Also on today’s menu:
Hate In The Granite State
Plaintiffs Dismiss State’s ‘Legislative Decision’ Argument
Driver Dies After Plunge Into Androscoggin
A Farmington man whom police have not yet identified died on February 28 while making a lumber delivery at Gilford Home Center. He worked for CMF Transportation of Conway.
The tragedy occurred during the delivery when falling lumber struck and killed the driver.
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration joined local officials in investigating the incident, which appears to be accidental.
Hate In The Granite State
Ryan Murdough, president of the New England White Network, is among a growing number of white supremacists in the Granite State, although, as Damien Fisher reports, it is unclear whether Murdough’s group has many followers. He attracted attention for sending threatening emails to community leaders and lawmakers, most recently to Representative Amanda Elizabeth Toll (D-Keene).
I have written about Murdough before, including when he appeared to have abandoned hate and again when he “showed his true stripes” by sending a racist email to Representative Charlotte DiLorenzo (D-Newmarket), saying his group believes “that blacks should be governing blacks and Whites should be governing Whites. Blacks and Whites weren’t meant to coexist in the same nation and it’s getting more and more ridiculous to ignore this any longer.”
Damien’s article focused on the Portsmouth Police Department’s announcement that it is zeroing in on one of the suspects believed to be behind the hate graffiti at Jewish and Catholic sites, as well as at a number of local businesses. Police say the neo-Nazi group known as the Nationalist Social Club, or NSC-131, has been active in the area. Police are looking for a man who appeared on surveillance video, wearing a facemask, orange-rimmed glasses, red hooded sweatshirt, khaki pants, and white shoes while spray-painting buildings. The FBI also is involved in the Portsmouth investigation.
Plaintiffs Dismiss State’s ‘Legislative Decision’ Argument
The state has argued that allowing “property-wealthy” towns to retain the excess money collected under the Statewide Education Property Tax (a state tax in name only because it comes from local property tax assessments), instead of using it to help “property-poor” school districts, is legal because it is a legislative spending decision. The New Hampshire Legislature in 2011 changed the law to allow those communities to keep revenues in excess of what the state awards in adequacy grants, allowing them to use the money to lower their overall tax rates.
Originally, in response to a New Hampshire Supreme Court decision in the so-called Claremont II case, the state set up the statewide education tax and placed the revenue into the Education Trust Fund. Plaintiffs in the current lawsuit point out that the 2011 decision runs contrary to the trust fund statute. They also argue that the Department of Revenue Administration formerly issued tax warrants for the state’s unincorporated areas as part of the SWEPT calculation, but now the state argues they are exempt because they are not “municipalities.” “These arguments fail as a matter of law,” the attorneys write in their filing. “Further, if taken as true, they uncover further constitutional violations.”
The plaintiffs had sought a temporary injunction blocking the DRA from setting the tax rates for the wealthy communities and the unincorporated areas in October, but Superior Court Judge David Ruoff denied the request, saying it would be too financially disruptive for the affected communities in the middle of a tax year. He did not rule on the merits of the lawsuit.
Driver Dies After Plunge Into Androscoggin
When traveling to the unincorporated territory known as Wentworth’s Location, I have always been cautious on the twisting highway that runs along the Androscoggin and Magalloway rivers, mindful of my recurring nightmare in which I lose control of my vehicle and plunge into the water, unable to get out, and waking up just before drowning.
On February 28, another driver experienced that scenario around 5:40 p.m., while southbound about two miles from the intersection of routes 26 and 16 in Errol. The driver lost control and crossed the center line before plunging into the Androscoggin River. The Errol Fire Department extricated the driver who was taken by Errol Ambulance to the local hospital and pronounced dead.
New Hampshire State Police are conducting an investigation, asking any witnesses or drivers with dash camera footage to contact Troop F or Trooper Jacob DeRosa by calling (603) 846-3333 or sending an email to Jacob.D.Derosa@dos.nh.gov.
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