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By DAVID BROOKS

Rooftop solar continues to remake New England’s power grid, replacing electricity from power plants to the point that demand last Sunday afternoon was the lowest on record.A combination of sunny skies that boosted solar output along with mild...

By DAVID BROOKS

It is a sign of the times, I’m afraid, that normal people like you and me need to seriously think about creating a password system for talking to our loved ones on the phone.This sounds ridiculous, I know: “Hi, Dad! Before we go further, what’s this...

By DAVID BROOKS

“Electrify everything” – the philosophy at the heart of recreating an economy that will flourish without destroying the ecosystem, is well on its way for transportation and home heating and appliances. Industrial machinery, however, is another...

By DAVID BROOKS

Although New Hampshire has given up its efforts to return Atlantic salmon to our rivers, efforts are continuing in Maine and eastern Canada.The federal agency National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) ruled last week that one of the last...

By DAVID BROOKS

With Concord Hospital dropping a mask mandate that began three years ago, New Hampshire seeing much lower COVID-19 hospitalization and death rates and the national public health emergency ending in a month, it feels like the pandemic is finally behind...

By DAVID BROOKS

Three different vote-counting machines were tested during last month’s local elections in New Hampshire and all handled the complicated town meeting ballots just fine, according to reports from election workers. More tests are set during May elections...

An interesting upgrade is happening right now to a technology that you have used all of your life, but I would bet dollars to donuts that you have no idea it exists. I didn’t until recently.I refer to ATSC 3.0, rebranded as NextGen TV, which has the...

By DAVID BROOKS

People are continuing to move into New Hampshire, fueling a small population increase that was seen in all 10 of the state’s counties in the 12 months leading up to last July, according to new population estimates from the Census Bureau.“New Hampshire...

By DAVID BROOKS

Many good ideas seem obvious once somebody has thought of them. RapidPole is a good example.“It’s kind of surprising that something like this hasn’t been done already,” said Timothy McHugh, manager for an Eversource program called NH Troubleshooters,...

By DAVID BROOKS

New Hampshire has always been of two minds about our forests: Do we keep or do we cut?Forests shape our economy and we want to use them, but they define our personality as much as anything does and we want to enjoy them. Those two desires have been in...

By DAVID BROOKS

Business boosters are excited about the expansion of biotech firm United Therapeutics in New Hampshire but the corporate hangar it will build at Concord Municipal Airport is exciting for another reason: Glulam. Lots and lots of glulam.“The entire...

By DAVID BROOKS

The pandemic is dead. Long live the endemic.Wishful thinking? No, more like a not-as-good-as-it-sounds prediction.The good part is that the Monitor’s COVID Tracker is prepared, at long last, to call the pandemic over in New Hampshire. Several factors...

By DAVID BROOKS

There’s something different growing at Fresh Start Farm in Dunbarton these days: A whole lot of solar panels.The ground-mounted array of 378 panels, visible to drivers on Route 13, have been placed on a section of the 53-acre farm unsuitable for...

By DAVID BROOKS

People are seeing a lot more bears in New Hampshire these days and bear hunters are having a lot more success, to the point that Fish and Game wants to change the way they oversee the season.Among a set of proposed changes to hunting regulations that...

By DAVID BROOKS

Last week’s dramatic rescue of a skier who was buried in snow for 6 minutes in Carter Notch was a reminder, if one is needed, that paying attention to avalanche forecasts is vital in the White Mountains backcountry during winter.But that raises a...

By DAVID BROOKS

You’ve probably heard the saying popular in home-insulation circles that the cheapest energy is the energy you don’t use. The same goes for water.Leaky toilets and dripping faucets can waste an awful lot of water over the course of days and weeks....

By DAVID BROOKS

Boscawen could become the first town in New Hampshire to remove a long-standing ordinance that makes rooftop solar exempt from property taxes if voters agree at town meeting.Town meeting will be at Boscawen Elementary School. It has been postponed to...

By DAVID BROOKS

The potential change in how New Hampshire residents buy electricity could come to seven communities including Allenstown at town meeting this month, along with 10 others who will be making a similar decision.Allenstown is among the towns ranging from...

By DAVID BROOKS

If you want to preserve historical items, sometimes you need to look straight down.“We had a carpeted area in the Concord Room,” said Ashley Miller, the brand-new state archivist who formerly had the role for Concord Public Library, looking back at...

By DAVID BROOKS

When it comes to making money from a downed tree there aren’t many options: you can slice it into boards, burn it for heat, or mash it into paper. That’s about it.Or so I thought, and you probably did too.“That’s really the tip of the proverbial...