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Newly released state data shows Black women in New Hampshire have been disproportionately impacted by COVID-19, echoing patterns seen across the country in the last few months of the pandemic. 

The New Hampshire Electric Cooperative will propose amendments to the organization’s bylaws that would enable the organization to pursue broadband projects. 

In an announcement on Thursday, the co-op said it’s already started to look at ways it can expand broadband internet for its members, but it was clear that the current bylaws weren’t flexible enough to take advantage of government funding for broadband expansion.

Earlier this year, co-op members narrowly missed passing a proposal that would have added facilitating broadband access as a focus of the organization.

The city of Manchester is adding 14 propane-fueled school buses to its fleet in an effort to improve local air quality.

The city has 81 school buses in total. The new propane-powered ones will replace the oldest buses, all of which are between 14 and 18 years old. Officials say tests show the propane buses can cut emissions from diesel buses by 96%.

The state says multiple college students have tested positive for coronavirus at home before returning to campuses in New Hampshire.

State health commissioner Lori Shibinette says it's a success for the state's pre-arrival testing requirements for returning students. She did not disclose how many students have tested positive before returning. She says some are in other states, and some are in New Hampshire.

Governor Chris Sununu says state public health officials will work hand in hand with school districts to identify positive cases, conduct contact tracing, and notify the public about outbreaks in schools.

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New Hampshire Congressman Chris Pappas introduced a bill Thursday aimed at preventing age discrimination in voting.

Pappas says this legislation is particularly important during the pandemic, when access to the polls has been more limited.

“We’ve had voting hours restricted…restriction of polling places. And what we can’t afford to have happen is for efforts to be targeted against young voters or communities of color based on politics or based on political decision making.”

High schools in New Hampshire are now required to grant credit for alternative programs approved by the state board of education or a local school board. The program, called 'Learn Everywhere,' has been the subject of heated debate for over a year.

Despite disruptions in school due to the coronavirus pandemic, Gov. Chris Sununu says he will not waive requirements for special education.

Over 30,000 K-12 students in New Hampshire are legally entitled to special ed services.

NHPR is continuing to cover the developing story around coronavirus in New Hampshire. Bookmark this page for the latest updates, including case numbers and other important news of the day. Click here for all of our COVID-19 coverage.

The New Hampshire Democratic Party is asking the state to pursue a “full investigation” into a recent batch of erroneous absentee voter registration mailers sent by the New Hampshire Republican Party.

As NHPR tracks the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic in New Hampshire, we’ve been asking you to tell us how your life is changing because of coronavirus - and we’ve welcomed your questions. 

Here, we answer some of your questions, and share other important information about the coronavirus and how to stay safe.

The Exchange continues its summer series of primary candidate interviews with Republican Matt Mowers. He's running in New Hampshire's 1st Congressional District. Mowers, who lives in Bedford, is a former executive director for the New Hampshire Republican Party. He worked as a state department official in the Trump administration. As always, we welcome your questions - send them before the show to exchange@nhpr.org.

Air date: Friday, Aug. 14, 9-9:20 am

New Hampshire's first sports gambling parlor opened Wednesday in Seabrook.

Visitors to The Brook, located at the site of the former Seabrook Greyhound racetrack, can place bets on both professional and collegiate sports. 

Joe Biden and Kamala Harris are scheduled to deliver joint remarks for the first time since Biden announced Harris as his running mate. 

Watch live below in this NPR stream. Remarks are estimated to begin at 4:30 p.m. 

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A former chief justice of the Colorado Supreme Court has requested a criminal investigation into a charitable foundation run by Corky Messner, a Republican running for U.S. Senate in New Hampshire.

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The letter Mary Mullarkey and others sent to the Colorado secretary of state and attorney general accuses Messner of running a fraudulent foundation purported to help low-income college students.

Activists are calling on electric customers in New Hampshire and New England to stop paying their utility bills on Sept. 1, in a strike that aims to put pressure on the regional energy system to address climate change.

No Coal, No Gas campaign volunteer Jeff Gang says the goal is to have a thousand people signed up to strike ahead of time.

Editor's note: This post has been updated to clarify that the mailers included requests for absentee ballot registration paperwork, not requests for absentee ballots.

In the years since she lost her 22-year-old son, Tyler, Kelly Simpson has learned to steel herself when opening the mailbox.

“Every now and again a piece of mail comes for him,” she said, “and it takes my breath away.”

But Simpson wasn’t at all prepared for what arrived in Tyler’s name this weekend, seven years after his death: an “official absentee voter registration packet request” from the New Hampshire Republican Party.

Gov. Chris Sununu says a planned tent revival in New Ipswich for this week will have to follow his new mandate, which requires gatherings of more than 100 people to wear masks.

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The group organizing the tent revival is called The Last Reformation, and is led by a controversial Danish evangelist, Torben Søndergaard.

Civil liberties groups in New Hampshire, Maine and Vermont are suing U.S. Customs and Border Patrol over the use of checkpoints far from international borders, alleging the stops amount to unconstitutional searches that violate the Fourth Amendment. 

People of color and women have experienced higher unemployment than whites and men during the COVID-19 pandemic, and women of color and Latina immigrants have the highest jobless rates, according to new research by UNH’s Carsey School of Public Policy.

As a crowd of protesters gathered on the town common, the Plymouth Select Board voted four to one Monday night to mandate mask wearing in public spaces. The mandate goes into effect immediately.

The Manchester school board has voted to have most students learn remotely for the first quarter of the school year. The board approved the district's plan for reopening schools Monday night.

As NHPR tracks the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic in New Hampshire, we’ve been asking you to tell us how your life is changing because of coronavirus - and we’ve welcomed your questions. 

Our most frequent questions have continued to be about traveling in and out of the Granite State, especially during the summer months. 

New Hampshire hospitals have lost hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue due to COVID-19. Now, they may have to make cuts.

New Hampshire identified its first case of COVID-19 on March 2. NHPR has been tracking new developments since then, as the number of confirmed cases and testing capacity — at public and private labs — has expanded.

This post was updated on Aug. 11 with new information from the New Hampshire Attorney General's office.

The New Hampshire Republican Party sent mailers out last week with incorrect info on where to send absentee voter registration forms after what it says was a "printing mistake."

The coronavirus pandemic has both helped and hurt when it comes to New Hampshire's longstanding problem of psychiatric patients waiting in emergency rooms for inpatient beds.