Lindsay Austin and her husband, Lamar, sit with their newborn son, Cainan, on New Year’s Day in Concord. LEAH WILLINGHAM For the Monitor 
 
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 Four days ago, Lamar Austin became the proud father of the first baby born in Concord, losing his job after missing work to be with his family at the hospital. 
 
 He chose to remain positive, he said, focusing on his new son instead of the job he lost. 
 
 “Sometimes you lose something and you get something even better,” he said Sunday afternoon while resting at Concord Hospital with his wife, Lindsay, and baby boy, Cainan. 
 
 Since then, the military veteran and father of four has received at least three job offers, an outpouring of support and a fundraising page dedicated to helping his family financially. 
 
 After reading in the Monitor that Austin was hoping to get into electrical work, Denis Beaudoin, the business manager from the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers in Concord, offered Austin the chance to apply for an apprenticeship. 
 
 Beaudoin lives in Pittsfield, the same town as Austin, and said electrical work might offer a more flexible and understanding environment for someone like Austin, who has a big family and wants to devote time to it. 
 
 “I know how valuable family time is, and if you’re a union member we incorporate that, we understand that, and we don’t penalize you for that,” Beaudoin said. 
 
 Glenn Brackett, president of the NH AFL-CIO union, which represents nearly 30,000 workers, also offered Austin an apprenticeship. 
 
 And the branch manager of the Adecco staffing agency in Portsmouth offered to help Austin find another job. 
 
 Old job 
 
 Austin said he was hired by Salerno Protective Services a month ago for a 90-day trial period as a part-time security guard in which he was expected to be on call 24/7. Salerno Protective Services provides security to clients including stores and college campuses. 
 
 When Austin got the job, the company told him they were looking for “dependable people,” he said. 
 
 Austin said he couldn’t cover one shift offered to him last month because he had to take his wife to a doctor’s appointment. Then Lindsay went into labor Friday night and Cainan was born Sunday morning. Austin said he missed shifts Friday and Saturday. At 1 a.m. on New Year’s Day, Austin said he got a text that read: “As of now, you are terminated.” 
 
 The company said Tuesday it wouldn’t comment on an employee’s status. 
 
 “Being shrouded in confidentiality we are unable to comment until all business with Mr. Austin has been concluded,” president and CEO Anthony Salerno said by email Wednesday. “SPS is not in the practice of releasing employees for reasons stated in the article you published but must be cognizant of the product we give our clients!” 
 
 Family support 
 
 The story struck a chord with readers who questioned whether an employee could be fired for missing work due to the birth of a child. 
 
 Because New Hampshire is an “at-will” employment state, an employer may generally terminate an employment relationship for part-time or full-time workers at any time and for any reason, with a few exceptions. That means Austin has little in the way of legal protection, no matter how good an excuse the birth of a child may seem, legal experts said. 
 
 Sara Persechino, a mother of two in Hopkinton, doesn’t think that’s fair. Persechino was on the Hopkinton select board in 2014 when it unanimously voted in favor of paid family leave for town employees. 
 
 “I don’t think anyone should ever have to choose between their family and their job,” she said. 
 
 She decided to set up a GoFundMe account for the Austin family. 
 
 “I don’t think they should have to be worrying about financial issues right now; it should be a joyful time for them,” Persechino said. “Anything we can do to make this even more joyous is worth it.” 
 
 As for Austin, he said he is surprised and beyond grateful for all the support. 
 
 “I’m thanking God for delivering one of the many promises,” he said. 
 
 (Leah Willingham can be reached at news@cmonitor.com.) ||||| Lindsay Austin, 26, and her husband, Lamar Austin, 30, sit with their newborn son, Cainan Austin, at Concord Hospital on Jan. 1. Lindsay Austin said she’s thankful for the support her family has received since her story went public. LEAH WILLINGHAM / For the Monitor 
 
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 Lindsay Austin is grateful for all the support her family has received after her husband was fired early New Year’s Day for missing work to attend the birth of their son. 
 
 “I was a little bit upset, because my husband is trying to provide for us and it was hard to swallow when he got fired, but I’m thankful and I feel like we’re blessed,” Austin said Thursday. “It definitely happened for a reason.” 
 
 Austin said she hopes other workers won’t have to make the same choice her husband, Lamar, had to make – go to work or lose his job. 
 
