MEREDITH, N.H. (AP) — A company that sent deceptive calls to New Hampshire voters using artificial intelligence to mimic President Joe Biden’s voice agreed Wednesday to pay a $1 million fine, federal regulators said.
Lingo Telecom, the voice service provider that transmitted the robocalls, agreed to the settlement to resolve enforcement action taken by the Federal Communications Commission, which had initially sought a $2 million fine.
The case is seen by many as an unsettling early example of how AI might be used to influence groups of voters and democracy as a whole.
Meanwhile Steve Kramer, a political consultant who orchestrated the calls, still faces a proposed $6 million FCC fine as well as state criminal charges.
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The phone messages were sent to thousands of New Hampshire voters on Jan. 21. They featured a voice similar to Biden’s falsely suggesting that voting in the state’s presidential primary would preclude them from casting ballots in the November general election.
Kramer, who paid a magician and self-described “digital nomad” to create the recording, told The Associated Press earlier this year that he wasn’t trying to influence the outcome of the primary, but he rather wanted to highlight the potential dangers of AI and spur lawmakers into action.
If found guilty, Kramer could face a prison sentence of up to seven years on a charge of voter suppression and a sentence of up to one year on a charge of impersonating a candidate.
The FCC said that as well as agreeing to the civil fine, Lingo Telecom had agreed to strict caller ID authentication rules and requirements and to more thoroughly verify the accuracy of the information provided by its customers and upstream providers.
“Every one of us deserves to know that the voice on the line is exactly who they claim to be,” FCC chairperson Jessica Rosenworcel said in a statement. “If AI is being used, that should be made clear to any consumer, citizen, and voter who encounters it. The FCC will act when trust in our communications networks is on the line.”
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Lingo Telecom did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The company had earlier said it strongly disagreed with the FCC’s action, calling it an attempt to impose new rules retroactively.
Nonprofit consumer advocacy group Public Citizen commended the FCC on its action. Co-president Robert Weissman said Rosenworcel got it “exactly right” by saying consumers have a right to know when they are receiving authentic content and when they are receiving AI-generated deepfakes. Weissman said the case illustrates how such deepfakes pose “an existential threat to our democracy.”
FCC Enforcement Bureau Chief Loyaan Egal said the combination of caller ID spoofing and generative AI voice-cloning technology posed a significant threat “whether at the hands of domestic operatives seeking political advantage or sophisticated foreign adversaries conducting malign influence or election interference activities.”
CHICAGO — In a second floor conference room in the Westin Hotel next to Lake Michigan, Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro spoke Wednesday morning to about 80 New Hampshire Democrats, many of whom have a lot of experience vetting presidential candidates.
“The reason I especially wanted to be here this morning is because when the power is in the hands of New Hampshire, you all know how to pick a president and you all know how to get stuff done,” he told the state’s delegation to the Democratic National Convention.
He was introduced by the state party chair, Ray Buckley, who said Shapiro adopted his slogan about political productivity — “get stuff done” — from New Hampshire.
It was one of three breakfast speaking engagements on Wednesday for Shapiro, who has been making the rounds at the national party gathering. His trip to the convention comes after weeks in the national spotlight as a frontrunner to become Vice President Harris’ running mate. Shapiro lauded Harris and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, who was selected over him, and said he’d be working hard to help them win Pennsylvania. He also talked to Nevada and New Jersey delegations on Wednesday.
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Shapiro, who is known to have national political ambitions, will speak on the convention’s main stage Wednesday night. On Tuesday night, he spoke briefly from the convention floor to cast the Pennsylvania delegation’s votes to nominate Harris.
New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy also spoke at the New Hampshire breakfast Wednesday. As finance chair of the Democratic Governor’s Association, he pledged to do everything to help elect a Democrat in the open governor’s race in the Granite State this fall.
Murphy introduced himself as a lifelong Red Sox fan, an attribute that he said “gets me no votes in New Jersey.”
This story is the second in a series examining how the top four gubernatorial candidates, as determined by polling data, would lead on energy and the environment. Read the first one here. The third installment, coming soon, will focus on the candidates’ positions on offshore wind.
New Hampshire’s natural beauty is undeniable. But its environment – and the people and the economy that depend on it – faces mounting threats due to climate change.
You can see and feel the changes for yourself: It’s hotter than it used to be. It snows less. Water is creeping in from the coast.
