matters-when-its-life-or-death/article_f2db32b9-90dd-5198-b4c8-7a370e1bd97c.html
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https://www.unionleader.com/opinion/op-eds/harvey-feldman-how-we-talk-matters-when-its-life-or-death/article_f2db32b9-90dd-5198-b4c8-7a370e1bd97c.html
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Alfred Molina as Inspector Gamache
PRIME VIDEO launches the mystery series “Three Pines,” based on the best-selling novelist Louise Penny’s novels about Chief Inspector Armand Gamache. “Pines” offers Alfred Molina a terrific role as a complex man of a certain age who has grown to accept that his hunches, once relied upon, may no longer be trustworthy. Early on, he muses upon getting a tattoo for his right hand that reads, “I could be wrong.”
The Gamache novels are set in the rural hinterlands of Quebec, where competing French Canadian and Anglo cultures clash and compete with that of Indigenous tribes. As the series begins, Gamache’s police station is besieged by women protesting the authorities’ perceived indifference to the disappearance of dozens of Indigenous women. Moved by their declarations, Gamache shows a personal interest in one case, an indulgence that does not sit well with his superiors — so they ship him off to a remote village to look into a peculiar case.
And it’s here that “Three Pines” finds its footing. At first it seems like an idyllic small-town drama, not unlike a Hallmark movie or a “Midsomer Murders” episode. But the kinky details add up, as in a Coen Brothers take on that kind of movie comfort food.
We soon find ourselves in a town where a woman is electrocuted in a lawn chair during a cheerful curling competition, the smell of burning flesh mingling with hints of apple cider and hot cocoa. While the grisly death seems like an accident at first, Gamache soon concludes that his chief difficulty is not coming up with a suspect, but rather who in the town did not have the means and motivation to set up the human barbecue.
Like Penny’s Gamache novels, “Three Pines” is witty and engaging. It’s produced by Left Bank Pictures, the folks behind “The Crown.”
• “Slow Horses,” one of the best series on television, returns for a second season, streaming on Apple TV+.
For the uninitiated, “Slow Horses” stars Gary Oldman as Jackson Lamb, the head of Slough House, a place for spies who have had publicly embarrassing episodes that jeopardized the reputation of MI5, England’s intelligence agency. As its name suggests, Slough House is dingy and unglamorous, a place to endure career purgatory under the cruel oversight of the frequently drunk Lamb.
Kristin Scott Thomas stars as Diana Taverner, the deputy director of MI5, who frequently has to consult with Lamb and hire his underlings to do the agency’s dirty work. Her stylish clothes and sleek offices could not be in starker contrast to Lamb’s disheveled state. He literally leaves a grease stain behind him when they share a park bench. Oldman has been in too many great movies to list here, but Lamb is among his most enjoyable performances.
Look for Jack Lowden as River Cartwright, a dashing young agent who found himself in Slough House as a result of a colleagues’ betrayal. He’s the Bond- or Bourne-type character in this decidedly Dickensian look at the spy game. Imagine John le Carre writing “Bleak House” and you are just getting started. And Mick Jagger sings the theme song! Don’t miss it.
• Streaming on Prime, the U.K. series “Riches” follows the “Dynasty”-style machinations of a family of Nigerian immigrants who come to dominate the corner of Britain’s cosmetic industry aimed at women of color.
• USC meets Utah in the Pac-12 college football championship (8 p.m., Fox).
• Violent muggings become more common on ”Blue Bloods” (10 p.m., CBS, TV-14).
Set against the apocalyptic fears of the 1962 Cuban missile crisis, John Goodman portrays a gimmick-obsessed horror movie director/producer (inspired by William Castle) in the 1993 comedy “Matinee” (8 p.m., TCM, TV-14), directed by Joe Dante. Cathy Moriarty (“Raging Bull”) co-stars. Look for Naomi Watts as a teen star.
A Hollywood home invasion on “S.W.A.T.“ (8 p.m., CBS, TV-14) ... Blow out the candles on “Lopez vs. Lopez” (8 p.m., NBC, TV-PG) ... A new way to attract hummingbirds on “Shark Tank” (8 p.m., ABC, TV-PG) ... Locked in a restaurant on “Young Rock” (8:30 p.m., NBC, TV-14).
Bode stands accused of looting from smoking embers on “Fire Country“ (9 p.m., CBS, TV-14) ... “Dateline” (9 p.m., NBC, r) ... “20/20” (9 p.m., ABC).
