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Trade disputes over US and Canadian lumber companies is just the latest in a line of challenges that are facing timber owners. Add to that the continued fallout from the pulp mill closing in Berlin and the constant tensions between timber owners and environmentalist groups. Today on the Exchange we'll look at our state's timber industry, the challenges they're facing and how these changes may alter the future of the industry. Laura's guests are Jasen Stock, Executive Director of the New Hampshire Timberland Owners Association; Steve Blackmer, founder and president of the Northern Forest Center and Sarah Smith, Forest Industry Specialist with the UNH Cooperative Extension.

Over the final months leading up to the election and in Monday morning quarterbacking after the election, many in both parties feared that their party today has "moved far away from its original beliefs". In part one of a special two-part mini-series this week, The Exchange takes a look at what it means to be a Republican today. Laura's guest is Dante Scala, Associate Professor of Politics at St. Anselm College and Research Fellow at the New Hampshire Institute of Politics. We'll also hear from Phyllis Woods, former Republican State Representative from Dover who ran for State House this year and lost; Ed Mosca, Manchester attorney and former chair of the Manchester Republican City Committee; Charlie Arlinghaus, president of the Josiah Bartlett Center for Public Policy Study and former state GOP Executive Director; and Tom Rath, Republican Party National Committeeman for New Hampshire and longtime Republican analyst and consultant.

She's known for appealing to President Lincoln to establish Thanksgiving as a national holiday and for writing Mary Had a Little Lamb, but New Hampshire's own Sarah Josepha Hale was also a writer and editor, strongly believed in the "New England Way of Life" and thought that women should not vote and should stay out of politics. As we approach the Thanksgiving holiday, we'll learn more about who Sarah Josepha Hale was, what her impact was on New England and the other lesser known things she did in her lifetime. Laura's guests are Stu Wallace, Associate Professor of History at the New Hampshire Institute of Technology and Liz Wright, Associate Professor in the Department of English and Communications at Rivier College.

Pay-Per-View! We're not talking about television, rather the view tax placed on New Hampshire homeowners who can gaze out their windows on mountains and lakes. It is stirring a serious backlash statewide. We'll weigh the pros and cons of putting a value on your view.

Laura's guests are David Ezyk, a retired Marine Aviator who opposes the view tax and Secretary of the Lancaster Taxpayers Association; Philip Blatsos, Commissioner of the State Department of Revenue Administration and a member of the Assessing Standards Board; and Gary Roberge, CEO of Avitar Associates of New England, a company that has done assessing in New England for more than twenty years, including real estate assessment.

In advance of National Survivors of Suicide Day this coming Saturday, we are going to take a look at how those people left behind when somebody dies by suicide cope with their grief. We'll also see what the social perceptions of suicide are today and what is being done here in New Hampshire to better help educate people on this sensitive topic. Laura's guests are Catherine Greenleaf, Author of “Healing the Hurt Spirit”, longtime non-denominational spiritual director and member of the Association for Death Education and Counseling. Catherine has lost loved ones to suicide in the past. Also, Ken Norton, Director of the Frameworks Youth Suicide Prevention Project at NAMI NH - The National Alliance On Mental Illness and Dr. Mary Brunette, Psychiatrist and Medical Director for the NH Dept. of Health and Human Services Bureau of Behavioral Health. She also works for the Dartmouth Psychiatric Research Center. We'll also hear from Michael Whitman. He lost his son to suicide in 1994 at the age of 23. Whitman is a member of the New Hampshire Youth Suicide Prevention Assembly and gives talks on the healing power of music.