 “Hopefully, we can be part of the movement,” she said, as new baby Cainan, slept nearby. “Hopefully things can change and a law can be passed so this doesn’t affect other people again in the same way.” 
 
 The family’s story – they were featured in Monday’s Monitor after having the first baby of the new year in Concord – caught the public’s eye and struck a chord with many of the state’s legislators and labor leaders. 
 
 State Sen. Dan Feltes of Concord said he tried to create protections for employees like Lamar Austin during the last legislative session with Senate Bill 416, which offers workers “flexible working arrangements,” for reasons including the hospitalization of a family member, or the birth of a child. 
 
 But it’s not the employer’s job to offer flexible arrangements. It’s up to the employee to ask for flexibility, which isn’t possible in all circumstances. 
 
 “Hard-working Granite Staters shouldn’t have to choose between work and family,” Feltes said. 
 
 It’s hard to know if SB416 would have worked out for Austin and his former employer Salerno Protective Services. So far, company president Anthony Salerno has declined to say much about Austin or why he was dismissed. 
 
 Currently, neither the federal nor state government have a family and medical leave law or program. The 1993 Family and Medical Leave Act allows certain workers to take up to 12 weeks of unpaid – but job-protected – leave to tend to a serious health condition or to care for a new child or an ill relative. 
 
 However, there are a few catches in the FMLA: including the size of the employer and how many hours an employee had worked over the course of a year. Austin was hired to work as a part-time security guard for Salerno in December and isn’t covered. 
 
 Nationally, about 41 percent of employees are not covered by FMLA, according to the U.S. Department of Labor. 
 
 About half of Granite Staters lack access to parental leave, and less than a third of workers have access to all three types of extended leave: for their own illness, for parental leave and for care of a family member, according to a study done by Kristen Smith, a family demographer at the Carsey School of Public Policy. 
 
 Family time 
 
 If New Hampshire wants to attract and retain young workers – Austin is a 30-year-old Army veteran – it needs to offer maternity and paternity leave, but also types of medical leave including those who may need to miss work to care for an ailing partner, child or parent, said Chris D’Allesandro, New Hampshire Mom Force Director of MomsRising, an advocacy group for mothers and families. 
 
 “Key things that millennial workforces are looking for are these kinds of jobs that allow them to divide their time between caring for their families and their professions,” D’Allesandro said. 
 
 Glenn Brackett, president of the NH AFL-CIO union, agreed that New Hampshire needs some kind of legal mechanism for citizens to get time off to care for their families. He said that’s especially true of part-time employees like Lamar Austin. 
 
 “In New Hampshire, we have a lot of temporary employees and part-time employees that aren’t covered under any federal laws, and these people are being basically taken advantage of,” Brackett said. 
 
 Brackett, whose union represents nearly 30,000 workers, challenged the new governor, Chris Sununu, to stand behind legislation change for working families. In his inaugural speech on Thursday, Sununu cited the need for the state to retain and grow a workforce of younger workers. 
 
 “If Gov. Sununu really feels that he has to do something to help working people, using this example of Mr. Austin as a stepping-off point, will he be supportive of legislation that would right this wrong?” Brackett queried. 
 
 Executive Councilor Andru Volinsky, who was sworn into office Thursday, cited the plight of the Austin family and said fair labor practices will be at the forefront of his mind during the next two years. 
 
 “When companies come to the state seeking contracts, I want to know about their employment practices,” he said. “And if they’re similar to that security company, I can tell you they’re going to get a hard time from me because they’re not respectful to their employees.” 
 
 Job options 
 
 Lamar Austin is now eyeing a shot at a new career as an electrician – or one of the multiple job opportunities that poured in after people read his story. 
 
 Austin was offered the opportunity to apply for an electrician’s apprenticeship with the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers in Concord, along with a host of other jobs. 
 
 “Anything that would be more stable, and allow me to spend time with my family is a blessing,” Lamar Austin said. 
 
 Of course, the job is no handout, said Denis Beaudoin, the IBEW business manager. 
 
 “We’re giving him the potential hand-up, if you will, by offering him a career in the electrical construction field as an apprentice,” Beaudoin said. 
 
 Beaudoin said a first-year apprentice can make around $28,000 a year, plus benefits. If Austin gets the electrician job, he said it will be the best-paid job he’s ever had. 
 
