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Mental health advocates to Sununu: We need more beds in communities, not hospitals
Mental health advocates are fighting Gov. Chris Sununu’s two-part proposal to force hospitals to give the state more emergency psychiatric hospital beds and extend the time the state can hold someone in an emergency room for involuntary admission. Among those pushing back is the New Hampshire Hospital Association, which says hospitals are already short beds […]
AARP: NH family caregivers gave $2.8 billion in uncompensated care in 2021
Nearly 168,000 Granite Staters were providing critical home-based care to older people or adults with a serious health condition in 2021, according to AARP’s latest update to its “Valuing the Invaluable” report. An estimated 30 percent of them were simultaneously caring for children or grandchildren, and nearly three out of five caregivers are also working, […]
AG OKs closure of 11th maternity ward in 20 years
This story was updated March 9, 2023 at 8:15 a.m. to correct the time span of hospital closures. Citing cost concerns, Frisbie Memorial Hospital in Rochester has struck an agreement with the Attorney General’s Office to close its labor and delivery services two years early. It is the 11th hospital in the state to cease […]
No call from Sununu for DCYF review in Laconia boy’s homicide
Gov. Chris Sununu declined Wednesday to say whether he will call for a review of the state’s handling of nearly 25 reports of suspected abuse against four Laconia children, one of whom died from blunt force trauma in 2019, shortly after the last report. The homicide of Dennis “Boo” Vaughan Jr., 5, remains open and […]
Lawmaker tries again to increase speed limit on Lake Winnipesaukee
The daytime speed limit on the widest portion of Lake Winnipesaukee would go from 45 to 65 mph under a bill up for a public hearing Wednesday. If history and the testimony submitted ahead of Wednesday’s hearing are any indication, it will face a tough fight. A similar effort failed last year in the House, […]
No arrest, no comment: The 5-year-old homicide victim the state’s not talking about
Judy Anderson had grown impatient by the time she marched into the Laconia mayor’s office in October with a photo of 5-year-old Dennis Vaughan Jr. to remind him that the boy’s 2019 homicide in his grandmother’s Laconia apartment remains unsolved. Anderson, a Gilford retiree who didn’t know Dennis “Boo” Vaughan Jr., said she’s done waiting […]
With illegal crossings up and federal aid down, Sununu wants $1.4 million for border patrols
This story was updated to include a statement from the American Civil Liberties Union of New Hampshire. A record number of people, many families with young children and infants, entered the country illegally from Canada in January, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection. Gov. Chris Sununu has asked lawmakers for $1.4 million to beef […]
8 items in Sununu’s budget that didn’t make his address
Gov. Chris Sununu wants to do much more than give state employees a big pay raise, put millions into housing, build a new men’s prison, and double funding for “education freedom accounts” in the next two years. The so-called “budget trailer bill” released Wednesday evening runs more than 220 pages and gives a clearer picture […]
Lawmakers say yes to prescribing opioids by telemedicine
The pandemic inflicted uncountable health challenges on the state, but it also exposed opportunities to improve health care. Among those was an emergency order that allowed providers to prescribe opioids and other medication via telemedicine, something that had been prohibited. That telemedicine option will end in May with the termination of the federal emergency order […]
Executive councilor defends voting practice amid transparency questions
Republican Executive Councilor David Wheeler has made his votes against funding for family planning and sex education well known at council meetings. But for years, he’s made other potentially controversial votes quietly by taking no position during the meeting and arranging afterward for his votes to be included in meeting minutes. That includes his votes […]
Extra SNAP benefits coming to an end, but overlooked exemptions could help fill gap
This story was updated Feb. 22, 2023 at 11:30 a.m. to correct the income limit for SNAP benefits for an individual. The number of Granite State adults and children without enough food dropped during the pandemic, in part because the federal government increased food stamp payments, according to a New Hampshire Fiscal Policy Institute analysis. […]
Attorney general seeks $5 million in federal money for victim services
This story was updated Monday, Feb. 20, 2023, at 12:30 p.m. to clarify which victim services are supported with federal funding. The effects of COVID-19’s social isolation, health problems, and job loss continue to drive increases in calls to domestic violence and sexual assault hotlines, emergency shelters, and child abuse referrals, according to the Department […]