Why is it that Keene bureaucrats seem so hell-bent on raising property taxes to such an extreme and unsustainable level? Have they simply lost touch with reality? Or are there more sinister intentions behind their meddling? Perhaps rep. Cynthia Chase’s statement, “tomake the environment here so unwelcoming that some will choose not to come, and some may actually leave,” was not only directed at free staters but also at lower income riff raff who cannot afford the tax rate. Eric Freerock joins us to discuss. Show notes at: BlackSheepRising.org
On Sunday at 11am, a candlight vigil will be held at the scene of the slaughter of five ducks and the serious injuring of many more after state representative David Campbell drunkenly careened into the flock of waterfowl on December 23. The event scheduled for the two-month anniversary of the deaths will feature a moment of silence, presentations from the audience, a reminder of the dangers of combining alcohol consumption and driving, and an update on the situation. Since the incident dubbed #duckgate, Nashua police commissioner Tom Pappas, who assisted David Campbell in evading police interaction until the following morning, has resigned from his post amid calls for both he and Campbell to do so. Though he issued an apology and pled guilty to hunting ducks out of season, David Campbell has ignored all calls for his resignation. The Concord-NH Patch ran an announcement after a facebook event was created to coincide with the New Hampshire Liberty Forum. Check back for video from the scene to follow. (more…)
Amendments to Keene School District petition articles called illegal, suit filed
A lawsuit filed against the Keene School District argues amendments made to seven warrant articles at the district’s deliberative session earlier this month were illegal and deprived residents of the opportunity to vote.
The petitioners — Conan Salada, Darryl W. Perry, David Crawford and Eric LaRoche — requested an injunction and an expedited hearing, so the issue can be sorted out before town and school district elections on March 11.
The document states the amendments to the petitioned articles were a “creative and surreptitious attempt” to eliminate the subject matter.
In January, Salada submitted seven petition articles to the school district. Three sought to replace the school district’s proposed budget with smaller budgets, two would have reduced the school board’s power to keep and use surplus money, one aimed to take away the board’s power to state support of warrant articles on the ballot and one aimed to remove the board’s authority to appoint members to fill empty seats. (more…)
Did you miss the excruciatingly painful 6 hour deliberative session dealing with the school budget and warrant articles that will appear on the March ballot here in Keene? No problem. I cut the bulk of it down to an hour and have selected choice footage from that event highlighting the extreme lengths these bureaucrats stooped to in order to protect their ‘doomed to collapse’ 63millon dollar a year industry from any opposition.
Last evening in the Mabel Brown room of Keene State College, Cheshire county jail superintendent Richard Van Wickler hosted a presentation representing Law Enforcement Against Prohibition. In the roughly hour-long speech followed by question and answer session, the failures of modern drug prohibition policy were addressed and the call was made to scale back the hostility of the drug war. Van Wickler is one of only two LEAP speakers that is an actively employed member of law enforcement. Filmed from multiple angles, see the embedded videos below for playlists from either angle.
Before the Deliberative Session, Conan Salada collected signatures on 7 warrant articles to be placed on the official ballot before voters in the upcoming Keene School District election.
During the Deliberative Session, all 7 warrant articles were amended in a manner that eliminated the subject. These amendments were challenged as out of order, however the moderator over-ruled those motions, and the majority of voters in attendance agreed with the moderator. The Keene Sentinel described these changes as “Machiavellian legal maneuvering… to avoid letting voters decide the merits of the articles“.
After the Deliberative Session, Darryl W. Perry, was directed to the 2011 Rockingham Superior Court decision in the case of Bailey v. Town of Exeter. In Bailey, the Court ruled, “the Court finds and rules the only way the phrase ‘no warrant article shall be amended to eliminate the subject matter of the article’ can logically be read is to conclude that any amendment that made the subject matter of the article a nullity was forbidden,” adding that “[m]erely because the majority of the voters were more clever in the way the amendment was worded to create the nullity does not mean their action was not a violation of the statute.”
Perry, Salada and two other voters (David Crawford and Eric LaRoche) have filed suit against the School District due to the illegal actions at the Deliberative Session that have disenfranchised the voters of Keene, including petitioners.
The filing can be read here. A court date has been set for Friday, February 28 at 11am.
