Story Archives of 'Nashua'

When Adolfo Ramirez came to the United States at age 15, he spoke no English and struggled to catch up with his peers in school. He joined the Boys & Girls Club of Greater Nashua, where he got help with homework and language skills.

The latest unemployment report surprised quite a few people. While the country still lost nearly 250,000 jobs, the unemployment rate basically held steady, even dropping a tenth to 9.4 percent. Most economists were expecting a jump. The jobless numbers for New Hampshire won’t come for about another ten days, but in his weekly economic round up, NHPR’s Jon Greenberg gives us the view from a knowledgeable source, people who are looking for work.

Some of the state's cities that have been hit hardest by the down economy actually got some good news recently.

They're going to be sharing about 18 million dollars.

The money is coming from the US Department of Housing and Urban Develepment as part of an economic recovery program passed last summer.

The program was designed to help neighborhoods hit particularly hard by foreclosures and the recession.

Alice Veenstra is with the Community Development Finance Authority.

She tells NHPR's Mark Bevis the cities got the funds based on several criteria.

Hungry bacteria can cut energy bills by thousands of dollars a month.

I’m Jon Greenberg with this energy minute.

Biodiesel fuel lowers our transportation costs, and reduces our carbon footprint. But it hasn’t become as popular as some might hope. Some alternative energy experts criticize its reliance on food supplies like corn or vegetable oils. They say, "Why sacrifice food to make fuel?"

But one new refinery in Nashua is avoiding that controversy by creating bio-fuel from something called "brown grease," and it’s hoping to turn that brown grease green, in more ways than one. Word of Mouth correspondent Sheryl Rich-Kern visited the Batchelder Biodiesel Refinery in Nashua, and brings us this story as part of our "next green thing" series.

(Photo by Rob E)