Today, I witnessed the incredible heart of the Manchester community as they rallied for those displaced by the devastating 3-alarm fire on Union Street.
This 117 mile long river supplies water to over 600,000 residents along its shoreline including Manchester and Nashua. The Abenaki, Wabanaki and Pennacook Peoples have protected its watershed for over 10,000 years.
When Governor Kelly Ayotte says New Hampshire is “number one across the board,” the line travels faster than fact. It looks great in national talking points — but it doesn’t match what families, teachers, and taxpayers feel every day in Manchester, Nashua, and communities across our state. Here, the gap between headline and reality is not abstract. It shows up in school budgets, tax bills, and choices families are forced to make.
We have a system of checks and balances to protect us from just such an abuse of power. If we can’t check Trump’s unbalanced language, then we should redefine him into civilian status and return to the rule of law.
This proposal is not simply about square footage and bathrooms. It is about whether New Hampshire wants to participate in a system that treats human beings as cargo — to be warehoused and moved around without due process.
The Children’s Scholarship Fund (CSF) takes up to 10% of all CSF taxpayer funds off the top of Education Freedom Account voucher moneys. Last year, NH paid $ 2.3 million of the national CSF’s $5.2 million for running their organization.
New Hampshire taxpayers have every right to be angry. While we are told the state “cannot afford” to meet its constitutional obligation to public education, tens of millions of dollars are quietly being drained from the Education Trust Fund to subsidize private, religious, and homeschooling families who were never in our public schools to begin with.
Governor Ayotte does not appear to be a leader. She follows the Republican legislature which has not done anything helpful for the New Hampshire taxpayer, possibly because the legislature is led by Free Staters. That is why New Hampshire is the “freest” state.
Bull riding is not rooted in ranch work. Real cowboys have far more important tasks, and no one on a working ranch would waste time forcing an animal into a frantic display that would make life harder for them both. Bull riding is nothing more than a contrived and inhumane spectacle.
Plastic pollution begins with production. Our Manchester Coca-Cola Company is fueled by good intentions, its corporate purpose ‘to refresh the world’. It helps mitigate the impacts of climate change by ‘using 35% to 40% recycled material in our primary packaging, including increasing recycled plastic use to 30% or 35% globally, as well as collecting 70% to 75% of the number of bottles and cans introduced into the market annually’. Yet, harnessing 100,000 to 150,000 gallons of water daily from the industry’s primary source, the Merrimack River, for the purpose of beverage production, would seemingly put the river at risk.
On Thursday, December 4th Governor Kelly Ayotte made a visit to the 211 NH call center where she had an opportunity to connect with the team answering over 70,000 inquiries from New Hampshire residents annually. Manchester Mayor Jay Ruais also joined the group for a tour.
Supporters claim consolidating SAUs will “return control to local school boards.” But how can local boards exercise meaningful control when a countywide administrator — elected by people who may live 50 miles away — controls all major operational decisions?
While something should be done to help support the families and taxpayers of Claremont to ensure adequate education and oversight, the payday loan with 4% interest and strings attached is not the answer. There is a better solution to the immediate problem in Claremont.
Fur-Free Friday, held each year nationwide on the day after Thanksgiving, began in the 1980s to shine a light on the cruelty of the fur trade. Major retailers and designers stopped selling fur, and many of us dared to hope that this industry of suffering was finally ending. But the truth is, the cruelty has not stopped.
Rep. Brian Labrie argues that the so-called “Public Employee Choice Act” is about freedom. But true workplace freedom has never meant forcing workers to negotiate alone against the power and resources of the state. In New Hampshire — a place where the middle class was built through solidarity, fairness, and collective voice — this proposal would undermine the very system that has delivered stability and economic mobility for tens of thousands of families.
If the ACA goes away I’ll have to pay an extra $230 a month. This isn’t feasible. I’m already paying out of pocket for doctor visits. It just feels like I’m being punished for coming from a background without having family support. I’m doing all the things I’m supposed to – I work, I go to school, I lead, and its just not enough.
As a former Manchester middle school counselor, a state representative, and a taxpayer, these numbers scare me — and they should scare you too. Governor Kelly Ayotte’s private school vouchers are draining funding from public schools, which serve over 160,000 students across the state.
New Hampshire’s transportation system does not run on back-room deals, campaign slogans, or eleventh-hour improvisation. It runs—when it runs well—on public process, engineering reality, and basic honesty with taxpayers. That is why the Executive Council’s latest clash over the Ten-Year Transportation Plan should concern every Granite Stater, and especially those of us in Manchester.
To say how irritating it is to have to record ridiculous and inappropriate write ins would be an understatement. We recorded disgusting phrases, and others that were children who clearly are not even able to be elected, adding at least an hour or more to an already long day.
No one should get a free pass simply because they hold office. Elected leaders work for US, the people. It’s time to demand the truth, expect transparency and insist that our representatives answer for their words and actions.