Care Plus Ambulance Service, one of the three companies bidding for Manchester’s ambulance contract has sent Fire Chief James Burkush a letter urging all bids for the current offering be discarded and that the contract be re-bid at a later date.
Re-bidding the contract, they write, is the proper course of action to take in order to protect the integrity of the bidding process in the City of Manchester. In the Letter, which is available with the write up of this newscast at Girard at Large dot com, Care Plus President Eric Damon, takes issue with scoring sheets obtained and published by Girard at Large questioning the company’s financial and management capabilities. Damon asserts that the company was wrongly penalized in the process for submitting its bid without initially agreeing to pay the city’s sizeable dispatch fees. They reminded Burkush that once they obtained the information they wanted to determine the fee would comply with federal anti-kickback laws, they agreed to pay the fee and make other adjustments desired by the city. Meanwhile, Boo Heffner, President and CEO of Falck USA, the parent company of bidder American Ambulance, said he has no desire to see the city scrap the bids and reinitiate the process. In an interview with Girard at Large, Heffner said they’ve played by the rules and been above board in the process. Tossing their bid would penalize them for doing nothing wrong he said.
Last week, we brought you the story of how the federal government was holding waivers requested by the state to the No Child Left Behind Act hostage to the passage of Senate Bill forty eight and House Bill one forty two. Now, we get to tell you that H b one forty two was amended to remove language imposing federal collective bargaining standards on the state because Commissioner of Education Virginia Barry told legislators that that language was contained in the federal waiver sought by the state and was, therefore, unnecessary. According to an article posted by Laura Hainey, President of the New Hampshire Chapter of the American Federation of Teachers, Barry announced that she would be sending a memo to districts around the state advising that the waiver contains collective bargaining guidelines that must be followed. “This is not,” wrote Hainey, “the outcome we wanted.” We’ve linked to the article in the write-up of this news read at Girard at Large dot com
News from our own backyard continues right after this.
Local organizers of Fortnight for Freedom, will hold an event today in Manchester. Fortnight for Freedom is an initiative of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops calling all Catholics to prayer, education and action in support of religious freedom and to address many current challenges to religious liberty, including the August 1, 2013 deadline for religious organizations to comply with the Health and Human Services mandate and Supreme Court rulings that could attempt to redefine marriage which is expected to be released today. The event, which is a prayer vigil, will feature a performance from our number one fan Christopher Duffley and will be held today at Pulaski Park in Manchester from Noon to one. Pulaski Park is bordered by Bridge, Pine Union, and High streets downtown. We’ve linked to their Web site in the write up of this newscast if you’d like more information.
Turns out Assistant New Hampshire Attorney General Richard Head DID collaborate with Eric Holder’s justice department as he sought to indict investigative reporter James O’Keefe for exposing weaknesses in New Hampshire’s voting system. Turns out there were a whole lot of people in the AG’s office collaborating with a variety of federal officials, including US Attorney John Kacavas to indict O’Keefe. These discoveries were made from documents released by Head resulting from a Right to Know request that was more than a year old. O’Keefe confronted Head over the issue in new Hampshire two weeks ago. We’ve linked to the story we helped break, our exclusive interview with O’Keefe and our exclusive video of his confrontation with Head with this newscast at Girard at Large Here’s an article with the details of this story.
