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New Hampshire Ports Director Geno Marconi is formally facing criminal charges a day after his wife, Associate Supreme Court Justice Anna Barbara Hantz Marconi, was indicted for interfering in her husband’s criminal investigation.

A grand jury indicted Marconi on two class B felonies – Tampering with Witnesses and Informants and Falsifying Physical Evidence. He’s also charged with four class A misdemeanors – two counts of Driver Privacy Act Violations and two counts of Obstructing Government Administration.

Also charged on Thursday: Bradley Cook, chairman of the Division of Ports and Harbors Advisory Council and a longtime fishing boat captain. Cook was indicted on one class B felony charge for Perjury as well as two counts of class A misdemeanor False Swearing.

Marconi illegally provided Cook with the confidential driving records of another person, known in the indictments as N.L., according to the indictments. Marconi is also alleged to have deleted a voice mail in order to hinder any investigation, the indictments state. Cook is accused of lying to the grand jury when questioned about N.L.’s driving records.

The purpose of the alleged lying and leaking of confidential records by two public officials is not yet clear. Cook spoke to the press before he was called to testify before the grand jury in September. Cook blamed the whole drama on Gov. Chris Sununu and a development plan for Rye Harbor that both Cook and Marconi opposed.

“I would say all of this is because Geno would not bend a knee to Chris Sununu, wouldn’t do what the governor wanted, and instead supports what is right and fair for other people,” Cook told InDepthNH.

Cook did not respond to a request for comment on Thursday. Marconi’s attorneys also did not respond.

Granite State political circles have been buzzing about the Marconis since Geno was placed on leave from his Ports job in April without explanation. That was followed by the stunning news that Justice Hantz Marconi was put on 90-day administrative leave in July, also without an explanation.

It now appears punitive action was taken after she allegedly approached Sununu in a private meeting. Hantz Marconi had been recusing herself from Supreme Court cases involving the New Hampshire Attorney General’s Office for months. The Supreme Court issued a new order Thursday extending Hantz Marconi’s leave indefinitely as she deals with the criminal charges. 

Hantz Marconi, 68, was appointed to the Supreme Court in 2017 after being nominated by Sununu. She is close to the mandatory retirement age of 70 for New Hampshire judges. Her term ends in February 2026.

Cook and Marconi both opposed the Pease Development Authority’s (PDA) $1 million plan to develop a raised platform at Rye Harbor for retail shops and restaurants. Though it had backing from the PDA and Sununu, the plan was amid local opposition shelved in August.

Cook and Marconi are due in Rockingham Superior Court on Nov. 27 for arraignment. Hantz Marconi is due for her arraignment in Merrimack Superior Court on Nov. 21. She’s accused of trying to pressure Sununu to drop the investigation, and she is alleged to have sought private information from PDA Chair Steve Duprey. 

Republicans who spoke to NHJournal on background are split on the matter. Many are friends of Justice Hantz Marconi and find it hard to believe she would intentionally break the law, even on behalf of her husband. Others complain that, once she knew the situation she was in, she should have resigned and allowed another justice to be appointed. And there is widespread criticism of how Formella is handling Justice Hantz Marconi’s part in the scandal.

“If he has enough to charge her, then he should have enough to get her to resign and avoid this mess,” one Republican activist told NHJournal.

Another Republican with close ties to Pease said the information blackout is a problem.

“It’s the biggest mystery out there. Somebody should let us know what the hell is going on. This has been going on forever.”

This isn’t the first time in recent memory a New Hampshire Supreme Court Justice has been in trouble. In 2000, Associate Justice Stephen Thayer’s divorce wound up before the state Supreme Court, forcing two of his fellow members to recuse themselves. That resulted in Chief Justice David Brock appointing two different judges to a panel overseeing the Thayer divorce. 

In the mess that ensued, Thayer was forced to resign to avoid criminal charges and Brock was impeached. He was acquitted in the Senate.

Students protesting against Israel’s war with Hamas are “useful idiots” enabling a murderous terror organization dedicated to killing Jews, Gov. Chris Sununu said Thursday.

“This is a war… this isn’t a policy dispute. This isn’t some geographic border discussion. This is one group, a terrorist organization called Hamas that wants to wipe out every Jew on the planet. That’s like their written goal and they don’t shy away from that at all,” Sununu said during an appearance on Drew Cline’s WFEA radio show.

Hundreds of pro-Palestinian protesters have appeared on the campuses of the University of New Hampshire and Dartmouth College, as well as at town council meetings and city halls. Chanting “Long Live the Intifada” and “U.S., Israel, Go to Hell,” they’ve expressed their anger over both the actions of the Israeli government in Gaza, and the existence of the nation of Israel itself.