Jimmy Fallon welcomes Kevin Bacon, Theo James and Jay Jurden on “The Tonight Show” (11:35 p.m., NBC) ... Quentin Tarantino, Emily Ratajkowski and Seth Reiss & Will Tracy visit “Late Night With Seth Meyers” (12:35 a.m., NBC, r) ... Marlon Wayans, Marc Maron and Amos Lee are scheduled to appear on “The Late Late Show With James Corden” (12:35 a.m., CBS, r).
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2022-12-04T08:07:42Z
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www.unionleader.com
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Alfred Molina as Inspector Gamache | | unionleader.com
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https://www.unionleader.com/alfred-molina-as-inspector-gamache/article_22fbc3f2-15f5-5395-9efd-ec0f252132c6.html
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https://www.unionleader.com/alfred-molina-as-inspector-gamache/article_22fbc3f2-15f5-5395-9efd-ec0f252132c6.html
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“Revenge: Meghan, Harry, and the War Between the Windsors,” by Tom Bower.
BOOKS-BOOK-REVENGE-REVIEW-MCT
It was like a bad fairy tale: the princes and the peeved.
The tale of Meghan Markle and Prince Harry started as a storybook romance. But somewhere along the way, it dissolved into testy arguments and family feuds. Tom Bower’s “Revenge” goes into the ugly details.
He thinks he knows who to blame, too. Although the book’s full title is “Revenge: Meghan, Harry, and the War Between the Windsors,” Markle is the book’s real subject — and its snarky author’s target.
Markle’s beginnings didn’t hint at the international drama to come. She was born in Los Angeles in 1981, the daughter of Thomas Markle, 37, and Doria, 24. Thomas was white, a lighting director on TV. Doria was Black, a free spirit trying to establish herself as a designer.
The marriage didn’t last. But Thomas doted on his new daughter – “His whole life, his little princess,” said Tom Jr., his son from a previous marriage. When Doria began traveling with her fashion business, Thomas assumed full custody. Meghan was 9.
She already enjoyed the spotlight. At a friend’s birthday party, “Meghan was videoed sitting on a red blanket, wearing a gold crown,” Bower writes. “Directing the other girls to bow and intone to her ‘Your Royal Highness,’ she had been influenced after watching a tape of Princess Diana’s fairytale wedding.”
Her father indulged her hunger for attention, paying for acting lessons and ballet class and doing the lighting for her school plays. He paid for college, too — $45,000 a year to study drama at Northwestern — and helped set her up after graduation with her own place and a used car. He even paid for the gas.
He would be amazed years later when Markle gave speeches to working class-college students, saying she understood their financial struggles. “I’m sorry but that is completely untrue,” her father told the press. “I paid every penny of her tuition and I have the bank statements to prove it.”
After college, Markle went on endless Hollywood auditions. Few paid off. She was one of the hostesses on “Deal or No Deal.” She began an anonymous blog, Working Actress, and complained about having to “kiss actors with smelly breath.” She met and wed a young producer.
The union — a “starter marriage,” Bower snipes — didn’t last. But Markle had already landed a part on “Suits.” Her profile raised, she began chasing endorsement deals and spokesperson gigs. She also began to distance herself from her father and her past. Friends who tried to stay in touch noticed a change.
“The tone of her voice, her mannerisms, the way she laughed, didn’t seem real to me anymore,” one said. “It was like a light switched off.”
With the success of “Suits,” she did some Canadian TV commercials and landed a spot promoting a Christian charity. Then, during a “Suits” junket in London in the summer of 2016, Markle met a fashion publicist who was a childhood friend of Harry’s.
A rendezvous was eventually arranged at a private London club. When Markle breathlessly told her agent, the woman wasn’t surprised. “I understood where she was coming from,” the agent said. “Her dream of bagging a prince was even written in one of her old blogs.”
The date was a success, and Markle and Harry began seeing each other regularly. Four months after the couple’s first date, the Sunday Express broke the news. “The British media was ecstatic,” Bower writes. ‘He’s been happier than he’s been in many years,’ reported The Times.”
British tabloids started investigating Markle’s American roots. The coverage became snobbish, even racist. Papers reported her father lived in a shabby Hollywood apartment. They claimed her mother came from the slums. They quoted Markle’s estranged half-sister calling her “a social climber with a soft spot for gingers.”
A still-besotted Harry invited Markle for a weekend in the country to meet his friends. It didn’t go well. She was a biracial, liberal, feminist Yank. They were white, wealthy, conservative Brits who liked hunting, riding, drinking, and politically incorrect jokes.
