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2007 was a year of victory for our primary and for same sex couples, a year of trouble for the state’s highway department and for the mill town of Groveton. It was a year when adequacy in public education was defined and Ed and Elaine Brown were captured. We look back at the biggest stories and forward to how they may play out in 2008.

Guests

• Bill Gardner, New Hampshire Secretary of State, speaking on the New Hampshire primary
• Bob Odell, Republican State Senator from Lempster who was on the conference committee that worked on school adequacy, speaking on defining an adequate education
• Murray Rogers, president of the USW Local 61 at the Wausau Paper Plant, speaking about the mill closing in Groveton
• Bill Boynton, public information officer for the New Hampshire Department of Transportation, speaking about the state of transportation in New Hampshire
• Vin Sylvia, managing editor of the Sunday Edition and Sports Section for the New Hampshire Union Leader and Sunday News, about New England sports teams
• Stephen Monier, United States Marshall for the District of New Hampshire, speaking about the standoff and capture of Ed and Elaine Brown
• Gail Morrison, an openly gay Democratic State Representative from Sanborton, speaking about the civil unions bill

The Exchange takes a break today to bring you a holiday special. This all-new program is a delightful compilation of country dance tunes, carols, songs and motets excerpted from nine unique Revels celebrations performed across the country in 2006. Host Elaine Kennedy guides listeners through the program's sacred and secular folk materials and composed works, all of which are rooted in traditional European and American observances of Christmas, New Year's, the Feast of Fools, Twelfth Night and the Winter Solstice, and some of which date back to pre-Christian times.

The Exchange takes a break today to bring you this holiday special. Renaissance England was both a glorious and challenging place for composers. Music flourished as an essential part of royal functions and courtiers cultivated musical skills. Christmastime in the age of Elizabeth was a time to celebrate all aspects of the life of Christ, and seasonal music from this time describes Christ’s passion, death and ascension as well as his birth. We'll take this journey with Rose Ensemble, a Twin Cities-based group recognized for its ability to reawaken the ancient through imaginative performances of vocal music, connecting each individual to past worlds with stories of spirituality and humanity.

We end our 25 in 25 series with maybe the most important person… YOU. You the newcomer to our state, You the person who has lived here as long as NHPR has been on the air, You whose roots have been planted in the Granite State for generations. You who live in the Upper Valley, or the Seacoast, you in the booming Southern Tier or in the still somewhat barren North Country. Today we talk with you, how you’ve changed the state, how you’ve seen New Hampshire change over the past 25 years and where you think our state is heading in the future.

Guests

• Tom Duffy: senior planner at the New Hampshire Office of Energy and Planning
• David Watters: professor of English at the University of New Hampshire, director for the Center of New England Studies at UNH and coauthor of The Encyclopedia of New England
• Russ Thibault: president of Applied Economic Research, an economic and real estate consulting firm in Laconia

He's a former publisher, a reporter, a storyteller, a lover of the outdoors and a loyal fan of New Hampshire’s North Country, and throughout his career John Harrigan's been able to meld all those facets of his life together. His column “Woods, Water and Wildlife” has been a fixture in the Union Leader for the last 32 years celebrating the beauty of New Hampshire’s outdoors; while his other column “North Country Notebook” is now run in twelve weekly newspapers. He’s the former owner and publisher of three newspapers in Northern New Hampshire and in 1997, was declared First Finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for getting his paper out the night of the Colebrook shootings, in which his editor, his longtime companion and two police friends were killed. All throughout his career Harrigan has celebrated his North Country while seeing it change before his eyes. For our next installment of our 25 in 25 series, we look at how the North Country has changed and how it's stayed the same over the last quarter century with Colebrook reporter and raconteur John Harrigan.

Guest

• John Harrigan, former owner and publisher of the Colebrook News and Sentinel, and columnist for the New Hampshire Sunday News and for Salmon Press Group.