Minut Devices Under Scrutiny For Warrantless Monitoring

Tiny Bats May Show the Way To Resist Cancer

Both Democrat and Republican administrations have sent federal election observers to monitor local voting processes, but Republican Governor Mark Gordon of Wyoming told the New York Times that Trump administration monitors were “aggressive, unexpected, disruptive” during that state’s primary elections last month. Not only were they observing the process, Gordon said, they asked to interview voters and inspect machines.

Now New Hampshire is the target, with the US Department of Justice planning to visit polling locations in Manchester and Nashua during the September 8 state primary to ensure election security. Federal officials, like any member of the public, have the right to observe the registration of new voters and watch the tabulation of results, but they have no special authority to cross beyond the guardrails keeping election workers free to do their work.

Assistant US Attorney-General Harmeet Dhillon, who is in a standoff with New Hampshire’s Secretary of State over a request for the release of confidential voter information to the federal government, announced that six states were selected for monitoring: Arizona, Michigan, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Hampshire, and Virginia. Dhillon said “[T]here may have been some problems in the recent elections” in those states and that having officials observe elections “helps ensure compliance with federal voting laws and strengthens public confidence in the process.”

Discussion: Manchester City Clerk Matthew Normand said, “We expect this will be no different than past elections, where people come away with a good feeling about how the elections are run in Manchester and across the state.” Officials in Nashua also said they do not anticipate any problems with the federal monitors.

Minut Devices Under Scrutiny For Warrantless Monitoring

There has been community backlash across the nation to controversies involving Flock Safety, which describes itself as “a public safety technology” company that “helps agencies locate missing people, recover stolen vehicles, and investigate crimes more quickly” through a nationwide network of cameras that collect license plate information and a car’s make, model, and color. Revelations that a Kentucky police officer allegedly misused the technology to spy on an ex-romantic partner, and that “false positives” in identifying stolen vehicles led to some people being wrongly pulled over have led to more widespread concerns about government surveillance of its citizens. Now, in a class action lawsuit, residents of buildings managed by the Concord Housing and Redevelopment Authority are claiming that Minut devices installed in their units are violating their privacy rights through continuous monitoring.

The small devices do not have cameras, and look like smoke detectors. They were installed in an estimated 300 residential units that the housing authority manages, but in addition to detecting smoke from cigarettes, they monitor noise levels, daily routines such as when residents sleep, when friends come by, and even intimate acts in their homes, providing the company and landlords with real-time access to the information they gather. The lawsuit alleges that is akin to a continuous warrantless government search and a violation of privacy rights.

Nate Wessler, deputy director of the American Civil Liberty Union’s speech, privacy and technology project, said, “This is the government putting a surveillance device operating 24 hours a day, minute by minute, into people’s homes, and then claiming total discretion to save that data for as long as it wants.” The ACLU of New Hampshire and New Hampshire Legal Assistance also joined in the lawsuit.

Discussion: Concord Housing and Redevelopment Authority says it installed the devices to more accurately detect when a resident violates lease terms by smoking indoors or generating excess noise. Like Flock cameras, they can serve a legitimate purpose, but they also add to the constant surveillance that citizens are facing in today’s interconnected world. They are as likely to be outlawed as the smartphones that people depend upon and which also share intimate details that marketers are willing to buy from those holding the information. That is, “not gonna happen”. There may be efforts to limit their use, however.

Tiny Bats May Show the Way To Resist Cancer

Researchers at the University of Vermont who are part of an international team studying why bats can live so long discovered that the longer-lived bats had multiple copies of certain genes that are critical for directing immune responses. That duplication appears to help them live longer and fight off cancer.

Elise Lauterbur, a Vermont researcher and co-author of a new study published in the science journal Nature, says those bats are able to get rid of cells with damaged DNA, such as cancer cells, which may make them resistant to many viruses and aging-related diseases. Having multiple copies of those genes appears to maintain strong immune systems.

The findings may help scientists develop gene therapy to treat cancer and other aging-related diseases in humans.

Discussion: The findings help to prove the importance of scientific research.

Lawsuit Over Implications of Tax Cap Question in November

House Passes Funding Bill To Avoid Government Shutdown

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has announced an exploratory study by Eversource Energy on the viability of connecting a 350-megawatt data center to the New England energy grid. “The Viability Assessment Agreement proposes the terms and conditions under which PSNH will perform an interconnection viability study to study possible adverse impacts to PSNH’s system and the supporting infrastructure needed to mitigate such possible impacts for Customer’s potential interconnection to PSNH’s transmission system,” the document states, with the acronym referring to Public Service Company of New Hampshire. Eversource Energy Service Company is a subsidiary of Eversource Energy, as is PSNH.

Granite Shore Power, LLC, owner of the now-closed coal-fired power plant known as Merrimack Station, requested the study in a filing with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission in April. The location of the proposed data center is not provided in the documents, but Granite Shore Power’s physical address in Bow is the site of Merrimack Station, and Kip McDaniel, chair of the Bow Select Board, said, “Bow has spent the last 15 years trying to court appropriate development, and I think we’ve become a town that people want to work with. … I’d also say that people who know about data centers know that they can be valued very highly, and in a town where, we are obviously [in] a property tax-based state, that can be hugely beneficial.”

New Hampshire Consumer Advocate Donald Kreis said there had been a meeting between staff from his office, the New Hampshire Department of Energy, and Eversource Energy in which an Eversource executive mentioned that a developer was considering a data center project of “up to 200 MW” for Bow. Governor Kelly Ayotte, however, who has spoken out against data centers, reiterated on September 1, “I will always advocate for our towns to decide what’s best for them, but with too many unknowns surrounding these facilities, I think it is best for us to institute a moratorium [on data centers] for the time being.”

Discussion: William Hinkle, speaking for Eversource, said the utility is required to provide information about its transmission system to potential developers, regardless of the nature of the project in question, but the company is “concerned” about the possible effects of large-load developments on the grid.

Lawsuit Over Implications of Tax Cap Question in November

Governor Kelly Ayotte signed House Bill 1300 into law in July, requiring a local school tax cap question to appear on the November ballot. Kelly Wieser of Campton and David Bates of Warner have filed a lawsuit in Merrimack County Superior Court to prevent that from happening, arguing that its phrasing is confusing and misleading. The lawsuit asks for an emergency hearing because the state will begin printing the November ballots shortly after the September 8 state primary election.

The question states: “If adopted for a two-year period: (1) the local property tax levy may not grow beyond the prior year’s amount, adjusted for inflation and new construction; (2) SAU central office spending may not exceed 6 percent of total school district appropriations.” It goes on to say that the tax cap would apply only to district administrative costs and “not affect classroom instruction, school-based services, or other municipal expenditures.” The lawsuit alleges that voters will be confused about whether they are being asked to limit school taxes, cap administrative costs, or both.

Terri Donovan, attorney with AFT-NH, warned that the law leaves voters with no discretion to do anything if they change their minds about implementing the provisions, which she called “devastating” to some communities. “If that goes into effect, there isn’t a rescission … the only thing you can do is override it at the school district meeting. There is no provision to rescind this in your community … and the way people are feeling now, if they see the words tax cap, it [will not be overridden].”

Discussion: Donovan said that, when the John Stark Regional School District discussed what would happen if House Bill 1300 passed, “they actually basically had a meltdown at the public meeting because no district lawyers can tell anybody what this means if this passes. The DRA is giving no guidance.” She went on to note that budget committees begin their work in the fall and asked, “Are they preparing parallel budgets? Are they just going to be happy-go-lucky, like this doesn’t pass, or are they going to be preparing a budget in advance to tell people the implications if this does pass, to warn the voters [before the November elections]?”

House Passes Funding Bill To Avoid Government Shutdown

The US Congress again took the easy way out, with the House of Representatives voting, 370-48, to extend federal spending at current levels, with a few exceptions, through December 11, postponing actual debate until after the midterm elections. The Senate had previously passed the continuing resolution, and President Donald Trump is expected to sign the legislation.

Federal funding was set to run out on September 30, and Congress wanted to avoid another government shutdown after two record-long government shutdowns in the last year over subsidies for health insurance premiums and attempts to rein in the abuses by federal immigration officers.

Only 19 Republicans and 29 Democrats opposed the compromise which most Democrats originally rejected because it continued to support immigration enforcement agencies without restricting illegal conduct by its agents.

Discussion: Democratic candidates appear to be in a position to retake the majority in the House of Representatives, and those in Congress may have caved on their democratic ideals in the belief that they will be more effective after the mid-terms. Such bets on achieving change have lost in the past, but perhaps the anticipated “blue wave” will put enough of them in power to overcome the inertia in Washington DC.

Café Chatter

On Overstated Concern: During Trump 1.0 we still had our mail in votes. However, many of us took those ballots and physically brought them to designated drop offs here. We obviously were not the only ones concerned. The line of cars was very long. Now, we always vote in person. We are fortunate that we don’t live in a more ethnically diverse area where our state is closing, or moving polling places where no public transportation is available. Well. It is DeSantis.

On BASIC Threat: AI intrigues me and scares me at the same time. Maybe the longer essay goes into this. My fear is that AI can fool a certain number of people to believe something that is not true. The upcoming elections, with the acrimony that we have today, is a perfect storm. In my opinion. In past elections, even with just a photoshop, people have been fooled by campaigns that prey on feelings over ideas. With AI technology campaigns can make photos, videos and speeches look real when they are not. Let’s face it, I can be initially fooled, because I want to believe something. Then I go research to see what is actually true. How many people will do this? I have warned people before on social media. It’s easier to believe the knee jerk reaction. On another note. I was very disappointed when I learned that Bill Gates isn’t a God. That with all the good that the foundation has done over the years with his wife, I learned that he is in fact a flawed individual whose personal behavior is distressing. It didn’t help that he showed up in the Epstein files. Some of the jobs that will most likely remain will be jobs like plumbers, electricians, etc. in medicine I can see what a positive outcome where physicians could more easily research difficult conditions that otherwise might not be diagnosed correctly. For those of us who love having a liberal arts education. I am concerned that the positive aspects of liberal arts where you further develop your critical thinking and research skills will be hampered by AI. I hope not. As usual. I ramble on. I hope that I will see you soon.

— Candace Skurnik

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Back on Track

BRISTOL — The discovery in July that contracts with pay increases signed in April were invalid left angry teachers uncertain about their jobs as the Newfound Area School District approached the start of a new school year. By the time they were scheduled to begin work, however, they had new contracts with pay at last year’s level, and were negotiating a new benefit package for the 2027-28 academic year…

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8 days ago · T.P. Caldwell

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Still Confused

BRISTOL — The attorney representing the Newfound Teachers’ Union described the revelation in July that their contracts were invalid because the collective bargaining agreement they thought had passed actually failed as “seismic. I mean, I’ve been doing this more than 25 years, and I’ve never seen anything like this…

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6 days ago · T.P. Caldwell

Supreme Court Allows Ballroom Construction To Continue

Franklin Man Injured in ATV Crash in Warren

Voting by mail in the midterm elections will officially begin this week, and a court order is blocking key parts of President Donald Trump’s directives to the United States Postal Service, including the requirement for states to submit voters’ names and ballot envelope barcodes in order for absentee ballots to be delivered. However, a report by the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs informed Postmaster General and Chief Executive Officer David Steiner of “an alarming whistleblower disclosure outlining the United States Postal Service’s perilously rushed and potentially unlawful implementation of President Trump’s Executive Order seeking to restrict mail-in voting.”

