Concord Monitor from Concord, New Hampshire • 1

hi i Mother gets NATION WORLD A3 cut since WEDNESDAY MARCH 1 2008 rate increase A jump in electricity rates Unitil customers who felt a reprieve from rising etectridty costs last year win face ah Increase beginning May 1 The company is asldng for penmissioa to raise rates 8 percent to cover the rtainf cost of purchasing and distributing electricity CHANOI FOR AVERAM total average bill to $8169 Tbe New Hampshire Public Utilities Commission a three-member board that oversees energy utilities must approve the increase before it may take Unitil whieh serves Concord Bow Boscawen AUenstown Canterbury Epsom Hopldnton Loudon Pembroke Salisbury and Webster purchases ail electricity on the open market Every she months the company goes out to bid and is required to submit new rates to the Public Utilities Commission for approval Unitil charges fbr the cost oftheeiectridty and thecostofdk-tributing it to customers including maintenance of poles and wires and customerservice costs Unitfl spokeswoman Stephanye See ELECTRICITY A6 opinijipinisi Bill would decriminalize quarter ounce MAY 12008 8 jNCRL NDV12006 tl7 from $7865 to $8169 from $7648 to $7848 bam $8474 to $7648 tram $7843 to $8474 naUantUuMSiorSOO OWSimEIMBMJlJ Monitor I MAYil2008V334fram $8844 to $7843 Sourk Until Numbers baaed on an Mtawstt hom parmonOi tv 4-i OFFICER NOT FORGOTTEN Average monthly biD woidd rise by $d04 By KATE DAVIDSON -r- MonHortMT Unitil customers could see their electricity bills Jump again this spring after a brief reprieve that 'followed back-to-back douMe-togit rate increases in 2006 The company asked state utility regulators to raise its rates 8 percent for residential customers 1 to help offset the cost of buying ana distributing wholesale electricity Residential customers who use 900 kilowatt-hours of electricity each month could see an average increase of $644 on their monthly bills starting in May bringing the both were earning significant siimi Carder worked for the Federal Aviation Administration as an air traffic Controller and earned more than $100000 a year acconfing to Assistant UJ5 Attorney Bill Morse while Deborah Carder also worked and earned income In exchange for their pleas the prosecutor ageed to drop several other charges and wMl recommend a sentence on the low end of federal sentencing guidelines according to NOAH SSaWOWITZ Moaltar aCaff 1 1 Bob Charron father of slain Epsom Police Officer Jeremy Charron stands with the US Marine Drum and Bugle Corps during a ceremony dedicating post office as the Officer Jeremy Todd Charron Post Office yesterday Story 81 Ban on texting while driving accelerates By LAUREN DORGAN irarar ran OMG ban on Sending and reading text messages while driving passed the House yesterday The measure is aimed at stopping a distracting practice that surveys show is increasing- fy popular ahtoag young drivers The vote came on a busy day when the House overwhelmingfy passed a major Mil aimed at overhauling toe underfunded retirement system In other business the House approved strict regulations of tracking devices known is nufio- frequency Identification or RFID chips and nixed a separate Mil that would forbid guns from the State House' The text-messaging bill which now heads to toe Senate after a 176-149 vote would also ban two-handed typing with aqy device including a Game Boy or a computer Sponsor David Campbell said those devices added because of two tilings: a constituent suggestion and an on-the-road sighting he had actually saw somebody driving a Volvo tola was a middle- aged person had a PC on the dash and was typing away and I -assume driving with Ms said Campbell a Nashua Democrat Opponents said that the dfic ban could have SeeHOUSE-A6 APIRn Sen Barack Obama and the Rev Jeremiah Wright in 2005 fy pastor at IHnity United Church of Christ in Chicago It was a topic he had long considered addressing directly as the first African American with a serious chance of becoming president but one that took cm a sense of urgency See RACE A2 Clsssifisd Comics Editorial Food Local Ei Stats Neighbors Obituaries Sports" TV 02 C6 B4 01 81 B3 B2 Cl D2 05 ForiMy