They are part of a national movement that began soon after the Oct. 7 terror attack, when Hamas members and Gaza civilians swarmed across the border into Israel and murdered, raped, and injured thousands of Israelis. Hamas still holds an estimated 128 hostages, among them five American citizens.

On May 1, a dozen protesters were arrested at UNH while trying to set up an illegal encampment on the campus. There were arrests at the Dartmouth campus in Hanover as well.

Sununu said the college students taking part in the protests are being used by groups with hateful intentions, like the Palestine Solidarity Coalition at UNH.

“They’re kind of using these students, as I would call them, useful idiots, frankly, to promote, ‘Oh, we’re just freedom fighters. This is genocide against Gaza.’ No, it’s genocide against the Israelis and it has been for 50 years now…” Sununu said.

There are numerous radical groups organizing the protests tied together by extremist ideology, and a willingness to work with governments hostile to the United States, according to research by the Network Contagion Research Institute.

Shut It Down for Palestine is an umbrella organization for several radical left-wing groups created on Oct. 11, days after the Hamas attack. Also known as SID4P, the group includes The People’s Forum, ANSWER Coalition, International People’s Assembly, Al Awda NY, National Students for Justice in Palestine, Palestinian Youth Movement, and it has working ties with the Party for Socialism and Liberation, a Marxist group dedicated to overthrowing the United States.

According to the NCRI report, the individual groups are part of an influence network tied to Neville Roy Singham, a far-left businessman who has allegedly disseminated Chinese Communist Party propaganda.

“The People’s Forum, IPA, and ANSWER Coalition serve as the conduit through which CCP–affiliated entities have effectively co–opted pro–Palestinian activism in the U.S., advancing a broader anti–American, anti–democratic, and anti–capitalist agenda. These three far–left SID4P Convenors are part of a network linked by close financial, interpersonal, and ideological ties to Neville Roy Singham and his wife Jodie Evans, a power couple within the global far–left movement with close ties to the CCP,” the NCRI report states.

Sununu said Thursday the college students getting caught up in the protest movement are easy targets for bad actors like SID4P groups, in part because they know so little about the history of Israel or the Middle East.

“When you don’t have good education in the classroom, the vacuum gets filled by social media and propaganda with these kids,” Sununu said.

Sununu isn’t alone in his view that the protests are being fueled by antisemitism. A Fox News poll released Wedensday found voters oppose the protests by a nearly 60-40 split. Large majorities of voters on both sides of the political aisle also decried the protests as both “pro-Palestinian” and “anti-Israeli.”

“About 6 in 10 voters say the protests are pro-Palestinian (62 percent) and anti-Israeli (58 percent). All other descriptions of the protests are under 50 percent, but not by much: anti-war (49 percent), antisemitic (46 percent), anti-American (43 percent), and pro-Hamas (42 percent),” according to the Fox News poll.

In North Carolina, the state is transferring $2.3 million of spending at its flagship state university from its Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) program to public safety and policing.

In Texas, Gov. Greg Abbott (R) signed a law closing all DEI offices at state-funded colleges and universities.

The state of Florida, often viewed as a rival by New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu (R-N.H.), eliminated all positions associated with DEI in its state college system last month.

And yet the Granite State continues to spend millions on DEI employees and programs in the University of New Hampshire system, which includes UNH, the Franklin Pierce School of Law, Plymouth State University, and Keene State College.

Why?

“That’s a good question,” said state Sen. Sharon Carson (R-Londonderry), currently the frontrunner to take over the top spot in the Senate if the GOP holds its majority in November. (Senate President Jeb Bradley is retiring.)

The premise of DEI policies is that American institutions like universities are inherently racist or bigoted toward racial, sexual, and cultural minorities. Therefore, judging individuals based on merit is a mistake and should be rejected. Instead, hiring decisions should be based on identity politics in pursuit of collective justice.

“The University of Central Florida, in its ‘Inclusive Faculty Hiring’ guide, described merit in faculty hiring as a ‘narrative myth’ and advised employees to avoid using it in job descriptions and hiring materials,” DEI critic Chris Rufo wrote in The New York Times. “The guide also advocated explicit quotas of ‘minoritized’ groups in its hiring practices.”

Funding for the various DEI programs in New Hampshire’s higher education institutions is estimated at between $6 and $9 million, though that spending is scattered throughout various budget line items, making it hard to track. House Majority Leader Rep. Jason Osborne (R-Auburn) said the lack of transparency surrounding DEI is a problem.

