Library faces multitude of possibilities

Fri, 25 May 2012 04:00:00 +0000

Concord

Officials want to keep options open

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For years, discussions about improving the Concord Public Library have focused on plans for the city to buy land downtown, probably on Storrs Street, to construct a new library building.

But officials have cooled on that idea, and City Manager Tom Aspell's proposed 2013 budget would effectively shelve the project by putting off its initial step - buying the land - until 2022.

Instead, officials and library boosters said they're warming up to a wider array of possibilities for library expansion, including:

• Integrating the library into a new, mixed-use building at the New Hampshire Employment Security site, 32-34 S. Main St.

• Building an addition on the current Green Street library using newly acquired land on Prince Street.

• Expanding the Penacook branch library at a new location in the village.

• Including some sort of library presence in the new community center on the Heights.

Man charged with soliciting murder

Tricia Nadolny — Fri, 25 May 2012 04:00:00 +0000

Pembroke

Suspect convicted in 1992 sex crime

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Brian Schultz

A Pembroke man has been charged with criminal solicitation to commit murder following a two-month investigation by the state police.

Brian Schultz of 235 Dearborn Road was taken into custody May 7, according to a press release. He was arrested at the Merrimack County House of Corrections where he was being held at the time, according to County Attorney Scott Murray.

Murray said Schultz waived his right to a probable cause hearing on May 14.

No other details about the alleged crime were given yesterday, and an arrest warrant in the case is sealed from public view at Franklin's district court, according to David Rotman of the county attorney's office.

Murray said his office is reviewing the case and deciding if it should be submitted to the grand jury for indictment.

Education funding amendment panel: We're not done yet

Fri, 25 May 2012 04:00:00 +0000

Committee aims to strike balance

House and Senate lawmakers working on a compromise over a constitutional amendment on education funding find themselves trying to balance the legalese desired by each side without creating a text that looks like gobbledygook to voters on the ballot in November.

The committee of conference tasked with negotiating the amendment reconvened for less than five minutes yesterday to tell those in attendance they haven't quite figured it out and need to spend more time talking with attorneys. On Tuesday, the committee met for about a half hour to make brief opening statements. They have until next Thursday to sign a deal to take back to their respective chambers.

Rival gangs engaged in all-out war

Fri, 25 May 2012 04:00:00 +0000

MExico

Groups staging public massacres

The two most important criminal organizations in Mexico are engaged in all-out war, and the most spectacular battles are being fought for the cameras as the combatants pursue a strategy of intimidation and propaganda by dumping ever greater numbers of headless bodies in public view - the victims most likely innocents.

No longer limiting themselves to regional skirmishes, the older, established drug-smuggling Sinaloa cartel is now fighting the brash, young paramilitary Zetas crime organization across multiple front lines in Mexico in a desperate fight, according to U.S. and Mexican law enforcement officials and security analysts on both sides of the border.

The two gangs and their surrogates continue to quietly kill each other, but they are also staging public massacres in order to terrify civilians, cow authorities and taunt outgoing President Felipe Calderon, who has made his U.S.-backed confrontation against the cartels a centerpiece of his administration.

Ex-official indicted on sex counts

Molly A.K. Connors — Thu, 24 May 2012 04:00:00 +0000

New Hampton

Charges: Young girl assaulted repeatedly

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clement

The former fire chief of New Hampton has been indicted on a dozen counts of sexual assault against a female identified in court records as his relative.

David Clement, 58, of 11 Clement Road, New Hampton, was indicted by a Merrimack County grand jury on 12 counts of sexual assault, including six felonies and six misdemeanors, according to documents released this week.

The charges are in addition to sexual assault charges filed against him in Belknap County, Merrimack County Attorney Scott Murray said yesterday.

A woman reached by phone yesterday who identified herself as Clement's wife said he did not want to comment for this story.

Clement retired from the New Hampton Fire Department in 2008.

The sexual assaults began in May 2002, when the victim was about the age of 8, and continued as late as July 2011, the indictments allege.