The next governor of New Hampshire will set the tone for how the state addresses climate change. So far, the state has been out of step with its New England neighbors. It lags in renewable energy adoption and is the only state in the region without a statutory requirement to lower greenhouse gas emissions.
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Whoever replaces Gov. Chris Sununu, who is not seeking reelection after four terms in office, will also have to tackle energy affordability in a state and region with some of the highest electricity rates in the country. The next governor will also make key appointments to the Public Utilities Commission and the Department of Energy.
The four top candidates for governor expressed distinct visions in these areas in interviews with the Bulletin. Asked how they see climate change impacting the state in the coming years and decades, and what they would do to mitigate those impacts, the candidates described the problem in different terms.
NH gubernatorial candidates say no to Dalton landfill but split on other development
Kelly Ayotte, the Republican former U.S. senator and state attorney general, said she would take a “bipartisan, balanced approach to protecting our environment, but we have to do so without increasing energy costs, because people can’t afford how much energy costs right now in New Hampshire.”
She said she would focus on preserving natural spaces and was concerned by what was happening at the Connecticut Lakes Headwaters Forest in northern New Hampshire. A company that owns the land sought to reduce the tree harvest there and sell carbon credits, but the state rejected the plan.
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“Someone from out of state bought it and is trying to reduce the use of that land,” she said. “So, to me, as we think about conserving our land, it’s about conserving everything for the use of people and the enjoyment of the people of New Hampshire, and then protecting our environment.”
Joyce Craig, the Democratic former Manchester mayor, said climate change “is coming up with residents in every conversation.” She said she would focus on lowering costs, increasing renewable energy, and protecting the environment.
“We are seeing how we’ve had a mild winter, impacting our outdoor recreation and tourism,” she said. “We’ve seen how climate change has affected our Seacoast, with Route 1 being washed out by storms this winter. And just recently, the effects of the storm, the flooding that we had this past week (in July). We need to take action on addressing climate change.”
Chuck Morse, the Republican who served for years as president of the state Senate, said he passed legislation that allows people to choose what forms of energy they want to use. He sponsored a bill in 2021 that banned municipalities from enacting mandates on how people heat their homes.
“I’ve always been one that likes to deal with facts,” he said. “And I think, when it comes to climate change, or anything to do with energy, the people should be given the facts from the government, and they should be able to make that decision.”
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Pressed on what effect he sees climate change having on the state, he said: “I’m a believer that we go through evolution and things are going to change, and that’s gonna happen. But I’ve worked pretty hard to make sure we protect New Hampshire, and most of my work has been in water, to be honest with you, but that’s where I’ve spent a lot of time.”
Morse helped establish and previously led the state’s Drinking Water and Groundwater Trust Fund.
Cinde Warmington, the lone Democrat on the Executive Council, said the impacts of climate change are “visible everywhere in our state.”
She listed them: more frequent, severe floods; crop losses, especially apples last year; cyanobacteria blooms driven in part by lack of ice cover in the winter; economic impacts to the ski industry; and risks to “the health and well-being of Granite Staters and of our planet.”
She called climate change “a truly serious threat to our state” and said New Hampshire needs “a governor who will recognize that we’re in the middle of a climate crisis.”
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“We start from the premise that climate change presents a real and imminent threat to our state,” she said, “and that we need to take really bold action to protect our future.”
Here’s more on how each candidate would lead on energy and climate. Kelly Ayotte files as a candidate for governor at the Secretary of State’s Office in Concord on June 13, 2024. (Claire Sullivan | New Hampshire Bulletin)
Kelly Ayotte (R)
Ayotte, who Sununu endorsed this month, has a similar message on energy as the incumbent governor.
“I would take an all-of-the-above approach for New Hampshire,” she said. “And that means that we would look to make sure that whatever we do, that we aren’t adding additional costs to the people of New Hampshire that increase their energy bills.”
She said that “literally means all of the above.” (Though, she said later, not the offshore wind projects being proposed in the Gulf of Maine.) She said she is particularly interested in small modular nuclear reactors, because they’re “carbon neutral, but they also allow us to produce our own energy.’’
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While in the U.S. Senate, Ayotte stood at odds with the vast majority of her party on climate change. She was one of only five Republican senators in 2015 to support an amendment that said humans contribute significantly to climate change. She was also the first Republican in Congress to openly back President Barack Obama’s plan to reduce carbon emissions.