The whistleblower’s allegations make clear that USPS lacks the technical or operational capability needed to effectively implement the EO’s provisions in a way that safeguards every citizen’s right to vote in the upcoming midterm elections. Despite this, the Trump Administration appears intent on USPS moving forward with its flawed plans, no matter the chaos they may create. The whistleblower’s allegations also provide disturbing information suggesting that USPS may have violated a court order by continuing to implement the EO despite being ordered to cease all such work. We urge you to abandon this ill-conceived, unconscionable plan and ensure that all Americans can exercise their constitutional right to vote, including by mail, without interference by USPS.

Of special concern is the USPS “zero-percent failure policy” which, “As designed … could delay ballots by the thousands in repeated verification cycles — and thus prevent states from mailing enormous numbers of ballots,” according to the disclosure.

Robert Hubbell, in his Today’s Edition Newsletter, maintains that “the difficulty of compliance is real but probably overstated. Red states will implement [the rule] without resistance if they can. Large blue states have sophisticated mail operations that can easily make coding changes to add the USPS barcodes to envelopes. Indeed, a large majority of states already imprint ballots with ‘intelligent barcodes’ so that voters can track the progress of their ballots from mailing to delivery. Many states already consult closely with the USPS to ensure that their mailings meet Postal Service standards.”

Hubbell also points out that suppression of mail-in ballots affects Democrats, Independents, and Republicans alike, and that older people and those residing in rural areas use mail ballots at a higher than those in urban settings. Older rural voters strongly favor Republicans, so Trump — who uses mail ballots himself — is making it harder for his supporters to vote.

Discussion: The concerns that, if the USPS portal mistakenly marks a ballot as unverified, leaving no clear process for state election officials or voters to challenge the rejection, is justified. It is safer to vote in person, so those able to do so should do so. A massive voter turnout also can overcome the hazards that the USPS rule creates because it will show that, even if some votes are lost, it will not affect election results.

Supreme Court Allows Ballroom Construction To Continue

The US Supreme Court denied standing for the National Trust for Historic Preservation, which wanted to stop President Trump from continuing construction of a ballroom on the site of the former East Wing of the White House, ruling per curiam (unsigned by any justice) that the group had not suffered a concrete injury that would allow its lawsuit to stop the project from moving forward without approval from Congress. The Supreme Court did not address the underlying issue of whether the demolition of the East Wing and construction of a new ballroom that will cost taxpayers at least $300 million is legal.

Notably, Chief Justice John Roberts, who normally sides with the president, joined in a minority dissent of that ruling: “That construction is likely illegal. … The White House is not just any building, and — when it comes to historic preservation… In failing to appreciate as much, the Court misconceives the plaintiff’s injury, allowing the Executive’s likely infringement of the Legislature’s power of the purse and authority to regulate federal property in the District of Columbia to continue. Today’s decision is no victory for the separation of powers. Winston Churchill once remarked that ‘[w]e shape our buildings, and afterwards our buildings shape us.’ … All the more reason to ensure that those responsible follow the rules in deciding what to tear down and what to build up at the People’s House.”

Joyce Vance of Civil Discourse writes, “[O]ne would expect the Court to preserve the status quo while litigation proceeds to determine whether [harm] existed, but that is not the case, and permitting construction to continue essentially prejudges the outcome of the case because what is the Court going to do? Order it all torn down in three years when the case is over if Trump loses?”

Discussion: The president has a point in saying that the ballroom “would enhance security for Presidents and their visitors who in the past have had to meet in soft tents or offsite when gathering in large numbers” but that argument only materialized when lower courts ordered a halt to the construction. Originally, it was just a ballroom with a “new below-ground military installation”. No plans for sniper lofts, drone ports, or other enhancements. As for the underground facility, the Obama administration already had installed a highly secure subterranean bunker able to withstand a nuclear blast and capable of housing the president and dozens of staffers for several weeks. Before embarking on his ballroom project, Trump could have used the established approval process, but chose to bypass the rules, as he always does, rushing to complete it before anyone can say no.

Franklin Man Injured in ATV Crash in Warren

Timothy Huckins, 65, of Franklin was seriously injured when the all-terrain vehicle he was operating on the Glen Cliff Loop OHRV trail in Warren crashed around 6 p.m. on August 28.

Conservation officers from the NH Fish and Game Department were notified of the crash by other trail users who came upon Huckins and called 911. Members of the Warren and Wentworth fire departments also responded to the call and an ambulance took Huckins to Speare Memorial Hospital in Plymouth for further evaluation.

Authorities say Huckins was the sole victim of the crash.

Discussion: The cause of the crash remains under investigation.

When I was a literature and creative writing major at Dartmouth College in the early 1970s, the campus had become one of the early places where computers were integrated into every facet of student life. Peter D. Kiewit ’22, had donated money to build the Keiwit Computation Center at the corner of North Main and Elm streets in Hanover, a building dedicated on December 2, 1966. When I arrived on campus, Dartmouth President John Kemeny, co-developer of the BASIC computer language, saw to it that every student would gain computer experience.

I still remember my student ID generated by the $2.5 million General Electric 625 computer: 126022. The computer also randomly selected me to serve on a student panel to tackle the question of whether Dartmouth — an all-male college when I enrolled — should become co-educational. (I voted for the change and saw it implemented the following year.)

For my computer class, I chose to create a program that would generate poetry. As I would learn of my own poetic skills, the results were not impressive. I found it much more interesting to use the computer to play an early video game that involved shooting asteroids from a starship. My boss/colleague at The Bristol Enterprise, Victor Field, and I spent one entire night playing the game until dawn when he visited me at the college. (I had worked at The Enterprise after school and during vacations during high school and college.)

Others would take the computer more seriously. Bill Gates, a student at Harvard, was impressed by the possibilities: “Invented by two Dartmouth College professors in 1964, BASIC was designed to be easy to learn for people with no computer experience,” he wrote. “With little study or technical aptitude, a person can write their own software in BASIC — anything from a checkbook-balancing program to a tic-tac-toe game. … Computer languages like BASIC serve the same purpose as English or any other language. In the same way that you can use English to order a coffee at a café, you can use BASIC to tell a computer to run a program, solve a math problem, or perform some other task.

“There is a catch, though: Computers don’t speak BASIC. And the language they do speak is so complex and unintuitive that programming in it is incredibly difficult. To bridge the gap, Paul and I set out to create a BASIC interpreter, which would translate code line by line as the program runs.”

That effort led to the creation of Micro-Soft, which later dropped the hyphen and now is at the forefront of personal computing and artificial intelligence. Gates himself left the company to form the philanthropic Gates Foundation, and today he writes, “I’m excited about the impact that AI will have on issues that the Gates Foundation works on…. The world needs to make sure that everyone — and not just people who are well-off — benefits from artificial intelligence. Governments and philanthropy will need to play a major role in ensuring that it reduces inequity and doesn’t contribute to it.”

However, he warns, “Any new technology that’s so disruptive is bound to make people uneasy, and that’s certainly true with artificial intelligence. I understand why — it raises hard questions about the workforce, the legal system, privacy, bias, and more. AIs also make factual mistakes and experience hallucinations.

Gates acknowledges that current AI models — like my efforts at getting a computer to write poetry — cannot understand the human context behind a request. “When you ask an AI to make up something fictional, it can do that well. But when you ask for advice about a trip you want to take, it may suggest hotels that don’t exist. This is because the AI doesn’t understand the context for your request well enough to know whether it should invent fake hotels or only tell you about real ones that have rooms available….

“Then there’s the possibility that AIs will run out of control. Could a machine decide that humans are a threat, conclude that its interests are different from ours, or simply stop caring about us?” He argues, “To make the most of this remarkable new technology, we’ll need to both guard against the risks and spread the benefits to as many people as possible.”

In an essay Gates published five days ago that has gained a lot of attention, he writes, “[T]he reliability problem is being fixed quickly, as researchers create models that can check their own work and improve themselves. Soon they will be substantially better than humans at many tasks.” However, “We have no experience with a technology that can be adopted quickly or that can think and move like a human. When the PC came along, it took twenty years to significantly change how we worked because the software had to be developed, the price had to come down, and people had to learn how to use the tools and incorporate them into their business processes. AI, on the other hand, runs on the devices we already have, and it uses natural language. We don’t have to adapt to it because it can adapt to us. It can watch the same training video that is used to train human workers and learn from existing data.”

Anticipating criticism of his recommendations to address the challenges, he writes, “I want to acknowledge a potential bias. I have benefited enormously from the technology industry. Although I have diversified my portfolio quite a bit, I still have financial ties to it. I am working with Microsoft and other AI companies in my role as chairman of the Gates Foundation to try and ensure AI is deployed in ways that will truly benefit people around the world.

“However, my views on AI are not motivated by the potential to make money for myself. Any profits generated by my investments, including those related to technology, will go to the Gates Foundation to tackle global inequity. Of course, readers will have to decide for themselves whether this clouds my view.”

That said, he goes on point out the challenges ahead.

“Many observers say that this technology transition will be like previous ones. They give the example of how jobs in the United States shifted from agriculture to office work. However, that proceeded over several generations and created new jobs where human cognition was required. In this case, the technology can substitute for human cognition…. AI will take on work in law, customer service, medicine, software, and manufacturing. It will hit these industries rapidly, over the course of a decade rather than a few generations. There will be some new jobs, but without the right policies there will be far fewer than exist today.”

One of the dangers, he says, is that most of the new jobs being created will require skills that take many years to learn. “Robots and AI combined can create a vicious cycle. After one company adopts them and uses the savings to lower its prices, its competitors will feel immense pressure to do the same. If existing companies don’t adopt them, then start-ups will. Many people will shift to other jobs, but the turmoil of losing work, getting retrained, and finding other work will be significant. Market forces will make adoption go faster and faster and, unless we intervene, there will be fewer good jobs available and the benefits will accrue to a small group. … The biggest shift for workers will happen when AI provides nearly error-free work. At that point, it will be able to function on its own without a human checking in on it, and companies will have every economic incentive to let it.”

Another danger is one that Gerry Kennedy of Alton has been warning about for years: “Long before AI entered the mainstream,” Gates writes, “there was information online about how to create weapons like bombs, bioweapons, even computer viruses. AI will make it much easier to not only get this information but act on it. Even criminals with very limited skills will be able to target victims at every scale: individuals, companies, and governments.

“AI capabilities are starting to be used for cyberattacks. The smartest cybersecurity experts I know are scared about the next few years, because the attackers are getting powerful new capabilities faster than the defenders can fix all the weaknesses. After all, the same AI model that can find a flaw in software so a company can fix it can also help a criminal exploit it. The resources needed to make an attack are going down significantly and we haven’t been able to separate those abilities from benign usage.

“Think about the infrastructure that will be vulnerable: hospitals, financial institutions, water systems, power grids, systems for managing government benefits. When these institutions are attacked, it’s the patients, customers, and benefits recipients who stand to lose.

“The same goes for bioterrorism. Although AI will lead to lifesaving advances in drugs and vaccines, it will also make it easier to design a deadly new disease.”

