I am a new member of DFNH and a native Vermonter who moved to southern NH 18 months ago. To begin with, I'm an avid hunter and angler and frequent listener to talk radio as well as NPR. I am a registered independant who doesn't go for the politics of party but rather votes on issues which are important to me. I'm probably not what you would call your "average" DFNH member as a result.

Having said that, I would also like to add that I am a public school teacher and musician who is pro-public education and an advocate for the Arts as well as Environmental conservation. I'm extremely confused by some of this state's "traditions" regarding taxes, politics, etc. Specifically:

1) Members of our legislture, from what I understand, get something like $300 a year to do their job. Forgive me for my ignorance, but WHO can live on $300.00 a year?!?! The answer is NO ONE! So then, who can afford to be a NH legislator? It would appear that only those who are independantly wealthy. So we have a system where a bunch of rich people are making laws for the state. I wonder who will benefit from laws that are made exclusively by rich people?

Dear Friends,

Today I'm announcing with regret my withdrawal from the campaign to represent New Hampshire in the US Senate. I remain committed to the goals of our campaign, but I do not have the financial resources needed to campaign full-time for the next nine months, which is what would be required to beat John Sununu.

I would like to thank all the people who have volunteered their time, money, and energy to support the campaign. I'm proud that our campaign has brought the need for an Apollo Program for Energy to the forefront of the Senate debate here in New Hampshire, and I’m going to continue to work for the issues that have been the foundation of our campaign, including:

• Promoting the awareness that America’s energy policy is crucial to our national security and economy as well as to our environment.
• Keeping our nation a leader in the global economy by investing in education, supporting science and technology research and development, and providing affordable, portable health care for all Americans.
• Eliminating the excessive power of special interests in our political process.

SOURCE: FOSTERS COMMUNITY COMMENTARY

By Karen Kruger

Newmarket

Article Date: Thursday, November 22, 2007

I read the recent interview with the new University of New Hampshire president, Mark Huddleston. Frankly, I am less than impressed.

SOURCE:The Phil Nugent Experience

In 1980, Ronald Reagan appeared at the Neshoba County Fair in Philadelphia, Mississippi. the town made famous as the site of the 1964 murders of civil rights workers James E. Chaney, Michael Schwerner, and Andrew Goodman. Reagan told the crowd, "I believe in states' rights...I believe we have distorted the balance of our government today by giving powers that were never intended to be given in the Constitution to that federal establishment," and promised to "restore to states and local governments the power that properly belongs to them." Now, in 1980 people were pissed off at Jimmy Carter because of gas prices and a sputtering economy and the taking of the American embassy in Iraq and the Russians overreaching in Afghanistan. "States' rights" was not a phrase on everybody's lips. It did not come trippingly off the tongue. But it had baggage. It was associated, especially in the minds of white Southerners who felt stepped on and disenfranchised by the civil rights movement and the desegregation era, and in 1980 there were a lot of people who fit that description, with federal troops coming in to force George Wallace to get his hateful ass out from in front of the schoolhouse doorway so that the desegregation laws could be enforced, over the objections of many of the locals. It was a code phrase, it was loaded, and speaking as the son of a Klansman and someone who at that time had spent pretty much his whole sentient life in rural Mississippi, I can assure you there was no adult in that crowd who had a problem with black people who didn't hear those words and immediately take them as a signal that Ronald Reagan and the Republican party were on his side.

At series of events today at colleges and universities throughout the Northeast including the University of New Hampshire in Durham, U.S. Senator Hillary Clinton (NY-D) highlighted how eager young Americans are to give back to their country through National Service programs since 9/11.

During her remarks at each event, Clinton honored the activism and public service of students and recent graduates. In particular, she noted that between 2000 and 2006, applications to Teach for America nearly tripled and that between 2004 and 2006, applications to the AmeriCorps VISTA program jumped 50%.

Jim Wallis tells NH audiences: Creating change requires more than your vote

Progressive Evangelical leader calls on NH voters to create a political movement to address poverty, AIDS, global warming

DURHAM – (Oct. 16, 2007) The Rev. Jim Wallis last night challenged people of all faiths, as well as those who consider themselves “spiritual, but not religious,” to create a movement to address the major global issues of our time, including poverty, AIDS, genocide and global warming.

Wallis told a crowd of about 200 people in Dartmouth College's Rollins Chapel Monday night that “people of faith should be the ultimate swing voters,” who use their moral compasses to evaluate candidates. But he also cautioned that regardless of where the next U.S. President stands on these issues, he or she will not be able to solve them without “a social movement pushing them from the outside to make it happen.”

“Power concedes nothing without a demand,” he said, quoting abolitionist Frederick Douglass.

