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CONCORD – Flags, signs and guns filled the Statehouse steps Thursday afternoon as hundreds of residents from across New Hampshire gathered to rally for gun rights. In the wake of last month’s shooting in Newtown, Conn., politics have distracted lawmakers at the state and federal level, helping them to forget about individual liberties and constitutional freedoms, speakers and supporters argued throughout the event. But, with the right to bear arms in jeopardy, gun advocates vowed to remind legislators of their responsibility to the Constitution. “All of us know we are at a crossroads in our country,” event organizer Jack Kimball,...

What do you do when you are an assistant professor at a public university and you’ve been caught red-handed retweeting a tweet advocating murder? If you’re University of Rhode Island professor Erik Loomis, you delete your entire Twitter account ... We’re glad he won’t be advocating violence on Twitter any longer. Hopefully, he will use the freed-up time to seek help from a mental health professional. * * * Update: What exactly is Loomis hiding? Before he deleted his Twitter account, we managed to make note of a few of his angrier tweets

At a community meeting in Bedford Thursday, a resident asked the police chief under what circumstances a resident could use lethal force against a burglar. "Say you're asleep, you hear a noise, glass breaks, you hear somebody in there, you know they don't belong," said the resident, who didn't provide his name. "Are you expected to ascertain whether they're armed if you have the ability to take them out legally?" Joking that he's not a lawyer but has been accused of being one, Chief John Bryfonski sidestepped the question, saying it's inappropriate for him to provide a legal opinion. "The...

NASHUA — Following a storm of controversy in light of her criminal background, the first openly transgendered person elected to the New Hampshire House will resign her post. “I didn't want to have to do this,” Rep.-elect Stacie Marie Laughton, D-Nashua, said. “There's been a lot of people that have said, 'Stay strong, keep your head up, stay in it.'” “I'm super disappointed because I was looking forward to this more than anything. It's my lifelong dream to serve my community, and what better place to do it than the city that I was born and raised in.”

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — There's a new superpower growing in the Great Plains and the South, where bulging Republican majorities in state capitols could dramatically cut taxes and change public education with barely a whimper of resistance from Democrats. Contrast that with California, where voters have given Democrats a new dominance that could allow them to raise taxes and embrace same-sex marriage without regard to Republican objections. If you thought the presidential election revealed the nation's political rifts, consider the outcomes in state legislatures. The vote also created a broader tier of powerful one-party governments that can act with...

Hidden in among all the recent election news was the defeat of NH State Representative Jenn Coffey (R-Merrimack) who had led the successful fight to reform New Hampshire's knife laws. Coffey, the winner of Blade Magazine's 2011 Publisher's Award, had sponsored the bill that removed penalties for both possession and selling switchblades, dirks, daggers, and stilettos. Her bill which passed and was signed by the governor of New Hampshire changed the emphasis from the tool to the crime. In addition, Coffey is the National Legislative Director for the Second Amendment Sisters. She has written a book, Knives, Lipstick, and Liberty...

Pro-Gun New Hampshire General Counsel, attorney Evan Nappen, has won a significant court case involving concealed carry licensing in New Hampshire. His client was denied a NH non-resident carry license solely due to a 34 year old misdemeanor marijuana conviction received when he was 18 years old. The State was stubbornly enforcing their administrative rule (which, by the way, has no basis in law) that makes any misdemeanor conviction for drugs an automatic denial. In the article published a week ago on this website, attorney Nappen announced a public hearing on changing the NH Department of Safety’s rules for denial...

New Hampshire Public Radio (NHPR) conducted a gubernatorial debate on 19 September 2012. One of the questions had to do with the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), an effort to limit greenhouse gases by auctioning CO2 allowances (sounds like cap and trade to me). Republican Ovide Lamontagne favors repeal of RGGI, while Democrat Maggie Hassan favors keeping it. Watch and listen to their answers at about 32 minutes into the debate. They are in a lightning round, with a ten-second limit to answers. Ms. Hassan's answer, from the previously linked video, follows: ***** "I was proud to be a sponsor...

Click on each state for survey details. Totals may not add up to 100% because of rounding.

Mitt Romney now trails by only 6 points in New Hampshire, according to a new poll released Tuesday evening. The latest WMUR Granite State poll, conducted by the University of New Hampshire Survey Center, shows President Barack Obama leading Romney among likely voters, 47 percent to 41 percent. Obama held a 15-point lead in last week's Granite State poll, which was conducted Sept. 27-30. The latest poll was conducted Sept. 30-Oct. 6, with 57 percent of the responses coming before the Oct. 3 presidential debate in Denver. As has been the case with other post-debate polling shifts, Obama has seen...