On that particular point, Noah Smith provided a hypothetical example that is too lengthy to include here, but is worth a read:

Noahpinion

Here’s how we’re all going to die

Imagine the following scenario…

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5 days ago · 356 likes · 155 comments · Noah Smith

Gates says that, because AI will affect national security as well as employment, education, taxation, energy, elections, air and water, public health, the financial system, law enforcement, transportation, public lands, and IT systems, federal and international government cooperation in developing safeguards is necessary.

“We do not have the luxury of moving slowly. The place to start is with a process for building the right institutions before the disruption forces governments into crisis mode. National leaders should convene economists, technologists, labor experts, business leaders, and workers themselves regularly to identify where existing institutions are failing and what new authorities may be needed. Countries will need to learn from each other.”

One of the solutions Gates suggests is reserving some jobs for humans, even if AI could do that job as well.

“The Human Reserved domain will evolve over time — for example, we should consider setting aside some jobs now and phasing in AI slowly over years or decades with a commitment to preserve some jobs. Some areas, like education and mental health care, will be a mix, with a human in charge who’s using the technology to extend what they can do.”

On the economic side, he warns that, if AI leaves fewer jobs, fewer people will be paying taxes to cover governmental budgets (which are facing higher and higher debt payments). Companies can write off the cost of AI software and robots they use to replace human labor, so Gates has advocated for taxing tokens and robots to replace the lost revenue from humans.

It is worth reading Gates’ full essay to better appreciate the benefits and dangers of artificial intelligence. AI is here to stay, but with some preparation and strong oversight, it need not be apocalyptic.

Appeals Court Upholds Citizens’ Rights To Protest

Judge Rules Pentagon Illegally Punished Anthropic

During escalating violence by Immigration and Customs Enforcement as agents seek to meet Homeland Security’s deportation quotas, a construction worker they were detaining was tased and kicked in the head, resulting in the need to send him to the hospital on August 27.

Danbury Unites for Immigrants (DUFI) shared video of an ICE agent kicking the man in the head after they had surrounded his car as he was leaving for work and pulled him from the vehicle and onto the ground. One agent asked him to put his hands behind his back and another officer shouted, “Do it now, or you’re going to get tased.” Other individuals in the car also were detained. The man’s nephew said, “They tasered him. I don’t know why. He was already on the floor with three guys on top. You don’t have to do that. You can say, ‘it’s enough.’”

ICE officials declined to comment on the ongoing operations in Danbury CT, citing security concerns.

Discussion: The ICE thugs are under pressure to meet the deportation quotas that have nothing to do with removing dangerous individuals who are in the country illegally. To achieve those numbers, they are forced to arrest innocent people, some of them US citizens, and they are encouraged to do so as ruthlessly as possible, without regard to the law. It will not change as long as Congress refuses to order them to stop, and that will not happen until someone is willing to stand up to President Donald Trump.

Appeals Court Upholds Citizens’ Rights To Protest

The 1st Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled that the US District Court of New Hampshire was wrong in supporting the Bow School District’s decision to remove several parents from a high school soccer game and ban them from future games for silently protesting play by a transgender female athlete. The appeals court found that Bow also engaged in viewpoint discrimination by punishing parents wearing wristbands opposing transgender female athletes from participating in girls’ sports.

Judge Sandra Lynch wrote for the majority, “While the school district may make predictive judgments about whether disruption may occur and ‘need not be certain of its forecast,’ it cannot use those projections to immediately suppress a passive, silent protest that did not impair any of the legitimate school administration interests recognized by the Supreme Court.”

Judge Julie Rikelman disagreed, writing that, although viewpoint discrimination had taken place, the court’s decision had not applied the “public forum test” or a broader test known as “Tinker”. Lynch wrote that neither test was a “perfect fit for this public high school speech case, and we note that the Supreme Court has not addressed this precise question.”

Discussion: The New Hampshire Legislature has since passed House Bill 1184 that limits school districts’ usage of no-trespass orders. The new law requires a full school board or select board vote to issue a no-trespass order in cases where it would protect public safety or prevent substantial disruption or property damage, and it allows a person receiving such an order to request a hearing and have a right to appeal a negative result to a superior court. Senator Tim Lang (R-Sanbornton) said, “This is trying to balance both an issue where you need to throw somebody out of a building with the citizens’ right to be able to use public facilities.”

Judge Rules Pentagon Illegally Punished Anthropic

A federal judge has ruled that the Pentagon illegally punished Anthropic by labeling the artificial intelligence company a supply chain risk after it refused to supply AI without assurances it would not be used for mass surveillance or autonomous armed drones.

US District Judge Rita Lin’s order on August 27 said President Donald Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s accusations that Anthropic was endangering national security “were based on a desire to make a public example out of Anthropic for its ‘arrogance’ in criticizing the government, not based on any articulable basis to believe that Anthropic would actually sabotage its model”.

Her 59-page ruling said neither the US Constitution nor the federal statute that the government invoked allows them to “impose sweeping penalties based principally on Anthropic’s critique of the Administration’s views”.

Discussion: It is troubling that the Trump administration is even considering the use of artificial intelligence for killer drones. As for mass surveillance, “that ship has sailed” as the backlash against Flock cameras has shown. Federal, state, and local communities have been building surveillance systems for years, and the widespread use of GPS-enabled smartphones has exposed everyone owning them to tracking by companies, governmental entities, and hackers.

By The Way

By The Way

One of a Kind

Lakes Region visitors often are surprised when they learn that the Winnipesaukee Flagship Corporation, which operates Mount Washington Cruises, operates what is purported to be the oldest official floating post office in the United States, the M/V Sophie C…

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16 days ago · T.P. Caldwell

By The Way

For Year-Round Consumption

As grocery prices increase, and as people become more aware of how the quality of their health depends upon what they eat, there has been an increased interest in growing one’s own food and becoming more self-reliant. Those without the ability to cultivate their own gardens have come to rely on local farmers for fresh fruit and vegetables, as well as meat and dairy products…

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14 days ago · T.P. Caldwell

A Renewed Attempt To Rename the Kennedy Center

Administration Supports Weaker Radiation Exposure Rule

Several states, including Michigan, Oklahoma, Kentucky, and Ohio, are considering bills to ban nondisclosure agreements (NDAs) for data centers, which commonly use such agreements to negotiate the siting of their plants with local officials. Wes Cummins, chief executive officer of Applied Digital, said the main reason his company uses NDAs is to avoid running afoul of insider trading rules. Because Applied Digital is publicly traded, disclosure of a potential new campus is considered “material non-public information.”

Citizens in communities where the data centers are being built do not accept that rationale, and Kenny Havard, president of West Feliciana Parish in Louisiana, where a $10 billion data center is being built, told NPR, “I don’t think the NDAs are necessary unless they’re going to bring you in a room and share some proprietary information. When you’re talking about land sales, tax incentives, those sorts of things that affect the citizens, it should be out in the open. It should be transparency.” West Feliciana officials posted agreements related to water and power usage, land acquisitions, appraisals, and a copy of the fully executed agreement between the parish and the company about the project on the parish government's website.

That was not the case in Boyce, Louisiana, in Rapides Parish, where construction is starting on a 300-acre data center. The negotiations were shielded under NDAs and while officials and company representatives said a third-party environmental study found that the project’s impact would be negligible, they would not release the study to the public.

Businesses have long used NDAs to prevent departing employees from sharing proprietary information with their new employers, but abuses have put the practice under scrutiny. The Trump administration has extended the practice to federal employees, announcing in May that all current and future federal employees must sign NDAs to prevent leaks to the media. “The form is intended to document Federal employees’ acknowledgment of, and agreement to comply with, current legal obligations to safeguard non-public, confidential, or proprietary information, created or obtained through their official duties, while expressly preserving the right to make disclosures authorized by law,” the notice said, mentioning instances in which federal employees at the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security disclosed immigration enforcement actions without authorization.

Discussion: Any use of nondisclosure agreements should be narrowly defined to only protect proprietary information, while allowing people to learn details that affect them, their health, and their financial situation. Negotiations should ensure that data centers are capable of meeting their need for electrical power and water without forcing higher prices on area residents.

A Renewed Attempt To Rename the Kennedy Center

The Kennedy Center Board of Directors is proposing that the arts complex created as a living memorial to President John F. Kennedy be torn down if it is unable to move forward with plans for a two-year renovation and add President Donald Trump’s name back on the complex, calling it “embarrassing to the nation’s capital” and a “sick and poorly run facility.”

Lawyers for the Department of Justice argued that the board and its chair, President Trump, should be allowed to shut down most of the performance venues to make at least $250 million in renovations. If not, “the center will deteriorate further into an unsafe, decrepit structure that will be required to be taken down, with a determination to follow on what to build on the site, such as a large outdoor amphitheater overlooking the Potomac River that has been proposed, by some, for many years.”

An emergency hearing is scheduled this afternoon as part of a federal lawsuit by Representative Joyce Beatty (D-Ohio), an ex officio member of the Kennedy Center board, asking US District Judge Christopher R. Cooper to stop the board from its plans to restore Trump’s name on the front of the complex, as well as adding his name to the entryway sign and at a third location on the complex's grounds. The board also wants to rename the arts center grounds “President Donald J. Trump Plaza”.

Discussion: Last May, Judge Cooper ruled that the board’s earlier decision to rename it the Trump Kennedy Center was unlawful, writing, “The Kennedy Center’s organic statute makes crystal clear that the Center is to be named for President Kennedy, and it cannot bear any other formal name or public memorial based on the Board’s unilateral say-so. Congress gave the Kennedy Center its name, and only Congress can change it.”

Administration Supports Weaker Radiation Exposure Rule

As part of President Donald Trump’s revisions to nuclear oversight intended to revive the nuclear energy industry, the administration is proposing a new rule that would eliminate ALARA, or the standard limiting radiation exposure to “As Low As Reasonably Achievable”, which would expose some workers to higher radiation exposure in special circumstances.

Emily Caffrey, a radiation health physicist at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, said, “Keeping doses as low as reasonably achievable was a fair idea,” but it forces companies to take increasingly stringent radiation-protection measures. She also said it creates ambiguity “because what’s ‘reasonable’ to one person isn’t reasonable to another person.”

Edwin Lyman, director of nuclear power safety at the Union of Concerned Scientists, disagrees. “Removing it would remove that incentive for these companies to continue to maintain the practices that protected their workers and the public,” he said.

Discussion: Public comment on the proposed rule change ends on August 31. If approved, it could go into effect early next year.

Nation Mourns Dolly Parton After Death on Tuesday

Trump’s Bet Paid Off in South Carolina Primary

Nestor Roman II, 30, of Dalton will be arraigned today in Lancaster District Court on felony charges that include three counts of reckless conduct with a deadly weapon, burglary, and two counts of theft by unauthorized taking, as well as misdemeanor charges of obstructing government administration, four counts of wrongful conduct after an accident, resisting arrest and detention, driving after suspension-subsequent offense, and two counts of driving over a fire hose.

For reasons that are unclear, Roman stole a Whitefield Fire & Rescue vehicle that was responding to a house fire at his home around 3:50 a.m. on August 25. As he drove away, Roman struck another Whitefield fire engine, drove over water supply lines, and narrowly missed striking three firefighters. His flight also damaged wooden fences at two properties.

State troopers later received a report that the stolen rescue vehicle had crashed on a Dalton homeowner’s property and that Roman was attempting to take items from the porch of the home. When troopers arrived and tried to apprehend Roman, he was uncooperative, but ultimately was taken into custody.