After losing reelection to the Senate, Ayotte sat on the board of Bloom Energy, a fuel cell company, from 2017 to 2019, according to HuffPost. A 2019 Axios investigation found the company had a “history of playing fast and loose with its numbers.” A 2020 Forbes report boiled down the technology’s limited reach to it being “too dirty and too costly.”
Campaign spokesman John Corbett called a recent HuffPost article detailing the issues with the company, and Ayotte’s connections to it, a “partisan hack job report.” “While partisan hacks write BS reports,” he said, “Kelly will continue to lay out her positive vision for our state,” pointing out her record crossing party lines in favor of environmental protection.
Ayotte said she would be “open to looking at” legislation to expand net metering but wants to “make sure that we don’t pass additional costs on to ratepayers.”
“I think responsible expansion of net metering, we would balance the benefits of clean energy that can flow to communities,” she said, “and really make sure, though, that we’re protecting ratepayers.”
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Sununu frustrated clean energy advocates by vetoing legislation that would’ve expanded net metering to projects up to 5 megawatts. Currently, net metering is capped at 1 megawatt, except for “political subdivisions” like municipalities, for which Sununu approved a net metering expansion up to 5 megawatts in 2021.
She said “reduced energy costs for everyone” would be the No. 1 focus of the Department of Energy, which was established in 2021, under her governorship.
Asked if it would be important to her that picks for the DOE and Public Utilities Commission, which regulates utilities in the state, have past experience in energy, she said, “I think in appointing anyone to any position in state government, I would want to look at their whole breadth of experience.”
“For me, obviously, I think experience in the field … that is very good to have,” she said. “… But I would need to look at everyone’s resume. I would have to consider their background, and also their prior experience and their performance.”
Transportation is the state’s “single largest source” of greenhouse gas emissions, according to the state’s Priority Climate Action Plan from March. Electric vehicles present an opportunity to cut that impact.
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The nearby states of Maine, Massachusetts, and New York offer rebates for EVs.
“I don’t think that we should offer rebates for electric vehicles,” Ayotte said, pointing to the fact that the Biden administration “has massively subsidized” EVs. “And if people want to own an electric vehicle, you know, certainly that’s their choice.” Joyce Craig files to run for governor on June 14, 2024. (Annmarie Timmins | New Hampshire Bulletin)
Joyce Craig (D)
Craig said the state is “overly reliant on fossil fuels.” She connects addressing affordability to her push for green energy.
“We need to look at ways to decrease costs for our residents,” she said. “That includes expanding net metering, allowing families, businesses, schools, nonprofits that can’t meet their current needs on site to join shared generation projects, such as community solar farms or small hydro, to support New Hampshire’s growing community power movement, allowing customer generators to offset their remaining energy needs with community power, expand low and moderate income solar programs throughout our state, and develop offshore wind.”
She said she would sign the net metering expansion that Sununu vetoed.
In terms of providing rebates for EVs, she said, “We would absolutely look into something like that.”
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She said it was important to her that her appointees to the DOE and the PUC have past experience in the energy field – “and that they understand and believe climate change is real.”
“It is absolutely something that we need to make sure that these individuals have background in,” she said, “and believe in the value of energy efficiency programs, and making sure they are funded to save our residents money.”
As for the priorities for a Craig DOE, she said they would be “to lower costs for our residents, to diversify our energy, and to reduce our carbon footprint.” Chuck Morse (seated) files to run for governor on June 5, 2024. (Annmarie Timmins | New Hampshire Bulletin)
Chuck Morse (R)
Morse thinks the key to lowering energy costs is getting more energy in the region.
“I believe the only way New Hampshire drives down electric costs is to have more energy come into the Northeast, whether that’s gas or oil, we just need to get more energy up here,” he said, “and that’s a big part of a governor solving the problem.”
He added: “Gov. Sununu has done a great job of not letting any costs hit on the energy side to the consumer, but that’s just playing defense, and that’s what we’ve been doing is playing defense.”
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Asked if he would support legislation to expand net metering, Morse said: “I would do the same thing, though, that Gov. Sununu has paid attention to – I would do nothing that brings up the cost for someone else. And that’s why Gov. Sununu has vetoed all those projects.”
