Hub of Greater Nashua and its ongoing traffic dilemma

There are Hudson town officials who want to conduct a traffic study because of congestion related to Lowell Road.

Town Planner John Cashell originally proposed using $100,000 of $1.5 million in available Cost Allocation Procedure funds.

There are other Hudson officials who think another study of traffic in Hudson is unnecessary.

It’s pretty clear to anyone who has ever driven on Lowell Road – or sat in their car during rush hour in an attempt to drive along it: It’s busy.

And during the afternoon rush hour (a misnomer if ever there was one in relation to Lowell Road), any street onto which Lowell Road dumps traffic, north or south, winds up the same way.

Long gone are the days when Hudson was a quiet little community whose claim to fame was Benson’s Wild Animal Farm. Now, its claim to fame is if you want to go anywhere from Nashua to the state line, you’re probably going to wind up on Lowell Road at some point.

It doesn’t take a $100,000 study to know that where Lowell Road and its major connectors are one lane each way, it’s going to be slow going during the heaviest times.

In addition, selectmen approved installing a traffic signal at the intersection of Lowell and Pelham roads.

It’s already so pleasant to be able to stop at red light after red light because they aren’t timed to get you through the length of the road during non-rush hours.

Boston may be the Hub of the Universe, but Hudson is the Hub of Greater Nashua – at least as far as traffic is concerned.

Protecting New Hampshire’s struggling dairy industry

The ongoing drought and low milk prices have slammed the Granite State’s dwindling dairy industry.

Earlier this week, lawmakers hoped to remedy this crisis with the approval of a special seven-member committee to study and recommend a short-term plan for preserving this time-honored sector of northern New England life.

Farmers may be able to adapt to the issue of low prices, but they cannot survive low prices and scarce feed at the same time, said House Speaker Shawn Jasper, R-Hudson.

"Any industry is really important in terms of trying to keep jobs. Agriculture is part of our heritage," Jasper said Thursday. "Because this is primarily an issue of a natural disaster, I think we need to give them a fighting chance."

Officials say the industry produces $141 million a year in revenue and provides 3,500 jobs.

Officials have recommended that the Legislature approve up to $3.6 million in emergency aid for drought assistance, the AP reports, and request $2 million for each year of the next biennium budget for the Milk Producers Emergency Relief Fund.

New Hampshire’s dairy industry remains an important link to the state’s proud farming tradition and essential to the growing localvore movement across the country.

Cyber threats undermine
our election and economy

For most Americans, the scariest attack is not coming from the inner citiy or radical Islamic terrorism – it’s coming from a laptop overseas.

Manchester-based Dyn reported this week that its server infrastructure was nailed by a distributed denial-of-service attack, meaning targeted machines are overwhelmed with malicious electronic traffic that create disruptions. Services had been restored to normal on Friday.

Dyn provides internet traffic optimization to some of the best-known sites, including Twitter, Netflix and Visa, making it difficult to gauge the level of disruption.

The latest possible cyberattack comes at a time when Fox News says U.S. intelligence agencies are concerned that Russian-backed hackers could attempt to undermine the presidential elections by "posting documents purporting to show voter fraud."

This is more than an issue for online banking and retail transaction. Americans need to know that their privacy, as well as that of their government entities, is safe in an increasing global marketplace – and high-tech companies must continue to work collaboratively with law enforcement to bring swift justice to those hacking into the U.S.

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