Discussion: Roman was held at the Coös County jail pending his arraignment. The cause of the fire that destroyed the house remains under investigation.

Nation Mourns Dolly Parton After Death on Tuesday

Between now and September 1, flags on public buildings and grounds in the State of New Hampshire will fly at half-staff in honor of Dolly Parton, who died of cancer at age 80 on August 25. Governor Kelly Ayotte issued the order in accordance with a directive from President Donald Trump.

Trump ordered American flags across the country to be lowered for one week to honor her legacy as a songwriter, musician, actor, and philanthropist — one of the longest periods ever granted to a private citizen. She was a beloved public figure across the political spectrum.

The president’s post said, “Very sad to report that Dolly Parton, one of the greatest Country singers, and far beyond, EVER, has just passed away,” a “true loss for millions of people. There has never been anyone like her, and never will. … Rest in Peace, Dolly! The World loves you.”

Discussion: Dolly grew up as one of 12 children raised in a one-room cabin in the mountains of East Tennessee. Her father was an illiterate tenant farmer and construction worker, and the family had very little money. As she gained fame and fortune, she incorporated that background into songs like “Coat of Many Colors” and she launched “Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library” to provide books to children each month to promote literacy — something Dolly said her father told her might be the most important thing she had ever done.

Trump’s Bet Paid Off in South Carolina Primary

President Donald Trump gambled on a chance to prove he still can sway elections by directly campaigning on behalf of South Carolina Senator Darline Graham in her bid to defeat Representative Ralph Norman in the Republican senate primary runoff election despite her lack of political experience. She had been appointed to serve until November’s election after her brother, Lindsey, unexpectedly died on July 11.

She now faces the Democratic nominee, Annie Andrews, a pediatrician.

In campaigning against an experienced politician, Graham said, “The critics say I shouldn’t run for the senate. They say I’m not a politician. You know what I say? Guilty as charged. By the way, President Trump has never served in elected office before and I think he’s done a damn good job.”

Discussion: Following a series of embarrassing endorsement defeats in Republican primaries across the country, Trump risked losing his political influence entirely by personally recruiting and endorsing Graham before she had ever sought elective office. He held a tele-rally on the eve of the election, and his super PAC, MAGA Inc., donated roughly $827,000 during the closing days of the race to see that she won. Had she been defeated, it would have proven that Republicans have broken free of his stranglehold over the party. Despite the odds, he pulled it off and proved he still rules, regardless of the qualifications of those he endorses.

Ayotte Did Not Join Opposition to Merger of Nuclear Firms

US Supreme Court Overturns Lower Court on Mail-In Voting

Charlie St. Clair, best known as the executive director of the Laconia Motorcycle Week Association, died August 22 from injuries he sustained due to a “tire malfunction” on his motorcycle as he was making his 50th trip to the Sturgis (SD) Motorcycle Rally on August 4.

St. Clair was a longtime advocate for historical preservation and tried unsuccessfully to prevent the demolition of the Hathaway House on Union Avenue. He served on the Lake City’s planning board and became a Democratic state representative for the city. When Laconia Mayor Andrew Hosmer moved out of state, St. Clair served as interim mayor until a new mayor could be elected.

After the accident on Interstate 90 West in Avon, Ohio, he was treated at MetroHealth Medical Center in Cleveland, but according to the Laconia Motorcycle Week Association, “Despite every effort, his injuries were too severe, and he ultimately passed away from heart failure.”

Discussion: Deputy Director Jennifer Anderson and President Cynthia Makris are left to handle the 104th Laconia Motorcycle Week, the oldest motorcycle rally in the nation, and the third largest after Sturgis and Daytona. They will be announcing services for Charlie as soon as arrangements are complete. Governor Kelly Ayotte issued a statement: “Rep. Charlie St. Clair dedicated his life to serving the people of Laconia — from serving on the Planning Board to representing the city at the State House. Charlie loved our state and was proud to welcome visitors from around the world to New Hampshire during his 35 years as head of the Laconia Motorcycle Week Association. Joe and I are praying for Charlie’s family, friends, and fellow riders as they mourn his loss.”

Ayotte Did Not Join Opposition to Merger of Nuclear Firms

The governors of Maine, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Connecticut are united in opposition to a proposed merger between NextEra Energy of Florida, which owns Seabrook Station in New Hampshire, and Dominion Energy of Virginia, owner of Millstone Power Station in Connecticut, which would create the largest regulated utility in the world. The New England governors worry that it would concentrate an “unprecedented amount of leverage” in NextEra, which they said has exhibited “anticompetitive” behavior in past dealings in the region.

New Hampshire Governor Kelly Ayotte did not sign the joint letter, and New Hampshire Consumer Advocate Don Kreis said that, although he is “extremely skeptical” about the proposed merger, “I can’t argue with the governor’s decision to think more about it, as well.”

The New England States Committee on Electricity argued, “The states’ concern that these companies will act to disrupt and delay infrastructure development is not hypothetical.” citing NextEra’s opposition to the New England Clean Energy Connect transmission corridor completed early this year that brings hydropower from Quebec through Maine and into Massachusetts.

Discussion: Consumer advocates from across New England are asking the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to extend the comment period to give them time to obtain further information about the proposed merger. Jared Chicoine is New Hampshire’s representative on the New England States Committee on Electricity. Governor Kelly Ayotte has asked the New Hampshire Department of Energy to find a way to get more nuclear generators operating in the state.

US Supreme Court Overturns Lower Court on Mail-In Voting

The US Supreme Court, in Trump v. California, has unlocked President Donald Trump’s executive order restricting mail-in voting for this fall’s midterm election, ruling that creating and distributing State Citizenship Lists imposes no obligations on the states, so they “suffer no concrete harm” from it, “And without concrete harm, there is no standing.”

The per curiam order continues, “Perhaps recognizing the weakness of that standing rationale, the Court of Appeals added another: §2(a) infringes the States’ sovereign authority to create election rules. But§2(a) does no such thing. Instead, it simply directs the Secretary to take certain actions if appropriate, feasible, and lawful. … This internal directive does not regulate the States’ voter registration processes. Nor does it impinge on the States’ authority ‘to create and enforce a legal code’ for elections.”

In her dissent, Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson said the ruling “needlessly injects chaos and uncertainty into the upcoming midterm elections. … To be sure, the Court has not foreclosed States from challenging this blatantly unconstitutional Order. But it declines to explain when, exactly, is the right time to bring a meritorious election-rule claim challenging unconstitutional interference with electoral processes. The majority just signals that these claimants had to wait — even though the election cycle had started and despite facing pocketbook costs, threats of prosecution, and an affront to their sovereignty — before receiving the relief to which they are likely entitled.”

Discussion: Per curiam is a court opinion issued collectively by a panel of judges without naming a single authoring judge. This ruling postpones a decision on the legality of the president trying to control elections. The fact that Trump is trying so hard to exclude voters he suspects would vote against him indicates that he fears Republicans will lose the election. A further indication is Jared Kushner’s request to meet with Democrat Hakeem Jeffries as part of a broader effort by the White House to establish lines of communication, should Democrats win the House this fall.

DEEPER LOOK with Michael Sellers

Kushner-Jeffries Meeting: Please Tell Me Why I Should Be Outraged

Usually, when progressive social media erupts over a political story, I’m usually right there, feeling the outrage or whatever…

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10 days ago · 104 likes · 119 comments · Michael Sellers

The national debt in January 2011 when Adam Kinzinger entered Congress was about $14 trillion, and the Republican Party at the time was very concerned about the growing amount of interest the United States would spend in repaying that debt. “Fourteen trillion dollars felt like an emergency,” he recalls. Today, the national debt has exceeded $40 trillion, “and although the size of it has nearly tripled since I first had to reckon with it as a Congressman, the attention it currently receives on Capitol Hill is a fraction of the outrage Congress once expressed.”

In a post on August 21, Kinzinger admits he supported the wrong approach, thinking it would force a solution. “We held hearings on it. We gave speeches about it. We nearly defaulted over it. We then built commissions and committees and automatic spending cuts whose entire purpose was to force us to deal with it.” That automatic spending reduction, known as “sequestration”, was Congress’ response to efforts by House Speaker John Boehner and President Barack Obama to strike “a real deal”in what became known as the Grand Bargain, which included spending cuts, entitlement changes, and new revenue. “Obama put things on the table that infuriated his own party. Boehner entertained revenue that infuriated ours,” Kinzinger writes. “That’s what a genuine negotiation looks like — nobody walks away happy, and everybody swallows something.”

I’d have voted for almost anything serious that meaningfully cut the deficit. But there weren’t enough people in either party willing to eat the political cost, and the Grand Bargain died. …

With the deadline bearing down, Congress passed the Budget Control Act of 2011. I voted yes. It raised the debt ceiling, capped discretionary spending, and created a bipartisan “Super Committee” (12 members, six from each party) tasked with finding at least $1.5 trillion more in deficit reduction.

We also built in a punishment, because we knew ourselves well enough to expect failure. If the committee couldn’t reach a deal, automatic cuts called sequestration would kick in, deliberately built to hurt both sides by targeting defense for Republicans and domestic programs for Democrats. The logic was mutually assured destruction: surely nobody would let it actually happen.

They underestimated congress’ inability to act even under such a threat. “We weren’t really going to slash the military with an arbitrary meat cleaver instead of fixing the programs actually driving the debt, were we? We were. On March 1, 2013, sequestration took effect. … Cutting the deficit was never supposed to be about making a number smaller for its own sake. Government has real obligations like national defense, a safety net for people who genuinely can’t provide for themselves, infrastructure, research, the things that keep America competitive. Serious fiscal policy sorts those obligations from the spending that’s just inertia. Sequestration didn’t sort anything. Because so much mandatory spending was walled off, the cuts landed hardest on discretionary programs, defense included. Training got canceled, maintenance got deferred, civilians got furloughed, and military leaders spent years warning that readiness was eroding. We hollowed out the investments that actually mattered instead of reforming what was actually driving the debt,” Kinzinger writes.

“I’m still a fiscal conservative. But fiscal conservatism can’t mean pretending taxes are permanently off the table. That was one of my party’s real mistakes. We turned opposition to any tax increase from a policy position into something closer to dogma, and any Republican who broke from it risked a primary. That took an entire half of the federal ledger off the table before talks even began….

“Democrats had their mirror-image problem. Touch Social Security or Medicare and you were attacking seniors. Suggest means-testing and you were shredding the social contract. Slow the growth rate of a program and suddenly you’d ‘cut’ it. So Republicans yelled tax increase, Democrats yelled Medicare cut, everyone retreated to their corner, and the debt kept collecting interest in the meantime.”

What happened next may be worse than any of that. We stopped fighting about the debt at all. In 2011, both parties disagreed bitterly about how to fix it. Today, most of Washington barely bothers pretending it’s a priority. Republicans discovered they liked tax cuts just fine without spending cuts attached. Democrats kept defending entitlement programs without making them solvent.

That abandonment is no longer theoretical. Last year, a Republican president and Republican Congress enacted a law that CBO now says added $4.7 trillion to projected deficits over the coming decade, including the interest costs. Many of the same people who built careers warning that debt would destroy the country celebrated adding trillions more, because this time the borrowing paid for Republican priorities.

