The Warner resident, standing in front of the New Hampshire State House, was “way past the point” of worrying only about the Trump administration’s impact on the issues that are most important to her: education and reproductive rights.
“It’s everything,” McNeil said. “It’s the environment … He’s going after the food pantries, USAID, things that are just humanity.”
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McNeil joined a sea of protesters that covered the State House lawn and spilled out onto Main Street in Concord on Saturday as hundreds of people from across the state rallied against President Donald Trump, Elon Musk and cuts to federal spending, programs and jobs.
This was at least the sixth protest in Concord since Trump took office less than three months ago and was the largest by far, with organizers estimating that more than 2,000 people attended. Saturday’s was one of many demonstrations to take place across New Hampshire and the country, set up by an organization called 50501 – 50 Protests, 50 States, 1 Movement.
Kathy Grondine, a Litchfield resident, said she came to the capital city to protest because of Trump’s cuts to things like medical research and children’s services.
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“The whole country is just making me very sad right now,” Grondine said, “and so I wanted to speak up around how I feel the Constitution is not being followed right now, and nobody’s stepping up.”
Grondine, an administrator for the state’s Division for Children, Youth and Families who protested in her personal capacity. She’s concerned about Medicare and Medicaid – especially for her sister, who has cancer.
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“I worry about people who need it for treatment,” Grondine said. “I have a number of people in my life who have cancer, and that really bothers me.”
Several people also said they’re upset about the tariffs recently placed on dozens of countries, which led to a steep drop in the stock market in the days prior to the protest.
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“It’s affecting everybody, I know. because I hang out with people who are the same age, who are retirement age,” said Chris Halvorson, a Peterborough resident. “We’re living off essentially what is the stock market.”
Halvorson said she chose not to look at the numbers in her retirement account yet because “I didn’t want to be depressed.”
Rally-goers also called on their members of Congress to take action. Andrew Peyton, a 22-year-old from Manchester, stood near Main Street, holding up a sign that encouraged New Hampshire’s senators and representatives to “fight back.” He said he doesn’t like that U.S. senators Jeanne Shaheen and Maggie Hassan have voted to confirm Trump’s cabinet members, whom he views as “unqualified” to lead the country. Both Shaheen and Hassan voted in favor of 10 Trump nominees and against 12.
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“I think that voting for those and kind of supporting anything in the administration is a dereliction of duty,” Peyton said. “I want to see just more activism, more obstruction … I would like to see a lot more from them in terms of obstructing the current agenda, as well as just coming up with solutions to the problems that they’re currently facing.”
Charlotte Matherly is the statehouse reporter for the Concord Monitor and Monadnock Ledger-Transcript in partnership with Report for America. Follow her on X at @charmatherly, subscribe to her Capital Beat newsletter and send her an email at cmatherly@cmonitor.com.
WILTON, N.H. (WHDH) – A woman died in a Wilton, New Hampshire, house fire Wednesday morning, according to the New Hampshire State Fire Marshal’s Office.
At 9:08 a.m., Wilton firefighters responded to Burns Hill Road after a caller said their home was filling up with smoke. When they arrived, a single-family home was on fire and they found out two people were still inside on the second floor.
A man and a woman were both taken out of the house by firefighters and taken to Elliott Hospital. The woman was pronounced dead and the man is in serious condition.
Officials have not released the name of the victim at this time.
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At this time, investigators are looking into the cause of the fire and are trying to determine if a power outage in the area played a factor. The fire is not currently considered suspicious.
(Copyright (c) 2025 Sunbeam Television. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
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Diane Durgin, 67, is accused of shooting at a Black man who inadvertently drove to her property after a prearranged truck part sale, prosecutors said.
A New Hampshire woman is accused of violating the state’s Civil Rights Act four times after she allegedly shot at a man because he was Black, prosecutors said.
Diane Durgin, 67, of Weare, N.H. could face up to a $5,000 fine for each violation she is found to have committed, the office of New Hampshire Attorney General John Formella said in a press release Tuesday.
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Durgin is also charged with criminal threatening against a person with a deadly weapon and attempted first degree assault with a deadly weapon, Michael Garrity, a media representative for the New Hampshire Attorney General, said in an emailed statement to Boston.com.
Durgin had a final pre-trial conference last week, Garrity said.
In a civil complaint filed Tuesday, Durgin is accused of threatening physical force against the victim, the AG said. Prosecutors asked the court to issue a preliminary injunction barring Durgin from repeating her alleged behavior and from contacting the victim and his family.
During the morning hours of Oct. 20, 2024, the victim claims, he “mistakenly” drove to Durgin’s home after a prearranged purchase of a truck part with a seller online, prosecutors wrote as part of their request for an injunction.
When the man — whom prosecutors identified in court documents as X.G. — arrived, Durgin allegedly stepped out of her home and approached his car with a gun “holstered by her waist,” prosecutors wrote.
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Upon noticing that X.G. was Black, Durgin allegedly “removed her gun and pointed it at X.G.,” prosecutors said in the injunction request.
While X.G. explained that he was lost, Durgin called the victim a “Black mother[expletive],” and threatened to “kill him,” prosecutors allege.
As the victim attempted to drive away, Durgin allegedly took her gun and fired two shots at the fleeing man’s car, missing both times, the AG’s office said.
While on the phone with a dispatcher, Durgin allegedly said she shot the man’s car because the victim is Black, the AG said.
“The guy is Black. And he, he…he says he’s meeting someone here and I think he’s coming here to steal,” Durgin allegedly said.
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Police located X.G. and brought him to the Weare Police Department, stopping along the way at the correct seller’s home to complete the truck part purchase, prosecutors wrote in court documents.
To prove a violation of the New Hampshire Civil Rights Act, the AG must show that Durgin “interfered or attempted to interfere with the rights of the victim to engage in lawful activities by threatening to engage in or actually engage in physical force or violence, when such actual or threatening conduct was motivated by race, color, religion, national origin, ancestry, sexual orientation, sex, gender identity, or disability,” prosecutors said.
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