Manchester - Last Chance Chili Cookoff provides local residents with the opportunity to cook for a $25,000 grand prize

The Red Chili winner at the World’s Championship Chili Cookoff will win $25,000 and the coveted bronze pot trophy

Manchester, NH –   Spots are still available for the Last Chance Chili Cookoff.  The Last Chance Chili Cookoff takes place on Friday, Sept 30^th and celebrates the opening of the 2011 World’s Championship Chili Cookoff (WCCC) coming to Veterans Park from Friday, Sept 30^th- Sunday, Oct 2^nd.  The Last Chance Cookoff provides local residents with the opportunity to earn a spot in the Red Chili Cookoff on Sunday, October 2^nd and compete for the $25,000 grand prize.  Normally chili cooks earn a spot in Sunday’s Red Chili Cookoff by winning a regional or state cookoff which are held around the country throughout the year.

“The Last Chance Chili Cookoff provides the residents of Manchester with a great opportunity to be a part of this family-friendly event and showcase their chili to the thousands in attendance”, stated Carol Hancock, CEO of the International Chili Society which sanctions the WCCC.  “Most of our cooks travel from the western and southern part of the country.  We are hoping the Last Chance Chili Cookoff will allow New Hampshire to have multiple local cooks competing in Sunday’s championship round.”

Local restaurants will also have the opportunity to compete in the 2011 WCCC and earn the title “Best Chili in New Hampshire” and “People’s Choice Champion”.  Last year’s winners were the Red Arrow Diner and Billy’s Sports Bar.  There is no registration fee for restaurants to enter.  The contest is also open to local non-profit and community organizations.  New Horizons will be entering the Restaurant Division to showcase their homemade chili they serve at the food pantry. 

To enter the Last Chance Cookoff or Restaurant Division applications must submit an application.  Applications are available at www.yourmanchesternh.com/chili. 

In addition to the Last Chance Chili Cookoff on Friday, Sept 30^th and the World’s Red Chili Championship on Sunday, Oct 2^nd, Saturday will feature the World’s Championship Salsa Contest and World’s Championship Chili Verde Cookoff.  Tickets for the event are now available online and at select locations in the Manchester area.  Each ticket includes five sample tickets during public sampling hours which are from 1:00-3:00pm each day.  Tickets are $5.00 if purchased before the event and $7.00 if purchased at the event.  One dollar from every ticket sold will be donated to one of four partnering charities.

For more information about the Last Chance Cookoff and the 2011 WCCC please visit www.yourmanchesternh.com/chili or contact Chris Wellington at 603-624-6505.

CEI - Expansion of Net Neutrality Rules Threatens Mobile Innovation, CEI Warns

Ryan Radia Submits Comments to FCC

Washington, D.C., October 12, 2010—In regulatory comments submitted today to the Federal Communications Commission, the Competitive Enterprise Institute warned against imposing net neutrality regulations on “mobile wireless platforms” and “specialized services.”

The FCC sought comment on two “under-developed” issues in its Open Internet proceeding – how to impose openness rules on specialized services, such as digital video and voice, and on mobile wireless platforms.

“The Commission’s proposed regulations on wireless and specialized services represent the very worst of the net neutrality push,” argues Ryan Radia, CEI Associate Director of Technology Studies. “Instead of marching forward on the path of ‘Open Internet’ rulemaking, the Commission should return to the drawing board and focus on developing a truly pro-consumer approach to telecommunications rulemaking—one that fosters the creation of content and infrastructure wealth without favoring certain industries or technologies over others.”

Radia’s comments emphasize how mobile users will suffer under proposed net neutrality regulations. The wireless market is competitive and rapidly evolving; mobile users already enjoy a staggering array of choices among mobile applications and devices. Net neutrality regulations—which allegedly purport to stimulate less competitive wireline broadband markets—make little sense in the context of the wireless market.

“That the Commission is even thinking about imposing openness mandates on mobile ecosystems should merit swift Congressional action to reign in the agency’s authority,” Radia says.

He further argues that “[e]xtending so-called openness rules to specialized services underscores net neutrality’s true nature – an assault on private property rights. Ironically, in decades hence, the very specialized services the Commission views as antithetical to consumer choice may become even more crucial to content and application providers than the Open Internet is today.”

