STATE HOUSE — Pivoting from the ongoing debate over whether the state should legalize marijuana for adult use, lawmakers on Tuesday were asked to grapple with a new question around the drug: are marijuana plants an agricultural crop or a controlled substance?
At issue is a Plympton farmer's plan to build a marijuana cultivation center on his agricultural-residential property, also home to cranberry bogs and horse pastures. Jeff Randall, a fourth-generation farmer backed up by town counsel and two of the three members of the Plympton Board of Selectmen, contends the agricultural zoning gives him the right to grow marijuana without a special permit.
CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — Investigations into sexual misconduct by faculty at a renowned New Hampshire prep school have found their way into the state's high profile Senate race between incumbent Republican Kelly Ayotte and Democratic Gov. Maggie Hassan, whose husband is a former principal of the school.
News broke in late March that a teacher at Phillips Exeter Academy was forced to resign in 2011 and later stripped of his emeritus status after admitting to two past instances of sexual misconduct with students — information that was not disclosed publicly under the tenure of Hassan's husband, Thomas Hassan. Maggie Hassan accepted money from Schubart and listed him as a public supporter of her 2012 gubernatorial campaign even after he left the school, a fact Republicans immediately seized on as evidence of poor judgment.
