Ex-GOP official seeks new trial

CONCORD, N.H. (AP) – A former national Republican Party official convicted in a phone-jamming plot against Democrats in New Hampshire is seeking a new trial.

James Tobin of Bangor, Maine, filed a motion on Dec. 21 seeking a new trial and to overturn the jury’s guilty verdict. The documents filed in federal court in Concord do not include Tobin’s arguments for a new trial. They are expected to be filed within a month.

Tobin faces up to seven years in prison for telephone harassment.

The harassment occurred on Election Day 2002, when hundreds of hang-up calls overwhelmed Democratic get-out-the-vote phone banks in New Hampshire.

State Democrats are pursuing a civil lawsuit, which they hope will expose knowledge or approval of the scheme by GOP officials higher than Tobin.

Supplier indicted in $200K theft

NASHUA, N.H. (AP) – A construction materials supplier has been indicted on charges he stole more than $200,000 from a Nashua construction firm.

A Hillsborough County grand jury indicted Stefan Philbrook of Manchester, 35, on a theft by deception charge.

The indictment alleges that while working for the T.J. McCartney construction company, Philbrook was paid more than $200,000 for building materials that his own company, Mason Westgate, was supposed to have shipped to McCartney. The indictment says the materials were not shipped, but that Philbrook was paid for them.

Sprinklers save UNH lab, rats

DURHAM, N.H. (AP) – Sprinklers put out a fire in a University of New Hampshire research lab this week, saving the building and more than 100 lab animals.

The flames broke out Tuesday morning in a light fixture in the ceiling of a room at Conant Hall, but the sprinkler system put out the flames before anyone in the building even knew there was a fire.

Conant Hall is the oldest academic building on the Durham campus, and now is an animal research building.