Markle was not amused and let them know it.
After the party broke up, Harry’s friends quickly texted each other. “OMG what about HER?” “A total nightmare.”
As we know, Harry proposed, and she accepted. After the formal announcement, there was a second burst of good publicity in the press. But privately, the family remained wary. Harry’s Uncle Charles, Diana’s brother, told him not to be hasty. Older brother William urged him “get to know the girl.”
Harry didn’t listen.
Wedding plans went forward. So did the friction. Palace staffers complained Markle was rude and demanding. “Princess Pushy,” her half-sister had already nicknamed her.
There were fights over the wedding menu, the music, and the guest list. A conversation with Kate Middleton, Markle’s soon-to-be-sister-in-law, reportedly ended with Kate’s tears as the two argued over the dress Kate’s 3-year-old was to wear.
Harry stuck up for his fiancée throughout. “What Meghan wants, Meghan gets!” he finally shouted.
After that, his grandmother, the Queen, summoned him for a private meeting. “He was put firmly in his place,” the Times reported.
More than 17 million people watched the wedding. George Clooney, Oprah Winfrey, and Serena Williams attended. The only one of Markle’s relatives to come was her mother. Her father, a palace spokesperson explained, was too ill to travel. The spokesperson did not add that father and daughter were no longer speaking.
The wedding itself was a success. But what came next? Traditionally, this was the point at which the new bride would be expected to take a step back and assume a supporting role. But Markle had always dreamed of being a star. She wanted to handle her publicity and pursue whatever new opportunities — charitable or commercial — arose.
“The Royal Family had embraced a media junkie determined to exploit her new status,” Bower declares.
“She had never intended to give up her career and become a loyal member of the family.”
Journalists began to compare the two young royal couples — and found the younger pair wanting. That only fed Markle’s anger. “She hated the comparisons with uncomplaining Kate,” Bower notes. The distance between the two brothers grew.
When Harry told William they should be more respectful of Meghan, William pushed back hard, citing her willful ignorance of protocol and rudeness to her staff. “Meghan’s behavior, he told Harry, was unacceptable,” Bower reports.
Harry was outraged. Markle was devastated. There were dark days ahead — and, she later said, thoughts of suicide. In 2020, the couple decided the only thing to do was turn their backs on all of it. They would give up any role as “working royals,” Harry declared.
The couple has since settled in California, where they spend their time on multi-media business deals, a charitable foundation, and their two small children. And what have they left behind in England? Only bad feelings, insists Bower. He coldly sums up Markle as a “merciless opportunist.”
Still, Bower admits, she has a unique strength: The “good fortune,” he writes, to be incapable of feeling guilt.
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2022-12-04T08:07:55Z
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www.unionleader.com
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The dark side of Meghan and Prince Harry’s fairy-tale romance chronicled in new book | Columns | unionleader.com
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https://www.unionleader.com/columns/the-dark-side-of-meghan-and-prince-harry-s-fairy-tale-romance-chronicled-in-new/article_b70b5dae-9fa2-5a29-a65f-217d678e2d7c.html
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https://www.unionleader.com/columns/the-dark-side-of-meghan-and-prince-harry-s-fairy-tale-romance-chronicled-in-new/article_b70b5dae-9fa2-5a29-a65f-217d678e2d7c.html
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A rat runs across a sidewalk in the snow in the Manhattan borough of New York City on Dec. 2, 2019.
Millions of New York rats have been put on notice: the most populous city in the United States is hiring a director of rodent mitigation, a new position that calls for a “swashbuckling attitude.”
Her mac and cheese took more than 3.5 minutes to make, so now she's suing
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2022-12-04T08:08:13Z
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www.unionleader.com
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Help wanted: New York City seeks rat czar | Back Page | unionleader.com
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https://www.unionleader.com/news/back_page/help-wanted-new-york-city-seeks-rat-czar/article_da691fb4-5b79-5157-82ef-d8975ba9c3ae.html
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https://www.unionleader.com/news/back_page/help-wanted-new-york-city-seeks-rat-czar/article_da691fb4-5b79-5157-82ef-d8975ba9c3ae.html
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I’ve always been a huge proponent of being a student of your profession. I often use the analogy of teachers. In New Hampshire, teachers are required to earn a specific number of continuing education units in order to maintain their teaching certification. And there is a good reason for that. We all want our children being taught by people who are up to date on the latest learning methodologies and changes in their specific areas of expertise.