 As for all the support, it’s been overwhelming, the Austins said. A GoFundMe account created by Sara Persechino, a mother of two from Hopkinton, already exceeded the account’s goal of $1,000 in one day. 
 
 “I didn’t expect this at all,” Lamar Austin said. “I don’t really watch the news or TV, so when I started getting all these emails from people wanting to help, it was a lot to take in.” 
 
 Austin said he’s been in contact with Salerno Protective Services to pick up his last check, hand in his uniform and talk about what happened. He said that, in his mind, there’s no bad blood between them – he understands why Salerno did what he did. 
 
 “It wasn’t a clash of who’s the bigger man,” Austin said. “He had his company, which is like his baby, and I had my baby, which was just being born. Naturally, he’s going to pick his baby over my baby. I can’t blame him for that.” 
 
 (Leah Willingham can be reached at news@cmonitor.com.) ||||| Lindsay Austin, 26, and her husband, Lamar Austin, 30, sit with their newborn son, Cainan, in their room at Concord Hospital on Sunday. Cainan was the first baby born in Concord in 2017. LEAH WILLINGHAM / Monitor staff 
 
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 Lamar Austin was faced with a difficult decision on New Year’s Eve. 
 
 His nine-months-pregnant wife, Lindsay, was in her second day of early labor, but his boss was telling him if he didn’t show up for his shift as a part-time security guard in Manchester, he would lose his job. 
 
 Austin weighed his options, and concluded that no matter the consequences, he wasn’t going to miss his son’s birth. 
 
 “I thought, ‘Family comes before anything else,’ ” Austin said. “I’m not going to turn my back on them for a job.” 
 
 So, at 4 a.m. on the first day of the year, Austin, 30, drove his 26-year-old wife, Lindsay Austin, to Concord Hospital from their home in Pittsfield. He had to be careful on the roads, which were still icy from the snowstorm of the day before. 
 
 After what the couple said felt like four short hours later, their son, Cainan Austin, was born. He arrived at 7:44 a.m. – the first baby of the year in Concord. And, most importantly, Cainan’s father was there to hold him after his birth. 
 
 Later in the afternoon, while resting at the hospital with his wife and newborn, Austin said he felt at peace with the decision to miss work. However, he admitted it hadn’t been easy. Right before he drove his wife to the hospital, his boss sent him a text saying that he was officially terminated. 
 
 “It was hard, but if I have to choose between work and family, I’m always going to pick my family,” he said, gently patting his son’s pink-and-blue striped hat as he slept in his mother’s arms. “Sometimes you lose something, and you get something even better.” 
 
 The couple chose the name Cainan for their son because they thought it was unusual – and both liked it right away when they heard it. When he was born, Cainan was 7 pounds, 3 ounces and 19 inches. His mother noted how similar he looks to her other three children – 8, 3 and 21 months. 
 
 Lindsay was surprised that Cainan was born on his expected due date – Jan. 1. 
 
 “We were laughing about having the first baby of the year,” she said. “We never thought it would actually happen.” 
 
 Lindsay is a stay-at-home-mom, and she said it’s the best job there is. 
 
 “I’m so lucky to be able to do that,” she said. 
 
 The couple met almost 10 years ago on an online dating site, and later had their first daughter, now 8. But Lamar, who was originally from New Jersey and an ammunition specialist in the Army, wasn’t able to move to New Hampshire where Lindsay lived until four years ago. 
 
 In 2012, Lamar arrived in the Granite State hoping to spend more time with his daughter, but he wasn’t able to find housing or a job right away. He lived temporarily at the McKenna House in Concord, while Lindsay stayed with her mother in Manchester. 
 
 Despite some ups and downs, Lindsay and Lamar decided to get married this past year and set up their home. 
 
 Lindsay’s mom was watching the couple’s other three children while they were in the hospital Sunday. Lindsay and Lamar video-chatted Lindsay’s mom from their hospital room, and she reported that Cainan’s brothers and sisters are very excited to meet the family’s newest member. 
 
 Lindsay and Lamar said they had always wanted a big family. 
 
 “We always used to joke about having 10 kids when we first got together, but I think we’re going to be taking a break for a while after this one,” Lindsay said, smiling. 
 
 As for 2017, Lindsay said she just hopes the family stays happy and healthy. Lamar said he wants to focus on spending as much time together as they can. ||||| The mother of so-called affluenza teen Ethan Couch sold her Tarrant County home in August and was renting a house not long before she and her son fled the country, touching off a massive international manhunt. 
 
