Michael Brindley

Crowdfunding is providing a new avenue of fundraising for New Hampshire’s independent filmmakers looking to make their projects a reality.

The state’s film and television office has taken a lead role in helping to promote film projects based in the Granite State using the online model of raising money.

It’s crunch time for Rae Dawn Chong.

We’re at a café in downtown Portsmouth, and she’s talking about meeting her fundraising goal of $25,000.

About 100 people gathered at the State House Plaza on Thursday to highlight children’s mental health awareness.

Many there said more funding is needed to make sure children have access to proper mental health care.

Francine Gagne with the Greater Nashua Mental Health Center says children are often overlooked in the discussion about funding for mental health programs.

By a unanimous vote, the New Hampshire House of Representatives passed a resolution Wednesday honoring the victims of the Boston Marathon bombings.

The resolution doesn’t make specific reference to remarks made by Representative Stella Tremblay.

The National Rifle Association is praising New Hampshire Senator Kelly Ayotte in a TV ad set to begin airing this week.

It’s the latest in a series of ads hitting airwaves in the Granite State either attacking or supporting her.

The NRA says it spent $25,000 s on the ad, which will air for at least the next week on WMUR.

The New Hampshire Supreme Court has unanimously upheld the conviction of one of the killers in a 2009 Mont Vernon home invasion.

In his appeal to the Supreme Court, Christopher Gribble argued his conviction should be overturned.

Gribble, now 21, was convicted in 2011 of first-degree murder for killing Kimberly Cates in her home. He was also found guilty of attempted murder for attacking her daughter Jaimie Cates.

Police departments in three southern New Hampshire towns are piloting a program officials hope will cut back on the time it takes to issue a speeding ticket.

   Police in Pelham, Windham and Salem are testing what are called eTickets.

Officers will no longer hand-write tickets. Instead, they’ll enter the information into the computer.

Lt. Gary Fisher of the Pelham Police Department says the ability to instantly send ticket information to department headquarters and the court system will save time.

A New Hampshire group advocating for more funding for substance abuse treatment programs has launched a video postcard campaign to get its message out to state Senators.

At a press conference in Concord on Monday, the nonprofit group New Futures says more than 100 residents have sent a video postcard electronically to their respective state Senator.

Executive Director Linda Saunders Paquette says they want the Senate to boost funding for substance abuse treatment programs.

The number of homes sold in New Hampshire rose by eight percent in the first quarter of 2013 compared to the same time period last year.

The data released this week also shows homes are selling at slightly higher prices.

Median homes prices rose 4 percent compared to last year’s first quarter.

That median price – about $195,000.

New Hampshire Association of Realtors President Bob Weidacher called the growth slow, but said things are improving.

Seven of the state’s ten counties saw their home sale prices rise.

Critics of U.S. Senator Kelly Ayotte's recent vote on gun legislation rallied in Concord on Monday.

Last week, Ayotte voted against legislation that would have expanded background checks for firearm purchases at gun shows.

Granite State Progress organized the rally, where speakers were highly critical of Senator Ayotte’s vote against the bill. The legislation failed in the Senate.

Judy Stadtman is co-founder of the New Hampshire Project for Safer Communities.

Governor Maggie Hassan says expanding Interstate 93 is critical to economic growth in the southern tier of the state.

Hassan told members of the Greater Derry Londonderry Chamber of Commerce she understands the urgency to the region of completing the project.

“We know there are businesses just waiting to grow and begin adding jobs but they need us to finish the I-93 project to take these steps.”

And she says while there is agreement about the need to improve the state’s aging highways and roads, lawmakers continue to debate how to pay for it.

Thirty-four pressmen at the New Hampshire Union Leader will lose their jobs after the newspaper stops printing its own paper in June.

The state’s largest newspaper reported this week that it entered into an agreement with Seacoast Media Group to print its paper in Dover.

As a result, the pressmen will be laid off, as well as some part-time mailroom workers.

Governor Maggie Hassan says fifteen million dollars in unbudgeted revenue from a tobacco settlement will help to balance the state’s budget.

The Attorney General’s office says the state will get just more than $57 million this year as part of the multi-state settlement.

New Hampshire has received $42 million a year through the settlement over the past several years.

And that’s the amount that was assumed in this year’s budget.

A senior at Hanover High School is the recipient of a prestigious scholarship handed out to only one student in the country.

Katherine Chen learned she won the John M. Stalnaker Memorial Scholarship a month ago, but she could only tell her immediate family until it was made public on Wednesday.

The National Merit Scholarship gives out the twenty thousand dollar scholarship to a student who is planning to study math or science.

Chen says she the award came as a surprise.