Mivary cal 224-4287 or 800464-3415 By LAUREN RDORGAN MonSoriWr Smoke- if you dont mind risking a violation on your record A bill that would decriminalize possession of small amountsf of marijuana passed New House yesterday by a wide margin eliciting whoops and scattered applause in toe chamber But the revelry might be short-lived: Gov John Lynch's office promptly -announced that he would veto the measure if it gets to him "This sends absolutely toe wrung message to New young people about toe very real dangers of drug said spokesman Cohn Manning "That is why Gov lynch Joins with the Howe Criminal Justice Committee and law enforcement in opposing this MIL In toe event tost the Mil reaches Ms desk which seems unHkefy the governor will veto A pair of 20-something law- makers one Democrat one Republican 7 made the case for the MU yesterday arguing that current marijuana tows saddle teens with lifetime criminal records that make it harder for them to attend college because ineligible for federal financial aid'- The House responded first overturning the Criminal Justice recommendation against the Mil and then backing the Mil by a 193-141 vote The bill would reduce tbe penal- ty ftfr possessing a quarter ounce of marijuana from a misdemeanor to a violation Hie maximum punishment would be downgraded from a year in Jail See MARIJUANA AS PHILADELPHIA racism in but stands by pastor By SHAILAGH MURRAY andDANBALZ Sen Barack Obama delivered a blunt and deepfy personal speech In Philadelphia yesterday about racial division in America as he sought tp quell a political contro- versy stirred by his former Chicago pastor that threatens to engulf his presidential candidacy The 37-minute speech was most developed response to the storm of criticism that erupted over angry and racially charged sermons that included denunciations of the United States delivered by the Rev Jeremiah Wight Jr spiritual mentor and until recent- ICE RAIN Wind will pick up tonight High 36 Low 32 Erika Ciooker 6 of AHenstown draws the day B6 LOUDON Couple await court documents The Carders also agreed to file complete and accurate tax returns for the relevant years They will be sentenced in June Tbe Carders learned their tax "evasion scheme from Steven Swan" of Auburn a tax protester who sold his services tonify and through' internet message boards Swan was convicted of preparing false tax returns for himself and several See TAXES -A6 Local scam promoter taught them evasion By MARGOT SANGER-KATZ NivraEDv ran A New Hpmpahire couple who bought an anti-tax scheme from a local scam promoter have pleaded a to multiple charges of tax Anthony Carder 53 and Debo STATE 87-year-old firebrand resolved to oust Bush rah Carder 58 who lived in Manchester and Cainpton and now live in Loudon and Aiken SO eadi pleaded guilty Monday to four -counts of tax evasion admitting that they dodged taxes on a sum of money between $80000 and $200000 between 2000 and 2006 after an Auburn man told them taxes were voluntary During those years the Carders filed their tax returns claiming that they had earned no income when HOUSE Opposition was overwhelming: Hie projmsal garnered II votes Hall Thirty-five years after reftising to nqipart the Nixon resolution Hall a Brookline Democrat who celebrated her 87th birthday yea- terday is leading the charge for a different impeachment proposaL In a resolution urging Congress to begin impeachment proceedings against President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney which is scheduled for a House vote this week -Hall outlines her case arguing that Bush and Cherny See HALL -A6 Legislators to vote on impeachment plan By SARAH UEBOWITZ aSI MOfMQr KMT The first time Rep Betty Hall had the opportunity to vote in support of a presidential impeachment she declined It was 1973 and Hall only two years into what would become a lengthy legislative career found herself surrounded by New Hampshire lawmakers debating a resolution urging the impeachment of then-President Richard Nixon i KEN WILLIAMS Monitor itaff Rep Betty Hall a Democrat from Brookline (right) talks wyith Majority Leader Mary Jane Wallner at the State House yesterday 'Vw-iyeua.