NH News

GREENLAND, N.H — Attorney General Michael Delaney says 48-year-old Greenland Police Chief Michael Maloney was the officer killed during a drug raid-turned-shootout that left four other officers wounded.  

Delaney confirmed early Friday that Maloney was the officer killed as authorities were conducting a drug investigation in the small town of Greenland.  

Parts of Route 101 are closed following a serious accident near Auburn.

NHPR's Dan Gorenstein was in the area; he says state officials closed the road after Exit 2 and traffic was at a standstill.

WMUR is reporting a person was trapped in a car, and that officials were keeping the road closed to bring emergency vehicles and a rescue helicopter onto the scene.

A week before he was set to retire, Greenland Police Chief Michael Maloney was shot and killed in a drug raid. The April 12, 2012 shooting also left four drug task force officers wounded. The suspect, identified as Cullen Mutrie, was killed, as was his girlfriend.

The New Hampshire Senate has all but killed the Right-to-Work legislation Wednesday.

What’s interesting is the bill had enough support from Senate Republicans to pass.

New Hampshire lawmakers have reached agreement on a Congressional redistricting plan. With two incumbent Republicans in Congress, both wanted to keep their districts as GOP-leaning as possible.

Under the final plan, six towns will switch districts. Sanborton, Tilton and Campton move east from District 2 to District 1; while Deerfield, Northwood and Center Harbor will shift west to District 2.

Organized bicycle groups sought permission to use the Sarah Long, or Middle Bridge to cross the border. But the Maine Department of Transportation has ruled that out, saying that the bridge railings are too rusted out. Instead, crews will be installing metal barriers to protect motorists from hitting them. That work will result in a bridge too narrow to accommodate bikes. Josh Pierce, President of the Seacoast Area Bicycle Riders group, says he's not surprised at the ruling. He also says that many bike tour groups will probably bypass the region.

This time of year parents across New Hampshire are starting to make family plans for the summer...even... inmates in the New Hampshire Prison system.

For the first time, the Department of Corrections will run a summer camp program for children of incarcerated fathers.

A bill that would allow communities to ask for a one-year moratorium on refugee resettlement has made it to a Senate Committee, but critics of the bill are piling up.

After 18 months of federal and state review, Northeast Utilities has completed a $5-billion purchase of Boston-based NStar. The deal makes PSNH’s parent company the largest utility in New England.

During a conference call, CEO Tom May said the acquisition would help his company pursue the Northern Pass project.

"The new NU will, because of the financial strength of the combined companies, actually have credit rating upgrades, which should make it a lot easier to finance this project," said May.

The State may be getting close to ending a school building aid moratorium.

Both the House and Senate have approved measures to restructure how aid is distributed. That’s good news for both schools districts and taxpayers.

“We need a change that will be both affordable for the State, as well as provide the necessary assistance to communities to keep their schools in good condition,” says Ed Murdough with the Department of Education.

Both bills call for the State to rank projects. Unsafe, overcrowded schools would get priority.

Top Republicans say new information shows there is significant fraud among the state’s public safety net programs.

State officials are examining the value of the data.

A private healthcare contractor voluntarily reviewed New Hampshire’s social service programs for fraud earlier this year.

The organization LexisNexis reports that 56 dead people currently receive Medicaid benefits and that 2% of Food Stamp and Medicaid recipients don’t have a state driver’s license.

Budget writers have targeted the University System of New Hampshire over the past two years. As a result the UNH Cooperative Extension has taken it on the chin.

Safety officials believe a man who was hiking Mt. Washington’s Tuckerman Ravine over the weekend is dead.

The 67-year old Boston businessman fell more than 50 feet down a crevasse.

White Mountain National Forest spokesperson Tiffany Benna says at this point rescue efforts are aimed at recovering the body.

“In talking with the lead snow ranger who has been in the ravine for close to 25 years, he said a fall like this into a crevasse this deep with the associated hazards is not survivable.”

The senate is considering a proposed constitutional amendment that would bar a personal income tax.

The amendment passed the house but is facing head-winds in the Senate.

Top Senate Republicans seemed skeptical during a hearing on the income tax ban.

They say they’re focused on putting an education funding constitutional amendment before the voters next fall.

Senate Majority Leader Jeb Bradley put House Majority Leader DJ Bettencourt on the defensive, asking if he thought the House is overwhelming the public with amendments.

The state Senate is expected to vote on Right-to-Work legislation next week.

The measure passed a Senate Committee earlier today.

There’s a déjà vu quality to this bill.

The legislation is the same as last year – a move to exempt workers from paying fees for collective bargaining.

The arguments are the same – supporters say the bill will bring business to the Granite State.

