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TexasTowelie's JournalJudge rejects white nationalist's challenge to state's gun magazine limit
A Vermont judge has denied a bid by Max Misch, a self-professed white nationalist online troll, to throw out charges that he illegally possessed high-capacity magazine.
Judge William Cohen issued the ruling Friday, following a hearing in Bennington County Superior criminal court in late May where Misch’s attorney challenging the constitutionality of the magazine ban that went into effect in Vermont on Oct. 1, 2018.
Misch is believed to be the first person charged under a provision of a gun control law, Act 94, that passed the Legislature and was signed by Gov. Phi Scott in April 2018.
Cohen’s seven-page decision means Misch still faces two misdemeanor counts of possessing magazines over the size limits set in the new law.
Read more: https://vtdigger.org/2019/07/01/judge-rejects-white-nationalists-challenge-to-states-gun-magazine-limit/
State seeks to protect investors as Salem man faces jail time for securities fraud
BRENTWOOD — The state is taking legal action to protect investors who claim they lost tens of thousands of dollars in deals with a Salem man who is facing jail time for securities fraud.
Secretary of State William Gardner has filed a complaint against Michael Bates seeking an injunction to prevent him from conducting any securities business.
Bates, 44, was sentenced on June 14 to at least six months in jail after a Rockingham County jury found him guilty of a felony securities fraud charge accusing him of making various misrepresentations when he solicited a friend to invest in a business.
A judge ordered Bates to pay $50,000 in restitution to the victim and prohibited him from engaging in the sale of securities or receiving monetary investments from third parties during his probationary period.
Read more: https://www.unionleader.com/news/crime/state-seeks-to-protect-investors-as-salem-man-faces-jail/article_2cca05cb-4e22-55cb-afbd-3e0ddab0b8d9.html
New Hampshire Lawmakers Approve Changes To Medicaid Work Requirement Rules
New Hampshire lawmakers have approved changes to work requirement rules for Medicaid recipients just as the requirements are taking effect.
The rules require most recipients to spend at least 100 hours a month working, going to school or participating in community service.
The House and Senate approved a compromise bill Thursday that would suspend, but not eliminate, coverage for noncompliance.
The state would have until July 2021 to waive the requirements in several scenarios, including if the state is unable to contact all participants to explain the rules.
Read more: https://www.nhpr.org/post/nh-lawmakers-approve-changes-medicaid-work-requirement-rules
As expected, Sununu vetoes budget, saying it would kill jobs
Republican Gov. Chris Sununu vetoed a $13 billion two-year state budget on Friday, saying it sets up unsustainable spending expectations and “job killing tax increases” that would put New Hampshire’s booming economy at risk.
The veto was widely expected and came a day after lawmakers approved a continuing resolution to maintain current spending levels for three months starting Monday, the first day of the new fiscal year.
Democrats, who control the Legislature, said the budget provides property tax relief and a boost to education funding while addressing the state’s most pressing problems. But Republicans argued it relies on one-time surplus funds for ongoing expenses and will drive the state toward a broad-based tax.
“Taking out a big mortgage with a one-time bonus from work would be a terrible decision, but that is precisely what this budget does,” Sununu said in his veto message.
Read more: https://www.concordmonitor.com/As-expected-Sununu-vetoes-budget-saying-it-would-kill-jobs-26642051
Top Democrat Volinsky makes big move toward running for governor
Executive Councilor Andru Volinsky took a big step toward a gubernatorial run in 2020.
The Democrat from Concord on Monday announced the formation of a 175-member exploratory committee – a first official move toward the launch of a gubernatorial bid to try and unseat two-term Gov. Chris Sununu.
“The challenges facing New Hampshire are immense, whether it’s our school funding crisis or the growing gap between rich and poor, or the existential threat of climate change,” Volinsky wrote.
Volinsky has remained a vocal critic of the Republican governor.
Read more: https://www.concordmonitor.com/Volinsky-takes-steps-to-run-for-governor-against-Sununu-26681128
Shuttered college campuses hit the market
If you’re looking for a bucolic property complete with historic buildings, a full suite of athletic facilities, and enough beds to sleep hundreds – you’re in luck.
A spate of college closures across New England, including three in Vermont, means prospective buyers with those criteria have options.
At Southern Vermont College in Bennington, a listing says amenities include an English country house-style mansion with views on Mount Anthony, walking distance to the Southwestern Vermont Medical Center, and five dormitory halls. At Green Mountain College in Poultney, selling points include a carbon neutral campus, working farm, and a 30-minute drive to the Rutland regional airport. (The third college to close this year, the College of St. Joseph, is not on the market, although its leaders have sold off pieces of properties in recent years.)