“Members have long been asking for a breakdown of DEI funding for the University Systems and have yet to receive an adequate answer. Hearing that UNH alone spends roughly $2 million on DEI, clearly intervention is required. We look forward to addressing this in the state budget next year,” Osborne said.

And the timing may be fortuitous.

Washington State University Provost and Executive Vice President Elizabeth Chilton will take over the reins at UNH this summer, following the retirement of current President James Dean. Sen. Dan Innis (R-Bradford), who teaches at UNH, said this is the perfect time to reexamine the system’s DEI programming and funding.

Chilton, who spent 16 years at UMass Amherst, was a featured speaker at the 2021 Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Justice Summit at Washington State University, where she touted her work on DEIJ.

“One of the large ways that I have leaned in, in the past 15 months, is through the initiation of our faculty cluster hire in racism and social inequality [specializations] in the Americas,” Chilton said.

“Given the profile of the new UNH president, I think it is highly likely that we in the Senate will take action next year, perhaps as a part of the budget,” Innis said.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has been an outspoken critic of taxpayer-funded DEI programs, and he helped usher through the higher education reforms that ended them.

“DEI is toxic and has no place in our public universities,” DeSantis said last month. “I’m glad that Florida was the first state to eliminate DEI, and I hope more states follow suit.”

But Sununu, who often touts the Granite State’s edge over Florida on issues of fiscal responsibility and personal freedom, is much more sanguine about DEI spending in his state’s budget.

Asked about the actions of North Carolina and Florida and whether New Hampshire should do the same, Sununu told NHJournal, “Obviously, any program — DEI included — would be looked at to say, ‘Okay, do we need to be funding this? Are the dollars appropriate? What are we getting for the return?’ We haven’t had any of those issues here in the state. None of that has been brought to my attention.

“If there was a concern, I would definitely look at it. But nothing has been brought to our attention. I’m simply saying those programs seem to be on a decent path, I suppose,” Sununu said.

However, several UNH trustees who spoke to NHJournal — on and off the record — said it was time to review DEI policies and spending, particularly as the college system is cutting staff and closing programs. On background, some trustees expressed concern that there is no scrutiny of DEI spending or its results.

New Hampshire Agriculture Commissioner and University System of New Hampshire trustee Shawn Jasper, however, willingly voiced the concern shared by many that the DEI programs operating at the state schools are ill-defined, with vague goals that can’t be measured in a meaningful way.

“There are several trustees concerned about what the goal is and how we measure the success of the program,” Jasper said.

According to Jasper, the DEI programs at UNH are less about addressing deep-seated societal problems and more about a marketing strategy. Nearly 60 percent of UNH students now come from outside New Hampshire, paying higher tuition rates than in-state students. DEI is part of the package advertised to the out-of-state student population, he said.

“I don’t have a problem funding those things if there’s an articulated problem that needs to be addressed. That doesn’t seem to be the case, it seems like they have to have it to compete with the out-of-state student market,” Jasper said.

If UNH is going to keep its DEI program, Jasper wants to see it deployed in such a way that it can be quantified.

“If we’re going to have programs like this at our universities — and I’m not saying they are not needed — we need to be very clear what we are trying to solve and I’m not sure, in New Hampshire, that’s been articulated,” Jasper said.

New Hampshire taxpayers don’t have to pay a $537 million education spending bill just yet, as the New Hampshire Supreme Court stayed the decision in the ConVal lawsuit.

In a unanimous decision issued Wednesday, the Supreme Court put a hold on Rockingham Superior Court Judge David Ruoff’s November order that the state’s per-pupil spending must go up to at least $7,300. Ruoff had denied a motion to stay his decision pending appeal earlier this year.

Gov. Chris Sununu praised the stay decision, saying Ruoff’s ruling went too far.

“Today, the Supreme Court rightfully paused an attempt by one judge to usurp the power and preferences of both the legislative and executive branches,” Sununu said. “Grateful for the Supreme Court’s action to stay a decision that was so clearly overreaching.”

According to Senate President Jeb Bradley (R-Wolfeboro), implementing Ruoff’s order would wreck state finances, hurt lower-income communities, and eventually force an income or sales tax on Granite Staters.

“This decision could mean a $500 million spending increase for New Hampshire taxpayers and could cause reduced education funding for all the original towns that brought the Claremont education funding lawsuit by limiting the legislature’s ability to target special education aid to local school districts that need it the most,” Bradley said in a statement. “I remain optimistic that the Supreme Court will recognize that such huge financial decisions rest with representatives and senators that the people of New Hampshire have chosen.”