 The 18-year-old and his mother, Tonya Couch, are expected back in Texas as early as Wednesday after Mexican authorities captured them Monday evening at a modest hotel in the beach resort town of Puerto Vallarta. 
 
 The two were reported missing in early December when Ethan Couch — who was sentenced in late 2013 to probation for killing four people in a drunken-driving crash — missed a meeting with his probation officer. 
 
 He was already under investigation after a video surfaced allegedly showing him at a party where alcohol was present, a possible violation of his probation. Tarrant County authorities said Tuesday they will seek to have his case transferred from juvenile court to the adult system, where restrictions and penalties would be harsher. 
 
 Despite Couch leaving the country, which prompted federal law enforcement officials to join the hunt for him, the worst punishment he would currently face is four months in jail and another chance, authorities said Tuesday. 
 
 State law is to blame for that, experts say. 
 
 “He has not been held accountable yet,” Tarrant County Sheriff Dee Anderson said Tuesday, voicing his frustration at the system during a news conference. “The tax money that we have spent is tremendous. We shouldn’t have spent this money in the first place.” 
 
 A warrant for Tonya Couch, 48, has been issued on a charge of hindering apprehension of a criminal, a felony that carries two to 10 years in prison. 
 
 That is a relief for some of her son’s victims. 
 
 Todd Clement is an attorney who represented Eric Boyles in a lawsuit against the Couches. His wife, Hollie Boyles, and their daughter, Shelby Boyles, were killed in the crash as they sought to help a stranded motorist, Breanna Mitchell, 24, of Lillian. Another Good Samaritan, Brian Jennings, also died in the wreck. 
 
 “There is some satisfaction that Tonya Couch will be held accountable indirectly for this finally,” he said. “Everybody had pretty much said Ethan is a product of very bad parenting. It appears at least one of those parents is going to be held criminally accountable for that.” 
 
 Anderson said there is no indication that Ethan Couch’s father, Fred Couch, who is divorced from Tonya, was involved in their flight across the border. 
 
 Clement said it is not surprising that Tonya would help her son flee to Mexico. 
 
 “I think it is completely consistent from Tonya’s attitude from day one that she will do whatever it takes to avoid accountability for her child,” he said. 
 
 It’s not her first criminal case. 
 
 She was convicted of a misdemeanor charge of reckless driving in 2013 and was sentenced to six months probation, court records show. 
 
 Tonya Couch sold her $343,400 Burleson home on Aug. 10, county deed records show. She and Ethan had been renting a house in Fort Worth since August 2014, according to her landlord, James Walker. 
 
 He said that he did not renew the lease and that their last day in the home was Aug. 31. Walker said he did not know where they went after that. 
 
 ‘Textbook case’ 
 
 U.S. Marshal Rick Taylor of the Northern District of Texas described the work of local, federal and international authorities to track down the Couches as “nothing more than a textbook case” of collaboration. 
 
 Anderson, the sheriff, said his deputies and federal authorities followed a “tremendous amount” of leads to track down the mother and son. 
 
 Couch and his mother drove to Mexico in her pickup, he said, and headed for Puerto Vallarta, a resort town on Mexico’s Pacific coast, known for its beaches and American tourists. 
 
 “As you can imagine Puerto Vallarta at Christmas time, a tremendous amount of tourists down there,” Anderson said. “American people were prevalent everywhere, so they wouldn’t stick out. They were wise to go to that type of area.” 
 
 Anderson also said there was “more or less” a going-away party thrown in the days before the Couches fled south of the border, suggesting their trip was carefully planned. He did not elaborate. 
 
 Mexican authorities said they learned Dec. 24 that the U.S. marshals were searching for Couch in that country. He and his mother lived for less than 30 days in a pricey hotel known as Los Tules, about two miles from downtown Puerto Vallarta, according to a spokesman for the state attorney general’s office in Mexico. 
 
 A hotel employee recommended they find a more modest and discreet place. 
 
 In November, they moved to a less affluent part of town called Colonia 5 de Diciembre, a few blocks from the beach. They were arrested for not accurately filling out immigration paperwork and for exceeding the number of days they were supposed to be in Mexico, officials there said. 
 
 Late Tuesday, Mexican authorities said they were able to zero in on the pair’s specific whereabouts Monday after Couch used his cellphone to, among other things, order food. 
 
