The state House voted, 186-168, Feb. 12 to remove hepatitis B from the list of required vaccines in New Hampshire.

Rep. Kelley Potenza, a Rochester Republican and sponsor of House Bill 1719, framed it as an effort to align with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which under new Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy has moved in a controversial direction on vaccines.

In December, the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices voted to change the federal government’s guidance to not recommend the hepatitis B vaccine at birth for infants unless the mother tested positive for the virus. The decision came months after Kennedy fired every member of the panel and replaced many of them with fellow vaccine skeptics and was condemned by dozens of major medical organizations.

Potenza has in the past argued that aluminum ingredients in the vaccines cause myriad health complications. However, the American Academy of Pediatrics, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, and the CDC have all previously reported that aluminum is included in vaccines in doses too small to be toxic.

Supporters say the bill targets government overreach

“What (HB 1719) does is make the hep B vaccination a real choice,” Rep. Matt Drew, a Manchester Republican and co-sponsor of the bill, said on the House floor. “Not a government mandate with the force of the state behind it and the lurking threat of being banned from your day care or school if you refuse.”

State law allows for exemptions on religious and medical grounds, though Drew argued these were insufficient.

Democrats say bill harms public health

The bill was passed over Democrats’ opposition, who decried the bill’s potential effects on public health.

Rep. William Palmer, a Cornish Democrat, noted that since the universal hepatitis B vaccine was introduced in 1991, “there’s been a 99% drop in infant infections.” After 1 billion doses administered around the world, he said, it has proven to be “one of the safest and most effective of all vaccines.” Indeed, from 1993 to 2019, there was a 99% drop in infections among children and adolescents, according to a letter from the American Public Health Association and a coalition of health professionals.

“The peer-reviewed data around the world supports this impressive safety profile,” Palmer said. “And we should not be misled by reports that have not been subjected to such vigorous review.”

This bill will be considered by the House Finance Committee before it heads to the Senate.

Vaccine religious exemption bill passes, too

In a 197-163 vote, the House also approved another vaccine related bill, House Bill 1584. The bill would allow parents to receive religious exemptions from vaccines simply by providing any written statement attesting to the religious exemption as opposed to filling out a specific form created by the Department of Health and Human Services, as is the process now.

Additionally, the bill would require that any time the Department of Health and Human Services promotes vaccines, it must write that “medical and religious exemptions are available under New Hampshire law” in “bold, clearly noticeable, starred print on the front or top portion of the material.”

The original version of the bill imposed a fine of up to $1,000 on any department employee or officer who violates this requirement, but the bill was amended before it passed to allow department management to handle disciplinary action.

HUDSON, N.H. — A Hudson man is awaiting a bail hearing after police charged him with multiple felonies related to possessing child sexual abuse material and secretly installing recording devices in a residential bathroom.

Jeffrey Lee Ritze, 43, was arrested on Wednesday following a months-long investigation triggered by a CyberTip about suspected online distribution of sexual abuse material from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, according to a press release from the Hudson Police Department.

Police executed a court-authorized search warrant at Ritze’s home on Intervale Court on Oct. 16 with assistance from the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force. During the search, police said they seized numerous electronic devices and digital storage media for forensic review.

Investigators later alleged that Ritze not only possessed and distributed illegal images but had also installed hidden recording devices in a residential bathroom without the knowledge of people who had a reasonable expectation of privacy. According to court documents, the bathroom where the device was installed was shared by two juveniles.

Court documents also state that Ritze “manufactured a visual representation of a child being engaged in sexually explicit conduct.”

Following the forensic examination, police charged Ritze with five counts of possession of child sexual abuse images, one count of distribution of publication of child sexual abuse images, one felony count of violation of privacy, and two misdemeanor privacy-violation counts.

Ritze was arraigned on Thursday in the 9th Circuit Nashua District Court, where he entered no plea on seven of the nine charges. Court documents show he pleaded not guilty to two counts involving the alleged installation of recording devices.

He is scheduled to appear for a bail hearing at 1 p.m. Friday.

Anyone with information related to the case is urged to contact the Hudson Police at 603-886-6011.

“The Hudson Police Department continues to work closely with the ICAC Task Force and state and federal partners in aggressively investigating crimes involving the exploitation of children,” police said in the release.

Follow Aaron Curtis on X @aselahcurtis, or on Bluesky @aaronscurtis.bsky.social. 

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By all outward appearances, Tim McGough has been a fan of President Trump and his immigration agenda for years.

McGough, a Republican state senator who represents Merrimack, N.H., spoke at a Trump campaign rally ahead of the state’s 2024 GOP primary. In 2023, he welcomed Tom Homan, Trump’s former ICE director and current border czar, to New Hampshire for an event about securing America’s borders. And he was in Washington for Trump’s second inauguration, writing on social media that “God Blessed America” with “our 47th President.”

But McGough seems less excited about how Trump’s immigration agenda is unfolding in his own district. Last week he spoke out forcefully against an administration plan to convert a sprawling local warehouse into an ICE processing center for hundreds of detainees. “There are locations across the state and across the country that will willingly accept this type of facility,” McGough said, “and Merrimack is not one of them.”

McGough, who didn’t respond to requests for comment, may be right that other communities would welcome ICE. But in a sign of how the politics of immigration are shifting, he’s part of a growing number of lawmakers and residents pushing back against the administration’s plans to locate potentially dozens of detention or processing facilities in their cities and states.

It wasn’t always this way. Last summer, Florida Republicans proudly partnered with Trump to build a detention facility that became known as “Alligator Alcatraz.” And immigration policy was once a bright spot for Trump, with more voters than not favoring his tough approach.

