Granite Slate

Merchant Mariners Honored

 

   The opening of ceremonies yesterday at NH State Veterans Cemetery in Boscawen, with salutes to the dedication of a new monument recognizing U.S. Merchant Mariners who served during World War II.

Memorial Day in Boscawen

The Army band is tuning its instruments, the horn bleats adding to a terrifically somber day here at the NH State Veterans Cemetery. Memorial Day. Vets on Harleys are roaring into the parking area. Families are setting up their lawn chairs. People wander among the granite graves.

NH Budget Battle Heats Up

   A month until New Hampshire embarks on a new fiscal year, state lawmakers are combing the books for potential revenue, including expanded gambling, the Union Leader reports today. The Senate's budget chief, or one of them, is Lou D'Allesandro, D-Manchester, who thinks there's a real chance this year for electronic games of chance. Slots, that is. The worst kept secret in Concord is D'Allesandro's support for a limited expansion of gambling in the Granite State. But does the Legislature, let alone Gov. John Lynch, have the stomach for it? The House historically has turned its back on such bills. So, yeah, don't bet on it.

New Ads Target Lynch

   Campaign season kicked off last night. Or so I thought, listening to the 11 o'clock WMUR newscast and a new ad targeting Gov. John Lynch. The spot, from a group opposing gay marriage, urged viewers to call the corner office and demand that the New Hampshire governor veto a revised same-sex marriage bill heading to his desk.

   And so the showdown and countdown continues.

Piping Plovers Nest Again

  These great beachgoers must first battle unleashed dogs and jerks who set out to harm them. Who would harm a piping plover chick? The state reports someone vandalized a protective area at Hampton Beach on May 4. This report from NH Fish and Game:

Four pairs of piping plovers have returned to the New Hampshire seacoast this spring to nest and raise their young. These state-endangered and federally threatened migratory shorebirds have been nesting each year at locations on Hampton and Seabrook beaches since 1997, when they were first discovered by a jogger running on the beach.

"We have three nests established so far; two are at Seabrook Beach and one is at Hampton Beach State Park," said Samantha Niziolek, the 2009 piping plover monitor for the New Hampshire Fish and Game Department's Nongame and Endangered Wildlife Program. Each of the nests has a protective fence around it, and is covered with netting to keep predators away and protect the birds and their eggs during incubation. "The fourth pair has mostly been seen in Seabrook, although nesting scrapes in the sand have also been found in Hampton," Niziolek said. "We're not sure where this pair will decide to nest; they are our mystery couple right now."

So far, things are going quite well; good weather and early nesting means the chicks will hatch early and be able to fly before the Fourth of July holiday. According to Niziolek, the nest at Hampton Beach State Park should be the first to hatch, with chicks expected right around Memorial Day weekend. The two nests in Seabrook are both expected to hatch soon after, during the week of June 4-13.

Once the chicks hatch, their first 30 days are crucial to their survival. The chicks have feathers when they hatch, but they are unable to fly until they reach about 30 days of age. The tiny hatchlings are able to walk and feed themselves just hours after birth, and may be seen scurrying between the dunes and water, feeding.

"Watch where you step," Niziolek cautioned, "There will be little chicks around, and their defense mechanism is to freeze when people get close, which makes them difficult to see." The chicks are about the size of a cottonball when first born, and both the chicks and adults are light colored and blend in with the sand very well.

Since protection efforts began in 1997, a total of 81 piping plover chicks have fledged from New Hampshire's seacoast. New Hampshire's efforts are part of a region-wide protection program; overall, the Atlantic coast population of piping plovers continues to hold steady.

NH War Stories

   Forty years since the 3rd Battalion, 197th Field Artillery unit was deployed to Vietnam, the only New Hampshire National Guard unit sent to the war, veterans convened last night to share their experiences, successes and losses. It was heartfelt and it was intense. The story.

"You see a lot of war movies, but the one thing that's missing is the stench," said Arnold Taylor of Concord.

   Of 506 soldiers deployed, six were killed in action, and a seventh in a non-combat death.

Mass. to hike Sales Tax

And so the grand Senate of Massachusetts embraces a big increase in its state sales tax. Big news, if not altogether surprising. Elected class in Concord, NH, (those with the best seats) breathes sigh of relief.

The Newsom Super Tax

   The new tax front: San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom is proposing a tax on cigarette butts to help defray the city's cost of cleaning up butts flicked to sidewalks, drains and streets. NYT story on it. The city spends more than $10 million annually for this removal. Oh, the Newsom super tax aims to help people quit.

The Sun Shines in NH

    The small town* of Concord will get one of its last political mushroom clouds of the fiscal year on Tuesday, when the Legislature holds a public hearing on proposed tweaks in pending gay marriage legislation. Unlike in other states, where lawmakers would shuffle papers around in a back room and emerge with the final version (eh viola!), New Hampshire does its best to scrub everything down and run it through a public hearing. Citizen government. Sunshine.

* Sure it's a city charter, but really now

Lynch may sign gay marriage after all

   Gov. John Lynch is asking the House and Senate to make certain changes in legislation for same-sex "civil marriage." Then, he says, he would support it. His complete statement is here. An excerpt:

I have heard, and I understand, the very real feelings of same-sex couples that a separate system is not an equal system. That a civil law that differentiates between their committed relationships and those of heterosexual couples undermines both their dignity and the legitimacy of their families. I have also heard, and I understand, the concerns of our citizens who have equally deep feelings and genuine religious beliefs about marriage. They fear that this legislation would interfere with the ability of religious groups to freely practice their faiths.

Throughout history, our society’s views of civil rights have constantly evolved and expanded. New Hampshire’s great tradition has always been to come down on the side of individual liberties and protections.