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New Hampshire towns will trade ideas for local energy projects – and talk with policymakers – at a conference Friday in Concord.

The state Sustainable Energy Association has held this expo for the last 10 years.

At the start, local energy solutions director Henry Herndon says, it was mainly residents trading tips for home energy upgrades. Now, the event attracts hundreds of stakeholders in local energy development, including businesses, municipal leaders and lawmakers.

Steve Shurtleff has been House Democratic leader for six years and Democrats gave him an easy win over Hampton progressive Renny Cushing. After the 182-43 vote, Shurtleff said earning the confidence of his caucus, which, pending recounts, will hold a 34-seat majority in the House, means a lot.

"I'm very touched, as someone who grew up here in Concord, seeing the State House so many times, to be the nominee for speaker is a great honor."

In a major new effort to curb smoking, a top U.S. health official pledged Thursday to try to ban menthol from regular cigarettes, outlaw flavors in all cigars and tighten rules governing the sale of most flavored versions of electronic cigarettes.

The restrictions are aimed mainly at reducing smoking in kids: About half of teens who smoke cigarettes choose menthols, and flavored e-cigarettes have been blamed for a recent increase in teen vaping rates.

State officials say they are working to address the issues behind a recent lawsuit filed by the New Hampshire ACLU.

The federal suit alleges that mental health patients in New Hampshire are routinely denied their constitutional rights by being detained in emergency rooms without a hearing, what is called ER boarding.

Seven current and former students in Dartmouth's Psychological and Brain Sciences Department are suing the school over alleged mishandling of sexual assault and harassment reports, saying administrators ignored years of criminal behavior by tenured faculty members.

Read the full text of the suit here.

New Hampshire’s largest solar company wants to train more electricians to fill jobs in renewable energy and other industries.

ReVision Energy is touting its new training center now, as part of National Apprenticeship Week. But the program already has 50 students enrolled.

For the next four years, those apprentices will earn full-time wages – up to $25 an hour – and log enough training hours to get their state electrician certification.

The company will also train electricians in Maine and, starting next year, Massachusetts.

The New Hampshire ACLU is filing a federal lawsuit against the Northwood Police Department for what they say was an illegal immigration stop based on racial profiling. 

New Hampshire's cold case unit announced Wednesday that Elizabeth Lamotte, who went missing from Manchester in 1984 at the age of 17, has been matched to previously unidentified remains discovered in Tennessee in 1985.

The tip that led to the discovery came from someone who thought Lamotte’s disappearance could be connected to a 1985 quadruple-murder case from Allenstown known as the Bear Brook murders.

But Susan Morrell with the AG’s office says the two cases are not actually connected.

When there is national news about recounts—ahem, Florida—New Hampshire tends to see an increase in such requests. In 2000, the year of Florida's hanging chads, the Granite State had 28. This year, there are 20.

And Secretary of State Bill Gardner says that’s a typical number after an election, and

the state’s paper ballots are recounted by hand.

Governor Chris Sununu has tapped a Republican former colleague on the Executive Council to join New Hampshire's Superior Court. St. Hilaire of Concord is now a top manager at the state Liquor Commission.

Apart from serving as general counsel to the commission, St. Hilaire has been a city prosecutor, won election as Merrimack county attorney, and worked in private practice and as a state hearings officer.

From 2011-2013, he served alongside Governor Sununu on the Executive Council.

Police are investigating the death of a woman last weekend in a Manchester jail. 

Deatrah Reilly, 32, was found dead in her jail cell on Saturday after an apparent suicide.

Her mother, Lorri Moore, says Reilly struggled with drug addiction and depression.

She was arrested on outstanding warrants, including for drug possession. 

"She was in Valley Street Jail," says Moore. "Everyone told me leave her there - it will help her, it will save her life."

Manchester is continuing to develop a plan for improving its schools. The initiative, called Manchester Proud, was started by the local business community this summer.

On Tuesday, members of the coalition gave an update to the school board about their efforts to gather input and develop an action plan.

Since September, they have knocked on the doors of over 2,000 residents to survey them about local schools.

James Foley, a reporter who was killed by ISIS militants in 2014, was recognized by the New Hampshire Supreme Court Society with its Life and Liberty Award during a ceremony in Concord on Tuesday.

Foley, who grew up in Wolfeboro, was a freelance journalist who often spent time in conflict zones. He was covering the Syrian Civil War when he was captured and eventually killed by ISIS militants. His death reverberated around the globe, and brought attention to the dangers facing journalists.