But the campuses have their sticking points, too. Green Mountain College carries close to $20 million in debt with the USDA. Southern Vermont College is millions of dollars in debt, too – though far less than Green Mountain – and is facing two separate suits from former donors. The Vermont Land Trust also holds permanent conservation easements on large swaths of land owned by both colleges which preserve public access.
Read more: https://vtdigger.org/2019/06/30/shuttered-college-campuses-hit-the-market/
Can Bernie Sanders revive his presidential prospects?
NASHUA, N.H. — Inside the local library of this Granite State city, Vermont U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders is smiling uncharacteristically from ear to ear on the cover of a recent issue of Time magazine.
“Sanders is a crusader with little patience for small, human things,” the accompanying article says of the 2020 presidential candidate. “But will the traits of the crusader, which have gotten him to the threshold of the threshold of power, be enough to get him through the door? Or does the crusader — too focused on health care to do small talk — need to learn that sometimes you have to ask about someone’s kids to get everyone’s kids health care?”
Outside on the sidewalk, people who attended this weekend’s Nashua Pride Parade soon found out. They watched as the man summed up by the Washington Post as “our grumpy grandpa” bounded out of his campaign car shouting “anybody want a selfie?” before marching down Main Street amid a sea of rainbow banners and balloons.
“With so many of the other candidates snuggled up over in the progressive corner of the party,” the Post’s fashion critic wrote this past week, “he can no longer comfortably dress like the absent-minded professor who lost his comb.”
Read more: https://vtdigger.org/2019/06/30/can-bernie-sanders-revive-his-presidential-prospects/
Janet Mills signs bill to allow recreational marijuana sales in Maine
AUGUSTA, Maine — Maine Gov. Janet Mills signed a bill Thursday setting up a legal framework for the sale of recreational marijuana to adults as early as next year.
Her office said Thursday that the state’s Office of Marijuana Policy plans to accept applications for licenses by the end of 2019. The Democratic governor said her administration has worked quickly to implement the voter-approved law since she took office earlier this year.
The state’s voters chose to legalize both the use and sale of recreational marijuana among adults in November 2016, but months of delays and political squabbles have slowed the implementation of a commercial industry. The state now has a legal road map for marijuana to arrive in stores as soon as early 2020.
State officials say retail adult use marijuana could arrive in stores as soon as early 2020. Maine already has legal medical marijuana.
Read more: https://bangordailynews.com/2019/06/28/politics/maine-governor-signs-rules-to-finally-allow-pot-sales/
Maine state workers' union says it has a contract deal with Janet Mills
A top official with Maine’s major state employees’ union said it reached a “tentative agreement” late Tuesday with the administration of Gov. Janet Mills on a new two-year contract that came less than five days before the scheduled end of their current contract.
The Maine State Employees Association didn’t disclose the terms on Wednesday because they hadn’t been sent to members. Members will vote to ratify the contract over the next month after a relatively public dispute with the Democratic governor’s administration in the past week.
We don’t know what’s in the agreement, but it came quickly and the union has asked for pay and cost-of-living increases, retention initiatives and a higher wage floor. Both the Mills administration and the union, which represents more than 9,000 workers, haven’t discussed the terms of the confidential negotiations, which is typical in these situations. We may learn more about the agreement later today.
But Alec Maybarduk, the executive director of the Maine State Employees Association, said a tentative agreement was reached late Tuesday with the state making “progress” on many of the issues that the union has raised publicly about negotiations during the past few months.
Read more: https://bangordailynews.com/2019/06/26/politics/daily-brief/maine-state-workers-union-says-it-has-a-contract-deal-with-janet-mills/
Black Lives Matter co-founder: Maine can be a leader in dismantling white nationalism
Alicia Garza, a co-founder of Black Lives Matter, spoke to a crowded hall of Maine progressives on Thursday on the need to understand and transform power if the larger anti-racism movement is to succeed. She also suggested that Maine, where 95 percent of people identify as white, according to the most recent census data, has a unique opportunity to confront and uproot the organizing principle behind white supremacy.
“I went to sleep last night with images of two people face down in the Rio Grande — a father and his daughter, the latest casualties of a movement that for decades has been fighting to make America white again,” Garza told attendees at the Maine People’s Alliance’s (of which Beacon is a project) annual Rising Tide Award Dinner in South Portland.
She was referring to the picture of a man and his 23-month-old daughter who drowned on Monday when they tried to cross from Mexico to the U.S.
“It’s too easy to say that that is not who we are,” Garza continued. “But it is who we are. You see, America itself was founded on violence, steeped in white supremacy and predicated on theft and genocide.”
Read more: https://mainebeacon.com/black-lives-matter-co-founder-maine-can-be-a-leader-in-dismantling-white-nationalism/
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