Also on today’s menu:
Federal Funds Could Help Mill City Park
NH Secretary of State Awaits Advice On Section Three
Coup In Gabon Places President Under House Arrest
Hurricane Idalia reached Florida’s Gulf Coast as a Category 3 storm early this morning, bringing catastrophic winds of 125 mph as it moved ashore at Keaton Beach in the Big Bend area, where the panhandle meets the peninsula. No major hurricanes on record have ever passed through the bay abutting the Big Bend. A Category 3 storm is considered to be a major hurricane and it is projected to cross Florida and hit the coasts of Georgia and South Carolina, bringing floods, tornadoes, and destruction.
The National Weather Service says the storm surge could rise as high as 15 feet in some places. Idalia is expected to weaken as it moves inland but still could be a hurricane as it moves across southern Georgia and reaches the Carolinas. Both Georgia Governor Brian Kemp and South Carolina Governor Henry McMaster announced states of emergency, freeing up state resources and personnel, including hundreds of National Guard troops.
President Joe Biden said he had spoken to Florida Governor Ron DeSantis on Tuesday and “provided him with everything that he possibly needs.” Biden is expected to give a speech at 1:45 p.m. today at the White House to outline the federal resources that will be deployed to support the state’s response and recovery efforts.
Federal Funds Could Help Mill City Park
New Hampshire’s congressional delegation has succeeded in getting a proposal through the committee level to earmark $2.5 million for help in completing Franklin’s Mill City Park, placing it in the upcoming federal budget, according to City Manager Judy Milner. While still not secured, the money would go toward the two-thirds of the park still to be completed.
Milner told the Laconia Daily Sun that Senator Jeanne Shaheen had approached her to see what the federal government could do for the Three-River City. “We talked about it as a group, and read the rules which said absolutely no town offices, so we couldn’t put in [the Franklin Opera House], so we went with the whitewater park,” Milner said.
Prior to now, Milner had hoped to include the money for the whitewater park in a proposed $20 million bond she will put before the Franklin City Council. Between Milner’s approach to the bond — asking for bond authority without being specific about how the money would be used — and the impact such borrowing would have on taxation, there has been a great deal of opposition from the public. Many have recognized the need to address highway repairs and bringing the Franklin Opera House up to current safety standards, but objected to providing money to the whitewater park, which has been funded by private donations and grants with a promise that no tax dollars would go to the park.
The city had attempted to secure a $1.9 million Economic Development Administration grant for the whitewater park that would allow Franklin to seek an additional grant through the Community Development Finance Authority, but the EDA grant was not approved.
Residents said the city should at least break up the projects, rather than going for all the money at one time, but Milner said she wanted to do a single bond for “the economy of scale, due to the costs associated with initiating individual bonds.”
NH Secretary of State Awaits Advice On Section Three
The New Hampshire Secretary of State’s Office and the Attorney General’s Office are weighing the legal issues associated with Section Three of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution with regard to Donald Trump’s candidacy for the presidency.
Section Three states, “No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice-President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any State, who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any State legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any State, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof. But Congress may by a vote of two-thirds of each House, remove such disability.”
The Secretary of State’s Office has taken no position Trump’s eligibility to be a candidate for the Republican nomination for president in 2024, saying it is waiting for legal advice from the Attorney General’s Office regarding the meaning of Section Three and its potential applicability to the upcoming presidential election.
Trump is facing 91 felony charges surrounding his efforts to overturn the 2020 election results, but he has not yet been convicted on any of those charges. A federal judge in Washington, D.C., has set a trial date for March 4, 2024, in the special counsel’s case against him — a date that falls one day before Super Tuesday, when 15 states will hold primaries or caucuses for the Republican presidential nomination.
Coup In Gabon Places President Under House Arrest
Military leaders in Gabon, a country on the Western coast of Africa that is known for its rich natural resources, have seized power and placed President Ali Bongo, 64, under house arrest after election results showed that Bongo had been re-elected with two-thirds of the votes cast.
Bongo, a freemason and football fan who released a funk music album in the 1970s, was elected in 2009 after the death of his father, Omar Bongo Ondimba, who had ruled the country for 41 years.
The coup leaders contested this month’s election, claiming that Albert Ondo Ossa had won, and that there had been widespread vote-rigging.
More than a third of Gabon’s population lives in poverty in a country roughly the size of the United Kingdom. Ninety percent of the country is covered by forests.
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