As the country was celebrating sunshine week, one NH legislative committee was banning the recording of their public meeting – a clear violation of the Right-to-Know law.
On March 13th, the Finance Committee Division I was conducting a public meeting. While called a work session, it was a public meeting nonetheless.
This violation was recorded on video by David Ridley. Keep Reading…
| RTKNH
Monday we reported on an attempt by elements in the City of Portsmouth to advance another plastic bag ban. Yesterday, the Portsmouth City Council postponed a vote on the ban pending review by the City Manager.
It is unclear what the city manager can do. There is no legislative support or enabling legislation. Correspondent Kimberly Haas from the Union Leader adds that the city reached out to the New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services and the Waste Management Division but could not get anyone to take a favorable position. The State attorney general’s office is not biting either.
No one is prepared to give Portsmouth a leg to stand on, but out-of-State interests won’t let that stop them. Keep Reading…
A federal appeals court in Chicago on Tuesday ruled that the 1964 Civil Rights Act also protects LGBT employees from workplace discrimination, the first time a federal appellate court has come to that conclusion.
The decision by the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals comes after it threw out a July finding by three of its own judges that the law doesn’t cover sexual orientation bias and ordered a rare rehearing by the full court, a rare session known as an en banc hearing. Keep Reading…
| WMUR
The bill repeals regulations adopted in October by the Federal Communications Commission under the Obama administration requiring internet service providers to do more to protect customers’ privacy than websites like Alphabet Inc’s Google or Facebook Inc. …
FCC Chairman Ajit Pai praised the repeal in a statement late on Monday for having “appropriately invalidated one part of the Obama-era plan for regulating the internet.” Those flawed privacy rules, which never went into effect, were designed to benefit one group of favored companies, not online consumers. Read More…
|UL
Senate Bill 193 would allow families to take 90 percent of the money their local school district receives from the state to educate their children and, after funneling it through a scholarship organization, put it instead toward other education expenses – including home-schooling or private school tuition. The bill cleared the Senate in a 14-9 party-line vote on March 16.
SB 193 flew mostly under the radar at the start of the session. But on Tuesday, a line out the committee door of people coming to testify about the bill led House lawmakers to relocate their hearing to Representatives Hall at the State House.
Lola Duffort | Concord Monitor
Related | Rich Girard Explains Education Freedom Savings Account legislation (SB193)
Gov. Chris Sununu on Wednesday will nominate commissioners to lead the state Department of Environmental Services and the Department of Labor.
Sununu, R-Newfields, looks to appoint Kenneth Merrifield, who is the mayor of Franklin, as Labor Commissioner. He would succeed Jim Craig.
In a letter to U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Corker, the State Department said it was dropping the funding because the U.N. Population Fund (UNFPA) “supports, or participates in the management of, a program of coercive abortion or involuntary sterilization.”
The cut marks U.S. President Donald Trump’s first move to curtail funding for the United Nations and is likely to raise further questions about how deep those cuts will eventually go throughout the organization, where the United States is the top donor. Read More…
Following about five hours of testimony, the House Election Law Committee voted 10-10 on the Jasper plan. The tie vote killed the speaker’s amendment, leaving 73 towns on their own to address potential legal problems resulting from their decisions to hold their elections on days other than March 14.
Jasper had made it clear while testifying before the panel earlier in the day that he, Secretary of State William Gardner and the attorney general’s office believe that state law requires town elections to be held on the second Tuesday in March. He said his plan was “a way out” to avoid legal issues. Read More…
| WMUR
Here’s a picture of page 1191 from the report prepared by the Office of Legislative Budget Assistant, comparing New Hampshire budget family planning allocations from fiscal years 2016 through 2019. This looks at past spending, plus projections for the next biennium. The “Governor” column reflects the budget request made by Governor Sununu. “H Finance” means House Finance Committee, and it’s the Finance Committee’s proposal that’s getting a House vote this week. Read More…
Ellen Kolb | Leaven for the Loaf
Today is “Equal Pay Day,” the day where Democrats like to demean women across the country by telling them they aren’t worth as much as their male counterparts in the workforce. It occurs every year and every year it’s the same bogus screams from Democrats – “WOMEN AREN’T PAID EQUALLY!” Unfortunately, some women actually fall into the “ignorance” trap and believe them. Keep Reading…
The New Media Militia 