Like his Republican competitor, he said he wouldn’t support the state investing in EV rebates, pointing to other priorities.
“I’ve always been one that has been, you know, more worried about the things that we have to do, whether it’s mental illness, disabled children, things like that,” he said. “… We’re a small state, and we have to be careful with our budgets.”
As for his DOE, he said, “it’d be a lot like Gov. Sununu.” In fact, he said, Joshua Elliott, who Sununu tapped as the department’s director of policy and programs, used to work for him in the Senate.
On whether it was important his energy appointees have past experience in the field, he said, “I think any pick that I’m going to do in any field will have to deal with the fact that they have experience and they can move New Hampshire forward.”
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Like Ayotte, he opposes offshore wind in the Gulf of Maine. Cinde Warmington files for governor on June 12, 2024. Her mother, Jean McCaffrey, is at right. (Annmarie Timmins | New Hampshire Bulletin)
Cinde Warmington (D)
While Morse embraced Sununu’s energy record, Warmington cast herself in stark contrast to it.
Asked about how she would help residents struggling to pay their electric bills, she said, “this is in large part due to the … current governor’s philosophy of really being opposed – hostile – towards both energy efficiency and the use of renewable energy and of leaving us behind in terms of the electrification of our transportation sector.”
She said her plan for energy focuses on combating climate change, electrifying the transportation sector, adding jobs and growing the economy, and nurturing innovation in the state. Having a diversified energy portfolio, she said, “is what it’s going to take to ultimately lower the cost of energy in our state.”
She also slammed the governor’s “hostility toward solar energy,” saying, “we have to make sure we’ve worked through the details, but, yes, I mean, I want that piece of legislation” to expand net metering.
“That is really what our businesses and our municipalities are calling for,” she said. “And it is Sununu who is stopping that from happening in our state.”
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As for EV rebates on the state level, she said, “we’re gonna look at all the options to increase and … truly lead in the electrification of our transportation sector” and that looking at federal funding would be “a priority.”
A Warmington DOE, she said, would focus on her plan for a clean energy economy, “all of that done with an eye to the ratepayer and making sure that the investments we’re making are going to benefit Granite Staters and Granite State businesses going forward.”
She said it would be important to her that her energy appointees have past experience in the field. She pointed to the fact that she was the lone vote against Sununu’s energy commissioner, Jared Chicoine.
That was, she said, “due in large part because of the lack of experience, but also because of his thoughts with respect to climate change, or rather that he doesn’t see government having a role in addressing climate change. I think government does have a role – an important role – in making sure that we’re addressing climate change.”
She was also the only vote against the chair of the PUC, Daniel C. Goldner. She said this was because, on climate change, he “doesn’t necessarily believe that it is a creation of man’s activities.”
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Warmington, like Craig, supports offshore wind in the Gulf of Maine.
New Hampshire’s First Kosher Restaurant Is Open for Business
by Ariel Fine – chabad.org
Kosher dining has arrived in the Granite State. The Brooklyn Cafe opened its doors on July 7. in Newington, N.H., and is already serving the local community a taste of authentic New York kosher cuisine in a warm and friendly environment. The beautifully renovated cafe is located on the first floor commercial space in the Seacoast Chabad-Lubavitch Jewish Community Center in the center of Newington.
The cafe is the vision of Rabbi Berel Slavaticki, who also oversees its kosher supervision. Slavaticki moved to New Hampshire six years ago, in 2017, with his wife, Rochel, and family to establish Chabad serving both the New Hampshire coast, on the southeastern part of the state, as well as Jewish students at the nearby University of New Hampshire. Of the 15,000 students on campus, upwards of 500 of them are Jewish.
Chabad of New Hampshire was founded in 1989 when the Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson, of righteous memory, sent Rabbi Levi and Shternie Krinsky to serve the state, which historically did not have a strong Jewish infrastructure. Jewish life has flourished in the years since, and with the Krinsky’s help, in 2003 Rabbi Moshe and Chanie Gray opened Chabad serving Dartmouth University in Hanover. The Slavatickis are the third Chabad emissary couple in the state.
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“When we first moved here, there was no Jewish presence on campus, and outside of Portsmouth, Jewish services in the seacoast region were sparse,” the rabbi says.
Now, the Chabad center hosts several regular programs, including weekly prayer services, men’s and women’s learning circles, programs for children and teens, and weekly classes serving the local UNH campus. The rabbi is a chaplain on the campus and shares a warm relationship with the university.
