A Black Lives Matter protest more accessible to those in the disabled community is being organized for next Friday in Portsmouth.
Thousands of Granite State children may be eligible for food benefits, even if their families are not already receiving SNAP assistance. Some legal advocates in the state are trying to get the word out about the pandemic related program over fears families may not be applying because they don’t think they are eligible.
In my column in this paper last week, I addressed the question whether, in order to protect New Hampshire residents from the coronavirus, Governor Sununu could lawfully require them to wear masks in public places and could impose fines or other legal penalties on them for failure to do so. On the basis of the relevant U.S. Supreme Court cases and a recent New Hampshire trial court case, I wrote that the answer is clearly yes.
El estado abrió las aplicaciones para su programa New Hampshire General Assistance & Preservation (GAP) el martes 21 de julio, una última oportunidad para dueños de negocios antes de que terminen la mayoría de programas federales CARES. La aplicación cierra el 4 de agosto.
El programa GAP de $30 millones es un “sistema de respaldo para otro sistema de respaldo" dijo el gobernador Chris Sununu en una conferencia de prensa, refiriéndose al fondo estatal de $400 millones Main Street Relief Fund.
Nationwide calls for police reform following protests over systemic racism, police brutality and the killing of unarmed black people have started conversations in New Hampshire and elsewhere to identify weaknesses in police standards and accountability and to fix them. Those conversations turn again and again to accreditation, a process that involves a third party regularly inspecting and reviewing a department’s policies, procedures and facilities to make sure it’s following best practices in policing.
A mediados de julio, New Hampshire publicó un conjunto de lineamientos a seguir para reabrir los distritos escolares, el cual, responde algunas preguntas que tenían los padres de familia y el personal escolar.
Sin embargo, hay un tema que llama la atención en este documento de 54 páginas: es voluntario. Esto quiere decir que la mayoría de lineamientos pueden ser adaptados o alterados por el distrito y pocos son obligatorios.
The summer of 2020 has been unlike any other. For many, typical plans and activities have been cancelled or altered in accordance with COVID-19 and related risks. Cooling centers, it seems, is yet another casualty of the pandemic. Typically during heat waves, towns will set up central areas to be designated as “cooling centers” where elderly and vulnerable populations as well as anyone who needs to cool off can come and do so. Some common locations are libraries or community centers, and these centers operate from a few hours per day to 24 hours per day.
If there is one thing that is consistent in this topsy-turvy Covid-19 world it is there is no rhyme or reason to what will work for businesses. There is no explanation why one business will see lines around the corner while another has employees leaning on their elbows waiting for customers. With summer in full swing many establishments are seeing exactly where they stand from now until Labor Day. Some have been pleasantly surprised while others are witnessing what they expected - a slow and unpredictable season.
(Visitors to the outlets in North Conway wear masks while shopping. Courtesy of Mt. Washington Valley Chamber of Commerce)
Despite President Trump’s recent about-face from skepticism to support of mask-wearing as a means to lessen the risk of Coronavirus infection, there are undoubtedly tens of millions of Americans, including, perhaps many New Hampshire citizens, who believe that federal and state orders requiring them to change their behavior significantly to lessen Coronavirus risks are unconstitutional.
As I’ve written in previous columns, when the Post-Coronavirus Era begins—hopefully in early or mid-2021—many types of jobs will be in great demand because of federal laws and programs then in effect. Furthermore, long-term planning about these jobs may be important for many New Hampshire business people even now.
To stop the spread of the coronavirus, museums, like many other cultural institutions, extinguished the lights in mid-March. Some in New Hampshire opened cautiously this month, with limitations. Meanwhile, behind the scenes, curators and educators are ramping up programs to keep members and visitors engaged online and soften the financial blow from the pandemic’s blunt arrival.
(The Currier Museum in Manchester prepares to open its doors to the general public on August 20 with timed ticketing and strict safety protocols. (Courtesy Currier))
Sarah Letendre was arrested on July 11 following a reported domestic violence incident at her Rollinsford home with her husband, R.J. Letendre, a Dover police officer. She was later charged with violating a protective order in the case. She allegedly fled from police, but turned herself in on Thursday after Rollinsford police obtained an arrest warrant.
However, she has since spoken out about the case on Facebook.
(Dozens of people marched from Henry Law Park in Dover to the police station to protest Sarah Letendre’s arrest. Photo By Damien Fisher, Granite State News Collaborative)
Eva Castillo recibe con regularidad llamadas de inmigrantes locales que le piden llamar a la policía por ellos.
Castillo, una inmigrante de Venezuela, ha trabajado por años para mejorar la relación entre la población inmigrante de New Hampshire y la policía. Pero, muchos de ellos, incluyéndola, aun le temen a la policía.
Eva Castillo has worked with Nashua and Manchester police departments to implement policies against asking for immigration status upon traffic stops or arrests, but those policies vary widely across New Hampshire communities. Many immigrants fear that they could be profiled and asked for immigration status upon calls to the police for help or routine stops, actions that could lead to detainment and deportation by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. (Eva Castillo/Inklink File Photo)
Protests over George Floyd’s killing at the hands of a police officer in Minneapolis amplified efforts to discuss racism in the classroom. However, the journey for educators to understand how racist systems perpetuate inequities began long before multicultural crowds rallied in the streets to support the Black Lives Matters movement. Kyra Dulmage is a fifth grade teacher at Oyster River Middle School (ORMS) in the Durham region, and a member of the newly-formed Seacoast Educators for Equity (SEE), whose mission is to create more inclusive versions of history.
While coronavirus is the public health issue that’s most concerning for many New Hampshire residents, the state is quietly experiencing an outbreak of other viruses, including the sexually-transmitted infections syphilis and gonorrhea. To help combat that and overcome the fact that fewer people are coming to health clinics for STI testing during the pandemic, Planned Parenthood of Northern New England has started offering at-home STI testing.
With an abbreviated timeline that prevented further deliberation, the Legislature combined legislation left on the agenda since March and sent both single-issue and omnibus bills to Governor Sununu. The Senate compiled both bills originating in the Senate and the House into larger bill packages, and the House’s schedule only permitted concurrence or rejection of bills relayed to it by the Senate, rather than an amendment process through Committees of Conference. The result was a series of bills covering a wide variety of topics, including future COVID-19 vaccines, expanded dental benefits for Medicaid recipients, raising the minimum wage, unemployment compensation for COVID-19-related reasons, paid family and medical leave, protections for renters behind on payments during the pandemic, telehealth services, New Hampshire Employment Security’s computer systems, and importation of prescription drugs from Canada.
