From the Newsroom: Seacoastonline - Fosters.com

Gilles Bissonnette, legal director for the ACLU-NH, on Saturday sent a letter to Town Administrator Martha Roy, the members of the board of selectmen, the town planner, the building inspector and the police chief, noting that the town had no right to remove the signs and that in doing so it had violated the U.S. and New Hampshire constitutions.

“The Town’s removal of the ‘Portsmouth Pride’ signs on private property violated the First Amendment and Part 1, Article 22 of the New Hampshire Constitution,” Bissonnette wrote. “People in New Hampshire have a First Amendment right to place whatever signs they want on their property.”

NEWINGTON -- Newington resident Patrick Patterson serves on the board of directors for Seacoast Outright, an organization that supports LGBTQ youth in the Seacoast area, so he was eager to help promote the fifth annual Portsmouth Pride event that took place June 22.

Portsmouth Pride, hosted by Seacoast Outright, is a celebration of the Seacoast’s LGBTQ community and includes a parade and a fair at Strawbery Banke.

Patterson gave a sign promoting the June 22 Pride event to his neighbors, Kellie and Dave Mueller, who put it on their lawn at the corner of Nimble Hill Road and Coleman Drive, a highly visible location.

NH Law Makers Forms Study Committee to Fit Tiny Homes Into Zoning Laws. Tom Sherman and John Morgan went to Hampton Falls to tour tiny homes. The zoning language does not quality certain homes as acceptable living spaces. 

LITTLETON -- A woman sentenced to life in prison in connection with the 1988 killing of a Hampton man will not receive a hearing on her pardon request.

The state’s Executive Council voted unanimously Wednesday to reject Susan McLaughlin Cook’s petition for a hearing. It was the fifth time the council has denied her request.

“It’s a serious crime, and she was convicted by her peers,” Executive Councilor Russell Prescott said. “Those peers knew all the facts at the time, and I don’t believe there’s any new facts.”

PORTSMOUTH -- Providers could be moving forward with a 10-year plan to offer additional and needed mental-health services if not for Gov. Chris Sununu’s June 28 veto of the state budget, said Democratic officials, during a Tuesday press conference at Seacoast Mental Health.

State Sens. Martha Fuller Clark, D-Portsmouth, and Tom Sherman, D-Rye, were joined at the press event by Rep. Patricia Lovejoy, D-Stratham, and Jay Couture, executive director of Seacoast Mental Health. They urged about 20 SMH employees in attendance to contact Sununu and urge him to pass the proposed budget with $90 million in business taxes they said would fund the 10-year mental health plan.

ROCHESTER -- Kay Keenan came home to her Rochester Housing Authority apartment Monday to find her Trump 2020 flag had been removed from its flag holder, rolled up and placed next to her door with a note.

“The office continues to call me about the Trump Flag. Please do not put it back up,” wrote the property manager.

By Tuesday, Keenan had the flag back up in its holder, flying adjacent to the U.S. flag she also put up last week as she appeals the housing authority decision. Keenan said she had permission to fly the flag during the appeal process.

The American Red Cross is looking for blood donations in New Hampshire and Maine after facing a major blood emergency following the week of the Fourth of July. Due to people participating in holiday activities and traveling, the average number of blood donations per week saw a significant drop, resulting in 17,000 fewer blood and platelet donations than a typical week.

CONCORD -- Convicted murder accomplice Susan McLaughlin Cook is asking the Executive Council for a pardon hearing again.

Cook, 67, is serving life in prison with no chance for parole in connection with the murder of Robert Cushing, 63, of Hampton, a prominent real estate broker, former teacher, World War II Marine Corps veteran and outspoken community advocate.

He was killed on June 1, 1988.

Cushing was the father of state Rep. Renny Cushing, D-Hampton, who declined to discuss the pardon request on Tuesday.

SOMERSWORTH — On a Monday afternoon, there were empty parking spaces all along Main Street. The only cars in sight were the ones passing by.

That’s a common occurrence on Main Street, and the city is seeking to put those parking spaces to use with a proposal to relax parking regulations for downtown developers by eliminating the parking requirement for new projects. The City Council is scheduled to consider what’s called the Special Parking District at its Aug. 5 meeting. A public hearing on the proposal is also scheduled that night.

The overlay district, as it is proposed now, includes what the city considers three economic centers: one at the intersection of Main, Market and High streets; a second covering the offices on Highland Street and Constitutional way; and a third covering Main Street across from the former GE building.

 Shortly after the Portsmouth Herald reported a recent spate of graffiti around the city, lanterns near the African Burial Ground Memorial were vandalized by graffiti, in one instance with the message, “I am everywhere.”

The landmark Robert Wyland “whaling wall” mural was marred on a corner by black and white painted symbols, with no obvious meaning.