This level of ongoing education is equally as important in business. I’ve seen it all too often and have been guilty of getting into a rut myself and not giving professional development the attention it deserves. Let’s face it, we are all busy and it’s easy to put growth and learning on the back burner. We also know if we don’t focus on professional development, we will idle and not progress in our professional lives.
With formal learning being extremely time consuming, I find myself preferring more bite-sized content and consuming information in smaller pieces throughout my day. And one way I love to do that is by paying attention to what some of the most successful business celebrities say and do. And one of my favorites to follow is Elon Musk.
Every public figure has their share of controversy. In no way am I endorsing views on certain controversial topics or beliefs Elon Musk has, but there is one thing you can’t argue. Not only is he the richest person in the world, he’s arguably one of the best CEOs we’ll come across in our lifetime. And he has some good advice that can benefit everyone in business. Here are a few of my favorites.
Elon made many people at Twitter cry and quit when he announced that he expected people to work hard and put in long hours. While I’m a huge proponent of quality of life, it’s important to recognize the times and situations where you need to go above and beyond. This mentality is found in any successful person. You have to put in the time, you have to work hard and you have to make sacrifices. These days, it seems like the daily grind and hard work is viewed as not being a good thing.
Meeting rules
Elon’s meeting rules are some of my favorites and should be adopted by every organization. Avoiding large meetings is the first rule, and I couldn’t agree more. Having 10 people in a meeting is not productive the majority of the time. The other rule about it being OK to leave a meeting if you’re not contributing is another best practice. I worked with someone who would just drop off a call in the middle of it, without warning, if he wasn’t adding value. After a while, we stopped asking why he left.
“We’ve always done it that way” is one of the most dangerous statements you can make in business. One of the greatest lessons we can all learn from Elon Musk is that every idea and vision has potential. Who else has ever said that we need humans to be multiplanetary? It’s a crazy statement. But the more we learn, the more we realize that his vision is one most can’t comprehend, but we really shouldn’t disregard it. Ideas that seem outrageous are often ideas that change people’s lives and make the world a better place.
Learning lessons from Elon Musk and other public business celebrities is one way we can continue to develop our skills, challenge the status quo and always ensure we are students of our profession.
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2022-12-04T08:08:19Z
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www.unionleader.com
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Closing the Deal: Studying public figures can help us grow | Business | unionleader.com
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https://www.unionleader.com/news/business/columns/closing-the-deal-studying-public-figures-can-help-us-grow/article_fb85dfdb-44d9-5e56-b889-ad383e0415cb.html
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https://www.unionleader.com/news/business/columns/closing-the-deal-studying-public-figures-can-help-us-grow/article_fb85dfdb-44d9-5e56-b889-ad383e0415cb.html
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A shower is possible early. Partly cloudy skies. Low 29F. Winds WNW at 10 to 20 mph..
A shower is possible early. Partly cloudy skies. Low 29F. Winds WNW at 10 to 20 mph.
By Ava Benny-Morrison, Allyson Versprille
and Chris Strohm Bloomberg
U.S. authorities are asking crypto investors and trading firms that worked closely with FTX to hand over information on the company and its key figures, including founder Sam Bankman-Fried and the former head of his Alameda Research investment arm, Caroline Ellison.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York recently sent out a slew of requests, asking recipients to voluntarily hand over information on a list of FTX employees and associates, according to people familiar with the case.
Attorneys from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s enforcement division, which is running a parallel civil probe into the exchange-operator’s collapse, sent similar requests for information to companies that invested in or traded on the crypto platform, people familiar with those inquiries said.
“Regulators have some egg on their face,” he said. “Sam was very far along at pitching to be the cash Bitcoin market here in the U.S., both with the SEC and CFTC.”
FTX, Alameda or any of its former top executives haven’t been accused of any wrongdoing by U.S. authorities. The opening of criminal or civil investigations doesn’t necessarily mean that they will press charges or take other actions.
”While the crypto industry is evolving, the statutory enforcement tools really aren’t,” said Seth DuCharme, a former acting U.S. Attorney in Brooklyn.
If they need to act fast, prosecutors can seek a provisional warrant and request that Bahamian authorities arrest Bankman-Fried. The U.S. then has 60 days, according to an agreement between the two countries, to file a formal extradition request through diplomatic channels.
Anyone arrested could waive their right to an extradition hearing in the Bahamas, in turn speeding up their arrival on U.S. soil.
The entire process can be avoided if there is an agreement with U.S. prosecutors to surrender.
