Also on today’s menu:
Blackbaud To Pay Settlement In Data Breach
School ‘Climate’ Is Top Concern Of NH Teachers
Biden Dismisses Environmental Concerns To Build The Wall
The 16-year-old Northfield youth who was arrested eight days after the murders of his sister-in-law, Kassandra Sweeney, 25, and his nephews, Benjamin Sweeney, 4, and Mason Sweeney, 23 months, on August 3, 2022, has now been indicted by a Merrimack County Superior Court Grand Jury. Eric Sweeney, now 17, faces three counts of first-degree murder and one count of falsifying physical evidence: Prosecutors say he “did alter, destroy, conceal, or remove a Taurus .40-caliber handgun, with the purpose of impairing its availability in said investigation”.
Police responding to a 911 call had found the three victims inside the Sweeneys' Wethersfield Drive home in Northfield. Chief Medical Examiner Dr. Jennie V. Duval determined that each had died of a single gunshot wound.
The victims' husband and father, Sean Sweeney, was “very cooperative and helpful in this investigation”, according to police, and Senior Assistant Attorney-General Geoff Ward said, “He is obviously beyond devastated as a result of these crimes.”
An indictment is not a finding of guilt, but an independent jury’s decision, after hearing from prosecutors, that sufficient evidence exists to warrant a court trial.
Blackbaud To Pay Settlement In Data Breach
New Hampshire will receive $413,500 through a settlement with Blackbaud, a software company that exhibited “deficient data security practices and response to a 2020 ransomware event that exposed the personal information of millions of consumers across the United States,” according to Attorney-General John Formella, who joined 49 other attorneys-general in pursuing the case. Under the settlement, Blackbaud has agreed to overhaul its data security and breach notification practices and pay a total of $49.5 million to the states.
“We will not tolerate concealment of important information from the public,” Formella said. “In this case, we are talking about non-profit organizations being left vulnerable and in the dark about their data being jeopardized. Companies storing consumers’ data have a responsibility to not only protect it, but to do the right thing when a breach occurs … so everyone impacted can be aware and take appropriate steps to respond and safeguard themselves.”
Blackbaud provides software to charities, higher education institutions, K-12 schools, healthcare organizations, religious organizations, and cultural organizations. Blackbaud’s software allows them to connect with donors and manage data about their constituents, including contact and demographic information, Social Security numbers, driver’s license numbers, financial information, employment and wealth information, donation history, and health information — all highly sensitive information that was exposed during the 2020 data breach affecting more than 13,000 Blackbaud customers and their constituents.
School ‘Climate’ Is Top Concern Of NH Teachers
State senators and representatives serving on the Committee to Study New Hampshire Teacher Shortages and Recruitment Incentives are preparing their report on the challenges causing teachers to leave their jobs and, while low pay is one reason (28 percent of respondents cited that as a reason), the school’s “climate” was a top concern for 39 percent of respondents, while 32 percent cited a perceived lack of administrative support.
The Reaching Higher online survey was administered in the spring of 2022, asking 590 elementary, middle, and high school teachers, paraprofessionals, and administrators how they felt about their jobs, and what factors might prompt them to leave. Because the survey was online, it is not necessarily representative of the entire state.
One respondent observed, “I would say entitlement and behavior of families and students is the biggest factor and the reason why many of the teachers I know are very unhappy.” Others said they felt a lack of support from their local communities and their school boards. Among paraeducators, 100 percent said low pay was a top reason for leaving.
While 34 percent of respondents said they were not leaving their position, 14 percent said they were moving to another school district but staying in New Hampshire; 13 percent were looking to transfer to a different job in education; 12 percent were leaving the profession; 12 percent were changing their roles within their district; 10 percent were retiring; 3 percent were leaving the state; and 1 percent were going to a private school.
Biden Dismisses Environmental Concerns To Build The Wall
Joe Biden Jr. who, while campaigning for president in 2020, promised not to build another foot of President Donald Trump’s border wall, saying it was “not a serious policy solution”, is under fire from both Republicans and Democrats for announcing new border wall construction in Texas this week. His executive order waives more than two dozen federal laws, including some designed to protect wildlife, to allow more barriers to be built along the U.S.-Mexico border.
While Biden said he was unable to stop the work because the funding was signed off while Trump was president, members of both parties have accused him of hypocrisy for supporting some 20 miles of barriers in a sparsely populated stretch of the Rio Grande Valley.
In a notice announcing the waivers, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said there was an “acute and immediate need” for the construction. On October 5, the administration announced that it would also resume the deportation of illegal Venezuelan migrants after about 50,000 arrived at the U.S.-Mexico border in September alone. U.S. authorities have detained more than 2.2 million migrants along the border since last October.
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