Civics

Town election campaigners across NH snared by disclosure law

The complaint topics include signs, direct-mail flyers, social media posts and websites that endorse candidates, oppose warrant articles, rail about taxes, support students, throw shade at politicians. Some have dense paragraphs full of funky fonts, stock photos, exclamation marks and double underlining. Others are simple: “Vote yes!” or “Vote no!” One thing they all have in common – they break the law. READ MORE

Police & Fire

Watch out ‘CSI’ – New study confirms blood pattern analysis isn’t reliable

Anyone who’s a fan of TV police procedurals and true crime knows that many cases hinge on blood pattern evidence. That’s nothing new. The first documented use of blood pattern analysis in a trial was in Maine in 1857, when George Knight was convicted of stabbing his wife, Mary, to death. In the 166 years since, it’s been one of the most common types of evidence used to both convict and exonerate people charged with murder. READ MORE

Broken Ground Trails map
Civics

Affidavit: Stephen Reid’s cellphone led police to shooting site

Details of the search for the Reids; the impressions of McDonald’s coworkers, who said Clegg had “anger issues”; and the police encounter near where the Reids’ bodies were found with a man investigators believe was Clegg are just some of what’s revealed in the 25-page affidavit that was unsealed Monday afternoon by Merrimack County Superior Court Judge John Kissinger.  READ MORE