To the Editor,

From: Dr. Roger G. Wells, State Representative, Ways & Means Committee

Rockingham District 8 (Hampstead, Kingston, Plaistow)

Date: June 20, 2007

Subject: BEWARE! AMENDMENTS MEAN HIGHER PROPERTY TAXES

Governor Lynch's proposed Constitutional amendment and all its revisions and modifications WILL result in higher property taxes. While the amendments may sound noble and "reasonable," they actually contain code words with double meanings which would have a disastrous effect on local property taxes.

The term "targeted aid to the most needy towns," for example, sounds like a reasonable solution to education funding but taxpayers should realize that the extra money sent to a few towns will be gained by removing funds now sent to most "middle tier" towns. Currently, the state of New Hampshire is in last place in the nation with state grants funding only 22% (compared to a national average of 50%) of total education costs. The amendments are designed to keep it that way---to prevent the state from contributing more money for education funding. The less the state pays, the greater the burden on the local property taxpayer.

SOURCE: Union Leader


By TOM FAHEY, State House Bureau Chief

Concord – The state Senate will debate two school funding constitutional amendments today, but House leaders say they are not in a mood to hear the arguments.

The House voted last week to block consideration of any more school funding amendments unless two-thirds of House members vote to allow the discussion. The next time the House meets will be June 27, and lawmakers go home for the summer on June 29.

The House Senate standoff has produced strange alliances. Senate Democrats want to pass an amendment, CACR 19, that meets House Republican demands. House Democrats and Senate Republicans, by and large, want to block passage, for different reasons. Many Democrats are uncomfortable with amendments in general.

►Education funding amendment still alive
►Granite Status: Amendment issue puts Lynch to the test

SOURCE:Concord Monitor

By SARAH LIEBOWITZ, Monitor staff, Jun 14, 2007

A Senate-led effort to resurrect a constitutional amendment on education funding may be slowing. Late yesterday, Senate Democrats were debating whether to send the proposed amendment to the House or keep it in a Senate committee.

"I'd be perfectly comfortable to keep it in the Senate," Senate President Sylvia Larsen, a Concord Democrat, said yesterday. "But if I understand that the House is ready for it to come over, I will vote to have that pass over." The Senate is scheduled to vote today on the proposal, which would allow the state to bypass portions of a recent state Supreme Court ruling and target money to needy school districts.

The debate reflects the challenges any amendment will face in the House. Last week, the House overwhelmingly rejected a nearly identical proposal. House leaders said yesterday that they're reluctant to suspend that chamber's rules to take up the issue for a second time in the final weeks of this legislative session. Rather than press forward with the new proposal, they said, senators should give the House time to digest last week's vote.

For Immediate Release

CONCORD - Gov. John Lynch today applauded passage of a bill increasing New Hampshire's compulsory attendance age from 16 to 18, as part of an overall statewide effort to increase New Hampshire's high school graduation rate.

Gov. Lynch has made ensuring more of New Hampshire's young people graduate from high school a top priority.

"Today we have taken a significant step toward helping ensure more of New Hampshire's young people graduate from high school and have the opportunities they deserve for better lives," Gov. Lynch said.

The legislation, Senate Bill 18, has already passed the Senate..

"Right now, too many of our kids are dropping out of high school. That is unacceptable and puts at risk the futures of these young people and our state's future economic success," Gov. Lynch said.

New Hampshire's compulsory attendance age was set at 16 in 1903.

"In 1903, students could leave school at 16 and get good jobs at mills or farms. That's just not true any longer. Half a high school education is no longer enough," Gov. Lynch said. "Raising the compulsory attendance age is not enough. We must also make sure there are alternative programs are in place for those students who do not do well in traditional classrooms - and that's exactly what we're doing."

SOURCE: fosters.com

May 30, 2007

CONCORD — The Senate Education Committee heard strong support Tuesday for adding six new elements to the House definition of an adequate education: teachers; class size; kindergarten; support services such as nursing, special education and guidance; staff training; and library facilities and learning technology.

Needy schools that merit "enhanced" support would get experienced teachers, small class sizes and a full day of kindergarten.

Both versions of House Bill 927 recognize a core curriculum the state must pay for, including English and language arts, math, science, social studies, the arts, world languages, health, gym and technology education.

The Senate amendment sponsored by Sen. Iris Estabrook, D-Durham, sets up a commission to issue a report by Feb. 1 next year on the cost of an adequate education. The Legislature would have until June 30, 2008, to approve a plan to deal out that money based on the differing needs of students and schools.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact:
Matt Simon
NH Coalition for Common Sense Marijuana Policy
(603) 391-7450
info@nhcommonsense.org
www.NHCommonSense.org

NH Coalition for Common Sense Marijuana Policy Launches Presidential Project, Urges Federal Marijuana Reform

Pembroke, NH (May 29) – The New Hampshire Coalition for Common Sense Marijuana Policy (NH Common Sense) has created two new websites which announce and promote the group’s plans to raise drug and marijuana policy issues more effectively in the media. NH Common Sense will participate in the presidential primary process as a focal point of raising its issues, and results of candidate interactions will be published at the websites: RescheduleCannabis.org and SendTheRightMessage.com.

