News – Politics – Opinion – Podcasts
Since moving to Nashua in 2013, I have seen a significant shift in how City Hall interacts with residents. For many years, City Hall operated with an open‑door policy: any resident could walk in, pay or obtain a bill, review assessment files, or speak directly with a city employee without an appointment. Customer service and … Read more
Good morning, Senate Judiciary members (and all non-freshman Rs): I considered addressing all of you as “Enemies of 91A,” but thought better of it. Enclosed is an article about Hanover and the SC’s decision in the plaintiff’s favor. I’m sharing it to remind you that 91A issues are NOT just “a Nashua thing.” Team Red … Read more
What Is Nashua Hiding? — The “Unsettling” Hunt for Settlements New Hampshire’s Right-to-Know Law has a provision most people don’t know exists, and one New Hampshire city is apparently counting on that. RSA 91-A:4 VI is short, clear, and unambiguous. Every settlement agreement involving a lawsuit, a threatened lawsuit, or any other claim against a … Read more
For many years, I heard references to “Sunshine Week” without understanding what it truly represented. I assumed it was simply a New Hampshire expression signaling the arrival of spring. Only later did I learn that it stands for something far more significant, something that has become personally very important to me. When I purchased my … Read more
And why are they writing press releases for Lyn Schollett? On March 3rd, a committee of the New Hampshire House of Representatives voted 9 to 7, along strict party lines, to advance Amendment 0946h to House Bill 1675. Before that final vote, it’s worth noting what happened on the amendment itself: it passed 16 to … Read more
Each March, Sunshine Week reminds Americans that open government is not optional; it is foundational and well-regarded in New Hampshire as a Constitutional right. The public has a right to know how its money is spent and how its officials conduct business. Yet here in Nashua, one of the city’s largest public projects was structured … Read more
I know lots of people are focused on their upcoming town elections, as they should be, but I’m here to point out that we are in Year Two of our current legislature and filing time will be here sooner than you know it. With that piece of excrement commonly known as federal judge Landya McCafferty … Read more
It has recently come to the attention of many members of our legislature that a big national war chest has been made available to the enemy camp in Concord. Many members have already taken to social media with requests for donations to (committees to elect) Team Red in both chambers and campaign coffers of their … Read more
What Justice Should Look Like It’s Time for Civil DiscourseAfter five years in Nashua’s courts, I no longer believe the system fails by accident. It fails by design through silence, delay, and loyalty to power. Yet the damage isn’t irreversible. Real reform is still possible if New Hampshire decides that fairness matters more than familiarity. … Read more
When Justice Has a Price Tag When the City of Nashua spent nearly a million dollars fighting a voluminous 2022 Right-to-Know case, it wasn’t protecting taxpayers and records; it was protecting itself. The case involved the downtown road barriers, a project sold for “downtown vibrancy” but executed with little transparency. I asked for public meeting … Read more
Busy, Burdened, and Broke From the outside, the court seemed to be managing a docket. In reality, it was managing appearances. No one, not the judge nor the City’s lawyers, acknowledged that the process itself had become unjust. The goal was never to expedite, but to delay. Inside City Hall, word had already spread that … Read more
When the Courts Turn Hostile Courts dread seeing a self-represented litigant walk through their doors, especially one challenging city government. In Nashua, that dread turns to hostility. Over five years of fighting for transparency, I’ve learned how the local court system uses its power not to ensure fairness, but to exhaust and financially break citizens … Read more
Derek Thibeault used his weekly newsletter to call a request for the August 7, 2025, non-public Nashua Board of Aldermen minutes “petty.” Transparency is never petty; it is the people’s right, and the Board broke the law. The Board entered that closed session without reading the statutory language required by RSA 91-A. That isn’t a … Read more
(Manch Talk 07/30/25) This week, Carla Gericke is joined by Jake Abuhav, who recently won an excellent open government case in Grafton. Basically, can’t hear at a public meeting? You can get costs if you sue! Speakers’ opinions are their own and may not represent those of Grok Media, LLC, GraniteGrok.com, its sponsors, readers, authors, … Read more
In May 2025, a New Hampshire court ruled that the Town of Grafton violated the state’s Right-to-Know law by holding a public meeting that the public could not adequately hear. The plaintiff, Yaakov “Jake” Abuhav, a local resident who represented himself without an attorney, attended that meeting and, like others, could not make out what … Read more
In my ongoing look at “Ethics without Ethics in Nashua,” let’s examine how the Ethics Review Committee (ERC) flagrantly disregards its own rules, and the law. The Committee is bound by the City Ordinance, section 12-31, specifically: What we see in practice is the opposite. Chairman Tim Bush either doesn’t understand Robert’s Rules or deliberately … Read more
Nashua Alderman Derek Thibeault’s May 31, 2025, Union Leader op-ed response to my piece on the dangers of politicizing public input does more to affirm my concerns than refute them. In attempting to discredit me personally, rather than addressing the underlying issues I raised, he reinforces the troubling pattern of dismissing dissent that is taking … Read more
What a ridiculous question it might be to ask if a red town has something in common with a blue city, especially if I make the question about 91A, but without the unpleasantness often involved in its pursuits. Every community’s operating budget has its own greedy monster, the schools, consuming about 70% of the funds, … Read more
Last Thursday, the Union Leader published an op-ed warning about a troubling trend: the politicization of public participation in Nashua. I argued that our city’s leaders—by labeling dissenting voices as “mayor haters” or dismissing ethics complaints as “just politics”—were creating a culture that silences civic dialogue. One day later, Alderman Derek Thibeault responded—not with reflection, but … Read more
Having shared my recent article with an “apoplectic” constituent of one of the reps that “took a walk” on SB284, I was asked if this particular rep abstained from any other housing bill roll calls. That communication inspired me to look at ALL the votes this rep abstained from. Having done that with the goal … Read more