A Black Lives Matter protest more accessible to those in the disabled community is being organized for next Friday in Portsmouth.
Our modern world advances at an ever-increasing pace and the news industry is not immune from the impacts. How do these shifts in technology and public sentiment change the media landscape? How can we keep up? We speak with David Brooks, the “Granite Geek” and columnist for the Concord Monitor, about the obstacles and opportunities of the union between tech media.
The town's Select Board has dropped plans to move forward with a town-wide policy to ban the distribution of single-use plastics on town property and instead will leave it in the hands of voters.
The board made the decision last week after members of the town's Sustainability Advisory Committee filed a citizen's petition to have the town adopt an ordinance instead at the March 14 Town Meeting. The committee believes an ordinance to ban the distribution of single-use disposable plastics — such as bottles, containers, and straws — on town-owned property would have more teeth than just a policy.
After a slow start to the season, Pine Hill Ski Club in New London is now open with miles of ski trails, groomed for classic cross-country skiing.
Pine Hill Ski Club Board President, Susie Lowe-Stockwell, said the slow start because of a lack of snow has shifted over the last month. “We’ve had a good stretch of being open,” Lowe-Stockwell said. “The groomers have been out. Conditions have been hard packed and fast.”
Twin Pines Housing appeared before the New London Planning Board in January with a revised site plan to Long Meadow Commons, a 60-unit workforce housing project on County Road near New London Hospital.
The revised plan maintains the 60-workforce housing units spread among four buildings on land currently owned by the Cricenti family. The site plan, which had originally proposed a large courtyard in the center of the complex, has been replaced with a smaller cul-de-sac at the rear. A playground and pavilion, which was to be in the courtyard, has also been moved to the southern edge of the development.
Soaring electricity bills are seriously hurting our pocketbooks. This fall, the National Grid warned that New England consumers could see a 64% increase in electricity rates this winter. Eversource New Hampshire customers are now paying 22 cents per kilowatt hour for default service. This is more than double the previous rate. What is the solution to this escalating problem? We will explore some options in the works in Hudson, as well as other communities in the state, called “Community Power.” This idea bands together New Hampshire towns and cities to increase their purchasing power and lower costs. For this episode of Get Tech Smart, we talk to Craig Putnam, the director for the Hudson NH Electric Aggregation Committee; Brett Gagnon, a former board of selectmen liaison for Hudson; and Henry Herndon, a consultant with the Community Power Coalition of New Hampshire. Will these efforts lower your electricity costs?
Northern Tree Service was at the Libby Museum in Wolfeboro Dec. 21 to remove several old and diseased trees from the museum property.
Kari Lauber of the Friends of the Libby Museum (FoLM) looked on and took pictures to document the event as crews worked to remove the trees. “Just having these trees removed is definitely a good feeling,” she said. “It’s our first big step forward in a long time, and our first step towards the restoration.”
COVID-19, itself, was bad enough. But this season we’re also dealing with a tough flu variant and RSV. What should you know? And what can you do to keep yourself and your family safe? Host Melanie Plenda speaks with Dr. Aalok Khole, an infectious disease specialist at Cheshire Medical Center in Keene.
As financial pressures push news outlets to take a hard look at their payroll, alternative funding sources have come into play as a way to bolster reporting positions. At The Keene Sentinel, Olivia Belanger holds one of those positions. She leads the paper’s Health Lab, and she said the position doesn’t just add another position, it allows whoever holds that position to do a different kind of work.
Universities can be hubs for innovative thought, products and even spin-out businesses. The University of New Hampshire is no exception, and has actually created an ecosystem to accelerate future high tech leaders, companies and socially responsible nonprofits.
For this latest episode of Get Tech Smart, I feature three guests from UNH:
Marc Eichenberger Chief Business Development and Innovation Officer, UNHInnovation
Jeffrey Lapak, Director, UNH InterOperability Lab and COVID Lab Operations
Dot Sheehan, Founder, President, and CEO, OPERATION HAT TRICK.
Merrimack Station in Bow, built in the 1960s, is the last coal-fired plant in New England. The plant has a long history of serving the energy needs of New Hampshire residents but in recent years the plant has come under fire by anti-coal groups who have called for its closure citing health and environmental concerns and the plant’s capacity has been reduced from 70 to 90 percent capacity in years past to only 10 percent today. While Merrimack Station secured a three-year contract with the regional grid operator ISO-New England last February, utility advocates and anti-coal activists believe it is only a matter of time before coal-fired plants like Merrimack Station will transition to other forms of energy.
In August 2021, the term that dominated the headlines was Great Resignation. By August 2022, at least 4.2 million Americans had quit their jobs, seeking better pay, flexibility and culture, according to Zippia.com.
For this episode of Get Tech Smart, we meet Career Coach Peter Duffy, owner of Connections Career Coaching LLC. We'll dig deep into the root causes of the 'great resignation' problem and the solutions for tech employers and employees.
For this episode of Get Tech Smart, we’ll meet Laurel Skiff of BAE Systems, a defense contractor that is one of the top 10 largest companies and employers in New Hampshire. Laurel Skiff, the company’s community, pre- and early-career outreach program lead, will walk us through the four STEM programs BAE offers to high school students. These programs provide incredible and valuable hands-on opportunities in STEM through BAE’s intensive programs and internships, including:
STEM Talks Virtual Program
Engineering Career Day
Women In Technology
Focus
For those seeking asylum in the United States, the process can be long and fraught, involving multiple government agencies and, sometimes, detention while they await decisions on their applications. That does not sit well with Judith Reed, co-founder of Project Home. “Our conviction is that it isn't necessary or even right for people to be in detention when they're just asking for asylum. That doesn't make sense to us. So we thought, if they're not going to be in detention, then where will they be? Well, they'd be in our communities.”With this in mind, Reed and a group of like-minded residents in the Keene and Peterborough area set out to establish host homes for asylum seekers. They are currently involved in cases involving asylum seekers from Rwanda, Mexico, Honduras, and El Salvador. Project Home is part of the N.H. Host Home Network, a statewide network of volunteers who offer shelter and support, providing an alternative to detention
Bob “Buddy” Hackett, owner of Renaissance Firearms in Barrington, grew up hunting and fishing. He shot pistols and rifles competitively around the world. He served in the Marine Corps for a decade. Guns were always part of his life. Now in his mid-50s, Hackett holds a master’s degree in social work and counsels veterans struggling with suicidal thoughts. His two worlds – that of a mental health and a gun rights advocate – may seem incongruous. However, gun shops can play a pivotal role in suicide prevention, says Elaine Frank of the New Hampshire Firearm Safety Coalition (NHFSC) and former program director of the Injury Prevention Center at Children’s Hospital at Dartmouth.
Milford citizens recently discussed a topic that has come up in several communities across New Hampshire and the country. It concerns policies for transgender students using school facilities like bathrooms and locker rooms. Host Melanie Plenda speaks with 603 Equality activist Linds Jakows and chair of the Milford school board member Judi Zaino about a recent Milford School Board meeting that turned into a rally in support of transgender students and a discussion of the district's policies concerning those students.
When Andrew Mumford, of Springfield, was shopping for a new vehicle in 2017 he wanted something that was environmentally friendly. He was interested in an electric vehicle, but he wasn’t confident that he would always have access to a charger, especially on longer trips around the region.
“I don’t remember, at the time, feeling confident in a vehicle that was fully electric,” Mumford said.
