Best News All Day — Snow Day Edition

snow

 

OK, so it’s only raining on the Seacoast. I still could use a snow day. Here’s a short BNAD.

— Lack of traffic continues to trouble Manchester-Boston Regional Airport. JetBlue is likely a promising development, but a Manchester source told me almost a year ago about these talks. Another story about this issue ran in the UL in the fall.

— James Pindell analysis on the Hagel confirmation. He notes Sen. Kelly Ayotte benefits from taking tough stances on Obama-backed votes because it earns her cred — and spots on the Sunday morning talk shows. (I also would suggest not being so wooden or sounding like a talking-points machine would help Ayotte too.)

After all the hub-bub about Hagel, his confirmation vote sure did end in a whimper. Pindell is the only NH reporter I could find this morning who wrote about it.

— Another story I can’t believe more people haven’t written about is Rep. Mark Warden doling out some unsolicited relationship advice during a House committee hearing on lowering assault penalties in some cases. Here’s the quote, via Ben Leubsdorf:

“Some people could make the argument that a lot of people like being in abusive relationships. It’s a love-hate relationship. It’s very, very common for people to stick around with somebody they love who also abuses him or her,” said Warden, a Republican who represents Deering, Goffstown and Weare, during a meeting of the House Criminal Justice and Public Safety Committee, according to a video provided by Granite State Progress, a liberal advocacy group. According to the video, Warden added, “Is the solution to those kind of dysfunctional relationships going to be more government, another law? I’d say no. People are always free to leave.”

Perhaps NH’s news editors agree with Manchester Rep. Steve Vaillancourt, who said yesterday, “the Monitor was simply trying to gin up controversy by focusing on Warden’s comments.”

Only in Print: city salaries

I love when one of my stories is listed as “Only in Print” and then gets loads of comments. Did the people go out and buy the paper? Did they read the E-edition? Or did they comment without reading the whole story. This one got over 180 comments.

Manchester public salaries listed

Monday, March 7, 2011

MANCHESTER – More than 75 city employees pulled in six-figure salaries last year, with the top-paid staffer bringing home nearly $209,000. A list of Manchester salaries begins in Monday’s print edition of The New Hampshire Union Leader, and will continue in Tuesday’s edition.