Also on today’s menu:
New Hampshire Opposes ‘Environmental Justice’ Position
Mugshot Captures The Essence Of Donald Trump
Putin Denies Involvement In Plane Crash
Homelessness has become an insurmountable problem. Communities complain when people without shelter camp out in wooded areas, under bridges, or in alleys, but they are unwilling to compromise on regulations designed to protect the interests of those who are able to afford their own homes, even if they hinder efforts to provide affordable housing. The way density and parking requirements contribute to the problem was on display in Laconia this week when the zoning board of adjustment denied Lakes Region Community Developers’ request for a parking variance that would have allowed the organization to replace a burned-down home at 17-19 Bay Street with a building offering a dozen single-occupancy efficiency apartments for people who make less than $20,000 per year.
The proposed 6,000-square-foot building would be placed on a lot slightly larger than a quarter-acre, with little space for parking. To address that issue, the LRCD proposed designating six parking spaces there and six in the LRCD parking lot, a short distance away. That would satisfy the 12 spaces required by the zoning ordinance, but, as Executive Director Carmen Lorentz noted, normal parking requirements do not line up with the needs of those who would be living there, since perhaps 10 percent of the residents would own cars.
The zoning board noted that the LRCD office itself is out of compliance with parking requirements because it has 12 parking spaces instead of the 14 required, based on square footage. Lorentz said that also does not match the need, as only a handful of employees park there, and not all at the same time.
Lorentz said that, in order to make housing projects viable, some flexibility in regulations is necessary. It was an accommodation the zoning board was not willing to make.
New Hampshire Opposes ‘Environmental Justice’ Position
Governor Chris Sununu and twelve New Hampshire legislators have written to Robert Ludlow, chief financial and compliance officer of Independent System Operators New England, the group charged with ensuring reliability and overseeing competitive wholesale electricity markets in New England, to oppose the creation of an executive-level environmental justice position.
Five states have supported the creation of the position but, while “New Hampshire believes that ISO New England should be well-staffed to fulfill its functions, such a position would represent a wasteful expense to accommodate policy goals that fall outside of ISO New England’s mandate,” Sununu wrote in a letter also signed by Senate President Jeb Bradley, House Speaker Sherman Packard, Senate Majority Leader Sharon Carson, House Majority Leader Jason Osborne, senators Kevin Avard, Howard Pearl, and Regina Birdsell, and representatives Michael Vose, Douglas Thomas, Jeanine Notter, Michael Harrington, and Troy Merner.
“We cannot lose our focus in order to accommodate policy choices designed to compel progressive societal change,” the letter continued. “We are disappointed with the decisions of the other New England states to continue to prioritize expensive social policy over ratepayer affordability. When Governor Sununu met with other northeast governors in Washington, D.C., in February, it appeared there was the universal agreement among the governors that reliability and cost needed to be our priority. … Unfortunately, we are afraid that we are heading down a path of only paying lip service to electric reliability and affordability while aggressively pursuing cost-raising environmental justice policies and carbon taxes.”
Mugshot Captures The Essence Of Donald Trump
In newspaper parlance, a mugshot is any head-and-shoulders photograph of someone, and there have been many such photos of former president Donald Trump. On August 24, however, Trump submitted to a genuine mugshot when he turned himself in on charges of scheming to overturn the 2020 election in Georgia. He was released on $200,000 bond and headed back to the airport for his return flight home to New Jersey.
Joyce Vance observed, “while Trump undoubtedly practiced this pose for days in advance of being booked, it’s the last act of a man who no longer controls what is about to happen to him.”
Robert Hubbell is fully devoted to President Joe Biden Jr., so one has to keep that in mind when reading his opinion pieces, but his observations about Trump’s mugshot are pretty accurate, no matter where one’s political views lie. Hubbell says the mugshot “will become the defining image of Trump for all time. His facial expression conveys equal parts menace, anger, and defiance.”
Hubbell observes, “There is no hint of a soul behind the eyes, only animal grievance and feral resentment at being cornered. It is astounding that a mugshot could capture the essence of evil that resides beneath the surface in Donald Trump.”
He continues, “The photo is also a mugshot of MAGA extremism. It captures the hostility and meanness that animates most of the GOP’s ‘agenda’ — including policies that demean and discriminate against Blacks, women, LGBTQ people, educators, scientists, and immigrants. Trump’s mugshot will likewise become the defining image of MAGA extremism for all time. Tens of millions of MAGA adherents will celebrate and glorify the image — confirming the virulent strain of authoritarianism that has infected the MAGA base.”
Marty Kaplan, a professor at the University of Southern California Annenberg School of Communications, observed, “It will be forever part of the iconography of being alive in this time.”
Putin Denies Involvement In Plane Crash
A preliminary U.S. intelligence assessment concluded that the plane crash that killed 10 people, including mercenary leader Yevgeny Prigozhin, was caused by an intentional explosion. While Prigozhin’s presence on the plane has not been confirmed, his name appeared on the passenger manifest. Intelligence suggests that he was “very likely” targeted and that the explosion matches Russian President Vladimir Putin’s “long history of trying to silence his critics.”
This morning, the Kremlin denied that it was behind a plane crash, and Putin eulogized Prigozhin, even though he had led the June mutiny that posed the biggest challenge to Putin in his 23-year rule.
Belarussian leader Alexander Lukashenko said he does not believe that Putin was behind the plane crash, commenting, “He is a calculating, very calm and even slow person, making decisions on other, less complicated issues. So I can’t imagine that Putin did it, that Putin is to blame. It’s too rough, unprofessional work, if anything.”
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