Also on today’s menu:
Voter Fraud In Conway
Inflation Stalls In July
‘Biggest Challenge To The World’
Today at 2 p.m., Attorney-General John M. Formella, Manchester Police Chief Allen D. Aldenberg, and United States Marshal Enoch F. Willard will provide an update on the investigation into the 2019 disappearance of Harmony Montgomery.
Harmony disappeared in late 2019 when she was five years old. She had been living with her father, Adam Montgomery, in Manchester. He is now facing several charges, including failure to have Harmony in his custody, but he has not been charged in her disappearance. Her stepmother, Kayla Montgomery, also has faced arrests.
In June, authorities went through an apartment, removing a number of items, including a refrigerator. In January, law enforcement searched a home on Guilford Street, Manchester.
Meanwhile, truck driver Volodomyr Zhukovskyy, 26, who was acquitted on all charges relating to the deaths of seven motorcyclists in June 2021, has been taken into custody by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. It turns out that ICE had placed an immigration detainer for Zhukovskyy, a Ukrainian citizen who resided in West Springfield, Massachusetts, with the Coos County Department of Corrections jail in West Stewartstown shortly after the crash. That detainer explains why a judge repeatedly denied bail during the three years that Zhukovskyy was awaiting a trial in the case of “Fallen Seven,” members of the Jarheads Motorcycle Club.
ICE issued a news release, stating, “Zhukovskyy has an extensive criminal history including three prior convictions of charges that included possession of cocaine and heroin, possession of drug paraphernalia, driving under suspension, furnishing false information to an officer, and larceny.”
Zhukovskyy was taken into ICE custody at the Grafton County Department of Corrections jail in North Haverhill, pending his appearance before an immigration judge. ICE lodges detainers on individuals who have been arrested on criminal charges and who ICE “has probable cause to believe” are removable noncitizens.
Voter Fraud In Conway
Attorney-General John Formella also announced charges against Scott Kudrick, 50, of Norwell, Massachusetts, following his arrest on August 10. Kudrick faces one felony count and three misdemeanor counts for wrongful voting.
Authorities allege that Kubrick submitted a voter registration form in the April 13, 2021, Conway town election, that falsely claimed he resided in Conway when, in fact, his domicile was in Norwell, Massachusetts. The Class B felony charge alleges that Kudrick voted in a New Hampshire election when he was not qualified to vote; one of the misdemeanor charges alleges that Kudrick submitted a voter registration form containing false material information regarding his qualifications as a voter; and two misdemeanor charges allege that Kudrick made false statements in filling out and submitting election paperwork.
Class B felony charges carry a penalty range of 3½ to seven years in prison and a fine of up $2,000. Class A misdemeanor charges carry a maximum penalty of up to one year in prison and a $2,000 fine. Anyone convicted of a willful violation of the state's election laws loses the right to vote in New Hampshire.
Inflation Stalls In July
Lower prices for gasoline are responsible for the stalling of inflation during July, and core inflation — which excludes the volatile areas of food and energy — dropped significantly for the first time in months. Wholesale prices fell for the first time in two years.
However, inflation for the year remains at 8.5 percent, the highest in decades.
Still, the news led to gains in the stock market, amidst hopes that the Federal Reserve will not be as aggressive in raising interest rates. Central-bank officials have increased interest rates in recent months, raising borrowing costs, to slow demand and stabilize prices. Fed Chairman Jerome Powell has repeatedly said he is more concerned about the risk of failing to stamp out high inflation than about the possibility of raising rates too high and pushing the economy into a recession.
‘Biggest Challenge To The World’
ESET, a software company specializing in cybersecurity, addressed “the biggest challenge for the world since World War II” during a presentation at the Black Hat security conference. Robert Lipovsky, the principal threat intelligence researcher at ESET, said they had traced the lineage of the Industroyer2 malware to a 2013 attack on the Ukrainian power grid using the BlackEnergy malware — “the first-ever blackout caused by a cyberattack.”
Industroyer malware is designed to cause physical damage to industrial hardware. During Russia’s invasion of Ukraine this year, ESET spotted a new version of the malware, dubbed Industroyer2, and while the attack was thwarted, Lipovsky said, “Had the attack been successful, theoretically more than 2 million people could have been left in the dark. In our opinion, this was the most significant cyberattack, even if unsuccessful, in the war thus far.”
The malware uses industrial protocols that can communicate with the circuit breakers and other mechanisms in power substations. Those protocols, used in many power grids, are vulnerable because they were designed decades ago without focusing on security.
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