Dec. 8, 1979: Concord City Manager Jim Smith rescinds the fire department’s ban on live Christmas trees in public buildings.
Dec. 8, 1991: James Carville, an adviser to Arkansas Gov. Bill Clinton’s presidential campaign, speaks confidently about his man in an interview with the Monitor: “I have no doubt if we could spend 10 minutes with everybody in the state, we’d win this campaign.” Clinton will finish second to Paul Tsongas but calls himself “The Comeback Kid.”
Dec. 8, 1998: The federal government holds a hearing in Concord to discuss removing the peregrine falcon from the nation’s endangered species list. The raptor has made a remarkable comeback in New Hampshire, which boasts 12 nesting pairs.
Dec. 8, 2002: In private, nearly everyone involved in the Wayne Vetter sexual harassment case calls it a confusing, contradiction-filled fiasco, the Monitor reports. The Fish and Game employees who reluctantly complained about their boss thought their testimony was confidential. But it was made public without their consent by the Executive Council and Gov. Jeanne Shaheen. Council members received campaign contributions from Vetter and were friendly with him from their mutual work for the state Republican Party. But none recused themselves from sitting in judgment of him.
Dec. 9, 1979: Concord School Superintendent Calvin Cleveland says a group of Gideons will not be allowed to distribute Bibles in the schools, saying it would open the “floodgate” to all religions.
Dec. 10, 1991: In Concord, Pat Buchanan announces that he will challenge President Bush in the New Hampshire Republican primary. America’s Judeo-Christian heritage must be passed on to a new generation, Buchanan says, not “dumped on some landfill called multiculturalism.”
Dec. 10, 1993: Barry Stem’s 967 acres on Concord’s Broken Ground, proposed over the years as a site for a golf course, a luxury housing project, a hotel and conference center and an office park, are sold at a foreclosure auction for $286,501.
Dec. 10, 2001: For the first time in the state’s history, a group of Concord-area agencies is trying to cooperate on transportation, the Monitor reports. After nearly two years of talks, CAT and some members of the Community Providers Network of Central New Hampshire, a group of 23 human service agencies, are on the brink of pooling their assets.
Dec. 10, 2003: In an effort to save money, Gov. Craig Benson announced that New Hampshire will begin buying prescription drugs from Canada, the Monitor reports.
Dec. 11, 1989: Two hundred people crowd into the State House to protest a proposed takeover of PSNH by Northeast Utilities.
Dec. 11, 1999: Two Catholic priests whose recent marriages disqualify them from clerical service in the Roman Catholic Church become Episcopal priests in a liturgy at St. Paul’s Church in Concord. The service marks one of the first such clerical conversions in the state’s religious history.
Dec. 11, 2000: An early-morning fire at the Royal Garden Apartments in Concord leaves 37 people homeless. The community will respond with offers of clothing, shelter, even Christmas gifts for the kids.
Dec. 11, 2003: The Army National Guard’s Hillsboro-based 744th Transportation Company holds a deployment ceremony at the New Hampshire Technical Institute in Concord. The 140 members of the Guard unit will be gone for more than a year.
