Carla from Porcupine Real Estate and Brittany of Ledgeview Commercial take a closer look at a few of the properties in our investment newsletter this week, including a turnkey multi-family property in Manchester and a 76 acre campground with lots of options for short-term rentals. Sign up for the list to see all our investment property picks HERE NOW.
Man, I’m exhausted! This has been an insane time here in the Free State!
GroktoberFest kicked off with a bang! This celebration of independent media in New Hampshire featured several Free State speakers who also write for Granite Grok, like Ian Underwood, author of the Bare Minimum Books series. The Free State Project had a table, manned by the Honorable Mark Warden and I. Mark stayed on to the end, and I departed early for a 45-minute drive to go welcome new movers at their move-in party. It is always rewarding to meet the pioneers making the life-changing choice to come build the freest place on earth with us. This growing family moved from Maine because they understand the value proposition of concentrating freedom lovers together in one state, where we CAN and ARE making a difference. NH consistently ranks as the freest state and has some of the best quality of living in the world.
Political season is heating up and the candidates are vying for attention. There are nonstop meet ‘n greets, breakfasts, town halls, dinners, and more. I met Marjorie Taylor Greene at the Federation of Republican Women Breakfast and heard her speak again the same evening at the Grafton County Republican Lincoln Reagan Dinner in Thornton. She mentioned National Divorce in her evening speech, and panned Biden for the insane and unsustainable amounts of money being wasted on foreign wars while not securing the Southern border. Here I am with Marjorie Taylor Greene and Matt Sabourin dit Choinière, Chairman of the NH Independence PAC.
I also recently attended a Health Freedom rally with Florida Surgeon General, Dr. Joseph A. Ladapo and presidential candidate, Ron De Santis. The focus of this event was Health Freedom, which, if you followed my activism during Covidmania, you know is a topic near and dear to my non-jabbed heart. Free Stater and House Majority Leader Jason Osborne gave the opening remarks, welcoming Ladapo to the stage. Sadly, I had to leave early to go record Manch Talk, but I was impressed by Ladapo’s statements.
I had so many Halloween engagements this year, I ran out of costumes! (I’m filing that under “good problems” and can’t wait to augment my coffers.) There was a party at The Shell. We HEART West hosted a neighborhood Trunk or Treat at St. Mary’s Bank on the West Side. Tons of parents and kids came! Constance Spencer, the lead organizer of PorcFest 2024 (get your tix TODAY) threw a spooktacular neighborhood party on Halloween with scores of kiddoes and grownups with great costumes stopping by for candy and to compliment her excellently scary decorations. And… after all this, Bardo’s annual Zombie Apocalypse is still coming up this weekend.
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Carla from Porcupine Real Estate and Brittany of Ledgeview Commercial take a closer look at a few of the properties in our investment newsletter this week, including a multi-family property in low-tax Croydon and a potential short-term rental that is off-grid on 5 acres. Sign up for the list to see all our investment property picks HERE.
On Thursday, October 19th, the Nackey S. Loeb School, in partnership with the NH Institute of Politics at St. Anslem, celebrated the First Amendment.
This year’s recipient is Laurie Ortolano, who served as president of Right-to-Know NH for a while. I have featured her on my show over the years, and deeply admire her relentless pursuit of open government.
Appearing above with attorney Gregory Sullivan and President and Chairman Joseph W. McQuaid, Laurie’s success story against the City of Nashua makes her the perfect recipient. Read about her story HERE.
We chat about the DNC’s weird and wonderful strategy of refusing to acknowledge NH’s First in the Nation status, resulting in Biden not even appearing on the primary ballot here. And other things.
Last night, my husband Louis Calitz and I attended the kick-off of Lily Tang Williams’ CD2 Congressional Senate campaign at Fulchinos Vineyard in Hollis. Lily, an immigrant like me, and escapee from Communist China, just as I escaped apartheid South Africa, has run for office in both Colorado and now in New Hampshire. She garnered a decent 25% in a heavily contested primary in 2022, the top three candidates, including Lily, within points of each other. Read more about her background and consider supporting her race!
Today’s Sunday Union Leader features my op-ed about the current landscape of Right-to-Know in the Free State. Improvements are happening, but they are also devising new and sneakier ways to hide from us. Privacy for US, not them!
For people who cannot access behind the paywall:
TRANSPARENCY in government must start at the top. For several years now, Right-to-Know NH (RTKNH), a statewide nonpartisan open government advocacy group, has been requesting the Attorney General’s office update its outdated 138-page Right-to-Know memorandum from 2015.
Over the past 8 years, many positive Right-to-Know developments have taken place. The public deserves to understand how their rights have been expanded.
For example, a Constitutional Amendment was passed in 2018 that states: “[Art.] 2-b. [Right of Privacy.] An individual’s right to live free from governmental intrusion in private or personal information is natural, essential, and inherent.”
