Also on today’s menu:
Newfound Board Seeks More Info On HB 349
Google Settlement Gives NH $1.8 Million
Trailer Detaches And Causes Crash In Swanzey
Belknap County jail inmate James A. Gillette, 42, is facing additional charges after allegedly attacking a sheriff’s deputy during a medical visit to Concord Hospital-Laconia, attempting to take the deputy’s gun during an apparent attempt to escape. The deputy was struck repeatedly in the head and body, according Chief Deputy James McIntire, who said, “At some point during the attack, [the deputy] was assisted by nursing staff. After the nursing staff and lone deputy subdued Gillette, the former combatants were assessed for injuries.”
Gillette was one of three men taken into custody two weeks ago when the Belknap Special Operations Group assisted the Belmont Police Department in executing arrest warrants at 10 Range Road, Belmont. Gillette had been charged with criminal threatening with deadly weapon. Jason Macleod, 43, was arrested on a fugitive from justice charge for theft in Maine, and Chad Renn, 38, was arrested on four bench warrants.
Superintendent Adam Cunningham said Gillette was classified as a maximum-security inmate at the Belknap County Department of Corrections jail prior to his escape attempt, but only one corrections officer was assigned to accompany Gillette to the hospital due to the medical nature of the trip. McIntire said, “They had one corrections officer with him at the hospital. They asked for us to come and relieve them, so there was no indication he was difficult or high-risk. Our deputy would have gone to the hospital to assist with an inmate and not even know who was up there and relieved a single corrections officer.”
Gillette now faces four second-degree assault charges, three charges of taking a gun from an officer, one charge of resisting arrest, and one charge of attempted escape.
Newfound Board Seeks More Info On HB 349
Members of the Newfound Area School Board are struggling to reach a consensus on how to respond to a legislative bill that would allow voters in Bridgewater, Groton, and Hebron to decide whether to leave the cooperative school district and form their own special-purpose district. Superintendent Pierre Couture is asking all parties to attend the next school board meeting, on March 27, to give everyone a chance to ask their questions and hear from the bill’s proponents.
New Hampton school board member Fran Wendelboe, who was defeated in the most recent election, said she did not care whether the towns left, but objected to the four-year window for a decision, designed to give the towns time to develop a workable plan. She urged the school board to lobby the state senate to amend the bill to give the towns only until September to make a decision.
The towns are considering converting the Bridgewater-Hebron Village School, which currently is leased to the Newfound Area School District for $1 a year, into a kindergarten-Grade 8 facility and tuitioning older students to another district such as Newfound. Couture opposed the withdrawal bill, saying, “I just want to point out what our middle school has to offer and how difficult that might be to replicate in a K-8 building.”
Google Settlement Gives NH $1.8 Million
What the State of New Hampshire does not raise in taxes it is able to collect through legal settlements with tobacco, chemical, and drug companies and, now, with the high-tech industry. A $9 million settlement from Google following a lawsuit by a group of five attorneys-general will send about $1.8 million to the Granite State.
The lawsuit focused on how Google has misled consumers since at least 2014 about its location-tracking practices. The attorneys-general argued that Google violated state consumer protection laws by creating confusion about account settings that limit Google’s location tracking through “Location History” and “Web & App Activity.”
New Hampshire Attorney-General John Formella said, “Transparency regarding the way that large technology companies like Google track, share, and use the personal data of its users is critically important. Consumers need to be able to understand how their location data will be used before making the conscious decision to utilize services and products. This settlement will go a long way to ensure that Granite Staters have transparency and control over how Google tracks and maintains their location data.”
Google now must provide additional information on location-related account settings for “on” and “off” and no longer hide key information about location tracking. It must provide detailed information about the types of location data Google collects and how it is used at an enhanced “Location Technologies” web page. Users must have the ability to disable a location-related account setting and delete the location information stored without having to navigate to separate web pages, and location information that is collected must be deleted after 30 days.
Trailer Detaches And Causes Crash In Swanzey
The trailer of a 2017 Freightliner tractor-trailer unit detached as the vehicle was pulling onto Route 10 from an Irving gas station in Swanzey on March 21, traveling across the turning lane and coming to rest in the northbound lane of West Swanzey Road. A 2013 Mack dump truck collided with the detached trailer, then, while both drivers were out of their vehicles, calling to report the incident, a 2012 Ford Escape collided with the back of the dump truck.
The vehicle’s operator sustained minor injuries and was transported to a hospital, while both the sports utility vehicle and the dump truck were towed from the scene. The trailer was reattached to the tractor and moved out of the roadway.
Roadside inspection of the tractor-trailer unit revealed that the trailer had not been properly connected prior to the crash.
Café Chatter
On Scam Alert: Actually Tom, the gift card doesn't appear to be a scam. In NH Eversource is the delivery provider, and in my case Direct Energy is the company I purchase the power portion. If you currently have Eversource for both delivery and purchase, then in the case of the gift card, they are simply identifying you as a current Eversource customer inviting you to change to their service to purchase your power at a lower rate and get a gift card after 6 months. Examine your KWH rate on your Eversource energy portion and compare it to their KWH rate, most likely it is lower. Remember, Eversource will remain the deliverer over their system even if you purchase from a different provider. On my Direct Energy bill it always shows both and clearly identifies which portion is charged by which provider for delivery and purchase of the power.
— Pete Burwen
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