Free Republic

Retired Supreme Court Justice David H. Souter, the ascetic bachelor and New Hampshire Republican who became a darling of liberals during his nearly 20 years on the bench, has died. He was 85. Souter died Thursday at his home in New Hampshire, the Supreme Court said in a statement Friday. He retired from the court in June 2009, giving President Barack Obama his first Supreme Court vacancy to fill. Obama chose Sonia Sotomayor, the court’s first Latina justice. Souter was appointed by Republican President George H.W. Bush in 1990. He was a reliably liberal vote on abortion, church-state relations, freedom...

Two Massachusetts men have been indicted on felony charges in connection with vandalism of a Tesla Cybertruck in the parking lot of a hotel in northern New Hampshire. Investigators said a 52-year-old man spoke with the truck owner at the Bretton Woods Ski Area parking lot on March 22 and then drove a 55-year-old man to the location of the Tesla Cybertruck at the parking lot of the Omni Mount Washington Resort & Spa. The 55-year-old man is accused of scratching the vehicle panels, causing more than $1,500 in damage. According to court documents, the 52-year-old faces a felony charge...

(2024) On Nov. 4, Dartmouth Dining began enrolling students in a palm biometric recognition scanner system at the Class of 1953 Commons. Starting this winter term, students will be able to use palm biometric technology to enter the Class of 1953 Commons instead of swiping in with a physical ID card. The biometric technology is created by IDEMIA, a technology company that specializes in biometrics and cryptography. According to Dartmouth Dining director Jon Plodzik, any student who wants to utilize the new system in the winter term can complete the enrollment process by visiting the signup area in ’53 Commons....

Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, the senior Democratic senator from New Hampshire, has announced she will not run for reelection in 2026, creating an open-seat race in a battleground state former Vice President Kamala Harris narrowly carried in November. Shaheen announced what she described as a “difficult” decision in an interview with The New York Times. “It was a difficult decision, made more difficult by the current environment in the country — by President Trump and what he’s doing right now,” Shaheen, who is 78, told the Times. Shaheen highlighted what she saw as Trump’s focus on dishing out retribution to his...

Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) announced on Wednesday that she will not seek reelection in 2026 in a blow to Democrats, who will now have to defend her New Hampshire seat against the GOP. “Serving the people of New Hampshire, first as state senator, then as governor, and now in the United States Senate is an incredible honor,” Shaheen, 78, said in a video announcement on her retirement.

Elon Musk just revealed that the government handed the Navy $12 billion to build new submarines—and not a single submarine was built. When investigators asked where the money went, Navy officials shrugged and said they had no idea. “There’s a case where I think Senator Collins was telling me about how she gave the Navy $12 billion for more submarines, got no extra submarines, and then held a hearing to say where the $12 billion go. “And they were like, we don’t know. That was it. I mean, basically, stuff is so crazy. Only the federal government could get away...

The New Hampshire House of Representatives voted to require law enforcement to cooperate with immigration authorities last week in a landslide bipartisan 351 to 6 majority. The February 6 vote also carried without debate. When she was elected last year, Republican Gov. Kelly Ayotte pledged to put an end to sanctuary policies and charged the legislature with moving quickly on the issue. Ayotte also said she would not “MASS up” New Hampshire after seeing how badly her neighboring state was mired in illegal migrants and illegal drug trafficking. The state Senate quickly obliged the governor by tackling the issue during...

Per multiple law enforcement sources, within the last hour, Border Patrol agents near Fronton, TX were fired upon from MX by suspected cartel gunmen as a group of illegal aliens were being brought across the river. I’m told BP returned fire, nobody hit on either side, and that the illegal aliens did not make it across. ... Texas DPS @LtChrisOlivarez tells me DPS is now patrolling the area and has a drone in the air and can see Mexi ... Guaranteeing the States Protection Against Invasion: This action reinforces the federal government’s commitment to safeguarding states from external threats, ensuring...

There's an old military saying about a certain material, which was often found on parade grounds back in the days of horse-mounted troops, and how it tends to roll downhill. That's a metaphor, of course, for how pressure on senior officers tends to flow downwards to junior officers, to NCOs, and eventually to the E-4 Mafia and the private soldiers. But in the military as well as in government, sometimes good ideas roll downhill, too. As an example, we have a very good idea, the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) being set up by the incoming Trump administration. Now, Iowa...

A federal judge in the District of Vermont sentenced a Mexican national to prison following his conviction for smuggling nearly 100 migrants across the Canadian border into the U.S. The Mexican national received approximately $500,000 in smuggling fees during a five-month period. The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of New York announced that District Court Judge Mary Kay Lantheir sentenced Luis Fernando Barragan-Palacios, 29, of Queens, New York, to federal prison for a term of 18 months. Barragan-Palacios, originally of Oaxaca, Mexico, is expected to be deported upon the completion of his sentence. ... According to prosecutors, Barragan-Palacios failed...

