Author

Annmarie Timmins

Annmarie Timmins

Senior reporter Annmarie Timmins is a New Hampshire native who covered state government, courts, and social justice issues for the Concord Monitor for 25 years. During her time with the Monitor, she won a Nieman Fellowship to study journalism and mental health courts at Harvard for a year. She has taught journalism at the University of New Hampshire and writing at the Nackey S. Loeb School of Communications. Email: [email protected]

Laurie Sanborn no longer heads House casino study commission

By: - September 1, 2023

A day after she was named in an investigation of her husband’s alleged illegal use of $844,000 in pandemic assistance, Rep. Laurie Sanborn has resigned as chairwoman of a legislative commission charged with studying the impact of new charitable gaming laws.  Her appointment as head of the commission had been controversial because she operates a […]

AG: Former state senator used pandemic aid to enrich himself, buy wife a Ferrari

By: - September 1, 2023

Former state Sen. Andy Sanborn and his wife, Rep. Laurie Sanborn, of Bedford, could face criminal charges in connection with $844,000 in federal pandemic aid that state officials say Andy Sanborn fraudulently obtained and spent on at least three high-end race cars, car parts, and 27 years of prepaid rent for another business he owns. […]

Housing, clean energy, recreation projects and more get $11 million

By: - August 28, 2023

Federal awards worth $11 million will help two dozen New Hampshire towns, organizations, and community groups expand housing, invest in green energy, and increase recreation opportunities. The Northern Border Regional Commission, a federal-state partnership for economic and community development in New Hampshire, northern Maine, Vermont, and New York, distributed  $43.6 million in awards across those […]

Coming soon to state buildings: Trauma kits and tourniquets

By: - August 24, 2023

Unintentional injury and the uncontrolled bleeding that often follows are one of the top causes of death in New Hampshire among people 1 to 45. Sen. Suzanne Prentiss wants more people to know that and be able to intervene.  A new law inspired by legislation she sponsored will require trauma kits containing tourniquets to be […]

New law eliminates insurance pre-approval for crisis mental health, substance use care

By: - August 23, 2023

Insurance companies in New Hampshire can no longer require their members to get prior authorization before getting coverage for emergency mental health or substance use care when it is provided by a mobile crisis team, outside a licensed hospital.  The new law, Senate Bill 85, is intended to make it easier for people to get […]

Child advocates: Damning report on Tennessee youth facility is one worry of many

By: - August 23, 2023

Child Advocate Cassandra Sanchez was intentionally detailed and unsparing in describing what she saw and heard while checking on two boys the New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services had sent to a Tennessee treatment facility. Children said staff offered them incentives to assault other children, Sanchez wrote in a 17-page report after visiting […]

Granite VNA monitors patients’ vital signs daily via telehealth

By: - August 22, 2023

Since it launched a new telemonitoring program, the Granite VNA has helped nearly 50 patients with serious health issues send the organization daily updates on their vital signs, allowing providers to offer more immediate guidance or intervene if health concerns arise.  The program is available to patients who are receiving skilled nursing care or physical […]

As cases increase, AG doubles effort to combat elder abuse, financial exploitation

By: - August 21, 2023

A significant increase in elder abuse and financial exploitation of Granite Staters has prompted the Attorney General’s Office to expand its efforts to combat those crimes. Part of that is to educate people over 60 and those who care for them. “Law enforcement can catch people. Law enforcement can prosecute people,” Attorney General John Formella […]

What connects smoking, obesity, and social isolation? Each can kill you.

By: - August 21, 2023

For nearly 30 years, a group of women from Laconia High School’s class of 1952 has met monthly for dinner or lunch. They’ve seen one another through the deaths of husbands, swapped pictures of grandchildren, and reminisced about raiding their mother’s cabinets in the 1940s, in search of metal and tin to support the war […]

Court delivers another win for public records requests

By: - August 18, 2023

The state Supreme Court issued a unanimous ruling Friday that will make it harder for cities, towns, and other agencies to deny access to public documents. It’s at least the fourth court ruling upholding the state’s right-to-know-law in a year and the second involving the city of Nashua. Friday’s ruling stems from a 2021 right-to-know […]

Council could get family planning contracts a fifth time

By: - August 17, 2023

The Department of Health and Human Services anticipates asking the Executive Council this fall to reconsider contracts the Republican majority has rejected four times that would provide low-cost family planning and reproductive health care for nearly 17,000 Granite Staters. Council Republicans have repeatedly rejected the funding, which covers basic health care such as cancer screenings, […]

Looking up at the sun in a partly cloudy sky with a thermometer to the left.

Are EMS calls the newest tool in fighting heat waves?

By: - August 16, 2023

There’s a new way to measure the impact of increasing heat waves: EMS calls for heat-related medical emergencies. A pair of federal agencies, one focused on the health effects of climate change and the other on highway traffic safety, are behind a new EMS HeatTracker. Launched this month, the dashboard allows users to see how […]