A judge gave a lawyer for the state a hard time Thursday as she tried to argue that the disciplinary records of a state trooper fired for misconduct should remain confidential.
If you “look at the trend in the New Hampshire Supreme Court’s cases, your reading seems to be a departure from that more expansive view of public access to public records,” Merrimack County Superior Judge John C. Kissinger Jr. told Assistant Attorney General Jessica King partway through the hearing.
After George Floyd’s murder two years ago, Pierre Morton felt hopeless, angry and fearful. As protests erupted nationwide, he wasn’t sure they would lead to real change.
“What I can tell you is that it was a feeling of no matter what, voices that have not normally been heard will be heard,” Morton, a Keene resident who serves as Franklin Pierce University’s chief diversity officer, said in a recent interview.
On the night of Aug. 19, 2021, Torres, 40, was among a group of people police describe as in a near-riot state. On the pavement, covered by a tarp, was 67-year-old Beverly Avery, a Hispanic woman who was struck and killed by a motorist. (The identity of that driver still has not been released by police who only will say he is 22-years-old and from Bedford. Chief Allen D. Aldenberg said the results of the investigation are with the Hillsborough County Attorney’s Office who will decide how to proceed.)
After more than half a year without being able to officially vote due to a lack of members, the state Commission for Native American Affairs gained four new members appointed by Gov. Chris Sununu.
As of November, the state Commission on Native American Affairs didn’t have enough members to officially vote, in part because the group hadn’t had a new public member appointed by Gov. Chris Sununu in two years.
Four days after Sandwich Police Department Chief Shawn Varney received a New Hampshire Right to Know request for twenty years of police records on April 15, the town emailed back a 63-page attachment containing information on budgets, hiring and officer demographics dating back to 2000.
Ossipee, a town 19 miles to the southeast, was sent an identical request at the exact same time and nearly a year later, Police Chief Tony Castaldo continues to ignore the law and hasn’t responded.
Critics say that the Divisive Concepts, or Freedom From Discrimination law, puts a chill on important conversations about race and history in schools. It specifically prohibits schools or governmental agencies from teaching that an individual is racist, sexist, or otherwise oppressive by virtue of their age, sex, or other identity, either consciously or unconsciously. The state legislature is currently considering a handful of bills that would enact changes to the law from repealing it to expanding its reach to universities and colleges. Joining the State We’re In host Melanie Plenda to discuss the issue is JerriAnne Boggis, executive director of the Black Heritage Trail of New Hampshire; state Senator David Watters; Granite State News Collaborative reporter, Jenny Whidden; and Jonathan Friedman, director of Free Expression and Education for PEN America. Later, 8th grade American History teacher at Portsmouth Middle School Erin Bakkom weighs in with her perspective.
It’s been six months since the state passed the “Freedom from Discrimination” law, and some educators say the new legislation has had a discouraging impact on the one classroom subject that needs the most support in New Hampshire right now: social studies.
.The subject was at the forefront of a public dialogue session hosted by the Black Heritage Trail of New Hampshire Feb. 6. The in-person and virtual event — ‘Divisive Concepts’: A Chilling Effect on Teaching History — brought in more than 350 audience members and featured three panelists, who said the law and other related legislation has made a bad situation worse.
The case involved a February 2017 traffic stop by Trooper Haden Wilber on Interstate 95 in Portsmouth. After finding what looked like a small amount of heroin during a search of the car, Wilber also accused the driver — Robyn White of Avon, Maine — of carrying additional drugs in her body. She spent 13 days in jail, underwent an invasive body cavity search and was eventually released when no drugs were found.
In a new lawsuit, the ACLU of New Hampshire accuses the New Hampshire State Police of wrongly shielding the misconduct records of a former state trooper related to a 2017 vehicle-stop.
In that case, a Maine woman, Robyn White, was falsely accused of having drugs on her person when she was taken into custody. She was held for 13 days, before an invasive body-cavity search confirmed she did not possess any drugs.
Undeclared voters have had a say in New Hampshire’s primary elections for over 100 years, but one bill would change that.
While the current system allows New Hampshire’s roughly 410,000 undeclared voters to decide on election day which party’s primary they want to vote in, HB 1166 would require voters to declare a party affiliation at least four months in advance.
With voting rights hovering at the forefront of national conversations following the 2020 presidential election, bills to ease, restrict or otherwise alter the voting process have been in the spotlight of state legislatures across the country. This year, New Hampshire lawmakers enacted a handful of voting related legislation, including clarifying absentee ballot requirements for people in jail as well as centralizing the process for reporting voter address changes.
The Granite State’s next legislative session is just weeks away. Here is a look at eight election bills headed to the State House concerning voter fraud, absentee voting, age requirements and more.
The state Commission on Native American Affairs hasn't had enough members to officially vote for more than five months, in part because the group hasn’t had a new public member appointed by Gov. Chris Sununu in two years.
The Commission lost four members whose terms ended this year and who chose not to reapply. The body now has six people, and it needs nine to reach a quorum — the minimum number of people needed to vote. That means the body can’t make decisions, such as accepting draft language of legislation and sending letters to express the views of the Commission.
“Stories challenge us to be more human, more loving, more respectful, more forgiving, more compassionate. To take courage, to have a greater sense of humility and generosity of spirit despite what has happened in our past,” Profeit-LeBlanc said at New Hampshire’s annual indigenous storytelling festival Saturday.
The state’s Police Standards and Training Council is one of the organizations that came under scrutiny and increased public interest following last year’s police killing of George Floyd, which sparked a nationwide movement to review policing structures and policies.
In New Hampshire, that movement chiefly came in the form of the governor’s police accountability commission, which released 48 recommendations to improve policing, nearly half of which directly reference the standards and training council.
On Tuesday, the Portsmouth Police Commission voted unanimously to have the city’s police department start collecting data on every police stop of a civilian — not just those that result in a written warning, citation or arrest.
The decision comes after a proposal to require similar data collection by all police departments in New Hampshire failed in the State House earlier this year.
Darnell Hill was driving down Route 202 around midnight last August when he was pulled over for speeding.
During the stop, Officer Luis Berdecia of the Henniker Police Department, told Hill that he had another car to pull over. He instructed Hill to follow him. Hill, who is Black, was to pull over once they caught up to the second car.
“We’re here as part of this Indigenous Day not to celebrate us, because we celebrate our people all the time, it’s to educate,” Stevens said. “It’s to be here for the public so they get to see us. People fear what they don’t understand, and when they don’t understand it, sometimes hate comes from that.”
