Today the New Hampshire Supreme Court released an 111-page order proposing changes to the rules of the New Hampshire Judicial Branch. The proposal comes immediately before the voters of New Hampshire will have the opportunity to pass CACR26.
CACR26 is an amendment to the New Hampshire Constitution that will allow the New Hampshire General Court greater oversight authority of the Judicial Branch rule making process.
If you’re a regular reader of this blog you’re aware that journalist Jason Talley faced criminal charges because the NH Judicial Branch made “rules” restricting press freedom rights. The rules were enacted immediately after a judge was caught on camera conveying objectively false information to law enforcement to have someone arrested.
The proposal allows public comment about the rule changes until November 21st. Make your voice heard (and part of the official record) by emailing the NH Supreme Court at rulescomment@courts.state.nh.us.
Please get out to vote to pass CACR26 in November!!
On Thursday MaryEllen McGorry was suspended from her duties as the principal of Manchester High School West. Now the Union Leader is reporting that her secretary, Denise Michael, has also been suspended and is under investigation. That is all the information that school superintendent Tom Brennan is willing to release to the public at the moment, according to the UL:
MANCHESTER — The secretary of suspended Manchester High School West principal MaryEllen McGorry has been placed on administrative leave, Superintendent Tom Brennan said.
Denise Michael will be on paid leave until an investigation is completed, Brennan said.
He would not give reasons nor say whether the suspension has anything to do with McGorry’s suspension, which took place last week.
Brennan said Julie Moore of Employment Practices Group is handling the investigation into the McGorry matter. Her rate is $250 an hour. (more…)
A New Hampshire woman with a federal civil rights lawsuit against Loudon police has settled with the officers involved on the day prior to the scheduled trial. Jessica Dennis had filed the suit in June of 2011, in relation to an incident that had happened to her while she was being arrested in July of 2009. Dennis was in woods near a house party that police were breaking up when she was attacked by a police canine. She sustained injuries from the attack, and after police had pulled the dog off of her, she was taken into custody for suspicion of underage drinking. Reports also indicate that the police immaturely insulted and ridiculed her throughout the ordeal. She would be found guilty of nothing in state criminal court before filing the federal case alleging violations of her civil rights.
With at least three country stations broadcasting from the area already, is another one really necessary? Apparently Great Eastern thinks so.
Great Eastern’s other transmitter in the market, their sports talk station, “WEEI” 93.5 (WEEY) is a simulcast of Boston sports talker WEEI. It has zero local content and doesn’t even have its own website.
This means Great Eastern Radio’s stations “in Keene” are now being run by a skeleton crew of Elise Valentine and maybe a contract engineer. It’s sad, but that’s what’s become of corporate radio – constant cuts and consolidation.
National radio operator Saga does deserve credit for doing a decent job with their station cluster in town, the Monadnock Radio Group. If Great Eastern thinks they’re going to make compelling local radio by cutting costs and staff to the bone, they will probably learn their mistake hard and fast and possibly end up failing and sell the stations.
Meanwhile, local current-rock listeners are screwed as far as on-air options are concerned. Of course, they could always start up their own radio station with all the open channels on the radio dial in this area. All they have to do is apply for and receive a license from the FCC…
Oh wait – no, they can’t. The FCC, according to local newsman Brad Ryder, has been sitting on a couple of station applications for nearly a decade! Ryder reports that he and the Monadnock Radio Group had applied for the same open frequency and the FCC has yet to decide to whom it should be granted.
You may be asking, “Why did they both apply for the same frequency?” (more…)
I have gotten so used to having my camera groped at by authoritative busybodies that I am beginning to feel as though I should question my relative comfort with it. The first article featured on this blog was about a police officer who couldn’t keep his hands off of my phone when it was acting as an audio streaming device. Since then, I’ve had a previous camera clutched so firmly that it automatically powered off, in an escapade that traveled the blogosphere during the first annual lemonade freedom day. My Canon Vixia’s design is much more rugged and durable than the previous Nikon Coolpix I used to utilize for Free Concord videos. And I appreciate the upgraded zoom capabilities and high definition 16:9 widescreen frame. Today, as I celebrated International Chalk the Police day with others, my camera withstained a push from a Keene city parks and recreation director Andrew Bohannon, as he fumbled to conceal his identity from chalkers. After activists had covered most of the central square park in liberty oriented slogans and quotes, a man driving around the rotary yelled from his vehicle at the chalkers to stop. Myself and others waved and invited the person to join us for Chalk the Police day. Moments later, I noticed a man with a phone who had walked up onto the square and begun speaking with people, phone in hand, and an identification swinging from his neck. (more…)
Maryellen McGorry, principal of Manchester West High School, was suspended some time last week. The story was broken earlier today by the Union Leader, which provided no explanation for the former prosecutor turned administrator’s sudden suspension. The UL quotes Manchester mayor Ted Gatsas, who publicly announced the penalty. McGorry has been the principal at West since 2007. Jason Talley is keeping tabs on the latest developments over at talley.tv. Free Concord readers may recognize Maryellen McGorry from her role as a witness for the prosecution in prosecutor Michael Valentine’s theatrical performance State v Adam Mueller.