New Hampshire has always been a no-personal income tax state. Now they’ve gone all the way and ended their capital gains tax, as of 1/1/25. This makes eight states with truly no income again. (The number had dropped to seven when Washington State adopted a capital gains tax a couple of years ago.) Congrats to New Hampshire Governor Chris Sununu for getting this done.For more good news, we’re thrilled to report that with the New Year, Iowa and Louisiana have joined the list of states with a flat rate income tax. There are now 16 such states and with another...

Daniel Joseph Maldonado, a former Houston resident who convereted to Islam and admitted training with terrorists, was sentenced today to 10 years in prison and given a $1,000 fine. Maldonado, 28, pleaded guilty in April to training with al-Qaida in East Africa. He is the first American charged with joining the terrorist organization in Somalia. The charge carried a maximum prison sentence of 10 years and a fine up to $250,000. He admitted his association with terrorists in exchange for no further prosecution by the U.S. Attorney's Office in Houston. Maldonado came to the attention of federal investigators in late...

The Dartmouth College basketball players who voted in March to unionize withdrew their petition on Tuesday, a move largely intended to preserve the favorable federal judgment that they had secured and that could have been in jeopardy once President-elect Donald J. Trump took office. The players were the first college athletes granted the right to unionize by a federal labor official and the ensuing 13-to-2 vote by the men’s team in favor of forming a union seemed like a pivotal moment in the mounting legal challenges to the college sports model. But Dartmouth refused to negotiate with the players and...

Dixville Notch Results. First actual votes counted in USA.

Voting is officially underway on Election Day in America in the town of Dixville Notch, New Hampshire, where the six registered voters cast their ballots. The results are already too close to call, as the half dozen voters were split three to three between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump. It's actually a sharp swing from 2020, when Joe Biden swept all five people who voted against Trump. Republican Governor Kelly Ayotte won against her Democrat opponent, 5-1, while Democrat Maggie Goodlander won the town's Congressional district, 4-2. Dixville Notch has produced the first results of the first-in-the-nation primary since 1960...

CNN — Voters in Dixville Notch have cast the first votes in the New Hampshire primary, with all six voters choosing former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley. “A great start to a great day in New Hampshire,” Haley said in a statement reacting to the vote minutes after it was recorded. “Thank you Dixville Notch!” The tiny town in northern New Hampshire opened and closed its poll just after midnight ET on the morning of the state’s primary. Four registered Republican voters and two independents participated in the vote, in which former President Donald Trump, the front-runner for the GOP...

Get a multi-screen experience as you stay up to date on Election Night. At 7 p.m., see the latest election updates for the final hour polls are open in the Granite State. Coverage from 7 p.m. to 8 p.m. will air on WMUR-TV, WMUR.com, in the WMUR app, on WMUR’s YouTube channel and on Very Local. Advertisement Then, at 8 p.m., tune in to WMUR-TV to see live national election coverage from ABC News, and our team will be on TV when big things happen. Also at 8 p.m., WMUR brings viewers the ultimate second-screen experience with live-streaming, continuous coverage...

Former President Donald Trump is poised to secure a significant electoral victory, potentially “sweeping battleground states,” according to Rasmussen’s head pollster, who sees the current race favoring Trump in the national popular vote, suggesting a larger “political realignment” is underway, and foreseeing an outcome that could echo — or even exceed — Ronald Reagan’s historic landslide win over Jimmy Carter in 1980. In a striking forecast days before the 2024 presidential election, Rasmussen’s head pollster, Mark Mitchell, is suggesting that Donald Trump will secure a strong lead nationally and dominate in key battleground states, positioning him for a sweeping victory....

New Hampshire has barely been mentioned in this presidential race, but a recent bump in Donald Trump's polling suggests the Republican is reversing his opponent's comfortable lead and could even flip the state in a dramatic upset on Tuesday. In Concord, the state capital, GOP organizers have run out of Trump yard signs due to unexpected demand. In Pelham, scores of locals turned out to wave Trump flags, blast out rock anthems and feast on pizza and cookies on Wednesday night. Down the road, motorists honked horns and stopped to take photos of a home-made yard sign presenting Vice President...

Amid signs that former President Donald Trump is slowly gaining momentum in the race for the White House, a new New Hampshire Journal/Praecones Analytica poll released Sunday night finds he’s leading Vice President Kamala Harris in the Granite State. Trump’s slim 50.2 to 49.8 percent lead is insignificant, well within the margin of error. But the fact that Trump, who’s lost the Granite State twice, is leading in a state Democrats carried in seven of the last eight presidential races, could be very significant. It’s one of a series of indicators that the Trump campaign is expanding the field of...