Lawmakers are looking for an affordable funding solution, and according to House Speaker Sherman Packard (R-Londonderry), the Supreme Court’s stay will give both houses time to keep working.

“We’re hopeful the Supreme Court has a different take on the matter than the lower court that will be less costly to taxpayers. The stay will allow the legislature more time to further analyze the situation,” Packard said.

The Peterborough-based Contoocook Valley Regional School District filed the lawsuit in 2019, arguing that the state’s education grant of $3,600 per pupil was far below the true cost and, therefore, unconstitutional. ConVal and the dozens of school districts that joined the lawsuit wanted closer to $10,000 per pupil.

Ruoff originally refused to set a dollar amount when he ruled the state violated the constitutional right to an adequate education, leaving that up to lawmakers. But a subsequent appeal to the state Supreme Court resulted in a 2021 order that forced Ruoff to come up with a figure.

Since the ConVal lawsuit was filed, lawmakers and Sununu have bumped up the grants to $4,100 per pupil, an amount Ruoff still found unconstitutionally low. Ruoff’s decision acknowledged it is up to the legislature to determine the funding but that it can be no less than the amount he set.

“What is the base cost to provide the opportunity for an adequate education 239 years after that fundamental right was ratified in our constitution? The short answer is that the legislature should have the final word, but the base adequacy cost can be no less than $7,356.01 per pupil per year, and the true cost is likely much higher than that. At a minimum, this is an increase of $537,550,970.95 in base adequacy aid to New Hampshire Schools,” Ruoff wrote.

The legal tussle over New Hampshire’s state spending for education “adequacy” is unrelated to another hot-button political issue: Taxpayers are already burdened with increasing education costs even as the number of students is declining.

The total cost of education in New Hampshire, including the portion paid through local property taxes, averages more than $20,000 per pupil. That’s up from about $11,000 total per pupil spending in 2000. Over the same time, the state’s student population has fallen by more than 20 percent. According to the Department of Education, student enrollment numbers in the Granite State have dropped from 207,684 in 2002 to 165,095 in 2023. That’s a decrease of 42,589 public school students, or about a 20.5 percent decline during the past 21 years.

According to investigators, a young Dover girl hid under her bed, scared for her life, as Jheisson Rizo Suarez broke into her home during a burglary.

Now, Suarez, 39, from Colombia, is facing his second deportation after pleading guilty in U.S. District Court in Concord to one count of reentry after deportation.

Suarez is the third high-profile illegal immigrant arrested in New Hampshire in recent months, including a convicted mass murderer and an alleged human smuggler. It is part of a national crisis that has reached from the U.S. border in Texas and Arizona to New Hampshire’s border with Canada.

Some seven million undocumented migrants have poured into the U.S. since President Joe Biden took office, But Democrats like Sen. Maggie Hassan (D-N.H.), who sits on the Homeland Security Committee, have declined to take any action.

Suarez was arrested in 2021 in connection with the burglary. Police responded to the residence when the girl, alone at the time of the break-in, called 911. According to a statement from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for New Hampshire, she reportedly whispered to the 911 operator that an unknown person or persons had forced their way into her home.

Dover police officers soon had Suarez in custody and discovered it wasn’t his first sojourn to the United States. Suarez had been previously deported in 2013, according to prosecutors.

Suarez, due to be sentenced in January, faces up to 10 years in federal prison. His plea comes weeks after Mexican national Reynaldo Velasco-Velasco, 36, was arrested at the Canadian border for allegedly smuggling people into New Hampshire.

Velasco-Velasco had already been deported from the U.S. in 2011 when U.S. Border Patrol agents caught him this month. According to court records,  Velasco-Velasco was illegally leading four other Mexican nationals across the northern border into New Hampshire. 

The smuggler allegedly had two cars ready for the people he was bringing through, and Border Patrol agents stopped the cars as they were trying to flee the border region.

And last month, federal agents raided a home construction site in Rye to arrest wanted killer Antonio Jose De Abreu Vidal Filho, 29. According to federal sources, Filho was in the U.S. illegally after overstaying his visa. The former Brazilian military police officer entered the country legally in 2019, even though he was fleeing prosecution for his role in the Curio Massacre.

According to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Filho was recently convicted along with three other military state police officers of 11 murders, plus charges of attempted murder and physical and mental torture, for his role in the 2015 massacre in the Curio neighborhood in Fortaleza.

El Globo, a Brazilian news outlet, reported the murders had been retaliation for the death of a Brazilian police officer in Fortaleza. Four of the 11 people murdered were teens under age 18; three were between 18 and 19, according to El Globo.

