In the western New Hampshire city of Claremont, where City Hall sits inside the local opera house, the course of local politics has not always been harmonious. In one recent year, 2001, the city council had fired four city managers…
I was recently enjoying one of my favorite pastimes (hint — it has 18 “elements,” involves walking and takes about four hours). I was with a banker, a trust officer and an import-export broker. The latter asked me where I…
After a 90-minute floor debate, the New Hampshire House earlier this month voted 280-89 to pass Senate Bill 125, a measure pushed by Gov. John Lynch that undoes most of the touted reforms of SB 110, a measure that has…
It may be difficult for the small-business owner to identify with the huge dollar amounts of fraud recently uncovered at such companies as WorldCom, Enron and Tyco, just to name a few. It may even be more difficult to believe…
It took 2-1/2 years and nine different banks before Christine Pedzik got her small-business loan. “After the eighth try, I was almost about to give up,” said Pedzik, 40, of New Boston. But thanks to the New Hampshire office of…
In June 2004, the National Labor Relations Board overruled its 2000 decision in Epilepsy Foundation of Northeast Ohio and held that employees not represented by a union are not entitled to the presence of a co-worker during investigative meetings/interviews that…
There recently have been many disturbing data security breaches. Some have been high-tech (transaction data intercepted in the payment system) and some have been amazingly low-tech (laptops and tapes were stolen; rogue employees sold protected information). But one thing is…
In May, the New Hampshire Supreme Court issued a decision in Merrimack Valley Wood Products Inc. v. Near, a case that served to further define when non-competition agreements are enforceable under New Hampshire law. Past court decisions have established under…
For further information: OK, let’s get one thing straight — I hate pinot noir. Blasphemy, I know, to all the pinot heads out there — as well as pigeon-holing the fact that I don’t know my palate from, well, a…
I opened the registered letter and was shocked. My best clients were joining together in a class-action lawsuit against me. The letter stated that I had promulgated a false allusion of success by having them follow the 80-20 rule. The…