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2022-12-04T08:08:31Z
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www.unionleader.com
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FTX investors are squeezed by U.S. for information on firm and Bankman-Fried | Business | unionleader.com
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https://www.unionleader.com/news/business/ftx-investors-are-squeezed-by-u-s-for-information-on-firm-and-bankman-fried/article_a10e039b-ebab-5dbb-80f4-96547ac8e4eb.html
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https://www.unionleader.com/news/business/ftx-investors-are-squeezed-by-u-s-for-information-on-firm-and-bankman-fried/article_a10e039b-ebab-5dbb-80f4-96547ac8e4eb.html
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A welcome sign on the Massabesic Traffic Circle greets those coming into Manchester.
The state logo is shown on the sign at one of the twin welcome centers on Interstate 93 in Hooksett.
Portland, Maine, launched its new branding at the start of 2022.
Welcome to Manchester
Manchester is looking for an identity when it comes to marketing all the city has to offer.
The Economic Development Office is seeking proposals for advertising agencies to create citywide branding and a marketing strategy.
Proposals are due Dec. 20.
The project was made a priority by Mayor Joyce Craig and the board of aldermen to address the negative impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, said Jodie Nazaka, economic development director.
“The goal is to differentiate Manchester by developing a brand that may be used to market the city to prospective businesses, developers, residents, and visitors,” she said. “The project results will help support the Manchester-Boston Regional Airport and our local hospitality and tourism industries that have been heavily impacted by COVID-19.”
Similar branding campaigns have been successful statewide and in other comparable cities.
New Hampshire launched its “Live Free” campaign in April 2012. The brand is used on billboards, commercials, conference backdrops and social media, among other uses.
Lori Harnois, state tourism director, said a lot of research went into the branding campaign, which included perception studies for visitors and surveys.
“It played off of the state’s motto,” she said. “A lot of people know that motto and just the spirit of being on vacation and enthusiasm and living free.”
The logo which incorporates lakes, mountains, rivers and ocean showcases the diverse offerings of the state. It is used on billboards and “Welcome to New Hampshire” signs.
“It provides an umbrella message to recognize New Hampshire as something,” she said.
The message goes beyond the tourism industry.
“We are now using it through the division of economic development and their efforts to help with business and workforce recruitment,” Harnois said.
In 2019, Portland, Maine, went through a similar process as Manchester when it selected Portland Design Co. to come up with a brand and Blaze Partners to perform marketing services, according to its “brand guidelines” website. The project was not implemented until after the pandemic hit.
The design was created after conducting two surveys.
The logo is an abstraction of the shape of the city using the primary colors — Casco navy and Bay light blue — to “pull from the coastal character of Portland’s location,” according to the website.
“Abstract representation allows for creative interpretation and speaks to Portland’s diverse and evolving populations — inviting residents, business owners, as well as new and existing community members to be part of the conversation,” the website reads.
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2022-12-04T08:08:37Z
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www.unionleader.com
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Manchester seeks 'positive impressions' in branding campaign | Business | unionleader.com
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https://www.unionleader.com/news/business/manchester-seeks-positive-impressions-in-branding-campaign/article_8b1c7366-066a-5d9c-9328-b92ee86c3ea3.html
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https://www.unionleader.com/news/business/manchester-seeks-positive-impressions-in-branding-campaign/article_8b1c7366-066a-5d9c-9328-b92ee86c3ea3.html
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Joe Carelli, president of Citizens for New Hampshire, second from right, chats with guests at the Citizens 20th anniversary event for the bank’s Champions in Action program.
Guests including Stephanie Savard, right, and Maria Devlin, both of Families in Transition, listen to the program at the Citizens 20th anniversary event for the bank’s Champions in Action program at the Currier Museum of Art in Manchester on Wednesday.
By Mike Cote Union Leader
Citizens 20th anniversary Champions in Action
IF YOU’VE been named a champion, you probably know how to tell a great story.
For the past two decades, Citizens has been working with print and broadcast media to promote the work of nonprofits through the Champions in Action program. Nonprofits selected receive $35,000 in unrestricted funds from the bank to support their missions plus promotional support from local media.
Nonprofits that excel at storytelling — both in their applications and once they secure the honor — have the best chance for building long-term relationships that will keep them in the spotlight, media representatives said during a webinar Wednesday that was part of the program’s 20th anniversary celebration.
“Nonprofits worry about getting too personal with their stories, and I would say instead lean into that,” said Alison Bologna, who anchors the NBC 10 News Sunrise broadcast in Providence, Rhode Island, and serves on a local selection committee.
