In The News

March 11, 2010

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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