Former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney is looking ahead today to South Carolina, now that he has the New Hampshire win in his column. His victory in the primary was called early yesterday evening by news outlets once the polls closed, as he captured 38-percent of the vote. He told the crowd that New Hampshire -- where his family has maintained a second home -- has always been a very special place for the Romneys. Ron Paul called his second-place finish a victory for the cause of liberty, while Jon Huntsman captured third, which he says is a ticket to ride to South Carolina.
NEW COMMITTEE CONVENES
The committee half of the new Keene City Council starts tonight. Municipal Services Facilities & Infrastructure apparently is ready to act on revised parking ordinance language which, among other things, establishes a new tiered scale of fine increases over specified deadlines for paying up ... hiking those fines after 14 days, and again after 28 days if the fines remain unpaid. MSFI also hears from residents along West Street and Bradford Road, that traffic on those thoroughfares has become both too heavy and too fast. Planning Licenses & Development then takes up the jail-area zoning change and the sign-code language relating to banners and other temporary commercial signage, both of which got public hearings by full council last week.
PLANT EXPLOSION
The owner of a gunpowder plant in Colebrook is now under indictment for manslaughter and negligent homicide. Craig Sanborn was indicted by the Coos County Grand Jury in connection with an explosion in May 2010, which killed two employees and injured a third. Federal regulators say they weren't aware of Millennium Design Muzzleloaders in Colebrook before the explosion but afterwards found huge safety problems. Sanborn denied being at fault when he was assessed one-point-two-million dollars in penalties.
FALL TO DEATH
A hiker from Massachusetts is dead after a fall from Tuckerman Ravine on Mount Washington. U.S. forest rangers say Patrick Scott Powers of Mansfield was alive when rescuers first reached him but died from his injuries before he was carried to Pinkham Notch. Rescuers estimate he fell about 800 feet down snow-and-ice-covered slopes.
SIBLINGS STRUCK
In Dover, three kids, all from the same family, are recovering after being struck as they crossed a street on their way to school yesterday morning. The 16-year-old girl and her two brothers, ages 14 and 10, were hit by a Honda Element. All three were seriously hurt but were upgraded to stable condition. The driver, a woman from Somersworth, was not hurt and so far is not charged.
JUDD FOR THE DEFENSE
Former New Hampshire Senator Judd Gregg is coming to Mitt Romney's defense against some of his primary rivals, over Romney's past involvement with private venture capital firm. Gregg said Romney has a record of creating jobs in the private sector when a lot of others were not. Last night's primary winner has taken heat lately for saying he likes "being able to fire people" ... actually referring to changing health insurance carriers. Critics like former House Speaker Newt Gingrich are trying to tie his statements to his role in Bain Capital, which took over struggling companies, restructured them, and sometimes laid off workers.
COWAN FOR PRESIDENT
Amid the primary hubbub as "push finally came to vote" Tuesday, a name you may not have heard on TV or radio was Ed Cowan. The Moretown Vermont author and teacher entered the Democratic primary on a platform of steep military spending cuts. Some voters around here liked the idea: Cowan amassed 16 Democratic votes in Keene, and 5 in Swanzey, ranking Cowan the Democratic runner-up to President Obama.
SHOOTING MYSTERY
What led to the deaths of two Cheshire County residents in Sedona Arizona late last week may never be known. Arizona authorities confirm that the same gun that killed Carol Raynsford of Nelson and James Johnson of Jaffrey last Friday, killed a Phoenix-area sheriff's deputy two days later, in a shootout that ended with the gunman dead. The local couple were vacationing in Arizona, when they were shot dead in their car in the Red Rock region in Northern Arizona.
NUCLEAR PLANT SUED
The two largest electric companies in Vermont are suing Vermont Yankee. The suit by Green Mountain Power and Central Vermont Public Service Corporation asks for $6.6 million, over the failure a few years ago in the cooling towers of Vermont's only nuclear plant. The two utilities had to buy more expensive replacement power when that happened, and say Vermont Yankee didn't live up to its obligation to use "good utility practice" before the failures in 2007 and 2008.
