Also on today’s menu:
All Sides Represented On Curriculum Committee
Questions About Lead Developer Of State School Property
Problems Identified With New Ballot Machines
Today’s big news, of course, is the referral by the Select Committee To Investigate the January 6 Attack on the United States Capitol to the Justice Department, recommending that former president Donald Trump be prosecuted on at least four charges, involving violence, lies, insurrection, and dereliction of duty. Until now, Trump has avoided paying any political or legal price for his actions, and Joyce Vance, in her Civil Discourse column, suggests that, even with the evidence compiled by the bipartisan committee, the Justice Department may not be able to bring charges now.
It’s important to remember that DOJ, if it were to prosecute, operates under constraints the committee doesn’t. First, not all of the committee’s evidence would be admissible in a trial. There is an entire set of federal rules of evidence that control what testimony a jury can hear. DOJ would have to carefully evaluate evidence for issues like hearsay, relevance, and undue prejudice to determine whether the admissible evidence available to it is sufficient. And of course, the committee presentation was one-sided. It did not raise the potential defense that the former president would be almost certain to assert, like reliance on the advice of counsel and First Amendment protections for his speech, that would defeat a charge of inciting insurrection. DOJ will have to carefully assess that evidence as well, to determine whether any of the defenses are viable, and if so, whether they have sufficient evidence to get past them. None of this means the special counsel won’t be able to move forward with indictments, but it means that it’s not automatic; that there is a lot of work to be done between receiving all of the committee’s evidence and reaching the point where they can make decisions about whether charges can and should be brought.
Nevertheless, the committee has provided compelling arguments for holding Trump accountable, and on December 19 outlined other evidence that he engaged in obstruction of justice: Witnesses the committee called for testimony were represented by lawyers who declined to disclose who was paying for them and who suggested it was okay for witnesses to say they didn’t recall the answer to a question because the investigators “wouldn’t know.” One witness was promised to be made financially comfortable, and Trump personally contacted one of the witnesses, according to the committee.
Meanwhile, the House Ways and Means Committee is due to examine Trump’s tax returns behind closed doors today at 3 p.m. Trump reported heavy losses from his business enterprises over several years to offset hundreds of millions of dollars in income, allowing him to pay very little in taxes. The Ways and Means Committee will assess whether the Internal Revenue Service is properly auditing presidential tax returns and gauge whether new legislation is needed. The committee’s chairman, Representative Richard Neal, has not said whether he supports making Trump’s tax returns public.
All Sides Represented On Curriculum Committee
The Newfound Area School Board has appointed parents with conflicting views of the Amplify Core Knowledge Language Arts program — the elementary school reading curriculum that has been the focus of public discussion since its implementation at the beginning of this school year — to its new curriculum committee.
Some object to the program on the grounds that the readings are not age-appropriate and claim that they are grooming young people for exploitation by pedophiles. Others say the curriculum exposes students to other cultures and facts that make reading interesting to them.
The curriculum committee will take up the CKLA program and make recommendations on how appropriate it is, but the final decision on curricula resides with the school board as a whole.
Questions About Lead Developer Of State School Property
Annmarie Timmons’ continuing coverage of the $21.5 million plan to develop the 220-acre former Laconia State School property has revealed that Jonathan McCoy, an investor who planned to lead the development effort, lost a senior living facility he had owned and operated in a bankruptcy case. Court records show that a trustee alleged that McCoy had used more than $230,000 of the facility’s money to cover personal expenses, including golf club fees and nearly $148,000 in taxes. McCoy said he used the money for legitimate company expenses or reimbursements for company expenses he had paid for personally. The golf club membership was used for business purposes, he said.
The Executive Council, which tabled the contract with Robynne Alexander two weeks ago after Laconia city officials raised concerns about her financial history and limited experience, is scheduled to take up Alexander’s offer again tomorrow.
At the time of the last Executive Council meeting, Alexander was the only identified member of Legacy at Laconia, which planned to build 1,300 housing units, a 250-room hotel, a 1,000-person conference center, and retail and medical facilities at an estimated cost of $500 million. Since then, other investors have been identified. In addition to McCoy, the Legacy at Laconia team includes an experienced construction company, a local law practice, and architectural and engineering firms.
Problems Identified With New Ballot Machines
A pilot program to test new ballot-counting machines by VotingWorks showed that ballots were accurately counted in the test communities of Ashland, Newington, and Woodstock, but there were problems that need to be addressed, according to Secretary of State David Scanlan.
In Newington, election officials reported that the use of felt-tip markers to fill out the ballots left ink streaks on the machine scanner, preventing the machine from reading those ballots. In Woodstock, Scanlan said it took nearly 10 minutes to fix jammed machines due to the difficulty of opening the ballot bags where cast ballots were collected.
VotingWorks plans to address the issues before a second test run takes place in the March 2023 town elections.
Café Chatter
On ‘Out Of Peru’: Just read Tom’s article on Peru and what memories it revived. We, too, were in Peru a bit earlier and the time of the Shinning Path.
Keith won an award for engineering — a trip anywhere (permitted by security clearance) or $5,000. We had not traveled much outside USA, but decided to go to Peru for my anthropological interests. We took an Eastern Airlines tour on a flight which flew twice a week to Peru. If the plane was full, they hired a bus or what was needed. We were the only two who showed up, so we were given a car and driver to Machu Picchu, train to Bolivia, and flight home.
Plane arrived in middle of the night. Our “guide” had hired a driver to meet us and transport us to hotel for the night. We hopped in the car which immediately encountered a Shining Path demonstration. The driver wanted to stop. Keith said, “NO,” grabbed the steering wheel, and drove through the crowd with fingers crossed. We arrived safely at hotel, spent the night. Visited Lima the next day.
I read in a travel book written by someone who had hitchhiked through Peru that one had to be wary of altitude sickness and suggested we ask the bell boy for something in Spanish to help. The bellboy brought us pills and told to take one before bed, and one the next day before flying to the highlands. Keith took one and slept “like a log.” I took one and never felt so wonderful in all my life and was awake all night. At first light, I googled my iPhone and discovered we had taken cocaine! I told Keith that if I took one more I would be addicted. We settled for coca tea when we arrived at the airport.
[A]t Machu Picchu, Keith wanted to climb to the top and told me I should not. I think that saved my life. There were 4 climbers; the leader accidentally took a wrong path and felt he could probably not go further, as it was too dangerous. Going back posed more difficulties, so he said he HAD to go forward. They finally made it, but it was frightening, Keith said. I am not as agile as he and probably would still be stuck on the mountain.
Later in our trip, we took the train to the town on the Peru/Bolivian border. Part way there, the conductor asked us if we would please hide on the floor for the next hour, as we were passing through Shining Path headquarters, and they feared what would happen if they spotted two Americans on board.
Next leg of journey we boated to Bolivia, took a bus to La Paz. Could not enter city because of large worker demonstrations at entrances. Finally found one where we were stopped but driver plowed his way through.
Peru was exciting.
— Paula Struckman
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