Nicholas Leslie: RIP
A third American is now counted among the eighty four killed in the Bastille Day attack in Nice, France. committed by radicalized Muslim Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel in the name of ISIS. Bouhlel was a Tunisian immigrant living in the city. The body of twenty year old Nicholas Leslie, who’d gone missing for days following the attack, was finally identified by authorities yesterday. It appears as if he died instantly upon being hit squarely by the nineteen ton truck driven by Bouhlel. Leslie was a Junior at the University of California Berkeley. He was in Nice for a summer entrepreneurship program. Three other U Cal Berkeley students were wounded in the attack, all suffering either from a broken leg or foot.
Willard: Swears in new officers
Four new Manchester police officers were sworn in yesterday in a ceremony held at the newly renovated Michael Briggs Community Center. Those sworn in include:
Twenty one year old Stephen D. Bates, Jr. who hails from East Hartford, Connecticut. Bates is a certified firefighter and has been employed by Plymouth Fire and Rescue for the past three years.
Thirty three year old Garrett M. Bombard from Holden Massachusetts. Bombard began his law enforcement career as a police officer in the Arlington County Virginia Police Department in 2006.
Twenty nine year old Patrick C. Colburn from Merrimack. Colburn served three years in the U S Army, including a one year tour of duty in Iraq. For his service, Manchester Police Chief Nick Willard presented him with the Military Service Award. He comes to the city from the Concord Police Department.
Twenty two year old John P. Hare of Derry. Hare is majoring in Justice Studies at Southern N H University and has been an Army Reservist since two thousand thirteen. Willard also presented him with the Military Service Award.
Pretty Park: Face-lift in the works
One of Manchester’s most beloved and photographed parks, will undergo a significant restoration. The Wagner Memorial Park Board of Trustees has received a pledge of three hundred thousand dollars from the Edward Wagner and George Hosser Scholarship Fund to finance the much-needed rehabilitation. Wagner Memorial Park, also know as Pretty Park, was constructed seventy five years ago at the bequest of Ottilie Wagner, whose desire was that no city funds be used for construction or maintenance. To that end she created a trust fund, administered by three park trustees who have overseen maintenance activities over the years. The donation from the scholarship fund, which was also established by Mrs. Wagner and can be used for the park when necessary, will provide for the replacement of plantings park wide, starting behind the iconic domed memorial, new pathways and upgrades to both the irrigation and lighting systems. The work will begin in the spring and is expected to take two years to complete.
News from our own backyard continues after this.
Guinta: Border visit produces district benefits
The El Paso Intelligence Center (EPIC), a federal criminal intelligence hub at Fort Bliss, TX, which First District Congressman Frank Guinta visited in April, will join New Hampshire police departments today to improve their ability to counter our state’s heroin problem.
EPIC is a joint effort of federal law enforcement agencies, including the Drug Enforcement Administration, Customs and Border Protection and Department of Homeland Security, which collect and share threat intelligence nationwide on illegal human, drug and money smuggling across the U. S.-Mexico border, as well as collaboration between foreign and domestic gangs.
In a statement, Guinta said his trip to Fort Bliss produced useful connections for the state and its battle against the opioid epidemic. Said Guinta,
EPIC, on the southern border, has advanced technological capabilities and can provide up-to-the-minute information to Granite State police, working to prevent gangs and drugs from reaching New Hampshire neighborhoods. They need more help.
Guinta is the Chairman of the Bipartisan Task Force to Combat the Heroin Epidemic, which includes over eighty members of Congress from both parties. Recently, he led passage of the Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act (CARA), a House-Senate agreement to reform federal prevention, treatment and recovery programs, in light of a nationwide spike of overdose deaths.
Day 1: Making American Safe Again
The Republican National Convention got underway yesterday and it was a sight to behold, especially as the convention rules were challenged from the floor in an effort led by our very own former United States Senator Gordon Humphrey, a supporter of Ohio Governor John Kasich. The bid to get a roll call vote to challenge the ruling of the chair on a motion to adopt a rule pushed by a group called Delegates Unbound that would free delegates to vote for whom they wanted, not whom they were obligated to vote fell short, with the chair ruling that too few delegations had come forward to demand the vote.
Melania Trump: Takes center state
Once that business was dispatched, the show went on, highlighting the theme of Making America Safe Again. It was a heart gripping night as speakers ranging from those who’d lost loved ones to crimes committed by illegal aliens to defenders of our consulate in Bengazi held the crowd spellbound. Presumptive nominee Donald Trump made an impressionable, though brief appearance to introduce his wife Melania, who gave the night’s Keynote Address. She traced her own immigrant roots, told of the values inculcated in her by her parents, shared details of her own personal and business travails, and, of course, extolled the virtues of the kind, generous, determined and honorable husband, who may very well be the next President of the United States.
Rubens: Ayotte AWOL, not a Republican
Aside from Humphrey’s roll in trying to sandbag the rules, the convention isn’t without its controversies, even locally. G O P senate candidate Jim Rubens use the opportunity of the convention’s opening to take a shot at rival Senator Kelly Ayotte saying quote:
Kelly Ayotte won’t join Republicans at our convention. She’d fit better at the Democrat’s convention, given her support for massive spending and debt, open borders and amnesty, Loretta Lynch’s no-gun list, and President Obama’s anti-jobs trade deals.
