As we reported yesterday on Oh My BLOG!, former Bedford Town Councilor Bill Greiner upped the ante in the town’s elections with a political flier that found its way to homes over the weekend. Various town notables added their name to Greiner’s anti-colonial Free State invaders crusade seeking to prevent the election of Aaron Day to the School Board and Matt Philips to
the Town Council. This morning, Girard at Large learned of a massive Right to Know Request filed with the town by Ben Swann of the Truth in Media Project, a nationally acclaimed investigative journalist whose reports have exposed corruption across the country. According to a blog post forwarded to our attention, the “escalation of the attacks against Day and Philips through print, newspaper, television, private e-mails, and phone calls” has spurred Swann to submit several requests to the town in search of documents that might confirm the quiet talk that has circulated for years; that Greiner, a prominent property developer, has some very cozy relationships with town officials that have led to some profitable crony capitalism. Among other items, the request is seeking: Copies of all contracts and agreements in effect at any time within the last five years between the town and Greiner and any and all related emails. We’ve linked to the blog post, which also claims that Greiner refused to meet with Day and Philips about the factual errors he put out over the air on his community television program.
Meanwhile, the Bedford Taxpayers Association announced its endorsement of Day and Philips late last week. Tomorrow’s election could be interesting tomorrow. Regardless of the outcome, looks like Mr. Geiner’s got more than he bargained for.
Looks like the dirty tricks campaign to persuade folks in Hooksett to vote in favor of the Pinkerton tuition contract continues. As we reported over the weekend on Oh My BLOG!, it looks like school officials in Hooksett have tossed caution, and maybe the law against electioneering, to the wind. After reporting that school officials sent a summary of the wildly biased report the school board’s Warrant Article Committee made several weeks ago via email to every parent of a student at the Ca
wley Middle School, we received word that there was also an email sent out from the Hooksett Youth Athletic Association, which oversees all of Hooksett’s youth sports leagues, with the Warrent Article Committee’s liar flier. According to our well placed source who believes it was sent to all families who have kids involved in sports in the town, no one seems to know who sent it out as there is no name attached. Superintendent Charles Littlefield did not return our phone or email inquiries on Friday inquiring about the email sent to all “Cawley Middle School Parents” from the school. And, in another development seen by critics of the Pinkerton contract as yet another attempt to influence the vote, Pinkerton’s band director just happened to stop by the school’s annual Band Play a Thon, which includes freshmen who return to the school to play with the kids, to plug Pinkerton’s band program. He upset some in the room when he asked for a show of hands, first from eighth graders, then from seventh and finally from sixth who were planning on attending Pinkerton. As our source noted, kids in the seventh and sixth grades will only go there if Warrant Article Three passes, so what was the point of that? And, why weren’t other band directors invited to be there to plug their programs? Finally, many raised concerns over the weekend that the bus routes released by the district contained no information about the return trip. We’ve linked to the details from this newscast at Girard at Large dot com.
News from our own backyard continues after this.
As you know, we would rather report and opine on news and events than make it, however thanks to Alderman at Large Joe Kelly Levasseur, we can’t avoid being part of it. On Friday, I, your Humble Host, hand delivered a motion to dismiss Levasseur’s attempt to block the release of information requested and or obtained from Right to Know Requests. While we would love to go into court and obliterate the demonstrably false and inconsistent information Levasseur filed with the court, we believe the suit is without merit and should be dismissed on the grounds that Levasseur has no standing to sue on behalf of third parties and that the court has no power to force the city to assess fees it chose not to assess. I’ll 
avoid the legal lingo, but it boils down to this: Levasseur is effectively asking the court to involve itself in a political disagreement and is looking for an advisory opinion as to what is and isn’t allowed. Both are impermissible. We’ll have more on that this morning.
Speaking of Levasseur, he announced a thousand dollar reward to anyone who can help him find the young couple in their twenties that happened to be walking their dog past his altercation with police back in January of two thousand thirteen. He says the male of the couple yelled out to him saying “don’t let them intimidate you Joe, we support you” and was told to move along by the cops. He somehow thinks this couple, if it really exists, will somehow be able to provide testimony that will somehow show that all others were lying about what they didn’t see. Fear not, friends, for Joe says he’s not going to give up. Well isn’t that nice to know.
That’s news from our own backyard, Girard at Large hour ___ is straight ahead!
