Sheryl Rich-Kern

Rivier College in Nashua may be getting a makeover.

While the state’s unemployment rate is well below the national average, thousands of people are still searching for a job.

Friday, many of the state’s unemployed showed up for a job fair for a new $100 million shopping center in Merrimack. The retail outlet is expected to create more than 800 positions.

By 7 a.m. Friday morning, hundreds of people lined up outside Nashua Community College for the Merrimack Premium Outlet job fair.

When it opens in mid-June, the outlets will feature 100 clothing, home goods, and other stores. 

Most people agree that good teachers help students succeed.
But how do good teachers learn to be effective?

One D.C.-based, private nonprofit is asking just that. They want colleges to participate in a study that ranks teacher preparation programs.

Mont Vernon voters approved changing the controversial name of a pond at its town meeting Tuesday night.

Whether or not to rename Jew Pond, which many consider offensive, garnered national attention in this small town.

But voters still don’t know what the new name of the pond will be.

A packed crowd of about 250 residents filled the gymnasium in the Mont Vernon Village Schoolhouse.

The turnout was impressive for a town whose population is less than 2400.

The town meeting began as it does every year with the pledge and a prayer.

Out-of-hospital births in New Hampshire are on the rise, according to statistics from the Centers for Disease Control.

That increase is in large part, because of a 2008 law that requires health insurers to pay for midwives who work in homes or at birthing centers.

But a new bill before lawmakers proposes repealing that mandate.

And midwives are worried what that means for their livelihoods.

New Hampshire is known for being one of the safest places to live in the United States. According to a recent study, its crime rate is the fifth lowest in the country.  

But that doesn’t mean detectives have an easy time recovering stolen merchandise. In fact, police officials say they could respond to crime faster by tightening regulations among pawnshops and second-hand dealers.

Some sectors of the New Hampshire economy are taking longer to rebound from the recession.

Particularly industries that rely on discretionary income, like many of the 20 small airports in the state.

Nashua’s Municipal Airport is one of the state’s oldest and busiest.

But it’s been years since this airport operated to its capacity.

Now a new $16 million construction project may give the airport the economic lift it needs.

It’s a cold, but sunny December morning at the Nashua Municipal Airport, also known as Boire Field.

It’s that time of the year when the days are getting shorter and the retail hours are getting longer.

And while year-round merchants are gearing up for the holiday season, pop-up stores, like the many Halloween outlets, are cropping up alongside them — and then shutting their doors one or two months later.

These temporary stores may sound like a fad, but pop-up stores reflect a growing trend in the retail sector.

You see one in almost every large mall in New Hampshire:

Under federal law, students with disabilities are entitled to a free and appropriate education. That means they can receive the supports they need up until they turn 21.

After that, many of these young adults aren’t ready to live on their own, find jobs or go on to college.

NHPR correspondent Sheryl Rich Kern has the story as part of her series, Challenges of Autism.

Mackenzie Trippier is talking to her parents about going to Greece with the seniors at Pelham High.

This week, NHPR correspondent Sheryl Rich Kern has been looking into the challenges schools face when teaching children with autism.

The parents obviously face challenges too. Providing the therapy some children need costs a lot of money and time. But come January 1st, relief is on the way. 

In our week-long series Challenges of Autism, NHPR correspondent Sheryl Rich Kern looks into the new legislation.

The standard treatment for autism when kids are young is something called applied behavior analysis or ABA.

These days it’s not rare to find a child with severe autism actively participating in a public school. A generation ago, parents would have sent those kids to a private school or maybe institutionalized them.

But studies show kids with autism improve in a regular public school. There they are able to socialize and learn how to communicate better because they’re copying the other children.

But not everyone agrees this approach is good for all students.

If it seems like you’re hearing a lot about autism these days, it’s likely because more kids are being diagnosed with it.

Nationally the rate of children diagnosed with what’s called autism spectrum disorder is 1 in 100. For boys, it’s 1 in 70. To put that number into perspective, it means that one student in 3 or 4 average sized school classes lives with some form of autism.

How schools should deal with it is up for debate.

NHPR Correspondent Sheryl Rich-Kern has this second part in her series Challenges of Autism.

Parents across the board would probably agree that becoming a parent is a lesson in managing chaos and tolerance. And research shows that parents raising a child with autism experience higher stress levels than parents of children with other disabilities.

But some parents of children with autism say their child’s diagnosis has enriched their lives in ways
they never would have imagined.

If your child attends public school, chances are they have a classmate who has difficulty speaking, behaves a little differently,  or just doesn’t seem to  socialize well.

A generation ago, we might have called these kids quirky, and that would have been the end of it. But today, an alarming number of these kids are being diagnosed with what’s called autism spectrum disorder.

A decade ago, the prevalence was one in 250. Today, it’s closer to one in a hundred. We still don’t know the causes of autism, and so there’s little hope of a cure.