What happened to the cannabis decriminalization bill that overwhelmingly passed the house with more than 80% of NH state reps voting for it? In an embarrassing display of ignorance, watch as multiple NH senators spout off various prohibitionist lies and nonsense in this hearing that came at the end of a 12-hour day for liberty activists at the state house. Despite initially having enough votes to pass the measure, prohibitionist senator Carson moves to strip some more from the already-crippled bill. This ultimately kills it, for political reasons.(Technically it’s “tabled” until 2016.)
The good news is this is the first time the NH senate has ever had a floor discussion on the issue (the house has passed decrim six times in eight years), as ignorant as much of it was, it’s a step in the right direction. The next step is to target the bad senators for either education or elimination in 2016’s election. More detail on what happened below the video, from someone who was with me witnessing the debacle.
HB618 (Marijuana Decrim) is dead until January, at the earliest. Last night, the Senate voted 15-9 to overturn the committee’s recommendation of ITL (inexpedient to legislate/kill this bill) so that Senator Pierce could introduce a compromise amendment. This was encouraging.
At the point the vote was taken, Senator Sharon Carson (R-Londonderry) walked out of the session and began loudly yelling and ranting about how she couldn’t believe this was happening, (more…)
Stone Farm on Liberty Acres has provided hospitality to liberty lovers for a bitcoin donation since 2013. Visitors have been raving about the property and it has received coverage in the Keene Sentinel and Bitcoin Magazine for its acceptance of bitcoin, the international cryptocurrency.
It appears that there has recently been a dispute with the property’s landlord regarding an over-full septic tank due to a broken leach field that has on more than one occasion backed sewage up into the shower. Katie and Matt say the landlord has refused to fix the leach field or even pump the septic tank and seemed to not even realize the property has a septic tank. As a result of this disgusting issue, Stone Farm has been closed to visitors for weeks and the duo are planning a move to a new location.
Katie McCall and Matt Roach
Rather than do the right thing and fix the septic issue, the landlord apparently decided to contact the town gang and snitch on their tenants for running a bed-and-breakfast without a government permission slip. That’s why after two years of service and zero complaints, that Katie and Matt received a threat via certified mail last week. Katie also received an additional threat over her midwifery training business, which ended on its own a while back.
Katie and Matt sent a response to Holman’s threat demanding to know the section of ordinance that was allegedly being violated, as it was never mentioned in the supposed “violation” notice.
Ultimately the duo attended this week’s town selectmen meeting, where they were the only two townsfolk in attendance. According to Katie:
The one selectmen [CJ Holman] who spearheaded the aggression against Stone Farm failed to show and the two remaining selectmen oozed apologies for his inappropriate actions. Both violations were dropped…sometimes people feel comfortable being bullies when the person they are bullying is unknown to them. Putting a face to a name sometimes holds people accountable on its own merit.
Success! Stay tuned here to Free Keene for any further developments.
P.S. Stone Farm is moving to another location – please help them by donating to their fundraiser and get perks like a weeklong stay at the new location!
Dave Ridley continues his series of videos from the Keene School Board meeting last month. As usual, his ambush-style interviews capture more ridiculous, unaccountable behavior from the school board members and school staff.
In this video, one school board member refuses to agree to support ANY kind of budget cap. No amount of taxing is too much!
In this video, Ridley confronts school bureaucrats who do not want to answer questions about anything as well as another school board member who refuses to support a budget cap: (more…)
Despite having previously admitted to spending at least $20,000 of taxpayer money on legal fees in the first stage of the city’s ridiculous civil suit filed against Keene’s Robin Hooders, city manager John MacLean is now claiming he doesn’t know how much it’s all cost thus far. As you may recall, the suit is currently awaiting a ruling from the New Hampshire supreme court. Dave Ridley spotted MacLean at a recent council meeting and confronts him outside. MacLean, who is a very smooth operator, dodges and gives non-answers to Ridley’s legitimate inquiries, including those about MacLean’s salary. Here’s the video:
Nearly six years ago in downtown Keene I was shocked when Emergency Medical Services worker Ronald Leslie snatched my phone out of my hands (here’s another angle) as I was recording video of my friend Kurt Hoffman being loaded into an ambulance. Hoffman had allegedly been attacked by now-sheriff, then-KPD-officer Eli Rivera while in a secret court hearing at Keene District Court. Though I had forgiven Leslie shortly after the incident, others have not forgotten the assault and theft.
Indeed, now that Dave Ridley is back in town, he’s been cornering bureaucrats and politicians in various places. Recently he attended a Keene city council meeting where the very same Ronald Leslie was receiving an award prior to his retirement. Ridley confronted him about the theft and at first it almost looks like Leslie has changed for the better – he even tells a female companion to keep her hands off Ridley’s camera after she begins to assault him. Despite the golden opportunity Leslie has to apologize publicly for what he did or at least admit fault, he actually claims that he thought I was giving him my camera! My mouth just about hit the floor when I heard the ridiculous excuse for his unprofessional behavior. Here’s the video:
Last week, the principal of Monadnock Regional Middle/High School sent a letter to certain parents promoting Free Keene, and for that I thank them. However, the letter also told a big lie. The letter’s purpose was to stir up concern among parents that some people from Free Keene have been recording on campus, (here’s the video) and further claims falsely:
This is a violation of your child’s privacy and because it happened on school property, we want to make sure you are aware of this video.
This is a lie. It was not Derrick’s intention to record the students, and the principal’s letter does admit the students were filmed inadvertently. That said, even if it had been his intention to record the students, it would not have been a violation of their privacy, given they were all outdoors, on ostensibly public property. Beyond that, the school district has already informed parents their kids will be recorded, not just for their school security system, but for newspaper, radio, TV and web! Here’s the proof. According to the “student registration” form for the Monadnock Regional School District, which covers Monadnock Regional Middle/High School, parents agree to the following statement, in a lengthy four-page form (check the bottom of page 3 for this):
I agree to allow the student to be recorded or photographed for public use by newspaper, radio, TV and web
So, this is nothing more than a dishonest, fearmongering hit piece that is designed to make the school look like they are somehow protecting the students from us horrible bloggers by claiming they are consulting with law enforcement and have formulated plans to remove us from the premises next time. All the while, they are recording the students on their own security system on a daily basis, and have had all parents sign a waiver allowing any media to use their images!