And voters rewarded the dishonesty, because we asked for it too. We wanted lower taxes and higher spending, Social Security and Medicare intact, the strongest military on earth, modern roads and bridges, disaster relief, stimulus checks, tax credits — everything, with no bill attached. So Washington borrowed the difference.

Now the bill owed is $40 trillion.

It all comes down to this: “Fixing this would still take the same bargain we failed to strike fifteen years ago: Republicans accepting more revenue, Democrats accepting entitlement reform, benefits protected for the people who actually need them, wealthier Americans paying more or receiving less, a tax code that raises enough without choking growth, waste cut where it’s real, and defense spending disciplined without becoming the only place politicians are brave enough to touch.”

Adam Kinzinger

The $40 Trillion I Saw Coming...and Voted For Anyway

Author’s late note: Everytime the word “entitlement” is used it stirs up controversy. I understand. It is the government’s word for it, as well, you are ENTITLED to what you’ve invested. It’s not equating it to welfare…

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13 days ago · 1195 likes · 199 comments · Adam Kinzinger

Trump Nominates Overton To Become FDA Commissioner

Safety Takes Back Seat in Embrace of Space Transportation

While Easterseals NH plans to continue offering childcare services, early intervention, behavioral health, affordable housing for seniors, and help for veterans and adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities, including on the Military and Veterans Campus in Franklin, the organization announced on August 19 that it is closing its adult day program serving seniors and people with disabilities in Manchester and Rochester as well as shutting down in-home care services across the state.

Maureen Beauregard, president and chief executive officer of Easterseals NH & VT, and Bryan Bouchard, chair of the board of directors, blamed the challenges of recruiting enough staff and increasing costs, as well as low enrollment in its programs. “Despite ongoing efforts to increase participation, enrollment has not returned to a level that can sustain the programs,” they said.

Michele Talwani, Easterseals’ chief communications and marketing officer, told NHPR that, “Taken together, the result of these chronic challenges is that ESNH has operated both programs at significant and unsustainable losses in recent years, despite our best efforts.”

Discussion: Beauregard said the organization will work with the NH Department of Health and Human Services and community partners to offer other care options for those losing the services.

Trump Nominates Overton To Become FDA Commissioner

President Donald Trump is nominating Dr. Heidi Overton, deputy assistant to the president for domestic policy at the White House, to serve as the next commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration, filling the vacancy created with the resignation of Dr. Marty Makary in May.

Overton trained as a surgeon and worked at the America First Policy Institute where she questioned the safety of abortion by medication and its being prescribed through telehealth. She praised Trump’s order changing the recommended childhood vaccination schedule as “a historic action”.

Overton will need Senate confirmation to become FDA commissioner.

Discussion: Senator Bill Cassidy (R-LA), chair of the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee, is a proponent of vaccination and has opposed her nomination. Without his vote, her confirmation is in question.

Safety Takes Back Seat in Embrace of Space Transportation

President Donald Trump has signed a National Security Presidential Memorandum to “reinvigorate America’s leadership in space transportation and enable over 1,000 launches and reentries on American soil annually by 2030”. The memorandum replaces the National Space Transportation Policy with an “America First approach” to promote “a vibrant, competitive, and resilient US space transportation industrial base”.

Agencies will receive incentives to co-develop space transportation infrastructure with private-sector partners, with expedited permitting and environmental reviews, and the secretaries of Transportation and the Interior are to coordinate with the Secretary of Defense and the NASA administrator in identifying additional space transportation infrastructure locations. It designates priority airspace for “critical space launch corridors and integration of space transportation activities”.

The initiative aims to coordinate efforts to develop and implement a “space transportation industrial base strategy that promotes and maintains America’s space transportation industry, streamlines procurement, implements relevant space security strategies, and ensures an appropriate workforce to accomplish these goals”.

Discussion: If the idea of supporting more than 1,000 launches and reentries each year appears troublesome, it is because it is inherently unsafe in the skies and on the ground. NASA has done a good job of prioritizing safety, even if it means delaying launches, but the president and his high-tech billionaire friends are looking to make money with commercial transportation to and from the moon and commercial robotic access to Mars in preparation for sending humans to and from Mars. They are less concerned about space debris falling from the skies and ground explosions from expedited launches before the equipment is fully tested than enticing investors to support their efforts. The goals would be fine if the president were not looking to shorten the permitting process and bypass environmental assessments.

NH Legislature Overrides Some of Governor’s Vetoes

Federal Debt Under Trump Now Exceeds $40 Trillion

Newfound Memorial High School’s Class of 1971 will hold its 55th class reunion at Timberloch Lodge in Bridgewater on Saturday, September 19, at 3 p.m.

This is the class that (with notable help from the classes of ’72 and ’73) launched The Lead Balloon, an irreverent, student-run school newspaper at the high school (the building now known as Newfound Memorial Middle School, after the school district built Newfound Regional High School in Bristol to accommodate the growing school population at the time). In a sense, The News Café is a continuation of that newspaper with a little less irreverence but at least as much skepticism about what is going on in the world. (Yes, I was an editor of The Lead Balloon.)

Organized by classmates Candace Chase Skurnik, Bonnie Masi, and Dan Clark, the reunion will give everyone a chance to catch up with what other (surviving) classmates have been doing. They are asking for a $50 per person donation to cover “food, wine, beer and music” and are asking for a head count by September 12 so they can order the proper amount of food. “You do not have to send money now, just bring it to the event.”

Discussion: Note that another classmate, Jack Weir, is the proprietor of Timberloch, and has welcomed multi-class reunions in the past, so we can be confident of having a good time.

NH Legislature Overrides Some of Governor’s Vetoes

New Hampshire House and Senate members overrode seven vetoes Governor Kelly Ayotte had made, including increases in state park entrance fees and turnpike tolls and an exemption to allow convicted felons to seek a retrial if evidence emerges of their innocence.

Effective December 1, House Bill 2026 increases highway tolls except for those with New Hampshire E-Z Pass Transponders, which will be offered free of charge for 210 days after enactment of the new law. It also provides for periodic toll adjustments to meet projected inflation rates to support the state’s 10-Year Highway Plan, which now includes providing improved sight distance and bicycle and pedestrian access on US 3 in Plymouth, widening Interstate 93 in Bow and Concord, and an overhaul of exits 6 and 7 on Interstate 293 in Manchester.

House Bill 1102 allows the New Hampshire Department of Natural and Cultural Resources to set rates for campsite reservations and entry fees, requiring non-New Hampshire residents to pay at least twice as much as in-state residents.

In vetoing House Bill 1422, Ayotte wrote that she “understand[s] the need to pursue and deliver justice,” but allowing convicts to seek retrials based on new evidence would “create a novel approach” that she said was unnecessary. Representative Bob Lynn argued for an override of the veto, saying, “Obviously here we’re not in the business here of letting innocent people stay in jail, but the way the law stands right now, if the newly discovered evidence occurred beyond three years, you have that potential, and there’s no constitutional violation; you have the potential of saying, ‘too bad.’”

Discussion: The NH Legislature made the right decisions in overriding the vetoes. While it is wrong to penalize out-of-staters with the new toll rates, increases are necessary to maintain the highways; and ignoring evidence that could leave an innocent person in prison is certainly wrong.

Federal Debt Under Trump Now Exceeds $40 Trillion

Just five months after the federal debt exceeded $39 trillion, the US Treasury reported on August 19 that the debt had reached $40 trillion, now outstripping revenue by more than $2 trillion a year. The government is spending more than a trillion dollars a year on interest alone, with interest costs in the first 10 months of this fiscal year being 15 percent higher than they were in the same period a year ago. That debt now is the government’s second-largest expense after repaying the Social Security Trust Fund that Congress has raided for several decades.

The situation has led to a 19-year high on the yield for 30-year Treasury bonds, which raises borrowing costs for everyone else, since mortgage rates and other interest rates tend to follow. The average rate on a 30-year mortgage approached 6.7 percent last week, according to Freddie Mac.

President Donald Trump promised to eliminate the national debt by the end of his second term, but Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has been forced to acknowledge that it is heading in the wrong direction. He blamed the war in Iran, tariff refunds ordered by the NH Supreme Court, and the tax cuts included in the One Big Beautiful Bill Acr.

Discussion: The Trump administration has been disastrous in many ways, and now Congress is considering reducing the Social Security benefits that Americans have paid into for decades, instead of removing the payroll tax cap and increasing the tax rate to make up for a smaller population paying into the fund.

Café Chatter

On TACO: Graham. Sheesh.

— Candace Skurnik

Darline Graham: ‘National Security Is Not My Thing’

NH Appeals Court Rulings on Education Funding

The bill came in ahead of President Trump’s announcement on August 18: “I have paused the 50% Tariffs against Canada, that were scheduled to kick in tomorrow morning for a three day period, based on the fact that Canada and the U.S.A., subject to the finalization of documents, have a DEAL.” The new tariffs on Canadian products were set to go into effect at 12:01 a.m. ET today.

The planned tariffs contained exemptions for Canadian oil, gas, and potash, and Canada-based Irving Energy did not say its new annual tank fee was linked to the tariffs Trump has been imposing on countries around the world, only that costs continue to increase; but the timing of the announcement suggests a correlation. Over decades of propane service, the company has never charged for the tanks necessary for it to conduct business, but now it finds that to be necessary, perhaps because nothing Trump says and no “deal” he announces can be trusted. His new Canada tariffs would have applied to products covered by his free-trade agreement, the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, negotiated during his first term as president.

While no new deal with Canada is certain, the Tuesday announcement reinforces the perception that “Trump Always Chickens Out” — TACO. He has canceled a number of the threats he made in moments of rage after realizing how much damage they would cause. Unfortunately, many more of his terrible decisions have remained in place.

Discussion: Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney has said, “This trade dispute has raised costs for families, particularly in the US. Canada stands ready to engage intensively to address outstanding issues with the US to the mutual benefit of our citizens.” Carney said the two sides have made “substantial progress" and confirmed that Canada had agreed to a three-day delay while negotiations continued.

Darline Graham: ‘National Security Is Not My Thing’

Senator Darline Graham, who was appointed to temporarily fill the seat of her brother, Lindsey, who died July 11, is competing in a runoff election with Representative Ralph Norman in South Carolina. During an August 18 debate ahead of the election, a moderator asked, “Are Taiwan and the South China Sea national security issues for the United States, and if so, why or how?”

“I’m just going to be honest here,” she responded. “I’m not that informed on national security, but I do support the military. My brother was in the Air Force for 33 years, so I will do everything I can to support the military. My dad was in the Army. I’m not a polished politician up here; national security is not my thing, not my area of expertise, but I do support the military.”

That support included praising President Trump’s approach to foreign policy, saying he is the “strongest president we’ve had” against China and that the United States “cannot let” the Islamic Republic develop a nuclear weapon.

Discussion: Graham has received criticism for her response on foreign policy, but it is refreshing to hear someone “be honest here”. It does say something that someone without any grasp of foreign policy is willing to support the president’s foolish decisions in that arena.

NH Appeals Court Rulings on Education Funding

The State of New Hampshire, in a 125-page brief filed with the NH Supreme Court on August 14, has appealed Rockingham County Superior Court Judge David Ruoff’s ruling that “the total Adequacy Funding level and the funding level for special education differentiated aid are each insufficient for New Hampshire school districts to meet the demands of Constitutional Adequacy, and that school districts are forced to bridge the gap by relying in part on revenue from local property taxes assessed at varying rates.”

