Latest news with #DavidScanlan
Bloomberg
14 hours ago
- Business
- Bloomberg
How Is the Economic Downturn Affecting Singapore's Rich?
Each week we bring you insights into one of Asia's most dynamic economies. If you haven't yet, please sign up here. This week, Ishika Mookerjee watches the economic downturn hit even the affluent; Reinie Booysen and David Scanlan queue up to get their holiday money in Singapore's currency corridor; and Saira Asher tries a super-salty pizza.
Yahoo
12-06-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Lawmakers decide which bills worth negotiating and kill the rest
On a day when the House and Senate created negotiating committees to try and salvage 50 bills, they voted to summarily kill about 15 others after concluding that compromise was unlikely to be reached on them. A major reform bill (SB 297) that hit the cutting room floor Thursday was the pitched battle between Secretary of State David Scanlan and HealthTrust, the state's largest risk pool, over whether Scanlan should get enhanced power to regulate these groups that manage insurance plans for units of government. Last week, the House of Representatives rejected Scanlan's reforms in favor of an amendment that would have let the groups decide whether to come under the regulation of Scanlan's office or the Insurance Department. Without debate, Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Dan Innis, R-Bradford, asked the Senate to 'non-concur' on the House changes and the Senate did on a voice vote which killed the measure. Scanlan said killing the bill made sense. "I am pleased the Senate voted to non-concur on the House amended version of SB 297. What began as an attempt to improve the transparency and accountability of pooled risk organizations entrusted with $750 million taxpayer dollars became an attempt by one risk pool to move to a regulatory environment favorable to them without addressing the underlying concerns," Scanlan said in a statement. Ivermectin bill rejected The Senate also decided to reject out of hand a controversial House-passed proposal (SB 119) to allow any doctor or pharmacist to provide ivermectin to any patient without a prescription. Ivermectin was created as a drug to treat parasites for animals but in the past decade it proved to be a prize-winning medication to treat humans for similar conditions. During COVID-19, the drug became a viral sensation for many Americans who used it to respond to the virus. House Democratic Floor Leader Lucy Weber of Walpole had argued against giving ivermectin the special status of having a 'standing order' for any patient. She noted the only medications that have that designation are EpiPens that treat allergic reactions, smoking prevention drugs and some forms of contraception. This was the main reason that former Gov. Chris Sununu gave when he vetoed a similar bill to this one. Rep. Yuri Polozov, R-Hooksett, said he pursued the bill because during the pandemic many medical providers were ostracized or even sanctioned for prescribing ivermectin. Many other bills were also killed because sections that legislators still wanted to survive had been tacked onto another bill. In this case, the original bill the House amended to favor ivermectin was expected to save the state up to $9 million a year to allow health care providers to prescribe brand name drugs in the Medicaid program if they have discounts or rebates that make these medications cheaper to purchase. The state Senate tacked that provision onto the trailer bill of its state budget. In a similar vein, the Senate on Thursday killed a bill (SB 60) dealing with legalized gambling that would have taken from state regulators and given to the Legislature the authority to write rules regarding immunization requirements. The House had already tacked that section onto the version of its own budget trailer bill. Another bill (SB 100) that died Thursday was meant to alter a 2021 ban on teaching discrimination in public schools to respond to a federal judge's ruling that struck it down as unconstitutionally too vague. The House-passed language would require a showing that the educator 'knowingly' was advocating bias in his or her teachings. Some socially conservative groups that supported the law had warned lawmakers that the House bill only addressed a small part of the legal flaws with the existing law. The Senate also rejected a House-passed bill that would have created a court docket to resolve disputes over so-called blockchain currencies such as bitcoin (SB 25). klandrigan@
Yahoo
04-06-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
State's lawyer claims HealthTrust misrepresented itself in court deposition
On the eve of a critical House vote about the future of risk pool groups that manage insurance plans for units of government, lawyers for Secretary of State David Scanlan argued the head of HealthTrust, the state's largest pool, had lied or misled during a recent court deposition. Scanlan's lawyer accuses HealthTrust of giving misleading deposition A lawyer representing Secretary of State David Scanlan (pictured) hass accused the chief executive of HealthTrust of misrepresenting the group's legal authority during a recent court deposition. Richard Gagliuso of the BernsteinShur firm accused HealthTrust Executive Director Scott DeRoche of misrepresenting the makeup of his organization. 'We continue to be troubled by your client's dissemination of statements that appear to be knowingly, if not intentionally, misleading with respect to the nature of the coverage offered by HealthTrust and the ultimate responsibility of the political subdivision members for the liabilities of the program,' Gagliuso wrote to lawyers for HealthTrust. In that deposition, DeRoche said HealthTrust is a 'self-insurer' that provides 'fully insured' coverage to member towns, cities, school districts and other governmental bodies. 'HealthTrust is not offering such coverage by 'obtaining insurance' from an insurance carrier. Your argument further begs the question of where such coverage is 'provided by law,'' Gagliuso responded. 