News

Every year New Hampshire takes in hundreds of refugees from all around the world.

They have fled wars, persecution, and even torture in their home countries, and some bear scars – both inside and out. After the trauma they have endured some refugees arrive with undiagnosed mental illness, but identifying and treating these patients is no easy task.

Most of the few routines we have in my house involve the thermostat - at night, as we all trek upstairs to bed, I turn the main floor thermostat down and turn the upstairs thermostat up. In the morning, we do the reverse. It keeps our heating bill down, but it's a little like trying to save gas by hypermiling - not everyone is going to put in that much time to save a buck here and there.

A roundup of the top-ten most-read stories on nhpr.org and the StateImpact - NH website.

1) North Country: As Purchase Falls Through, Groveton Paper Plant Eyed for Demolition - A deal to bring the closed Groveton paper mill in the North Country back to life has fallen through raising the possibility it will be demolished.

NHPR brings you live NPR coverage Saturday night from the South Carolina Primary.

The Green Bay Packers are not going to repeat as Super Bowl Champions this year. That you surely already know. But it's not because Eli Manning and the New York Giants managed to contain the Packers' offense or outplay the Pack's defense. It's because of some sparkly nail polish and an Aaron Rodgers jersey that sat at home, unworn, during the most important playoff game of the year.

So explains our senior sports analyst, Sad Packer Fan:

For three decades, Gary Hirshberg has been at the helm of one of the Granite state’s largest and most prominent businesses, as well as a leading advocate for both the organic and local food movements  and democratic causes.  Now, Hirshberg is stepping down.  We’ll talk with him about his legacy, how ideas around food have evolved over his time there and what may be next for him.

Guest

• Gary Hirshberg - Chairman, president and CEO of Stonyfield Farm in Londonderry.  

Next week on the Exchange, we begin by examining the South Carolina Primary and if the results may re-shape the Republican Presidential campaign.  Then, nearly two years after the Affordable Care Act was signed by President Obama, we'll look to see what progress has been made and what major roadblocks lie in its way.  We'll discuss Obama's State of the Union Address, talk roads and bridges and rail, with New Hampshire’s new Transportation Commissioner Christopher Clement, and end the week with the authors of a new book exploring the “dark side” of American Politics….opposition researchers w

Hippo Editor Amy Diaz tells NHPR's Rick Ganley about Concord's Dine Out and 9th annual New Hampshire Wine Week. 

N.H. House lawmakers took testimony today on several bills that would reduce the power of unions.

They include a repeal of collective bargaining for state employees, and banning public sector unions from charging non-members the cost of negotiating contracts. The hearings drew a big crowd of opponents, including many union members. Diana Lacy is president of the state employees association.

Home sales in New Hampshire remained about even with last year. About 200 more homes changed hands in 2011 than in 2010. Prices continued to slide. The median sales price was about $201,000, or about 6 percent less than the year before. The latest numbers from the New Hampshire Association of Realtors leave it unclear where the market is headed. There are some signs of improvement. Between November and December, prices held steady and at least from one month to the next, the number of homes sold rose by about 8 percent.

The federal government has provided $5 million to help protect some of the most beautiful land in the North Country. NHPR’s Chris Jensen reports.

The U.S. Forest Service is providing $5 million to purchase a conservation easement near Errol.

The money will prevent development but still allow sustainable logging and recreation.

J.T. Horn is an official with the Trust for Public Land. It has been working on the huge, conservation project.

The New Hampshire House has passed its redistricting plan. Below are three maps to help  you see what's proposed and how it's different from today's voting districts.

• The first map shows the proposed House districts, including the "floaterials" which appear as green overlays on the map
• The second is the proposed districts without the floterials, colored by the number of representatives which would be elected from each district.
• The third is the previous districts, color coded in the same way.

New Districts with Floterials  | New Districts without Floterials | Previous Districts

As news broke that Mitt Romney might not have been the victor in Iowa after all, his campaign reacted diplomatically, with a statement acknowledging a virtual tie between him and rick Santorum. But diplomacy, especially when it comes to pledges on foreign policy, has been one of the things found lacking in Romney’s campaign messaging, especially from the point of view of the global press.

A decade ago, President Bush signed into this wide-ranging education reform bill into law, which has been hotly debated since. Supporters of No Child Left Behind said it was a “wake up call” for public schools, but opponents said it created a nightmare of paperwork and impossible expectations.  We’ll look at the legacy of NCLB, where its helped the national education system, its challenges and how the Obama White House has approached it.

Guests 

 The New Hampshire House of Representatives passed a redistricting plan, but not before defeating a counter proposal from fellow republicans

A breakaway group of republicans made a strong showing with a revised map of house voting districts

The alternative map would keep Manchester whole, instead of lumping one of its wards with the town of Litchfield.