NH News

Along party lines, the New Hampshire Senate today passed a second, more restrictive voter ID measure. Earlier this month, a bill requiring voters to show valid photo identification or sign an affidavit was approved with the backing of Town Clerks and the Secretary of State.

This new Republican-backed legislation would require those seeking to vote in New Hampshire to also register their vehicles in the State and apply for a New Hampshire driver’s license.

The New Hampshire Senate passed a bill sponsored by school choice advocates that would create a tax credit for businesses that donate to scholarship organizations.

Many public school educators oppose the measure saying that it would sap schools of already scarce resources, but opponents in the senate tried to block the bill by calling into question its constitutionality.

Legislation is making its way through the Senate that would tighten regulations for groups that run public insurance risk pools like the Local Government Center.

Bill supporters want more accountability for how taxpayer dollars are spent.

Lawmakers want tighter restrictions for so-called risks pools – groups that sell insurance to cities and towns – after regulators charged the Local Government Center with violating state law.

For example, the Local Government Center failed to return surplus back to municipalities, despite what's on the books.

With House deadlines looming, Speaker Bill O'Brien has introduced legislation that would make significant changes to the state's welfare programs.

O'Brien believes the state must do more to fight fraud in the system.

The measure also caps a family's aid even if that family's need grows.

It's far from clear whether the Speaker's plan would save the state money.

GORENSTEIN: There’s one sweeping theme to House Speaker Bill O’Brien’s welfare proposal, which includes Food Stamps and several other cash programs.

 A member of the New Hampshire House's criminal justice committee dropped a pistol on the floor of the legislative office building at a hearing on a controversial bill dealing with abortion.

Kyle Tasker, a Northwood Republican, dropped the loaded gun, one of two .45 caliber pistols he wears in shoulder holsters, as he took his seat in a crowded hearing room.

“I just gave blood and I might not have latched it quite properly. All I could think of was, it was bound to happen one of these days, I come here too often for that not to have happened.”

Correction: an earlier version of the story stated the tax credits would initially be capped at $3.4 million. 

The New Hampshire Senate is set to vote tomorrow on a controversial bill that would create a tax credit for businesses that donate to private school scholarship organizations. The bill’s supporters are confident that it will pass.

The state agency responsible for protecting forests from wildfires is warning that state forests are more at risk of burning this year.

Forest Ranger Bryan Nowell says state forests are now seeing conditions that usually are more typical of mid-April.

"That's due to the fact that pretty much since the first of the year we haven’t had a lot of snow events or rain events, so all the leaves and brush and debris that’s come down over the winter has been there drying all winter long," Nowell says.

About two-dozen members of the pro-gay marriage group Standing Up For New Hampshire Families held a news conference to urged the defeat of the bill slated for a vote in the House Wednesday. State Rep. Mike Ball, chairman of the Manchester Republican Committee, compared the repeal effort to a segregation law, and added he can’t back his party platform’s opposition to gay marriage.

"The Republican platform is wrong on that issue. That’s the bottom line. Much as I’d like to say we are a hundred percent right, on this one we are not right. This is a civil liberties issue."