Also on today’s menu:
Former Police Chief Wins Settlement In His Firing
Sanders Takes On Amazon Warehouse Dangers
Veterans Lose Supreme Court Appeal For Benefits
Senators David Watters (D-Dover) and Kevin Avard (R-Nashua) managed to bring together two senate bills in a compromise that will set aside $200,000 to hire a company to suggest criteria for evaluating landfill setbacks, and places a two-year moratorium on any new landfill permits to give the firm time to develop that plan. It allows a 90-day extension to the moratorium if more time is needed.
“All the departments, the Senate and the House, and, of course, the executive branch came together and a decision was made,” Avard said of the agreement reached on June 20. It combines Senate Bill 61 and House Bill 211 into a new SB 61, which will go to Governor Chris Sununu’s desk for his signature.
Watters commented, “[T]he work of Mark Sanborn [Assistant Commissioner of the Department of Environmental Services] was just fabulous and it meant we got a really good bill through and that we solved a problem that we have been struggling with this for five years now. I really hope that people see this as an extraordinarily good-faith effort on the part of DES and the legislature to deal with a very tough issue about landfills.”
The legislature has been discussing the enactment of stricter controls on the siting of landfills ever since Casella Waste Systems applied for a permit to build a landfill near Forest Lake State Park in Dalton. The current setback is 200 feet from a water body, and the last two years’ efforts have focused on making sure that there would be adequate time to address a toxic leak before pollutants reached waterways. Mike Wimsatt of DES, who is in charge of the solid waste bureau, was among those opposing the efforts to impose a scientifically based determination of seepage rates that would ensure a five-year window to deal with a leak.
Former Police Chief Wins Settlement In His Firing
Municipal insurer Primex has agreed to a cash settlement of $187,500 in former Plaistow police chief Doug Mullin’s lawsuit against the town. Selectmen fired Mullin for allegedly assaulting another officer in the Plaistow Police Station, but Mullin claimed in his lawsuit that he was fired for political reasons.
The New Hampshire Attorney General’s Public Integrity Unit had found insufficient evidence to bring criminal charges against Mullin for the alleged assault, but the state recommended that the town conduct further investigation into the department. The town hired Municipal Resources Inc. to review the department, and the firm cited several problems, leading selectmen to terminate Mullin’s employment in October 2021.
The 2022 lawsuit sought to return Mullin to his position with back pay.
Sanders Takes On Amazon Warehouse Dangers
Senator Bernie Sanders announced that the U.S. Congress has initiated an investigation into Amazon warehouses after the Strategic Organizing Center, using government data, found that the company’s 2022 injury rate was 70 percent higher than the rate at non-Amazon warehouses. Sanders called Amazon one of America’s “most dangerous” employers.
Amazon spokesman Steve Kelly said the company has invested more than $1 billion in safety improvements since 2019, and had reduced injuries in the United States by 23 percent. “We take the safety and health of our employees very seriously. There will always be ways to improve, but we’re proud of the progress we’ve made,” he said.
The U.S. Labor Department has issued a string of citations, which Amazon has appealed, over the conditions at some of its warehouses, warning of “ergonomic hazards” from the pace at which the staff is required to process orders.
Sanders is head of the Senate committee charged with overseeing labor laws, and his probe of Amazon could also lead to a hearing at which the company would be forced to testify.
Veterans Lose Supreme Court Appeal For Benefits
A federal appeals court had rejected the class-action claims of veterans seeking benefits from illness they claim was due to radiation exposure during the recovery and cleanup of undetonated bombs while responding to a Cold War-era hydrogen bomb accident in Palomares, a village in southern Spain, in 1966. The Supreme Court rejected their appeal without comment on June 20.
Leading the appeal was Victor Skaar of Nixa, Missouri, an Air Force veteran in his mid-80s who suffers from leukopenia, a condition that can be caused by exposure to radiation. Skaar also has had skin cancer which is in remission. His illness was not covered by last year’s legislation that expands eligibility for benefits for many Palomares veterans.
The hydrogen bomb accident occurred on January 17, 1966, when a nuclear-armed U.S. B-52 bomber and a refueling plane crashed into each other over Palomares, killing seven of 11 crew members. Considered the worst radiation accident in U.S. history, the country sent 1,400 service members to Palomares to help clean up the wreckage.
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