Also on today’s menu:
No ‘Salmon Sunday’ This Year
Education Freedom Money To Be Released
During the coronavirus pandemic, the places most likely to see outbreaks that result in multiple deaths are nursing homes and other healthcare facilities, crowded restaurants and bars, and other large gathering-places. Vaccines have reduced those numbers, and the federal government is now asking those facilities, and any business with more than 100 employees, to require vaccinations to protect the health of workers.
On Nov. 10, New Hampshire Attorney General John M. Formella announced that the Granite State has joined the states of Missouri, Nebraska, Arkansas, Kansas, Iowa, Wyoming, Alaska, South Dakota, and North Dakota in filing a lawsuit against the federal government for imposing its vaccine mandate on all workers at healthcare facilities that receive Medicare or Medicaid funding. Governor Chris Sununu justified the lawsuit by saying, “We have heard from long-term care facilities that are at risk of shutting down if this mandate goes through,” adding, “This lawsuit can help stop another overreaching mandate in its tracks, avoiding a catastrophic workforce and care crisis for some of our State’s most vulnerable residents.”
Indeed, many healthcare workers — as well as public safety officials and others — are quitting their jobs over vaccine mandates, despite the evidence that the vaccines are safe and effective, as Formella admitted in his statement. “[T]he State understands that many healthcare facilities have or will voluntarily implement a vaccine mandate for their employees,” he said. “Unfortunately, the new mandate issued by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services was not adopted in conformance with the law and would force a vaccine mandate on every worker in every healthcare facility that receives Medicare or Medicaid funding. We are once again obligated to take action to protect the State from this illegal mandate and the burden it would place on our already-strained healthcare workers and facilities.”
No ‘Salmon Sunday’ This Year
For several decades, the New Hampshire Fish and Game Department’s Inland Fisheries Division has held an event known as Salmon Sunday at the Pope Dam on the Melvin River in Tuftonborough. Traditionally taking place on the first Sunday after Veterans’ Day, it has provided an opportunity for people to learn about the Granite State’s landlocked salmon fishery by participating in a spawning event. Under the supervision of fisheries biologists, they get a chance to extract eggs from large adult female salmon and fertilize their eggs with milt from mature male salmon.
Inland Fisheries Chief Dianne Timmins announced that this year’s Salmon Sunday has been cancelled. “In an effort to expand the educational experience of Salmon Sunday, we are making some changes and plan to bring the event back next year,” she said.
Traditionally, Salmon Sunday has attracted as many as 200 people.
Education Freedom Money To Be Released
New Hampshire’s Education Freedom Accounts will release its first grants this month to 1,635 children. The grants, administered by the Children’s Scholarship Fund NH, will allow low-income students to attend private schools, religious schools, alternative education programs, or homeschools.
“Education Freedom Accounts provide families with the flexibility to thrive while using customized learning, tutoring services, career schools, technical schools, homeschooling, and non-public and private schools to enhance and personalize academic experiences,” Education Commissioner Frank Edelblut told members of the Education Freedom Account Oversight Committee on Tuesday. “This is a true milestone for New Hampshire, especially since the pandemic created a clear demand for new and expansive educational options.”
Edelblut noted that the amount taxpayers are spending for Education Freedom Accounts is $4,952 per student, while taxpayer spending for public schools averages around $20,000 per student. Opponents, however, claim that the education vouchers will harm public schools by taking away the funding they would receive if the students remained in those schools.
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