While the Slavitickis have seen immense success since their move, establishing a kosher cafe in the state was on their minds from the very outset. Its primary aim, they say, is to provide a kosher food option for the local Jewish community.
“Obtaining kosher food in New Hampshire can be a challenge,” the rabbi says. “At the same time, we wanted it to be a warm and unique place that people from all walks of life would want to eat at.”
After much deliberation about what kind of restaurant to open, the Slavatickis settled on a cafe, since it seemed that people were struggling to find a good falafel or bagel in the area, as well as for the relaxed atmosphere that a cafe offers. The name, “Brooklyn Cafe,” was chosen to invoke the feelings of a New York City bagel shop, light-hearted and unintimidating.
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Congressman Chris Pappas, who serves New Hampshire’s 1st congressional district, stopped by to visit the Brooklyn Café and the Seacoast Jewish Community Center. Seacoast Chabad Jewish Center
Meeting Point for a Diverse Community
The Seacoast region is home to an estimated 4,000 Jews. The milieu consists of young professionals, retirees, seasonal residents and college students, in addition to the many travelers on their way to Maine’s Acadia National Park and New Hampshire’s White Mountains.
Since the pandemic, many more have chosen to call the region home. Transplants started cropping up from nearby Massachusetts and New York, as well as from as far away as California.
With the community burgeoning, Slavaticki thought it was the perfect time to go through with his kosher vision. But it wasn’t without a little trepidation. “People laughed at me when I said I wanted to open a ‘kosher restaurant’,” he says.
Notwithstanding the skeptics, the cafe opened in early July, in time to greet summer travelers. The menu includes falafel, pizza and an assortment of bagels as well as pastries baked fresh every day. Patrons can also enjoy a cup of coffee or tea. Its best selling item so far is the two-tone challah, with locals traveling from near and far to get a taste.
Aside from challah for Shabbat, they now won’t have to look far for traditional Jewish holiday foods, either. There are plans in place to serve Jewish-related foods around the holidays like doughnuts and latkes in the Chanukah season.
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“The cafe is bringing a new level of vibrancy to our community,” the rabbi says. “We are connecting with so many new and interesting people because of it. I’ll often choose to bring my laptop and work from the cafe instead of my office.”
And it’s not just about the food.
“It’s become a regular occurrence to take patrons from the upstairs cafe to the downstairs synagogue and show them what we have to offer, help them lay tefillin and give them Shabbat candles,” the rabbi says. “We may soon have to move our offices into the cafe, such has been the popularity,” he jokes.
When the Slavaticki’s first moved into their sprawling Chabad center, people asked what they would do with such a space. Now, it’s home to the cafe, a Hebrew school and a thriving synagogue. Seacoast Chabad Jewish Center
‘I Can’t Believe This is Real’
The effects of kosher in New Hampshire have started to ripple through the small state, which, though growing, remains the ninth-least populated state in the country.
“In the past, we’ve tried to keep kosher a little bit, and we’re not there all the way yet. We are always trying to do a little more, and this cafe really helps,” says Marty Fuerst, a writer and artist from nearby Dover.
In fact, in early August, a woman who has called the region home for more than 50 years came to the cafe with tears in her eyes. “Never in my wildest dreams would I have thought there would be a kosher restaurant in the area,” she told the rabbi. “I can’t believe this is real.”
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The rabbi has also already fielded calls from Jewish students considering applying to UNH and wondering if there was a kosher infrastructure that they could rely on. “We plan to organize kosher meal plans for the students in the near future,” he says. “Additionally, we are in the process of installing shelves in the cafe and hope to start offering non-perishable kosher items.”
Perhaps the biggest success of the cafe, and the mitzvah of kashrut in general, is its immense power to bring people together. Everyone loves to eat good food and hang out. While religious events might at times feel intimidating, many are more open when food is the primary motivator.
For Slaviticki, who has had a busy summer opening the restaurant and hosting the annual Jewish Summer Festival, more than anything, the cafe offers local Jews something to be proud of.
“Having a space that Jews can call their own is a remedy to the isolation many may feel living far from larger Jewish communities,” he says. “It has become a place where people can just ‘be Jewish’.”
The cafe opened in early July, in time to greet summer travelers. Seacoast Chabad Jewish Center