'To the contrary, HealthTrust apparently contends that it is self-insuring for fully insured health coverage.' Scanlan's legal team maintains HealthTrust and all the risk pools are self-insured plans under RSA 5-B, the 2010 state law that put them under regulatory control of the secretary of state's office. The House of Representatives on Thursday will vote on amended legislation (SB 297) that would allow HealthTrust and the three other risk pool groups to decide if they would rather come under the supervision of the Insurance Department. HealthTrust executives came out in support of the legislation. 'We view the amendment as ensuring a viable and valuable risk pool environment for the benefit of New Hampshire's political subdivisions and taxpayers,' the group said in a statement. Scanlan strongly opposes the change and supports the original measure from Senate President Sharon Carson, R-Londonderry, to give his office more sweeping powers over the finances of these groups. In pursuing the original legislation, Scanlan charged that HealthTrust and a second risk pool had been close to insolvent because they failed to raise rates so they wouldn't lose any business. HealthTrust officials insisted those statements were untrue. The other risk pool Scanlan named, the New Hampshire Interlocal Trust, voted to leave the market, and a judge named a receiver to take over its finances. HealthTrust's board has threatened that it would dissolve the organization if Scanlan's proposal became law. 'Accordingly, we call upon your client once again to cease and desist from making false statements about the nature of the coverage offered to New Hampshire political subdivisions through HealthTrust's pooled risk management program and to withdraw or correct such statements as may circulating in the public,' Gagliuso added. In a statement, DeRoche insisted that he hasn't misrepresented the group's mission. 'HealthTrust has served the public sector of New Hampshire for four decades. Over this time, we have offered the same model of coverage, which provides for fixed health coverage costs during a plan year. This model provides the predictability that public sector employers, employees, and taxpayers rely upon,' DeRoche said. Last month, HealthTrust's lawyer defended DeRoche's statements in a separate court filing. The deposition arose after the city of Rochester filed for information under the state's Right-to-Know Law about HealthTrust's specific claims data as it considered whether it wished to self-insure on its own. HealthTrust denied the request, saying to reveal this information would compromise its competitive position in the risk pool marketplace. Last week, the Senate Finance Committee voted to tack into its proposed trailer bill to the state budget (HB 2) a requirement that risk pools and insurers provide 'deidentified' information about such claims. klandrigan@
Yahoo
04-06-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
NH Supreme Court rejects Dover and Rochester's 2020 redistricting complaint
Dover, Rochester, and 10 residents filed a lawsuit against the State of New Hampshire and Secretary of State David Scanlan alleging that the state's maps violated the New Hampshire Constitution. (Photo by Dave Cummings/New Hampshire Bulletin) The New Hampshire Supreme Court ruled Wednesday that the House district maps created by the Republican-controlled state Legislature in 2020 are not illegal, despite allegations made by the cities of Dover and Rochester and a number of residents from throughout New Hampshire. In 2022, Dover, Rochester, and 10 residents filed a lawsuit against the State of New Hampshire and Secretary of State David Scanlan alleging that the state's maps violated the New Hampshire Constitution. They argued that the constitution requires Dover Ward 4, Rochester Ward 5, New Ipswich, Wilton, Hooksett, Lee, Barrington, and several other towns to have their own state House districts because their populations are large enough to warrant them. The maps currently in use do not give those wards and towns their own districts. They also alleged the map's population configuration deviates more than 10%, which is a violation of the 14th Amendment's one-person-one-vote requirement. They ask the court to forbid the state from using the maps and to ostensibly fix them. They provided a map they deemed to be more legal. In 2024, a trial court in Strafford County ruled against Dover and Rochester, agreeing with the state and Scanlan that creating maps where every city, town, or ward with the necessary population had their own districts would be impossible to accomplish. It also ruled previous case law determined that presumptive violations of the one-person-one-vote requirement may be justified by efforts to make districts compact, respect municipal boundaries, preserve the cores of prior districts, and avoid contests between incumbent representatives. Citing a previous court decision, the court declared that 'a legislatively enacted redistricting plan 'is not unconstitutional simply because some 'resourceful mind' has come up with a better one.'' Dover, Rochester, and the rest of the plaintiffs promptly appealed the ruling and the state Supreme Court considered the case. On Wednesday, the Supreme Court ruled that because they did not sufficiently show that the Legislature had 'no rational or legitimate basis' to enact the map, they denied the appeal. 'We are pleased that the New Hampshire Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of the state's redistricting plan for the State House of Representatives,' Attorney General John Formella, who represented the state, said in a statement Wednesday. 'Today's decision reaffirms the Court's prior precedent recognizing the Legislature's broad discretion in the area of redistricting and recognizes that the Legislature must balance complex constitutional requirements when determining the most appropriate map. We are delighted that the Supreme Court affirmed the lower court's finding that the Legislature acted within its constitutional authority, and I thank our litigation and appeals teams for their excellent work in achieving this important outcome.' Jennifer Perez, Dover's deputy city attorney wrote in an email to the Bulletin, 'We are disappointed in the result but respect the Court's determination.' Officials from Rochester did not immediately respond to the Bulletin's requests for comment.
