New Hampshire's Supreme Court has dealt a crushing blow to the gambling industry, ruling that horse race betting, book-making, and pool-selling are illegal at the New England Breeders' Club's Salem track. The decision came after Governor John McLane and his council, responding to pressure from religious groups and citizens, asked the court whether such activities would violate state law. The ruling is devastating for the club, which has already spent "several hundred thousand dollars" building Buckingham Park and secured a six-week racing schedule from the Jockey Club for the upcoming summer season. Meanwhile, Major General Wood is defending American soldiers in the Philippines against charges of deliberately killing women and children during fighting against the Moros near Jolo. Wood claims the deaths occurred because Moro fighters used women and children as human shields, many women wore men's clothing making identification impossible, and some feigned death to attack American medical personnel. The controversy has drawn attention from Secretary of War Taft, who has demanded a full explanation of the civilian casualties.

These stories capture America grappling with two defining issues of the early 1900s: moral reform and imperial expansion. The horse racing decision reflects the growing influence of Progressive Era reformers who sought to eliminate gambling, drinking, and other vices from American society. Religious groups were increasingly flexing their political muscle to reshape public morality through legal channels. Simultaneously, the Philippines controversy illustrates the brutal realities of America's new role as a colonial power. The Moro Wars represented some of the fiercest resistance to American rule, and allegations of atrocities against civilians would fuel growing anti-imperialist sentiment back home.

• The horse racing track was named 'Buckingham Park' and had already been under construction for more than a year before being shut down by the court ruling
• Catholic priests arrived in Manila carrying 'three small sealed caskets' containing portions of bodies and ashes of priests murdered in recent Chinese massacres, with one casket of trinkets addressed directly to the Pope
• A classified ad promotes bonds signed by 'The Bankers Surety Company of Cleveland, Ohio' with agent Elmer E. Newbert at 317 Water St., Augusta, showing how insurance was marketed in 1906
• Belfast, Maine had a shocking Democratic upset when John R. Dunton defeated Republican Orlando E. Frost by 162 votes - notable because 'the last Democratic mayor was elected in 1886,' twenty years earlier
• George Dolley, age 85 and formerly of Portland, was found burned to death in his lonely log cabin at Pilot Hill, Eldorado County, California on March 1st

• The New Hampshire court's anti-gambling ruling directly contradicted New York's Supreme Court interpretation of identical race track laws - showing how differently states viewed the same legal language in 1906
• Senator Eugene Hale of Maine was being praised by the American Protective Tariff League for his opposition to Philippine trade policies - Hale had been a close ally of fellow Mainer Nelson Dingley, author of the famous Dingley Tariff of 1897
• The weather forecast promised snow for New England - this was cutting-edge meteorology for 1906, when weather prediction was still largely guesswork and forecasts rarely extended beyond 24-48 hours
• 'Corporal' Tanner, head of the Grand Army of the Republic, was fighting a proposal to cut pay for government clerks over 65 - many were Civil War veterans who would face poverty in an era before Social Security or pensions
• The New Jersey Senate passed a bill requiring executions by electrocution rather than hanging - the electric chair was still a relatively new 'humane' innovation, first used in New York in 1890