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By DAVID BROOKS

The financial benefit seen by communities who are part of the Community Power Coalition will be reduced this year because all New Hampshire utilities have cut their electric rates.Things are different, however, for four towns that are doing community...

Monitor staff

The Concord region felt the second small earthquake in 10 days on Wednesday. A temblor registering 2.0 on the Richter scale and centered in Loudon struck around 2:50 p.m. That follows a 2.7 quake that hit Dec. 23 near the Steeplegate Mall in...

By DAVID BROOKS

New England’s wild turkey population seems to have avoided the population declines that are being seen in other parts of the country, and officials are asking for some citizen science help this winter to confirm our status.“We have not been...

By DAVID BROOKS

As the region’s aviation community anxiously awaits the annual yes-or-no decision about whether the Alton Bay Ice Runway will open, here’s a tidbit to consider: Keeping Cessnas and Beechcraft from crashing through as they land isn’t why officials have...

By PAUL MARINO

In October, the Canadian Forest Service sent a research officer to Maine and New Hampshire to see firsthand an invasive insect that could take a huge toll on Canadian forests if we accidentally send it north.Red pine scale (RPS) is a slow-moving...

By DAVID BROOKS

As I listen to hand-wringing about empty office towers due to people’s continued preference to work from home instead of commuting to a cubicle (those ungrateful swine!), a Christmas thought comes to mind: How is Santa’s workshop doing?I imagine that...

By DAVID BROOKS

In my career, I’ve encountered several non-traditional ways to build a home, from stacking hay bales to rolling out plastic tubes to using 3D-printed concrete. They’ve been fun to talk about but never made the slightest dent in the industry. The...

By DAVID BROOKS

It’s not a surprise that the New Hampshire project that won $2 million in funding in the latest federal conservation program involves saving our salt marshes from a host of threats.“The projects are heavy on watershed restoration – riverways, coastal...

By DAVID BROOKSMonitor staffA federal judge has rejected a lawsuit saying that the Merrimack Station coal-fired power plant in Bow was releasing too much hot water into the Merrimack River, violating its operating permit.The ruling by Judge Joseph...

By DAVID BROOKS

I went to a vaccine conference at Dartmouth last week to learn more about the most depressing piece of research I’ve ever encountered. Amazingly, I came away a tiny bit more optimistic.The ongoing research by Brendan Nyhan, a professor of government...

By DAVID BROOKS

When it comes to senior citizens and technology, the problem isn’t really that things are too complicated. The problem is that they won’t stand still.“Technology is an issue with a lot of seniors – it changes so quickly,” said Lori Mckinney, program...

By DAVID BROOKS

The complicated Concord intersection of Broadway with Clinton and South streets at McKee Square would become a roundabout under the state’s proposed 10-year transportation plan, which also includes elements of the long-discussed expansion of...

By DAVID BROOKS

There’s a category of online commentary called TIL, for “today I learned,” that provides a context for the writer to mention some intriguing piece of information they recently encountered. It’s basically a watered-down version of “Ripley’s Believe It...

By DAVID BROOKS

Two-thirds of New Hampshire residents are “active monthly users” of Facebook, helping explain how the company made so much revenue in the state that so far in 2023 it could pay for the city of Concord’s entire annual budget eight times over.That’s one...

By DAVID BROOKS

Two years after the Public Utilities Commission surprised many by virtually killing the long-standing NH Saves program that spurs energy efficiency in New Hampshire, it has reinstated the program. But only, it seems, because lawmakers made them.“The...

By DAVID BROOKS

On Nov. 11, the gorgeous ginkgo tree on the Durham campus of UNH dropped all of its bright yellow leaves at once, an eye-popping move that ginkgo trees are famous for doing at the season’s first hard frost.The annual leaf-drop has long been cause for...

By DAVID BROOKS

There are all sorts of green-energy reasons to admire what the UNH Durham campus is doing with electricity and heat but if that doesn’t move you, consider the green-eyeshade reasons.“It gives us budget certainty,” said Bill Janelle, associate vice...

By DAVID BROOKS

By next summer, Concord may become the latest New Hampshire community to buy its own electricity rather than paying whatever rate the utility offers.If all goes as planned, a volunteer subcommittee will present a recommendation to the City Council in...

By DAVID BROOKS

The recent bankruptcy of the high-profile startup WeWork may have cast a pall on the coworking industry nationally but you wouldn’t know it from New Hampshire’s independent operators.“We started with 2,400 square feet, now at 8,000. We’re into the...

By DAVID BROOKS

The Merrimack Station power plant in Bow twice failed to complete tests to renew certification of the scrubber technology on its smokestack this year, but the owners say this won’t get in the way of making electricity during periods of peak demand...