Believe In Books

If you need assistance with the public file, please contact Lucia Seavey at 603-356-8870 or office@wmwv.com.

If you need assistance please contact Lucia Seavey at 603-356-8870 or e-mail office@wmwv.com.

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Daylight Savings Time

Daylight savings time begins this Sunday bringing back the recurring discussion: Why do we even do this? The concept of daylight savings can be observed going back into ancient times in various forms to address the fact that with the shifting seasons comes different lengths of daylight. Livescience reports that modern daylight savings was first suggested by Benjamin Franklin to merge the changing daylight hours with mechanical clocks that always kept the same schedule. Today’s daylight savings time goes back to the Uniform Time Act of 1966 but as everyone’s sleep becomes disrupted twice a year in a time when electric lighting is available at any hour, people debate the necessity.

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Executive Order on Veteran Suicide

Yesterday President Trump signed an Executive Order called the ‘National Initiative to Empower Veterans and End Veteran Suicide.’ It creates a task force to identify ways the government can help cut down on the number of veterans committing suicide every day. The transition from being in the service to being a civilian can be a daunting one. Veterans often go into the military at a critical time for job training, spend years acquiring skills that are hard to translate to civilian life, and sometimes even experience traumatic events that will stay will them for the rest of their lives. A veteran commits suicide once every 65 minutes. That’s an average of 22 veterans a day and it’s a statistic a lot of people want to put a stop to. Valley resident and former Army Captain Ray Gilmore recently spoke on his personal experience. Gilmore says his best friend and roommate committed suicide in 2013. “You know, sapper qualified ranger, qualified combat advisor just like me. Did his stuff, five kids- six kids. Six kids, he was an overachiever. It was just, it was a shock. When 22 soldiers a day are committing suicide, there’s no such thing as ‘not that guy,’ that guy is everywhere.” If you’re a veteran contemplating suicide, you are not alone. You can find help by calling 800-273-8255 ext. 1, or by going to mentalhealth.va.gov

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Prevent Government Shutdowns Act

US Senator from New Hampshire Maggie Hassan has sponsored a bill to end government shutdowns. Hassan, and Senator James Lankford of Oklahoma, have introduced a bill called the, “Prevent Government Shutdowns Act,” which does one thing: requires all appropriations bills to be completed by both the House and the Senate and signed by the President by October 1st. After that date, the bill cuts off all travel allowances and reimbursements for all legislators, their staff, the President, and his cabinet, except for one trip- which has to be to Washington DC. The bill would also prohibit any recess of the Legislature for more than 23 hours and would prohibit votes on any bills not pertaining to appropriations unless a two-thirds majority is found to vote on another item during that punishment. Commenting on the bill in a press release Senator Hassan said, “It is the height of irresponsibility that government shutdowns are becoming a frequent occurrence, and we need to come together across party lines to end this madness.”