In an earlier ruling, in which the Contoocook Valley School District had sued the state, alleging inadequate state funding for public schools, Ruoff found that the state’s base adequacy grant, which then was about $4,182 per student, must increase to at least $7,356.01. The Supreme Court affirmed that finding, but left the remedy to the New Hampshire Legislature.

The Justice Department is arguing that “Claremont I & II [the two Supreme Court cases that established the need for the state to cover the costs of providing an ‘adequate education’] and their progeny are wrong as a matter of constitutional text, structure, purpose, history, and tradition; they are poorly reasoned, and have led to the impractical and unworkable state of affairs that exists today in our education funding law.”

It continues, “This case exists because this Court’s modern school funding jurisprudence has distorted Part II, Article 83 of the State Constitution beyond recognition, finding rights and mandates in it that do not exist, and fundamentally altering how the State and its political subdivisions may legally interact.”

Discussion: At issue is language in the state constitution that states, “It shall be the duty of the legislators and magistrates, in all future periods of this government, to cherish the interest of literature and the sciences, and all seminaries and public schools.” The Supreme Court interpreted “cherish” to mean “cover the cost” of public schools but not seminaries. Some constitutional scholars have disputed the “adequacy” finding. Doug Hall, in a report published by the Carsey School of Public Policy at the University of New Hampshire where he served as executive director, traced the history of school funding. The study found that the state originally “cherished” education by dictating how much municipalities would raise through local property taxes to cover educational costs without providing separate state funding.

More Empathy, Less Ability To Properly Diagnose

Trump Again Supports A Dictator Over An Ally

Nearly 200 people showed up at a special meeting of the Keene City Council on August 17 in the wake of at least three arrests Immigration and Customs Enforcement made in the city last week. Longtime resident Sandra Whippie said, “I turned 90 a few months ago, and I can’t think of a time when I have been more frightened. It concerns me that our families, particularly immigrant families, are literally frightened to be in our community, and they have reason to be — that’s what scares me.”

City officials were cautious about responding to the concerns due to the Trump Administration’s threat to withhold federal funding from so-called “sanctuary jurisdictions” and New Hampshire’s passage of two state laws that attempt to prevent local communities from passing ordinances to interfere with ICE. Under one of the new laws, municipalities could lose as much as a quarter of their state funding and the attorney-general could file charges against them if they oppose the roundups. Keene Mayor Jay Kahn said, “We run a risk and we are also here to protect our taxpayers, and that is the vice they can put us in. We don’t want to be the first, and we don’t want to be an example. I think we need to figure out if there are tactics that improve the safety of our citizens.”

On August 11, ICE Boston said in a statement, “The Trump Administration is utilizing all lawful options to carry out the largest deportation operation in history, just as President Trump promised. Anyone who has been deported received full due process.”

Discussion: The ICE statement is clearly false; due process has been repeatedly ignored in the effort to meet deportation quotas, which also has meant arresting people with no criminal record, contrary to what the administration says. Furthermore, the US Constitution and case law have established that states do not have to assist federal authorities — the basis for “sanctuary cities”. The state laws that would force municipalities to cooperate are subject to lawsuits if such illegal action as withholding state funds were to take place. Cities and towns need to push back to protect their citizens and their taxpayers.

More Empathy, Less Ability To Properly Diagnose

Tim Burdick, who practices medicine at Dartmouth Health in Lebanon, and Dr. Sarah Preum, technical associate director at Dartmouth’s Center for Precision Health and Artificial Intelligence, have co-written a study on whether large language models (LLMs) being integrated into clinical workflow are useful. They conclude, “While LLMs demonstrate capability in drafting certain thematic elements, they struggle with clinician-aligned generation in other themes…. Our findings underscore the necessity of adapting LLMs to individual clinician preferences to enable reliable and responsible use in patient-clinician communication workflows.”

In plain language, they found that, when responding to real, anonymized patient messages, the six LLM models they tested introduced errors and over-diagnosed to the point where some participating physicians said they did not want to use artificial intelligence. The LLMs did not ask the important follow-up questions that physicians often do. Preum said that clinicians usually ask questions to narrow down a diagnosis, such as asking when pain started, and if a patient can rate the pain from 1-10. LLMs, she said, tend to go straight to diagnosing the pain’s cause and calling for treatment, while clinicians are more cautious about recommending solutions that may be unnecessary.

On the other hand, the study found that AI is tireless, unlike doctors who are often pressed for time and become fatigued, coming across as less empathetic. The LLMs can sound more compassionate and they are “pretty good with helping with tasks like scheduling and refilling prescriptions”.

Discussion: Preum concluded, “I would say that’s actually not an easy problem to teach large language models or AI to ask good followup questions. It can definitely ask questions, but it’s not probably as good as clinicians, but we are currently working on addressing that problem.”

Trump Again Supports A Dictator Over An Ally

President Donald Trump’s decision to scale back joint military exercises with South Korea while praising North Korean President Kim Jong Un adds to the concerns that the United States is realigning with traditional foes while abandoning longtime allies. He boasted of “my very good relationship with Kim Jong Un” and said the military exercises “send a signal that is totally inappropriate and hostile, to a Country that, as long as Donald J. Trump has been President, has been unthreatening and respectful.” He described South Korea, on the other hand, as an ungrateful recipient of US largess. Trump complained about the amount of money the United States spends on protecting South Korea, yet South Korea refused to take part in his war against Iran. “I called [South Korea’s president],” Trump complained. “I said, ‘Would you like to give us a little hand? We don’t need help with Iran, but if you’d like, give us a hand with Iran.’ He said, ‘No thanks.’ … We have 39,000 soldiers over there, guarding you, from Kim Jong Un, your next-door neighbor, and you’re not going to help us on a very easy military operation in Iran? That’s strange.”

Trump also threatened to bomb another ally, Oman, saying, “If Oman gets in the way [of a peace agreement between the US and Iran], we’ll bomb the s*** out of them.” Oman has been serving as a neutral party in negotiations with Iran over the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz, which Iran has effectively closed in response to the US and Israel’s aggression. Iran is refusing to speak directly to the US because of Trump’s demands for unconditional surrender. “There are no talks taking place between IRGC officials and the Americans, and this lie by Trump is merely fantasies caused by the delusions and nightmares he has suffered as a result of defeat and desperation in the war,” Iran’s Tasnim News said.

Further evidence of Trump’s disdain of traditional American values is his dismissal of concerns by families of those aboard the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln, which has been kept overseas without adequate supplies of food and other essentials, while experiencing maintenance problems. When a reporter began asking, “Family members of US service members are concerned about the conditions on board the USS Lincoln —,” Trump interrupted to say, “No they’re not.”

Discussion: Trump’s concern is achieving adulation and amassing a fortune. “Kim understands that Trump is an incompetent, erratic, weak-willed president who can be manipulated by dime-store flattery,” Robert Hubbell writes. Trump and his family amassed $2.2 billion in 2025 through cryptocurrency holdings, wealthy foreign interests, Truth Social, and more, and now, Trump has received preliminary approval to operate a federally chartered trust bank. How long will he be allowed to continue to undermine the country’s welfare to enrich himself?

By The Way

By The Way

A Better Option

The farm-to-table movement, in which good dining is linked to local farmers, both supporting their efforts and bringing fresh, wholesome produce, meat, and other homemade products to the table, can be traced to the 1970s, when people began to rebel against a food industry that was able to deliver food from diverse locations, but only after it had been in transport for days, shortening its useful life — unless it was highly processed or filled with preservatives…

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24 days ago · T.P. Caldwell

By The Way

A Rock and a Hard Place

BRISTOL — Four weeks after teachers in the Newfound Area School District learned that the contracts they signed in April were invalid, and with three weeks to go before classes are scheduled to begin, they still have no certainty that their jobs will be there…

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23 days ago · 1 like · 1 comment · T.P. Caldwell

By The Way

Things Change

BRISTOL — As the Newfound Area School District faces unexpected financial challenges, its new business administrator is asking the school board to take a longer-term approach to decisions such as building consolidation…

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21 days ago · 1 like · 1 comment · T.P. Caldwell

By The Way

Preparing for a New Year

BRISTOL — The Newfound Area School Board has appointed a new member from Bristol to fill the vacancy from Joe Maloney’s resignation when he became School Administrative Unit 4’s assistant facilities manager. Of three candidates seeking the position, the board chose Jake Corneau to serve until the March elections…

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19 days ago · T.P. Caldwell

When President Donald Trump attempts to dictate how state elections will be run, Democrats are quick to point out that the US Constitution’s Elections Clause (Article I, Section 4, Clause 1) gives states the right to prescribe the “Time, Places and Manner” of holding elections for Senators and Representatives, subject to congressional oversight. Yet the Democratic National Committee has decided to overrule election law in New Hampshire — which stipulates that the Granite State will hold the first primary elections in the country — and has dictated that South Carolina will go first.

Under what authority?

The US Congress in 1845 set the date of federal elections on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November, but each state sets its own dates for primary elections, general state elections, and special elections. Special elections are called to fill vacancies in state legislatures or statewide offices and typically are set by the governor, Secretary of State, or a state election board, with the timing subject to statutory deadlines. They can occur at any time of year.

Yet, in 2024, the DNC, with backing from then-President Joe Biden Jr., announced that South Carolina would hold the first primary election, arguing that the southern state is more racially diverse and better represents the party’s future. New Hampshire went ahead with its “first-in-the-nation” presidential primary because state law requires the primary to take place at least seven days ahead of a similar election. The conflict and confusion were devastating to Democrats, leading some people to avoid voting in that consequential election.

New Hampshire Democratic Party Chair Ray Buckley said, “New Hampshire is the place that ensures our candidates have a nominating process that challenges candidates to answer tough questions face-to-face.” After this year’s DNC vote, Buckley said, “Today’s vote shows that many party insiders have learned nothing from 2024. This committee’s vote does not change the realities governing New Hampshire’s primary, which are beyond the control of both this committee and our state party.”

Scott Maltzie, chair of the NH Republican Committee, also weighed in. “The DNC continues to prove it has no respect for New Hampshire voters or our First-in-the-Nation primary. The good news for Granite Staters is that New Hampshire law, not the DNC, determines when our presidential primary is held.”

Secretary of State David Scanlan said, “The bottom line is New Hampshire has a state law, at this point a 106-year-old tradition of holding the first primary, so that will continue. We are going to defend our law and the tradition.”

So, again, under what authority does the DNC decide when a primary election can take place?

The Democratic National Committee and the Republican National Committee hold national nominating conventions at which state delegates select the party’s nominee for president, ostensibly based on voter preference, and they help determine which delegates will vote at the national nominating convention. They establish their own delegate guidelines. While the DNC chose not to allocate delegates based on the NH Primary in 2024, the New Hampshire Democratic Party went ahead and held its own primary for delegate allocation.

This is not a presidential election year, so it is unclear what role the DNC has in congressional races. I have found nothing to indicate any authority to intervene in 2026.

Groton Man Faces New Burglary Charge in Grafton County

Valid Concerns Voiced About ICE Use of ‘Shock Gloves’

President Donald Trump announced August 12 on social media that White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt “will be departing her role at the end of the month so she can spend more time with her beautiful young children and family, a decision I totally understand and respect! Karoline will now be one of my top outside advisors, and an influential voice within the Republican Party, as we work to defy History, and conclusively win the Midterm Elections.”

