In The News
Salem Fire Department gets $24K grant
by Jillian Jorgensen
SALEM - The Fire Department has been awarded a $24,300 Assistance to Firefighters grant, U.S. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen announced yesterday. The grant is administered by the Department of Homeland Security. Fire Chief Kevin Breen said the department will use the money to purchase thermal imaging cameras. The cameras are used primarily for search and rescue, finding people in smoke-filled rooms. They also can be used to find fires in walls and ceilings, or determine where in a smoky building a f… Continue Reading
March 10, 2010
Senators Unveil Bill to Ban Banks' High-Risk Trades
by Fawn Johnson
WASHINGTON-Two senators introduced legislation Wednesday echoing calls from the Obama administration to bar taxpayer-insured banks and their affiliates and subsidiaries from engaging in proprietary trading. The bill, sponsored by Sens. Jeff Merkley (D., Ore.) and Carl Levin (D., Mich.), is designed to "make banking boring again," according to a summary. President Barack Obama proposed the "Volcker Rule," named after former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker, in January as the adminis… Continue Reading
March 10, 2010
U.S. Senate votes to study job loss in N.E.
by Ted Nesi
WASHINGTON - The U.S. Senate voted Tuesday to have Congress' investigative arm conduct an extensive study of why New England and the Midwest have lost jobs over the past 20 years and how to boost employment in the regions. The Government Accountability Office report would lay out the pattern of job losses over the past two decades; the impact the offshoring of manufacturing jobs has had; and recommendations for attracting new jobs and industries to the area. Senators adopted the amendmen… Continue Reading
March 04, 2010
From Haiti to a new home
by Jason Claffey
SOMERSWORTH - A 2 1⁄2-year-old Haitian boy made it from the earthquake-devastated country to his adoptive mother on Maple Street thanks to an unlikely team of strangers that included Hollywood actor Sean Penn, a staffer from U.S. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen's office, and a Florida construction contractor moonlighting as a humanitarian worker. "He's been through an awful lot to get here," said the boy's mother, Jenna Tousignant, as she bounced little Cal in her lap at her kitchen table Wedne… Continue Reading
March 04, 2010
Lilac City fire gets $67g federal grant
by Joey Cresta
ROCHESTER - The Lilac City's Fire Department has been awarded nearly $67,000 in federal funds through the Assistance to Firefighters Grant Program. U.S. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., announced the award Wednesday. The department will get $66,896 through the Department of Homeland Security program for operations and safety. In a separate statement, U.S. Rep. Carol-Shea Porter, D-Rochester, said the funding was only part of the total awarded, with $50,544 also going to the Londonderry Fire … Continue Reading
March 04, 2010
Londonderry fire station to benefit from federal grant
by Eric Parry
LONDONDERRY - Central fire station will be outfitted with sprinkler and fire alarm systems, thanks to a $50,544 federal grant. U.S. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., announced the award yesterday. The grant is meant to benefit operations and safety. "We're finally going to practice what we preach," fire Chief Kevin MacCaffrie said. Without the award, the chief said, the town could not outfit the station with the safety equipment. Londonderry is the latest of several local communities to be a… Continue Reading
March 03, 2010
NH Salmonella Victim Lobbies For Food Safety Bill
by Holly Ramer
CONCORD, N.H. (AP) - A Bedford teenager who continues to suffer health problems three years after eating a salmonella-tainted tomato is urging Congress to require more government inspections of food manufacturers. Ryan Wilson, now 15, spent three days in the hospital after eating a bad bacon, lettuce and tomato sandwich at a pizza shop in Sept. 2007. "The dehydration itself was bad enough, then having to get up 15 minutes to go the bathroom in the middle night, and getting almost no sleep … Continue Reading
February 26, 2010
Shaheen wants big health insurer to justify rate hikes
by Adam D. Krauss
DOVER - U.S. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen wants the nation's largest health insurer to justify steep rate increases on individual premiums, which are in the order of 12 to 13 percent in New Hampshire and nearly 24 percent in Maine. "It's hard to justify those kind of rate increases when the company's profits increased ... almost $5 billion in 2009," she said in an interview Thursday. "While I appreciate costs are rising, their profits are rising too. So I think it's hard to justify in this econom… Continue Reading
February 25, 2010
