News

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.

Less than a day after announcing it had found a suitable location for an emergency homeless shelter, the city of Manchester now says a private developer purchased the building overnight. City officials claim the buyer, local real estate developer Ben Gamache, didn’t want the space to be used as a shelter.

Another sign of the economic toll of the coronavirus: The number of individuals on Medicaid in New Hampshire has increased by 16.8% since the beginning of the pandemic.

Currently, there are a little over 207,000 people covered by Medicaid.

The coronavirus is sending more residents into the woods and onto the water, as they seek to reconnect with the land or just get out of the house.

N.H. Fish and Game processed more than 87,600 resident fishing licenses through September, a 35 percent jump from the same period last year.

The agency has processed more than 7,700 resident hunting licenses this year, an 18 percent increase from 2019.

Early research on the coronavirus in schools and among young people suggests that with proper precautions, classrooms are not the superspreaders that many had feared. 

A Plaistow restaurant is being fined $1,500 for repeatedly failing to comply with the state's coronavirus  guidelines.

New Hampshire is launching a new initiative designed to support children and families of military personnel.

Under the "Purple Star Initiative," the state will train teachers and other school employees to recognize when kids are struggling with a family member's deployment or relocation.

Today’s Ask Civics 101 question: What happens to campaign funds after an election is over?

Read on, or listen to this short episode for the answer.

Do you have a question for the Civics 101 team? Click here to submit it.

The Environmental Protection Agency has finalized a new permit for a dozen communities around Great Bay, capping a years-long effort to control nitrogen pollution in the protected estuary.

The five-year permit takes an unusual approach to setting limits for each municipality’s output of nitrogen – a nutrient that’s overloading the bay, causing eel grass to die and severely degrading the ecosystem.

The chairman of the New Hampshire Republican Party is condemning an effort by a handful of GOP lawmakers to launch impeachment proceedings against Gov. Chris Sununu.

Backers of the probe say Sununu, who ordered a mask mandate last week, has overused his emergency powers during the coronavirus pandemic.

Exit Tobacco is your typical smoke shop, offering everything from Marlboros to vapes.

Ziad Jabri, one of the managers, said the store, located right along the state's southern border in Salem, has always seen a steady stream of customers from Massachusetts, thanks to New Hampshire's lower tobacco tax. But this year, it’s gone through the roof.

New Hampshire's Ballot Law Commission has joined a bipartisan chorus calling for the state attorney general's office to review why the recount totals in a contested Windham State House race differed substantially from what was recorded at the polls on Election Night.

Organizations providing food for the needy at Thanksgiving say they're operating with fewer volunteers now than before the pandemic.

Update November 19, 2020: Governor Sununu has announced a statewide mask mandate, effective November 20. Local ordinances supercede the statewide mandate and penalties still apply where applicable. We will continue to update the map as local ordinances are passed.

For more on this story, click here.

Many in New Hampshire are choosing to travel or get together with family this Thanksgiving, despite state and federal guidance to the contrary – and the demand for COVID-19 tests is increasing as a result.

That has meant longer wait times for a test, and for results, according to local health officials.

Today’s listener question comes from Jennifer, who wrote, “What is the difference between a state and a commonwealth?  Will Puerto Rico become a state or a commonwealth?” We’ll address both of those questions today. Read on, or listen to this short podcast episode for the answer.

Do you have a question for the Civics 101 team? Click here to submit it.

The state of Maine is proposing the country’s first floating offshore wind farm in federal waters off Northern New England.

They hope to win a federal research lease to build a dozen turbines over about 16 square miles. The project will generate 120 megawatts of power.

That's enough to power at least 75,000 homes. It's bigger than many onshore wind projects in the region, but far smaller than the typical full-scale offshore development. 

President-elect Joe Biden will appoint Jake Sullivan of Portsmouth as his national security advisor.

Sullivan currently serves as a senior fellow and faculty member of the Carsey School of Public Policy at the University of New Hampshire.

In 2019, he was a Montgomery Fellow at Dartmouth College.

Sullivan previously served in the Obama administration, as then Vice-President Biden’s national security adviser. He also worked as director of policy planning at the U.S. Department of State.

Fewer students in New Hampshire are attending their neighborhood public school this year, according to new data from the state Department of Education.

The state typically sees a one percent drop in public school enrollment each year, due to aging demographics, but this fall’s decline is far more significant: about four percent statewide.

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.

Permits are now available to harvest Christmas trees from the public lands of the White Mountain National Forest.

The permits are being sold online for the first time this year, and can also be picked up at forest offices in Campton, Conway and Gorham.

Massachusetts health officials have added New Hampshire and Maine to its list of states where travelers must quarantine or provide a negative coronavirus test.

The two join 46 other states to be designated high risk for COVID-19 by the state's Department of Health.

Merrimack State Rep. Dick Hinch is a step closer to becoming the next Speaker of the New Hampshire House, after the incoming GOP caucus unanimously backed him to be their leader during a meeting in Manchester.  

Hinch has led House Republicans for six years as Majority leader when the House was last under GOP control, and as Minority Leader when Democrats reclaimed the majority in 2018.

Evictions in New Hampshire have been steady and relatively low since the state and federal moratorium on evictions ended this summer.

In the past month, there’s been a weekly average of about 50 evictions. That’s about a third lower than the weekly number of evictions happening prior to the pandemic, according to Elliott Berry, an attorney with New Hampshire Legal Assistance.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture has declared a drought disaster across all 10 New Hampshire counties.

It comes as the drought worsens again in the Southeastern area of the state, surrounding Strafford County.