Looking ahead to November, some New Hampshire pollworkers are warning that delays are in store if the state doesn’t grant them more leeway in processing absentee ballots before Election Day.

Nearly 50 local election officials sent a letter to Gov. Chris Sununu this week requesting the ability to more clearly mark the voter checklist to show that someone's absentee ballot has been inspected before Election Day. The changes outlined in the letter also have the support of the New Hampshire City and Town Clerks Association.

Without changes to the current process, the election officials told Sununu, “voters should expect longer wait times at the polls and we may not see election results in a timely manner.”

Sununu’s Chief of Staff Jayne Millerick told NHPR the governor's office received the letter and is “currently reviewing it." The Secretary of State’s office has not responded to NHPR’s request for comment.

Read more: https://www.nhpr.org/post/local-pollworkers-plead-state-adjust-absentee-process-november

The transgender Satanist candidate for Cheshire County sheriff is joining forces with the owner of a controversial pho restaurant, and the pastor at a libertarian church in challenging the city of Keene’s mask mandate.

Aria DiMezzo, who is running as the Republican mandate for sheriff, is suing both the city of Keene over the recently passed mask mandate, and Gov. Chris Sununu over his use of emergency orders to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic.

DiMezzo, who is the founder of a Satanic church as well as a writer and internet radio host, is joined in her lawsuit along with Malaise Lindenfeld, the owner of Pho Keene Great, and Ian Freeman, one of the leaders of the Free Keene movement and the founder of the Free Shire Church in Keene. They claim there is no need for the state’s emergency order limiting gatherings of more than 100 people, and there is no scientific basis for wearing masks.

“The virus is also nowhere near as deadly as initially projected. The continuing shutdown is preventing the New Hampshire population from achieving ‘herd immunity,’ which would ultimately eradicate the virus much more quickly than ‘slowing the spread’ by forcing the shutdown of businesses, closure of schools, and ordering people to stay home. It is also destroying the state’s economy,” the lawsuit states.

Read more: https://www.unionleader.com/news/courts/transgender-satanist-and-pho-restaurateur-sue-over-keene-mask-mandate/article_e2ab8362-3c93-57bd-959b-b0afe0bf73e8.html?block_id=897573

PROVIDENCE (AP) — The Rhode Island Governor’s Commission on Disabilities has filed a discrimination complaint with the U.S. Attorney’s Office over access to the state Election Board’s new home.

Bob Cooper, the commission’s executive secretary, confirmed Friday that the complaint had been filed with the civil rights commissioner at the U.S. Attorney’s Office on Aug. 11, the Providence Journal reported.

Eleven complaints were raised in regard to the board’s new home in Cranston. The board moved from a state-owned, rent-free building in Providence and signed a 10-year, $5.5 million no-bid lease.

Attorney General Peter Neronha did not fine the board but issued a warning. The board must ensure it complies with the Open Meetings Act's requirements and ensure there are not barriers hindering access to its meetings, Neronha said.

Read more: https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/rhode-island/articles/2020-09-18/complaint-filed-about-access-to-ri-election-boards-new-home

Princeton University received bomb threats Saturday morning and evacuated four buildings — Nassau Hall, Firestone Library, the Princeton University Art Museum, and the Princeton University Chapel. Law enforcement personnel searched the buildings and issued an all-clear alert just after 1 p.m. letting staff and students know it was safe to return to the buildings.

The Princeton University Department of Public Safety issued an email alert and a robocall to students, faculty, and staff members just after 11 a.m. on Saturday alerting them of the bomb threats.

University officials had urged people to avoid traveling to the area if they were not on campus and to remain away from the area until law enforcement personnel searched the buildings. People on campus were told to avoid using campus phones unless the issue was urgent so that officials could use the phone system to deliver updates about the situation.

The bomb threats come just a day after Princeton University was in the national news for being the subject of a Trump administration Department of Education investigation. Area schools, universities, and shopping malls have received bogus bomb threats and other fake swatting calls in the past that are hard to trace because of the computer technology used to make the calls.

https://planetprinceton.com/2020/09/19/princeton-university-buildings-given-the-all-clear-after-bomb-threats/
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The Trump administration has opened an investigation into racial bias at Princeton University, saying that the school's recent acknowledgment of racism on campus amounts to a “shocking” and “serious” admission of discrimination.

In a letter to the university on Wednesday, the U.S. Education Department said the school's acknowledgment of racism conflicts with previous assurances that Princeton complies with federal anti-discrimination laws. It said that, in an open letter issued Sept. 2, the university's president “admitted Princeton’s educational program is and for decades has been racist."

The investigation is the Trump administration's latest salvo against schools and colleges that seek to address racism. Speaking in Washington on Thursday, President Donald Trump said U.S. schools and universities unfairly teach that America is a racist nation, an idea that he dismissed as “toxic propaganda.”

Trump blasted Princeton on Twitter in June over its decision to remove former President Woodrow Wilson's name from the public policy school because of his segregationist views.

