Of the many headwinds threatening New Hampshire’s economic future, one of the more important ones is the state’s flagging ability to develop and retain a home-grown and well-educated workforce. The consequences of this trend are exacerbated by the fact that people are ...
Whether Nashua Police Commissioner Tom Pappas acted improperly when he intervened with police on behalf of state Rep. David Campbell after the latter hit and killed five ducks at the Crowne Plaza Hotel last month is something the attorney general will decide. If Pappas was wrong, the question ...
The matter of New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and what has become known as “Bridgegate” has been politically pundited to near death. But let us beg the forgiveness of our readers if we do a little political pontification of our own. There are three principle ways to look at ...
Playground advocates should work to cooperate Let’s hope the Nashua Committee on Infrastructure’s Feb. 3 roundtable forum to discuss where the Legacy Playground should be built brings resolution to this divisive issue. The original plan to construct the universally ...
We understand the frustration people sometimes express toward the state’s Electronic Benefits System that allows welfare recipients to buy cigarettes or beer using a state-issued, debit-type card. You’re standing in line behind somebody at a convenience store and they ...
There was nothing wrong, strictly speaking, with the ski trip New Hampshire Sen. Kelly Ayotte took to Park City, Utah earlier this month. As described in a Page 1 story in Monday’s New York Times, lobbyists shelled out thousands of dollars to spend large chunks of time with Ayotte, ...
We asked in this space, back in October, “When is it the public’s turn to get a little favorable treatment?” We were referring to a recommendation that lawmakers create a commission to study ways to help state agencies recover the cost of Right-to-Know Law ...
Spend it, or save it, or do a little of both? Those are the choices New Hampshire legislators are being asked to decide about what to do with the modest surplus the state has on its hands. The state has about $15 million left over from the 2012-13 biennium. House and Senate Democrats want to ...
Government can’t do everything for everybody, and it shouldn’t try. But when government does nothing – and there are those who sometimes appear to believe that it has no rightful place in the lives of citizens – it sets the stage for large-scale ...
There is special significance to Martin Luther King Day this year because, in six months, we will commemorate the 50th anniversary of the most important civil rights legislation in the nation’s history – the Civil Rights Act of 1964. It was just two months ago that the ...
This Friday, Jan. 24, Harvard Law School professor Lawrence Lessig and some friends are scheduled to arrive in Nashua for a birthday party. They’re coming all the way from Dixville Notch in the state’s North Country, part of a campaign to make us examine the influence of ...
NH is right to go slow on legalization of marijuana After the legalization of same-sex marriage, no other social issue has seen such a dramatic change in public attitude recently than the personal use of marijuana. This month, Colorado became the first state in the nation to allow legal ...
Rep. David Hess, R-Hooksett, has a point when he says we ought to be having a discussion in the state about the tax-exempt nature of some of the institutions we call “non-profit.” Hess believes some of them ought to be paying the state’s Business Enterprise Tax, ...
The actions of Nashua police commissioner Thomas Pappas after state Rep. David Campbell ran over a handful of ducks at the Crowne Plaza Hotel last month give residents just cause to question whether justice is on the level in Nashua. The state representative killed the ducks outside the ...
It’s a given that, when a hiker gets lost in the mountains of New Hampshire, the state’s rescue apparatus responds immediately, no questions asked. It’s a life-threatening situation that requires swift action and expertise. New Hampshire Fish & Game, U.S. ...
Science isn’t perfect, but studying the universe and reaching conclusions based on facts, observation and experiments is one of our best tools for fighting ignorance. To its credit, science usually seems to get things right in the long run. If we let it. Unfortunately, factions in ...
It’s a well-known cliche often raised in debates about seat beats, motorcycle helmets or other public-policy inconveniences government wants to impose on residents: “If it saves even one life, it will be worth it.” It’s not the sharpest of debate tools, ...
The more pressing question confronting New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie is not if his fledgling presidential campaign can withstand the outlandish George Washington Bridge scandal, but whether his future as the Garden State’s chief executive is in peril as well. As abuses of power go, ...
When he started out running for president of the United States, Jimmy Carter would stop people on the streets of New Hampshire and introduce himself to total strangers. Rare indeed was the person who had even heard his name, much less knew that the former nuclear engineer had once been the ...
Last weekend’s response to the pond hockey tournament held to honor Hollis’ Cam Ricard was a wonderful thing. More than 200 people turned out to celebrate the life of the 17-year-old Hollis Brookline High School student who died on his way home from hockey practice Dec. 9 ...