The final weeks of last week’s midterm campaign saw a flurry of partisan activity: Last-minute Facebook ads touting Gov. Chris Sununu’s plan for paid family and medical leave. Fliers criticizing Republican lawmakers “who cozy up to big corporations and special interests.” Phone banks backed by a group called "Families First," encouraging voters to support Democrats on Election Day.

Winter has arrived in New Hampshire’s North Country, as the ski industry and local shops gear up for their busy season.

Most of New Hampshire's ski resorts have been making their own snow for days or weeks now, ahead of planned openings the Friday after Thanksgiving.

Recent falling snow – captured on live ski slope webcams – has added to the inches on the ground.

At lower elevations, much of that snow has turned into rain. But that hasn't dampened the spirits of retailers like Chad Larrivee, at Lahouts Ski Shop in Littleton.

A commission convened by lawmakers will issue recommendations on Wednesday for how New Hampshire courts should treat defendants before trial.

The group - made up of lawmakers, police, and legal professionals - began meeting after the passage of a bail reform bill this summer.

That bill - SB 556 - eliminated cash bail for most defendants.

It also called for a commission that would develop a new system for judges to set bail and keep a defendant in jail when necessary.

Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center is preparing to launch a new telemedicine unit focused on intensive care.

Telemedicine, basically doctor’s visits by video conference, is a growing trend in healthcare -- and now Dartmouth-Hitchcock is hoping to use it to support intensive care units all over the region.

Instead of video-conferencing with a patient at home, intensive care specialists at Dartmouth-Hitchcock will connect with other doctors and nurses around the region to provide on-demand consultation.

The New Hampshire ACLU has filed a federal class action lawsuit against the state of New Hampshire over a practice called emergency room boarding.

The anonymous 26 year-old plaintiff in the ACLU’s suit was admitted to Southern New Hampshire Medical Center in Nashua last week following an attempted suicide. (Update: Jeffrey Meyers, commissioner of Health and Human Services, responds to the complaint's allegations.)

Emergency departments in Claremont and Manchester are testing out a new approach to addiction treatment for opioid users, collaborating on a federally funded study with Bellevue Hospital in New York City.

In most hospitals across the country, patients presenting with complications from drug use, or having overdosed, are treated for their immediate concerns but referred elsewhere for help with their addiction.

Increasingly, physicians say this is not the most effective approach.

Jury selection begins Wednesday in the strange case of a New Hampshire mother and son accused of selling forged art works to a prominent collector.

Lorettann Gascard and her son Nikolas are accused of selling two dozen forged works by the painter Leon Golub to Andrew Hall. Gascard is a former art history professor at Franklin Pierce University in Rindge. She claims she was a student of Golub in the 1960s.

[You can read NHPR’s previous coverage of this story here.]

Southern New Hampshire University is partnering with Walgreens to expand higher education for veterans.

SNHU and Walgreens will work together to help up to 5,000 U.S. veterans who work at Walgreens earn discounted masters or bachelor's degrees from the school.

A new report suggests New Hampshire's Seabrook Nuclear Power Plant will be essential to curbing the effects of climate change in the coming years.

Seabrook and Millstone Station in Connecticut will be the only two nuclear plants left in New England after next year.

They're also some of the most profitable nuclear plants in the country, according to the Union of Concerned Scientists.

UPDATE: An airport spokeswoman tells NHPR, "We will be updating the plaque to highlight the beauty of NH forests in Jefferson, NH." The original story continues below here.

A New Hampshire forester says Manchester-Boston Regional Airport is barking up the wrong tree in a big photo display near security.

Charlie Niebling of Antrim-based Innovative Natural Resource Solutions says he first noticed the mix-up this past summer.

He went through security at the airport and saw a big round column covered in a photo of trees with round, light-green leaves and papery white bark.

A winter weather advisory is in place for parts of northern New England. Some parts of Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont could see a half-foot of snow.

Officials say the winter weather advisory applies to the mountains of Maine and New Hampshire, and central and northern Vermont, all of which could see accumulations. Several ski resort cams show steady snowfall to start the day.

Rain is in the forecast through Tuesday night for New Hampshire.

The government benefits program for women and children, known as WIC, is getting an upgrade in New Hampshire.

WIC provides benefits to about 12,000 low-income New Hampshire residents to help cover the cost of healthy groceries. Until recently, mothers using WIC redeemed their benefits with a paper voucher, but by the end of 2018 all participants in the state will redeem their benefits with a WIC debit card.

A few months ago, San Diego, California resident Jane Williams and her husband were vacationing in Weare, New Hampshire, on Mount William Pond. The place they rented was near a road that followed the edge of the pond, and on that road was small dilapidated house.

"And there was this cute little elderly man sitting in the window," she says. "And every time we went by the house, I'd always wave, and he would just always reflexively wave."