In addition to reviewing budgets to make sure a nonprofit is sustainable and making an impact, Bologna said she is looking for stories that would play well on TV in a 90-second segment.
Nonprofits pitching to the media need to have a clear focus and have sources ready to talk, said Brendan McQuaid, president and publisher of the New Hampshire Union Leader, which has been supporting Champions in Action for a decade.
“If you make it easy for a news editor, it’s going to help a lot,” McQuaid said. “We’re looking for something that is important to our readers — the work an organization is doing that people don’t know about.”
While the Champion in Action designation is typically for a six-month period, it can open the door for a long-term connection with local media.
“My best advice on how to harness the media relationship is to find an advocate,” said Lindsay Block, director of marketing for Trib Total Media, a newspaper group in Pittsburgh.
Block said she’s worked with hundreds of Pennsylvania nonprofits over the past two decades.
“The ones that tell me their story and tug at my heartstrings, they’re the ones that keep coming back,” she said. “They keep in touch.”
Trib Total Media helps nonprofits in part by publishing free ads for them when there is unsold advertising space available, she said.
Nonprofits targeting potential donors and volunteers face the same challenge their media partners face – finding ways to rise above the noise in an era of constant communication.
Once again, make people care.
“The personal stories are the ones that will drive people to pay attention and raise awareness and for them to want to take action,” said Maggie Baxter, vice president of programming at NBCUniversal Boston. “You want to inspire people to feel something.”
Sharifah Niles-Lanes, who oversees content strategy for Citizens, recommends nonprofits consider appointing board members with social media expertise so they can better target their messaging and create “muscle memory” for their branding.
And while the storytelling is important, so is a message that stays on target with the nonprofit’s goal.
“In social media, you absolutely need to drive that emotion but don’t get lost. It’s a little bit of a science,” Niles-Lanes said.
“I almost think about it as 80/20. Let’s pack it with the heartstrings, the emotion, that human-centricity – and then the 20 percent is the ask.”
Michelle Hect, head of corporate affairs for Citizens, moderated the one-hour discussion, which was streamed to viewing parties at various locations in the bank’s footprint, including the Currier Museum of Art in Manchester.
Stephanie Savard, chief external relations officer for Families in Transition, was among the nonprofit executives who attended the Currier event.
“Families in Transition works with the media a lot so we have a pretty strong relationship, but some of the things they talked about – how to use social media – that was really helpful,” Savard said by phone Friday.
Families in Transition, which was named a Champion in 2016, provides housing, food and other services to the homeless and other people in need.
Savard joked that she’s on a first-name basis with local journalists due to the sometimes hot-button nature of the group’s work.
That’s where those relationships can make a difference.
“There’s a personal story under everything … I think that’s the truth for everything that we do,” she said.
“But also there’s a story for the nonprofit, and how does the nonprofit share its story, both its successes and its challenges.”
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2022-12-04T08:08:43Z
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www.unionleader.com
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NH Business: Nonprofits who want the spotlight need to excel at storytelling | NH Business | unionleader.com
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https://www.unionleader.com/news/business/nh_business/nh-business-nonprofits-who-want-the-spotlight-need-to-excel-at-storytelling/article_edc745d6-a5e3-5b6d-b4b0-91b0f8e127ef.html
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https://www.unionleader.com/news/business/nh_business/nh-business-nonprofits-who-want-the-spotlight-need-to-excel-at-storytelling/article_edc745d6-a5e3-5b6d-b4b0-91b0f8e127ef.html
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A sign advertises a house for rent in Dallas on July 9. Nationwide, in 2021, victims of real estate scams lost roughly $350 million — a 64 % jump from the previous year, according to the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Internet Crime Complaint Center.
Elias Valverde II/Dallas Morning News
Scammers had lifted her ad from the popular real estate site and, within days, created a fake listing using Kluesener’s name, photos, and even open-house times.
They also added a few sweeteners, like the below-market price and allowance for “cats and large dogs,” and then posted it to other sites like Redfin and ForRent.com.
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2022-12-04T08:08:56Z
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www.unionleader.com
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Real estate scams are on the rise. Here’s what you need to know | Business | unionleader.com
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https://www.unionleader.com/news/business/real-estate-scams-are-on-the-rise-here-s-what-you-need-to-know/article_5ee851d8-3e2c-532d-a7cf-a2219b3de9a6.html
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https://www.unionleader.com/news/business/real-estate-scams-are-on-the-rise-here-s-what-you-need-to-know/article_5ee851d8-3e2c-532d-a7cf-a2219b3de9a6.html
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