New Hampshire

MANCHESTER, N.H. - Quietly but systematically, Hillary Clinton is building a firewall in New Hampshire. She can afford to lose the Iowacaucuses as long as she can win here. She can't afford to lose both states. As a result, say Democrats with long experience in state politics, Clinton has been doing everything "the New Hampshire way. " She has carefully cultivated strong personal ties that go back to her husband's 1992 campaign and has built an organization with deep local roots.

Kentucky picked up another football verbal commitment over the weekend when Pennsylvania defensive end Greg Meisner told coach Rich Brooks he would play for the Wildcats. Meisner chose UK over Cincinnati, Vanderbilt, New Hampshire, Youngstown State and Delaware. His father told Scout.com's Rob Gidel that his son committed after making a visit to Kentucky over the weekend. The 228-pound Meisner was scheduled to visit hometown Pittsburgh in January, but took UK's offer because Pitt wanted him to grayshirt and sit out a semester before enrolling Meisner's father played for Pitt and spent 11 years as a defensive tackle in the NFL Clemson loses tight end At Clemson, S.C., tight end Thomas Hunter broke his foot in practice Sunday and will not play for Clemson in the Music City Bowl against Kentucky.

WASHINGTON - At noon on April 25, in Prescott Park in Portsmouth, N.H., John McCain announced his presidential candidacy. Less than two hours earlier, in the U.S. Supreme Court, a lawyer who had been solicitor general in the Clinton administration spoke in the name of McCain. The senator had filed a brief urging the court, in a case arising from an application of the McCain-Feingold law regulating political speech, to uphold the constitutionality of suppressing the speech of a small grass-roots lobbying organization.

MANCHESTER, N.H. - Maybe the signs pointing to Hillary Clinton's victory in the New Hampshire primary were there all along, hidden in plain sight by the blur of Obamamania and a stack of flawed polls. There was that moment in the ABC News debate Saturday when Barack Obama and John Edwards ganged up on Clinton and she fought back. Later, when Scott Spradling, a local political reporter, suggested that voters didn't find her likable, she replied, "Well, that hurts my feelings. " It looked like a genuine reaction from someone so often cast as a stick figure.

Don Stone welcomed everyone to the March 10 meeting of Senior Moments of Heritage Baptist Church at Alliance Bank. Stone then read an article from the Guide Post about a family moving from New Hampshire to Kentucky. The family learned that to make friends, they only had to open their home and be a friend. The Rev. Gerald Peeples gave the table blessing, and then 22 members and guests were served a potluck lunch. Joe Brown was recognized for having a March birthday. Marie Wilson, program chairwoman, introduced Billie Scobee as the guest speaker.

WASHINGTON - The turmoil in the Republican presidential contest, which seems to produce a new front-runner every month, owes to President Bush's unpopularity and the fact that even members of his own party want to turn the page on the last seven years. John McCain's victory in last week's New Hampshire primary, which vaulted him to the lead nationally, was built in large part on anti-Bush votes. Republican Mitt Romney is edging away from a strategy based on pure conservative orthodoxy, presenting himself instead as the true candidate of change.

Mary Imogene Bowman Robinson, 86, wife of Charles Victor Robinson of 65 years, died Thursday, Jan. 19, after a lengthy illness. She was a deacon of the Bethany Christian Church, a member of the Bethany Christian Women's Fellowship and a member of the Disabled American Veterans Auxiliary. Additional survivors include two children, V. Gene Robinson and his partner, Mark, of New Hampshire, and Karen Robinson of Lexington; two granddaughters, Jamee Robinson of Vermont and Ella Robinson of New York; two great-grandchildren, daughters of Jamee, Morgan and Megan Muzzy of Vermont; and a sister- and brother-in-law, Jan and Ray Wells of Nicholasville.

STANFORD - When Hurricane Katrina began barreling toward the Gulf Coast earlier this year, Barbara Schulz decided she had been through too many hurricanes. A resident of Fort Myers, Fla., Schulz had experienced Hurricanes Andrew, Charlie and Ivan, all of which devastated the areas they struck in Florida. "It wasn't that I didn't want to go through another hurricane. I refused to leave my animals behind," Schulz said, noting that she has two Daschunds and a parrot. Thus, as Katrina grew in strength, Schulz got on the Internet in search of a job opening in a hurricane-free zone.

Paul Avery's business is a commercial twist on the meals-on-wheels program. "Basically, it's a kitchen on wheels program," said Avery. "And I am the cook, waiter, cashier, cleaner and chief bottle washer, all in one person. " And all in one 5-by-9 foot, stainless steel food wagon that he hauls around to two dozen factories and construction sites in Boyle and Lincoln counties. Avery works five days a week in the fall and winter and six days a week in the spring and summer.

Dear Editor, Thank you Bobbie Curd for writing the Tammy Carpenter story about Child Protective Services that ran in The Kentucky Advocate on Sunday. I only wish I could find a reporter in New Hampshire who has guts enough to do the same. My grandchildren were taken by CPS because of false allegations. Medical records were hidden and by the time they finally reappeared, the judge didn't care. These records would have proven my daughter's innocence. The judge said if the kids were taken illegally, it didn't matter.