Filho was ordered to serve a 276-year prison sentence for his part in the massacre.

The arrests come as New Hampshire’s northern border is in crisis. This month, Chief Patrol Agent Robert Garcia of the U.S. Border Patrol’s Swanton Sector — which includes the New Hampshire border with Canada — announced more apprehensions in the past year than in the previous decade.

“Over 6,100 apprehensions from 76 different countries in just 11 months, surpassing the last ten years combined. Swanton Sector Agents are resolute and determined to hold the line across our 295 miles of border in northeastern New York, Vermont, and New Hampshire,” Garcia said via social media.

Gov. Chris Sununu has been raising the alarm for months and keeps getting turned down when he asks President Joe Biden’s administration for help. This month, Biden’s team rejected Sununu’s request that the federal government restore millions of dollars in border security funding New Hampshire received during the Trump administration. The funding, through Operation Stone Garden, gave the state resources to backstop federal border enforcement actions.

Sununu has not gotten any help from New Hampshire’s all-Democratic federal delegation. Sens. Maggie Hassan and Jeanne Shaheen, as well as Reps. Annie Kuster and Chris Pappas have been MIA, according to Sununu.

“I haven’t heard from them. I haven’t heard of any action that they’ve taken with the administration. I haven’t heard of any actual action or results that they have even attempted to bring to the table,” Sununu told NHJournal after the latest Biden rejection.

Asked Monday by NHJournal what they planned to do about the border chaos,  Shaheen, Hassan, Kuster, and Pappas all declined to respond.

While prominent elected New Hampshire Democrats have been silent, state party Chairman Ray Buckley spoke for them, reposting a social media message calling Ayotte a “fascist fearmonger” for focusing on the border.

Presumably, Buckley was not hiding under a bed when he posted that message.

Even with the total number of opioid-related overdoses dropping in Nashua and Manchester, the number of overdose deaths continues to rise, based on figures released Tuesday.

Nashua saw a 16 percent increase in opioid deaths in May, according to data from ambulance company American Medical Response (AMR). Manchester is holding steady at last year’s record-breaking death total.

Fentanyl fuels the crisis that is engulfing the Granite State, said Chris Stawasz with AMR.

“The high death rate per capita is attributed to synthetic fentanyl, which is now found in all types of illicit substances,” Stawasz explained. “People who are using illicit substances have no idea that what they are using contains synthetic fentanyl or how potent the synthetic fentanyl in the product is. Synthetic fentanyl can be lethal the first time you use it, knowingly or unknowingly.”

Where those drugs are coming from is not a mystery. While the bulk of the fentanyl and methamphetamines reaching New Hampshire originate in Mexico, plenty of illegal drugs are crossing the border from Canada, too.

Last month, federal agents arrested 31 people in the North County near the Canadian border who were allegedly engaged in large-scale drug trafficking. Agents seized 14 pounds of fentanyl and another two pounds of methamphetamine in the operation. 

Republican Gov. Chris Sununu has been pushing for another $1.4 million to beef up border security in New Hampshire, something Democrats have opposed. 

Sununu announced Monday that he would not run for president, but he is considering a run for an unprecedented fifth term as governor. Sununu told Drew Cline the opioid epidemic is something GOP presidential candidates who come to New Hampshire should focus on.

“I think there’s a big winning issue with mental health and opioids and drugs; we’ve made many strides here,” Sununu said.

Asked about the ongoing opioid epidemic in her city, Manchester Mayor Joyce Craig declined to respond. Craig has formed an exploratory committee for a possible run for governor next year. NHJournal also contacted her potential opponent in the Democratic primary, District 2 Executive Councilor Cinde Warmington, about the latest opioid statistics. She, too, declined to respond.

The opioid problem is serious across the state, as highlighted by AMR’s statistics from New Hampshire’s two major cities. Medics responded to 80 suspected opioid overdoses in May — 58 in Manchester and 22 in Nashua. There were 11 suspected opioid deaths in Nashua and Manchester in May;  seven deaths in Manchester and four in Nashua.

There have been 358 opioid overdoses in Nashua and Manchester through the end of May, with 53 suspected opioid overdose deaths. There were 32 in Manchester and 21 in Nashua.

In Nashua, suspected opioid overdoses are trending 17 percent lower than last year annually. However, suspected fatal opioid overdoses are trending 16 percent higher, according to AMR. Some 25 percent of all suspected opioid overdoses in Nashua this year have been fatalities.