Yahoo
02-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
NH election law changes draw mixed reviews
NH Democracy Defense Project leaders exchange views with locals Former Ambassador Richard Swett, at right, speaks at a panel discussion with Secretary of State David Scanlan and former Sen. John Sununu at the New Hampshire State Archives in Concord on June 2, 2025. Local elected officials gave mixed reviews to state election law changes during a listening session that Secretary of State David Scanlan hosted Monday with the New Hampshire's heads of the Democracy Defense Project — former Republican U.S. Sen. John E. Sununu and former Democratic U.S. Rep. Dick Swett. New Durham Moderator Linda Calloway is no fan of the 2024 law that requires all new voters to prove citizenship in order to register and eliminates affidavits that allowed people without proper paperwork to swear under penalty of perjury that they were eligible. 'What I am seeing more and more of is the government's lack of trust in the voter,' Calloway said at the 90-minute forum at the State Archives Building in Concord. 'The fact we got rid of affidavits completely shows we don't trust our voter at all. I think that is a bad thing — the trust is not a two-way street.' Stephen Ludwick, moderator in Concord's Ward 9, said his warf has had a large influx of non-English speaking potential voters. He praised the changes the GOP-led Legislature passed and former Gov. Chris Sununu signed into law. 'I think you are going in the right direction when it comes to being a little stricter about who can vote and who can't,' Ludwick said. Portsmouth Ward 3 Moderator Joan Hamblet, a former state representative, urged Scanlan to organize a significant media campaign to educate voters about the new voting requirements on citizenship. 'You need to explain to people even if they have moved to a different town, they are going to need to bring in their passport for (proof of) citizenship,' Hamblet said. Partisan problems? Scanlan said his office is working on that project. He lamented the reality that in the past decade or so, election laws have been adopted here and in most states along partisan lines. When Democrats are in charge they seek ways to make it easier to vote, while Republicans try harder to block access to voter fraud, he said. 'The political parties are headed in two different directions,' Scanlan said. 'When the parties aren't talking to each other you tend to get the extreme version that passes, that can tend to be a whipsaw for any political party. In my opinion, election legislation should not be passed on strictly partisan votes.' A leading election advocate criticized Scanlan, who said much of the voting public "is leery" about election devices. 'The Secretary of State's remarks feed into a false and harmful narrative that erodes public trust in our elections," said N.H. Voting Rights Director McKenzie Taylor. "Granite Staters support proven, secure upgrades like electronic poll books — a modernization his own bipartisan committee on voter confidence recommended. "What actually undermines confidence in our elections is the number of eligible voters who have already been turned away because of extreme registration laws adopted by New Hampshire.' Making it easier to vote Londonderry Town Moderator Jonathan Kipp asked if policymakers need to make it easier to vote, as he presides over one of the largest polling places in the country. 'I can go through the drive-thru and get a cup of coffee, why can't the act of voting be as simple as that?' Kipp said, asking about the prospect of legalizing mail-in voting. Swett answered, as Scanlan has in the past, that states with mail-in voting have lower voter turnout rates than New Hampshire does. Healthy turnout of elected officials at listening session Former Ambassador Richard Swett, from left, Secretary of State David Scanlan and former Sen. John Sununu talk about New Hampshire's election system at a panel discussion at the New Hampshire State Archives in Concord on June 2, 2025. Swett and Sununu were the first two co-chairs named in the eight battleground states that make up the Democracy Defense Project — Arizona, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, Georgia, Ohio, Nevada and New Hampshire. The nonpartisan group is not a lobbying organization, but a clearinghouse that promotes discussion about ways to boost voter confidence around the country. Sununu said the state's reliance on paper ballots and having a verifiable trail to back up all votes cast is New Hampshire's strongest asset. He recalled his work in the U.S. Senate two decades ago to beat back attempts to reject paper ballots in federal races. 'This is an incredibly important thing to me, and it still is today,' Sununu said. 'We have been proven right.' Swett said verifying voter eligibility is critical to restoring confidence in the election process. 'We want to make sure whoever is voting is in fact entitled to vote — that's a very simple premise but it needs to be ensured and assured,' Swett said. Sununu added that state and local election officials need to quickly take ownership when there are glitches at the polls. 'There are issues in elections but 99% of the time it's just human error, an honest mistake,' Sununu said. 'At the same time, it is incumbent on all of us to understand what has happened, be honest about what has happened.' klandrigan@