“The profound technical and economic questions that surround network operation, access, and pricing simply cannot be answered by bureaucrats in Washington. The horror stories told by net neutrality advocates will come true only if competition among network operators is suppressed through regulatory overreach.”

Read Radia’s full comments here. For further information, contact Ryan Radia at rradia@cei.org or 202.331.2281



Durham-Dover-Newmarket, NH - Census Challenge Kick Off Announced - 1st Such Contest in History of the U.S. Census

Durham-Dover-NewmarkeT square off in 2010 Census Challenge

On Friday, March 12, 2010 at 2:00 PM, Durham Town Administrator Todd Selig, Dover City Manager J. Michael Joyal, and Newmarket Town Administrator Edward Wojnowski held a joint press conference at the Dover South End Fire Station on Durham Road in Dover to issue a 2010 Census mail participation rate challenge. A Durham fire truck and Dover fire truck were squared off as part of the press kick off.

This friendly competition is an effort to encourage residents of the Town of Durham, City of Dover, and the Town of Newmarket to mail back their 2010 Census forms upon receipt and improve their Census 2000 mail participation rates.

The community that boasts the best mail participation will enjoy a visit from the two trailing city or town administrators who will roll up their sleeves and scrub clean one of the winning community’s fire trucks. Town Administrator Selig presented the Newmarket and Dover managers with shorts and buckets so they will be prepared to wash Durham’s fire truck when Durham prevails! Administrator Selig likewise received a bucket and broom from the competing managers. In addition, all three Towns signed a proclamation kicking off the challenge. To read the challenge, click HERE.

Mailing back a form ensures an accurate count and lowers the cost of the 2010 Census by reducing the number of census workers who must go door-to-door to collect census data. About $85 million is saved for every one percent increase in mail participation.

Key story points follow: 

Durham,Dover, and Newmarket Issue Census 2010 Challenge

Durham  – The top administrators of  Durham, Dover, and Newmarket announced Friday they are challenging one another in a contest to raise public awareness and participation in the 2010 Census. The goal is to educate residents about the importance of returning Census forms by mail and to boost overall compliance.

Durham Administrator Todd I. Selig, Dover City Manager J. Michael Joyal, and Newmarket Town Administrator Edward Wojnowski declared the challenge during a press conference today at the South End Fire Station in Dover. The three administrators explained the rules of the contest: The two communities that trail behind in public participation will have to send their administrators to the community with the best percentage to scrub clean a fire truck.

All three administrators accepted the challenge and urged their communities to support the cause by filling out and mailing in Census forms, which will appear in local mailboxes over the next few weeks.

"It’s in both our physical interest and our social interests as communities and a nation to ensure a strong Census response from our residents," Selig said. "So we are adding some excitement to the experience with a city manager to city manager challenge, which to our knowledge is the first in the history of the Census."

Joyal explained that the winner of the contest will be the community with the highest mail-in rate. Joyal added the mail response to the Census diminishes the need for Census workers to visit homes to collect information and provides crucial demographic information about the local communities.

"The community with the highest mail-in participation rate, as of April 16, will be the winning community," Joyal said. "The administrators from the other two communities have offered to come over and help us clean one of our fire trucks and polish it and make it one of the cleanest pieces of apparatus in the Seacoast."

Wojnowski said he was looking forward to the challenge and the support of the community in besting Dover and Durham. "May the best commander win," he said.

District 3 Executive Councilor Beverly Hollingworth attended the press conference and urged other communities to take up the challenge.

"I’m thrilled this is taking place," Hollingworth said. "I’m going to try and get the rest of my district to get involved and do the same." Leslie Hoyt from the U.S. Census Bureau was also on hand and reminded people that mail-in participation in the Census takes much less time than in previous years.

"The Census Bureau is thrilled that the three communities have created this challenge and we just want to say its 10 minutes, 10 questions, mail it back," Hoyt said.

Cynthia Copeland of the Strafford Regional Planning Commission said she was pleased Dover, Durham and Newmarket raised the challenge because they represent a sign cant portion of the University of New Hampshire community.

"You’re creating a legacy because for every person who fills out the Census (form), eleven hundred and fifty dollars, on average, comes in every year to the state of New Hampshire and comes to our communities," she said. "You’re creating a legacy for the University of New Hampshire and the communities in which you reside."

