This Week in N.H. News: Potential Veeps (And Other VIPs) Visit the Granite State

Happy Friday! Here's some of the interesting (or offbeat) news you might've missed this week. If you want to make sure not to miss out moving forward, subscribe to NHPR's newsletters to get the headlines delivered straight to your inbox. 

Drug Treatment Advocates to NH: Show Us The Money

Credit Paige Sutherland, NHPR

  Led by the advocacy group New Futures, a group of lawmakers and others rallied at in Concord this week to remind everyone that — despite a spate of laws passed last year on the issue —the fight against the state’s drug crisis is far from over.

Chief among their demands moving forward:Make sure the money that’s supposed to be set aside for substance abuse education, prevention and treatment programs is actually there for those programs.

Prep School Misstep

  For a school that’s pretty concerned about its perception in the public and the press these days, St. Paul’s didn’t seem to do itself any favors when it filed a motion seeking to lift the anonymity of the family of a former student who was sexually assaulted on campus in 2014. The family filed a civil lawsuit against the school, alleging that it failed to adequately protect their daughter.

As reported by the Boston Globe, St. Paul’s argued that the student and her family were being unfairly allowed to remain anonymous and “should not be allowed to proceed under pseudonyms at the trial of this matter.” (Later, a letter from the school’s board president to the St. Paul’s community said this was not their intention, despite what was outlined in their legal motions.)

Suffice it to say, this particular effort to defend its reputation didn’t exactly go very far to win the school any PR points.

~Veepstakes~ Hit the Granite State

Credit Josh Rogers, NHPR

The presidential race saw both running mates in New Hampshire this week.

Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine, Hillary Clinton’s potential VP,was here to headline a fundraiser and a rally at Saint Anselm — with stops at cafes in Concord and Manchester along the way. As far as we know, there were no impromptu harmonica performances on this trip.

Indiana Gov. Mike Pence, Donald Trump’s running mate, also swung through for a rally on Thursday where he had some fun ribbing Gov. Maggie Hassan over an awkward exchange she had with a CNN reporter earlier this week.

Speaking of that CNN Interview…

It hadsomething for everyone, it seems! At least as far as the #NHpolitics/#NHsen rapid-response teams were concerned.

Republicans (and plenty of people in the national political press) pounced on Hassan’s inability to give a straight answer when asked, three times, whether she thought Clinton was honest and trustworthy. (Hassan’s team later clarified that, yes, she does indeed think Clinton is trustworthy.)

But Democrats were also quick to go after Ayotte (once again) for dodging on questions about her support for Trump — this time, when asked whether she trusted the Republican nominee with the nuclear codes.

Credit Beth Szelog, NHPR

A $6,500 tab could be in store to cover the the cleanup work required to remove “Snowplow,” a 35-ton humpback whale, from a Rye beach earlier this summer. One problem: The state’s still figuring out where that money should come from. (Union Leader)

Since 2010, 150,000 pounds of food had been given away at a now-shuttered pantry in Pittsburg since 2010. That’s a lot by most measures, but especially when you consider that Pittsburg is only home to about 857 people.(NHPR)

Over in Sullivan County, a bus service that's supplied some 30,000 rides a year to local residents — often for medical treatments or other important appointments in the largely rural part of the state — is also shutting down. Locals are trying to find an alternative. (NHPR)

18 years later, those who set out in 1998 to build New Hampshire’s first mosque are still waiting to see the project through to completion.  (Bloomberg)

The $355,000 contribution that landed Rep. Frank Guinta in hot water with the FEC last year —after the agency rejected Guinta’s claim that the funds came from a “family pot” of money he shared with his parents — is now showing up on his financial disclosure forms as a personal asset. (Union Leader)

23 New Hampshire businesses got shout-outs onInc.’s most recent list of the fastest-growing companies in the country. Among those who made the list: Highland Project Logistics in Londonderry (at No. 23 nationwide), Dyn in Manchester (No. 2068) and Rustic Crust in Pittsfield (at No. 4259). (NH Business Review)

4 people have died from a heart infection caused by intravenous drug use in the last three years. Public health officials are warning that this and other infections are likely to become more common because of the state’s drug crisis. (The Hippo)

2,420 E. coli (or about 27 times the level that’s normally acceptable) were detected in one Manchester public beach, forcing it to close for the 10^th time this summer because of contaminated water. (Union Leader)

Tides on the Seacoast could be 2 feet higher by 2050 because of climate change, and some Portsmouth homeowners are scrambling now to stave off flooding in the coming decades. (NHPR)

13 miles? 235 miles? Determining the length of New Hampshire’s coastline is actually a lot more complicated than you might think. (Concord Monitor) 

$13 is about what it’ll cost you for a beaver pelt in New Hampshire these days, in case you were wondering — and that’s down from about $48 just a few years ago. As prices fall, though, the species is seeing something of a population boom in the Granite State. (NHPR)

One world-famous pop singer (and one-time NSYNC member) Justin Timberlake made a cameo in the wedding photos of a couple who was getting married at the Mount Washington Hotel this week. “He stood there, let us all take photos, wished them best of luck and then he was off,” said the best man. Timberlake and Jessica Biel, his wife, were also recently spotted at Miss Wakefield Diner and Gracie’s Country Store. (Laconia Daily Sun, Boston Globe)