When Manchester Mayor Joyce Craig announced her plans to run for governor Monday morning, she already had the backing of some of the biggest names in the Democratic establishment. In addition to forming an exploratory committee for a 2024 race, Craig also released a “who’s who” list of party insiders and activists to head her committee, including:

Former four-term moderate Gov. John Lynch, 2018 gubernatorial nominee and former state Sen. Molly Kelly, current state Sens. Lou D’Allesandro and Kevin Cavanaugh (the latter a candidate to replace Craig as mayor), and former state party chair Kathy Sullivan.

That was enough political firepower to drive the Democrats’ 2022 candidate, former state Sen. Tom Sherman, out of the race.

But Executive Councilor Cinde Warmington tells NHJournal she’s not going anywhere.

“It’s very early. We are more than 18 months away from the election,” Warmington said in a statement.

Warmington, the lone Democrat on the Executive Council, is no stranger to being outnumbered. It’s well known that she is interested in running for governor. Will she get in the race?

“Right now, I’m focused on getting things done for the people of New Hampshire. There will be plenty of time for politics later,” she added.

Sources tell NHJournal that party insiders, including U.S. Sen. Maggie Hassan, have been working for weeks to clear the field for the Manchester mayor. And, in an unusual case of politics making strange bedfellows, Republicans are cheering the effort on.

Granite State Republicans believe Craig’s three terms as mayor of Manchester, with a steady stream of headlines about violent crime and out-of-control homelessness, would hurt the entire Democratic ticket with Craig at the top. GOP officials wasted no time getting their message out.

“Granite Staters have seen what Joyce Craig has done in Manchester and will not let ‘Craig’s Chaos’ spread to the rest of New Hampshire,” GOP state party chair Chris Ager said in a statement. “Craig has unequivocally failed Manchester during her time as mayor, and it is laughable that she wants to bring her disastrous policies to the corner office.”

Craig’s plan to run for governor was the worst-kept secret in New Hampshire politics. In her WMUR interview released early Monday morning, she took a swipe at incumbent Gov. Chris Sununu, who has yet to definitely declare whether he will seek another term.

“A consistent theme that I’m hearing throughout these conversations is that there’s a lack of support from the state level, and I know that we can do better,” Craig told WMUR’s Adam Sexton. “So, I’m really looking forward to getting out across the state and having conversations with residents and families about what matters most to them.”

The New Hampshire Democratic Party has had great success either avoiding primaries entirely or rallying around mainstream candidates and marginalizing their progressive opponents, as it did with former Portsmouth Mayor Steve Marchand in 2018 and former Executive Councilor Andru Volinsky in 2020 — both defeated by more moderate candidates who then went on to lose to Sununu in the general.

Could they do the same with Craig — whose list of 73 supporters across all 10 counties includes former Republican state Rep. Charlene Lovett — and keep a more progressive Democrat from mounting a strong campaign?

Sherman, who lost badly to Sununu even as Democrat Joe Biden carried the state by eight percent, certainly got the point.

“It’s a lot of time, and I feel strongly it’s time for me to take a break. The great news is we have such a strong group of people coming up the ranks to fill that need,” Sherman said in a video statement.

Sherman’s surrender was applauded on Twitter by New Hampshire Democratic Party Chair Raymond Buckley.

“As I said on election night, you should be proud of your campaign for governor – you beat Sununu in every debate!” Buckley tweeted.

Sherman’s debate victories aside, Sununu won the race with 57 percent of the vote to Sherman’s 41 percent.

UNH Political Science Professor Dante Scala said while Craig has a fundraising and organizational advantage, it is unlikely the New Hampshire Democratic Party will be able to keep other candidates from entering the race. The prospect of Sununu’s departure would be too much of a lure.

“The more talk that Sununu will not run again, the more likely it is that other Democrats will take a close look at a race for an open seat,” Scala said.

Assuming Sununu doesn’t seek a record fifth term as governor, his fellow Republicans, former U.S. Sen. Kelly Ayotte, state Education Commissioner Frank Edelblut, and former state Senate President Chuck Morse are all widely believed to be seriously considering entering the race.

Meanwhile, Granite State Republicans are gearing up for a Craig candidacy.

“I’ve already got my bumper sticker ready,” said GOP strategist Pat Griffin. “‘Joyce Craig for Governor: She’ll do to New Hampshire What She Did to Manchester.'”

Manchester is breaking new ground in misery as the Queen City death totals from the opioid crisis keep rising. It is a crisis, Republicans say, driven by illegal fentanyl pouring over a border Democrats refuse to secure.

Manchester and Nashua experienced a record-high number of opioid-related overdose deaths last year. Manchester is on track to exceed that number in 2023 said Chris Stawasz with American Medical Response.