A native of New Hampshire who graduated from St. Anselm College and ran in New Hampshire’s 1st Congressional District in 2022, losing to Representative Chris Pappas, Leavitt, 28, has a two-year-old son and had taken a work leave after the birth of her second child, a daughter, in May. She was the youngest person to serve as White House press secretary.

Leavitt said on social media, “The truth is since returning to the White House after the birth of my daughter, I have felt in my heart that I cannot be the best mom my two young children deserve while devoting the constant time, energy, and attention required of the White House Press Secretary — and that is why I have ultimately made the bittersweet decision to depart the White House and embark on a new chapter in my life.”

Discussion: Leavitt had planned to have a career as a reporter, saying, “Like, growing up, my family still has home videos of me pretending to be a reporter.” However, interning at WMUR during her college years, and writing opinion columns for the St. Anselm Crier, she voice politically conservative views, complaining about the “liberal media” and criticizing her professors for their criticism of the president. Her conservative stance captured the president’s attention.

Groton Man Faces New Burglary Charge in Grafton County

State Police have charged Angelo Fiaschetti, 30, of Groton with a felony count of burglary and misdemeanor charges of theft by unauthorized taking, criminal trespassing, and prowling/loitering following an investigation that began on August 12 when Troop F received a report of a suspicious male driving a gray Kia Soul and going door-to-door on Pine Top Lane in Hebron. Troopers also received a report that the same man was approaching homes and perhaps stealing property on Valley View Road.

Troopers arrested Fiaschetti on Hobart Hill Road. Their investigation determined that Fiaschetti had entered several properties in the area and at one point entered a home illegally. Fiaschetti was out on bail at the time, stemming from a previous arrest by the Tilton Police Department.

Fiaschetti was held on preventive detention at the Grafton County Department of Corrections jail until his arraignment in the Second Circuit Court-District Division-Plymouth on August 13.

Valid Concerns Voiced About ICE Use of ‘Shock Gloves’

The Department of Homeland Security announced that Immigration and Customs Enforcement will spend as much as $20 million by March on nonlethal Generated Low Output Voltage Emitter (GLOVE) devices manufactured by Compliant Technologies LLC of Lexington, Kentucky. Also known as “shock gloves”, they have been in use by some jails and police departments in recent years. The notice said the solicitation for a no-bid contract could be published as early as today.

Compliant Technologies says the devices function as a normal pair of patrol gloves until officers press a switch to activate their electrical mode. The gloves must be applied directly to someone’s skin to deliver a pain stimulus that typically helps an officer gain compliance within seconds, according to the company. It warns, however, that the devices should not be used as punishment, against people merely exhibiting “verbal defiance or belligerence”, or on children, pregnant women, the elderly, or disabled people.

Jenn Rolnick Borchetta, deputy project director on policing at the American Civil Liberties Union, said, “ICE spent the last year showing this country they are too quick to use force. Now they will be able to deploy electric shocks with the slight push of a button that maybe nobody else can see them do. Introducing gloves that can so easily be used to deliver terrible pain in encounters is a recipe for harm to the public.”

Discussion: The concerns are valid, given the brutal tactics that ICE has used across the country. Compliant Technologies warns that the device should not be used for longer than 15 seconds; no more than one pair should be used at the same time on one person; and they should be used only on arms or legs, strictly avoiding head, face, throat, chest, and groin. Otherwise, use of the technology can constitute torture, and may be lethal.

Café Chatter

On Things Change: The district needs new lawyers! Always being caught off guard.

— Patrick Toy

Fighting For Americans’ Right to Debate and Decide

Both Political Parties Support Solving Transportation Deficit

Two letters published by the Laconia Daily Sun demonstrate what the Democratic Party is doing wrong. At a time when the Republican Party has been hijacked by an ideology sustained by a series of myths that create perpetual feelings of desperation and panic — and a leader with no interest in public welfare or serving the people, instead seeing the presidency as a vehicle for private enrichment for himself, his family, and his allies, and to solve his legal, financial, and other problems — it is important for Democrats to work together and restore our democratic republic.

Instead, Democratic Party leaders are trying to dictate who gets into office and which state should be the first to vote. That is repugnant and alienating to those they attempt to disenfranchise.

Read on:

And…

It makes no sense to support a Republican candidate while the party remains entrenched in MAGA lunacy, but Democratic candidates who are willing to go along with efforts to sideline certain candidates of their own party, and who accept the idea of defying New Hampshire’s first-in-the-nation election law, are blind to the damage they are doing.

While I cannot vote for any Republican at this time, Rich Logis points out that we should not assume that, because someone once embraced the Make America Great Again creed, they still hold those views. President Donald Trump has failed them, as well, and Rich has acknowledged that fact. He established Leaving MAGA to assist those disillusioned by what has transpired since Trump’s re-election and whose views have alienated family members:

Fighting For Americans’ Right to Debate and Decide

The Steady State is a nonprofit 501(c)(4) organization advocating for constitutional democracy, the rule of law, and the preservation of America’s national security institutions. In today’s piece, the former officials from the CIA, FBI, Department of State, Department of Defense, and Department of Homeland Security who make up the Steady State explained their focus: “We are not silent on Gaza or climate change or abortion or immigration because we think those questions don’t matter. We are silent because we believe the structure through which Americans have the right to debate and ultimately decide those questions is itself in danger.”

Our membership is composed largely of people who spent their careers in intelligence, diplomacy, national security, law enforcement, the military, and government oversight. And that gives us a particular reason not to believe that we should be deciding the great questions of domestic policy.

We have seen what happens in other countries when people from backgrounds like ours decide that ordinary democratic politics is inadequate to the task. Intelligence officers, generals, police officials and national-security professionals begin intervening in political questions because they believe the stakes are too high, the politicians too incompetent, or the public too divided to handle them.

History offers plenty of examples of where that road can lead.

It does not want intelligence officers deciding climate policy, generals settling questions of reproductive rights, or law-enforcement officials determining tax policy. However honorable their intentions or distinguished their service, people entrusted with the instruments of national security and state power have no special democratic entitlement to decide those questions.

Indeed, one of the principles many of us spent our careers defending was precisely the opposite: in a democracy, members of the national security institutions serve the elected government and the Constitution. They do not govern.

The piece continues:

We are participating, as a group, in domestic political life because we believe the threat to the democratic system itself has become extraordinary. Growing autocracy is an existential threat to our democracy. …

The second reason for our narrow focus is simpler.

We don’t agree.

The Steady State includes Democrats, Republicans, and Independents; conservatives, liberals, and people who fit comfortably into none of those categories. Ask our members about Israel and Gaza, climate policy, immigration, taxation, abortion, or any number of other questions, and you will hear vigorous disagreement.

But there is one thing on which we have reached an extraordinary degree of agreement: American democracy itself is in danger.

That agreement is what brought us together.

Our purpose is not to tell Americans what policies they should choose. It is to help preserve their ability to choose them.

Both Political Parties Support Solving Transportation Deficit

Leaders in both parties are hoping to overturn Governor Kelly Ayotte’s veto of the Ten Year Transportation Improvement Plan due to its provision for raising turnpike tolls to cover the increasing cost of road improvements. The Senate added the revenue measure to the 10-year plan, prompting Ayotte’s veto.

The toll-hike proposal would double the turnpike toll rates for drivers without a New Hampshire E-ZPass transponder, including those with an out-of-state transponder or those paying with cash. As part of the change, the state would provide free New Hampshire E-ZPass transponders to anyone applying within the first 10 months.

In her veto message, Ayotte wrote, “I do not support raising the tolls. I will continue to focus on making New Hampshire more affordable for all and a destination for tourists in the region.”

Discussion: In response to the state’s highway revenue shortage, the Executive Council eliminated 34 projects, valued at $106 million, and delayed another $199 million worth of projects, as well as pausing municipal grants for bridge repairs and other projects. The toll hikes would allow improvements on Interstate 93 in Concord and Manchester to proceed, while building revenue for other projects. Unfortunately, the plan unfairly targets out-of-state travelers, just as calls for a sales tax would serve as a way of forcing out-of-state residents to pay for New Hampshire expenses — classic taxation without representation. A toll hike is necessary, and it’s good to see the two political parties coming together to solve the problem, but they could do so while treating all E-Z Pass holders the same.

Laconia Man Faces Charges After High-Speed Chase

Janoo Wins Democratic Gubernatorial Primary in Vermont

When he won 20 tickets to New Hampshire Fisher Cats baseball games during the June superintendent’s conference, School Administrative Unit 4 Interim Superintendent Brian Connelly decided “it might be nice to give them away to the community” and he made that suggestion during the August 10 meeting of the Newfound Area School Board.

Business Administrator Michal Limanni had the perfect suggestion for doing that: “Guess what’s happening this week,” he said. “The Penny Sale.”

The Bristol Rotary Club is holding its 73rd annual Penny Sale at Newfound Regional High School on Thursday, August 13, at 6 p.m. Proceeds from the sale go toward scholarships and programs to benefit youths in the Newfound area.

“They give a $6,000 scholarship to a graduate here in Newfound,” Limanni said. “They do a lot in the community, as you will know soon.”

Discussion: The Penny Sale involves three rounds of drawings, each offering 100 prizes, with each ticket costing $1 and each ticket that is drawn going back into the drum to be eligible for future wins — hence a penny a ticket. At the end of the three rounds, the grand prize-winning tickets are drawn. The Rotary also has a silent auction for items on the tables.

Laconia Man Faces Charges After High-Speed Chase

Massachusetts State Police arrested Joshua Joyce, 30, of Laconia, following a pursuit that began in Manchester and ended in East Boston. According to NH State Police, Trooper Brian Knell observed a gray 2014 Toyota Camry traveling 113 mph on Interstate 93 North at 11:38 p.m. on August 10 but, when he attempted to stop the vehicle, the driver continued speeding away.

The Toyota continued onto Interstate 293 North and Route 101 West into Bedford, then made a U-turn at 101 and 114, traveling south on I-293 and I-93 before crossing into Massachusetts at the state line in Salem.

Massachusetts State Police took over the pursuit and ultimately stopped the vehicle near Boston Logan International Airport.

Discussion: Joyce will be facing charges in both New Hampshire and Massachusetts.

Janoo Wins Democratic Gubernatorial Primary in Vermont

Amanda Janoo, a 38-year-old economist who previously worked internationally for the United Nations, defeated Aly Richards to become Vermont’s Democratic nominee for governor during the August 11 state primary election. She will face Republican Governor Phil Scott, a five-term incumbent, in the general election.

Janoo campaigned on providing publicly funded universal primary care, funded by a surcharge on household income exceeding $250,000, as well as tax hikes on second homes and short-term rentals. She said after Tuesday’s election, “[A]s an economist, I know that money is power, but as a Vermonter, I know that money is not the only kind of power.”

Outside the Montpelier City Hall polling station Tuesday morning, Capital City resident Eli Robinson called Janoo “the most refreshing activist we’ve had run for political office since Bernie.”

Discussion: Paul Dame, chair of the Vermont GOP, said that Janoo’s campaign promises were an asset during the primary, but they will be a liability in the general election and that, while Vermont voters have a history of sending progressive candidates to Congress, they want those with “common-sense fiscal responsibility” in statewide offices.

