But this was also truly a community effort. So many people in New Boston, Francestown, Weare, Hillsborough and Deering contributed to the search.

We would like to thank you all: our pet sitter, Joy, who searched many hours alongside us, along with the general stores, police departments, mail carriers, bus drivers, dog walkers, friends and neighbors, and especially the wonderful folks up and down the power lines of Weare and Deering who kept watch for us.

Your generosity of time and spirit has been overwhelming to us. Wishbone and Jesse are glad to be home – a few pounds lighter and with rather sore feet, but otherwise in great shape.

May God bless you.
The Salvati-Steenson family, New Boston

Initially rejected for clustered housing, the owner quickly applied for a gravel pit operation.

As the motto goes, if it's not in your back yard, it doesn't get your attention. With another ZBA continuance meeting on April 19, the door may easily swing from concerned neighbors to more gravel trucks through your towns. That's right - Goffstown, Weare, New Boston and Mont Vernon - the trucks are ready to roll.

Please get the New Boston Bulletin; April 2005 edition, and read page 12 - Lull Road Corp. Gravel Hearing - continued again, by Brandy Mitroff. There she sums up results of the March hearing. The developer's lawyers, the engineers, the traffic studies have been persuasive and have neatly justified the permit request.

Six years, one million yards, 35 to 40 trucks a day - 70 going both ways, making a tidy 350 more trucks weekly on Route 13, Route 77, Route 114, Main Street, Mast Road or any road not posted for no trucking.

If this gravel operation begins, the gravel is committed and the trucks area ready to roll to Wilmington, Mass., right through your main streets.

And frankly, how many operations shut down? They get extensions to continue, expand, or not allow their permits to lapse. The developer's attorney claims a subdivision of family homes will still be built as the end reclamation effort.

This gravel operation isn't just a New Boston issue. This project has a regional impact, and Goffstown, Weare, Mont Vernon and the Southern New Hampshire Planning Commission are just becoming aware and involved.

The April 19, 7 p.m. ZBA hearing will be held at the Mansfield Gym at the New Boston Central School. If surrounding town residents don't provide input to stop this gravel pit from even starting - get ready for the trucks to roll.
Joan McDonald, New Boston

I am writing to you because I have been nominated to attend the Junior National Young Leaders Conference in Washington, D.C. I will be representing my school, town, and state this summer. I have also qualified for a summer program sponsored by Johns Hopkins Center For Talented Youth. In an assessment I took in the end of sixth grade I scored exceptionally high. I was informed of my eligibility for the CTY program and my parents and I contacted them. I qualified and took the SATs. A few weeks later, I received a letter containing my scores and an explanation of how I had qualified to take a college course during the summer.

I think these programs will help me succeed in my lifelong goal to become a pilot. My goal is to attend a military academy. I would prefer to attend the Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md., and fly The F/A 18 Hornets. I would like to bring back and share all the information from these programs with my community. I have recently heard of the possibility of a Junior ROTC program and would love to bring this to the Goffstown School District.

I am honored to have these great opportunities presented to me, but they are very expensive. For both courses plus the travel expenses, it will cost approximately $7,000.

I have already put in my babysitting money and all my savings into the fund. My family and friends are trying to help me organize a car wash at the local fire station and a kids. dance at the middle school. My family will contribute as much as they can, but I am afraid the cost exceeds my family's financial capabilities. I would greatly appreciate it if you could help me in reaching my new goal of raising this money for the programs.

We have set up an account for the Nick Sauvan Scholarship Fund at Citizens Bank, 11 Church St., Goffstown, N.H. Call 497-2523, or you can donate to any other Citizens Bank location. Again, I would greatly appreciate you making a donation.

Thank you.
Nick Sauvan, Goffstown

This was supposed to be a place for people to come and hike and enjoy the environment but it has turned into something else by those who could care less.The sign posted at the entrance states no motorized vehicles, but there does not seem to be anyone policing the park and making sure it is kept for what it was made for. As I walked along I felt like I was in a park in a big city where you would expect such disrespect for nature and fellow man but what a laugh - I was actually in the country in a small town called Weare.

What a fool I was to think those of us who live in the country have more repect and would try not to leave such an abundance of trash in a wonderful little conservation area called Ferrins Pond.
Kathy Langlois, Weare

But isn't that quite a change from his views concerning the attack and occupation of Iraq? He cannot justify the explanation he believed in during his first term, that dictators like Saddam Hussein are the source of terror because the infamous WMDs never appeared.

In his naivete, Bush thinks that because he's in his new second term, we will suddenly forget things he said during his first term (i.e., that terrorism could visit the US again but "in the form of a mushroom cloud"). We never have found the real reason that he pulled troops from the Afghanistan job of protecting America by chasing the real perpetrators of the 911 WTC attack.

Halliburton, where Vice President Dick Cheney served as chief executive from 1995 to 2000, has come under persistent criticism for its handling of several Iraqi reconstruction contracts. For example, auditors turned up $1.8 billion in "unsupported costs" in a $10.5 billion Army logistics contract that KBR won on a competitive bid.

