The Exchange

This year’s Republican Presidential candidates have been clear about where they stand on many issues, but when it comes to immigration, its a little more murky.  Several candidates are trying to “thread the needle” on this one: sounding tough, to please the base, but not so tough, that they “turn off” voters in the general election, especially Latino voters.  Today on we bring you a special Thursday version of our Issue Tuesdays series as we look at the Republican Presidential candidates and compare their platforms on the immigration. 

Guests

"By 2008, the United States had become the biggest international borrower in world history, with two-thirds of its $6 trillion federal debt in foreign hands" points out Jeffry Frieden, co-author of a new book called Lost Decades: The Making of America's Debt Crisis. International borrowing has been a long-standing economic tradition -- we even funded the American Revolution this way. But, Frieden points out, more recent borrowing is massive compared to the past and encouraged debt-fueled consumption rather than sound investments.

Although not as much as a hot button issue as last election, many voters still want to know the candidates’ views on the war in Afghanistan, on China, the Middle East and on fighting terrorism at home and oversees. Today our Issue Tuesday's series continues with a look at the Republican Presidential candidates and  what they are saying on matters of foreign policy. 

Guests

It’s one of our nation’s most divisive issues. Anew book called “Gunfight” looks at both the history of debates over gun laws and  how it shapes our current dynamic, describing pro-gun groups bristling at any hint of regulation and gun control advocates seeking sometimes ineffectual laws.  We’ll look at America’s long debate over the second Amendment.

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A new film looks at the Free State Project from the perspective of several activists. The Free State Project chose New Hampshire as its destination about ten years ago.  The goal was to convince twenty thousand people, seeking limited government and greater personal freedom, to move here. We’ll look at the movie and at this movement and find out how it’s evolved and affected the Granite State.  

Christina Heller - Independent filmmaker who directed the movie "Libertopia".

Since the state received eleven and a half million dollars in federal money for charter schools last year, there has been a flurry of activity, including in Nashua where two charter schools are in the works. Meanwhile, though many former foes now support charter schools, questions remain on such issues as admission policies, accountability, and how teacher unions fit in.  Today we'll look at how charter schools are doing and where they're heading. 

Guests

What began a half century ago as an organization for insurance purposes has grown into much more.  The AARP has become an influential lobbying group with forty million members.   We’ll talk with the author of a new book which examines this and the AARP’s role in current debates over Medicare and Social Security.  

• Frederick Lynch - An Associate Professor of  Government at Claremont McKenna College, and author of Invisible Victims and the Diversity Machine

We begin a six part series called Issue Tuesdays, where we compare the Republican Primary candidates on some of the biggest topics facing this election. Today we begin with what may be the biggest for many... jobs. We’ll look at the candidate’s plans and how they propose they can get Americans back to work.  

Guests

The Bi-Partisan Congressional Super-committee failed last week to reach a deficit reduction agreement.  That means automatic spending cuts kick in, in twenty thirteen…and President Obama says he’ll veto any attempt avoid those.  We talk with two economists about what this all means…and about the rocky political and economic roads ahead.

Guests

Our series on New Hampshire Immigration continues with our state’s first residents.  Before textile mills, melting pots and refugees there were Native Americans who inhabited the state for centuries, and our first immigrants, English fisherman and entrepreneurs  looking to escape Puritan rules and start a new life. We’ll look at who these first Granite Staters were and how they shaped our immigration story.  

Guests

Exchange Executive Producer Keith Shields explores how the holiday of Thanksgiving has been linked over time in US history with the issue of Immigration

It’s a popular topic in classrooms all over New Hampshire around this time...

But some lessons go beyond just pilgrims and Plymouth Rock and breaking bread with the Natives, in some classes the issue of immigration comes up. 

We talk with former foreign correspondent Barrie Dunsmore about his decades reporting for ABC News and about the changing role of international coverage following years of cuts to foreign bureaus by newsrooms dealing with shrinking budgets and amid the growing role of  citizen bloggers in spreading news of world events.  His new book is called "There and Back"

Guest

New Hampshire has a relatively high share of vacation properties….more than ten percent statewide, with heavy concentrations in resort areas. We’ll look at the impact of these get-away homes on property taxes, demographics, and jobs…also, how the second-home market may provide a bright spot in an otherwise struggling real estate sector.

Guests

When immigrants and refugees come to a new country like America, they are often cut off from their homeland, their loved ones and their culture. Often they are required, even at very young ages, to navigate a tangled web of bureaucracies and to adapt rapidly to new settings. Many newcomers find resources that help them make the transition to their new lives in New Hampshire yet others may find those resources lacking. We listen to firsthand accounts of the struggles involved in coming to the Granite State.

Guests:

Former Utah Governor and Republican presidential candidate Jon Huntsman.  He’s touting himself as the only candidate with real foreign policy experience, after serving as Ambassador to China and Singapore. We’ll talk with Huntsman about where he stands on the issues and why he’d be the best to take on President Obama.