Café Chatter

On A Rock and a Hard Place: So. Are you saying that the teachers do not have a contract? Why would they show up on day 1?! Except, of course, they care about their students.

— Candace Skurnik

Trump’s Secret Plane Escape Left Others Vulnerable

Former Syrian President Sentenced for War Crimes

Housing prices across the nation have begun to stabilize amidst rapid construction and high mortgager rates, and values in states such as Florida and Texas have fallen; but in New Hampshire, the cost of housing reached new heights in July, with a median sales price of $580,000 for a single-family home, according to the New Hampshire Association of Realtors®. That median is 5.5 percent higher than in June 2025, and 36 percent higher than in May 2021, when sales first passed the $400,000 mark.

The number of homes sold in New Hampshire increased 10.4 percent from a year ago, and pending sales increased 7.2 percent, despite national mortgage rates in 2026 being 6.66 higher, due in part to the resumption of the Iran war and the Federal Reserve’s decision not to lower rates.

Properties in lake-and-mountain communities have led the increases, with sales in Belknap County rising by 45 percent in July, with the median price increasing 33 percent, to $615,000. In Grafton County, the increase was 41.9 percent, and in Sullivan County, it was up 90.3 percent. Even Coös County, with a median home price of $269,000 — up from $225,000 last year — saw the number of sales increasing by 36.4 percent.

Discussion: The 2,992 new single-family homes built in the state do not meet the demand for housing, and the state’s median household income is 47 percent less than the median cost of a home in New Hampshire home. Median income has not matched the median home price since 2021.

Trump’s Secret Plane Escape Left Others Vulnerable

The Washington Post, citing a US official and another person with knowledge of President Donald Trump’s travel, as well as “material reviewed by the newspaper”, reported that the president secretly flew out of last month’s NATO summit in Ankara, Türkiye, on an alternate military aircraft while using Air Force One as a decoy in the face of Iran’s assassination threat.

According to the report, Trump boarded the old Air Force One jumbo jet in view of television cameras, with official reporting explaining that intelligence officials had raised concerns about the ability of his new Qatari-gifted and retrofitted plan not having the capability of avoiding a potential attack on the president. Ahead of the plane flying to Royal Air Force Mildenhall in the United Kingdom, the president exited Air Force One off the far side of the aircraft inside a catering lift without being seen, and was driven to a military C-32A for the flight to England. After Air Force One landed in Britain, Trump was quietly driven back to it, boarded it clandestinely through another entrance, and then walked down the stairs in front of the waiting press as though he had been aboard all along.

While the ruse was successful in protecting the president, it left the journalists and White House staff members aboard Air Force One vulnerable to a potential attack by Iran, which had been led to believe that the president was aboard. When asked at the time if the threat was credible, Trump replied, “Well, I have a threat all the time. I’m number one on their list, before you, but if I go, you go.”

Discussion: As Michael Sellers wrote while reporting on the success of the operation, “What made it okay to put all those other people on a flight that was deemed to be targeted by Iran to be presumably blown out of the air? If it was dangerous enough to spirit Trump away, wasn’t it dangerous enough to protect everyone else?”

Former Syrian President Sentenced for War Crimes

The Fourth Criminal Court in Damascus, Syria, has sentenced ousted Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, his younger brother, Maher, and his maternal cousin, Atef Najib, to death for crimes during Syria’s 14-year conflict that left about half a million people dead. Bashar and Maher fled to Russia for political asylum after the government’s fall in December 2024, but Syria’s new rulers have asked Russia to hand the Assads over.

Judge Fakhareddine al-Aryan convicted the two in absentia today for crimes against humanity and war crimes, while Najib, standing inside a cage wearing a prisoner’s uniform, was convicted of overseeing the crackdown in the southern province of Daraa that led to the uprising and later the civil war.

Attorney Adnan al-Masalmeh, who represented families of Najib’s victims, said, “Today is the day of justice for all the wounded, martyrs, detainees, and Syrians who were forced to leave their country. Today marks a victory of right against injustice, a victory of the Syrian people against the ousted regime.”

Discussion: The Assad family had been in power for five decades until Bashar al-Assad’s downfall.

They apparently have been around for more than three decades, but I had never heard of the Colorado-based jam band known as the String Cheese Incident, which is famous for its blend of bluegrass, trance, and folk rock tunes, or as Wikipedia describes it: “Their music has elements of bluegrass sounds, as well as rock, electronica, calypso, country, funk, jazz, Latin, progressive rock, reggae, and psychedelia. All members write original compositions and sing.”

My introduction came when 92.5 The River notified me that I had won a pair of tickets to their performance at the Hampton Beach Casino Ballroom on August 7. I often enter into the radio station’s contests, but frankly, I don’t remember entering that particular drawing, but there it was.

With my wife scheduled to work that evening, I contacted a friend in Vermont, knowing it would have been a long trip for her, and then a friend who lives in Nottingham, but she also was unavailable. With a short timeframe between learning of the tickets and the time of the show, I ended up going alone.

Although Lee has attended a KC and the Sunshine Band performance at the Casino Ballroom, I had never been there and didn’t know what to expect. I also didn’t take into consideration the heat of the day which would have attracted a lot of people to Hampton Beach; I figured that arriving 20 minutes in advance would give me time to find a parking space and get to the venue. I ended up having to drive around for 25 minutes before finding an empty space — several blocks away from the ballroom. (That turned out to be fortuitous, because it was a short distance from the route home.)

Fortunately, the band was 20 minutes late in taking the stage, so I had time to get inside and find my way to a seat with a clear view of the stage, safe from the cramped ballroom floor that afforded little room to move.

The roar of the crowd as the musicians took their places signaled that it would be a good show. Guitarist and co-founder Bill Nershi, along with Michael Kang, Keith Moseley, Kyle Hollingsworth, Michael Travis, and Jason Hann did not disappoint. Their high-energy performance, with extended pieces that sometimes blended from one song to the next, kept everyone moving to the music. I suspect that, had I been accompanied by anyone, I would have embarrassed them and they would have had to pretend they did not know that wild dancer who couldn’t sit still.

Perhaps it was Nershi’s white hair and beard, Kang’s mandolin, and the band’s lengthy instrumentals that repeatedly reminded me of the Grateful Dead, while Travis’ frequent calypso beats brought Jimmy Buffet to mind. But it was more than that: The musicians’ range of influences showcased a broad set of skills that their live performance accentuated. Listening to their recorded music later brought back those memories, but the recordings could not capture how enthralling it was to hear them live.

The crowd? It ranged in age from people in their 40s to 70s, weighted to the elders, but they all shared in the energy and friendly vibe of the evening. Indeed, reviews of the band always mention the friendliness of the fans. For me, it was like attending the music festivals my youth or, more recently, the MoonGroove Art and Music Festival with younger crowds and a feeling I imagine to be like Woodstock, which I missed attending.

Music brings people together like nothing else. Political rallies and social causes bring people together in solidarity over important aspects of life, but music unites everyone in the joy of living.

Politics can intrude on that joy of living, and it is important to make time to ensure the health of the country. For that, we can rely on the songwriters who tackle that reality, including Leonard Cohen, as Steve Schmidt points out in his column:

The Warning with Steve Schmidt

They forgot to leave

Last night, I went to the theater — or as they spell it in Canada, the “theatre” — in Toronto, and saw “The Secret Chord: A Leonard Cohen Experience…

Read more

25 days ago · 80 likes · 10 comments · Steve Schmidt

St. Clair Severely Injured in Motorcycle Crash

EPA Signals Approval of NH’s End to Vehicle Inspections

The New Hampshire Judicial Conduct Committee has issued a five-page statement alleging that former NH Supreme Court Justice Anna Barbara Hantz Marconi violated state law by failing to comply with the Code of Judicial Conduct and “failed to act at all times in a manner that promotes public confidence in the independence, integrity, and impartiality of the judiciary and … avoid impropriety and the appearance of impropriety” in her appeal to then-governor Chris Sununu in July 2024 to intercede in the criminal investigation of her husband, former state ports director Geno Marconi.

Sununu has told investigators that he did not believe Hantz Marconi had violated the law, but he did find the conversation “awkward”. She subsequently pleaded “no contest” to a misdemeanor charge associated with that meeting, and she left the bench when she reached the mandatory retirement age of 70 in the spring.

Hantz Marconi said of the Judicial Conduct Committee’s investigation, “[I]t appears the Committee prefers a trial despite my acknowledgments, despite the resolution of the matter in court, despite Governor Sununu’s statements that ‘there was no request’ or ‘anything illegal,’ and despite the fact that I did not attempt to influence the AG’s investigation of my husband. I am disappointed that I am being subjected to this unnecessary process.”

Discussion: Hantz Marconi’s attorneys had argued that NH Supreme Court Chief Justice Gordon MacDonald had advised her before meeting with Sununu, “I think you can do that. You are a constituent and have concerns.” However, MacDonald denied any advance knowledge of the meeting between Sununu and Hantz Marconi, saying he first learned of the meeting when Sununu called him to report the conversation. The Judicial Conduct Committee has scheduled three days of hearings on the ethics charges, beginning December 7, but with her having retired from the court, the likelihood of any disciplinary action is unclear.

St. Clair Severely Injured in Motorcycle Crash

The Laconia Motorcycle Association has announced that Charlie St. Clair, executive director of Laconia Motorcycle Week, sustained severe injuries in a motorcycle accident on Aug. 4, in Avon, Ohio, as he made his 50th consecutive trip to the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally in South Dakota. The accident was due to a “tire malfunction” that was witnessed by a friend who was riding with him, according to Motorcycle Week Deputy Director Jenn Anderson.

Anderson told the Laconia Daily Sun that no other vehicle was involved, and two nurses in cars behind him came to his aid. Charlie is being treated at MetroHealth Medical Center in Cleveland, Ohio, and Anderson flew to Cleveland to be at his side as he recovers from injuries. “There is a lot of assessment that is still to come, because of swelling, but it is extensive,” Anderson said on August 6.

Laconia Mayor Mike Bordes, who has served with St. Clair as a representative in the State House and a member of the Belknap County Delegation, said, “The whole community is pulling for him to get through this. We all know Charlie. He’s done a lot for Laconia, and I think this community is well aware of that.”

Discussion: St. Clair had sustained injuries in a previous motorcycle crash while traveling to promote Laconia Motorcycle Week.

EPA Signals Approval of NH’s End to Vehicle Inspections

The US Environmental Protection Agency has “formally proposed to approve” New Hampshire’s termination of vehicle inspection requirements, with public comment being the last step in ratifying the change that was included in the state budget.

Police already have stopped enforcing the requirement in anticipation of the federal government’s approval. The EPA had signaled its intention to approve the request after the state formally submitted its request in December.

EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin said on August 6, “EPA is committed to working collaboratively with states to reduce unnecessary regulatory burdens while maintaining strong environmental protections and following our statutory obligations.”

Discussion: Even without the inspection requirements, motorists are required to have basic safety features in place, and they could face fines for driving with bald tires or cracked windshields. The federal government is now accepting public comments on the change, and it will hold a public hearing at a future date. The EPA intends to issue a final decision by the end of the year.

By The Way

By The Way

Sharing Knowledge

The loon is a migratory species, breeding on inland rivers and lakes in the spring before spending the winter months on the ocean where the water does not freeze. Its ethereal calls on New Hampshire water bodies serve as a sure sign of warm weather and sooth the spirits of visitors and residents alike…

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