“There were 18 suspected opioid deaths in Nashua and Manchester in February. That is the most suspected opioid deaths in one month for Nashua and Manchester combined since tracking began in 2015.”

Nashua suffered 44 opioid-related overdoses last year, the most since 2018 when 35 people died. Manchester saw 79 people die from opioid overdoses in 2022, the highest number since 2017’s 67 deaths. More troubling, while Nashua is estimated to see a slight dip in deaths this year, Stawasz anticipates Manchester’s death toll to reach 111, the most ever.

Synthetic fentanyl, the type being smuggled over the southern border by Mexican cartels, is the most likely culprit for the increase in deaths. Fentanyl is used in counterfeit pills, and it is used to lace other illegal drugs.

“The significant increase in deaths can most likely be attributed to very potent synthetic fentanyl which is now being found in nearly all types of illicit substances,” Stawasz said. “In many cases, people who are using illicit substances have no idea that what they are using contains synthetic fentanyl – or how potent the synthetic fentanyl in the product is. Synthetic fentanyl can be lethal the first time you use it, knowingly or unknowingly.”

Fentanyl is responsible for the majority of overdose deaths in the country, according to federal government statistics. In 2021, 90 percent of all overdose deaths were connected to the drug. And most of that is coming from Mexican cartels who are producing the synthetic drug using ingredients from China, then using their control of the southern border to smuggle it into the U.S.

“The source of fentanyl is Mexico and its drug labs,” said Todd Bensmen with the Center for Immigration Studies. “I’m not seeing any evidence that the Biden administration is interested in damming up the source.”

Gov. Chris Sununu acknowledges New Hampshire is being hit hard by the opioid crisis, but he noted it is part of a national problem.

“States across the country are seeing a rise in opioid-related deaths and New Hampshire is not immune. Every death is tragic; it is someone’s son, daughter, and family member,” Sununu said. “The bottom line is that fentanyl is now in all different types of substances, whether that be cocaine, methamphetamine, fake pills, or vape cartridges – assume it is in anything and everything.

“There is no safe experience with substances, unless they are prescribed by a provider, and taken only as directed by the person they are prescribed to.”

Getting a handle on the crisis in Manchester calls for more police support, and getting cops the tools they need to do the job, said Jay Ruais, a Republican running to replace Democratic Manchester Mayor Joyce Craig.

“We must provide greater resources for our police department to go after drug dealers and fight for bail reform at the state level to keep them off our streets,” Ruais said. “Additionally, most who suffer a fatal overdose have previously overdosed, meaning we have to build better systems for individuals when they are at their most vulnerable like in hospitals, jails, and prevention programs in schools. Solving this crisis doesn’t cost more money. It requires prioritization and better coordination with existing community partners.”

Sununu announced a new PSA campaign this year, “No Safe Experience” to educate Granite Staters, especially young people, about the danger of fentanyl and other illegal drugs. Expected to run through the fall, the campaign includes video and public service announcements, social media campaigns, an informational website, billboards, and highly visible signs, posters, and materials that will be widely disseminated across the state and made available to schools, and an active media campaign to share that there is no safe experience through personal stories and data. 

Start your engines and get ready to roll: New Hampshire has been rated with the best roads in the country at one of the lowest costs per mile.

Moneygeek, a personal finance website, looked at road conditions throughout the country using data from the United States Department of Transportation and other sources and found New Hampshire is king of the road.

Gov. Chris Sununu was quick to take a victory lap, saying good government and smart investments are responsible.

“New Hampshire has made smart investments in our infrastructure, and we’ve returned over $100 Million to cities and towns across the Granite State for roads and bridges,” Sununu said. “It’s with that sense of smart fiscal management that we’ve paved the way to be ranked the #1 state for taxpayer return on investment.”

New Hampshire also has one of the lowest road costs, spending $9.63 per mile, according to the study. 

California, Rhode Island and Nebraska have the roughest roads in the country, despite California and Rhode Island outspending the Granite State by miles. California spends $23.16 per mile and Rhode Island spends $42.37. Nebraska’s rough roads at least come cheap, with Cornhuskers spending $5.66 per mile.

Road conditions are vital to economic growth and personal finances. Better roads mean it is easier to ship goods, making it possible for businesses to grow and flourish. At the same time, good roads make it possible for residents to take part in the economy while spending less to maintain their own care.

“The roads sector is critical for local, national and international transportation of goods and services. More than ever, roads are essential in supporting economic growth, enabling socially distant travel and connecting communities,” said Murray Rowden, Americas Managing Director and Global Head of Infrastructure at consulting firm Turner & Townsend.

