04-28-2014 News

CasiNO Free New Hampshire is urging opponents of expanded gambling to call their state legislators without delay.  In a notice published yesterday, they warned there were just three days before Senate Bill 3 6 6 came up for a vote in the House.

Verizon:  Seeking protection against casino

Verizon: needs protection from casino competition

That means you have today and tomorrow to call your state representatives to tell them to oppose the introduction of five thousand slot machines under a monopolistic scheme that will benefit out of state gambling interests. Brian Beihl, Field Organizer for CasiNO Free N H chided promises of revenue sharing between the state and its cities and towns saying the proposed amounts were relatively small and done to, ahem, entice fence sitting reps to vote for the bill.  Beihl emphasizes that there are no revenue guarantees in the bill and that slot machine revenue has dropped for twenty three of the last twenty four months in Connecticut.  He also said that the revenue projections provided by the gambling lobby were quote “preposterous,” unquote. Gambling opponents say the broken revenue promises in state after state are reason enough to tell your state representative that opening casinos in New Hampshire just isn’t worth it. We’ve linked to their listing of state reps so you can get their phone number and make your call.  The Greater Manchester Chamber of Commerce announced its opposition to expanded gambling fearing it would siphon off discretionary consumer spending that would otherwise be spent on local restaurant and entertainment venues.  The Manchester Board of Mayor and Aldermen has asked for what’s been referred to as the Verizon Amendment to protect the arena from the predatory competition practices of casinos that have devastated other arenas of its kind across the country.

BPD:  Active shooter trainiing

BPD: Active shooter training

Motorists in Bedford are being urged to avoid the area of County and Nashua roads today.  The Bedford Police Department and other law enforcement agencies will be conducting a so called live shooter training exercise at the complex encompassing Bedford High and the Ross A. Lurgio Middle School.  Town residents should to expect to see an enormous amount of emergency response personnel in the are from roughly seven this morning to three this after noon and should not be alarmed or concerned.  The high school-middle school complex will be closed except for pre-approved activities in connection with this training exercise from seven to three.  Police in Merrimack also issued a notice to their town residents about the exercise.  School district administrators deny organizing the exercise to intimidate There is no truth to the rumor that law enforcement is conducting the exercise at the request of school district administrators to intimidate parents demanding an investigation into the legality of a salacious student survey recently given to students without informed consent.

News from our own backyard continues after this

The Goffstown School District has a new Director of Special Education and her name is Salina Millora.  Millora will handle

Pepino:  Problems with G-Town special ed.

Pepino:  Problems with G-Town special ed.

special education services for the towns of Goffstown and New Boston.  While we don’t normally run personnel hirings of this sort as news items, we’ve done so here as special education has been a really sore subject for parents whose children attend school in S A U nineteen.  We’ve received any number of complaints, including an interview with Goffstown Resident Diana Pepino who had to leave her husband and son in Goffstown to move to a temporary home in Weare with her daughter to escape what she said was an environment that was unresponsive and hostile to her daughter, who suffers from Complex Regional Pain Syndrome.  Superintendent Brian Balke said Millora quote, “is the consummate professional.  She is a dynamic combination of intelligence, empathy, and leadership.  We are very pleased she will be continuing with our team to support our students, families, and schools.”  Millora is a former attorney whose focus was on juvenile and family law and teacher.  The district’s release said her legal and teaching background would underlie a child centered approach.  Millora will continue to serve as the district’s Out of District Coordinator.  Balke said the appointment will result in the elimination of the Assistant Superintendent for Student Services position, which is notable in and of itself.  We’ve uploaded the release for your review.

On Friday, we brought your attention to a story published in the Washington Post featuring our very own Senator Jeanne Shaheen Health Care

Shaheen:  Smoke signals worked, news ads running.

Shaheen: Smoke signals worked, new ads running.

Queen and, ahem, questionable campaign practices.  That story identified an interesting and probably illegal practice of campaigns posting what appeared to be scripts and high quality publicity photos for thirty second T V commercials begging for an outside third party group to produce them.  Well, be not disappointed my friends, for as we were delivering the news, The Senate Majority PAC, the “super pac” run by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid was making a rather large buy on channel nine to air a commercial that used the script posted to Shaheen’s reelection Web site.  Funny how that happens.  The Republican State Committee has filed a complaint with the Federal Elections Commission against Shaheen, her campaign, the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee and The Senate Majority PAC alleging illegal coordination, among other things.  We’ve posted it here for your review at Girard at Large dot com.  We’ve also posted the most recent salvo fired at the matter by G O P Chair Jennifer Horn.

That’s news from our own backyard, Girard at Large hour ___ is straight ahead!