Snowzilla and Son have come and gone
Well, Son of Snowzilla has come and gone and we’ve got about another foot of snow. As you can imagine, communities across the region are coping with the snow as best they can. Goffstown has banned parking on any public street until today at four. Pembroke’s parking ban is in effect until ten this morning. Milford has announced a parking ban from one to six A M every morning until further notice. Manchester’s overnight parking ban terminated at six this morning. For details on your town’s Snow Emergency declarations, visit the Our Backyard page at Girard at Large dot com. We’ve linked to it from this news read. We’ll be announcing the list of school closures and delays immediately following this newscast. Oh, and keep an ear to your radio this morning for Meteorologist Al Kapreilian’s weather forecast. Just sayin’
Shurtleff: Opposed to Article V Con Con, will give free seminar
Here’s an idea we probably should bury under a lot of snow, like miles of it: A Constitutional Convention of the States per Article V of the Constitution. There has been a renewed campaign to get our nation into an Article V Convention, say opponents who note it is being promoted by groups on the Left and Right and funded by sources ranging George Soros to the Koch Brothers. So, what is an “Article V?” Will it lead to fundamentally changing our form of government? Who are the people behind the effort? What is its status in New Hampshire? These questions and many others will be addressed in a presentation by Hal Shurtleff, New England Coordinator of The John Birch Society. Shurtleff has been involved in stopping an Article V since 19 8 8. He has testified on the subject to legislative committees in the region, and has discussed this topic on talk radio and cable TV shows throughout the region and will host an open, free public informational session on Tuesday, February twenty fourth in the auditorium of the Manchester Public Library. For more information call 8 5 7 4 9 8 1 3 0 9. F Y I, this is an issue we’ve been keeping a wary eye on and will begin to bring to light in the not to distant future.
News from our own backyard continues after this.
Pearl: For the cuts before he was against them?
Hooksett School Board Member David Pearl has announced he will be coming forward with a motion at the school district’s deliberative session to restore sixty thousand dollars in funding that was cut by the school board during its budget sessions. The cut came when the board decided to eliminate the Alternative Suspension Program. Pearl, who voted for the cut and generally led the charge to reduce the district’s budget, said he was going to bring it forward not so much because he thought the program should be reinstated, but because there was little to no discussion about eliminating it and he believed there should have been at least some before eliminating a program that provided services directly to students. The cut was recommended by Superintendent Charles P. Littlefield after it was discovered that the board needed to come up with tuition for ten more kids than expected after receiving a roster of enrollees from Pinkerton Academy. Littlefield said he was unaware of who the additional kids were or where they came from at the time, but he recommended eliminating the Alternative Suspension Program as an offset to the increased tuition costs, saying it served a minimal number of students each month. Fellow board member John Lyscars questioned the move in a social media post calling the program quote unquote “ridiculous.” The Hooksett School District’s Deliberative Session will be held in the Cawley Middle School this Friday night at seven. Hm, sounds like a good date night activity…
Foster: Violates Right to Know Law
Put this one in the “who’d a thunk it” category. The Portsmouth Herald is reporting that the New Hampshire Attorney General’s Office has broken the state’s Right to Know Law. Go figure. According to the article, Attorney General Joseph Foster violated the law by failing to respond in a timely manner to a request for public records made by former Deputy Rockingham County Attorney Tom Reid, according to a Jan. 14th ruling by Judge Larry Smukler, who ordered the state to reimburse Reid for his costs and fees to take the matter to court.
Reid is after records pertaining to the A G’s investigation into the office of former County Attorney Jim Reams. The longtime county attorney was accused of sexually harassing female subordinates, mismanaging forfeiture funds and failing to disclose that one of his employees, who testified during criminal trials, had lied on her resume.
Reid: Wins Right to Know case against AG
Reams and Reid were removed from office by the A G in Nov. of 2013, when they were placed on paid leave and their prosecutorial powers were stripped by a judge. Reid resigned a year ago. He filed two Right-to-Know requests with the A G’s office in April 2014, seeking records from its investigation. Smukler’s order found that while Foster’s office responded within the required five days, saying it needed another 30 days to process the request, it failed to respond further. Foster’s office said its failure “was an unintentional oversight.” Reid filed with the court after getting nothing, and apparently not liking it, for seven months. We’ve linked to the Portsmouth Herald’s full story from this newscast at Girard at Large dot com. Our thanks to our friends at Right to Know NH for bringing it to our attention. We’ve linked to them too as they’re leading the fight to preserve and advance our Right to Know.
That’s news from our own backyard, Girard at Large hour ___ with the Bad Weather Bureau is next!
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