A middle schooler's science project was so alarming to a Manchester, N.H., man that he called police after the contraption landed on his driveway. Eighth-grader Jack Miron of nearby Walton, N.H., had a grand idea for a science project. The Pine Hill Waldorf student rigged a box that included a video camera, weather recording equipment, flags and a beeping device onto a weather balloon, WMUR reports. He and his mother launched it from Bedford, N.H., to see what it could record.

EPPING, N.H. (AP) — Authorities say a New Hampshire woman has been arrested four times in 26 hours for blasting the AC/DC song ‘‘Highway to Hell’’ and other loud music from her home and for throwing a frying pan. Police first issued a warning to Joyce Coffey on Tuesday afternoon at her home in Epping. They say they were called back an hour later and arrested her for the loud music.

The man who attracted local attention when he carried a pistol into a Hanover theater Monday night said his actions had nothing to do with the gunman in Colorado three days before that killed 12 movie-goers and wounded 58. Ryan Ruby, 27, of Littlestown, said he wasn't trying to make a point or draw attention to himself when he went to see "The Dark Knight Rises" openly carrying his pistol. For him, he said, it was habit. Ruby said he's been carrying a firearm openly for about two years. He goes to the movie theater in Hanover at least once...

PETERBOROUGH — A gun club official says members are doing all they can to be considerate of their neighbors. The Monadnock Rod and Gun Club will most likely not make any changes after receiving a letter from selectmen asking it to be quieter, said Mark Carbone, chairman of the board of directors. Neighbors recently brought their concerns to town officials about noise levels at the shooting range increasing in recent years. Town officials said they could not make the gun club change its activities because it has not done anything illegal. But selectmen sent a letter last week requesting the...

By CRAIG N. LIADIS New Hampshire Union Leader A Leominster, Mass., police officer is under investigation to determine whether he called Boston Red Sox outfielder Carl Crawford a racial slur during a New Hampshire Fisher Cats game in Manchester last week. Leominster Mayor Dean Mazzarella confirmed that an investigation is ongoing and that the officer, who was not identified, has been assigned to desk duty. “We received tips earlier in the week identifying the person,'' Mazzarella said. Fisher Cats President Rick Brenner isn't concerned where the individual is from. “I don't want to get into a border war,” Brenner said....

BOSTON (AP) — A federal appeals court has upheld a ruling dismissing a lawsuit filed by a Massachusetts woman whose son was killed during a botched robbery at a New Hampshire Army surplus store. The 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals found that the owner of the gun used in the July 2007 shooting at the Army Barracks store in Conway, N.H. was not negligent.

With all the buzz and anticipation surrounding the final rulings by the U.S. Supreme Court the past week, there has been little attention to an interesting legal development in New Hampshire: On June 18, Governor John Lynch (no relation) signed HB 146 into law and it becomes effective on January 1, 2013. HB 146 concerns “the right of a jury to judge the application of the law in relationship to the facts in controversy.” It’s popularly known as “the jury nullification bill.” In this post, I will try to explain what impact this new law may have in the New...

The New Hampshire legislature on Wednesday overrode Gov. John Lynch’s veto of a voter ID bill, making it the latest state to require that voters present photo identification at the polls. Under Senate Bill 289, which takes effect this September, a variety of identification forms will be acceptable, or residents can sign an affidavit at the polling site to vote. In September 2013, however, that list will be shortened — student ID cards and documents more than 5 years old, for example, will no longer be valid — and voters who prefer to sign affidavits will have to have their...

Obama, on ice cream run, orders hot fudge sundae and offers to treat shop patronsBy Alicia M. Cohn - 06/25/12 04:36 PM ET President Obama made an ice cream run to a local shop in New Hampshire on Monday between campaign stops, recording a birthday greeting and offering to treat patrons to sweet treats. The president ordered a hot fudge sundae for himself and a banana split for White House press secretary Jay Carney, according to press pool reports. He also teased that Carney has a serious sweet tooth. "You guys are going to witness him eating the whole thing,”...

With the decision to own a gun comes the responsibility to control access to it, but there are limits to that responsibility. A case now before a federal appeals court in Boston will test those limits in ways that are important to the one-third to one-half of all New Hampshire households that own firearms. Michael Woodbury, a 31-year-old felon, went on a crime spree almost as soon as he was released from a Maine prison. That spree ended at a military surplus store in Conway where on July 2, 2007, Woodbury killed the store's manager and two young tourists who...