Also on today’s menu:
Maine Man Arrested For School Shooting Threat
State Senate Kills Science-Based Landfill Siting Bill
Massachusetts Man Charged In Document Release
Our former colleague from The Citizen, John Koziol, reports that repair crews from the New Hampshire Department of Transportation will be working well into the day to repair damage from a beaver dam on Meredith Neck, upslope from the Kitts Crossing subdivision.
According to Brent Medas, the patrol foreman for the Meredith NHDOT sector, an area resident heard what sounded like a torrential downpour about 2:30 a.m. on April 13, and realized that the noise was that of water rushing downhill. The torrent washed out a culvert and buckled the asphalt, leaving as much as three-foot-deep depressions on Meredith Neck Road.
The beaver dam has been there for a long time, having collapsed once about a dozen years ago. Medas commented, “Everybody has their problems with beavers.”
Maine Man Arrested For School Shooting Threat
Kyle Hendrickson, 25, of Portland, Maine, is facing a Class B felony charge of criminal threatening with a firearm after allegedly threatening to “shoot up the school” in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. A tip to the Portsmouth Police Department around 6 p.m. on April 12 led police and the superintendent of schools to cancel classes at Portsmouth High School on April 13 while authorities investigated the threat.
Hendrickson had made a video while inside a vehicle parked in front of Portsmouth High School, showing a gun. A message on the video said, “Imma gonna shoot up the school.”
The police investigation led to a residence in Portland where, in collaboration with the Portland Police Department, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms, officers took Hendrickson into custody, holding him as a fugitive from justice until he could be brought to New Hampshire for trial.
In an apparently unrelated development, Rochester Middle School Principal Ryan Gilpatrick canceled today’s classes, citing a “life safety situation” in a message to parents.
State Senate Kills Science-Based Landfill Siting Bill
For the second year in a row, the New Hampshire Legislature has killed a bill that would have established a scientific method of determining how far a landfill should be from bodies of water to protect them from pollution. While House Bill 56 had passed the House of Representatives, the Senate killed it on a voice vote on April 13.
The bill would have required applicants seeking to open a new solid waste landfill to hire an independent hydrogeologist to estimate the seepage velocity of groundwater based on geological deposits and bedrock. The setback distance would have to be sufficient to prevent any contaminated groundwater from the landfill from reaching any perennial river, lake, or coastal water of New Hampshire within five years.
The current setback distance is an arbitrary 200 feet. If the landfill is situated in a gravel pit, as is the current Bethlehem landfill, contamination can reach a waterway in a matter of hours or days. A provision of HB 56 would exempt existing landfills from the setback requirement.
Michael Wimsatt of the Department of Environmental Services had testified against the bill, saying it needed more study because it did not define “sand and gravel” and therefore would be difficult to enforce.
Senate Republicans said they prefer Senate Bill 61, which has passed in the Senate and is being considered in the House, setting up a study and providing money to hire an outside firm to assist in developing appropriate legislation.
Massachusetts Man Charged In Document Release
The FBI has arrested Jack Teixeira, 21, of Dighton, Massachusetts, in connection with the leak of classified U.S. military documents. Teixeira was the leader of an online chat group where the documents first emerged before being shared widely through social media. The leaked documents revealed U.S. assessments of the war in Ukraine as well as sensitive secrets about American allies.
Teixeira, an IT specialist in the intelligence wing of the Massachusetts National Guard, based at Otis Air National Guard Base on Cape Cod, is facing charges for the unauthorized removal and transmission of classified information and is scheduled to appear in court today in Boston, Massachusetts.
While Teixeira is said to have expressed a skepticism of government, his friends doubted that he was either a whistleblower or a foreign agent.
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