Democrats practice a little misdirection on Clinton issue

New Hampshire’s leading Democrats have availed themselves of every opportunity to hitch their wagons to Hillary Clinton.

Gov. Maggie Hassan, Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, U.S. Rep. Ann Kuster, former U.S Rep. Carol Shea-Porter, and state Democratic Party Chairman Raymond Buckley have all been strong voices in support of the former Secretary of State.

So it was more than a little odd that none of them had anything to say about FBI Director James Comey’s news conference on Monday in which he laid out the results of the agency’s yearlong investigation into Clinton’s use of a private email server during the six years she was the country’s chief diplomat.

The investigation found that the facts didn’t square with Clinton’s repeated explanations of her handling of the emails. In other words, she lied.

The response from Democrats was to engage in misdirection.

Shaheen issued statements about opioids and U.S. troops in Afghanistan; Kuster issued statements about opioids and mental health; Hassan’s campaign criticized her Republican opponent, Sen. Kelly Ayotte, as did the Democratic Party website; Shea-Porter said nothing we could find.

Basically, the response from the entire Democratic establishment boiled down to one word: "Trump."

It remains to be seen whether that’s a winning strategy.

NH taxpayers could use some of that surplus money

Revenue numbers from the fiscal year that just closed shows the state of New Hampshire ended up with a surplus in the neighborhood of $100 million.

That’s good news, though it’s too early to strike up the band. The figures are unaudited and the state still has to wait for some receipts and expenditures to come in, but it’s still good news.

It would be better news still if some of that money could find its way back into the pockets of the state’s taxpayers because, viewed in one light, a $100 million surplus represents $100 million in overtaxation.

Some of that money has already been earmarked for the state’s Rainy Day Fund and to battle the opioid crisis, and that’s fine, but taxpayers like those in Nashua could use some relief from the bait-and-switch scam the state ran with its retirement system. After offering financial incentives to get cities, towns and school districts to join the system, the state subsequently pulled the plug on that money, leaving local taxpayers on the hook for millions of dollars in pension costs.

Voters might want to bring that up when they encounter candidates asking for their support in November.

From Merrimack to the
stars isn’t that far after all

When NASA’s Juno spacecraft entered into orbit about 3,000 miles above Jupiter earlier this week, it marked a milestone for the space program, which hopes the project will yield some findings about the origin of the universe.

It was also an accomplishment of which Granite Staters can take pride, since one of our own companies had a hand in the success of the mission. Nanocomp Technologies, a Merrimack-based nanotechnology firm, developed a material known as Miralon to protect critical spacecraft components from the ambient radiation surrounding Jupiter. It has been connected to the spacecraft since its launch in August 2011.

Juno’s journey to the largest planet in our solar system was one of 540-million miles, but we imagine it felt a lot closer for that Merrimack group.