Around New England

Laid-Off TV Anchor, Cameraman Spend Severance Checks To Chase Narcotics Pipeline from Dominican Republic to New Hampshire

Matthew McDonald

The two former employees of WBIN-TV NH 1 had the story lined up when the owner of the station shut it down and laid them off in February 2017. They decided to do the story anyway, using their severance checks and help from the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration to trace the flow of drugs from the Dominican Republic to Puerto Rico to Boston to New Hampshire; they got their story, Beyond the Border:  The Opioid Pipeline, on the air at WCVB-TV Channel 5 in Boston, and online here:

Around New England

New York, Vermont Officials Up In Arms Over ‘Bootlegged’ New Hampshire Booze

Matthew McDonald

Excise taxes on liquor in New Hampshire are so low — and they're high in New York — that it makes sense for some people to buy thousands of dollars worth of booze in the Granite State and transport it through Vermont to New York, where restaurants are grateful for the savings. But New York and Vermont consider avoiding their liquor excise taxes illegal.

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