Census data are used to reapportion seats in the U.S. House of Representatives and for the subsequent redistricting of state and local governments. Census data also help to determine how more than $400 billion per year in federal funding is distributed to state and local governments to fund services for people in need. Data from the 2010 Census will help establish locations for hospitals, senior centers and facilities for people with disabilities. Data will also help forecast transportation needs, such as new roads and public transit options.

One of the shortest census forms in U.S. Census history, the 2010 Census form asks 10 questions and takes about 10 minutes to complete. Responses to the census form should include everyone who will be living at that address as of Census Day, April 1, 2010, the official day of the population count. (It is not necessary to wait until Census Day to return the census form, however. Forms should be returned as quickly as possible.)

Mailing back a form ensures an accurate count and lowers the cost of the 2010 Census by reducing the number of census workers who must go door-to-door to collect census data. About $85 million is saved for every one percent increase in mail participation. Additionally, the Census Bureau saves $60-$70 per census form returned by mail.

NH-HRA Adopts a Citizens’ Legislative Agenda

With an eye to the economic distress and an ear to constituent concerns, the New Hampshire House Republican Alliance (the “HRA”) announced their legislative initiatives for the upcoming session. This agenda is the results of meetings and discussions involving approximately 50 New Hampshire state representatives among themselves and with their constituents.

These meetings led the HRA to recognize five primary concerns of New Hampshire citizens that they want address by their state government: health care costs and availability, over-spending resulting in increasing deficits and taxes, promotion of jobs, reversing the radical social agenda of the left, and ensuring an open, accountable and ethical government.  The HRA’s legislative agenda addresses each of these five goals and the organization appointed five coordinators to assist sponsors of the legislation chosen as promoting those goals.

Answering the confusion caused by national health care ambitions, Representative Bob Willette (R-Milford) outlined the HRA support of bills allowing expansion of the New Hampshire health insurance market. “Current legislative mandates have driven dozens of health insurers from the state resulting in an uncompetitive market with high premiums,” Rep. Willette explained. Proposed legislation would allow residents of New Hampshire to purchase insurance from any health insurance carrier in the United States. The result should be fewer uninsured patients and less of a burden on taxpayer supported health care solutions. The HRA also understand that members of Congress should have the same health care they propose for citizens and supports a resolution advising them to take that courageous step.

The Democrat-dominated NH House increased state spending by 10 % and passed over 38 new taxes and fees the first half of this term, so the HRA conferees understood that NH citizens and business will need quick and significant tax relief.  Seven such bills are being sponsored by the HRA.  As Rep. Carol McGuire (R- Epsom) said with regard to two of them, “Repeal of the anti-business LLC tax and the onerous ‘camping’ tax lead the list of the committee’s proposed bills and their repeal is necessary to preserve jobs and avoid stifling our state’s recovery from this ongoing recession.”

Rep. Bill O’Brien (R-Mont Vernon) said, “The Legislature’s Democrats have now come up with what we should now call the New Hampshire Disadvantage and this disadvantage is that we are the fourth worse state in amount of regulation among all fifty states. Expecting business to locate here or expand in the Granite State is unrealistic given the heavy regulatory burden imposed by state laws. We regulate every job creating entity from manufacturers to people who manicure and pedicure and that has to end.”  Other legislation involves repealing health care insurance mandates, which could reduce by half the cost of this insurance.

            Former judge and current Representative Rob Rowe (R-Amherst) plans to introduce important initiatives for better government, include prohibiting lobbyists from serving in conflicting roles on state committees and commissions. In addition, Rep. Bob Mead (R-Mont Vernon) will be seeking a commission to investigate the method for vetting bidders and those not bidding but being awarded state contracts involving the use of state owned property, such as the state-owned rail tracks in Hillsborough County.  Good government measures will also include publishing the states’ check register online.  As Rep. John Reagan (R-Deerfield) said, “It works in Texas and should be required in New Hampshire which has a strong tradition of an open and accountable government.”

            House Republican Alliance is an open meeting group supporting Republican House legislation that adheres to the US and NH Constitutions, Republican Party platform and principles of fiscal responsibility. The HRA annual legislative summit producing this year’s agenda saw participation by more than forty Republican State Representatives. . For more information, please log onto www.nhhra.org ###

IDPA MATCH

The IDPA match is held at the Pemi Fish & game Club in Holderness

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