At the annual town meeting in Hinsdale, New Hampshire on March 20 townspeople will vote on a marriage equality question. Hinsdale is directly across the Connecticut river from Brattleboro.

In June 2009, New Hampshire became the sixth state to let gay people marry. Now opponents of marriage equality are using town meetings to try to overturn the June decision by the governor and state legislature.

A Keene police officer shot and killed a man who was using a knife to hold his ex-girlfriend hostage on February 2. A preliminary report by the state attorney general found that the shooting was justified.

The Keene Sentinel newspaper reported that three other people have been killed by police in the Keene area in less than four years. The attorney general found all three killings were justified.

On January 6, the New Hampshire House voted against a bill that would have allowed the state to execute people because they committed murder under a wider range of circumstances than allowed under current law. The vote was 201-161.

Meanwhile in Massachusetts, a bill to reinstate the death penalty in the state is pending in the legislature. A group of people is organizing to fight the measure. They meet monthly in the Springfield area. For more information e-mail mcadp1@aol.com or cajowl66@aol.com or call (413) 567-3451.