“Our issues have received some very good coverage in local and state media,” said NH Common Sense spokesman Matt Simon. “As we educate and activate responsible citizens in New Hampshire and across the country, we believe decriminalization and other marijuana reform issues can be raised more effectively in national media as well.”

SOURCE: WMUR

CONCORD, N.H. -- A group of towns that successfully won a lawsuit against the state over school funding has come out against the governor's proposed education constitutional amendment.

The new opposition came a week after the National Education Association announced that it opposed the measure.

Gov. John Lynch's proposed amendment would promise to pay at least 50 percent of an adequate education in each community, but it would allow targeted aid to towns in need.

Critics said the amendment won't improve education, won't stop lawsuits and will actually pay for about 25 percent of total costs.

"I think the amendment is nothing more than a distraction from what we should be doing," Londonderry Superintendent Nate Greenburg said.

Lynch spokesman Colin Manning said that the amendment is the best way for the state to fix its school funding problems after the state Supreme Court ruled that the previous system was unconstitutional.

SOURCE: Union Leader

By TOM FAHEY, State House Bureau Chief

CONCORD – The New Hampshire Advantage Coalition called yesterday for defeat of Gov. John Lynch's proposed constitutional amendment on school funding.

Lynch's amendment says the state cannot fund less than half the cost of an adequate education. It also allows the state more flexibility in deciding how to distribute money among towns so state aid will reach the districts that need it most.

NHAC executive director Tammy Simmons said lawmakers are being asked to vote on the amendment without knowing its cost. The Legislature has before it a bill defining an adequate education, but doesn't plan to figure out until next year what it will require the state to spend.

Holding up one of dozens of empty wallets NHAC was handing to legislators, Simmons said, "this is what we're concerned about -- a sea of empty wallets across New Hampshire." She said the state already spends enough on schools, and that the state will find itself with a sales or income tax if the amendment passes.

SOURCE: Nashua Telegraph
By Kevin Landrigan

School aid plan to face public

Gov. John Lynch’s bid to limit the state’s obligation on education funding through a Constitutional amendment faces a critical public hearing before the House Finance Committee on Thursday.

The real action begins after the long trail of witnesses for and against the plan ends, and the finance panel holds at least four work sessions on the bill involving the entire committee. They’ve been scheduled for May 15, 17, 22 and 23.

Look for the amendment to surface for a showdown vote in the House right about the time the state Senate is passing judgment on its two-year state budget after Memorial Day weekend.

Meanwhile, there are at least three amendments to the amendment circulating, with others sure to come.

Here’s a short summary of each:

n 100 percent or bust: Rep. Gary Richardson, D-Hopkinton, and Rep. Peter Leishman, D-Milford, want to strike Lynch’s edict that state support of an adequate education be “no less than 50 percent’’ of what the Legislature defines as adequate. They would have the state financing the entire cost.

SOURCE:Concord Monitor

Tax victims also need Lynch's aid

By KATY BURNS
For the Monitor
Apr 22, 2007

Again came the rains, then floods, and finally Gov. John Lynch. The once freakish but now horrifyingly frequent inundation of large tracts of the Granite State brings out the best in our leader. He's on the spot with soothing words and promises of succor, winning rave reviews. John Lynch does floods very well.

But school funding? Maybe not so well.

He is pushing, hard, a constitutional amendment that he insists will settle the school funding dilemma forever. The thing squeaked through the Senate, thanks to arm-twisting by newly ascendant Democrats. Two senators, Iris Estabrook and Jacalyn Cilley, voted for it with reluctance.

Estabrook issued a written statement saying, essentially, that she thought the amendment was a lousy idea but voted for it "out of loyalty and courtesy." Translation: She didn't want to tick off Lynch and the Senate Dem leaders.

Ah, yes, the good news we seldom hear. That's what Representative Carol Shea-Porter came to the Murkland Auditorium on the UNH campus for--to participate in the tenth anniversary celebration of Project Mentor and Seacoast Reads, two programs designed to enable university students to interact with children in our public elementary and middle schools.

While the mentoring program, organized by Professor Barbara Krysiak has expanded throughout the state via UNH at Manchester, Plymouth State university and Keene State and Granite State Colleges, the tutoring program has now logged 999 volunteers in our local schools.

After brief introductions to the programs by Bruce Mallory, Dean and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs, Professors Barbara Krysiak and John Carney, and after paying due recognition to the New Hampshire Notables, an a cappella group which entertained us with their singing, as well as the many volunteers in the audience, Kristin Haskell, the program co-ordinator sponsored by Vista, welcomed the Congresswoman back to her Alma Mater where, having worked her way through school, Carol Shea-Porter was awarded two degrees.