Laura Knoy

The Bi-Partisan Congressional Super-committee failed last week to reach a deficit reduction agreement.  That means automatic spending cuts kick in, in twenty thirteen…and President Obama says he’ll veto any attempt avoid those.  We talk with two economists about what this all means…and about the rocky political and economic roads ahead.

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Our series on New Hampshire Immigration continues with our state’s first residents.  Before textile mills, melting pots and refugees there were Native Americans who inhabited the state for centuries, and our first immigrants, English fisherman and entrepreneurs  looking to escape Puritan rules and start a new life. We’ll look at who these first Granite Staters were and how they shaped our immigration story.  

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We talk with former foreign correspondent Barrie Dunsmore about his decades reporting for ABC News and about the changing role of international coverage following years of cuts to foreign bureaus by newsrooms dealing with shrinking budgets and amid the growing role of  citizen bloggers in spreading news of world events.  His new book is called "There and Back"

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New Hampshire has a relatively high share of vacation properties….more than ten percent statewide, with heavy concentrations in resort areas. We’ll look at the impact of these get-away homes on property taxes, demographics, and jobs…also, how the second-home market may provide a bright spot in an otherwise struggling real estate sector.

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When immigrants and refugees come to a new country like America, they are often cut off from their homeland, their loved ones and their culture. Often they are required, even at very young ages, to navigate a tangled web of bureaucracies and to adapt rapidly to new settings. Many newcomers find resources that help them make the transition to their new lives in New Hampshire yet others may find those resources lacking. We listen to firsthand accounts of the struggles involved in coming to the Granite State.

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In recent years, children are arriving from new countries, bringing diversity but also new challenges.  Many don’t speak English and some aren’t literate in their own language.  We talk with people in the education system and folks dealing with foreign born newcomers on a daily basis and ask how they are working to overcome these issues.

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June Tumblin: Department Head of the English Learner program at Manchester Central High School

Thomas Sica: Principal of Rundlett Middle School in Concord

Healthcare delivery is complicated enough without language barriers, financial difficulties and cultural misunderstandings. Being a newcomer in a strange country presents many new challenges but healthcare is one of the most difficult to overcome. We take a look at the myriad obstacles the foreign born population face, and what some local healthcare providers are doing to help overcome them.

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We’re looking at the history of immigration as a part of NHPR’s year long series on New Hampshire’s Immigration Story. In the early days it was French Canadians and Irish who arrived, at the turn of the last century Greeks and Eastern Europeans and today, new arrivals from Brazil, to Burundi to Bhutan. We’re looking at who came, why they came and the little known stories around our immigration history.

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David Watters: Professor of English at UNH, where he is the director of the center for New England culture.

As of early 2010, more than 2 million US troops have served in Iraq and Afghanistan. Larry Minear, a researcher on international and internal armed conflicts, has spent a lot of time talking to more than 175 of these veterans, many of whom came from New Hampshire and Vermont. He talked to them about what motivated them to go to war, what they did once they went over, and how they rejoined society upon their return.

Almost since it was first unveiled a year ago, the Northern Pass , a $1.1 billion hydroelectric project that would transmit power from Canada to central NH then on to the new England grid, has provoked sharp debate especially in the north country, where some forests would have to be cut for transmission lines. But now the debate is spreading to Central New Hampshire. We get the latest from two reporters who have been covering the communities where the discussion had been the loudest.

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The October storm that left hundreds of thousands without power in New Hampshire may have been unlikely for this time of year, but it’s also a scenario familiar to Granite Staters who have weathered many natural disasters in recent years, including floods, ice storms, and even a tornado.  We take a look at what we’ve learned from these events, where our emergency preparedness is still lacking, and how we might fare as we head into another winter season. 

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Although we are a nation of immigrants, the first laws to enforce who could be an  American citizen  and who couldn't didn’t appear until the late 1880s.  Since then, new legislation like the Immigration Acts of 1921 and 1965, as well as the Refugee Act of 1980s have both strengthen and loosened these rules.  As part of our year long series "New Hampshire's Immigration Story", we'll talk today about the law, how it’s evolved and ask if it once again needs to be modified?

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The idea of virtual learning is growing in the American education system.  More students from Kindergarten through 12th grade are learning in front of a screen rather than from a live teacher.  While some say the format is cost efficient and tailored to each individual's learning speed, others say essential components of the schooling system, such as development of social skills and hands on lessons, are being compromised in the process.  Many educators are looking on with reluctant optimism as the virtual world expands in its implementation.  Today we're looking at education that favors co

Governor Lynch’s newest amendment, which aims to give the legislature more elbow room to pay for education, has surprised, angered and pleased law makers on both sides of the aisle. This is the third amendment proposed this year after the House and Senate each passed versions of their own. Lawmakers on the right are displeased with Lynch's legal word choice, lawmakers on the left don't want an amendment at all, but there are those who think a compromise is possible.

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