 “They were arriving at home when they were arrested,” said Eduardo Almaguer Ramirez, the state attorney general. “They didn’t resist arrest.” 
 
 A photo of Ethan Couch released by Mexican officials showed him with his blond hair, beard and mustache dyed a dark color. 
 
 “We were told by U.S. authorities that he’s a young person who doesn’t measure the consequences of his acts and that’s why he acted the way he did in the United States,” Ramirez said. 
 
 Drunken-driving case 
 
 Jean Boyd, the Tarrant County juvenile court judge who set Couch’s sentence, did not seek re-election last year. She rejected prosecutors’ request for a 20-year prison sentence for Couch. Instead, Boyd gave the teen 10 years’ probation after a psychologist testified that his family’s wealth and dysfunction left him without a sense of responsibility. 
 
 The psychologist’s use of the term “affluenza” to describe Couch’s background touched off an avalanche of outrage around the country that continues to this day. 
 
 Earlier this month, a video went viral that appeared to show Couch laughing and clapping as others took part in a beer pong game. If so, that would be a violation of his probation, which also called for Couch to enter an addiction treatment center and avoid driving and alcohol or drugs for 10 years. 
 
 Timothy McLaughlin said his son, Isaiah, still suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder after being injured in the June 15, 2013, crash. He said Couch should now receive a stiffer punishment. 
 
 “It took a very short period of time for Ethan to show who he is,” he said. “It’s very frustrating…He keeps getting away with everything. 
 
 “The best thing for him is to do time and let reality set in,” McLaughlin said. “He’s proven time and time again that he’s not going to learn from getting off.” 
 
 “Jail is a well-known cure for affluenza,” said Bill Berenson, a Fort Worth attorney who represented one of the victims, Sergio Molina, in a civil lawsuit. Molina, 18, is paralyzed and brain damaged from the crash. 
 
 Lawyers wait 
 
 Ethan Couch’s attorneys, Scott Brown and William Reagan Wynn, issued a written statement Tuesday. 
 
 “At this point, we have not had the opportunity to speak with our client and we do not anticipate being able to do so unless and until he arrives in the United States. Until we have more information concerning this situation, it would not be prudent for us to make any further public statement.” 
 
 Couch is an adult who is currently being supervised by the juvenile system. He was 16 at the time of the crash and was still legally considered a juvenile when authorities say he missed his probation check-in. 
 
 Boyd’s successor, Judge Timothy Menikos, is expected to rule next month on a request to move Couch’s case to the adult court system on his 19th birthday in April, Tarrant County District Attorney Sharen Wilson said. 
 
 The district attorney said that despite Couch’s flight across the border, officials’ options for harsher penalties for him are limited. 
 
 “I wish the system were different, but our system of law means the best result in this case would be, in our opinion, to get him in adult court.” Wilson said. 
 
 On Twitter: 
 
 @naheedrajwani @KevinRKrause @ajcorchado
– A month ago, Lamar Austin was hired by a security company for a 90-day trial period that involved him being on call 24/7. On New Year's Day, Austin's son was born. Austin, who had already had to miss one shift offered to him due to a doctor's appointment for his wife, ended up missing shifts on Friday and Saturday. Son Cainan was born Sunday, and at 1am that day, Austin got a text notifying him he'd been terminated from Salerno Protective Services. Austin's story made headlines, especially due to the fact that Cainan was the first baby born in Concord, NH, in 2017. "If I have to choose between work and family, I’m always going to pick my family," Austin told the Monitor shortly after his son's birth. Since then, people have been stepping up to help Austin, a 30-year-old military veteran and father of four, big-time. He's gotten offers for at least three jobs, plus money raised for him on a GoFundMe page set up by a mother who was upset by what happened to Austin—even though, as experts explain to the Concord Monitor, it's perfectly legal in an "at-will" employment state such as New Hampshire. In a statement reported by WCVB, Anthony Salerno Jr. cited confidentiality in not commenting on the particulars of the situation, but did say "SPS is not in the practice of releasing employees for reasons stated in the article published in the monitor [sic] but must be cognizant of the product we give our clients!" But there's no bad blood, Austin tells the Monitor. "[Salerno] had his company, which is like his baby, and I had my baby ... Naturally, he’s going to pick his baby over my baby. I can't blame him for that." (This waitress lost her job for firing a shot at robbers.)