Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Amy Klobuchar joined a round table discussion in Manchester Friday on bringing passenger rail to New Hampshire.

Flanked by Mayor Joyce Craig and small business owners, Klobuchar expressed support for a proposal which would bring commuter service from the Boston area to New Hampshire’s Capitol Corridor region.

Klobuchar, a Minnesota Democrat, described rail as a potential economic and demographic boost.

Secretary of the Department of Veterans Affairs Robert Wilkie finished a tour of New England Friday with a stop at the Manchester VA.

The Manchester VA was selected recently as one of 18 VA hospitals nationwide to participate in a pilot program meant to boost patient safety.

But even before this pilot program was announced, Wilkie says VAs around the country have been improving.

"Fewer and fewer veterans are choosing to go outside of VA because we've seen a transformation in terms of the quality of care," Wilkie says.

Monday, April 22, is Earth Day in New Hampshire and across the world. The Granite State is celebrating with everything from tree-plantings and night hikes, to trail clean-ups and a forum on environmental policy.

The Children's Museum of New Hampshire in Dover will mark Earth Day Monday by planting flowers and giving out tree saplings. They'll also feature crafts and workshops with local landscaping companies and a solar power installer.

It’s now legal for all states to allow sports betting, after a 2018 U.S. Supreme Court ruling, and it looks as though New Hampshire is likely to go this route.     

The N.H. House voted 269 – 82 last month to allow sports gambling on mobile devices and at up to 10 retail locations.  HB 480 has its next hearing in the state Senate on April 24.  

Opponents worry about encouraging gambling addiction.  For supporters, legalizing sports betting means bringing a practice that’s already happening out of the shadows  -- where criminal elements operate -- into the regulatory realm.  

Like every 2020 Presidential Candidate, Marianne Williamson has her policy positions on the issues. But Williamson argues her ideas present what she calls a “fierce and authentic” conversation, unheard elsewhere in the crowded Democratic field.  

In an interview on The Exchange, Williamson described her approach, while painting an image of an America traumatized by economic distress and spiritual malfunction. She suggested that her status as a political outsider, along with her work helping people seeking transformation, make her the best-suited candidate for the country at this time. 

Marianne Williamson has built a successful career as public speaker and author of more than a dozen books on topics such as spiritual growth and personal transformation.  In the 1980’s, she founded Project Angel Food, a charity for patients with HIV/AIDS. In 2014, she ran for a Congressional seat in her home state of California. She came in 4th in a crowded Democratic primary.

Residents in Epping say their schools need to encourage acceptance of all kinds of political speech, in the wake of a controversy at the high school earlier this month.

At least 100 people came to a forum about the incident, centered on a a student's pro-Donald Trump T-shirt, during Thursday night’s school board meeting.

Former Texas Congressman and Democratic presidential candidate Beto O’Rourke made his second trip to N.H. on Thursday, stopping in Derry and Concord before speaking to voters at Nashua Community College.