Also on today’s menu:
Felon Arrested In Concord Shooting
Ranked-Choice Voting Catches Attention
Speeding Up Energy Infrastructure Projects
A surprise development during the September 1 meeting of the Belknap County Delegation was the decision by Representative Michael Sylvia to relinquish his chairmanship of the body. Saying that the delegation’s August 1 emergency meeting “was not properly called; it was not actually a meeting,” Sylvia said, “As such, frankly, I believe that this delegation needs to be led by someone other than myself, and so I am stepping down as chair.”
Representative Harry Bean, who with a majority of delegation members had called the emergency meeting to deal with a crisis at Gunstock Mountain Resort, was elected chair in the wake of Sylvia’s resignation from the position.
Representative Tim Lang had made a motion to add items to the posted agenda, including ratification of the August 1 decisions, which County Attorney Andrew Livernois had said would clear up any questions about the legality of action taken during the emergency meeting. That included the appointment of Denise Conroy as a new Gunstock Area commissioner and acceptance of the resignation of Dr. David Strang. Strang had not formally resigned, but had promised do so once a new commissioner had been named.
Pending court cases are challenging both the legality of the August 1 meeting and the decision to accept Strang’s promise to resign. The vote on September 1 likely makes the first lawsuit moot, but Strang still has a chance to challenge his dismissal, even though the delegation has the authority to both appoint and dismiss Gunstock commissioners. However, because Strang’s lawsuit was filed against Gunstock Commissioner Doug Lambert — who had no role other than to encourage the doctor to resign — rather than against the delegation, his lawsuit, also, may end up being dismissed.
Felon Arrested In Concord Shooting
Police have charged James Daniels, 34, of Manchester with attempted murder, first-degree assault with a firearm, reckless conduct with a dangerous weapon, and being a felon in possession of a dangerous weapon following an investigation into a shooting that took place on August 27 in Concord.
Police say a man had been shot in Eagle Square just as bars in the area were closing for the night early on Saturday morning. The victim was taken to Concord Hospital with serious injuries, according to police.
Daniels was held at the Merrimack County Department of Corrections jail in Boscawen pending arraignment today at Merrimack County Superior Court.
Ranked-Choice Voting Catches Attention
When Democrat Mary Peltola made history as the first Alaska native and the first woman to be elected to the U.S. House of Representatives from that state, the win also drew attention to Alaska’s new ranked-choice voting system, in which voters rank the candidates in order of preference — a process first tried in Maine and then adopted for New York City’s mayoral race. Alaska’s race, however, caught the nation’s attention when Peltola defeated former Republican governor Sarah Palin.
Under Alaska’s ranked-choice system, the election begins with a nonpartisan primary. The top four finishers advance to the ballot for the general election, in which voters rank their choices. If no candidate wins a majority of first-choice votes, the lowest-performing candidate is eliminated, with those votes being reallocated among the remaining contenders. The process continues until there is a winner.
About half of the first-choice votes for the third candidate, Republican Nick Begich III, ranked Palin second; nearly 30 percent chose Peltola second; and 21 percent ranked neither Peltola nor Palin — an outcome referred to as “ballot exhaustion.” The resulting tally awarded the win to Peltola.
Ranked-choice balloting is seen as a way to give third-party candidates a chance. For example, voters who chose Joe Biden Jr. only because they thought he could win against Donald Trump, even though they really wanted to vote for someone else, would be able to include their preferred choice, giving a more accurate indication of a candidate’s appeal.
Speeding Up Energy Infrastructure Projects
In order to reduce U.S. greenhouse gas emissions to zero in an attempt to address the dangers of climate change, experts say the country is going to have to build a lot of energy infrastructure quickly, but environmentalists have traditionally tried to slow down those projects. Here in New Hampshire, opposition to wind farms and to hydropower projects such as Northern Pass have prevented the deployment of the infrastructure that will be needed as the nation shifts from fossil fuels to electricity.
Democrats have a bill in the works to speed up the permitting process, but most environmentalists oppose it on the grounds that it also could promote oil and gas development. The bill that Senator Joe Manchin III struck with Senate Democratic leaders could streamline energy permitting for both clean energy and fossil fuel.
A study by Princeton University determined that, in order to reach net-zero carbon emissions, wind farms will have to spread across the Great Plains and the Midwest, solar panels will have to cover an area at least as large as Connecticut, and thousands of miles of high-voltage transmission lines will be needed to carry all that power to the urban centers.
Café Chatter: Spending Your Money
Let’s talk money for a minute which I will say I am no expert on but I do know how to earn it, save it, and spend it like many others do. Our Pres. Joey Biden with a stroke of a pen says 300 billion student debt can be forgiven (again, I’m no expert but I thought only Congress dealt with money laws! Pelosi says no and then yes to Joe’s Executive Order, flip flop game is in play). Where does that 300 billion come from? It comes in the form of a loan (weird, thought we were forgiving student loans) debt to the future taxpayers and that’s still you and me until we die. Again, are you willing to pay for someone else’s loan that they signed for? Isn’t it wonderful that these students are getting their loans forgiven? Come on man! Rob taxpayers to pay student loans. What a joke. I am sure this will be blamed on COVID 19 or Trump somehow, the Left has a way with changing the meaning of words and how to pin them on an event or person.
Inflation Reduction Act (IRA, sounds like a savings account, again a way with words and changing the meaning) is just the opposite, again Democratic Joe asks for a loan and brings us further into debt. This money, I don’t now the exact number I think 750 billion will be used to buy anything from toilet seats to 87,000 new IRS agents who will go after just about anything down to the smallest infraction to make your life miserable. They could also be politicized or totally focused on looking at people who have a not so green vehicle (battery/EV cars), pick your poison, it could be anything. Why so many new agents now, especially when we have so much technology and you can track so much in less time than ever. This IRA is going to cost all of us AGAIN. When will the spending stop? I worked hard for my money, what about you. Do you want to foot this bill and support people that vote this stuff in?
Don’t get me wrong, I want to help and do help people but I do it personally and do not ask others to do it for me. There are times when Government needs to help, but that help should only be temporary to get through a storm and then the tap shuts off. We all need to stop this non-sense and vote for people that will stop spending your money foolishly.
Yes, I am running for Republican State Rep. Grafton County District 18 and I am conservative but, I am not an extremist like those who want to spend your money or control your life from cradle to grave. There are other people running that I believe will watch your money and follow our constitutions like Karen Testerman for Governor, Don Bolduc for US senate and others. Do some homework and find out which you should vote for on September 13th. And keep in mind, even if you don’t like the person, you have to ask yourself does that person represent most of my values (the 80/20 rule) because your other choice will most likely not represent you at all.
Lastly, a person who does not vote at all, actually does vote. Think about it, one vote cast for “A”, one vote cast for “B” and third vote cast for “A” and the final voter does not vote, candidate “A” wins.
Talk to your neighbors and have everyone get out and vote.
— John Sellers, Bristol
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