With the New Hampshire primary only about three weeks away,  as many as two-thirds of GOP voters are keeping their options open.  Their influence on the outcome is large but you are unlikely to meet them at a town meeting or a rally.   We  went looking for them in a place where the emphasis is on the body, rather than the body politic.

“I’m Jon Greenberg NHPR.  Are either of you thinking of participating in the Republican primary

Maybe, but I’m going to do cardio.”

In an attempt to save $400,000 in Medicaid spending, State health officials are planning major funding cuts to child and family health programs. 

Lisabritt Solsky, the deputy director of Medicaid, said state health officials had no choice but to make the cuts.

Solsky: The legislature acted and reduced our budget, the funding is gone for this, it is not something we asked for and it is not something we promoted

The state commissioner of transportation warns that if the federal government moves ahead with a plan to cut $40 million of New Hampshire’s yearly highway funds—the completion of I-93 will be placed on hold, indefinitely.  One portion that remains unfinished is exit 3 near Windham.

Many businesses there say the uncertainty of I-93’s future is hurting the local economy.

Senate President Peter Bragdon says improving the business climate will be among his top priorities going into the 2012 session.

Bragdon wants to see the tax code cleaned up.

In truth, Senate President Peter Bragdon has two primary goals for next year.

He wants to push through a constitutional amendment on education funding that has the backing of Governor Lynch.

And he wants to make it easier for businesses to grow and thrive in the Granite State.

To accomplish that second objective, Bragdon says the corporate and LLC tax codes need to be combed. 

Half of 16 North Country representatives say they will vote against repealing same-sex marriage in New Hampshire.

A bill to do that is expected to come before the legislature next month.

In October the House Judiciary Committee voted to undo the state’s gay marriage law and replace it with civil union (http://news.nhpr.org/post/house-panel-backs-gay-marriage-repeal).

The famous Tumblog Kim Jong-Il Looking At Things has already updated its "about" section to read in the past tense - it now says "the dear leader liked to look at things." Now the remixers have found a whole new side of the North Korean leader - as a DJ. Check out Kim Jong-Il Dropping the Bass to see him in action.

[via Cifanic]

Yesterday on All Things Considered a read a story about the Lesser Known Candidates forum at Saint Anselm College, which hosted a number of candidates who are on the New Hampshire presidential primary ballot but not on the national political radar. This was shortly after I made my usual mention of how NHPR's All Things Considered is now on Facebook and Twitter.

In 1948, a plane crash in a remote Alaskan mountain range killed everyone on board …twenty-four merchant mariners returning to the US from Shanghai, and six Northwest Airlines crew members. The crash site was quickly covered by snow and eventually entombed in ice…where it remained until 1999. It was then that a pair of former US Airforce pilots turned their hobby of solving forgotten aviation mysteries into an investigation.

The driver of a tractor trailer that crashed in Whitefield early Tuesday morning was killed when the load of steel being transported shifted and crushed the cab, according to a news release from the state police.

Here’s what police said happened:

“At approximately 5:50 a.m. a 2006 Peterbilt tractor truck was traveling north on Route 116 in Whitefield.  The tractor was pulling a flatbed trailer with a load of steel when the driver lost control on a downhill grade as it approached the junction of Route 3.

Contrary to the buy now messaging of the season, kids aren’t looking only for instant gratification. Take Lego.  In 2005, Lego Corporation came back from the brink by capitalizing on research showing  that kids are inspired by the difficulty and process of mastering a complicated model. So, rather than dumbing down to compete with the plug-in immediacy of video games, Lego ramped up the sophistication of its models.