Also on today’s menu:
Insufficient Evidence For Criminal Charges
Misuse Of CARES Act Relief
Sununu Targets ‘Woke’ Investment Practices
Berlin Mayor Paul Grenier testified before the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee on April 11 in favor of House Bill 142, saying the Burgess Biopower plant could go bankrupt unless the state forgives about $50 million in debt it incurred as part of a 2010 power agreement. Burgess Biopower is Berlin’s largest taxpayer and it provides jobs for 240 workers. Grenier said that losing the plant would be “devastating”.
Representative Michael Vose (R-Epping) sponsored the bill, which passed, 269-109, with bipartisan support in the House before going on to the Senate.
About 60 percent of the wood chips burned by the plant comes from New Hampshire woodlands, and supporters of the plant say their sale helps to clean up logging operations that used to send low-grade forest products to the now-closed pulp mills. Grenier also pointed out that there is a huge development potential from the plant’s waste heat.
Opponents say Burgess operates at an over-market cost and that the long-term solution is to renegotiate its agreement with Eversource for the purchase of the power generated by the plant.
Insufficient Evidence For Criminal Charges
Alex Obekhov, a local landowner who Tilton selectmen had alleged disturbed an old family cemetery on his property, has called the allegations “lies”, and Belknap County Attorney Andrew Livernois has determined not to pursue any criminal charges.
“At this point, having viewed the material from the investigation that has been performed by the Tilton Police Department, I do not feel at this point in time that there’s sufficient evidence that we could go forward with criminal charges against anybody,” Livernois said.
Selectmen Jonathan Scanlon and Pat Consentino had maintained that tombstones and grave markers had been removed from the cemetery, and said Obekhov had placed generators and a compressor for air conditioning on the graveyard.
Misuse Of CARES Act Relief
The U.S. Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration and the U.S. Secret Service have been investigating fraud relating to the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act which Congress passed to help businesses and individuals adversely affected by the COVID pandemic. Part of that aid came in the form of the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), which offered low-interest loans to employers to avoid having them dismiss employees due to an inability to maintain the payroll. If used as intended, the companies could apply for loan forgiveness. The CARES Act also expanded the Small Business Administration’s Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL) program to support payroll and other business expenses, such as rent and mortgage payments.
The fraud investigations have led to the conviction and sentencing of Joshua Leavitt, 41, of Northwood for attempting to fraudulently obtain more $6 million from the United States government, according to U.S. Attorney Jane E. Young. Leavitt applied for 35 PPP and EIDL loans for seven companies, obtaining $873,475.50 of the $6,019,725.50 he sought.
According to the government, Leavitt and his co-defendant, Pierre Rogers, inflated the companies’ revenues and employee numbers on the applications, and Leavitt generated false supporting documents, including tax filings purportedly filed with the IRS.
U.S. District Court Judge Paul J. Barbadoro sentenced Leavitt to 28 months in prison and two years of supervised release and ordered him to pay $873,475.50 in restitution.
Sununu Targets ‘Woke’ Investment Practices
Countering the focus of some major investment firms on basing decisions on environmental, social, and governance factors, New Hampshire Governor Chris Sununu took executive action to discourage the state from using such considerations. “Prioritizing the highest returns on investment for our public employees is our number one responsibility,” Sununu said as he issued his executive order on April 11.
Republicans have targeted ESG investing as being “woke” ideology that is detrimental to shareholders, but New Hampshire’s executive branch agencies do not typically handle investments. Sununu’s order does affect the state treasury, barring it from placing state funds in investment accounts solely based on ESG criteria.
A spokesman for the state retirement system, which manages almost $12 billion, said it already adheres to its fiduciary duty to obtain the highest return on investments.
Café Chatter
On Funding Education: The quality of learning for students is important. The school system in it of itself is built on generational rules that don’t work with the 21st century. In order to give the best quality of learning, we must understand that the system in which schools are interacting with education needs to be a lot more modern, potentially more funding and should help students find the job or career they want while giving guidence whenever possible. It’s the failure of understanding mental health, the warning signs of individuals having a crisis and the lack of action under social services to assist families that makes it hard for a lot of people to attend if the families are low income. Is it the right descicion? That’s on the people, but I believe it’s in the right direction so that we can build on each student, understand the concerns of families while making sure they’re in a safe enviroment.
— Tyler Jacques, Bureau of Developmental Services Steering Committee
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