Rising Insurance Rates Burden NH Business Owners
CONCORD, N.H. -- Sen. Jeanne Shaheen and some N.H. business owners say record profits at insurance companies have them wondering why they've seen a recent spike in premiums. Scott Baetz, a small business owner who employs four employees, said he's seen his rates go up 8 to 15 percent every year since 2000. "We've made a lot of adjustments," said Baetz. "I think at a time when they are bringing in billions of dollars in profits, to raise rates on families and small businesses just doesn'… Continue Reading
February 25, 2010
WellPoint Asked To Provide Calif Rate Data To US Senators
by Dinah Wisenberg Brin
Lawmakers intensified political pressure on WellPoint Inc. (WLP) as leaders of the Senate Finance Committee asked the health insurer Wednesday to provide data related to planned rate increases on California members with individual policies. The letter from Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D., Mont.) and ranking member Chuck Grassley (R., Iowa) came the same day that a House subcommittee scrutinized plans by WellPoint's Anthem Blue Cross business to raise individual … Continue Reading
February 19, 2010
Senate 'holds' sign of a broken system
It's early in the political year but already New Hampshire's would-be U.S. senators are calling, predictably, for big change in Washington. Here's one commitment we hope they'll make, Republicans and Democrats alike: If elected, they will work hard to re-establish the time-honored American concept of majority rule. "Majority," as in 51 votes wins. This is opposed to the Senate's Byzantine rules and traditions that force nearly everything to require a super-majority of 60 votes to pass, th… Continue Reading
February 19, 2010
AARP honors Shaheen, Collins for Medicare act
DOVER - U.S. Sens. Jeanne Shaheen and Susan Collins have been honored with the AARP's Legislative Achievement Award for their work on the Medicare Transitional Care Act, which is meant to prevent unnecessary re-hospitalizations by providing more coordinated follow-up care for Medicare beneficiaries. "One of our cornerstone issues is around home care and community-based and long-term care and clearly any efforts that are going to prevent people from being readmitted to hospitals and will … Continue Reading
February 16, 2010
Shaheen: No sense in starting over on health care
(NECN) - Senator Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.) was posed the question on NECN's DC Dialogue of whether to start from the drawing board on health care reform legislation. "I don't think we start over. The reality is we've been working on this bill for over a year. I think it has already incorporated over 160 amendments," Sen. Shaheen said. "So, there has been significant bi-partisan input into the bill." "Obviously, we can always make it better, we can always address some of the concerns that … Continue Reading
February 14, 2010
UNH awarded $3m to help train health care workers
by Jason Claffey
DURHAM - The University of New Hampshire on Friday was awarded a nearly $3 million grant to develop a program that will train 1,000 health care workers. The money, which is part of the federal stimulus package, was secured by U.S Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-Madbury. UNH applied for the funding in January; Shaheen wrote a letter to Labor Secretary Hilda Solis in support of it. "With an aging population, New Hampshire anticipates an increased demand for health and support services as well as heavi… Continue Reading
February 14, 2010
A day in the life
by Jennifer DePaul
WASHINGTON - Wearing a pink-colored suit jacket, a long gray skirt, black boots and a pink scarf, U.S. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen calmly positions herself for a photo with a visiting group between the New Hampshire and American flags. The U.S. Senate photographer is standing by, and Shaheen's personal office transforms into a temporary photography studio. Her staff is efficient, ushering visitors in for a few moments and quickly showing them the exit. It's a little after 8:30 a.m. on the mornin… Continue Reading
February 12, 2010
Harkin and Shaheen seek to change Senate filibuster rule; Reid dismisses effort
by Paul Kane
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February 12, 2010
Federal grant will fund firefighters' gear
by Terry Date
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February 11, 2010
Some Democratic Senators Want to End Filibusters
by Sheryl Gay Stolberg
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February 04, 2010
Hampstead, Danville fire departments get federal grants
by Jillian Jorgensen
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February 04, 2010
Hilltop Fire Department to use stimulus grant for sprinkler system, fire alarms
by Jason Claffey
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