In recent years, children are arriving from new countries, bringing diversity but also new challenges.  Many don’t speak English and some aren’t literate in their own language.  We talk with people in the education system and folks dealing with foreign born newcomers on a daily basis and ask how they are working to overcome these issues.

Guests:

June Tumblin: Department Head of the English Learner program at Manchester Central High School

Thomas Sica: Principal of Rundlett Middle School in Concord

Healthcare delivery is complicated enough without language barriers, financial difficulties and cultural misunderstandings. Being a newcomer in a strange country presents many new challenges but healthcare is one of the most difficult to overcome. We take a look at the myriad obstacles the foreign born population face, and what some local healthcare providers are doing to help overcome them.

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We’re looking at the history of immigration as a part of NHPR’s year long series on New Hampshire’s Immigration Story. In the early days it was French Canadians and Irish who arrived, at the turn of the last century Greeks and Eastern Europeans and today, new arrivals from Brazil, to Burundi to Bhutan. We’re looking at who came, why they came and the little known stories around our immigration history.

Guests:

David Watters: Professor of English at UNH, where he is the director of the center for New England culture.

As of early 2010, more than 2 million US troops have served in Iraq and Afghanistan. Larry Minear, a researcher on international and internal armed conflicts, has spent a lot of time talking to more than 175 of these veterans, many of whom came from New Hampshire and Vermont. He talked to them about what motivated them to go to war, what they did once they went over, and how they rejoined society upon their return.

Almost since it was first unveiled a year ago, the Northern Pass , a $1.1 billion hydroelectric project that would transmit power from Canada to central NH then on to the new England grid, has provoked sharp debate especially in the north country, where some forests would have to be cut for transmission lines. But now the debate is spreading to Central New Hampshire. We get the latest from two reporters who have been covering the communities where the discussion had been the loudest.

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The October storm that left hundreds of thousands without power in New Hampshire may have been unlikely for this time of year, but it’s also a scenario familiar to Granite Staters who have weathered many natural disasters in recent years, including floods, ice storms, and even a tornado.  We take a look at what we’ve learned from these events, where our emergency preparedness is still lacking, and how we might fare as we head into another winter season. 

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Although we are a nation of immigrants, the first laws to enforce who could be an  American citizen  and who couldn't didn’t appear until the late 1880s.  Since then, new legislation like the Immigration Acts of 1921 and 1965, as well as the Refugee Act of 1980s have both strengthen and loosened these rules.  As part of our year long series "New Hampshire's Immigration Story", we'll talk today about the law, how it’s evolved and ask if it once again needs to be modified?

Guests

The idea of virtual learning is growing in the American education system.  More students from Kindergarten through 12th grade are learning in front of a screen rather than from a live teacher.  While some say the format is cost efficient and tailored to each individual's learning speed, others say essential components of the schooling system, such as development of social skills and hands on lessons, are being compromised in the process.  Many educators are looking on with reluctant optimism as the virtual world expands in its implementation.  Today we're looking at education that favors co

Governor Lynch’s newest amendment, which aims to give the legislature more elbow room to pay for education, has surprised, angered and pleased law makers on both sides of the aisle. This is the third amendment proposed this year after the House and Senate each passed versions of their own. Lawmakers on the right are displeased with Lynch's legal word choice, lawmakers on the left don't want an amendment at all, but there are those who think a compromise is possible.

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Child abuse in America.  A national report says more children in the United States die from abuse and neglect than kids in any other industrialized democracy, with a child maltreatment rate three times that of Canada and eleven times higher than Italy.  We’re looking at this issue both at the national level and in New Hampshire. What’s driving these numbers, and where progress is being made.

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We sit down with NPR Media correspondent David Folkenflik. He’s the guy who covers the latest from the news business from the New York Times and Fox News to individual bloggers and smalltown papers. And, at times, Folkenflick’s had to report on the blemishes at his own organization.

Guest:

• David Folkenflik: NPR Media correspondent.

"Why have fundamentally good people, with good intentions, allowed our democracy to be co-opted by outside interests?", asks Harvard professor, Lawrence Lessig. His new book "Republic, Lost" explores how he says money has corrupted American politics.  Lessig blames special interests and campaign finance rules to the fact that U.S citizens trust government less than ever. He also  suggests  a widespread mobilization and new Constitution Convention to regain control over what he says is a 'corrupted but redeemable representational system. 

Guest

From Burundi to Burma, from Afghanistan to Uzbekistan, refugees from around the globe have been placed in New Hampshire to start their lives anew.  Here they find new freedoms and far less dangers but new challenges as well.  Many have to learn English, the American laws, become educated and find work.  Federal programs help a lot but so do the cities and towns in which they are placed.  Now Manchester wants to put a moratorium on any new refugees resettling here.  City officials worry that they currently don't have enough resources to assist its current residents and with tight budgets get