Emily Corwin reported on economics for the StateImpact New Hampshire blog until the project merged with the New Hampshire Public Radio site in July 2013. She is now NHPR’s Seacoast Reporter. You can follow her on Twitter at @emilycorwin, and find her stories on NHPR.org.
Just 21 percent of all arts and culture organizations in New Hampshire create a total of $115 million in economic activity in the state.
That’s according to a report released today by the N.H. State Council on the Arts. Those 161 organizations support the equivalent of 3,493 full-time jobs, and generate $11.6 million in local and state government revenue. The study did not include for-profit institutions or individual artists, and it did not multiply results to account for the 773 nonprofit arts organizations that did not participate in the study.
Arts and culture organizations represent less than 1 percent of the state’s GDP, New Hampshire Center for Public Policy Studies’ Steve Norton points out, but studies like this one have shown “that they play a larger role when you think about indirect impact.” Continue Reading →
The University System of New Hampshire’s board of trustees is requesting that the legislature restore its state funding. At a board meeting Tuesday the board approved a budget request re-appropriating the nearly $50 million that was cut by the legislature last year. In exchange for the funds, the USNH is offering to freeze in-state tuition for two years and increase financial aid for residents. Continue Reading →
New Hampshire is leading the nation in women farmers, U.S. Department of Agriculture Deputy Secretary Kathleen Merrigan and New Hampshire Commissioner of Agriculture Lorraine Stuart Merrill announced earlier this week in an op-ed to the Union Leader. “One out of three New Hampshire farms has a woman as principal operator: nearly a 50 percent increase since 2002, and more than twice the national average,” they wrote.
In light of this, we thought we would highlight the story of Monadnock farmer Tracie Smith, who was featured in StateImpact New Hampshire’s project, Getting By, Getting Ahead.
All four gubernatorial candidates competing in tomorrow’s primary agree on one thing. The biggest challenge facing New Hampshire in the next decade is the economy. In particular? Jobs. That’s according to an NHPR questionnaire put to all six candidates last week. The four major candidates say they will focus on education and job training in the state. Read all six answers below. Then, check out our Primary Primer at NHPR.org. Continue Reading →
Starting this fall, seasonal workers in New Hampshire will find a new set of rules when they apply for unemployment benefits. Since 2002, seasonal workers who were rehired each year by the same employer have been able to collect unemployment benefits during the off-season without looking for other work. According to a New Hampshire Employment Security report, that 2002 exemption was based on complaints from year-round employers in the state who felt that “the work search requirement amounted to a complete waste of their time accepting applications from seasonal workers who had no intention of remaining employed with them once the seasonal employer recalled them to work.” Continue Reading →
Labor Day weekend is traditionally the end of the season for New England’s summer drive-in movie theaters. This year, it’s also the end of an era. Hollywood movie studios have announced they’re going digital, and as of next year they will no longer distribute movies on 35 millimeter film. If theaters want to stay open, they’ll have to swap their old-fashioned film projection for computers, at a cost of tens of thousands of dollars. The Northfield Drive-In, on the state line between New Hampshire and Massachusetts, is one of those facing the future. Continue Reading →
Pangasius – it looks like catfish, it tastes like catfish — but is it catfish?
Believe it or not, this is a question Congress has been debating for the last decade. One seafood company with headquarters in New Hampshire hopes a provision in the 2012 Farm Bill will put an end to the debate. Bill DiMento works at High Liner Foods, a frozen seafood company that employs 250 people at a seafood processing plant in Portsmouth. Catfish or not, DiMento wants to make sure High Liner can continue to import Pangasius from Asia, which they process and sell to school cafeterias, restaurants, and supermarkets. Continue Reading →
Ten companies are being awarded grants this month from the New Hampshire Job Training Fund. The grants total about $200,000 and will be matched by each of the recipient companies. Continue Reading →
The entrance to Rockingham Park includes old-fashioned turnstyles.
Locals wager over a roulette table.
Money is transferred from gaming tables via a double-locked box. This is one of many security measures at Rockingham Park.
Mike, a poker dealer, awaits the next tournament.
Behind the counter at Rockingham Park.
Rockingham Park president, Ed Callahan, uses ultraviolet light to identify counterfeit chips.
Money is collected and counted under security cameras.
Rockingham Park racetrack and table gaming facility, Salem, N.H.
Imagine a high school cafeteria with painted concrete walls and linoleum floors. Then switch out the lunch-tables for blackjack and poker tables — and you’ve got Rockingham Park, the race-track turned gaming room at the epicenter of New Hampshire’s debate over expanded gambling.
Just about every year for the last 15 years, the legislature has voted on whether or not to expand gambling in New Hampshire. Every single bill has failed. But as the race for governor has gotten under way this season, all four major candidates have come out in favor of expanded gambling. Why? It has a lot to do with Massachusetts’ decision to open three casinos across the Bay State. Continue Reading →
Today, a legislative committee investigating pension privatization issued a request for information from companies that manage retirement funds.
After pension reform legislation failed to pass last term, House Speaker O’Brien requested that a committee convene over the summer to craft new legislation for next term. The committee will likely propose to move all new public employees to private, defined contribution plans — like a 401(k). Continue Reading →
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