Sounds good, right? But Article 2-b was recently cited by Manchester City Solicitor Emily Rice to deny the Board of Mayor and Aldermen, as a matter of law, copies of “daily logs” at a homeless shelter. Rice’s interpretation seems counter to the spirit of openness and good governance, highlighting the need for more clarity from the attorney general.
Several recent state Supreme Court decisions have also strengthened our Right-to-Know.
Thanks to the dedication of the Union Leader and other local papers, the Fenniman decision was rightfully overturned after almost 30 years. This win significantly narrows the application of an exemption to disclosure of governmental records under the law. Instead of a “blanket ban” applying to all government personnel records, now, a balancing act between privacy interests and public’s Right-to-Know must be considered.
Due to the relentless efforts of Laurie Ortolano, former RTKNH president, there is even more good news, not least of which is that she will be honored at the Nackey Loeb First Amendment Awards this Thursday. Tickets are available at loebschool.org.
Ortolano’s transparency battle with the City of Nashua reached historic proportions. Requests for tax assessments and finances were met with denials and court battles. They even arrested her for criminal trespassing at City Hall (later annulled).
But Ortolano didn’t give up. She was finally awarded $63,400 in attorneys’ fees, generally unheard of, for the City of Nashua’s non-compliant behavior, and officials were ordered to undergo remedial RTK training to avoid future violations.
The city appealed to the state Supreme Court and in August Ortolano’s victory was upheld. In their decision, the justices quoted the state’s Right-to-Know law: “The purpose of the Right-to-Know law is to ensure both the greatest possible public access to the actions, discussions, and records of all public bodies, and their accountability to the people.”
On top of these developments, a new Right-to-Know Ombudsman office (RKO), attached to the Secretary of State, has opened. The intent is to provide the public with a simpler, cheaper, and quicker way to resolve Right-to-Know complaints. Anyone can file a written complaint and pay the $25 filing fee. The ombudsman is tasked with determining if any Right-to-Know violations have occurred, and issues a ruling.
If you don’t like the RKO ruling, you may still appeal to the superior court within 30 days. If the ombudsman’s final ruling is not appealed, it may be registered in Merrimack County Superior Court as an enforceable judgment.
Based on the above, it’s clear the public and municipalities need better guidance on the current landscape of our Right-to-Know laws. The old, outdated memo from almost a decade ago simply isn’t cutting it.
We respectfully request that the attorney general update the Right-to-Know Memo by the end of the year. After all, Granite Staters have the right-to-know what’s up with their Right-to-Know, because without transparency, there is no accountability.
A former Republican candidate for state Senate, Carla Gericke is an outspoken open-government advocate and serves on Right-to-Know NH. She lives in Manchester.
In 2020, I gave a talk on the main stage at Anarchapulco in Mexico. I didn’t know the video came out until I was looking for this essay, and randomly ran across it (the talk is based on the essay). I don’t typically like re-watching my talks, but I knuckled down and watched it yesterday, and something remarkable transpired… I didn’t hate it. I didn’t cringe. I didn’t get a minor panic attack, especially at the part at the start where my slides weren’t working correctly. I watched my talk and thought, Good job.
Me thinking ‘Good job’ about anything related to public speaking is… massive progress! This is only possible because, for the past five years, I have chosen to stick to the incremental improvements I’ve introduced into my life, while slowly adding more.
When you take care of yourself, through lifestyle changes like nourishing yourself with whole foods cooked in high good fats, getting enough sleep, hydrating, and socializing with people who fill your cup, you feel better… and when you feel better… you do better!
What are you working on in your life to make those small changes that add up? Are you journaling regularly? Are you making sure you’re drinking plenty–and I mean PLENTY–of water? Are you aware when you’re doom scrolling on your phone, and can you put it down?
As I say in the talk… how you spend your time equals you life. Spend it wisely!
Lifestyle choices make a difference!
Which means YOU are in control!
These pics are 7 years apart, and I am healthier and happier at 51, than I was in 2016.
1. I now prioritize myself. This means saying NO a lot more.
2. NO to things like alcohol, carbs, sugar, and toxic people who steal your time.
3. I dealt with my childhood abandonment issues, resetting my mindworms and freeing myself from negative self-talk, which allowed me to accept and love my authentic self: wild, honest, brilliant.
4. Actively monitoring sleep, hydration, and meditation.
5. Practicing mindfulness through yoga, breathing techniques, and forest-bathing.
6. I take a goddamn cold shower every day.
7. I practice gratitude through daily journaling, capturing how thankful I am for my husband, my family, my friends, my community, my dog, my environment, even every single mushroom I spot… I am very grateful for my beautiful life!
We only have NOW!
If YOU want to become BETTER as you age, follow me for inspiration.
Live free and thrive!