But the politics have changed. Most Americans now disapprove of Trump’s handling of the issue and say ICE’s tactics have gone too far. Even some Republicans have recoiled, distancing themselves from immigration crackdowns in places like Minnesota.

Merrimack, a closely divided town Trump narrowly lost to Kamala Harris, opposition to the proposed ICE facility has been building for weeks. In December, the Washington Post reported that the administration was eyeing a vacant warehouse there to repurpose. Local Democrats sounded the alarm, hundreds of residents protested, and the town council came out against the plan.

The pushback quickly became bipartisan. In December, McGough first said it was “too early to draw any conclusions” about a possible ICE facility, then said he opposed it. Last month, another local GOP lawmaker called the proposal “federalism run amok” that would give Merrimack “a negative connotation.”

Governor Kelly Ayotte, a Republican who has banned “sanctuary” policies in cities and urged local police to cooperate with ICE, initially said she hadn’t heard anything from the administration about the plans. Yet after the ACLU of New Hampshire published documents confirming them, Ayotte lambasted a state agency she said had known about the proposal since January but hadn’t told her; the head of that department resigned Monday.

New Hampshire is Trumpy only by New England standards, and the private company that owns the Merrimack warehouse hasn’t said whether it plans to sell it to the administration. Yet resistance to local ICE facilities is growing even in places that have long supported him.

In Utah, Texas, Georgia, Oklahoma City, and a New Jersey county Trump won in 2024, residents have rallied against similar plans. A company that owns a warehouse in Virginia’s Hanover County, which backed Trump in 2024, reneged on a handshake deal to sell to the administration after residents and lawmakers protested.

Even so, the administration has paid hundreds of millions of dollars in recent weeks to acquire facilities in Maryland, Arizona, Pennsylvania, and Texas in a bid to vastly expand its capacity to imprison detainees. The proposed Merrimack facility could reportedly hold up to 1,500; plans for one in Hutchins, Texas, call for housing six times more.

Yes, most Republicans still support Trump’s immigration agenda. New Hampshire Republicans blocked a bill that would let municipalities reject permitting for facilities that lack local approval. But for now, the opposition appears to be getting louder — and not just there. As one protester in Merrimack told WMUR, “It’s just not who we are as New Hampshire people. It’s not who we are, I suggest, as Americans.”

🧩 2 Down: Map detail | ☁️ 34° Thawing out

Winter Olympics: Team USA’s three-time ice dancing world champions fell short this time, losing the gold medal to France. Peek inside the team’s Winter House, where athletes can get away from it all. And here’s what to watch for today.

ICE in Massachusetts: A judge dismissed immigration authorities’ case against Eva Helena Mendes, a Rhode Island green card holder detained at Logan Airport over old shoplifting charges. And a jury found a former Worcester City Councilor guilty of assaulting a police officer during a chaotic clash last May between protesters and immigration agents.

A History Fight: A group that promotes Black Americans’ contributions to Boston history is “throwing up plaques as fast as we can” to combat the Trump administration’s efforts to erase similar markers elsewhere.

I’m on a boat: Why did the Suffolk County Sheriff’s Department launch a harbor patrol in Winthrop, far from the jail it runs?

Up and down: New England colleges and universities keep cutting costs, but their endowments keep going up. At $56.9 billion, Harvard’s is bigger than Iceland’s economy.

Tariffs: Six House Republicans voted with Democrats to end Trump’s import duties on Canadian goods. The measure is unlikely to become law, but Trump threatened to support primary challenges against its Republican backers anyway. (WashPost 🎁)

Oops: The FAA closed El Paso’s airspace for hours after Customs and Border Protection officials used a laser on loan from the Defense Department against what they said was a Mexican cartel drone. It turned out to be a party balloon. (NYT 🎁)

Pam Bondi: During a congressional hearing, Trump’s attorney general yelled at and insulted lawmakers asking about her handling of documents related to Jeffrey Epstein and refused to apologize to Epstein victims who were in the room. (Guardian)

Nancy Guthrie: A potential lead fizzled in the disappearance of the “Today” show host’s mom, leaving authorities without a suspect in custody. (AP)

Poll, axed: Gallup, which has tracked US presidents’ popularity since Franklin Roosevelt, will no longer do so. The firm recently found Trump, who has threatened to sue over polls he says portray him negatively, with a 36 percent approval rating. (The Hill)

By David Beard

🦃 Where is Sandwich? Not the food, not the town on the Cape, but the beloved turkey who paced and pecked around a Northampton hospital. There’s a suspected Sandwich snatching — and the turkey hunt is on.

🏠 Home of the Week: Inherited art and antiques transformed and revitalized this drab Milton Colonial. Also, a Sunday River ski home, anyone? And should you even try to sell your home yourself?

🛞 First Person: Kevin Zhang thought it was okay to park in a neighborhood spot. Someone disagreed, he writes in “To the person who slashed my tires.” Plus, an Eastie man was so angry over “space savers” he shoveled the neighborhood himself.

📺 RIP James Van der Beek: The former “Dawson’s Creek” heartthrob, who later mocked his hunky appearance, was 48.

🐅 16 astonishing images: Sit back and enjoy, from the Wildlife Photographer of the Year contest. (Popular Science)

📕 Fran Lebowitz isn’t joking: “This is not kind of like what the Nazis did. This is precisely what the Nazis did,” says the writer, appearing next week at the Emerson Colonial.

🌅 Best/worst states for retirement: New Hampshire makes the 10 best in this survey; Rhode Island the 10 worst (what, someone didn’t like the Cliff Walk?). See the list. (Business Insider)

Thanks for reading Starting Point.

This newsletter was edited by David Beard and produced by Diamond Naga Siu.

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Ian Prasad Philbrick can be reached at ian.philbrick@globe.com.