Opponents say it will end up costing New Hampshire jobs, and drive wages down.

Even the politics are similar.

Dartmouth has named its medical school the Geisel  School of Medicine. The school’s philanthropist namesake is one of the college’s most famous alums: Dr. Seuss. Theodore Geisel did not get his “doctor” title at Dartmouth College – he gave it to himself later as a satirist – but he did pick up his penname, Seuss, at the Ivy League school.

After sailing through the Senate, a bill that would have created a ‘Sexual Offender Management Board’ hit a wall in the House today.

The bill calls for the creation of a 19-member board that would evaluate policies toward sex offenders.

Advocate Chris Dornin told the House Criminal Justice Committee that laws are often rushed through after a high-profile child murder or molestation.

A Senate Committee has recommended killing a bill passed by the House of Representatives that would make it easier to challenge voters at the polls.

The most recent State budget slashed funding for legal services for the poor. Last week, the House passed a bill that would put even more aid at risk.

The legislation would change how something called IOLTA works.

IOLTA stands for ‘Interest on Lawyers Trust Accounts’.

When a client hands money over to a lawyer for a short period of time, say, while a real estate deal is being closed, the lawyer puts the money into a pooled account. That account earns interest.

Earlier this week, the U.S. Department of Justice moved to join a federal lawsuit suing New Hampshire over its mental health system.

Government lawyers allege without adequate community-based services, the state is violating the American with Disabilities Act.

The federal government says people with mental illness in New Hampshire are too often forced into institutional settings due to a lack of resources.

New Hampshire’s mental health system isn’t the first state to catch the attention of the federal government.

The Executive Council has delayed a vote on the controversial new $2.2 billion dollar managed Medicaid contract.

That's welcome news for many New Hampshire healthcare providers who are concerned about the deal.

Executive Councilors say they too want to know whether managed care will compromise services for the some 130,000 Medicaid recipients in the state.

Dan Gorenstein: Executive Councilor Ray Burton says he’s got thousands of reasons why he wants to slow down signing off on this contract.

Gambling in New Hampshire ran up against a stacked deck in the Statehouse today. 

The House has voted to kill a bill that would have brought four casinos and 14,000 video slot machines to the state. The bill would have used gambling revenue to reduce business taxes.

Supporters urged quick action to offset the recent approval of three casinos in Massachusetts.

"Since Massachusetts passed its own expanded gaming bill, doing nothing is no longer an option," says Representative David Campbell, a Democrat from Nashua.

The House rejected that plan by 40 votes. 

The Department of Transportation announced that the cost of EZ pass transponders will drop by more than half starting in April. The transponders will soon cost $8.90 cents, down from $20.95.

DoT Spokesman Bill Boynton says the drop in price will not only help new EZ pass users, but anyone needing to replace a transponder as well.

The Republican-controlled New Hampshire House has overridden Democratic Governor John Lynch's veto of the House redistricting plan.

The House voted 246-112 Wednesday to send the bill to the Senate which traditionally leaves it to the House to come up with its own plan.

Districts must be redrawn to adjust for population changes over the past decade.

House Speaker Bill O’Brien says more people will get direct representation.

The U.S. Department of Justice has joined a lawsuit against New Hampshire for alleged violations of the state’s mental health system.

Lead plaintiff attorneys welcome the move.

This week, state regulators reached what they consider a landmark agreement with a group that provides insurance to cities and towns.

State officials believe the deal could change how other so-called public insurance risk pools are run.

Primex, one of three public risk pools in New Hampshire, has agreed to return at least $16 million dollars back to its clients - cities and towns.

The deal comes after regulators determined Primex is holding excess surplus.

You can add transportation to the long list of issues hitting a roadblock in Washington. Funding for New Hampshire’s I-93 expansion may get stuck in the beltway traffic jam.

The Executive Council is scheduled to vote Wednesday on a new Medicaid contract worth an estimated $2.2 billion dollars.

It is believed to be the largest contract in state history.

But signs from an Executive Council meeting today suggest that vote may be pushed back.

The state may struggle to meet its July 1stdeadline.

Dan Gorenstein: This Medicaid contract is huge.

It’s huge financially, handing over several billion dollars to three managed care companies to run the state’s Medicaid program.  

Most people agree that good teachers help students succeed.
But how do good teachers learn to be effective?

One D.C.-based, private nonprofit is asking just that. They want colleges to participate in a study that ranks teacher preparation programs.

A house bill that would consider giving the Public Utilities Commission authority to force PSNH to sell its power plants to open up market competition is getting vocal opposition from business leaders and mayors in the state.

Berlin Mayor Paul Grenier says the move will raise electric rates and scare businesses away from his community.