All Member Posts (709)

At an early-afternoon press conference on May 29, House Speaker William O'Brien said Nashua Republican Rep. Pete Silva will be the new House Majority Leader.



Silva fills the void left by D.J. Bettencourt, R-Salem, who resigned over the weekend after reports surfaced that he fabricated information about work needed to complete his law degree from the University of New Hampshire School of Law.



O'Brien also announced that Rep. Steve Stepanek, R-Amherst, will serve as deputy…

By Kris E. Roberts

Expanded military; At what cost to our future.

On Memorial Day former Governor Romney told a large gathering of mostly active duty military and veterans that as President he would ensure that the United States would have a military second to none. While this may have played very well to current and former military personnel, their families, and military contractors who stand to lose hundreds of billions of dollars in defense contracts over…

By Paul Briand

Some legislators on both sides of the aisle in the New Hampshire House are questioning who knew what -- and when -- in the sorry series of events that led to House Majority Leader D.J. Bettencourt’s hasty resignation.



The question has to be asked -- and it has to…

As Ovide Lamontagne promotes cutting the minimum wage for workers, Democratic gubernatorial candidate Maggie Hassan today said she will work to restore New Hampshire’s minimum wage law.

“Many New Hampshire families struggle every day to make ends meet in the face of rising fuel and grocery prices. In the state Senate, I was proud to stand up for families and help pass a bipartisan law that raised New Hampshire’s minimum wage for the first time in 10 years,” said Hassan. “As Governor,…

New Hampshire needs to build a new energy future and oil industry-funded groups should not attempt to turn back the clock on energy independence, said Maggie Hassan, Democratic candidate for governor. 

Hassan spoke out against a new radio ad from Americans for Prosperity, a group founded and funded by oil industry billionaires, the Koch brothers, urging legislators to repeal the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), created and supported by Republican and Democratic Governors and…

Legislation passed by both the House and Senate is starting to make its way to the desk of Gov. John Lynch as the legislative session grinds to a close on July 1.



Lynch is in his last term as governor, having decided not to run for re-election. He can veto a bill, sign a bill, or let it pass into law without his veto or signature.



This week he vetoed HB 1549 that would prohibit New…

New Hampshire is the only state in the nation without a full-service VA hospital.

One year ago, Sen. Ayotte (R), Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D), Rep. Charles Bass (R), and Rep. Frank Guinta (R) came together in support of a congressional resolution asking for a full-service VA hospital in the Granite State.  Robert M. Collinsworth wrote a great post about it…

In the Live Free or Die Alliance's May 23 Facebook Question of the Day, we asked what our followers thought about a proposal Republican gubernatorial hopeful Ovide Lamontagne floated during a visit to Manchester's Central High School.



Lamontagne suggested that lowering the minimum wage for students during the summer would free up capital for increased hiring of summer help. But the majority of our Facebook followers -- by a 2-to-1 ratio -- dismissed his idea out of hand, saying…

Andrew Hemingway, the former state director for Newt Gingrich's 2012 presidential campaign, filed with the New Hampshire Secretary of State a new political action committee Monday – “4RG” – to help elect a Republican governor this November. Hemingway will serve as chairman and treasurer and has two strategic partners, in Manchester and the Seacoast.



Also involved in the effort is Alex Talcott, who served as New Hampshire communications director for the short-lived presidential…

New Hampshire is considered one of about a dozen swing states in the upcoming 2012 presidential election.



But, as the popular vote and -- more importantly -- the Electoral College votes are counted the evening of Nov. 6, what does that mean?



According to some scenarios, it could mean…

This week Manchester Aldermen voted on adding an optional school donation to city tax bills.

Ward 3 Alderman Pat Long suggested the idea after hearing more than one constituent insist, "I'm willing to pay." 

Here's the Union Leader article on the measure.

Personally I'm not sure I'm in favor of the idea.  As Londonderry School Superintendent Nate Greenberg…

Recently, I launched my Innovate New Hampshire Tour to hear directly from business leaders and workers about how we can grow the economy and create jobs by aligning our education system with the needs of 21st century businesses. I’ve had the opportunity to meet with some incredible and innovative New Hampshire companies such as Adept MobileRobots in Amherst and Dyn in Manchester. Both companies chose New Hampshire to build and grow their businesses from the ground up.…

From an outburst by a frustrated representative to a blizzard of activity in the House and Senate, it was a busy and headline-grabbing week in Concord at the State House.



Vaillancourt and O’Brien



Manchester Republican Rep. Steve Vaillancourt was removed, reprimanded and chastened for his “sieg heil” salute to House Speaker William O’Brien during a contentious exchange on a proposed voter ID bill.



The Tuesday outburst by Vaillancourt was widely…

State Sen. Amanda Merrill says she won't run for re-election this fall.



Merrill, a sophomore Democrat from Durham and former five-term representative, says the time has come to spend more time on other things. Her decision, and recent redistricting, may clear the way for Portsmouth's Martha Fuller Clark, according to Patch.com. Clark, a Democrat and former longtime…

Without question, Republican Rep. Steve Vaillancourt’s “sieg heil” outburst toward House Speaker O’Brien this week was inappropriate.



But the outburst speaks to a fundamental issue in the New Hampshire House: O’Brien is a my-way-or-the-highway tyrant who has created a level of political dysfunction in…

Republican Bill Binnie told the Nashua Telegraph that he won't be a candidate for governor.



According to the Telegraph story, he wants to concentrate his efforts on his new television station, WBIN in Derry.…

U.S. Sens. Jeanne Shaheen and Kelly Ayotte are using both their bi-partisan political clout -- and their membership on the Senate Armed Services Committee -- to get the Air Force's newest tanker planes located at Pease for the New Hampshire Air Guard.

The NHAG has been flying the current 1950s era KC-135 tankers out of Pease and the hope is for the newer planes once the new KC-46A tankers are deployed starting in federal fiscal year 2014.



The pair met with N.H. guard…

There is division -- and some derision -- between the New Hampshire Senate and House.



The in-party sniping among the Republican leadership in both bodies has resulted in the scuttling of House initiatives by the Senate and the dismantling of Senate initiatives by the House.



The derision was in evidence this week over two issues in one bill -- a tax on Internet access and what to do with state budget surplus money.



The effort to ban any tax on Internet access…

Health insurance plans often reimburse care provided by practitioners of various areas of "medicine,", from chiropractic to massage therapy to reiki. In my view, athletic trainers offer valuable, scientifically sound treatment regimens, so they should be eligible for reimbursement from insurance companies.

Adultery is largely about one going where one shouldn't go, and that's the case with government trying to regulate marriage and marital behavior, which ultimately are civil and spiritual matters.

New Hampshire should purge its RSAs of any trace of overreach, and leave questions of adultery to divorce lawyers and rolling-pin manufacturers.