Senate kills issues House resurrected

Thu, 24 May 2012 04:00:00 +0000

Abortion, refugee plans go down

The state Senate took a final ax yesterday to the House's last-ditch attempts to establish a 24-hour waiting period for abortions, allow towns and cities to close off their communities to refugees and eliminate the chancellor of the state university system.

Senators also passed a school voucher program that concerns Gov. John Lynch and agreed to seek a compromise with House leaders on medical marijuana, malpractice reform and the state's involvement in a regional cap-and-trade system.

As the 2011-2012 legislative session nears its end, the Senate revisited about 60 of its own bills yesterday morning to decide whether to agree to changes added by the House. Most decisions were made with little discussion over the rehashed issues, and the senators finished their work in time for lunch.

Binnie aims for an empire

Thu, 24 May 2012 04:00:00 +0000

Businessman seeks to rival 'UL,' WMUR

Seacoast businessman Bill Binnie will keep 17 of the 30 New England radio stations he purchased this week from the bankrupt Nassau Broadcasting chain, describing them yesterday as part of the regional media powerhouse he plans to build in the coming years.

"We look forward to bringing the radio stations to financial health and continuing to improve and strengthen their programming," Binnie said in an interview. "In many cases, most if not all of the 17 stations are successful radio stations that were just burdened by too much debt, and in some cases mismanagement from New Jersey," where Nassau is based.

Binnie said, with the 17 radio stations and television assets including WBIN-TV in Derry, he'll have one of the largest media companies in northern New England, rivaling Manchester's WMUR-TV and the New Hampshire Union Leader in revenue.

Man posts cash bail, fights child support

Tricia Nadolny — Thu, 24 May 2012 04:00:00 +0000

Manchester

Custody fight was before assault case

Shortly before he posted $400,000 cash bail, Christopher Compas told a judge he couldn't afford his $600 per month child support payment.

Compas, accused of attacking his ex-girlfriend and the mother of his daughter in February, is also looking to reinstate unsupervised visitation, according to court documents provided by the woman's lawyer.

Compas, of Manchester, was indicted by a Merrimack County grand jury last week on three felony charges stemming from the Feb. 29 incident, including burglary and first-degree assault.

The police say Compas, upset over restrictions to his visitation, broke into his ex-girlfriend's Pembroke home and began attacking her with a knife, the word "hore" carved into the blade. The attacker was masked and Compas, through his lawyer, has said he was at his Manchester home with his wife when the incident occurred.

He was arrested March 2, and a judge found probable cause in the case, setting his bail at $400,000.

Vegas discovery out of this world

Thu, 24 May 2012 04:00:00 +0000

Nevada

Long, winding tale of moon memento

It's been a long, strange trip for what appears to be several tiny chips of lunar rock that found their way into a casino mogul's hands after being collected by the first men on the moon.

If they're real, they were plucked from the lunar surface by Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, given by then-President Richard Nixon to former Nicaraguan dictator Anastasio Somoza Debayle, pilfered by a Costa Rican mercenary soldier-turned Contra rebel, traded to a Baptist missionary for unknown items, then sold to a flamboyant Las Vegas casino owner who squirreled them away in a safety deposit box.

Now, more than 2½ years after Bob Stupak's death, an attorney for his estate has sent to NASA officials in Houston a tabletop display featuring the four gray chips the size of grains of rice. They're magnified in a Lucite dome about as big around as a U.S. 50-cent piece set with a small blue-and-white Nicaraguan flag. Combined, the chips weigh 0.05 grams.

Clinton: U.S. hacked al-Qaida

Thu, 24 May 2012 04:00:00 +0000

Cyber attacks hit Yemeni websites

The State Department has launched a different sort of raid against al-Qaida - hacking into al-Qaida websites in Yemen.

In a rare public admission of the covert cyber war against extremists, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said U.S. cyber experts based at the State Department hacked tribal websites, replacing al-Qaida propaganda that bragged about killing Americans.

"Within 48 hours, our team plastered the same sites with altered versions of the ads that showed the toll al-Qaida attacks have taken on the Yemeni people," Clinton said yesterday. "Extremists are publicly venting their frustration and asking supporters not to believe everything they read on the internet."