Also on today’s menu:
Broader Voting Access
Kremlin Counters US ‘Aggression’
New Hampshire State Police report a fatal crash on Monday, January 24, that killed a Colebrook man and sent a 20-year-old Salisbury woman to Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center with serious injuries.
According to police, Dennis Hyde, 68, of Colebrook, operating a 2014 Toyota Tundra, crossed the center line on Route 3 in Columbia around 3:41 p.m., crashing head-on into a 2006 Chevrolet Trailblazer operated by Danielle Remillard, 20, of Salisbury.
First responders gave Hyde medical attention, but he was pronounced dead at the scene. Remillard initially was taken to Upper Connecticut Valley Hospital in Colebrook, but later was flown to Dartmouth-Hitchcock for further treatment.
There also were several snowmobile crashes over the weekend, including one in which Casey Bourque, 43, of Sanbornton, operating on a trail near Prospect Street in Bethlehem, lost control of the machine and struck a telephone pole. He was taken to Littleton Regional Hospital and then transferred to Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center in Lebanon.
Broader Voting Access
Senate Minority Leader Donna Soucy (D-Manchester), prime sponsor of Senate Bill 427, spoke on the piece of legislation during a hearing before the Senate Election Law and Municipal Affairs Committee on Monday. The bill would make permanent the voting provisions enacted for the 2020 election due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Soucy said the changes that allowed the use of absentee ballots proved to be successful, producing the largest voter turnout in state history, with more than 814,000 ballots cast, and three times the normal volume of absentee ballots. The temporary change, which had bipartisan support at the time, allowed voters to choose whether to vote in person or by mail without having to meet the current requirements to justify use of an absentee ballot. Her bill also would allow election officials to begin processing absentee ballots ahead of time to speed up the counting on Election Day.
“That was an opportunity to test some of these ways to modernize the election process,” Soucy said. “This would codify in law the ability to vote absentee without having to give a delineated excuse.”
Kremlin Counters US ‘Aggression’
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has blamed the United States for “building up tension” over Ukraine following the Pentagon’s decision to put 8,500 troops on high alert for possible deployment to Europe.
Moscow has maintained that its troop buildup along the Ukrainian border is in response to NATO’s expansion into the countries making up the former Soviet Union, and the United States’ expanded deployment of military weapons in the region. The U.S. maintains that Russia is looking to take over Ukraine and that additional troops may need to be deployed to counter the offensive.
On Tuesday, Russia launched new military exercises involving short-range ballistic missile units, with Peskov saying Russia was closely watching U.S. moves. “We are observing these actions of the United States with profound concern,” Peskov said.
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