NH News

  Construction will begin soon on a new $2 million athletic facility on the second floor of UNH’s Field House.  The Student-Athlete Center for Excellence is slated to open late next fall.

Mike Murphy, with the Athletic Department, says the new space should help the school attract athletes to campus.   

So it’s going to be both areas where students can have breakout rooms where they can work in tandem, but they also will have rooms where they can have advisors, tutors, and career assistance.

Suspended Rockingham County Attorney Jim Reams will return to office on Wednesday, but his authority to make personnel decision will be limited.

Lawyers for Attorney General Joe Foster and Attorney Reams together crafted the agreement that allows the Reams to return to work. 

Foster suspended Reams from his elected post in November and opened an investigation. In March, the investigation concluded with allegations of sexual harassment, gender discrimination and misuse of public money. No criminal charges were made.

Senate President Chuck Morse says lawmakers need to agree on a short-term fix to address a court ruling that found New Hampshire's tax on hospitals unconstitutional.

The Senate is voting whether to sell "hike safe" cards to hikers that would forgive them for any rescue expenses they'd otherwise owe New Hampshire for being negligent.

Thursday's vote is on a House-passed bill that authorizes the Fish and Game Department to sell voluntary hike safe cards for $25 per person and $35 per family. People who obtain the cards would not be liable to repay rescue costs if their rescue was due to negligence on their part.

New Hampshire's House is voting Wednesday whether to legalize two casinos about a month after representatives said `no' to one casino.  The Ways and Means Committee voted 11-9 to recommend that the House reject the bill, which includes $25 million in aid to communities as a sweetener. The House has never approved video slots legislation.  The Senate bill proposes legalizing two casinos sharing a total of 5,000 video slot machines and 240 table games. The House killed a bill a month ago that would have legalized one casino licensed to have 5,000 video slot machines.

The Seacoast Science Center in Rye is now handling marine mammal rescue duties in coastal New Hampshire. The center has joined the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's marine mammal stranding network. The partnership began Jan. 1, but the busy season is likely to start this spring as seal pup season begins.  Humans are more likely to encounter seals and seal pups on the beach at this time of year.  The center reminds residents that most seals they encounter on beaches are not in danger.  The center manages a 24-hour hotline for calls about animals that do appear in peril.

 A New Hampshire wildlife biologist says that the spring turkey population appears to be robust, despite the record number of zero-degree days this winter.  Saturday marks the start of the annual Youth Turkey Hunt Weekend.  Turkey biologist Ted Walski says sightings of flocks of wild turkeys suggest they weren't affected by the frequently frigid winter.  He expects the spring turkey hunting season to be as good as or better than last spring, when hunters took 4,550 turkeys.  Turkey season for adult hunters runs from May 3 to May 31.

A unique forest habitat in Concord that's home to the endangered Karner blue butterfly is getting a face-lift--and over $233,000 in funding --in an effort to increase the butterfly population.  The U.S Fish and Wildlife Service is getting the money to help maintain and restore the pine barrens, a mix of small trees, grassy areas and sandy soil, much of which has vanished nationwide to development.  The current population on the refuge is just over 1,500 butterflies. The goal is 3,000.

  Suspended Rockingham County Attorney Jim Reams is one step closer to getting his job back.  On Thursday, the Supreme Court decided for now, it will not hear the state’s appeal in a lawsuit seeking to return him to office.

Reams and his attorney will likely return to court next week to argue that the Supreme Court’s decision lifts a previous lower-court order continuing his suspension.

The New Hampshire Supreme Court ruled Thursday that suspended Rockingham County Attorney Jim Reams can return to office while the Attorney General appeals a lower court's finding that the suspension was unlawful. 

The Supreme Court denied the AG's request for a stay that would have kept Reams out of office until the appeal is argued.

Divers are working to recover a small plane that crashed into Lake Winnipesaukee earlier today.

As the ice continues to recede on shallow lakes and ponds, dead fish might be washing up on New Hampshire shorelines, but state officials say that's not uncommon.

The Fish and Game Department and Department of Environmental Services say a number of dead fish recently were discovered along the shore of Hopkinton Lake, also known as Elm Brook Pool, in Hopkinton.

A longstanding legal dispute between the operators of Mount Sunapee Resort and the New Hampshire officials who blocked expansion plans is on trial once again.

A lawyer for the resort operators says state officials misled them into thinking they could expand and build condominiums when the state leased the ski area portion of the state park to the Sunapee Difference LLC in 1998.

The Concord Monitor reports the lawyer argued Monday his clients lost millions in potential revenues.