Read more: https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory/princeton-faces-federal-inquiry-acknowledging-racism-73098823

Precisely how much New Hampshire stands to lose in business and meals and room tax revenue as a result of the coronavirus remains unknown. Gov. Chris Sununu has thrown out varying figures in the hundreds of millions of dollars, warning of the potential for cuts in coming years.

But some state lawmakers are already looking to a new approach to make up the difference: marijuana.

At a House committee session Tuesday, some Democrats expressed support for legalizing cannabis, creating a retail framework to sell it to consumers, and taxing the profits.

And the expected coming economic difficulties only bolster the urgency for marijuana legalization, the lawmakers say.

Read more: https://www.concordmonitor.com/New-Hampshire-Criminal-Justice-Committee-marijuana-legalization-36257727

Canada remains off-limits for at least another month.

Officials from both the United States and its neighbor to the north on Friday confirmed that the ban on non-essential traffic between the two nations will be extended until Oct. 21.

The prohibition has been in place since March.

Vermont has seven ports of entry with Canada, all via the province of Quebec. The International Boundary between the U.S. and Canada is the longest in the world, with 119 legal land crossings over the 5,000-plus miles dividing the two countries.

Mark Morgan, the acting commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection, and Bill Blair, Canada's public safety minister, each said Friday morning that the restrictions enacted earlier in the pandemic would continue for another month.

Read more: https://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/story/news/2020/09/18/covid-19-restrictions-canada-u-s-border-closure-extended-into-october/5823729002/

BUCHAREST, Romania (AP) — Several hundred Romanians, including many families with young children, protested Saturday in the country’s capital against measures to curb the spread of coronavirus, especially social distancing and the mandatory use of masks in schools.

Like other countries in Europe, the number of new virus cases has spiked in recent days in Romania, with a record 1,713 cases earlier this week and 1,333 more on Saturday. In all, Romania has registered 111,550 cases of COVID-19, with 4,402 confirmed deaths.

Some 2.8 million Romanian schoolchildren began their academic year on Monday, with classes being held in classrooms, online or a combination of the two, depending on the intensity of the pandemic in a given region. Desks have to be at least one meter apart, masks must be worn by students and teachers at the primary school level or higher and classrooms are disinfected daily.

Protesters at Bucharest’s University Square chanted against President Klaus Iohannis and Prime Minister Ludovic Orban and drew parallels between the protective measures against the pandemic and the communist and Nazi regimes. One of the speakers at the rally compared the measures to the torture of dissidents during communism.

Read more: https://www.rutlandherald.com/features/health/romanian-families-protest-mandatory-use-of-masks-in-school/article_da8e4d74-84c3-50bf-a815-a34902f51a4c.html

Vermont's two U.S. senators and its Republican governor came to similar conclusions Friday night following the death of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg: The Senate must not vote to confirm a successor until the next president is inaugurated.

In an interview late Friday, Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) told Seven Days that a rushed vote to confirm a nominee put forth by President Donald Trump would have lasting consequences for the federal judiciary.

"That would make a mockery of the Supreme Court," said Leahy, the dean of the Senate and most senior member of its Judiciary Committee. "It would totally politicize the Supreme Court. It would say only Republicans can be on the Supreme Court — and that would be so destructive of our whole system of justice."

If the Senate were to hold a confirmation vote just weeks before the November election, Leahy added, "I think it would be decades before the Supreme Court would regain any sense of integrity with the rest of the country."

Read more: https://www.sevendaysvt.com/OffMessage/archives/2020/09/18/leahy-and-scott-no-vote-on-a-trump-nominee-to-replace-ginsburg

BURLINGTON – Colleges in Vermont are making rigorous efforts to break up student parties. As the weather gets colder the parties will descend indoors. The challenge to forbid them will become daunting. Thus, the formation of the Burlington Anti-Party Squad (the BAPS).

Rooted in the time-honored tradition of the Ghostbusters, the joint task force will consist of espionage experts from the Burlington Police Department, the FBI, ATF, Champlain College, the University of Vermont, the Vermont Department of Health and the CDC. They are supplied with a high tech black chevy sedan (contributed from Google’s street view mapping efforts). Their mission is to patrol Burlington streets seeking out parties that violate the social distancing, mask and social gathering restrictions.

Equipped with no knock warrants authorized under the Patriot Act, BAPS will locate and break up parties. Party goers will be reported to the relevant colleges, and, if applicable, arrested for alcohol and drug violations. BAPS will be equipped with CIA borrowed drones, Proton packs set at special frequency to capture college students, ultra-sensitive sound devices, thermal imaging equipment, camera equipped robots, master keys to every apartment in town, and BITE- a specially trained dog. BITE has been trained not only to sniff out drugs and liquor but identify anyone eighteen to twenty-one years old.

The ACLU expressed concerned over the violation of privacy rights but acknowledges the public health concerns. A spokesperson for the ACLU stated, “these students are better fulfilling their constitutional rights to party at a southern college like the University of Alabama.”

http://thewinooski.com/index.php/2020/09/15/who-ya-gonna-call-partybusters-squad-forms-in-burlington/
(no more at link)