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By DAVID BROOKS

New Hampshire sugarhouses bounced back in 2022 after a dismal prior year, producing more maple syrup than any season in the past seven years.The U.S. Department of Agriculture estimates that New Hampshire produced 167,000 gallons of maple syrup last...

By DAVID BROOKS

Concord Makerspace has found a new home, although it’s not in Concord.The city’s makerspace, formerly known as Making Matters, opened in the old Beede Electric building in Penacook just as the pandemic hit. That worked for a while but problems with...

Hands up, anybody who is old enough to remember ELIZA.That “natural language” program came out of MIT in the mid-1960s and caused a flurry of interest by creating text conversations online that fooled some people into thinking they were dealing with a...

By DAVID BROOKS

The open-source software worked well but the hardware had a few issues.That’s the conclusion from audits of a new ballot-counting machine that was tested in three New Hampshire towns during the November election. The device, developed by a nonprofit...

By DAVID BROOKS

If you’re looking for an industry that is adapting to the pain that accompanies climate change, take a walk in a hardwood forest until you find plastic tubing stretching off into the distance. That’s the tradition-bound maple syrup industry tossing...

By DAVID BROOKS

If you were planning on visiting that great urban cluster of Charlestown, New Hampshire, any time soon – sorry, you’re too late. It’s now rural.Same with Epping and Farmington. Until this year those three communities rubbed shoulders with Concord,...

By DAVID BROOKS

Robert Holt’s reaction after his neighborhood lost power in the recent storm was different than mine.“This is, like, perfect! This is how it’s supposed to go!” he said, looking back at how his home performed.Holt was happy because his home is one of...

By DAVID BROOKS

One of New Hampshire’s most interesting-looking bridges straddles one of its handsomest river gorges next to a road and a rail line that have been used for well over a century. It’s the perfect recipe for tourism success in a state that increasingly...

By DAVID BROOKS

A woman was injured Saturday in a fire apparently caused by the failure of her home’s battery backup system after the power went out in Sanbornton, an example of a new concern for fire departments and building inspectors.“We’re going to have growing...

By DAVID BROOKS

A few New Hampshire school districts are getting ready to enter the electric transportation era, which means they have to figure out a pretty basic question: How to get the electricity.Once that’s solved, they will get to ponder a more interesting...

By DAVID BROOKS

Last week’s election includes some perfect examples of why political parties don’t want to give up the job of drawing the boundaries of voting districts.Start with the five-person New Hampshire Executive Council, a poster child for the power of...

By DAVID BROOKS

For the fourth time in its 50-year history, Concord’s piece of New Hampshire’s state university system is about to get a new name, part of a big change that should raise the profile of this often-overlooked institution but not alter its underlying...

By DAVID BROOKS

Automation of the workplace can make life easier. Just ask Walker Fitch about the downright luxurious change it brought to his life as a dairy farmer.“I get up at 5 now,” Fitch bragged during a recent tour of his Milford farm. “It used to be 4.”He...

By DAVID BROOKS

A trial starts Monday on whether Merrimack Station in Bow releases too much warm water into the Merrimack River in violation of its EPA permit, a case that could decide the fate of the last coal-fired power plant in New England.The lawsuit, brought by...

By DAVID BROOKS

An unusual plea for veterinary clinics to donate money to a state laboratory so it can diagnose a mysterious syndrome hurting New Hampshire’s dogs is another reminder that we aren’t doing enough to spot emerging diseases – as if a reminder was needed...

By DAVID BROOKS

The price hikes and supply crunches that have clobbered fuel supplies and raised prices throughout the world are starting to affect the one fuel we can call our own: Wood pellets.“There is quite a bit available right now but with the ongoing...

By DAVID BROOKS

Heidi Holman wants you to know that it’s not her fault all the lettuce you planted in the spring has disappeared.“I often get letters from people that are very upset about their garden because we’ve released so many rabbits,” said Holman, a wildlife...

By DAVID BROOKS

The last couple of years have seen such a parade of problems that it’s hard to be surprised by them any more. Even so, here’s a problem you probably haven’t thought of: New Hampshire is facing a shortage of bassoon players.A combination of factors...

By DAVID BROOKS

Smooth slender crabgrass, a plant known to exist only at Rock Rimmon Park in Manchester, has been officially declared globally extinct, the N.H. Natural Heritage Bureau announced Wednesday.This is the first documented plant extinction ever in New...

By DAVID BROOKS

Operators of hydropower dams face plenty of complications, including the wrong sort of bubbles, too many American eels and super-cooled “frazil ice,” but one thing that the owner of the Penacook Lower Falls dam doesn’t have to worry about now is...