Also on today’s menu:
Committee Recommends Sending Mental Health Info To FBI
Trump Attacked TikTok, Now Supports It
The New Hampshire Director of Administrative Services, Charlie Arlinghaus, recommended in the fall of 2022 that the state sell the former Laconia State School property to developer Robynne Alexander, without looking into her background, which is part of his job. It was only after reporter Ann-Marie Timmons did the work for him, finding a history of property tax liens, lawsuits from investors, and failure to complete much smaller projects, that the Executive Council and the city of Laconia questioned Arlinghaus’ decision. Nevertheless, Arlinghaus persuaded the Executive Council to approve the $21.5 million sale in December 2022, and Alexander formed Legacy Laconia, LLC, to oversee the redevelopment of the property.
The sale was slated to close in September 2023, but had to be rescheduled to November, then January, then March 13. Now the closing has been postponed yet again, to the first week of April.
All of the title issues holding up the sale have been resolved, allowing Legacy Laconia to proceed with plans to build residences, a hotel, and retail facilities on the property. The current sticking point is Alexander’s ability to secure the necessary financing. Scott Tranchemontagne, speaking for Alexander, says, “We have proposed closing during the first week of April so our lender can complete its processes, some of which could not happen until we reached this point.”
Lenders may have other reasons for holding off on financing: As Timmons notes in the New Hampshire Bulletin, Alexander experienced two foreclosures last year. Executive Councilor Joe Kenney, who has supported her so far, said it will ultimately be up to Governor Chris Sununu to decide if and when to end negotiations with Alexander and look at other options.
Discussion: Preparations for the sale have been complicated, involving the discontinuation of public roads, easements for snowmobile trails, and addressing access to Ahern State Park; but much of the blame for the delays falls on Arlinghaus’ shoulders and, by extension, to Governor Chris Sununu. The governor had grown impatient with the slow progress by the legislatively created Lakeshore Redevelopment Planning Commission, which was working through all the concerns with the property that would need to be addressed in preparation for a sale. Sununu wanted a quick sale and seized control, placing redevelopment in the hands of his appointee, Arlinghaus, who had budgetary expertise but little background in the complicated range of duties under Administrative Services’ purview.
Committee Recommends Sending Mental Health Info To FBI
New Hampshire is one of the few states that does not share data about people who have been involuntarily committed to psychiatric facilities or found incompetent to stand trial to the FBI’s gun background check database. House Bill 1711 would change that, and the House Criminal Justice Committee has recommended its passage, 18-2.
John Madore’s killing of security guard Bradley Haas, a former Franklin police chief, has brought the concerns to the fore. Madore had been an inpatient at the facility.
Committee Chair Terry Roy (R-Deerfield) said, “As all you know, I’m one of the staunchest Second Amendment defenders in the House,” but he could not support the idea of someone with a serious mental illness purchasing a gun in the state. “I don’t know how I could tell the family of Chief Haas or any of my constituents, I think it's okay that they can buy guns.”
Discussion: There are valid concerns about sharing otherwise confidential information that could, in the words of Representative David Meuse (D-Portsmouth), “stigmatize people who are already victimized and stigmatized enough,” but when there is a danger that they might injure or kill someone else, those concerns are misplaced. The bill does provide for a psychiatrist evaluating such a person to petition the court for their name to be removed from the FBI database.
Trump Attacked TikTok, Now Supports It
Donald Trump had it right, but faced ridicule while in office, when he raised concerns about the popular app TikTok. The app collects user data that could be used for tracking, infecting devices, and hacking users’ credentials. Of even more concern is China’s National Intelligence law which requires that all companies, organizations, and citizens “support, assist, and cooperate with national intelligence efforts.” Because TikTok owner ByteDance is based in China, it must comply if it or its employees receive a request to cooperate with Chinese spying efforts; otherwise they would face significant penalties and potential jail time. Beijing requires commercial companies to maintain “backdoors” that allow the government to access data for “public security and intelligence-gathering”.
ByteDance already has used private data to track US journalists, and, since Hamas’ October 7 attack on Israel, TikTok has been boosting pro-Hamas propaganda and suppressing pro-Israel posts. TikTok now serves as the primary source of news for young Americans, which means that the Chinese Communist Party can control the information they receive.
The House of Representatives has now passed a bill that would force ByteDance to sell the social media app to a party not affiliated with China and, if such a sale does not occur in six months, TikTok would be banned in the US.
TikTok has been lobbying against the change, urging users to contact their congressional delegation to oppose the measure. Also now lobbying against the legislation is former president Donald Trump.
Discussion: Trump’s about-face could simply be a case of not wanting to support anything that Democrats support, but observers have noted that his new stance occurred just after he met with Jeff Yass, who has a $21 billion investment in ByteDance — an amount that makes up the majority of his estimated $28 billion net worth. Yass was a major backer of Vivek Ramaswamy’s presidential bid, and Ramswamy relaxed his anti-TikTok stance after Yass started writing him checks. Representative Mike Gallagher (R-Wisconsin), chair of the House Select Committee on China, observed, “Trump rightly saw the threat posed by CCP control of TikTok when he was president, and he rightly tried to take action to fix it. And he was wrongly criticized by the media.” Gallagher would not speculate on Trump’s reason for opposing a solution now.