Jerry Wilson, Chief Editor at Complete Auto Guide, said good roads don’t just happen. They represent one of America’s greatest achievements.

“Anyone who thinks that good roads and infrastructure are God-given and not one of the United States’ greatest achievements should move their eyes to other countries and see how the lack of infrastructure keeps them in poverty. You won’t be able to jumpstart an economy when a 20-mile trip is a big ordeal,” Wilson said.

State and local government spending accounts for nearly 75 percent of the funding for roads and highways, with the federal government making up the rest. New Hampshire maintains its 17,000 miles of roads mostly with gas tax and motor vehicle registration revenue.

New Hampshire has managed to keep its roads level despite getting some of the lowest federal funding for roads and highways. In 2021, the Biden Administration set aside $1.1 billion for New Hampshire’s roads in the trillion-dollar infrastructure bill, the least amount of funding any state received. 

New Hampshire Department of Transportation Commissioner Bill Cass said New Hampshire can thank its many professionals who make sure everyday people can get there from here, even without tons of help from the feds.

“New Hampshire is blessed with a dedicated team of professionals that works hard to build and maintain our transportation system and I’m honored that we are being recognized for our work. I credit their commitment to our asset management strategy and sustained investment to our success,” Cass said.

Meanwhile, Granite State Democrats are pushing for an $800 million commuter rail proposal, approximately half of which would come from state and local taxpayers. Transportation officials fear siphoning off hundreds of millions in transportation funds for a rail system only a few Granite Staters would use could leave roadways underfunded.

“It’s a terrible idea,” Sununu said of the commuter rail proposal during a WGIR radio interview Thursday morning.

New Hampshire Public Radio is gaining allies in the lawsuit brought by Granite Recovery’s Eric Spofford. The New Hampshire American Civil Liberties Union is leading a coalition of news outlets signing amicus briefs in favor of the public broadcaster.

But the show of support for the left-leaning media outlet comes as major evidence used to report the story is in doubt, according to court records filed in the case.

Spofford is suing the broadcaster claiming he was defamed by a series of stories alleging he sexually harassed women at the addiction recovery centers he founded. In one of the more damning portions of the story, one of the alleged victims said Spofford sent her lewd text messages and a photo of his penis.

But Spofford claimed in a recent court filing that NHPR reporter Lauren Chooljian never saw the alleged photo before she reported that it had been sent to the victim.

“Chooljian did not see the picture on which Elizabeth’s claim is based (because it never existed,)” the filing states.

The New Hampshire ACLU, along with the New England First Amendment Coalition, the Union Leader, the Keene Sentinel, Caledonian Record, and the Laconia Daily Sun filed a brief in the Rockingham Superior Court last month to intervene on behalf of NHPR. The outlets and civil rights groups joining the case have received little media attention, and even the typically PR-savvy ACLU has yet to announce its involvement through a press release on its website.

The timing of the ACLU’s amicus filing came as Spofford’s legal team called into doubt the foundation of NHPR’s reporting. Spofford’s attorney, Michael Strauss, wrote in a court motion that one key witness used by Chooljian was Spofford’s aggrieved ex, Amy Anagnost.

“Eric has uncovered that Amy both supplied her own false claims about him to (NHPR reporter Lauren) Chooljian and served as a source clearinghouse for Chooljian as she investigated and wrote the Article and Podcast. The NHPR defendants relied on Amy and the sources she cherry-picked for Chooljian, despite her obvious unreliability (after years of long-term recovery from alcoholism and addiction, she has relapsed, and that relapse occurred at or around when she started as a source for the NHPR defendants) and notwithstanding her known and unmistakable bias against and ill-will toward Eric as reflected in publicly available records,” Strauss wrote.

According to Strauss’ motion, Anagnost engaged in an effort to defame Spofford in order to gain the upper hand in family court hearings dealing with the shared custody of their son.

“A recent court filing by Amy’s soon-to-be ex-husband, Alex Anagnost, confirms that Amy ‘fed questionable information about her relationship with Eric to’ Chooljian for inclusion in the article and podcast, which Amy then used against Eric to alienate him from their son and as a weapon in their parenting dispute,” Strauss writes.

NHPR denied Anagnost was one of the sources for its reporting.

Spofford built a politically connected profile with Granite Recovery Centers. As the drug abuse recovery centers became the largest recovery facilities in New Hampshire, Spofford even counseled Gov. Chris Sununu on the response to New Hampshire’s opioid epidemic.

Spofford sold Granite Recovery Centers to BayMark Health Services, a Texas-based treatment company, last year. The sale price has not been disclosed.