Despite those findings and a recommendation to withhold some of the payments, the Army decided last month to continue paying Halliburton in full, plus performance bonuses.

The audit summary, written in October 2004 but withheld from public release, covers one out of 10 sections from a $2.5 billion contract under which Halliburton was tapped to deliver fuel, fight oil-well fires and repair oil facilities in Iraq after the US-led invasion in the spring 2003. Of the $2.5 billion, approximately $1.6 billion came from Iraqi oil proceeds and the rest was funded by US taxpayers.

Reps. John D. Dingell, DMich., and Henry A. Waxman, D-Calif., who made a summary of the fuel audit public, called on President Bush to release audits for the other nine sections of Halliburton's no-bid contract, but the administration has withheld these audits from Congress for months, and Halliburton has repaid nothing under this contract, "they" wrote.

I would like to know when and how you plan to recover the overcharges from Halliburton and restore them to US taxpayers and the Iraqi people.

On Capitol Hill, Richard Jones, a former US ambassador to Kuwait, acknowledged sending an e-mail in which he pushed for KBR to sign a deal quickly with Altanmia to meet a rising demand for fuel in Iraq. Jones also testified the embassy had received reports from Altanmia officials that Halliburton executives were demanding kickbacks. Jones said those reports were passed along to Pentagon investigators.
Jim King, Bow

This past Monday evening, I took our 2000 Nissan XTerra to the police department to get some help with the two car seats in the vehicle.

Officer Rivard took a great deal of time and effort to explain everything I needed to know about the seats, did the installation for me, and showed me several additional aspects of the seats that I would need to know as our kids continue to grow.

I really felt great about the whole process, and we are very thankful for his expertise and caring that our kids will now be riding in the car with complete assurance that they will be safe. Thanks again for all that you did for us.
Alan Halpern, Goffstown

I am in full agreement on your assessent of Rick Pitino (Keeping Score, March 31: "Time to give credit where it's deserved"). Good, interesting, informative stats that can't be disputed - numbers don't lie. Very entertaining, and again, a breed apart.
Dan McCarthy, Goffstown

Last year, the state Department of Health and Human Services negotiated more than $33 million in savings on the cost of prescription-drug purchases for approximately 90,000 Medicaid recipients. These savings, estimated to grow to $43 million by year-end, were achieved by negotiating rebates through the Pharmacy Benefit Management program.

This program secures rebates from pharmaceutical companies whose products qualify for our newly enacted Medicaid preferred-drug list.

Given the success of our PBM program in just one year, the state Senate - in a unanimous vote - recently passed the New Hampshire Rx Plus bill (SB 110).

This bill, which I sponsored along with bipartisan support, creates a similar rebate program to fund a prescription-drug discount for those seniors, disabled and other citizens whose incomes are at 350 percent poverty and below.

That includes, for example, individuals earning $32,500 or less per year and couples earning up to $43,700. The program will more than pay for itself in the long run.

We all know the struggle that many folks, especially our elderly, face in paying for the high cost of prescription drugs.

Too often people without health-insurance-negotiated discounts have to make tough decisions between life-saving drugs or whether to eat and pay their bills.

There's something wrong with a system when the very people who most need a medication discount are those who must pay the full price.

By negotiating rebates for this population of more than 110,000 additional potential participants, we can bring down the cost of prescriptions for those who are now struggling to make ends meet. After one year, it is estimated that the rebates received will not only pay for the discount-card program, but will help to further discount medication prices under the program. New Hampshire pharmacists will also be reimbursed at a responsible rate to encourage statewide participation.

Some may wonder why we are seeking a state-negotiated discount when there is a new federal Medicaid Part D discount taking effect Jan. 1, 2006. In fact, that's the very reason we as a state should work to put our own program in place. By creating a state-level rebate program, New Hampshire participants will have greater ability to stay with the prescriptions they are accustomed to, rather than having to choose from a defined list of drugs offered at whatever discount is selected by the industry.

According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, as of August 2004, at least 39 states have established or authorized some type of program to provide pharmaceutical coverage or assistance, primarily to low-income elderly or persons with disabilities who do not qualify for Medicaid.

Many older state programs required state funds to subsidize a portion of the costs, usually for a defined population that meets enrollment criteria, but an increasing number use discounts or bulk-purchasing approaches, such as those proposed in the New Hampshire Rx Plus program.

New Hampshire has approached the rebate issue cautiously.

After years of skyrocketing increases in prescriptiondrug prices, now is the time for New Hampshire to use a proven method to help its lower-income senior citizens, disabled persons and uninsured by offering a real prescriptiondrug- discount card.

The savings achieved through the state's Pharmacy Benefit Management program light the way for us to realize this worthy goal.

A House hearing was scheduled on the bill, SB110, for 9:45 a.m., Tuesday, April 5, in room 205 of the Legislative Office Building in Concord.

Let's hope New Hampshire's representatives will speed this bill to the governor's desk to become law.
Sen. Sylvia Larsen, Concord