NH News

Between 2000 and 2009 New Hampshire’s Latino population grew by 79 percent.

These changes have created new challenges for some New Hampshire schools.

SFX: announcements, and hall noises

Walking through the halls of Nashua South High school, it’s clear where everyone stands. Literally.

Students Talking: This is the Spanish corner, yeah basically yeah this is the Spanish corner, like Dominican, Puerto Rican, right there is the Mexican corner, for real. (Spanish chat fades away, hall SFX continues)

House Democrats are raising alarms that a handful of bills they oppose could be voted on later this month. The announcement comes before lawmakers return to Concord November 30th. 

Speaker Bill O’Brien has taken the unusual step to call the full House together several times this fall already. The chamber is returning in two weeks to take up education funding constitutional amendments.

Democrats say they aren’t sure if Republicans will use that session day to push a number of controversial bills.

With today’s unemployment levels, it’s hard to imagine that New Hampshire companies are still hiring guest workers from abroad.

NHPR’s Sam Evans-Brown reports that even in a flooded labor market, skilled immigrants continue to plug a gaping hole in the New Hampshire economy.

Universal Software is an IT consulting firm with branches all around the world.

SFX: Office Ambiance

Its Nashua offices are quiet, with plenty of empty cubicles waiting to be filled.

Governor John Lynch promises to veto any bill that would allow casinos or similar forms of gambling in the state.

Governor Lynch struck preemptively.  In a letter to the Republican leaders in the House and Senate, he said more gambling would increase social service costs and, with casinos likely to come to Massachusetts,  fail to raise as much revenue as backers predict.

The governor’s spokesman, Colin Manning said furthermore, any expansion will lead to proliferation.

State regulators suggested the Local Government Center turn over control of its operation and assets to a neutral party.

The Securities Bureau Director says that’s the best way to address fundamental problems within the organization.

The Local Government Center, the group that provides insurance to cities and towns, faces four charges it violated state laws.

The Securities bureau alleges that LGC owes municipalities upwards of $100 million dollars.

The Executive Council refused to give New Hampshire Consumer Advocate Meredith Hatfield another term.

Some on the all Republican council feel she’s been too political in her opinions.

The Executive Council voted three to two against re-appointing Meredith Hatfield to represent the interest of consumers against the state’s public utilities.

Councilor Chris Sununu, of Newfields, says he was concerned about her stance on the Laidlaw Biomass Plant in Berlin as well as some of her opinions on the PSNH power plant in Bow.

Governor Lynch and other New Hampshire politicians were on hand to dedicate the newly completed Manchester Airport access road.

The new, two mile stretch of highway connects the airport to both the Everett Turnpike and Route 3.

Planning for the road began about 25 years ago.
 
Now that it’s done, the Department of Transportation estimates people will be able to shave about 10 minutes from their drive to the airport.

In the wake of recent power outages after a freak snow storm, Public Service of New Hampshire is defending the quality of its distribution grid.   The electric utility says there are no perfect solutions.

Top state and federal officials have called for public hearings on the factors that left hundreds of thousands of customers without power.  PSNH President Gary Long says he welcomes those hearings.  Long says the power company has invested heavily in its network of poles and wires and the system has never been stronger.

The ballots have been tallied from yesterday’s municipal elections, and New Hampshire voters have by-and-large chosen to hang on to their incumbents.

Mayors in Concord, Manchester, Rochester all defeated challengers by wide margins, while those in Nashua, Laconia, and Berlin had uncontested elections.

The one exception was in Claremont where Republican challenger James Nielson unseated incumbent Democrat Deborah Cutts by fewer than forty votes.

Dan Tuohy (TWO-ee) a reporter with New Hampshire Patch, spent the evening watching the votes being counted in Concord.

Voters didn’t just vote for mayors and alderman yesterday.

Several ballot initiatives were also passed around the state.

Two similar measures in Manchester and Dover sought to change how the tax cap is calculated in those cities, and give slightly more freedom to elected officials to raise funds.

The measure passed in Manchester but was defeated in Dover.

Meanwhile in Concord, voters passed two charter amendments.

The first gives control of the school board, which had been in the hands of the legislature, back to the municipality.

Still recovering from city-wide power outages from the surprise Halloween blizzard, Manchester
voters went to the polls yesterday and re-elected Mayor Ted Gatsas.

The incumbent secured a second term as mayor by a wide margin, trouncing
Democratic challenger Chris Herbert.

In his victory speech, Gatsas thanked his opponent for running a positive campaign and
stressed his commitment to reduce the city’s budget.

Manchester Community College has received a grant of nearly 5 million dollars for a worker training program.

As NHPR’s Sam Evans-Brown reports the funds come from an unexpected source.

When American companies can’t find the American workers with the skills they need, they can bring in guest workers on a temporary visa.

Applying for that visa costs the employer a lot of money, and the Department of Labor gives that money back in the form of grants to train Americans.

The state Supreme Court has unanimously ruled that names and individual pension amounts are public information. The ruling opens the door for media to scrutinize how much former public workers collect in retirement.

About 18 months ago, the Union Leader asked to see the names and payouts to the 500 individuals with the highest pensions.

Citing vague language in the Right-to-Know law, the New Hampshire Retirement System declined to hand over the documents.

The Public Utilities Commission has awarded grants to fund renewable energy projects in the state.

Four companies and one elementary school will receive part of a one million dollar grant for projects that reduce dependence on fossil fuels.

Carbon Harvest Energy will receive the largest portion of the grant -$500,000- for a landfill gas-to-energy combined heat and power plant in Lebanon.

Greenville Elementary School will receive a grant to replace its oil-fired boiler with a wood pellet one.

The Environmental Protection Agency held a public hearing on a new permit for PSNH’s coal-fired power plant in Bow.

The draft permit could force the utility to upgrade its cooling system to prevent fish kills.

The EPA says the Merrimack station power plant withdraws large quantities of water from the Merrimack River and returns it at much higher temperatures.

The agency says installing a more modern cooling system would reduce fish kills by 95-percent.

But it would also cost PSNH $112 million over a 20 year period.